NOVEL NEXT BECMI Chapter 165 – A New Trade Road
Not everyone was going to get to VII Valences and Teleport without Error with its range of anywhere on a planetary body, and that was especially true for most elves sticking just to the Warrior's Path.
In addition, VII's were part of the Greater Valences. Why spend one when you could spend a V? Conservation of Valences was an art in itself.
Teleports had a base range of ten miles per Caster Level, so a minimum of ninety miles, which was perfectly fine for many people, able to pop between familiar locations, back out of danger, or run messages and so on and so forth.
A Seal Focus Energized up doubled that range. A Seal Focus at the destination doubled that range again and also allowed for perfect arrival accuracy. Spending an extra Valence could double the range again.
Using the Lived-Line doubled all that once more, and allowed perfect accuracy anywhere along the line.
Thus, using all the options possible, twenty, forty, eighty, and even a hundred and sixty miles per Caster Level were possible, even if all you ever gained was V's. A Ten could potentially Teleport sixteen hundred miles, which was considerably more than was required to get from Zanzyr to Siricil, among other things.
Getting V's changed the world. That was why getting them earned you the title of a Wizard. While you could graduate from the Great School as an Eight, a Fourth Adept, you weren't considered 'mature' and eligible for nobility until you were a Nine and could wield V's as a Wizard.
"Begging m'Lady's pardon, but what are you bringing to Siricil to sell?" he asked with clear interest, those directly behind him also craning their ears to hear.
"Paper." He blinked at me. "Very high-quality paper. Greatly superior to parchment, papyrus, and rags of any kind. Vastly superior for the making of magical Scrolls, or any kind of mundane record-keeping, and they work much, much better with printing presses.
"Also, the first fountain pens, which are a vastly superior method for handwriting items over quills. I expect to open a whole new market in Siricil, although there will doubtless be some resistance from scribes and the like."
"Paper," the Mick mused. "Ah. Ye'll be charging a silver a sheet, or something…"
"Yes. There are many products I could see there, but this is a test case. There is a store in Erendyl called Quillings which already sells them, if you care to test them out."
The demand for paper alone was going to drive the harvesting of many trees. The elves of Erendyl were already planting new forests so they could continually re-harvest them in cycles. The young forests would also drive a lot of additional game-hunting and the like… and incidentally played into Brittabelle's position as Chamberlain of the Lands, as there had been some eager negotiations going on in the neighboring Principalities about setting up managed woodlands for the same purpose.
"Do not change your own choices, of course. You need to see what will work and what will not, and lupin wines are an excellent choice. Zanzyran nobles won't blink an eye at paying far too much money for rare things for entertainment. The Colorajo will probably buy up everything you come back with just for themselves."
He nodded, turned his head, and gave the big lupin acting as a windbreak for Laurentine a clenched fist. The lupin responded with a goofy smile that belied a knowing look in his big dark eyes.
He may have been a no-magic brute, but like McMikal, that didn't mean he was stupid, although few wizards were gonna see past the thick fur and highly pettable ears and simple expression...
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Erendyl, the city after which the Principality was named, was located at the junction of the Rouge and Wynxias Rivers, right across the river from the city of Ryna, the location of the main bridge across the Wynxias from the south of Zanzyr and the source of former harassment from Colorajo.
Compared to Erendyl's white and pristine towers, Ryna looked rather sprawling and dirty. The flamenco elves were not as tied to nature as the Sidhe, being high-spirited and energetic types who actually got along with humans fairly easily, and it was reflected in their management style. Ryna was much less well-managed and sprawling than the city across the river, said contrast often remarked upon and another source of resentment from Colorajo.
My Transyvian accent, as always, threw off the Colorajo elves who stopped our little impromptu caravan, although the prospect of pissing off so many wizards from so many different places definitely kept them polite and on their toes. Learning that we were here to purchase their local goods warmed them up, and they let us by 'without issue' to make our purchases.
An hour later, numerous purchases finally paid for, many of them shrunken down into Scrolls by Item spells, and we were off across the White Bridge of Erendyl (no, it was not credited to fuming Colorajo, either), moving through the quieter, no less busy, but much cleaner streets of Erendyl.
Somewhere along the lines the Cryptomancers of the Erendyl had gotten together and paved all the streets here, which vastly reduced the dust and grime, and all beasts of burden had to wear fanny bags to cut down on the waste. Permanent Floating Disks had replaced wagons as the favored way to transport goods within the city proper, although the innovation hadn't made it out into the wilds because of the risk of having the spell Dispelled by hostile parties. That meant no need for horses to haul things around inside the city, as opposed to the caravans traveling between the cities, although the trend was catching on for those who could afford it, especially for carriages.
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The Iendyl and Fuireze merchants of southern Zanzyr who most commonly came through the place also had aspirations of being snobbishly cultured. They were plainly happy to buy into the cleanliness of the place, the finer apparel of the natives, the politeness, and the willingness to smooth things out, without dipping into the darker side of personal habits which the elves had an uncomfortable ability to suss out.
As a result, Ryna earned the money, but Erendyl had the reputation. Many merchants would ride across the river to stay in Erendyl for the atmosphere, while the reverse was seldom true.
But, as they say, changes, they were a-coming. It might have been a certain someone helping a princess leverage her time and power, and that pace had picked up noticeably after Princess Brittabelle's ten-minute vacation to Darkmoor. Her people and especially her family were utterly shocked when she came back with a fire and steel in her amethyst eyes, and there was an energy and grim discipline to the orders that had gone out.
She had starting acting like an archwizard and warrior-queen of the elves. Her sudden martial zeal was starting to spread throughout Erendyl and beyond, catching many rivals of the elves by sudden surprise as she began to move, and magic began to be spent.
Her Sims leveraged her time and Casting ability wonderfully, and her new martial skill meant she could engage in combat without having to spend spells needed to be kept in reserve against the actions of her rivals.
Her blood relatives were especially caught off-guard by this sudden change, especially the beginning of the Ranger training for humans… and coming back from nowhere with so many human aspirants who knew elven ways… just not THEIR elven ways.
They'd been even more shocked when the Lumina Tree accepted them!…
My biggest night-time project since I had come back? Belle and I had conspired together to make a trade road down THIS side of the Wynxias River leading to the border with the Bleaklands. The idea was… if Erendyl had to put up with raids from the nifloids, we could damn well reap some of the profits from it, too!
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"This is the new road the Sidhe put in along the river, right?" Nico piped up from behind. We'd had lunch in Erendyl, stretched our legs, and were on the move again. Many miles to go today, after all.
"That is correct," I replied over my shoulder. The announcement had actually only gone out yesterday, and had been raging around Zanzyr City, wondering what it meant, and totally pissing off House Colorajo, who well understood the implications of such a move.
"Did they… put up a new bridge over the river, too?" Nico asked, rubbing his chin as he looked out over the fences to each side of the very wide and smooth road. He naturally had experience traveling such roads, and Disks were far more comfortable a ride… But the scenery here was pleasant and fulfilling, with farms, ranches, long stretches of trees, gardens, and flowers. Plenty of deer could be seen grazing here and there in clearings, and the trees regularly loomed up to give us shade without the sense of danger that might be hiding bandits, monsters, or the like here.
The humans, lupins, and rakasta who lived here under elven rule were generally pretty damn happy with their lot in life, and if some of them bemoaned the weird elven rules and harmony with the land, they were always free to leave. Few took the elves up on that, despite many blandishments from humanist Wizards looking for more peasants to exploit, er, liberate to build up their own dominions and territories.
The fact the elven mages had access to Healing magic, something frightfully rare in the rest of the country, was also a source of great satisfaction and reassurance to the populace. Indeed, there were visitors to Erendyl for the express purpose of asking for elven magic to treat diseases or conditions that only clerics might be able to do otherwise… and were a very good reason NOT to piss off the Sidhe elves!
"Indeed they did… about a mile over the border into the Bleaklands," I smiled. "It just finished up last night, as a matter of fact," I admitted, skimming along above the smooth stones and level path that had been made by two High Cryptomancers moving along at great speed with Widened and Extended Earth Runes at work.
The road here was nearly sixty feet wide, flowing through the stone and trees with incredible engineering. Cryptomancy had also moved all of the trees and their roots out of the way, making sure they wouldn't be a problem now or in the future. Strategic walls of trees, vines, and brush kept people from wandering, while only adding to the atmosphere.
There were dedicated rest stops every five miles, both large circular clearings caravans could stop in and shaded places along the roads in and out where caravans could take shelter from the weather. Trade villages were being rebuilt around these stops to provide services to the caravans… and again, keep the traffic on and along the road, instead of wandering around the countryside and farms mucking things up.
Said villages were also convenient places to move Darkmoor elven immigrant families used to dealing with humans, now curious about living in the Principality of Erendyl.
Heck, even the jakes built every couple of miles, which were cleaned up every day with Prestidigitation Cantrips or Permanent Phantom Servants, meant they had the cleanest bathrooms the caravan workers had ever seen outside a noble's home.
The result was a clean, picturesque ride, smooth and without bumps for wagon-users or riders, with pastoral landscapes, quaint farms, quietly looming trees, lots of birds and beasts, and all and all a fine time.
"Out in the Bleaklands?" piped up the Mick, frowning. "Would that nae be… dangerous?" he had to ask.
"Potentially. But, the fun thing is… it is outside the boundary of Colorajo, so any attempt to seal it off is in effect messing with the trade road… and Erendyl can totally intervene to stop such things." I smirked slightly at the thought. "As for security… this was indeed the most dangerous side of the river. There have been some changes on that aspect of things, too."
"Why not cross at Tantrin? Because the Zorozo control it?" Hammel Guntervund was a stolid and nerdy engineer-type from Inclu under Jaggenfel, rather blocky of appearance, brown of hair and hazel of eye. He didn't have the military mindset fostered by the noble family there, and was actually trying to get into Earth Elementalism with his love of building things. He'd been making lots of comments on the design and thinking behind the roads, rest stops, and other aspects of this road with great enthusiasm.
"Correct. The idea is to have merchants on our side of the river when they enter Zanzyr. If that is done, there is nothing the Zorozo can do about it."