Small Heroes
Tenth Day of the Eighth Month 293 AC
There is some advantage to be had in this gathering, you reason between sips of cold spicy tea meant to keep guests awake deep into the night. Your future investors certainly look likely enough. You wait quietly until the singer has ran through his latest piece before calling for attention. Most of the Myrish magisters look at you with trepidation while Lady Phassen maintains an air of distant curiosity behind her pearl-studded fan.
"First, let me assure you my lords and ladies that though current circumstances may be unpleasant, it is in these days that the deeds of great opportunities are sown." You are half tempted to motion beyond the windows of the newly acquired townhouse overlooking the smaller of the city's godswoods and the bustling harbor beyond, but you refrain from such an obvious show.
"We realize this, Excellence. The rituals your mages are spreading are helping to balance out the workers who are abandoning the fields, and those of us who implement them quickly are at an advantage over more recalcitrant landowners," the eldest of the delegation, a tall grey-haired man with a curling beard and a gold-tipped staff, replies. Flattery and reminder of their loyalty all at once, clever.
Does he have any sons who might join the administration? you wonder.
Leaving off the reminder of the advantages of loyalty, you move on to the reminder of your points, that Golden Fields was named for the place it was to help develop, not any affinity with grain. Indeed, to aid in the recolonization of the former Rhoynar lands you hope to grow cash crops. "Consider if you will how quickly men flock to a newly discovered vein of gold or silver. Even with sorcery I cannot conjure such, but I can see to it that other wealth is grown directly from the soil of those long fallow fields."
Thoughtful nods all around greet your words. They will not be facing the prospect of direct royal competition... In fact, you suspect some of them must be pondering exporting grain to these new colonies.
Time to push a little further. "With grain requiring less labor and less land for increased yield, now might be the time to diversify your holdings," you add, briefly wondering how an equivalent number of Westerosi lords would react, then realizing with a start that you cannot even say 'diversify' without awkward circumlocution in the language of your birth. "The new company will of course be looking for fields within currently settled lands also. Smaller or less productive fields that would make for poor wheat baskets might be ideal for tea or other luxuries. Thus I invite you all to participate in Golden Fields, use land that is no longer worth seeding with ordinary crops to buy shares in my new company and thereby we may all prosper."
A little heavy-handed as speeches go, but you would not want the magisters who dealt with trepidation by drinking more than was prudent to miss your meaning: by allowing them to stake a claim to some of Golden Fields' profits you render it utterly useless as a weapon aimed against them, not to mention giving them the honor of having a stake in a royal company.
The air at the gathering lightens considerably after your proclamation, with scores of magisters coming forward to buy shares in the following days.
How much of Golden Fields Shares do you sell?
[] Write in (maximum available offer equivalent to 120,000 IM)
***
Twelfth Day of the Eighth Month 293 AC
Over the next couple days you deal with matters of the festival, and particularly the upcoming, tourney from making sure the alms are distributed fairly to personally shaping large steel molds into scores of figurines that will be handed out as children's toys and mementos of the days of revelry. Enlisting your younger wards in the task of deciding just what these diminutive figures will represent yields a bevy of excited suggestions, most of which you are more than happy to take, though you do draw the line at explicit models of fiends. Not only are they almost certain to be misinterpreted, but someone might get entirely the wrong idea from them.
Lost 100,000 IM (Alms and other preparations)
As the Circle of Battle is expanded to make room not only for the city's growing population but also the visitors that are flocking to the island, the usual amusements of Sorcerer Deep shift to brief demonstrations of sorcerous power or sky dancing from eager griffons... and one foolish former legionnaire who tried to use a darkenbeast for the task. Though the beasts might be obedient, they are decidedly not nimble. Thankfully you had been out at the time and managed to catch both beast and rider with a spell before they could crash into the crowd. Though the would-be showman would be discharged from the Legion under a cloud of dishonor, at least he still has his life.
Something about seeing you work magic in earnest seems to have struck a chord with Kyla and Ysilla, however, for when you return to the task of steel shaping on the next day the girls ask a question you had been both dreading and, to be honest, expecting.
"You, Dany, and the others got strong by fighting monsters, right?" Ysilla asks carefully.
"Broadly, yes, the more you reach for magic, the more desperate the need, the stronger it is when called," you answer cautiously. "However, while that may be true for me, you two actually have to learn like Lya did and indeed still does. Your power is knowledge above all else."
You expect a comment about it being unfair and prepare a joke in reply, but that is not the answer you get.
"We want to help," Kyla says seriously. "Really truly help I mean, not just sit around waiting to grow up. With all the
things out there there might not be a world for us to grow up into if everyone does not do all we can to keep is afloat."
What do you reply?
[] Write in
OOC: This has been brewing for some time. Both girls have a rather strong sense of duty and both look up to Dany.
