Triple Strength

64. Traders: Wiremu

We have finished our time with the Army, thankfully. We are now on the three day ride back to Jern. I spent a week full time with the Lieutenant. I taught her a lot and she was keen to learn. I didn’t just stick to Army approved subjects either. We did do affinity stuff, she found some chainmail and we did a couple of runs at being a Human Fireball and seeing how hot she could become. The chainmail didn’t glow, but I bet when she got to Journeyman Level in the Skill it would. Yes, I was looking at the chainmail and not the bare skin under it, although I will admit I was starting to have more interest than just professional. I blame Drugič.

The Army Armourer would not alter her knife, so I did using his tools and Weapon Repair. I removed the wood and leather handle and replaced it with a metal one. She could now increase the temperature of the knife without it bursting into flame. A hot knife would penetrate leather armour and hide much easier. We did the same to her sword. She is to practise her flaming touch to extend onto the knife. It was a Journeyman level ability, but practice will help level it. Eventually I said she should get an all metal shield as well and extend Flaming Touch to that. Before that she should coat both in tar or something similar so she could light them if necessary. Oh and we practised with Firebolt, making it smaller and hotter and we practised on moving targets, I gave her my practice trap I use to use with my bow. I was just being nice.

On less army approved topics she learned Throw Weapons, using her one good hand. It will need a lot of practice, but it is a start. I also taught her Stealth. I made her practice by losing her guards. They were just a normal squad assigned to her so they had no special skills. Once she was moderately successful I told the guards what she was doing to make it harder for her. She was grumpy at me for that but rose to the challenge and I think the guards enjoyed the game. She told me she got a new skill from the game called Blend. She didn’t tell me all the details but it helps her to blend into the background. Sounds useful.

I also taught her the mental exercises to prepare her to get a bond. I told her some of the benefits in shared skills, but only some. I showed her Snakeskin and that was when I learned it was weak to heat as well as cold. It makes sense as Tāoke needs external heat to warm his body. I got the beginning of a Heat Resistance and we had some accidents which resulted in me getting Fire Resistance and upping my Pain Resistance and making Regeneration work harder. I found out Snakeskin is partially resistant to fire, but not heat. I can work on levelling those now as there are all sorts of monsters in the world. Back to a bond I said she needs to wait to get a bond that is at least fire resistant.

When my week was up I joined the Canine Queens again and the Lieutenant was left to practice alone. We were assigned a schedule to help at the Kill Zone. The fortifications were wooden, but with earth packed behind as a ramp. I assume this was the Captain's Earth Affinity in action. It made the wooden palisade very strong and easy access to the top for the Army. There was one minor outbreak while we were on duty and I got to see the Captain in action. He has an earth spike which wasn't nearly as strong as mine, but still effective against the weak goblins. He also had an Earthquake Skill which was very effective in the soil. More interestingly, he had a Dust Cloud that blinded them. That was something I could work on myself.

On our off times, I still met with Lieutenant Kelda which was strongly encouraged by Drugič. Tutor hit the Apprentice stage and I could now teach skills that were not quite at Journeyman level. She had the attributes so I taught her Status Manipulation. That was hard work as I was pushing the Tutor Skill, but she got it eventually. I also told her why I thought she needed it and my suspicions that someone or some faction was deliberately trying to cripple her skills and classes. This wasn’t a complete surprise to her. She wasn’t dumb, just not confident enough, and sneaky enough, to combat the pressure. I think I might have helped change that. Which is probably what the Captain wanted.

Now I was looking forward to a few weeks off to finally do some fishing. We should get to Jern later this afternoon and my concerns about Tabitha have risen to the top of my mind again. It is not that I had forgotten about her, but when you are fighting for your life, or tutoring a pretty Lieutenant, you have to concentrate. I mustn’t let Drugič hear me call her that.

I suppose I will have to put off fishing and help Tabitha deal with whatever it is she is dealing with. I am starting to think that there is a fish god who is protecting his subjects by stopping me going fishing. Maybe I will get Tabitha to point out the people who are causing her trouble and go all murder crazy on them. I wonder why she hasn’t done that? The consequences probably outweigh the benefits, although it is not like her to think like that.

“Rider coming fast,” I warn the others as Hearing Aid picked up a fast paced horse somewhere ahead. We all move to the side a bit to leave plenty of room.

All of a sudden a familiar black horse came flying around the corner, the rider hunched down and one of my bear hide cloaks flapping in the wind. Those cloaks are heavy, it takes an awful lot to get them flapping. We all stop and wait as Tabitha starts reigning in Dusk and turns to catch us back up. She has a big smile on her face and a weight is lifted from my mind. If Tabitha is this far from Jern it means she left hours ago. She looks relaxed and happy. Maybe she went murder crazy on the fish god and I will get to go fishing afterall?

“Hello stranger.” I greet her.

“You’re the strange one,” she responds and greets everyone. Even Tāoke emerges from Oske’s fur to say hi.

“What are you doing out this far?” I ask.

“Trying to level my Riding Class. It takes quite an effort.” She says.

We all start catching up as we head back to Jern. It is fantastic she is out of the crime business. She doesn’t say how, but I will get that later. Drugič started telling fantasies about pretty Lieutenants and handsome tutors mooning over each other. I can tell Tabitha will be prying the truth out of me later. Apparently we also have a new flatmate who insists the house is up at dawn for sparring and snow baths. How the hell Tabitha let her stay, I don’t know. It was a very pleasant trip back to Jern with lots of laughter and smiles. It was a huge weight off my mind.

We got to Jern mid-afternoon and Tabitha invited us all for a meal at a local tavern, a good one. Her treat and she has a business offer to make. She and I split off to unload at our cottage and Skavt went to report to the Guild. We will meet at 7 tonight.

I met Modrica who was missing a tusk and had a still healing and stitched wound down her face. She had a patch over one eye. She would have lost the eye if Tabitha hadn’t paid for Jern’s top healer and some very expensive potions. Now she should be able to take the patch off in about a month. She is one mountain of an Orc and apparently she has Unarmed Combat at Masters Level. No wonder Tabitha hasn’t kicked her out and puts up with the morning training. Actually, there is some sort of mutual connection there. It is good Tabitha has someone else to watch her back. No that is the wrong phrase because with Spatial Awareness she can watch her own back, literally. It is good she has someone else to back her up.

We had a longer chat about recent events and future plans and her proposition to the Canine Queens. I guess it will be our proposition as I will be the silent partner. I was in favour. She has a lot of coin available to invest from her recent exploits. Apparently crime does pay.

We dressed up a bit, dropped the horses back to the stable and then walked to the Tavern. Tabitha paid for a private room and our own waitress. It was a fun meal. The funny stories were told and there was plenty of ale.

Eventually Tabitha laid out her plans. She had tried to get a job back at the Sølv Emporium, but apparently they considered her too unreliable as a regular employee. So she is starting her own venture, a fledgling trading house called Elemental Traders. She is not yet a Journeyman Merchant so she needed a Sponsor to the Merchant Guild which she negotiated with the Sølv Emporium. She was paying them for the privilege.

There was a caravan going to Hrothgar in two weeks. It would be the last one able to do the round trip before the auction and a lot of trading houses were joining to get goods back in time for the auction. She had bought two wagons and draft horses. One wagon is full of alchemical ingredients which suddenly became available cheap and will get a good price in Hrothgar. She told me later they were ‘appropriated’ from a dead drug lord's warehouse. The second is only partially full at the moment with goods to trade at the villages on the way. She is planning to fill it up with barrels of Ale to sell to the taverns at Kulle to sell to the soldiers. Then it will be half empty. She is not expecting to get anything in Hrothgar worthy of the auction, but there will be plenty of goods available to bring back to sell to people who come to the auction. Jern will be very busy and the right goods will turn a good profit. She is thinking of the high class people and goods like fine wines and other luxury items.

What she needs is guards. Usually each wagon would provide a fighter per wagon, but there is the threat of goblins so the minimum is two per wagon. She would like to hire the Canine Queens for that task. Elemental Traders would also like to have the Canine Queens on retainer so they could get first option on their services, but that could be negotiated after this contract. She handed a two month escort contract to Skavt, who raised her eyebrows at how much the Elemental Traders were offering. Tabitha sweetened the deal by offering to sell the Canine Queens goods at half commission and transfer the current supply contract to the Elemental Traders.

We now had a two month contract starting in two weeks time. That is enough time for some fishing. Except there was my armour that needed repairing, and silent partner apparently didn’t mean inactive partner. I only ended up with three days fishing. That fish god was tenacious in keeping me away from his fish.

Modrica would drive one of the wagons and for the other she hired an elderly Dwarf called Vresig. He had been injured in a mining accident and never had it treated properly. He didn’t want it treated now he was quite happy being a grumpy Dwarf. Each party was responsible for their own food and other supplies. The Caravan Master hired the Scouts, organised the order of wagons and we would take his direction in the defence of the wagons. The wagons wouldn’t stop once they started, until they camped for the night. If we were not stopping at a village then any trading had to happen while the wagons were on the move.

The route to Hrothgar was well established and there were regular camping spots for caravans on the road. Mustering of the wagons happened the day before we left. As we were technically part of the Sølv Emporium we were placed in line next to their eight wagons. Tabitha knew a lot of them and seemed to get on well. There would be twenty three wagons in total, after the caravan master turned one away as not being in good enough repair to make the trip. Over fifty guards. We had a meeting and went over the caravan signals and what to do in various scenarios. This was old news to most of them, but we needed it.