1        Soul Bound 1.3      Making a Splash 1.3.4    An Adroit Pursuit 1.3.4.2  Skalding heat

1st bell of the Forenoon watch on Racday wain, 20th day of KrevinBelember, 1600 A2F. 05:00 on Monday 12th June, 2045.

When Kafana rejoined the game, she was standing at the apex of Cov's Arch, watching barges laden with grain and timber streaming down the River Tunita then avoiding the choppy waters of the Arcadian Sea by passing under the high bridge beneath her feet and into the Rio Foce that led past rows of narrow covered loading wharves and onto the Grand Junction at the northern end of the Canalasso.

Bulgaria, back in his disguise as Beppe the Stevedore, maintained a running commentary: "...and you can tell by their pennants that most of those are transporting bulk commodities from storage at Murgia, though there's a few from Accettura and Castagnaro further upstream."

Bungo gestured at the wide bay spread out beneath them, and the line of banchiflutti sheltering half of it: "It looks to me like there are plenty of places to anchor here. Why are the merchants storing their goods in a separate town?"

Bulgaria: "The Tunita flows wide and slow as far as Murgia Gorge where the Rubicon joins it and its walls are riddled with caves so temperate dry spaces are plentiful."

Wellington: "So for goods you want to store for several months, because the demand is small but constant while the supply is large but occasional?"

Bulgaria: "The cheaper monthly storage cost outweighs the additional transportation cost, yes."

Vessel Tomsk pointed at the covered market ahead of them, sounding diffident: "What about theft? Given the Sostanza is just a stone's throw away from the headquarters of Ruffo's Rats, it would be hard to find anywhere in Torello that's more secure, outside the vaults of the Watch Tower."

Alderney, dressed like a ragamuffin as usual, piped up: "Or inside them, hey? Didn't I hear something about that Columbina lass waltzing out of there carrying a bow? Just last week it was. A real fancy looking one; must have cost at least a thousand Scudo if it were worth more'n a scraped Soldo."

Bulgaria rescued the rapidly reddening man from having to respond: "No teasing the Vessel, Alderney. Let's get moving."

Alderney blushed and mumbled something to Vessel Tomsk. Had their media expert forgotten it wasn't Tomsk himself? Vessel Kafana wasn't the only one who'd grown much closer to her Questing Spirit. They started down.

Bulgaria continued speaking, putting firm emphasis upon the name he used: "And Tomsk? To answer the perfectly reasonable question you asked, all the merchants hire an outfit named Platona's Army to provide security services."

Bungo: "All of them? Sounds fishy. Are they killing their competitors or something?"

Bulgaria: "That was my first though too, but apparently not. They've been around for centuries, but have never expanded their control to other cities or charged monopoly prices. They even refuse to run their own storage company or get involved in politics, despite periodic attempts to manipulate them by the baron who runs the town on behalf of House Zeno. They stick to security and they're exceptionally good at it - nobody tries cheating or stealing from the Army - not even the river pirates."

They entered the presentable northern tip of The Arsenal and Bulgaria led them down wide well-paved streets populated with noble trade factors, rocking-gaited captains, sharp-eyed speculators and wealthy workshop owners. She could tell, just from the confident way they walked in the open, that they felt at home here.

Bungo: "Nobody passes up a profit without having a good reason. If someone's going out of their way to not give anyone a reason to shine a light on them, I bet they're hiding something."

Wellington shook his head, and spoke with the confidence of a lecturer: "I disagree. To me this looks like just an example of capitalism working the way it's meant to work. The price to transport a tonne of goods is low, because if one company raises their prices, there's no barrier stopping their competitors moving the goods instead. The price of storage stays low, because if a warehouse in Torello or Murgia tries charging more, the goods can equally well be stored elsewhere. For each type of construction timber, there are multiple companies which offer it and which use it, so a price is naturally arrived at in which supply equals demand. The goods are fungible, meaning one oak 2x4 plank is as good as any other, and can be replaced by it; and so are the companies - each sticks to doing one thing, whether sailing a boat or guarding a cave - and those which do it badly can be dropped and have their services replaced. Competitive markets produce fair prices - in the long term, that's to the benefit of everyone. No magic or mystery required."

[Quest available: "Deal with the Army" - investigate life in the army. Difficulty level C. Do you wish to accept?]

Bungo looked utterly smug as he selected "Yes".

Kafana ended up not with the cagey jobbers placing bids with the wholesalers of the main covered market, but in a nearby backstreet warehouse surrounded by people queuing for a clerk to become free. Most of them were agents, not there to spend their own money but assiduously bearing ledgers full of outstanding orders.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Two of them, both women, were obviously not. The first wore a rich loam-brown brocade houppelande dress decorated with a leaf pattern in gold thread and covered by a full length hooded cloak made of a gorgeous dark jade satin. She was tall and slim, with a delicately boned face and a cascade of golden brown hair that hid everything except the tips of her ears. Her face lit up at the sight of Bungo: "Mae govannen, aran Bungo."

"Mae govannen, cáno Rinfindiel!" Bungo greeted her warmly, then turned and addressed Kafana: "Suor Kafana, meet my friend Rinfindiel. She's my pick to be the Chief of our Responsible Player project - she's as deeply into roleplaying as any member of Nevermere, and as good a woodworker as any member of CraftySquId."

She stalled a moment, and Dinah prompted her in a private message: [Looks like our gal Rinfindiel likes elves from Tolkien more than she values being period-accurate for the Renaissance. Probably why she isn't in Nevermere. It isn't my speciality, but try telling her "Lothron iglawo Elbereth oncin mangalu."]

Kafana repeated the words as carefully as she could, adding in the curtsey that Bartola had drilled into her. Rinfindiel's eyes widened, and appeared to be suppressing laughter.

Rinfindiel: "Thank you, Suor Kafana. It is my very great honour to meet you. And let it be known to you that the one standing by my side is Aslög the Skáldkona, a guest at the Scandic Union embassy and here on a matter of drengskapr in which I have offered some slight assistance."

Now she looked carefully, Kafana recognised Aslög. It was the skald who'd performed Maiden's Fall at the wake for Antonio! What would she think, if she knew that Suor Isabella, as well as being Kafana's master in the priest profession, was also Archmage Camilla reborn - the legend whose tale she'd told?

Kafana: "Skáldkona."

Aslög: "Twice-born."

They were eyeing each other, unsure which of them held social precedence, when the queue moved on and Kafana had to turn to deal with a hard-worn clerk who was approaching his retirement years. She left Alderney, Bungo and Bulgaria talking with the pair and followed the clerk, along with Wellington and Vessel Tomsk, to seek out suitable boards of Twice Twisted Maple and Thousand-year Spruce.

Vessel Tomsk: "Wellington, if this market is so perfect, why is Kafana having to pick the boards, rather than sending an agent to do it for her like everyone else?"

Wellington: "Magic."

Vessel Tomsk: "Magic?"

Wellington was looking at the price tags on everything they passed, so Kafana explained: "The sound that the violin old Giovanni is going to make for me makes will be affected by the quality of the maple back plate and by the quality of the spruce top plate. But they aren't independent; they form a chamber whose resonance modes affect everything from dispersion and amplification to tone and balance. I need to pick a matched set."

Vessel Tomsk: "And that's magic?"

Kafana: "In a way; but no, the part I need magic for is working out what two boards would sound like together once bent into violin-shaped curves. I'm going to link up with Wellington, form a gestalt-shaped hole, and see which potential pair feels the strongest attraction towards filling it."

Vessel Tomsk looked like he was puzzling his way through something as the clerk indicated they were now standing in the central aisle of the section they'd asked for.

Vessel Tomsk: "So does your your magic let you see potential futures? Or is it altering the wood magically; actually creating a future you want?"

She could sense they were drawing an audience, but only noted their presence as a useful source of supporting belief. She mentally invited Wellington to share power, mind and will with her, and he accepted without hesitation. Time to put on a show!

Wellington smiled, and there was something of her own mischief in his looks as he answered Vessel Tomsk's question: "Yes."

Ten minutes later the boards had been selected and were being wrapped for transport while Wellington negotiated a price. They could have just stowed the purchases in a stash, but Bulgaria insisted that it would look better if he, as their hired stevedore, were seen carrying them. It sounded a reasonable explanation, but Kafana saw a certain eagerness in his face that left her wondering if that was the full story. An embarrassed cough interrupted her thoughts.

Aslög: "My companion vouches for you, Suor Kafana, and assures me that it would be seemly for me to seek your advice, but I still feel that imposing upon your time after such short acquaintance merits an apology for hastiness unbefitting your dignity."

Did Aslög really speak like that? Did anyone? She felt an urge to start questioning Sys about the translation of Scandic formal modes, but brought herself up short. Later!

Kafana: "The gentility of your words does me courtesy enough, I assure you. But if haste drive you, then permit me to entreat you to speak to me not as laity to Suor Kafana but as Skald to Bard - just a fellow performer met on the road. Ask!"

Aslög was an NPC. That was fine; Kafana just needed to get her outlandishly high reputation working in tune with her aims rather than against them.

Kafana: {Sys, please adjust which of my Titles are showing, to send the right cue.}

Aslög shifted to a more balanced stance with the weight on the balls of her feet. It made her look poised for action; more like a warrior than a courtier. Her words became more decisive too: "Bare is the back of a brotherless man. To speak my need plainly, the Blinde of my great-grandmother has been violated and sold, so boldly for my kin do I carry in my sheath their vengeance cold."

That was her speaking plainly? Hang on... "Blinde"... hadn't she seen that word before... on a wall in the Fiorio... among the types magical wood listed as being for sale? Yes, she remembered discussing it with that disguised assassin; it had been one of the most expensive there. Something nudged her memory, and it could have intuition or the game, but her next thought was of Alderney mentioning a part droadan staying at the Scandic embassy... a "tree-wed"? She could almost feel her mind exploring links so tenuous that putting them into words too soon might pop them like a soap bubble.

She spoke tentatively to start with, using Aslög's non-verbal reactions to guide her.

Kafana: "You have undertaken what I would term a 'quest', on behalf of the victim's descendants? House? Yes, House. Your mission, your 'quest', is to deal fittingly with those responsible for this crime, for which duty you must take on the aspect and standards of a warrior? An officer of the law? No, not quite, a role I don't have a word for that is part of both those things. Executor? Yes, that fits - the wood of the Blinde that was taken forcibly and without due ceremony or respect - degerming what the victim would have wanted and carryout out their wishes also falls to you, yes? You will not surrender their just vengeance lightly, like a thrall, nor hit out impulsively - the role you bear, in the 'sheath' that is your own self, demands the vengeance be exacting - precise and taken in full."

By the end, Aslög looked so grim and fierce that even the rats perched on nearby planks fled for their rat holes.

Aslög: "Aye, you ken truly, Bard. Some of the wood under this roof is mine to recover, but I am still young and new to my mastery. The spell you sang this last watch? Greatly would I value the aid of thee and thine in mana twined to relics find and miscreants - whose names enshrined in mystery hide history and blame kept blind."

She couldn't keep up with that. But perhaps she didn't need to. Leave the poetry to Moschus, Scaramouche, Anaxilla and the widow Manutius. What Aslög needed was her magic.

Kafana: "Do you have a leaf, twig or other sample from the victim's body?"

Aslög wordlessly handed over a thick yet supple section of Blinde willow wood.

Kafana: "What was her name?"

Aslög whispered her reply, pitched for Kafana's ears alone: "Áine."

Kafana cast her mind back to how Alderney had set the minds of the DDF members and shaped her aura as she shaped her words: "Then we shall follow her spirit and let cry upon this charge 'the game's afoot'!"

Bulgaria surreptitiously equipped his cockroach carved ring and tapped it meaningfully before drawing on a glove to conceal it. Vessel Tomsk deputised the skald and arranged for Bungo to have a member of The Burrow carry a message to Laureato Giambrone asking her to register the theft and provide what legal cover she could; Alderney struck up a conversation with Aslög's clerk, talking up Kafana's abilities as a mage and setting the expectation of the audience listening in that the spell would work. Wellington opened a link to her and then it was her turn. She held the Blinde wood sample poised high in the air like a conductor with a baton, and stood motionless for a moment to raise the anticipation.

Then the baton swept down...

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.