The Land of the Golithian, a philosophical book by Laureth Vigor

The Golithian are a people of extremes. Size, emotion, desires, and goals; through birth, action, and choice we commit ourselves to things that fit our nature. Why would we not? I spit on the existence of those who live their lives following the careful rules of others. They waste the gift of life.

Elias saunters down the street, paying no attention to the little people around him. Why would he? They are not powerful, influential, or wealthy; they’re only as valuable as what they are capable of producing. .

And the only producers that interest him about are about to get some of his precious attention.

He quickly reaches his destination, a squat warehouse in the dock district. Walls of weathered bricks rise on all four sides and up to a roof of slanted steel, still dripping from the days earlier rain showers. Crossing into the interior, he is pleasantly surprised to find an efficient design. A conference room with large windows, filled with the people he is here to meet, looks down upon the workspace, giving the managers view of the entire area. The ground floor is carefully laid out to maximise storage and ease of movement. Red and orange paint coat the floor, the former designating the areas for goods while the latter denotes walkways.

He has to admit, it’s a very well-designed warehouse.

A toady of one of the owners walks over to him as he climbs up the stairs, offering him an assortment of things, but it is just a distraction. Do these people really think a Fisher would fall for such a novice negotiating trick? The Fishers may not be as powerful as they once were but that is downright disrespectful.

He reaches the second floor and barges into the conference room, walking over to the head of the table and jerking a thumb at the large man that sits in the chair. Fear fills the man’s face as he steps up and waddles over to another chair. Interesting. Good to know these fools can be affected by a little use of Intimidating Aura.

Ten seats lay spread out for the large conference table, a single having been left open for the guest of honor. It’s obvious that the ‘business’ owners have dressed up in their best clothes to try and intimidate him. Hah, as if he’d be intimidated by something as simple as a suit. When you’ve stared down the man who can conjure destruction with a thought the idea of suits are a pitiful comparison.

Just as Elias sits down, a voice breaks through the nervous silence. It’s one of the leaders of this little meeting. What was his name again? Ah, Marco Imidia. He runs a series of bakeries in the middle district. “Councilman Fisher, so glad to see you. We were hoping we could talk abo – ”.

“Save it. What is this I hear about some Guild?”

He nervously swallows and takes a second to steel himself. How did this man become successful enough to own one business, let alone multiple? He displays his emotions like a peacock’s feathers. “Well Councilman, we talked amongst ourselves and figured that, seeing as how things have calmed down, we could band together and promote our interests. Kinda like a Union but for business owners, you see? Joshua even had the idea to call it the Merchants Guild, like the olden-days.”

“Oh, really you all thought of this? How wonderful. But first I really gotta ask; was anyone thinking about bringing me in on this?”

He gulps nervously, “Well um … no? You’re a Councilman, you’re busy … um we kinda hoped you’d support the idea.”

Another of the group barks out. “Look Fisher, we don’t need your approval and we don’t want you in the Guild. So why don’t you crawl back to the Council and tell them about us, all right?”

Elias calmly stands up, not a hint of emotion on his face. Smooth steps carry him around the table until he’s standing right behind Marco the Baker. The man who had made the mistake of speaking up.

Gripping the man’s shoulders tightly, he smiles. “See, normally I’d be supportive of your little move. Consolidation brings efficiency and all that. But you all made a very very bad mistake. You didn’t bring me in.”

His fingers dig into the man’s skin. Marco yelps in pain, whimpering slightly, but Elias ignores him. “You all seem to have forgotten something very important. Every person in this room, every – single – one, took money and help from me to start their little businesses. None of you would have anything if it weren’t for my support.”

The upstart who disrespected him, sitting across the table in a cheap suit that barely fits, looks around for support and finds it in a few of his partners eyes. Their will hasn’t been broken quite yet. But it will be. And they’ll be punished for their mistake.

“You may have helped us out but we’re the owners! I – I don’t think you’d want your little friends on the Council to hear about your family’s illicit investing.”

That’s the best that they can come up with? Elias laughs loudly at their threat, taking one his hands off the upstarts shoulder to hold it against his heaving chest. “That’s your play? You want to blackmail me with the fact that I gave you money from illegal shit?”

The disrespectful man takes a step back, obviously not having expected laughter as the response. Elias just can’t believe that he actually planned for this meeting! If this was all they were capable of, he could have just come here right away.

“Man, you people are fools. Do you honestly think the Mary King doesn’t know about the shit we pulled? That woman knows everything. In fact, I’m 90% sure it’s the whole reason I’m on the Council in the first place.” He lets go of the man’s shoulder, faint hints of blood welling up at each of the finger points. “Now here’s what is gonna happen. The Merchant Guild will form but you’ll include a new part in your Charter. You’re gonna acknowledge the Council’s right to tax your asses up to 35%. Depending on the industry of course.”

“That’s my entire profit margin – ”

“You’ll bankrupt me!”

“That’s insane!”

Elias just holds up a single hand to shut them up. This one, however, requires a little demonstration. He lets loose the full force of Intimidating Aura and their eyes widen in fear. A few of them even look around as if they want to hide.

This Skill is just fantastic, he thinks to himself. Being able to use it like this is makes this almost worth my time.

“I don’t want to hear your bitching and moaning, I want that in the Charter. If that document, signed by all of you, isn’t in my hand by tomorrow morning than I’m gonna have some of the guards pay your shops a little visit. And let me say, doing your civic duty is much cheaper than what my friends in the guards can do.”

He pulls back the Intimidating Aura and they all fall back into their seats, gasping for breath that they hadn’t even known they were missing.

The upstart glares at him from across the room. “Who gave you the power to do this? We didn’t vote you in.”

Elias walks down the stairs from the second floor conference room and through the well laid out warehouse floor, yelling back at them. “You know what they say, ‘Might makes Right’!”

The door slams behind him.

Mary stands over the bed, staring down at the unconscious body that lies below her. She gently moves a blanket off of his legs so that he doesn’t get too hot. The temperature has really picked up in the last week and the blanket could make him overheated. She’s not really sure if heatstroke is possible when health is controlled by a literal Health bar, but why takes risks.

The sound of the downstairs door opening, followed by the clacking self-confident steps in a pair of brown leather shoes, forces her to pull away from her vigil. Two months had passed without a single reaction. An hour or two away to help keep this damnable city running wouldn’t change anything.

Gently closing the door behind him, she takes a minute to calm herself, to collect her thoughts. Elias had been an efficient Council member since she’d brought him on but she would never forget the circumstances that led to him being in charge of the Fishers. Troubled times make for strange bedfellows.

Walking down the steps into the living room, she finds Elias sitting on the couch with his feet up on the coffee table. He wears his regular attire, an extremely well fitted blue suit and perfectly polished brown leather shoes, but he appears to be … happier than usual.

The meeting must have gone well.

“We will receive the Charter tomorrow, I presume? 25% rate?” Her voice cuts through the room as she sits down and crosses her legs, placing her hands down upon them. Her back remains perfectly straight as she refuses to let herself slouch; one must always be in control of the image.

He grins like a child with a new toy. “Nah, I convinced them to go to 35%. They were really passionate about following their … let’s call it civic duty.”

Mary takes in a deep breath, reminding herself yet again that his impetuous young man has his upsides. “Did you threaten to call in the guards again Elias?”

He at least has the manners to look as if he feels guilty.

“Once again, you cannot threaten to use the guards like they are your enforcers. Convince them, intimidate them, but do not threaten them. Our position here is tenuous enough, we don’t need you adding fuel to the fire.”

His eyes gently flicker to the upstairs and then back down again. The playful grin is off his face and he finally appears as if he is taking things seriously. “Still no change?”

A quick glance up is her only response.

“Look, he’s a tough kid. Smart money’s on him waking up.”

“That’s enough. Tell me, how is it going with the currency?”

“It seems to be getting into the market. Some people are still using the food tokens but the majority use currency. Also, people are finally feeling comfortable enough to go out and buy shit. I think in one more month we’ll have enough out there that we’ll be able to start limiting the supply” he responds.

“Good. I’ll get Julian to run some numbers on the optimal amount to release before we limit things. Any issues from Octavian and his merchants?”

He rolls his eyes. “Nah, they are keeping to their area like we asked. The real issue is that we don’t have a shared currency now. They only seem to be accepting barter trades but we don’t have anything that seems to interests them.”

Mary nods. The decision to create their own currency had been a bold one, but the potential payoff was too large for them to deny it. Elias had been right, basing their entire economy off of a foreign power was too large of a risk.

“Is there anything we can make that will get them trading?”

Elias crosses his arms and leans back, thinking for a few seconds. “That Technocrat guy … he’s going on that expedition soon, right?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Well, they might be interested in that metal he built his armor out of? I saw a few of them give his armor a good look when I took him there. Guy barely even noticed, was too focused on getting Runes or something.”

Mary paces around the room as she digests the information. If that metal is as valuable as Elias seems to be suggesting, then perhaps Everwall’s economic situation is not nearly as precarious as they had assumed.

She clarifies a few points with Elias and then sends him away for the rest of the day. He has his tasks to accomplish as much as she does.

Her eyes drift up the stairs and towards the bedroom where he rests. She wants nothing more than to go up to him and wait by his bedside, hoping and praying that he’ll wake up. Were she to do that, however, there wouldn’t be a city when he woke up.

People seem to think things are getting better but they fail to comprehend the severity of the situation. Everyone has their own little sphere of knowledge and they never travel outside of it. Mary King does not have that luxury. She must stand above all of them and take in all the information, connect the dots and make the plans that others are unable to.

For Cael, she reminds herself. I do it for him.