“Probably the most visible example of unintended consequences is what happens every time humans try to change the natural ecology of a place.”
Margaret J Wheatley
We continued to work on our lines, circles, and ovals as I taught Aleera the basics I remembered of drawing. I also continued to draw expanding maps of the area I had discovered so far. I had to admit I was a little artistic in my map-making but it helped me to enjoy the process more. I would have to actually go back to measure it all out properly one day. But I thought I had it pretty much perfect.
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I was really looking forward to when Cadmus turned up next time I was going to be asking one of my family members to get some paints and colours through him. It would make my maps look even better. I couldn’t wait to have some proper brushes, paints and pastels. I wondered if they had crayons in this world yet? In theory, I could have had a go at making my own and I might very well have a go later but sometimes it is nice just to use what is already available rather than having to start from scratch each time.
The month went by quickly. We were in a routine now. I sailed at night with my father, sang with my mother while we worked, made money with my sister through farming salt, pearls or fruit, and slowly and carefully worked on balancing my stats with my Grandfather. While he still advocated the school of hard knocks he was now willing to listen to my modern old-world information about infant development and the importance of nutrition for a child’s body’s development.
I had never thought about it before but while he was terrifyingly tall compared to me, my grandfather was actually a little short in comparison to my father. If he had experienced something similar to his initial training between the ages of 5 and 10 then although his significant stats still made him a bit of a monster perhaps he would have been even stronger, quicker and resilient if he had had more to eat as a child.
Either way, life was good. Even the food was so much better now with the variety of produce we had growing in our caldera garden. The trees and their fruits still had a way to go but anything growing in the ground, on a bush or vine had fruited by now and we got to enjoy meals of so much more than just fish. A fun fact I had discovered was that you could use mana drain on any weeds that were poking their heads up. I had to be careful not to drain the plants we wanted as well but a quick burst of mana drain would generally remove all their mana and if they were not firmly established, stunt their growth, and if repeated regularly kill them. Leaving behind rapidly composting humus for the plants we did wish to grow.
Once we had begun to harvest some of our crops it was time to cook them. I was still a little too small to easily use a kitchen and cook anything but I had a right and left hand in Des and Sinis who were only too happy to help me see if I could recall how to make any dishes from my old world. I had not worked out how to make any dressings yet but I even enjoyed the variety of salads we could now create. The benefit to all of this was that I gained the Tier 1 skill Cook and it helped to continue levelling up command skills as I bossed the two around pretending to be in charge of a proper kitchen.
Not that they seemed to mind. It was more of a game than strict enforcement of the former slave status, which they were not. They had been reassured repeatedly that they were no longer slaves. They collected a wage for their work from Aleera and I who split some of our profits with them which they had been saving up in the hopes of one day purchasing their own land and building their own home within the town or on the shores of the lake. We had asked them if they wished to return home but it sounded like they did not have a lot to look forward to there so they were happy to build a life for themselves here. There might or not have been some friendships developing between them and some of the younger people in the town but I was still staying away from the town so I couldn’t possibly say for sure. But it was a little suspicious how they would take the odd fruit or two to town not enough to sell but enough to give as a gift now and then. Either way, they weren’t saying and I wasn’t there to spy out the truth.
Seeing as everything was going so well and everyone was getting on so well, I should not have been surprised to find a fly in the ointment. Grandpa Smit was the bearer of the bad news. He had sailed across to the island in time for lunch. I initially thought that he had just come for the food and we had prepared a small basket of produce for him to take home with him to Grandma. However, after the meal had finished he raised the matter he had actually come here to address. Wester didn’t have a town mayor or village chief per say but everything seemed to go through him one way or another.
“There have been some complaints about your new skill, Kaius” Grandpa opened the conversation.
“What new skill?” Kaius frowned at his father.
“The one that you use at night to turn up every morning with the fattest fish in the lake.” He replied explaining the reason why.
“Okay.” Father hesitated to answer fully. We had levels of need to know regarding me, my stats and my secrets. Grandpa was on level 4 and not fully aware of everything my closer family had found out or forced out of me.
Level 1 was me and all my old world knowledge plus the fact that I had psi powers!
Level 2 was my grandfather and I who knew about my former life, old world and stats but we were bound by secrets of our own about the former noble family Mother Aleera and I were descended from. He had yet to tell them the truth about either himself or myself and we had reached a new mutually respectable equilibrium.
Level 3 was my father, mother and Aleera who knew about my stats and skills but not my former life and were complicit in aiding and abetting my fake funeral and future rise to be Lord Kai.
Level 4 Des, Sinis and Grandpa who knew about my fake death and extraordinary abilities but were unaware of the true depths of my stats and the high-level nature of my skills.
Level 5 knew me only as Callen and had yet to find out I was anything more than I appeared to be mainly because they had not seen me yet.
“What exactly is the problem?” he cautiously asked his father.
“Well, every morning you turn up with the largest fish and the best catch of the day. No one else is managing to pull half of what you are out of the lagoon. So both in quantity and quality there are a few fishermen who are a little disgruntled. They feel that your new skill is allowing you to overfish the lagoon and that there soon won’t be any fish for anybody else to catch.” He raised his hand placatingly as he outlined their complaints.
The reason we had been able to catch so many was because of me. I located the largest fish and schools and that was where we threw our nets. We always took care to throw back the smallest fish. To ensure we didn’t overfish but with us taking the largest fish and the other fishermen having to take the smaller I could see how there could be a problem.
“I’m a sailor and I fish,” Kaius responded defensively. “What do you expect me to do, father?”
“I’m not saying you can’t. I’m just saying that maybe you could do it a little less efficiently or perhaps take a break once in a while rather than doing it every day, that’s all. Why not fish from the sea instead of the lagoon if you still want to have a catch each morning.” He offered a partial solution.
Kaius held his chin in his hand as he considered his father’s proposal. “You know why I stopped fishing on the sea. I have a family now. It was never so safe to be secure. I only did it for the levels. I only did it to win my wife.” He smiled at Mother and I wondered how exactly they ended up together in the first place. I couldn’t imagine that it would have been fun asking for her hand in marriage from Grandfather but maybe that wasn’t a thing here anyway. It was a question to ask later.
“Yes, but you have that new boat no? The one the assassin sailed with the runed hull. It would be far safer for you to fish the sea now than it ever was before.” Grandpa reasoned not quite yet giving up on convincing his son to try something new. This might be how he had achieved his unofficial position. A fixer between families his sons each had their own trades spread out throughout the town. By listening to their problems and helping fix them. I wondered what skill this would be levelling for him.
Kaius turned to mother, “If you’re happy with it?” he asked for both permission and encouragement from her while Aleera and I sat at the table with Des and Sinis watching it all unfold in front of us.
“Just be careful and don’t fish too deep and I am sure it will go well.” She replied.
“Brilliant, brilliant.” Grandpa smiled, “I’m happy we can reach a solution. They will be grateful for your restraint and fishing the sea will only help you to grow stronger. Seems sensible to make the most of the resources you have to hand.” He congratulated and reassured his son on his decision.
“That uh, brings me onto the second matter that they raised,” he hesitated before continuing. “It appears that just like how the fish are vanishing from the lagoon, the deep sea pearls appear to be decreasing in number too.”
“No.” Mother and Aleera replied before he could ask his question.
“I don’t dive I don’t know um how many there were or are, but there are a one or two people who dive and their skill Hidden wealth is no longer pointing out any pearl bearing oysters for them. Each patch of oysters they come across has apparently already been harvested.” he barreled on without listening to Mother and Aleera's statement.
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“That’s not our problem. They were there for all to take.” Kaius replied to his father.
“Well, I would agree with you there, however, their skill hidden wealth is pointing them in one direction and only one direction, yours.” Grandpa demurred. "If you don't consider their position they might be visiting yours."
We all paused as we considered this information. It was obvious in hindsight that collecting all the pearl bearing oysters to create our hidden pearl farms was going to cause some ripples. We simply failed to consider or think about the consequences of our actions. Our farms were working spectacularly. The pearls ripened with speed and in abundance. With all things though, we would need to compromise, if we hoped to make friends not enemies.
“We won’t be giving up our pearls.” Aleera declared vociferously.
“I’m not asking you to give up your pearls. Just maybe stop collecting them from the entirety of the lagoon. With your early morning delivery of fish it is clear that you are collecting the fish and oysters at night. People are not stupid. You can understand why they might wish you were a little less successful.”
“What do you suggest?” Father asked rubbing his head. He knew the people here better than any of us.
“Why not put one or two back. You could mark them as yours to show that you are giving them back. Place them around the lagoon. Just give them something to find other than the oysters you have hidden somewhere on this island. I’ll tell them that you won’t be taking any more from the lagoon. They just need a little time to realise that though the wealth is hidden it has still been collected. They need a little time to transition to something else. It was easy money for them and now it’s gone. They are bound to be a little unhappy over their loss of livelihood.” Grandpa explained some of the challenges of living in a small town. Everybody was connected in one way or another. What we did affected one another as much as it did the environment.
“That won’t work in the long run.” Mother extrapolated the future problems of this course of action.
“No, but for the moment it will appease them, and fishing the sea rather than the lagoon will show that you are considering others' needs not just your own. It should be enough for now.” Grandpa explained the compromise.
I thought about how each action has an equal and opposite reaction. Life generally wasn’t a physics quiz but maybe it would be good to know a little more about life in Wester. What people did for a living and how our actions might cause an equal and opposite reactions. Till today our new home industries had only had positive effects I had thought. Cheaper salt was surely good for everybody. Collecting the night soil would result in a cleaner, healthier town. But who had made the salt before? What had happened to the waste before? Had we inadvertently hurt more families than the fishermen and divers?
While they were still talking I pulled at Aleera’s sleeve and whispered to her before she repeated my question to Grandpa. “Could we have a list of the people who have been put at a disadvantage from our fishing, pearl collection and salt farming? We will work at helping them somehow.”
“That’s okay dear.” He responded a little patronisingly. Maybe I should have pulled on an adults sleeve instead. But Aleera was not afraid to stand up for herself.
“I insist.” She informed him.
“Well off the top of my head there are the three Fisherson’s families, the five Divers daughters. Then regarding the salt most made a little of their own but widow Wanda is a little hard up at the moment as she used to sell some on the market but it is no longer worth enough so she is struggling a little more than usual.”
The weight of our actions was worrying. For the majority they were enjoying the cheaper salt and fresh fish. But for the few our actions had a harsher impact.
“Would they be willing to work for us?” Aleera asked.
“Mayhap yes, mayhap no. Wanda would be welcome for work I believe. The Daughters are a little more prideful, possibly resentful too. They have a good skill that has kept them well. They have felt the pinch far harder as they have a lot more though they are currently hurting less as they have their savings. The fishers should be happy with Kaius fishing at sea. But I can ask if you would like me to.” Grandpa vacillated other the families and thoughts on the question.
“Please,” Aleera added.
“Yes, well glad we could work that out or at least start on solving the grumbles. Hope you have a pleasant evening.” He added as he picked up his basket of fruit and left. Leaving us to ponder how best to continue. It had been a profitably couple of months but had that come at the expense of others.
Level: 12
Name: Lord Kai
Experience: 148,750/ 819,200
Age: 2 year 2 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, 22 hours, 22 minutes
Health: 1430/1430 Stamina: 887/887 Mana: 1350/1350 Psi: 1350/1350
Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted
Attribute: Celerity
Vitality: 144 +2
Endurance: 75 +4
Strength: 51 +2
Dexterity: 105 +4
Senses: 136 +2
Mind: 136 +2
Clarity: 116 +2
Magic: 136 +2
Charisma: 38 +1
Luck: 5
Free Points: 40
Skills:
Tier 1: Time sense (Lv 46 ->50) Listening (Lv 31->33) Meditation (Lv 50) Swimming (Lv 50) Humming (Lv 28->30) Sneak (Lv 22 -> Lv24) Whistling (Lv 28->30) Singing (Lv 28->30) Drumming (Lv 25 -> 30) Running (Lv 43->45)Acting (20) English (Lv 15) Spanish (Lv 15) Japanese (Lv 15) German (Lv 10) French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 25 -> Lv30) Breath Control (Lv 30 -> Lv35) Sight (Lv 15) Scent (Lv 15) Detect (Lv 15) Taste (Lv 15) Bussola (Lv 10->15) Draw (Lv 25 -> Lv30) Climb (Lv 28->30) Calligraphy (Lv 5 -> Lv10) Mathematics (Lv 10 -> Lv 15) Decoding (Lv 6 – Lv 10) Lie (Lv 12) Knife Skills (Lv 24->28) Trading (Lv 26->30) Sailing (Lv 10->15) Appeal (Lv 6) Knots (Lv 30->34) Stitching (Lv 30->34) Diving (Lv 20->25) Throw (Lv 13 ->15) Insight (Lv 1 ->3) Farming (Lv5->10) Balance (Lv 1 ->Lv10) Cook (Lv 1)
Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 40) Eavesdrop (LV 28) Memorisation (LV 22) Composition (Lv 22) Recall (Lv22) Pain tolerance (Lv 14) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20) Trombone (Lv 20) Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Translation (Lv 16) Stealth (Lv 12) Quick reflexes (Lv 33->38) Haggling (Lv 5) Misdirection (Lv 8) Order (Lv3 -> Lv 5) Knife Arts (Lv3 ->5) Rebec (Lv 12->14) Aulos (Lv 12->14) Cornu (Lv 5->10) Harp (Lv 5->10) Poison tolerance (Lv 1) Transplant (Lv2->5) Cartography (Lv 1 -> Lv 5)
Tier 3: Echolocation (Lv 30) Expel Mana (Lv 37) Absorb Mana (Lv 30) Mana Manipulation (Lv 30) Ignite (Lv 15) Freeze (Lv 10) Boil (Lv 15 –> Lv 20) Bargain (Lv 10) Gale (Lv 17) Deception (Lv 3) Melt (Lv 10) Command (Lv 2 -> Lv3)
Tier 4: Material Manipulation (Lv 15 – Lv 16) Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 20)
Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 18)
Skill experience: 19100
Origin experience: 1000
Combat experience: 5000
Crafting experience: 5000
Trading experience: 5000
Popular experience: 1000
Meanwhile elsewhere in the world
“You want me to what?” the lady looked him straight in the eye, raising her eyebrow.
“Tutor an up-and-coming noble family’s daughter. Prepare her to enter society. Nothing more than what you already do.” The seneschal calmly outlined the task he was asking her to complete.
“Yes but . . .” she paused almost lost for words by what she was being asked to do.
“You do owe me a favour remember.” He raised his own eyebrow in return. “Do this for me and we will call ourselves quits.” He put his hands up placatingly before flattering, “You are the best.”
“Yes, I am the best. But I have a life here in Solstice. I am assuming that this daughter is not in the city otherwise it wouldn’t balance the scales. In fact, if I were to take a gamble on this matter I would wager that the daughter in question is one of the new noble scions rather than a rising branch of an old family otherwise you wouldn’t be making the request. If I had to bet it would be the troublesome 101st family that is causing such a buzz at court at the moment.” She agreed with him before outlining one of the potential problems.
“I can’t go into all the details until you accept a privacy court contract to prepare them for court promising not to prejudice them either way.” He deflected.
“So possibly not within a days . . .’ she hesitated judging the impact of her words on the seneschal, ‘. . . a week’s travel from Solstice then . . . or more. Why me?” she quizzed.
“As well as being the best, you were also deemed to be the most neutral of the governesses available at the moment. Considering your history and lineage you have a smaller stake in the impact a new house could have on the court here in Ponente, wouldn’t you agree?” He explained the reasoning behind his request.
“Yes, but I maintain that neutrality specifically by teaching children from both sides of the divide and not taking a stance on any of the politics. You are asking me to hold a hot potato and I will be judged based on where it falls.” She argued back.
“Maybe, but also you are the one least likely to influence the scions based on any personal preferences it will be their choice, not yours and the houses will see that in the end. Besides have you ever cared what they thought?” he asked amused at her prevarications.
“I might not have cared what they thought but they can still make my life, less than pleasant within Ponente if they suddenly start to care about me. Moreover, you said scions. I assume that means there are at least two of them. This is hardly a typical 5 or even 10-year contract. It could take as long as 20 years. Not an insignificant amount of time.” She refused to say yes straight away.
“As I said, this would balance the scales between us and what is 5, 10 or even 20 years' worth of time to you who has so much more time available to them. You would be fully paid by the crown for as long as your presence is required. This could be quite lucrative a position for you.” He continued to argue the potential positives of the offer.
“The longer you speak the less I like the idea of taking such a position.” she raised a fan to air her face while she paused for thought.
“Then I will speak less. This is the favour I would like and I am calling in, you are eminently suitable for the position and will be paid handsomely for your time.” He summarised his position once more. Left unsaid was the fact that should she refuse such a position her place within the place and her yearly governess positions tutoring the wealthy and privileged children of Solsitce and the surrounding duchies would in all likelihood disappear.
“I would like to think on the matter before I make a decision.” she refused to bend just yet.
“By all means. You have until the Swift docks once more in Solstice to make your decision,” he answered.
“The Swift. Then it is true the family hails from the archipelago or the coastline as the rumours have suggested.” She raised her eyebrow once more.
"I can neither confirm, nor deny any rumours that are in circulation. You know far better than to put too much stock in the frivolous witterings of the children here who would call themselves the nobility.” he gave nothing away.
“So not only are you expecting me to give up years of my life but also to spend them cast out into the uncivilised archipelago of the Western Kingdom. “ she seemed almost angered but it was hard to tell by their jousting back and forth whether it was real or feigned.
“You know as much as I can tell you until you have signed the court contract of privacy. If you do so then I will, of course, be able to give you significantly more details but until then my hands are tied.” he raised his hands as if bound.
“Your hands are never tired. Unless you were the ones who tied the knots.” she pursed her lips, “I will think on it and let you know of my decision.” she said frowning.
“That’s all I can ask for. Thank you for your consideration.” he bowed and left. Leaving her to ponder her future in Ponente.
. . . .