1 Soul Bound
1.1 Finding her Feet
1.1.6 An Innocent Profaned
1.1.6.12 Unfair exchange
Wellington continued without pausing.
“Even in a world as traditional as that of finance, where stodgy fossils spend more on guarding time-worn privileges than they do on guarding their vaults, there will always be some thieves and changes that manage to sneak by them. The most recent of these intruders is The Fiorio.”
Bungo: "Is that a thief or a change?"
Tomsk sounded amused, having heard it mentioned by guards in the Watch: "It's in the Arsenal district, so probably both."
Wellington: “The Fiorio is a coffee house that’s always been frequented by gamblers. Originally, when not at the dice or the cards, they just placed bets on sporting events at the Stadia, fights at the Bridge of Fists, duels and suchlike. Then Beltrame and his wife took over, when the previous owner died. They opened betting up to anything people cared to wager upon, and people started pools upon the date a particular ship would turn up, or whether it would encounter storms and pirates. As pirate activity grew worse, shipping lines started placing bets against the arrival of their own ships, as a form of insurance, to spread the risk. Then people started placing bets upon the future prices of particular commodities and shares. There are even some who gamble upon the exchange rates between currencies changing, or the chances of a particular company defaulting upon a bond they issued. Beltrame has moved from being a market maker, to being the person who puts gamblers in touch with those willing to accept the bets, creating a nascent fully fledged futures exchange." Wellington sounded quite enthusiastic as he expounded upon the subject. "His campaign to win legal recognition of The Fiorio's status is now public knowledge.”
“I take it” said Tomsk warily, “that the exchanges in Mercato and Centrale don’t approve of the prospect of Arsenal getting another exchange?”
Wellington: “They say that The Fiorio is adding instability into the markets, encouraging people to try to sabotage competitors because it is now much easier to make a quick profit from someone failing, by placing a bet that they’re going to fail.” said Wellington “There have already been allegations that some investors are in league with the pirates, using foreknowledge of which ships will be attacked in order to make fortunes. The key is having timely information. If you know what cargo is on board an approaching ship before your fellow investors, you can predict that the price of that commodity will drop, and you can place a bet shorting it. Even knowing the identity of the approaching ship helps, if you know the port they are coming from and what they are meant to have on board, but captains often make last minute purchasing decisions, and just knowing the ship name doesn’t tell you if a harvest has been good or poor.”
Bulgaria: “So why don’t investors use mind magic to read the crew, or use seeing to list what’s in the cargo holds?”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Wellington: “Because the shipping lines require their captains to take precautions, lest the line lose all their profits before the ship has even landed, by the price of their goods dropping before they can sell them. There’s a limit on how far a mind mage can reach. And, while seers can get information from across the other side of the world, the answer is often not very reliable. So the task of the ship’s captain is to heave to, outside the range of the mind mages, and then get a copy of the ship’s manifest to the shipping line quickly enough that the seers don’t have enough time to refine their visions into something worth betting on. Only once the runner has had time to get to the city and the shipping company to reap the profits, does the ship then approach the harbour and offload.”
“By tradition, ships pause near the customs house at Punto Reale, about two hours down the coast. The house sends out a small boat with an inspection crew and a bonded runner from the messenger guild. The inspectors verify a random sample of the manifest, use some magic items to scan the ship and verify the captain is not trying to deceive them when he signs off on his report, then hand the paperwork over to the runner who takes it to The Azioni where it is handed over, untouched, to the agent registered for that ship. Agents pay heavy fees to the Messengers Guild to ensure they get allocated a runner who is both fast and reliable.”
Kafana asked: “Why not just send a normal messenger on horseback?”
Wellington: “Once you use sufficient magical speed boosts, the limiting factor is how well they can dodge other people on the road. Also, horses have trouble with the mud. But mainly? Tradition. And also it lets the Messengers Guild get away with charging higher prices. It isn’t unknown for runners to be delayed, killed or even tortured to deactivate the destruction curse which would otherwise destroy the paperwork if taken without permission. So the very best can command a pretty good salary, as much as a small shop owner.”
Tomsk: “And Pierrot is good?”
Vittoria chipped in, with pride: “He’s more than good. He’s amazing. He may be just 16, but dodging while running seems to be a talent he was born with. He’s always been able to do it. I don’t think he’s lost a race in his life. But, more than that. He doesn’t talk. We’re not sure he can. He’s careful not to look around the ship, so there’s nothing in his mind for mages to read that would give away anything about the cargo. Agents trust him. He’s the highest paid runner in the guild. And he doesn’t spend much. He has to give half to Dottore, but most of the rest of his earnings he gives to the orphanage.”
Bungo: “Half? That’s exploitation, man. He should tell Dottore where to go.”
Vittoria: “I don’t like it, but being a loyal person is desperately important to Pierrot. He won’t leave. I don’t know what, but there’s something between them, something I don’t understand. Please, save him if you can.”
[Quest: “Make sure Pierrot gets to The Azioni in time. Difficulty level: IMPOSSIBLE. Penalty for failing the quest: death. Do you wish to accept the quest?]
Alderney: {What are you guys up to? “Impossible”? Why is System even offering us that?}
Bungo: {Kafana is being Kafana, only this time her normal approach isn’t going to work. She is going to have to compromise. System is telling her that it knows what forces she’d have to face and there is 0% chance of defeating them in combat. We try, we die, as simple as that. Rather helpful of System, actually.}
No third option? Something niggled at her, and she cast her mind back.