SLV Chapter 14: Partners?
April 12
Kalil, standing to one side, felt a mild confusion settle over him.
Common Law was something everyone knew, but what were the puppet and the sand dune about?
And that slightly ridiculous-sounding word, partners?
Kalil couldn't work out what any of it had to do with his mother.
"Kalil, go downstairs and keep watch over the slaves."
Medya descended the stairs and settled back onto the wolf hide, addressing him with quiet authority.
"Yes, Mother."
Kalil was deeply curious and wanted to stay and hear what this down-and-out fellow could possibly have to say to his mother but since it was his mother's command, he had no choice but to force his feet toward the stairs and head down.
"Tell me, my child. What solution do you have that would let me keep this oasis without any question of legitimacy?"
Once Kalil was gone, Medya studied Lin En again with fresh curiosity, her voice calm and unhurried.
"What you need, when it comes down to it, is a man who can stand as your husband in name and resolve the Common Law problem for you."
"Only you... don't trust men. Is that right, Lady Medya?"
Lin En thought of the oasis filled exclusively with female slaves and ventured the words carefully.
Seeing no change in Medya's expression, he knew he had most likely guessed correctly.
"In truth, this is quite simple to resolve. The answer is to carve out a contract on stone slabs."
"I become your husband in name. In return, you give me what I need, source stones, or other things."
"If either of us breaks it, you can make it public. I imagine the other slaveowners would be quite glad to hear about it."
"In the worst case, that outcome is no different from doing nothing at all."
Lin En laid it out steadily.
The idea of putting a scheme into writing to create mutual accountability wasn't a difficult leap for him but in this age of slavery, it was remarkably ahead of its time.
Medya's eyes flickered slightly, then shifted into something more playful.
"My child, I didn't expect your father's death to teach you how to speak so smoothly."
"And how is this any different from what I had in mind?"
"The difference is significant. Because I need what you have to offer, I have no reason to behave recklessly or do anything you're worried about."
"And you, in turn, must give me what I need."
Lin En spelled it out again, then settled into silence and waited.
Medya's expression turned inward, falling into thought.
This approach might actually work...
At last, she looked at Lin En again, taking him in with a measuring eye.
His coarse linen robe was no different from a freeman's, though the faint muscle along his thighs beneath the cloth suggested his daily nutrition had been decent enough.
"Even granting all that, why should I choose you?"
"My child, your oasis is on the verge of collapse. Without the twenty source stones I'm offering you."
"And if this is the method I go with, I have far more suitable candidates to choose from."
Hearing that, Lin En gave a faint smile.
"As a matter of fact, I've already repaired the other two sand spirit arrow towers on my oasis."
"And if you enter into this kind of arrangement with someone else, I'll make sure word gets out, Lady Medya."
Letting someone else take what he had come up with? That wasn't going to happen.
Lin En smiled inwardly with a cold edge.
The next moment, something cold and sharp passed across Medya's face and was gone then, for the first time, she looked at Lin En directly.
"Very well, my child."
"Let's see if you survive tonight's blood moon first, and go from there."
Medya was not prepared to continue the discussion right now.
What she had wanted was a puppet that would be easy to control but clearly that kind of puppet husband wasn't easy to find and Lin En's proposal had stirred something in her, though not enough to make a decision on the spot.
So she neither refused nor agreed.
Watching Medya rise to her feet, Lin En understood that the long-term arrangement wasn't going to be settled today.
Which was a shame. He might have walked out with enough source stones to upgrade all three sand spirit arrow towers.
He glanced at the light outside. It was already midday.
Lin En decided to speak before she could leave.
"Lady Medya, could you lend me a camel? I was planning to go to the inner city to buy a camel-load of mountain copper and make it back to my oasis before nightfall."
"But now, since I've already come to your oasis..."
Medya gave him a single sidelong glance, then answered simply.
"A camel-load of mountain copper? Go and take it. My oasis has some."
"Your oasis has mountain copper? A full camel-load of it?"
The answer caught Lin En off guard.
"Thank you, Lady Medya."
He wasted no more time and left quickly.
Once the sound of his footsteps had faded away, Medya turned and looked back into the room.
The pouch of source stones that had been sitting on the table was gone.
"An interesting little one."
…
Lin En walked out of the oasis with something to show for it.
A Bactrian camel followed behind him, all four legs wobbling slightly with each step.
It was the very camel Kalil had been riding earlier.
Lin En was no judge of camels, but since it had been Kalil's, it was bound to be a decent one.
Besides, no one had specified which one he could take, so naturally he went for the best and indeed he had made a fine choice. This Bactrian camel was now carrying a full three camel-loads of mountain copper.
A typical Bactrian camel could manage about two and a half single-hump camel-loads at most.
This was an exceptional animal.
As for where three camel-loads of mountain copper had come from, Lin En was equally surprised.
Medya's fortress had more than ten camel-loads of mountain copper ingots stored inside.
Taking some cost him nothing, and it would save him a future trip to the inner city.
Beyond that, the fortress held a wide variety of raw materials, and even a substantial quantity of seeds.
Was this what happened when you had more source stones than you knew what to do with? You developed a hoarding habit?
And what made Lin En's eyes linger the most was the group of female slaves in Medya's fortress, each with a score above 20.
Slaves of that caliber were the sort you only encountered at events like the Triumph Festival auction. They all possessed some kind of skill.
"Just how much wealth does this woman have?"
In Lin En's understanding, that level of resources was something only slaveowner-nobles in the inner city oases could reach.
If a long-term arrangement with Medya could truly be worked out, the early stages of building his foundation would be cut dramatically short.
"Master!"
Before he had even crossed back onto his oasis, the familiar voice reached him.
Milya?
Lin En saw her standing on the crest of the dune at the oasis's edge, waving at him like a stone figure waiting for a husband who would never return.
Drawing closer, he noticed the skin on her exposed arms and neck had turned noticeably red.
She had clearly been standing out here in the sun for a very long time.
"How long have you been standing here?"
"Milya has been waiting for Master. Milya was afraid Master wouldn't come back."
A look of relief crossed Milya's face, though the worry hadn't fully left it.
The whole time?
It was nearly dusk now. How long had she been standing out here?
Lin En patted Milya on the head and told her firmly, "The edge of the oasis is dangerous. Wait inside the shack from now on."
"Yes, Master."
Milya came down from the dune and stood before him, nodding obediently.
Lin En led the camel straight toward the first sand spirit arrow tower he had repaired.
He was ready to begin the upgrade immediately.
With a thought, the Slaveowner's Manual turned its pages in his mind. Fifty source stones vanished from his person, and the rune blazed with a dazzling radiance.
His hands felt warm. He looked down and found his palms covered in a deep blue light.
He extracted the source energy obelisk, and the tall tower instantly collapsed, flowing back into a mound of sand.
The copper ingots in his hands melted as though touched by intense heat and poured themselves into the obelisk then something dark flowed back out and fell onto the sand in solid lumps, like pieces of stone.
The extraordinary source arts reaction unfolding before his eyes left Lin En genuinely stunned.
Ingot after ingot, until the entire camel-load of mountain copper had been absorbed then Lin En drove the obelisk back into the sand and fed in another 20 source stones.
In an instant, sand surged forward like a wave, and a tall tower began to take shape.
A full five meters high!
Its edges were sharper and more defined than before, the flowing patterns across its surface far more intricate.
The Sand Spirit Mechanism Tower, complete!
Lin En dusted off his hands and felt something rise in his chest, a blend of satisfaction and security, much like the wave of sand that had just washed in around him.
With this, tonight would be no trouble at all.
"Master, the sky looks so beautiful today."
Milya's voice came from nearby. Lin En glanced over.
She was standing beside the Bactrian camel, apparently having just been playing with it, and was now pointing upward at the sky.
Not far off, Fortune the lame she-wolf was drooling in the camel's direction.
Lin En raised his head and looked up.
A blood-red sunset filled his eyes.
"It really is beautiful. Wait, that's not right!"
The desert had never produced a sunset this deeply red before and in a moment it would be the night of the blood moon.
Something tightened in Lin En's chest.
A sight like this... couldn't possibly be a bad omen, could it?
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