The Slime Farmer

There were fewer pedestrians on Vane Road than the side streets, and the large expanse of roadway was choked with conveyances of all sorts. The hooves of draft animals and summon-beasts struck up the dust from the stone-paved roads, but it was a different dust from the desert-adjacent cities he"d grown up in.

The main streets of Ecthys in the late afternoon were more crowded than earlier in the day, sweat and dust mixing with the faint smell of offal and river-rot. Defi wrinkled his nose briefly at the lingering malodor in the city air.

 That the evident profusion of animals on the roads didn"t stink up the streets even more was a testament to the good management of the city. With the veritable river of animal-pulled transport in the place, there should be tons of animal waste being cleared away at all hours of the day.

He knew he should be thankful; he"d been to towns where no one dared walk on the streets because the mud was half made of p.i.s.s and c.r.a.p from both human and animal. Defi still missed the more pleasantly-scented air outside the city however.

He laughed at himself. The primary city of Rimet had no worse a smell than Ecthys. Not to mention he"d lived on a spice farm, which arguably had stronger aromas than the average city street. A few months of breathing in the delicate scent of fruit and flowers and he couldn"t handle the smell of a city anymore? 

Maybe he should just be a hermit. He rejected the thought in the next second. He was happy to be part of the material world, thanks.

"Come on." Vesia put down the hand that hailed an empty one-horse carriage and urged him toward the conveyance that turned toward them and was coming to a stop. "Since you already have the Tesorium token, you should see some more of the city before leaving tomorrow."

Defi was grateful that while he was with Tennar, Vesia had been dealing with processing his papers at the Tesorium which included recommendation letters from both the Lowpool and Bluzand. By the time they got there, he only had to clarify and sign the application contracts for an account with the organization before he was handed the badge that said he was a reputable merchant registered with the Tesorium and the commerce ministry.

The badge now sat in one of the secure pockets of his belt. It had been modified by the Tesorium to represent his ident.i.ty in all merchant matters, so it was a fairly important piece of metal.

They"d barely been inside the marble halls of the Tesorium for a quarter-hour before they were walking out again. It was a relief. If he had to have another tricky discussion about a contract this afternoon, he"d go insane. He knew paperwork but before, he had advisors for negotiations when doing his duties as a son of the Rimet bloodline. This time, he could only trust that Sarel"s friends.h.i.+p was enough so Tennar wouldn"t place too many precautions on a contract with him.

Defi was certain Tennar had also been pained by the negotiations though, so he hadn"t done too badly. Using the Current to read the flow around people was difficult at his level. It was a good thing learning to read people cold was a skill that his tutors thought was important. He was pa.s.sable at those lessons, and using the Current only enhanced his skill.

"Are you coming or not?" Vesia asked cheerfully.

He eyed the…vehicle that Vesia had waved over. It was painted a cheerful yellow, accented with gra.s.s and leaf motifs in various shades of green. The grey horse that pulled it was clothed in a brief caparison dyed the same colors.

Cheerful or not, there was no denying that compared to the average carriage, it looked like a stiff breeze could blow it over. The only fully covered sides were the top, front, and back. The two sides were open to the road, the only protection being the overly large wheels that covered part of the sides.

Vesia all but dragged him over and he had no choice but to hand her up onto the flimsy thing.

"Are you sure this is safe?"

She laughed as she took a seat, facing the back of the carriage. "Thousands use these each day. It"s the fastest way to get around. And we"ll see more of the city this way."

The carriage was narrow, with only two seats facing each other. Defi sat on the other seat, which was facing front, a bit uncomfortably. Their knees were only a hand-span apart. While it was still proper for both Ascharonian and Ontrean sensibilities, he was slightly uneasy that there was no screen separating them.

"Where to?" The driver"s seat was level with the roof of the carriage, and his voice was slightly m.u.f.fled by the turned-up collar of the voluminous coat he wore.

Vesia leaned out the open side with a smile. "Down to the Circle, thread the market streets, through the Gardens and up Termorance, then to the Bluzand Company on Bolhaven."

The driver leaned over precariously, twisting in his seat to look at them. "I could take Duran Point from the market and come out near the Kings if you want to see the s.h.i.+ps before the Gardens."

"Oh yes." Vesia turned to Defi. "Do you have any business after this? The route would take near an hour. But it will be all beautiful!"

"I don"t. I"d like to see as much of Ecthys as I can, as you said."

"That sounds great, thanks!" Vesia called to the driver, who nodded.

The carriage started to move.

"The interesting streets will show themselves as soon as we leave Vane Road. That"s not to say Vane is tedious, just there are more exciting places."

Defi looked over, curious. "You know Ecthys well?"

"Lived here my whole life," she nodded proudly. "My brother and his friends drove a carriage like this one for several years to supplement their school fees, so I"ve visited most of the city with him. You"ll not find a better guide!"

Defi laughed. "It seems I"m lucky. Thank you for a.s.sisting today."

"This is part of a merchant clerk"s job too. Yours is the first account I have to manage, I"m a bit nervous."

"Is there so much a gap between a junior and senior clerk"s duties?"

Vesia perked up, nodded. "There"s less copying to do, but you"re right. I"ve been training for years to do this."

"Your performance won"t be worse than misplacing a contract." Defi teased.

His companion paled.

Oh. 

Was that too much?

His reading did say contracts were the most important thing to merchants. He looked around for something to distract the nearly shaking just-promoted senior clerk. "Oh, why is there a statue of two half-naked men in the middle of the road?"

Vesia shook herself out of her horrified trance. "That…that"s the Circle. It"s where five of the gate-roads in the city connect. The statues were commissioned by the first mayor of the city. Calvus and Tarven il Marellan, who the stories say raised Ecthys from a fis.h.i.+ng town to a city and built the walls."

The mayor did it to pacify the people who were incensed by the city being added to the imperial central government, Defi surmised. If the first mayor had not acknowledged the family that had ruled the city for generations, his stay in Ecthys would not have been smooth.

Of course, the n.o.bles wouldn"t have been swayed no matter what placating gesture was used; especially those who had been expecting to inherit the city due to blood ties.

The imperial central government was nominally the emperor"s power, and with the rise of that power, the influence of the n.o.bles on the affairs of the empire weakened.

"Oh, do you know the Gate?"

Defi smiled wryly, the sudden question breaking him out of his theorizing. "I do."

"The princess from the Otherside recited a poem when she saw this statue. Hm, let me think…it was published a month ago, but I should remember…."

Vesia didn"t see how Defi tensed at her words.

"Ah," she nodded. "It went like this:

"How could celestials fall unheeding,

"To the singing harp, the holy harp?

"Their ears fall deaf unknowing,

"And mired their sight in dark, ignorant dark?

"Judge they the fateful sprouting

"Seeds from the seething lakes of life, hallowed life?"

There was a short silence in the carriage when she finished reciting. Defi could not even think of poetry.

"A princess?" His voice was even. "She was here?"

"It"s too bad you didn"t visit two months ago, or you would"ve seen her." Vesia said, then frowned a little. "Or were you? You should have accompanied the first batch of vinegar here, and I know people started talking about the new vinegars in the company about that time."

"I wasn"t," answered Defi, then muttered under his breath. "Praise the Creator for that."

"Eh?"

"I said, nowadays, there can"t be much more than trade between the Gates. Why would a princess appear?"

In the same city he was in now? It was too close. Defi felt something clench in his chest, very like dismay.

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