Chapter 3: Committee Crimes

Naturally, there is a central problem with appointing a council.

“Seas and storm, people need homes, Mardl!”

“They happen to need food as well, do they not?”

You need to listen to their counsel.

Kardrin, the representative of the builders, ground his teeth into stubs. He’d been going round and round with Mardl, the farmers’ rep, for the better part of an hour, and it looked like he was about ready to flip the council table and have it out with fists.

I rapped my knuckles once on the wood. “Enough. This is clearly going nowhere.” I leaned back in my high-backed chair, which I categorically refused to call a throne. “State your positions—one at a time!” I glared as both men went to talk. “Kardrin first.”

“Comptess.” He ducked his head in my direction. “I’ll say what I’ve done said this entire time. We don’t have enough homes. Right now, we got three, sometimes four families to a house. Now, no one voiced a care when they were grateful not to be turned away at the gate, but now…” He shrugged. “Ain’t no man happy to share a home so small with so many. We need to expand, and right east ‘yond the palisade is perfect for it. Ground is trampled flat by the stampede. With how many levels we got recently, we can put up a house a day, easy as breathing.”

I nodded. “Mardl.”

The farmer rose, hands on his hips. “It’ll be all well and good to have houses when we have nothing to eat,” Mardl said. “How much farmland do we have to give up? Things have gone well enough, and there’ll be no new stragglers coming in. Put the new houses somewhere else, we need the crops more.”

I chuckled once. “I think we need both.”

“Comptess.” One of the women leaned forward. “There’s other options, you know.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I’ll humor you.”

“My thanks.” She doffed her tricorn hat with a flourish. Even though the council chamber sat inside the Lightning Mill, Chevarin Rouss had dressed like she was about to board her ship and sail away. Fitting perhaps, for the representative of the Lady’s Port fleet.

“It’ll take a great deal of lumber to build those houses,” she said. “Instead, why not build me a few more ships instead? The shipwrights are with me on this.” Chevarin nodded to the representative next to her. “With a few more boats, we could get a whole armada’s worth of sailors leveling up. Would help us feed our people and meet those quotas for Silverwall.”

“Oh, drown Silverwall,” Kardrin replied. “They’re the reason we’re the deeps to begin with!”

“We made an agreement, foreman.” Mardl leaned forward. “I’ll be no oathbreaker, nor follow one who is.”

“Now you listen here—”

When they both started yelling, I sighed. “Dum.” I waved a hand towards the table. “If you would.”

The hulking man stepped forward, axe already in hand. “Whatever ya want, boss.”

He lifted it up, before slamming the haft down on the circular table with a crack. The sound echoed off the walls, pounding into my ears twice in as many seconds.

Blessed silence followed.

“Now then.” I paused, looking down at the table where a very different kind of crack had formed in the wooden surface. “Dum,” I said. “We need wood right now. We literally just talked about it. Why’d you break my table?”

“Sorry, Boss.”

I sighed again. “Just…make a note to have someone nail it back together, before someone splits it in half.”

“I’ll ensure it happens, My Lady,” Relia said.

Electra, Rel, and Llen represented the electricians, the bureaucracy, and the army respectively. They got along great, but my representatives of farmers, builders, and sailors more than made up for it with their bickering. We were one meeting in and already I wanted to string up the lot of them from crimes against the party.

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“That’s my job!” The last and littlest representative said.

Elaine, representative of the runners—but really, our one and only child rep—gave Relia a hard look. After a moment, Rel nodded.

Elaine gave a sharp grin as she leaned over on her high stool, waving a boy in through the open door. After a quick word, she sent him off with a work order to fix the table.

“Thank you.” I turned my attention back to Captain Chevarin. “To summarize, you think I shouldn’t build houses, but get you a few dozen fishing boats instead.” I raised an eyebrow at Chevarin. “How does that deal with our current problems, again?”

She flashed me a grin. “Sailors are used to sleeping on their ships.”

“I imagine they’ll be less sanguine to get shoved on dingeys at the end of the rainy season.”

Chevarin shrugged.

I turned to Rel. “How are we on food stores?”

“Well enough,” she shrugged. “If the second harvest goes poorly, then we will be in bad shape, but another few acres of potential farmland won’t change that one way or another.”

“Another few fishing boats will!”

“Enough, Captain,” I said. “Do you even have the sailors?”

“Plenty enough looking for a new class, if’n we had crews to stick ‘em on.” She grinned.

“Looking to expand your majority?” I raised an eyebrow. “You can’t be worried about the next election already.”

“Was a pirate once,” Chevarin replied. “We voted on captains then, too. May have served a time or two, and learned a few things about keeping my spot in the meantime.”

“I imagine you did.” When Mardl went to speak, I raised my hand and cut him off. “Either way, I’ve made my decision. We’ll be sectioning off about an acre east of Lady’s Port for new housing.”

Naturally, no one was pleased.

“Just an acre?” The representative of the builders asked. “My Lady, we have hundreds of families in Lady’s Port, most of them already sharing a home. A single acre can’t possible fit more than ten houses.”

Mardl leaned forward. “If you think we’ll give up another, then—”

“You’ll give up as many acres as I tell you to, Mardl,” I said.

He paused, eyes flicking over to me.

“Or, do you have a problem with my current allotment?” I leaned forward, steepling my fingers on the table.

To my left, Electra stifled a giggle.

“Not…as such, Lady Via,” Mardl said.

“As what then?” I tilted my head. “What other conclusion should I draw, when you’re quibbling over acres of land that are yet unplowed? How can I view your displeasure, except as a…problem?” I stopped, letting the question linger in the air. “I’m sure you’re aware what I do to problems, Mardl.”

“Yes, my lady.” He swallowed. “There are no problems. None.”

I slow smile stretched across my cheeks. “Oh, but I think there are! Let us resolve them, as friends. One hundred square meters.”

Mardl blinked. “Of what, my lady?”

“Of land, of course!” I relaxed back into my chair. “That’s a good price, don’t you think?”

This time he didn’t ask, so I continued. “It’s simply that we’ve been discussing housing, haven’t we? You’ve been very opposed to new housing, and I wondered why that could be. Perhaps, because it doesn’t much impact you, does it, Mardl? You have a nice house; one of the first ones I built, if my memories serves, and it often does.” I smiled at him over my fingers. “How many families do you share your house with, Mardl?”

“…Just my own, my lady.”

“So, since you care so much about land, but not the people who live on it, I’ll give you back one hundred square meters of farmland for each family you board. It’s a good deal, don’t you think?”

Mardl glanced around the room, still confused.

“So, what do you say, Mardl? How many other families will you board?” I asked. “Why, if you just take in 40 of them, I’ll give you a deal and you can have the whole acre back.”

“Th-that’s quite alright, my lady.”

“Really? Are you sure?” I leaned forward. “You seemed quite concerned about an acre of land a few minutes ago. I’m giving you a chance to earn some of it back. You can do whatever you want with that acre of land, Mardl.” My smile split open. “Even build houses.”

Mardl silently shook his head, eyes locked on the table.

Electra snorted.

I swatted her arm. “Well then,” I said. “It seems there are no further concerns from the farmers.” I turned back towards Kardrin the builder. “An acre will be enough to alleviate our housing problems. We’ll be making larger structures, instead of simple houses to utilize the space most efficiently.”

Kardrin gave a nervous nod.

“What is the next order of business?” I asked.

Rel cleared her throat. “Captain Chevarin has logged a request for more ships.”

“Aww don’t put me on the spot like that.” Chevarin leaned back in her chair. “Last time I got a talkin’ to like that was when my Ma caught me with a sailor.”

I sighed. “Kardrin, can we build another sawmill?”

He shifted. “Well, the river’s getting pretty crowded.”

“Fortunately, we don’t need to build it by the river. Now, tell me; would you and yours benefit from the extra capacity of a second sawmill?”

“Probably?”

“Relia, get me the numbers,” I said.

She nodded. “Of course.”

I leaned back in my chair. “Looks like you might get more ships after all, Captain. Now, if that was all?”

“I got somethin’.” Elaine stood up on her stool. I noted idly that it barely put her waist-high on the table, which made her glare slightly less intimidating. As a fellow short villain, my professional opinion was that she’d be terrifying once she grew up a little, but now she was just adorable.

“Next time, put it on the docket.” I waved a hand. “What’s the issue?”

“We—my runners and me—wanna get paid.”

I raised an eyebrow, before turning towards Rel. “I thought we did pay them.”

“Ishanti set up a system.”

Elaine shook her head. “Goes to our parents, if we got ‘em. Elsewise people are chargin’ rent to kids, to stay in their house.” Her glare deepened. “Usually comes to whatever a runner makes in a day.”

“…Rent?” I asked.

“Empress.” Electra placed a hand on my arm. “Stay calm.”

“I’m perfectly calm.” I smiled. “It’s just, I’ve been informed about wage theft, and the exploitation of minors. You know how I feel about those things, Electra.”

She gave a tentative smile. “Yeah, pretty sure the whole world knows, after Dubai.”

“Not this world,” I replied. “I believe I’ll have to repeat myself.”