Derek watched as each smith’s contract was completed. All in all there were over three hundred weapons delivered to order. As realization that not one of the smiths had failed to complete their contract dawned on the Baron he began to attempt to find fault in the completed weapons.

“Look at the coloration of this steel, it is obvious that Smith Farnese has opted to use some of lower quality to produce this. Cutting corners like this is guaranteed to reduce the quality of her work. The contract clearly states that she was to deliver ten tier four swords capable of accepting level six spells and I do not believe these weapons are of that tier. The quality of the materials are clearly inferior to what is necessary to produce weapons of that caliber.”

So far he had only nitpicked some specific pieces and his complaints had been waved off, but this was a serious complaint. The steel indeed had a more mottled appearance than most. Rune Smith Farnese had opted to use steels of different qualities in her work to use as little of the new refined steel as possible in the new work. The mottled pattern was a sign of her welding the different steels together. Derek had been impressed when he saw her work as being able to produce a strong weapon that could accept mana for weapon channeling from so many types of steel was a sign of her great skill and yet, here was this merchant finding fault with the very proof of her skill.

Derek turned to his grandfather. The old man gave him an encouraging nod so he turned back to the Baron who was still making his case to the Arbitrator. Stepping forward, Derek spoke up, “Sir, I have tested the quality of every weapon here. Each weapon fulfills the requirements of your contract. This mottled pattern is proof of Smith Farnese’s great skill and the unfortunate price manipulation by your own House that has increased the price of quality steel in this city.

“The pattern comes from the welding technique she used that provides a two fold benefit. First it provides an even strength down the length of the blade that will increase the length of time the blade will last, while allowing for the edge to retain its great sharpness and second it allows for mana to travel the length of the blade unopposed. This technique is indeed fantastic and as long as the price of quality steel is kept artificially high in this region by your House I can only imagine that the technique will grow more popular as a solution for the various smiths of this city. Your complaints are unfounded, the weapon is of the quality specified in the contract.”

Baron Fontana only glanced at him for a moment before turning to Smith Farnese and responding with derision, “Oh? So some apprentice has quality tested your goods and I am to believe his claim that the weapons are of sufficient quality? This is no place for children, boy, nor is it a place for your lies so run along. Noone here needs the ‘expert’ opinion of a child.”

At this point Arbitrator Nolan also spoke, “Baron Fontana, I don’t think it would be wise to continue like this. Disciple Derek is an Expert Rune Smith and he did test the quality of all of these weapons under the supervision of Priest Cnut, Disciple Ander, and myself. Each weapon has indeed passed inspection in front of the three of us. These weapons from Smith Farnese do have this interesting mottled pattern but they do not fail to meet the standards required of them by contract.”

Arbitrator Locke listened to all three individuals before turning to Derek, “Young Disciple, I do not doubt your integrity nor do I doubt the integrity of my brother or the two clerics of the Forge god but the customer has a concern about the quality of the work. Do you mind demonstrating the manner in which you appraised these weapons?”

Derek smiled and nodded to the man, “Of course, Arbitrator, I am sure you possess spells like this as well, but mine is a variation on the Appraisal spell that gives more exact detail into the structure and strength of the item. Mine favors the light and order attributes as those are my greatest strength.”

As he described his spell, he cast it slowly so that the Arbitrator could examine the magic, then when it was in place he selected one of the swords and it glowed brightly before a status screen appeared. Derek intentionally scanned the length of the sword to demonstrate how the weapon’s structure stayed consistent down the length. The Arbitrator nodded as he watched. When the full scan was over, the magic completed the calculation, showing that the sword was of high tier four quality and capable of channeling level six spells.

The Arbitrator smiled, “That is indeed an impressive Appraisal spell. The fact that it includes the ability to calculate the outputs for you and present that information in such an intuitive format makes it quite valuable. Where did you learn it?”

Derek scratched his neck in embarrassment, “It’s something I created because I was too lazy to do the calculations myself. I merely took the Appraisal spell my grandfather taught me and added the status calculations from my grandmother’s Status spells and blended them for this. It costs quite a bit of mana but if you are only using it occasionally that should not be a problem.”

Locke looked surprised at this, “But you used it on over three hundred weapons. If it consumes a lot of mana, then how did you do it?”

Derek’s face paled, an off cherry taste assailing his memories. Nolan laughed, “Haha, we just force fed him low quality mana potions that were close to expiration to get him through the process.”

Derek glared at the man, he was pretty sure the sour taste from some of the potions had been proof that they were not merely close to expiration. Arbitrator Locke gave him a commiserating look before turning again to the Baron. “As you can see, Baron Fontana, these weapons have all been tested for quality. This one in particular is of a slightly higher quality than you had even requested. I assume you have no further complaints or accusations for Smith Farnese?”

The merchant was silent for a moment before he waved his hand dismissively. “No, I have no further complaints.”

The Arbitrator nodded to him, “Hmm, then I shall continue. This contract can be considered completed. Smith Farnese has delivered 10 tier 4, level 6 swords. By the terms of the contract she is owed a total of five thousand talents. She has already received twenty five hundred so that leaves an immediate payment of twenty five hundred talents, Baron Fontana.”

It was apparent that Baron Fontana had not expected to pay so much that day as his face grew a little paler. His expectation was that the majority of these smiths would have failed to complete their contracts and that he would only have to pay for a third of their contracts at most.

Each weapon was worth five hundred talents, meaning the total cost of this transaction would amount to over one hundred and fifty thousand talents. He had paid half up front for each contract, which was how he had intended to entrap the smiths, but that meant that he had already invested seventy five thousand talents into this scheme.

Coupled with the lack of sales for his overpriced steel and the amount he would have to pay out that day, his available funds were drying up rapidly. What was worse was that he hadn’t even sourced buyers for these weapons and the weapons were going to be sitting in his shops, warehouses, or cargo holds for a long while before they are sold and he could only expect to sell them for about what he had paid for them to begin with.

This deal would have only been beneficial for him if the smiths had failed to complete their side of the contracts. Something had gone wrong. Something had gone terribly wrong with his plan. Where had they gotten the steel? Finally his eyes widened, the steel, that’s where it went wrong. Many of these weapons contained a high quality steel he had not seen before. Where had it come from?

As the final smith received his pay, Baron Fontana saw that his accountants were quite distressed. His laborers were already moving the last crates of weapons into his warehouse. He turned to the Arbitrator and spoke politely, “Thank you Arbitrator, I will not keep you. I need to handle some more things here for now.”

Without waiting for the Arbitrator to respond, he signalled his people and marched back inside. With their pay secured the members of the Windreach Rune Smiths’ Association filed out happily. Derek followed his grandfather who was talking to the two Arbitrators and the Priest. They came to a stop at the Arbitrator’s carriage. The man turned to Nolan and Cnut, “If you are heading to the Temple district you can ride with me. I would love to find out what you two have been up to.”

Nolan smiled, “I will take you up on that, but let me speak with this young man for a second before we go.”

He turned to Derek, “What do you think our next steps should be, Disciple?”

Derek thought for a while before speaking, “Fontana was surprised by our ability to produce these weapons so I would expect him to spend a few days trying to figure out where we sourced our steel. He has two ways he can attempt to counter our actions. The first way would be to attempt to buy up the other iron and steel sources in the area to deprive us of the ability to produce more. He might do that, but it would probably take loans that would be too costly and his financial situation isn’t that great right now. The other solution would be to try to drive his own steel prices so low that we cannot compete with him in selling steel. This seems more likely, but we are Rune Smiths not smelters. Low price of steel was our purpose to begin with.

“If he opts for the first then the solution is to have stockpiled enough iron to outlast him. With the kinds of debts he would accrue in that venture, and not really making money off of it, he would be throwing money away. It would only be an amount of time before he collapses under his own debts.

“If he goes with the second, then we can oblige and buy the steel as long as it is at that low price and sell our product at a lower price to match. This will mean that if he wants to sell the weapons he just bought from us in this market he will have to take a loss. Moving them to other markets will also be a loss as he cannot expect to get more than a five to ten percent markup on them anywhere nearby.

“We should still save our refined steel for when he tries to do something funny again. I think that it would also be prudent to continue with the recruitment effort and convince more of the Smiths in the city to join our Association. I also don’t think it would hurt to try to incentivize some of the cities smelters and mine owners to join as well. This way we can guarantee our supply chain. What do you think?”

Nolan thought for a while, before he nodded, “Good, you seem to have thought this out quite well, but once you have your supply chain under control what will you do?”

Derek thought for a while, “Well, as Rune Smiths we don’t often have to try to seek out work. It tends to find us, but with so many interests tied into the Association we might need someone to go out and seek customers for us. I have no experience in this and I was hoping the Arbitrator could enlighten me.”

The man smiled, “Ah, finally something you don’t know. It is simple really, partner with talented merchants to sell your product and I know just the family that may be able to fulfill that role for us.”

Derek thought for a while, “You don’t mean the Michel family? I hear that their losses were tremendous when House Fontana pushed them out of the market.”

The Arbitrator smiled, “Quick kid. Indeed, We have already thought to reach out to House Michel. In their current state, assistance from us would be timely, and I believe we can easily convince them to join our Association.”

Derek nodded, feeling much more confident about the future of their venture, “Yes, I imagine with House Michel’s inclusion, we will be in a much stronger position moving forward. Thank you, Arbitrator Nolan, your counsel has cleared away my doubts.”

“No problem, no problem. By giving the Church an interest in your Association, you have guaranteed our assistance. For now, though, I had best get going. I will see you two at the next board meeting.”