Enlightened Empire

"Hey big guy, later the boys are gonna go to town together. You sure you"re gonna be off by yourself just like that?" old John said, his crooked ruin of teeth glistening in the sunshine.

"Yeah, I have to go report to the Boss. You"re not gonna do anything but get p.i.s.s-drunk anyways, not until evening at least. I"ll see you boys then." A short answer and a playfully dismissive wave of his hand before he was off, finally back on dry land. With a short hop, Atau adjusted the position of the large bag hung over his right shoulder and then made his way inland, past the seagulls, old fishermen and newly built warehouses.

Soon, he had reached the city center, still as much of a s.h.i.thole as it had ever been. Really, for all their advancements in technology, the most impressive part of the Arcavians was their unnatural tolerance for filth. At least at sea there was always a stiff breeze ready to carry away any odors... and when he had to spend the night under deck he was usually so drunk that he fell asleep no matter what stench filled the crew quarters.

"The Devaerter ship"s back! Let"s go take a look!" In front of Atau, two boys, excited by the arrival of those who had seen the wide world the children could only dream of, came towards Atau, immersed in their talk.

"Doesn"t this one sail for the new Fastgrade merchants too?" The taller of the two asked, much less enthusiastic.

"Yeah, they sailed together, is what Da" said. Isn"t that exciting?"

"Exciting my foot. Father"s said they"re all secret helpers of the lordships. Those people are gonna sell off the whole city to the bornish if they can get away with it."

As he had gotten close enough for his shadow to cover the two youngsters, the boys finally looked up and saw the giant man with the foreign features who came towards them. With his long hair and dark skin, Atau had always been recognizable around these parts, and the large eyes of the boys, together with their sudden stop of all motor functions, told the returnee that they knew him very well. Friendly as he was, the sailor looked at the two, especially the tall one who had given such a nice opinion of him and his own, and gave them a nice smile and a little wink.

In panic, the shorter of the two grabbed his friend"s sleeve and pulled both of them to the side, down into a back alley. Atau replied with a frank laugh.

"Brats," he mumbled, before he marched to the final goal of his journey. Soon, he stood in front of the large, three-story building he had helped repair. The giant sign over the entrance told even the most casual onlooker who the owners of the establishment were. With hastening steps, Atau went up to enter the Fastgrade merchant company. However, before he had even gone inside, he stopped at a curious sight. To the side of the entrance, within the front yard, he found Fadelio and Ronnie, busy with some strange wooden contraption. As the tall warrior pushed down a lever, a hose at the front, held by the alchemist, sprayed water all over the clean stone floor.

"What sort of mess did you guys cause this time that Laqhis put you on cleaning duty?" the new arrival called towards them. The two turned in confusion and froze for a moment as they saw him, while the stream of water which escaped from the hose in Ronnie"s hand slowly lost in strength, until it ceased. Only then did the two men drop their novel equipment and came over to greet the returnee.

"Who"s the one who got sent away cause he keeps causing a mess, huh?" Accompanied by his snide remark, Fadelio gave his friend one of his smothering bear hugs as a way to welcome him back home.

"Who else but the great Atau Sonco Saqartu could ever be trusted with a burden this big? Meanwhile, you"re sitting here watering the stones." Atau answered back while a sly grin deformed his scraggly beard, unkempt after weeks on turbulent waters.

"It isn"t watering, you ignoramus." As self-important as always, Bombasticus chimed in. "It is the early stages of what Sir Corco called..." the alchemist looked around the yard, in search of his words.

"Fire fighting," Fadelio helped out.

"Ah yes, indeed," Ronnie concurred.

"Firefighting? So this is another one of Laqhis" strange inventions then?

Atau"s question was met by a dismissive look from the self-styled alchemist. Since the returnee was already getting annoyed, he decided to just make his way inside. Fadelio went back to clear away the equipment, but of course the annoying fly would keep running after the sailor. Showing off his wisdom and culture seemed to be his only goals in life.

"It is not an invention, merely a tank of water with a simple pumping mechanism. Even an unlearned should be able to understand as much. Still, the pump will be a necessary piece of equipment. Though the building was exceedingly cheap for its size, it is unfortunate that it would be made entirely from wood. In case of a large-scale fire, we could lose everything."

"Uh-huh." Mentally checked out, Atau stepped into the showroom and walked up to the reception. He remembered the man who welcomed him there. It was someone he had seen during the job interviews, though for the life of him he couldn"t put a name to the face. Still, it wasn"t as if he needed to know the name of every single subordinate. This wasn"t a ship, after all. No one"s life was dependent on clear and fast orders.

"Where"s the boss?" Atau asked.

"Ah, welcome home, Sire. The boss and young master are in the back storage, right through the back door." Armed with a friendly smile, the servant pointed towards the back of the showroom, an area the visitors would have no access to. Luckily, Atau was no visitor, so he continued on.

Throughout the interruption, the alchemist had looked between the sailor and the servant, eager to b.u.t.t in at a moment"s notice. Finally, the pesky Ronnie found an opening and continued his explanation.

"Since fire is such a threat, we need to be prepared. This is what the water pump is for. It will protect us in case a fire breaks out. On top of that, we will be able to sell our services for good money. It is called insurance."

"That so." Though he didn"t look over even once, Atau could almost see the alchemist"s raised chest as he bragged about an idea which surely wasn"t his own. Meanwhile, the returnee made his way through the backyard, over to the row of storage rooms, which had been left empty when he had left Etra. After all, the brandy was much too precious to store outside of the main building.

"Yes, that is indeed "so". Other merchants and craftsmen will pay us a fee, in advance. If a house has paid and catches fire within the following ten days, our... "fire fighters" will come to save their possessions. Is this not a brilliant plan? The company can get money from doing absolutely nothing at all!"

At last, after he had suffered through so much jabber from his companion, Atau spotted the ones he had been looking for all this time. Just as he was closing in, unsure about which of the three storage rooms to search first, Corco and Brym left the central building.

"Boss, kid!" With his sea bag still shouldered, the sailor raised his free arm to greet his cousin and the brat he came along with.

As he closed up the door he had just left, Corco turned to look for the source of the noise. A genuine smile shot onto his face as soon as he saw his cousin had come home. At least one of them knew how to react with proper decorum.

"Cousin! Finally you"re back. We were all worried," Corco said. Though Atau didn"t doubt the words, it made the insincere greeting form the others, especially from the alchemist, even more annoying.

"Thanks, I"m glad to be home," he said as he hugged his cousin.

"Welcome back, bro. How was Whiteport?" Brym added as he received his own hug, a burning lantern held far away from his body all the while.

"Was pretty nice. After a week on a ship almost every place looks good though." he halted for a moment as he scanned their surroundings. "Is there any more private place we can talk?"

"Sure," Corco said with a grin, "I wanna show you this anyways. Come on in." And so, the prince once again opened the door he had just locked and led them inside. In order to dispel the darkness in the room, Brym raised his lantern to reveal sealed pots of clay, over and over, lined up on shelves along the walls.

"It"s our newest product. What do you think?" Corco asked with expectation written all over his face.

"It"s... pots?"

"Not the pots of course, the contents! Inside you"ll find delicious pickled beets! Took us all day to fill these up."

With an unbelieving look, Atau observed his cousin, in search for the punch line. "Like the stuff we ate back in Eniila? I mean, it was good, but I wouldn"t pay a lot of money for the stuff."

"Why not? Good seasoning, it"s healthy and lasts an eternity. But in all seriousness, the whole thing"s just a cover up anyhow."

"Cover up?" Atau raised a brow at the strange term.

"It"s a way for us to disguise the source of our sugar. If others find out that we can make it just by boiling beets in water, everyone will start growing these, and then the sugar will be worth nothing." Brym explained with an enthusiasm and animation which made erratic shadows dance along the walls of the storage.

"So if these are just deception then where"s the sugar?" Atau asked as he searched around the dim room with his eyes.

"Underground. We can"t sell that stuff for now, not until we can explain where it comes from. That"s where you come in. Only if you make a sufficiently long journey as the captain of our own ship can we pretend to have bought the sugar from some distant kingdom overseas. Otherwise we"ll be in trouble as soon as we start selling. Everyone is gonna pressure us to release the secret formula, and unlike with the brandy, we won"t have the Lords to use as protection." Corco explained the entirety of his sugar selling ploy. Though Atau understood that they had to be careful of compet.i.tion, it sure sounded far too convoluted for his tastes.

"What a waste," the so far silent Ronnie chimed in, "it will take years until we can start selling all that precious sugar. None of this would happen if Prince Corco was finally willing to build some of the true treasures I have heard about. Telescopes, flintlock rifles, fertilizer, adding machines... even a simpleton can see how much worth these products would have. All we need to do is-"

"No." The alchemist"s words were cut short by Corco"s stern reply. "I"m not gonna reveal any core technology in Arcavia. I will not help develop countries which could become my enemies in the future. All they get is booze and sugar. They can puzzle the rest together by themselves."

Atau looked between the two, as they were locked in a staring contest. This wasn"t the first time Corco had shown a sensitive reaction over the topic. Though Atau himself didn"t think it was a big deal, for Corco this core technology issue seemed really important. Still, there was no way he would go through a pointless argument on his first day back home. Luckily, he had brought with him the perfect way to dissolve the conflict.

"Okay, break it up, boys. Ronnie, you think we"ll have money trouble if we won"t sell the sugar for a while? If you really think so, then look at this."

As he was talking, Atau swung the sailor"s bag off his shoulder and untied the rope at the top. With his last words, he turned the bag to pour the contents on the earthen ground. Under countless clinking sounds, a waterfall of glittering metal gushed out of their container. Soon, a small yellow mound had formed in front of Atau"s feet.

"Gold?" the out of breath alchemist asked in disbelief.

"Gilderns." Corco replied, as he picked up some of the cold metal and rubbed it between his fingers.

"It"s just a fraction of our haul. I did just as you said Laqhis, and the operation was a rousing success. Every lordship we went, I brought all the kings and dukes and what have you a free bottle of our finest. All we had to do was wait until the news spread. Then the other n.o.bles were ready to sell off their wives and daughters to partake in the drink of the Lords. Crazy how desperate these guys were for the stuff. All in all, after Devaerter took his part, our share comes down to a bit under fifty thousand Gilderns. No matter how much money we might make from anything else, the brandy alone is more than enough to make us some of the richest men on Arcavia. You thought it would take us years to get our own ship? Heck, we can buy one now. From today on, it"s only up for us."