1              Soul Bound

1.2            Taking Control

1.2.1          An Icy Welcome

1.2.1.13       A rolling stone

Wellington steadied her arm until she was stable, then they set the horses moving again. Lining the sides of the road were hundreds of residents, many waving and cheering, or double tapping their chests in the approximate location of their heart.

Kafana: “What did you do? Bribe them?”

She looked at him suspiciously. He ignored her question.

Hachiko: “Mahatma Kafana, your Vessel gives quite a speech, you know. She just spent nearly 10 minutes talking to the crowd about you.”

Mahatma? That was a Jain word for ‘Priest’, wasn’t it? She’d have to look at the recordings later, to try to figure out what had gone on. But in the meantime, she had other fish to fry.

Kafana: {Hachiko, I know some games have an Adventurers Guild building in each town, which players use as a central location to pick up quests, ask basic questions and sell their loot. If someone built one for Torello, do you think it would get used much?}

{Sys, invite Wellington into a three way chat with me and Hachiko, please.}

Hachiko: {I know it took me half a day to get oriented, and I still haven’t found trainers for everything I want to train. If someone built such a thing, and it didn’t stop me from joining The Path Less Travelled once we get someone to level 70 so we can form it, I’d join it.}

Wellington spoke cautiously: {The principle is sound. Create a centre of excellence for a new industry in an area that needs renovation and investment, but which still has intact social structures and is supportive of the initiative. Run it as a business from the start, but with an eye to expansion and building long term relationships rather than immediate price gouging. Build up good will, take advantage of being the first mover and use the network effect to become the default choice, so it isn’t worth anybody else’s time to try setting up competition in a different district, then use that as leverage to raise the whole neighbourhood along with you. Others will want in on it, and will start nearby businesses offering services to you and your customers.}

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Kafana: {We could offer office space rent free for the first year to Emmanuelle. Adventurers are her natural clients. We’ve got contacts with Lelio, the Grand Master Mages, Isabella, Columbina and Harlequin, enough for them to trust us to run branch stores on their behalf selling beginner equipment. I hear bad things about some of the local armourers, but I bet Count Mercato would lend us Dante - he’s underutilised where he is currently, and a stint in the city would help him learn new techniques, maybe push him up to High Master.}

Hachiko: {Where would adventurers get the money needed to build it, staff it, buy the land, get the permissions, etc? Nobody outside The Crew has that kind of money at the moment, and they’ve got hundreds of players who brought stuff across from Divine Mountain. It will take the rest of us months before we can afford to own even one house.}

Wellington: {I’m more worried about Count Pazzi. From what I hear of him, he’s likely to send his personal troops in to burn everything to the ground in the name of hygiene unless he’s given 80% of any profits and a hefty bribe on top of that.}

Kafana: {I’ll look into that. Could you take on contacting Emmanuelle and ask her to find out, inconspicuously, what sort of sums and time scales would be involved from her end, if we gave it the go ahead?}

Wellington: {I can do that. I’ll also send a note to Vittoria, requesting her to scout out some prospects and asking how she thinks her neighbours would react to the idea, and if she has any suggestions or modifications to add.}

Kafana: {Ok, cool. Let’s get some data, and if it looks doable we can discuss it on the Burrow this evening, compare it to other suggestions, and decide collectively if we want to take a punt on it and if so, how deep we go, and how much time we can spare for a project of this size. If we’re on the right track, it is something that will fire the imagination of others, and there’ll be volunteers to take on the project management aspects. If there aren’t volunteers, that’s a sign we shouldn’t be doing it anyway.}

Hachiko: {You’re really serious about this?}

Wellington: {We are not joking. But it is just a possibility at the moment; it might not happen, and it certainly isn’t in a shape to announce to anyone beyond the Wombles. This is confidential for now, Hachiko, not for your viewers.}

Hachiko: {My viewers only see what I see in open chat, though they’re probably picking up my excitement and wondering about it. I will respect your confidences. I do hope you go ahead. If you do, contact me. It is something I would be willing to help out with. But now I must return to commentating, so please, make this up to me, talk to me in chat about interesting things.}

Kafana: “What do you think about vampires? Is it possible, in theory, for there to exist a good vampire? If there’s a count in this city who is a vampire, which one would be your top suspect? I know some lovely garlic dishes. I wonder what would happen if I sent one to the Council as a present?”

The rest of the ride was spent in frivolous pleasantries, discussing vampires, cooking and re-telling the stories she had heard from Massimo when they passed a drawing of the Raggedy Man.