A large part of Leon felt like preening as his eyes fell upon the large ingots of orange-gold Aurichalcum before him. Each ingot glittered in the light of his villa’s main hall, while to his magic senses, the metal sang with power.
Aurichalcum was the finest enchanting material in the universe, perfectly compatible with any kind of magic inscribed upon it, and easily able to handle the magical load from combining elements in complex enchantments. Some specific materials were better for certain elements, but Aurichalcum outshone them all in sheer versatility.
Leon had been making do without Aurichalcum thus far, but when word was sent from Shatufan that the city’s elites were interested in trade, he had a suspicion that that time was coming to an end. The first trade mission sent from the city to the Artor Valley only cemented that thought, as they brought several chests full of Aurichalcum with them, which Leon was now inspecting.
Or perhaps ‘admiring’, as he didn’t have enough experience with the material to know if what he was looking at was worth all that much—as with just about everything, there was a gradient when it came to Aurichalcum and its quality. He doubted that what Shatufan had brought was the best stuff around, but it was the only stuff around, and beggars couldn’t be choosers.
Leon wasn’t alone in his inspections, thankfully, for he’d dragged Nestor, Mari, several Ravens, and other members of the other Tribes who knew anything at all about metallurgy, enchanting, or material science, and tasked them with more in-depth examinations.
He’d also informed Icarius about this deal, and he’d sent Penelope back to the Artor Valley with all haste. Penelope was not a specialist when it came to fancy metal, but she was certainly well-versed in assessing the value of goods—and if she had trouble, Leon had also brought Emilie to court, as the former Chief of Acquisitions for Heaven’s Eye could only help in this matter.
Mari was practically buzzing with excitement, though Leon didn’t consider that to be all that different from her usual attitude. Nestor was far more subdued, though as with Mari, that didn’t tell Leon all that much. The rest of his examiners were quiet, keeping themselves calm and composed, and not giving the visitors from Shatufan any sign of how they felt about the offered goods.
As before, Manuchehr led this expedition, though he had a rather different demeanor when he arrived than he had the first time. Now, he was acting much more as Leon thought he should’ve as a seventh-tier mage, being more deferential and less arrogant. Though, he couldn’t help but hold some respect for him for having a sense of dignity about his station, if not for his strength. He saw a bit of himself in Manuchehr’s behavior, for better and for worse. Still, to show some respect and hospitality, Leon had tables and chairs brought out for Manuchehr and the rest of his entourage.
Alongside their Presiding Magus were half a dozen other mages, though none stronger than Manuchehr. Merchants, they’d been introduced as, and though they hadn’t yet named their price, Leon knew what they wanted. After he’d received the news of Shatufan’s interest in trade, he’d immediately had several giants whip up a new batch of specially prepared sand, and then used Iron Pride to make hundreds of pounds of storm crystal. He’d then had the crystals cut and polished, which did nothing to increase their functionality, but would hopefully make for a good impression.
It didn’t take long for Leon’s people to finish their examinations of the Aurichalcum. No one immediately spoke, but from their body language, Leon thought that at least some of them were communicating with darkness magic. Out of all of them, however, it was Nestor’s opinion that he wanted the most, and the dead man couldn’t communicate in that way.
The dead man, after taking a few derisive-seeming glances at Manuchehr’s team of merchants, made only more intense with his faceplate’s lack of facial features, then strode toward Leon, his metal feet clanging more loudly than usual over the stone floor. Leon leaned in his understated throne as Nestor approached, and the nine-foot-tall golem leaned down to conspicuously whisper into Leon’s ear.
“Usable,” Nestor declared. “Barely.”
Leon needed no further endorsement, though he still waited for Mari and the others to wax more poetically about their desire to obtain this metal, while Penelope quietly consulted with Emilie before passing on her opinion. Several enchantments around the raised dais his throne sat upon kept their voices from reaching the merchants, though from their confident body language, Leon understood that they already knew what the prognosis was.
After receiving unanimous recommendations from his people, Leon lowered the sound wards and drew the entire room’s attention with a brief flex of his aura—not that he particularly needed to, but he felt like flexing his magic a bit anyway, if only to subtly remind Manuchehr who he was dealing with.
“Your stock is of passable quality,” Leon stated as his golden eyes flit first from Manuchehr, and then to the two seventh-tier merchants accompanying him. One merchant audibly scoffed while the other responded in an affronted tone.
“Only ‘passable’? A cheap trick to try and lower the prices!” The merchant spoke with a lighter accent than Manuchehr, the grammar of the Nexus’ common language coming more easily to him than to the Presiding Magus.
Leon gave the merchant a leonine smile, though his smile didn’t reach his eyes. Under his withering glare, the merchant’s attitude ever so subtly shifted, and he seemed to shrink back into himself in embarrassment and instinctual fear.
‘The buyer dictates value,’ he wanted to say, but he bit his tongue. He wanted these people to buy his storm crystal, after all, and such a statement could easily be thrown back at him.
“I would think you would take the spirit of my statement more to heart than the chosen words,” Leon said. “I’m interested in buying your stock, is that not what we should be discussing instead of becoming mired in choice of words?”
The merchant who spoke merely nodded, apparently a little too cowed by Leon to respond again. Instead, it was the other merchant who raised his voice.
“We also hope to in commerce engage.”
Leon raised an eyebrow minutely. This merchant, despite not looking too different from the rest of his party in features or clothes, spoke with a noticeably different accent.
“Wonderful to hear,” Leon said. He averted his gaze from this merchant only long enough to nod to Emilie and Penelope, and the two ladies stepped forward to engage in negotiations with their mercantile counterparts. His final contribution to the negotiations amounted to conjuring several dozen gleaming storm crystals from his soul realm for display, each crystal about the same size as an ingot of Aurichalcum.
As Manuchehr’s merchants took their time examining each crystal, Leon shot Manuchehr a meaningful look, and after a moment’s hesitation, the Presiding Magus of Shatufan acquiesced to Leon’s silent invitation, rising from his seat as Leon rose from his throne. Leon then led Manuchehr to a bench in the hall a reasonable, though hardly that far, distance from the negotiations, where they could speak a little more comfortably.
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“It pleases me that you recognized the value of my gift,” Leon said as he slid onto the bench, extending his hand briefly beside him in invitation.
Manuchehr again took the invitation and sat next to him. “Intrigued many were in your materials offered,” he neutrally stated.
“Good. My storm crystals are some of my Kingdom’s pride and joy. But if you don’t mind, I was hoping to speak to you of a little more than just business. It wouldn’t hurt us to get to know each other a little better, would it, especially since we’re going to be neighbors of a sort?”
“I…” Manuchehr hesitantly said, finishing only after several drawn-out seconds during which his face was carefully schooled, but not so carefully that Leon didn’t catch his eyes flickering southward. “… I agree.”
“What splendid news,” Leon stated in a tone that bordered on sarcasm. “How about I start, if you don’t mind? There’s a question I’ve been burning to ask for a while, and I hope you’ll indulge my curiosity in this matter.”
“Ask, and answer I might, on your question depending.”
“The Nexus’ common language is not your mother tongue, is it?”
“No,” Manuchehr quickly confirmed, a smile gracing his lips, though one devoid of warmth. “A most distant plane my people are from. But here we have come, and a home for ourselves we made.”
“I… find myself curious about your native language,” Leon said. “I happen to have a magical means to learn languages quickly. I’d like to learn yours, if you would aid me in this.”
Manuchehr tensed up and stared at him searchingly. “Of what means do you speak?”
Leon took out the Rumble Stone, and after a quick explanation, demonstrated its use by ‘filling’ it with the Nexus’ common language and letting Manuchehr try it. Once the Presiding Magus was satisfied with it, he in turn used it for his language and passed it back to Leon.
In but a moment, Leon had a complete understanding—or at least an understanding on par with Manuchehr’s—of Manuchehr’s language.
“Can you understand me now, King Leon?” Manuchehr asked in his language.
In the Nexus common tongue, Leon replied, “I can, Presiding Magus.”
Manuchehr stoically nodded, though he visibly relaxed. Continuing in his language, he said, “I’ll admit that I wasn’t expecting such a thing from you.”
Leon, for his part, also relaxed. With an easy, natural smile, he said in Nexus common, “It’s useful to know other peoples’ languages. My plane’s native tongue is little different from Nexus common, so hearing other languages always piques my interest.”
“Such interest… I have never before seen.”
Leon smiled, eager to explain some of his thoughts, though he took a few seconds to mentally run through his freshly learned language. “Perhaps it’s presumptuous of me to say this with a non-native speaker, but for the sake of argument, let’s take Nexus common as ‘standard’ language. I think that a lot can be learned about a people by comparing their language to this standard.
“For instance, your people have words for swords, axes, bows, shields, spears, war, battles, and so on, but fewer words for all of them than exist in Nexus common. Conversely, you have more words for cargo, horses, ships, arks, trade, and money. You have shared with me your people’s language, yet you have taught me so much more than just the specific sounds your people make to communicate their ideas.”
Manuchehr’s expression turned downward, and whereas Leon remained relaxed, Manuchehr stiffened back up. “What are your intentions, Leon of House Raime? If you look upon venerable and ancient Shatufan with covetous eyes, know that even the power of a Strategos will be turned away by the strength of our walls and stout defenders. We may have fewer words for ‘war’ than Nexus common, but we are no strangers to it. We have weathered many threats, surviving where dozens of other cities and millions of other people have not.”
“I would ask why you immediately think of war. Do you believe that I want to attack your city?”
“All who have seen it desire Shatufan. It would be the jewel in the crown of any Kingdom. But you… you have coerced information about my city from me under the guise of simple academic curiosity, while at the same time claiming descent from one of the most powerful and hated Clans in the Nexus. You even invalidate the claims of many others by claiming to be the ‘last’ descendant of that Clan. I see nothing but war in your future, and you have done nothing to disabuse me of that notion.”
Leon softly snorted. “I appreciate your honesty. Let me say this: I’m generally of the ‘live and let live’ school of thought. I have no quarrel with your people, and so I won’t seek quarrel with your people. If I was intending to harm your city or your people, then I wouldn’t now be trying to engage in commerce with you, would I? Your city doesn’t have any post-Apotheosis mages, why should I engage in trade if I didn’t want to?”
“A foolish rhetorical question; there are many reasons why you would broach the topic of trade with me, and few rule out the possibility of war.”
“Mistrustful, aren’t you? I suppose I can’t blame you, I also tend to think the worst of people, if only to prepare as best as I can. For what it’s worth, Presiding Magus, I do not intend to cause any harm to your city. I hope that we could trade peacefully, to coexist as friends and allies.”
“You have already lain heel upon the neck of Alhamachim.”
“I wouldn’t characterize our agreement in that way. They asked for protection, I made clear what that protection would cost over the long term, and they agreed to pay that price. You have made no such entreaties.”
“I find that matters little to conquerors.”
Leon sighed. “I get the impression that there’s no way to convince you of my intentions with words alone, so I will no longer waste my breath. Instead, I will convince you with my actions. Your city has nothing to fear from me. Let us trade until our peoples are friends. Hopefully, then we can look at each other with less suspicion.”
Manuchehr looked unconvinced, but that didn’t surprise Leon at all. Instead, the Presiding Magus stared hard at Leon, only moving when a few minutes later, they were informed that their negotiators had reached a deal. They returned to the more crowded part of the hall, and Leon learned what he would have to pay for Aurichalcum.
In short, one shipment would come every month, and for every piece of Aurichalcum, he would be obliged to pay its weight plus ten percent in storm crystals.
Given how easily he could make storm crystals, Leon had little trouble agreeing to the deal. Manuchehr, however, looked set on refusing until both of the seventh-tier merchants took him aside to animatedly whisper for several minutes. When Manuchehr spoke to the hall again, it was to agree, though with fairly obvious reluctance.
And with that, the delegation left, taking the promised payment of storm crystals and leaving an amount of Aurichalcum equal to the weight of ten grown men. Hardly all that much in the grand scheme of things, but Nestor promised that even this small amount was enough to increase the capabilities of their arks by a significant degree.
Leon was thankful for that, and even moreso when, before Penelope left to rejoin her father in Alhamachim, Icarius sent word that he’d located a few potential suppliers of Lumenite as well. Still not enough to satisfy Artorion’s needs, but the supplies of strategic materials were starting to add up.
Of course, that left Titanstone as the biggest outlier. The enormous deposit on the coast was beyond tempting, but Leon was wary of trying to exploit it in such an undefendable position. However, need eventually won out, and as the defensive infrastructure was already taking shape, he ordered what little spare manpower he had to start laying the groundwork to exploit that Titanstone.
In this way, several months passed, and the six-month anniversary of Leon’s arrival in the Nexus came and went. Walls went up around the Artor Valley, and upon their foundations were enchantments inscribed. Soon, the mountains surrounding the valley were shrouded in fog, providing much the same protection as the misty veil did for Kataigida. Arks were also repaired, bringing Leon’s fleet back up to about half-strength, while the dozens of wisps he, Anastasios, Eva, and Clear had made were tested by Nestor, then packed on Bright Intent. The ancient ark then departed Artorion, embarking upon the weeks-long journey back to Aeterna. Those wisps would hopefully aid the reinforcements scheduled to arrive in another half year’s time, while Bright Intent would return to the Nexus after delivery.
Given the casualties taken in those first several weeks and how damaged his fleet remained, Leon could only hope that one of his most powerful assets returned to Artorion as quickly as possible. After all, only a day after its departure, Maia’s river nymphs reported an uptick in the number of underwater arks they spotted patrolling the southern coast.
It was almost unsurprising, then, when barely a week after Bright Intent’s departure, an ark finally emerged from the waves in the south and flew toward Artorion…