“Ahem!”
Harvey clears his throat. Does he have an Idea how to create a new bridge out of the sawdust there is laying around? My work is done, now for the reaping of either gains or souls.
“First of all, there is no leak in Information, as only we know of the transport through Halk.”
“Um…”
“...yes?”
He is really vary of me now. I have shown the pile of destruction and put a small cherry on top just to mock him. But he can not ignore me, as he does not know where we came from and is not sure if he can even restrain us long enough to get the Information he needs.
“With all the Guards who rummaged through our backpacks and the Jailers who saw the interrogation, how can there not be a leak in Information?”
“...The Guards can just be re… no, they will keep their mouths shut if they love their families. Do not worry about them.”
Ooh. The Guards shiver, I can hear the teeth clatter without enhancing my hearing.
“We all have been stepped on the wrong foot here. We can all bring everything into a brighter light, don’t you think?”
Looking at me, he waits for the end of the conversation or the last thread of hope. Lets give him hope, I want to get something out of it myself, anyways.
“There is a possibility. I do not want to stop our produce just because of some greedy apprentice wanted to rob me. I have a rather good relationship with the vice President albeit only in hindsight of a Merchant. We did not even increase the sale before it came to this abrupt stop.”
“Increase in sale? You can procure more of it in a Month?”
“Sure, Rendlar just could not sell all of it right away, as it was not known and needed to be seeded first into the Market.”
“How much would you be able to sell if there were no limit?”
“Right now? Um… A ton? Maybe two? We have not enough Farmers for more, as it comes with demerits and I will never force my friends to work until their deaths.”
“Two tons… How far…”
“Far enough for large fields.”
Already reading your mind. Still I am not even close to how that old Bull could do it. I have still shivers.
“We can support you with Farmers. There is an abundance of them.”
“No thank you, I do not need spies.”
“We would never… no, you would not believe us anyways. So it would be possible to be part of the distribution?”
“We of the Peddler Kings do not have anything against a partnership as long as it benefits us. If it would be a demerit for us, then we would rather stop every transaction for the foreseeable future.”
‘Make it happen or we cut you off from our Merchant network’ never sounded so professional. I bet Blue Ice noticed the choice of Words too, from Celia. First she thought of me as a lucky finder of a precious resource, but now she rethinks it as she sees how stressed even Blue Ice is.
“With this, we are all of the same reasoning, to keep the transaction as it is, we of Blue Ice would support it with our own guards to make it as profitable as possible.”
“I would like to add something.”
A split second I could see despair on Harveys face. Well lets bring some benefits for me and my people into the boat.
“The transport of the goods is rather tedious and stops some of my workforce. I would like to have the Peddler King or another Merchant visiting my Domain for the buying and selling of wares, so it is easier for my Lost Village to get all their needs.”
Confused Harvey looks at me. I might have transformed into Loopy right in front of him with the incredulous look on his face.
“Did you not keep your place of origin secret? Why do you want to lay it open like that suddenly?”
“You misunderstood. I just want to keep it secret from would be robbers. Right now we are talking about a partnership and not about how you want to swindle the location out of me to kill us all and take it for yourself. The Peddler Kings President and Vice President are here to hold you to your Words. I do not think you would make the mistake to show them not to trust you ever again.”
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Breath Harvey, breathe! Your head is going to explode!
…
“Thank you Celia for coming. With you here it was way easier than with just Rendlar. He might be a great boon in discussions, but with both of you together the whole weight of the Branch was pushed onto their promise with this contract.”
“Well, to be honest I would have not come, if the Guard send was not pleading for Rendlar himself to come fast, as he always mentioned your name instead of Blue Ice wanting to meet him.”
So it was shock and awe which made her move, as she was interested in seeing what was going on. Noted, be more flashy sometimes.
“With this, you have better control over the transport as Blue Ice fully supports your transports in and out of the Town.”
“Well yes, but they have for this given privilege also first pickings of the produce. If they want, they could become a competitor of us.”
“Stop with the jokes Claire, if they do that you would just create a new transport route to another depot for this. Am I right?”
“No you are wrong. I am not demeaning your products, but with all of it together you might come close to the money flow of the town, but this would not mean I would just hop on a shaky boat for that bit of profit and antagonize some more Mages. Coin is nice but I do not want to die by being frozen to death.”
Oh… Yeah, I might think too highly of my position right now. A ton might be worth Mithril, but does not mean the whole world will bend their knee for me. I have a valuable resource but I am not ungodly wealthy.
“Sorry, I might be all to high and mighty right now for putting Blue Ice in its place. I would love to leave the contract as is for now, just that an envoy of the Peddler King is bringing and taking commodities to my Village.”
“We would love to, but the transport costs…”
“Are you sure the transport of stuff will be such a large strain for the Branch Business?”
Well she wanted me to be humble, so please be humble yourself.
“...fine, we stay with the six Gold price for now. As when the selling goes over five hundred Kilos we will reduce it to five Gold, as the Market will be a bit too saturated and I believe then will be the knowledge about your Village be public. This will make the later transports way more dangerous.”
“Fifty large Gold cut for transport? Are you hiring the Knight order of Arcana?”
“...I am sorry, I misspoke. I meant to slowly reduce the price, as the value will fall if there is more to buy. The five Gold was the lowest we would go.”
“That makes it even worse, Claire.”
“Ah, I am sorry, we stay with six Gold for the foreseeable future then. I might be a bit greedy otherwise.”
What a merchant. Thinking I can not count and just see the gold I will have and not what they cut, she tries to swindle me out of so much money. Rendlar is maybe shifty but at least he is honest. It might be the reason why Claire is only President in the smallest Town on the Forest border.
“I think so too. Well then we just need to schedule the next transport to our Village. I will bring you personally there or might ask Snow to do that.”
“This will be no problem, we just come to you directly. Just tell us where the Village is hiding and we should be able to go there. The sign of the Peddler King gives us rights to nearly travel every road inside the Magistrate.”
“Well, I will still bring you there, as it would still be better, because there is no street there. The Village is behind a cave in the Starfall Mountains, right in the middle of the dark Forest.”
“...excuse me, where?”
…
Reflecting how everyone was handled in the interrogation, we sit in a private room of an Inn. What I wanted to hear was how they were treated, but the first things they all tried to say was, that they did not tell anything. I soothed their worries and told them, this is not the main point, I was worried about their well being.
For a few seconds they were stunned silent, afterwards Belk started with telling his story. Well they were rather roughly handled. A slap there, a kick here. There was a challenge by the guards who could get the Information first out of them, it seems.
Snow was treated a bit more special as she was last time seen in more Noble clothing, but after seeing Elane coming they seems to be a rush in urgency to get the Information quick and tried to use physical methods, which Snow did not let slide. The Offender died right away, three more Guards trying to keep her in were brutally wounded and then I made myself heard through the door with my shout and she came right to me.
I am still torn in how to handle this situation. They really made a mess with the incarceration. Right now there is someone in the Room at the side to listen in. His breathing is at the Wall and I can imagine how he has some kind of horn or cup on the wall to hear in. Whatever, shall they know, that I am still angry.
“I am still a bit perturbed. Right now I am really pondering if I should call all of our Members to fight.”
“Lord, we are Farmers we can not…”
“Not you. Don’t worry. But in the Castle that is getting built are more Members of my… Family? Well yeah, they can be called distant Family… So there are more you did not have really seen.”
“You mean Loopy? He looks so funny! I think he can be a good fighter.”
Snow interjects. Well yeah, he too, but would he be humming his strange inharmonic song while he slaughters too?
“Also Bush Man. He might be slow in the head, but if we can get him for a minute not to tend to his plants, he might come too.”
“What about the little ones in the Greenhouse? They would love to wreak havoc once in a while!”
“I am not really sure. They are somewhat weak on their own. Whatever, lets think about it further for now. That Karl one was threatening you Snow. I really can not let that slide. He will have to pay. I might just kill all their Soldiers to get to him.”
“Was it really that bad?”
“He insinuated… terrible things I can not leave like that. You are all Family, but I hope you understand I feel more for Snow as she is longer with me.”
“No Lord, we understand! We are already grateful for you to ask for our grudges. Those guys were holed the whole time inside the Town while we were ravaged by the Bandits, we will always be grateful!”
All the others nod from Belks speech. Since when is Belk so articulate? Does he grow into the Village Chiefs role? Then I do not need a new Village Chief, but a Secretary for him to work with. Male obviously, as his wife will be beating him, if he were to come home ‘late’, even if it is not what she thinks. No slapstick for my Village.
“Let us just breath deep for now. I really am pissed about the whole chaos, but should not rage around for most people seem to be just in lapse of their control around their Members. If there are more slights we retaliate, but right now we play nice. The Peddler Kings were always friendly and starting a kind of war just because of this, would strain my Friendship with Rendlar. Claire is rather unlikable, but not everyone can be a nice person it seems.”
With this the Spy seems to be satisfied too and left while we ate. While eating I whisper to Snow.
“Snow? I have a job for you…”