For trade to be established, first the merchandise to be exchanged must be decided on─what will be sold, and what will be bought. The delegation had only their mana potions to offer, but the people of the New World wanted them so desperately that they were willing to offer much in return.
The day after the dragon landed in the square outside the tower and the delegation’s ship sailed into port, Danna Ryl the One-Horned assembled all the merchants in the city and arranged a great market for her guests.
“I have it in mind that the tower will buy up any items you wish to include in the trade agreement, then exchange them for your mana potions. Please do not concern yourselves with price for the time being─simply choose whatever strikes your fancy.”
“Well, umm… The thing is… First I’d really like to know… What’s the deal with that door?! Where does it go, and how’s it doing that?!”
A single door loomed over the square, massive enough that Hort had to crane her neck to look up at it. Yesterday she’d figured it was a great big statue of a door or something. Today, however, it stood open, and a seemingly endless stream of merchants with fully loaded carts bustled in and out of it.
Danna Ryl cocked her head. “It is just a gate.”
“But a gate to what?! There’s no building on the other side…!”
“Chill, Hort. That’s a witch’s path,” Kudo said casually. “We learned about ’em in class, remember?”
“That thing?! But witch’s paths are supposed to be under beds or hidden behind pillars or whatever. You know, secret passages to connect the witches’ hideaways to places in town…!”
“Yup. They can transport you instantaneously. The ritual’s really freakin’ complicated, though, and if you mess it up you might come out in the middle of the ocean and drown, so almost nobody actually uses ’em.”
“My, my… You’re quite knowledgeable on the subject. There are not many wizards who know the history nor the vagaries of the ritual, even among the Exinov.”
Kudo shrugged. “Compared to this, the sorcery and magic we use are pretty primitive. Puts us closer to the fundamental principles, though, which means we gotta know things you guys can afford to forget about at this point, that’s all.”
Danna Ryl narrowed her eyes at Kudo in surprise. “You are not modest, but neither are you arrogant─uncouth, perhaps, but not insolent. It is wonderful. I sincerely apologize for calling you beastservant yesterday.”
“Water off a lizard’s back─hey, Saybil! The hell are you doing?!” With a shout, Kudo raced off toward where his fellow mage stood with Los.
They were side by side in front of the great door─a gate to goddess only knew where─experimentally poking their hands and heads through it. Hort clenched her fists and resisted the urge to run over and cry, “Let me try,” focusing instead on fulfilling her duties as deputy chief of the delegation. Ghoda, for his part, was circling above the square on his dragon and occasionally landing atop the apex of the tower. Danna Ryl had asked that the merchants coming from afar might be “allowed to bear witness to the dragon’s grandeur,” and Ghoda had obliged.
It would hardly have been possible to do business with a dragon standing in the square, but leaving Heath on the ship would have defeated the point of bringing him along in the first place. Having the dragon circle the sky above the market provided both the perfect display of power and a suitable level of intimidation.
“Ahh… The lad is truly beautiful. If not as a beastservant, do you think he might serve as attendant physician to this tower, perhaps?”
“It wouldn’t be out of the question, if Kudo agreed.”
“Then I will do my utmost to convince him.”
Danna Ryl put a hand to her mouth and tittered. The horn on her forehead sparkled in the sunlight, more mysterious and mystical than ever, attracting the attention of all who beheld it.
This person ate Har Bell’s family.
Hort swallowed back the bile forming in her throat. It’ll be fine. Smiling is my specialty.
“The various experts in our party will decide on which items we’re interested in trading for. As for myself… I’d like to talk about some goods that aren’t here at the market, if that’s all right.”
“Oh? Such as?”
“The fact is…we need workers. The Forbidden Land has a labor shortage just at the moment, and I was told you had a lot of Nurabehn, as you call them, living outside the city. They aren’t very important to New World society, right? So we’d be grateful if we could take them home with us.”
“Then it is…slaves you seek?”
Hort shook her head. “No, that’s not what I mean. We’re just looking for people to emigrate to the Forbidden Land. We’ll offer suitable payment, of course! Say, one mana potion per person?” Hort took a deep breath and continued, not letting even a hint of malice seep into her voice. “Sucking a Nurabehn dry doesn’t equal the restorative effects of a single mana potion, right? So I think it’s a pretty good deal for both of us.”
“Yes, I quite agree!” Danna Ryl’s smile was radiant. She didn’t seem to think the proposal at all unfair. Quite the reverse, in fact: she was genuinely happy to have found another item of merchandise the delegation was willing to accept in exchange for their mana potions. “Oh, how wonderful. If only I had known you were coming, I would never have rushed to draw mana as I did.”
“Huh…? Um, ‘draw mana’…?”
“Oh? Do you not use the expression? When a superior being receives mana from an inferior one, we call it ‘drawing mana.’”
She really…
…doesn’t think the Nurabehn are human.