by Jeremy Dwyer
“Then why did you suggest to me a moment ago that I should lower my expectations? You could have suggested that we change the workforce in these villages to exploit a better mix of markets. That I would accept. No, you suggested lowering my expectations. Why would you do that?” Baron Vizakrid asked.
“My lord, I only suggest that because the waterbindings cannot be changed and the people in these farming villages are mostly drinkers of the Gradaken waters, even down to their children, who are ordered by their parents to waterbind as young as four (4) years. We would have to bring in people from the mining villages who drink of the Kazofen waters to live among them and provide this service of bending and cutting stones to clear access to the soil. Also, we do not know how much soil here is – good or poor – under those stones,” Fraser said.
“Moving people from village to village is well within my rights, Fraser. You could have suggested that earlier. So, too, is changing the way they raise their children so that more of them drink the Kazofen waters. Instead, you suggested lowering my expectations. I am still not understanding why you would insult me like that, Fraser? Do I not deserve to have my profit expectations met?” Baron Vizakrid said.
“My lord, you deserve all that you ask and more. Moving people from a mining village to a farming village will increase the productive output in the village that gains, yet decrease the output in the village that loses, and the mining villages yield the most profit per laborer, so a loss there may count for greater,” Fraser said.
“As a scribe, you are a clever fellow. Is there not a way to rearrange the people smartly, like pieces on a game board, or like soldiers on a battlefield, so that they are in a better position, and can do more? Location has value, does it not? A clever fellow like you would know how to calculate where to move people for best results, would he not?” Baron Vizakrid asked.
“I do not drink the waters of the Medathero Ocean, my lord. Thus, my mathematical skills are not strong enough to calculate such things. Instead, I serve thee by drinking the waters of the Lujladia Ocean, which give me the power of light and the ability to see far, so that I can report on matters at a distance,” Fraser said.
“Let me understand then, Fraser: you see things far away, yet you do not have the wits to use this knowledge to make good decisions. Tell me, Fraser, why you are not a waste of breath,” Baron Vizakrid said.
“My lord, I am not a sufficient servant by myself, and need the assistance of another to provide what you most assuredly deserve,” Fraser said.
Baron Vizakrid drank anew of the waters of the Nabavodel Ocean from the vial he wore on the chain around his neck. He was energized and felt his strength and swiftness return to him. He reached out and ripped Fraser’s right arm off at the shoulder and the scribe fell down, howling and bleeding. Before he could fall, however, Baron Vizakrid’s swiftness also afforded him the opportunity to rip off the scribe’s left arm.
While Fraser was lying on the ground, bleeding out of both arm sockets, Baron Vizakrid quickly reached down and ripped off the scribe’s head at the neck. He then held it up to look directly in its eyes and said: “I do deserve so much better than what you could offer. Now, I will take it for myself.”
Baron Vizakrid then picked up the headless body and detached arms of Fraser’s remains off of the floor. He took these, along with the severed head, and exited his castle through the main entrance, which he frequently left open. He stepped out onto the iron bridge and dropped the pieces of the corpse into the swamp, where snakes and other creatures began to feast upon it.
~~~
Ruth drank anew of the waters of the Kazofen Ocean from the vial she wore around her neck. She was energized and ready to cut into the sandstone with her hands. She stood at the base of a mountain that – as far as she knew based on the village surveyor’s report – ascended eight thousand three hundred twenty (8320) feet and was sixteen (16) linear miles around its base. This was important largely to plan her days and weeks, so that she could estimate where to begin her work of extracting adequate building stones. She could make the stones stronger because of the Kazofen waters, but it paid to start with something of high quality and get better results sooner. More and better stone was good for trading for payment – she received one (1) platinum coin, or sixty (60) silver coins, for every nine hundred (900) pounds of sandstone – and the smaller coins were necessary for paying the tax collectors. It took time to extract and refine all of that sandstone, and some turned out to be of a worse quality than it looked at first. All stone was eventually fixable by the powers gained from drinking the Kazofen waters, but the lost time was only fixable by the powers gained from drinking the Ursegan waters.
Besides Ruth, there were three hundred seven (307) other men and women working nearby – half of the adults in her village – on the mining crew. The crew consisted of two hundred twenty-five (225) drinkers of the Kazofen Ocean waters and eighty-three (83) drinkers of the waters of the Nabavodel Ocean.
The Kazofen drinkers could mold the stone like clay, so that they could easily pull it out of the mountain, remove impurities and form it into solid, regular blocks. The notion of ‘easily’ meant that it was less work than by using a pickaxe, but Ruth – and many others – still carried a pickaxe to help speed up some brute-force parts of the job which didn’t require much dexterity with altering the stones’ low level structure. Just hitting many stones and breaking them quickly was an adequate strategy for some parts of the task. This also conserved their supply of Kazofen waters, which were the only way to truly purify the stones by removing other matter.
The Nabavodel drinkers provided the muscle – loading the stone blocks onto wagons and pulling them toward the stone marketplaces or setting them in place for construction. The use of animals was often reserved for the farming villages or for the troops of Baron Vizakrid’s army, so that the workhorses, the oxen and the larger, stronger oxiphants were generally unavailable to do the heavy lifting in the mining villages.
Ruth was thirty-six (36) years old and had been working stones since she was fifteen (15) and took a Kazofen waterbinding. She was meant to be a child bride but resisted the idea fiercely – and her agile arm swinging her father’s pickaxe changed the would-be groom’s opinion on the marriage arrangement. She purposely missed the target she threatened so that he could keep his marriage options – it was meant as a warning before she was violated, not as an act of vengeance.
As she took another chunk of stone from the mountain’s base by softening it with a Kazofen-water-enabled touch and ripping it with her pickaxe, Ruth found it was approximately one-third (1/3) granite and two-thirds (2/3) sandstone. This composition was not surprising, but it did mean extra work had to be done to realize the full profit potential. Both types of stone commanded different market prices, as long as they were pure and high quality. She applied her Kazofen-water-based touch to the meandering seams of the stones, carefully peeling them apart without breaking them. She was expert at this by her innate potential but the water had to be pure enough – it wasn’t always – and she had to focus. When she felt a hand placed gently upon hers – a man’s hand – and heard his voice say: “Let’s work this one together” – she nearly slipped and damaged the payload. Ruth knew who it was – he had been flirting all day – and she didn’t even blink when she grabbed his thumb and pulled it back quickly, purposely breaking it.
When the man howled in pain, she gently placed down the valuable stone, turned slowly to face him and swung the tip of her pickaxe to his loins, stopping at the critical moment. “You’re not getting a date with me…ever. Touch me again in the slightest, and you’re getting a date with anyone…ever. I not only know how to use this, but you’ll notice something about this particular pickaxe. The end you’re feeling has a forked blade – a modification I made myself. It helps me to separate small stones – and other things – very quickly. Don’t ask me what those other things might be. You don’t want that answer. Now get back to work,” Ruth said.
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br /> The man with the broken thumb backed away – slowly – and returned to work after an hour of writhing in pain.
Ruth returned to the work of separating the granite and sandstone components of the chunk she had been working on and considered whether any decent men were available in her village, or if she should move. She was neither more nor less attractive than the other women, so she couldn’t explain why the guys flirted with her more than they did with the other single women. She wondered if it was to prove something or if they just wanted the challenge. A good man was a prize – if he was nice, respectful and in good health – but she wasn’t in a hurry. And kids were out of the question – she just didn’t like the idea that she might end up raising an incorrigible brat and have to apologize to everyone and be embarrassed: some kids were just bad, and you never knew what you were going to get. At least she could dump a jerk boyfriend, but she would always be the mother of a monster if she allowed herself to give birth to one. The only way to win the motherhood game was not to play, as far as she was concerned.
After working sixteen (16) hours of the thirty (30) hour day, Ruth returned to her small cottage – made of redwood and sandstone and having a few glass windows she made herself – where she rested. She enjoyed the work, but not the high demands for quantity. The only way not to have problems was to put in long hours. Problems, of course, meant that a band of hired soldiers from Baron Vizakrid’s army would show up to threaten and even beat a few people. Sometimes, they abducted or murdered the villagers’ kids to make a point – that part she absolutely couldn’t accept: she didn’t want kids, but murdering them was completely unacceptable. She was a kid earlier in her life, and so was everybody she ever liked. The baron was a tyrant, but there wasn’t much she could do short of raising an army – it was better to work hard and live than to fight hard and die.
There was a knock at the wooden front door and Ruth looked through the glass pane to see a group of her friends – three (3) women and two (2) men – waiting outside. She smiled, opened the door and let them in.
A young woman with long fingers and long brown hair entered first, holding a deck of cards between those long fingers. “Feeling lucky, Ruth?” she asked with an impish grin.
“Not as lucky as you, Sophie,” Ruth said.
“It’s not luck, she cheats,” a shorter, red-haired woman said, entering behind Sophie.
“I play by the rules. Courtney just doesn’t understand all the rules,” Sophie said.
“You make your own rules – and you play with the extra cards,” the shorter, red-haired woman – Courtney – said.
“I like the extra cards. It makes the game complex and interesting. Unlike a lot of the men around here,” Ruth said.
“You don’t like when they flirt?” a short, muscular man asked.
“Not when it gets in the way of the job. That’s work time. This is play time,” Ruth said.
“Play time? Don’t give Sean any ideas by talking like that,” Courtney said.
“So you want to kiss now?” the short, muscular man – Sean – asked, smiling.
“I could use a kiss. Just not from you, Sean,” Ruth said, smiling.
“Sean, we’re here for a card game. Just cool off and keep your clothes on,” a taller man said.
“That’s right, Ciaran. You tell him,” Courtney said.
“Anything could happen, of course,” Sophie said.
Another woman with red hair entered behind them and said nothing. She closed the front door of Ruth’s cottage and waited quietly.
“Deal the cards, Sophie,” Ruth said. She arranged stools around a circular wooden table and sat down on the seat facing the door.
Courtney, Sophie, Ciaran and Sean all joined Ruth, sitting down at the circular table.
“Molly, sit down,” Courtney said to the quiet woman who then sat around the table with the others.
“Let’s see. What game shall it be? I know: Royal Envy,” Sophie said and she shuffled the large deck of cards and began dealing them out, eleven (11) cards to each of the six (6) players, dealing to herself last. The deck of remaining cards was placed face down in the middle of the table.
Ruth looked at her cards and saw that they were: Three (3) of Hourglasses, One (1) of Hourglasses, Four (4) of Dice, Six (6) of Vipers, Eight (8) of Shields, Fourteen (14) of Daggers, Twelve (12) of Daggers, Eight (8) of Shadows, Ten (10) of Flames, Thirteen (13) of Diadems, and Nine (9) of Tombstones.
“A full deck tonight, I see,” Ruth said, noting that the secondary suits were in play.
“I like a little bit of mystery,” Sophie said.
“She’ll trick us,” Courtney said.
“Relax. A little bit of strategy is required, that’s all. Makes for a more interesting game,” Ciaran said.
“The game is interesting enough with the seven (7) regular suits. The other ones are weird. Don’t get me started on the dice cards,” Courtney said.
“Yeah, with dice, you never know what will happen in this game,” Sean said, smiling at Molly.
“You look uncomfortable, Molly,” Courtney said, seeing Sean’s hopeful gaze.
“Sean doesn’t bite. I’ll knock his teeth out if he does,” Ruth said, smiling while holding up her pickaxe, but with the blade down.
“What are the stakes tonight?” Sophie asked.
“A kiss?” Sean asked.
“A kiss from whom?” Ruth asked, leaning in, with a fierce smile that threatened either seduction or destruction.
“Not from you, Ruth,” Sean said.
“Enough of this. Let’s say one hundred (100) pounds of sandstone – that much less for the winner’s work quota, and twenty (20) pounds more for each of the loser’s work quotas,” Ciaran said.
“Not bad,” Sophie said.
Molly looked nervous and asked: “Does it have to be that much? Half of that would be a good game.”
Ruth felt bad for the young woman – Molly was barely adequate for the job of extracting stone, but she wasn’t exactly strong enough to carry the stones, either. With a Kazofen waterbinding, the only other decent choice of work was purifying waters, but if she wasn’t good at that, there could be problems with everybody’s output after drinking low purity water.
“Fine, half of that. Fifty (50) pounds of sandstone off of the winner’s quota, ten (10) pounds added to the loser’s quotas,” Ruth said.
“Low risk, low reward,” Sophie said.
“It’s just a little something to keep the game fun. We’re not trying to retire on a single deal of the cards, after all,” Ciaran said.
“Fair enough. Now let’s set another limit,” Ruth said. She then played the One (1) of Hourglasses and said: “We’ve got one (1) extra turn after the first to get a win,” as she played it.
“Quick game, then. Remember: No winner, no prize,” Sophie said.
“If there’s no winner, then what happens?” Courtney asked.
“It’s just a card game and not a bet. If there’s time, we play another,” Sophie said.
Ciaran played next, placing down the Nine (9) of Vipers.
“Strong play, big man. But here’s a stronger play,” Sean said. He then played the Eleven (11) of Vipers.
Molly played the Fourteen (14) of Shields.
“Nice play, Molly. Now, neither of them can touch you, since it’s a higher number than any attack card so far,” Sophie said.
Courtney played the Eleven (11) of Lyres and said: “If I remember these crazy rules correctly, I can take a Viper of the same number or less.”
“You are learning! Hurray for Courtney!” Sophie said sarcastically.
Courtney then took the Eleven (11) of Vipers from Sean and placed it under her card.
“You know how use your sweet music to get me to come closer,” Sean said.
“So you’re admitting that you’re a snake, Sean?” Courtney asked, half-smiling.
Sophie then played the Twelve (12) of Diadems and said: “There’s the winning card tonight. Take it
if you can. The first turn’s over now and there’s only one (1) turn left, thanks to Ruth.”
Ruth played the Three (3) of Hourglasses and said: “This gives me three (3) extra plays this turn, so…” After that, she played the Thirteen (13) of Diadems and the Eight (8) of Shadows on top of it. She then played the Four (4) of Dice.
“No, I think this is the winning card tonight. Take it…if you can find it in the shadows, and the dice don’t roll against you, of course,” Ruth said, gesturing toward the Thirteen (13) of Diadems.
Ciaran played the Four (4) of Hourglasses and said: “Four (4) extra plays.” After this, he played the Ten (10) of Diadems, the Seven (7) of Rubies, the Three (3) of Dice and the Nine (9) of Books.
Ciaran then placed a hand on the Eight (8) of Shadows card near Ruth and said: “Books give knowledge to peer into lower numbered Shadows.”
“First, you have to ask the dice,” Ruth said and she placed a hand on her Four (4) of Dice card.
“Yeah, let’s ask them,” Ciaran said.
Sophie reached into her jacket pocket and handed three (3) six (6)-sided dice to Ciaran and he rolled them, getting a four (4), a two (2) and a five (5).
“Four (4) plus two (2) plus five (5) is eleven (11). Beat that,” Ciaran said.
Sophie reached into her jacket pocket and handed four (4) six (6)-sided dice to Ruth.
Ruth rolled them and got a five (5), a one (1), a two (2) and a three (3).
“Eleven (11),” Ruth said, gritting her teeth, disappointed.
“We need a tie breaker. You both take one (1) card from your hand and duel for it,” Sophie said.
Ciaran played the Thirteen (13) of Daggers from his hand and said: “My lucky number must be thirteen (13). For the Thirteen (13) of Daggers, you can hand over the Thirteen (13) of Diadems.”
“If he wins this duel, he gets the Thirteen (13) of Diadems and you’re out of the game, Ruth,” Sophie said.
“So the big man with a big blade is feeling lucky. How about this?” Ruth said as she played the Fourteen (14) of Daggers.