Soren appraised me seriously for a moment before speaking.
“You said that one of the things you were seeking out here was privacy. We of this village were in search of that as well.”
I nodded, but despite having a good feeling about the man and this village, I could not just move forward with my plans with nothing more than that. “I respect that you can’t yet trust me, and that I will have to earn that trust over time. I do plan to earn that trust with my actions. But, if this works out, I will be investing a lot, both in my time and my funds, into this village. Before I can decide if this is the place I want to make that investment, I need to know a bit more about this place. The trust has to extend both ways.”
Soren sighed, then looked down at the map. After deliberating a bit, he tapped the north edge of the map. “What do you know about the war in the north?”
I managed to refrain from letting surprise cross my face when he mentioned the war, and instead tried to look pensive. “Only what I picked up from the merchants who were ordered to send supplies north, the winter before last.”
“I was about your age when the Kingdom finished opening the mountain pass to the north,” Soren began. “Soldiers were being conscripted from all the walled cities to make the first offensive. I grew up in Gurt. I had apprenticed as a wall guard, so it was expected I would be going off to war.
“I love the Kingdom, and love Gurt, even now. I had a number of close friends, and was planning to marry my wife once I had saved up a bit as a working adult. We had all heard for years about the Kingdom cutting into the mountain, but our whole lives had been peaceful and quiet, out on the edges of the country. When the prospects of war started to become a reality, a small number of us in Gurt made a decision.”
I leaned back in my chair as I listened to Soren talk about his anti-war choices as a young man, and how a group of people decided to leave the walled city and founded their settlement.
Settlements occupied a weird gray space in the laws of the Kingdom. Technically, the people who lived in the settlements were still citizens, but a settlement had to operate as an independent entity. A settlement had to deal with bandits, beasts, and starvation entirely on their own, and could not petition the crown for aid, but they were also exempt from taxes and, save for in a defensive war, conscription. There was no question that a settlement would fail if all capable adults were taken for war, and it would effectively be a death sentence for the children of the settlement. If the Kingdom was invaded and did need to engage in a defensive war, settlements were expected to retreat to a walled city at which point the adults would be conscripted like any citizen.
The Kingdom was not, as it turned out, particularly expansionist. The wilds were hard to tame and were necessary for hunting for meat. Still, setting out to form homesteads and settlements was not discouraged, as it created potential for the Kingdom. Very, very rarely, a settlement would flourish, and eventually grow and attract enough people that the Kingdom would send stonemages to offer to build a wall. Mirut’s history was slightly different in that regard, in that it was a Kingdom-sponsored settlement and built from the ground up as a walled port city, but settlement and natural growth was how Gurt had initially come to be, many generations previously. Soren and his people had simply decided to follow in their ancestors’ footsteps.
“Of course, it turned out the war was, at least initially, short and relatively effective. There were losses, but many of the soldiers who survived gained a huge amount of wealth. You would have been just a young boy at the end of all that,” he said, and I mentally corrected him, as I had been born just after that. Horg and Sharma had met during the war, using their earnings to settle in Mirut and then started their family.
“You didn’t want to return to Gurt when the war was over?”
“Returning is… difficult. Leaving to found a settlement is perfectly legal, but ostracizing. We still feel it when we travel into town to trade, although thanks to our excellent hunters and crafters, we often have enough goods to make it worth dealing with us. Moving back within a generation would make living among our neighbors… uncomfortable.”
That intertown discomfort was probably a factor in why Soren was being so forthcoming to me. Having me join the settlement and one day take over the trade would put an unrelated entity between the former neighbors, which would limit the old pains from being a trade issue.
“But also, we’ve done well here, and we’re proud of it. Many of our children were born here and call it home. Staying away has helped us avoid the more recent conflict up north, which has been far worse for the Kingdom than was expected if the rumors are to be believed. There is a chance it will all come crashing down one day, as is the fate of most settlements, but in the meanwhile, our village prospers and we control our own fate.”
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“That sounds… well, honestly, it sounds wonderful, Soren. I think our interests are aligned in that.”
“In that case, Pilus, let me be the first to welcome you to Freehold.”
* * *
I followed along as Soren led me on a more guided tour of the village called Freehold, now that we were both planning on having me stay. I was introduced to a few of the craftsmen and hunters, as well as the guards, before leading me back towards his home.
“My family can put you up until you get a new cottage commissioned,” the village leader began, but I raised a hand to interrupt.
“That’s very kind, but I’ve actually got a camp outside of the village that I’d like to return to for now.”
Soren frowned. “The wilds can be dangerous,” he said, but then his eyes flickered over my arms once before he sighed. “Though it does seem like you can handle yourself. What kind of hypocrite would I be to deny someone from setting out into the wild.”
I laughed, and patted his arm. “I will be fine, don’t worry. It’s not like I can contribute much to the village until you next send a convoy to Gurt, anyway.” I paused for a moment, thinking about Soren’s tale of settlement. “Actually, I may choose to build my home outside of the walls permanently. Like, uh, a farmer would.”
Soren raised his eyebrow towards me, then hummed. “The land around here is not prepared for farming, but surely you saw that on your way in. That’s part of why we built our own walls and do trade with Gurt. Do you aspire to start a farm? That’s quite a lot of work on its own.”
“...Of a sort, I suppose. Like I said, I’ve got… secondary goals. I can’t accomplish those living within the walls.”
“Well, any farm nearby would be a boon, of course, but we are not a proper walled city. We can’t commit to protecting an external homestead or holding.”
“Right. How does that work, exactly? I know some cities have expansive farms around them.”
Soren explained that walled cities with a farming presence have soldiers that work for the crown manning the walls in addition to city guards. While the guards protect the walled city itself, the soldiers are also responsible for keeping the peace on the farms, protecting them from beasts and banditry.
Mirut was not a farming city, which is why the walls were not manned with soldiers, just guards. My father was a former soldier who ran the local guards, so there was an existing relationship there that likely acted as a bit of an intermediary. I had learned from my time hanging around the port docks that sea-based piracy was not really a thing in this world, at least not yet. Mostly the ships were just a quicker transport route up and down the coast between the capital in the north and Haklan in the south. Mirut only came to exist initially as a layover to ease that journey, while land within also served as a reward for some from the crown.
Trade to and from Haklan only occurred after the Kingdom won the south. Prior to that, the only ships were fishing vessels, which had spawned transport vessels once there was a need. Sailing further out was too much of a risk with sea beasts, and a full life at sea was more or less impossible. My mind began to wander to how sailing had come to be and what Haklan provided to the capital to necessitate it before I caught myself and dragged my focus back to the moment.
Soren was explaining how when stone walls were built, they tended to be beyond the boundaries of the settlements, with cities having a minimum size to allow for expansion within the walls. As such, building farms directly bordering a settlement was not a great prospect, as the farmers may be displaced if the settlement ever upgrades. Once the walls were built, however, permanent and guarded farms tended to do quite well.
“So how does land ownership work, then? Could a second settlement be founded directly next to an initial one?”
“Well, no one owns the wilds exactly, save for the crown, broadly speaking. That’s why we were able to form settlements in the first place. Independent land ownership only really exists within the walls, and that’s for housing lots rather than larger territory. The cities and towns belong to the crown, and so does the land around it. Once a settlement is founded, like ours, we effectively lay a passive claim to the territory around us, equal to the size of an expected walled city. There’s nothing stopping someone from trying to claim that land, but it breeds discontent between the two settlements and would likely lead to conflict. Settlements are not so common that those kinds of issues are frequently seen, mind you.”
“Hmm. So I should build beyond that boundary?”
“Are you planning on starting a second settlement?” Soren asked jokingly.
“No?”
Soren paused at my inflection, and considered me for a beat.
“I just mean, if I wanted to retain ownership of the land in the long-term, even if Freehold became walled… and if I didn’t want to have to move a farm…”
Soren shook his head at me with a small chuckle. “That’s not particularly likely in either of our lifetimes, nevermind the fact that your personal ambition clearly does not line up with the reality of creating a farm or a settlement, which is unthinkable by oneself… but yes, I suppose if you were thinking that far ahead, you would want to do it at a distance at least the minimum size of a city away. More realistically, you’re welcome to build closer to the walls if you’re determined to live outside of them. We just cannot guarantee we can protect the land you settle. In both cases, you’ll be kicking yourself by winter. It’s much colder here than it is in Roko.” Soren looked up at the clouds, then sighed. “But that’s the price of freedom. We all have to live with our choices when we make them by ourselves.”