Two people stood in the center of the clearing, and one person was lying on a hammock at the edge of the clearing. This person at the edge of the clearing was a man with long unkempt hair who wore the casual clothing commonly worn by the people of Yomotsu. In one hand, the man carried a clay drinking gourd. In his other hand, he held the sheath of a katana just under the crossguard. This man was named Kinro, and I hired him to join my party a month ago. Kinro was obviously drunk at the time, and he watched the two men standing in the center of the clearing with a kind of oblique detachment.
One of the men carried a sword at his hip, though the other man was not obviously armed. As Eadric and I got closer, we could see that the unarmed man was wearing a merchant’s garb.
The Merchant wore an emblem on his chest that displayed the symbol of the Grimhold Guild. Seeing that symbol, the reason for their visit made sense to me. They were here to make the monthly pickup of Thale’s miracle powder.
“Hey,” I said, waving a hand and giving a smile. “Are you guys here to pick up the goods for Sendrick?”
The merchant turned to Eadric and me. His stern scowl transformed into a business-like smile. “Ah, Lord Thale,” he said. “We didn’t know when you would arrive. Your hunting session has gone well, I take it?”
“There are one fewer great talpas in the world, that’s for sure,” I said with a smile. I was still feeling good thinking about the power in my hands when I cast [Lightning Bolt].
“Good, good,” the Merchant said. “You’re right. We’re here to make the pickup. We were here earlier, but the product to be shipped was not in the usual spot, and your associate was… preoccupied.”
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The previous pickups had been essentially automatic. Sendrick’s men would show up, take the large chest of charcoal-laced drugs I had prepared, and leave my payment. I hadn’t been there the last few times they had picked up the drugs. I really hoped that Sendrick hadn’t decided to just screw me over and cut his payment. The money he was paying me was substantial, and I was relying on it to fund my coming expedition.
“We would have retrieved the product from your carriage, but the Yomotsan in your camp told us to ‘not touch the boss’s stuff.’”
It was important for people to stay away from my carriage because I held a few drugs that I had told Sendrick were “in production.” In reality, I had finished producing those drugs a long time ago. They were just far too harmful for me to sell to the Grimhold Guild. It would weigh down on my conscience if those drugs were ever to make it onto the market.
“I’m very sorry about that,” I said as I looked inside my carriage. “All of this was my fault. I should have left the chest outside of my carriage. I must have forgotten to leave it out when I left in the morning.”
In truth, I didn’t know who was at fault. I might have forgotten, or Eadric might not have been available when I had to remove it from the carriage. I took responsibility in order to de-escalate any tension by putting the blame on someone to whom the merchant has to be nice. I was a major business partner for the Grimhold Guild, and the Merchant wouldn’t threaten that relationship by going ballistic.
“Don’t worry about it,” the Merchant said with a smile. “These things happen. I completely understand.”
I could tell that the Merchant was secretly stewing in his own anger. He could have been there for five hours as far as I knew, but he had to pretend that he wasn’t angry.
The merchants’ capacity for diplomacy always astounded me. They were always able to make the best deals and maintain their current relationships. They were logical, so it was easy to manipulate them.