Seven
Vikoria's Farm Cooperative, Mulberry
I was hanging out with Engineer Hansmith, going over the installation work.
Mainly, I was helping him with whatever tasks he needed help with from someone who had a strong understanding of engineering and mechanics, and was big and strong.
I'd shown up that morning in my champion form, which I honestly preferred nowadays.
After a while, no one cared; I was just another guy helping install the equipment.
I also needed to talk to Fel. He hadn't visited my dreams in the two days since I got here, but I was sleeping in Vikoria's church, so I wasn't at all surprised by that. At some point, I'd take a nap away from the church, so if he needed to catch me up on anything, he could.
When we broke for lunch, Cantor Perrin, Sam, and another halfling I hadn't met came and found me.
"Perrin, Sam, what's up?" I asked.
"Will, this is Terry, he's in charge of farm planning," Perrin said, introducing us.
"Greetings!" I said and touched palms. Handshakes with felines tended to be avoided because if you squeezed, the claws might come out.
"Perrin here was telling us about your idea of engaging with one of the orc concerns along the lines of providin' them with a little something at a competitive rate, such that we'd become business partners to an extent that would help ensure that none of those folks who don't understand contracts and can be overly greedy would bother us? "
I smiled and nodded. "Yup. I think you could make some money and form the kind of long-term relationship that would keep any other predators at bay."
"I've talked to my farmers, and we've all agreed that we'd be more than happy to lay in a crop of Trevia berries. We could make them a very competitive offer on the leaves."
"I'm not familiar with Trevia."
Terry nodded. "It's like this. Trevia berries are used to brew a cool drink that is used as a pick-me-up by a lot of folks. It's not much of a money maker, because it's seasonal, and the juice from the berry doesn't last terribly long."
"However?" I asked.
"Well, we've got this new canning plant, and someone thought if we concentrated the juice, we could can it, giving it a longer shelf life, and sell it."
"And this would interest the orcs why?"
"The leaves of the Trevia bush are used to manufacture a product known as 'horse', as well as a number of more legal and medically useful items."
I smiled. "Okay, that I understand. Why do you think they'd be interested?"
"Well, with our access to the canning plant and our thoughts on producing and processing a syrup that could be canned and sold to make that venture work, we'd need to grow a fair bit of Trevia berries.
So we'd be left with a lot of fodder that we'd need to sell.
If they were to handle the pickup of all that fodder, well, we'd be happy to give them a discount on the price.
So it's not like we're growing all these Trevia plants to support any sort of illicit operation.
We'd be running a legitimate juice business, and being able to sell all that fodder and not having to deal with it ourselves would help with the bottom line.
"They could, of course, sell most of it off to one of the companies doing medical processing at a small profit, but there would be so much of it, I don't think anyone would notice if a decent percentage of that fodder was repurposed to something else."
"So they could make a lot of money off of it."
"Yes, but there's a fair amount of risk, as well as production issues."
"Because it's illegal?"
"Oh, it's not illegal here."
"It's not?"
"Halflings, gnomes, and harpies aren't affected by horse, or the beverage. Elves are affected a little—"
"Yeah, it makes them horny," I said.
"—so I've heard," Terry said with a chuckle.
"Orcs are affected—it's about as addictive as alcohol to them—so its legality is hit or miss.
Humans and dwarves are the ones affected the most. Their communities are where you'll find it banned, or even outlawed, and trade in it is illegal between a good many worlds because of treaties or old edicts. "
"What about catfolk?" I asked.
"Never tried it?"
I shook my head.
"I've been told it gives the most amazing headaches, but you have to take a fair bit of it.
Otherwise, its effects are said to be minor.
But getting back to the issues, production is not easy, and it takes someone with both knowledge and some money.
Then, of course, there's the issue of smuggling.
These are not the kinds of things we want to involve ourselves with here.
We're simply selling the fodder cheaply—perhaps a bit cheaper than might be wise—but not having to haul it ourselves lowers our costs while still giving us enough income to ensure we're not losing money on the berry program. "
"How much of a risk is the berry program?"
"We're fairly certain we won't lose our shirts over it.
Between selling the leaves and what we know the market currently pays, we'll be okay.
The hope is that, because our product will store for longer periods, we'll sell all of it and perhaps be able to charge a little more for a better product.
So while we won't get rich off of it, the idea of the security it may bring us—and by extension, the rest of the town—appeals to us all. "
"I'd say I'm not happy about this," Sam put in with a heavy sigh, "but we all heard what you told Vicar Lillis about yesterday's events, and sadly, there is no way we can prevent those kinds of people from gaining some level of power.
Especially if, as a lot of us are starting to fear, our mayor and perhaps some of the folks on the town council can be bought or are at least willing to turn a blind eye to something that isn't their problem. "
"Tomorrow, I'll head into Fayette and see what I can learn. I suspect it'll be a few days before I'm back."
"I'll give you a list of the price per ton we'd be looking at for the leaves, assuming they'll haul 'em away for us," Terry said.
I nodded. "Thanks. The fun part will be finding out who they are and how to talk to them."
"Oh, I'm sure one of the priestesses or the Vicar at the temple in Fayette will know."
"Well, I'm going to catch a nap before we get back to it."
"Somebody keeping you up at night?" Terry asked with a wink.
"Of course not! I'm just a lazy cat!" I replied with a grin, causing the others to chuckle. Looking around there was a nice shady spot over by a tree, so I walked over, sat down, propped myself up against the trunk, and fell asleep.
§ §
"Hi, Fel," I said, taking the beer he handed me. "I haven't done anything wrong, or that'll cause you problems, by taking this on, have I?"
Fel smiled at me. "Not at all, William. You're right to tell everyone that I consider Vikoria the Bountiful a friend, and I support you helping her.
Not only is that true, but when the other gods and champions see that you are now focused on taking on the kinds of mundane tasks most of their champions abhor, they'll worry a lot less about you, and about me.
If you have the opportunity, helping out Gomerty's shopkeepers in Mulberry would be appreciated, as well. "
I nodded. "For all that I may have had words with a couple of champions over the course of the campaign, I thought if I ran into any of the followers of the gods who helped us in the war, and who could use my help, I would do so.
Hopefully, showing them that I'm grateful will make your life easier. "
"Vikoria and Gomerty are probably the two you'll be able to help the most, though primarily Vikoria, because she doesn't have a champion."
"I like Vikoria and her people quite a bit. Not exactly sure why—"
"Her liking cats has nothing to do with it, I'm sure," Fel teased.
I laughed. "Well, it does help, but then there's the simple truth that all she really wants to do is feed people. Her followers just want to be helpful. I kinda admire them for being able to do that, even with some of the adversity they seem to face because of their non-confrontational nature.
"It also helps that she's got shrines and churches everywhere, and if I ever get to a point where I'm able to use them—and Vikoria allows me to—" I shrugged "—I'll be able to travel a lot faster than by boat if I need to get somewhere fast."
"William, back when I was mortal, before I even became a champion, that very spirit of her followers—well, that and their easy views on smuggling—attracted me, as well. That's why I helped her people back then on several occasions."
"Their liking cats helped, I'm sure," I teased, and Fel laughed.
"She is, at her core, a Junturan god, William. All Junturans, regardless of whether they follow her or not, respect her."
"That reminds me, how much of the story Lillis told me is true?"
Fel laughed. "All of it and then some. Vikoria was a princess, one of the emperor's daughters, and she had a thing for male catfolk.
She was very involved in reducing a lot of the violence that still existed back in those times.
Whenever she'd come to visit, she'd use her station to try to mediate fights between groups, and even the city-states that existed back then. "
"And?"
"And one day, some wag decided to set it up so that she would meet Shura, a famous and quite brutal warrior who had been victorious in many battles and won many fights.
When they met, and someone asked what she had to say about him, she looked upon him and said, 'There are times when a male must fight, like it or not, and those fights, once joined, must be prosecuted with as much might and vigor as you can bear, so the fight is over quickly, and the damage contained.
' She admired Shura for his understanding of that, and for knowing which battles he must fight, as well as fighting to win. "
"So he didn't drag her off?"
Fel laughed. "He picked her up, threw her over his shoulder, cried out, 'Off to war!' and they weren't seen again for several days."