Ah, my plans my beautiful plans. The law is one thing, a reasonable merchant is something entirely different. I know they exist, they are not a mythical creature like the unicorn or the honest car salesman. But the Lord's merchant is not a reasonable man. He regards me like an ant, an uneducated peasant who is not supposed to beat him. in his eyes, he is the victim here and he needs to be compensated for his troubles. I do not entirely support the caste system where merchants have no honour and no worth in a society, I believe they are an important part of making trade work. This man, however, puts all my beliefs on a test since he is a merchant with no honour.

“There is a letter for you.” The priests tell me when he comes over one morning with a missive in his hand. I am enjoying my new invention and is not well disposed of for people to interrupting me. I am also fearful of anyone stealing my spot. I have had my first hammock made and am enjoying a day in the sun. I am silently swaying from side to side looking up at the sky and playing with the clouds imagining them to shape. Tun the priest is worth of respect however and I will give it to him, even if he steals my spot. For I know he has ordered his own hammock.

“Thank you for bringing it so fast,” I tell him and look at the envelope. “It is from the merchant.” The priests tell me. I grunt with hatred since I now have to get out of my hammock. I flail and swing a bit before I get to my feet and see the priest smirk at me. Getting out of a hammock is something no one does with grace. Some try, but when it inevitably fails the look more stupid for it. I know I look like Bambi on the ice, but that does not mean he needs to smirk. I want to call him something bad but have entirely forgotten his name. I tell him to wait and he grabs my spot in the hammock while I read the letter.

The letter is filled with flowery language about confirming the contract and such. It is filled with words I have to ask the priest for the meaning of, I even have to wake him twice. “Well, the matter is clear enough.” I tell the priest “and please correct me if I am wrong. The man threatens me tries to make me confirm that the old deal is not void.” The priest waves at me before mumbling that I am right. It seems the hammock have stolen all his energy like it does to me whenever I lie in it. Only the fight to claim the spot produces more flurry than the hammock manages to steal away. The rest of the family is out of the house for the day helping my oldest brother with his farm, I stayed home to “meditate”.

After the first letter, I give it to my brother and together we consult the elders. Some time and effort are spent on drafting a letter based on our strategy for handling this. We also send letters to safeguard the legal niceties, among others storing verified copies with different temples and monasteries in neighbouring regions. This is the elders and my idea since we don’t trust the merchant to not break the law. He has already threatened to pervert it. There are also two other regards, his class has no honour and he is closer to our Lord than us. Just his attitude and conduct shows us he is acting above his station.

“This is some dirty business.” My brother tells me when we walk away from the meeting and I smile back. “This is the world of trade, the middlemen try to squeeze all the profit when they don’t produce any goods. The tanners are a higher class than he.” I tell my brother, common sentiment. We who produce goods are above the tanners, but not by much. “Can’t wait to be done with this though.” He says and I have to smile and pat him on his back. “You will never be done with this, but remember it and don’t act it,” I tell him before we depart and he goes home to his pregnant wife. There is only me and my two sisters left who are not married with kids.

Time flows like a lazy river in the fine summer time we have. I laze around in my hammock when I am not working and looking at finding me a fitting girlfriend. A wife is out of the question for me, but a mistress might be nice. There is, of course, several problems with this. Least off all is that I am too young, too poor and there is no tradition in the village for it. Me, with all my money and connections, are too poor for a mistress. If it had not been for the fact that I keep tight control over what I am owed, have and owe it would be worse. My problem with money is that I see far too many places to use it and earn more. My brother's farm, education in the temple for the children, walkways, an improvement on the mill and a dozen small and large other projects. The main problem is that I am not all that interested even as horny as I am.

Letters are sent back and forth over the next month and the frequency accelerates since it looks like the merchant is closing in on the village. He must be out trading or doing his dealings for this to happen. Maybe even travelling with the tax collector since it is the season. The tone in the letters swings rapidly between negotiating a new deal and threatening with reprisals for backhanded dealing. In the village, there is a sense of foreboding, but I have the villages support. Both because of the obvious but also since I never hid anything from them and they feel as dishonoured as my brother. I would too since he is the one with the deed and I am the one that gets threatened.

“Well, that says much,” my father says when we see the merchant rides in together with the taxman. At the last switchback before the village, the merchant gets off the horse and goes to his waggon at the back. We are four men overlooking them and we too set a fast pace back to the village. It is me, my father and two other men from the village. My dads' friend Yu and the village chief son Yi. I don’t know who is more angry with my father or Yi since both are red in the face. When we get back to the village the taxman and merchant have arrived and been welcomed by the village chief.

“What!” the village priest and chief say at the same time. “Quiet down you two,” Yi tells them and hush. “We need to do something quick.” The priest says and all nod. “Get more witnesses.” Is my father's solution and after a small get together the plan is ready. The priests pen a letter and I find my travelling clothes. “Do you have enough money?” my father asks me and I nod to him. Before midnight under a half moon, I set out. The mission is simple, get to Banks to get witnesses, and send the letter with a boat down to the city. We need the word to spread since a merchant and tax collector working together is bad. Underhanded dealings and pressure is one thing and we can deal with an up hopped merchant. The tax collector is the Lord's representative, that means it is a rebellion if we deal too harsh with him. So in the middle of the night, I set off to get witnesses and send the letter to the Lord, and open letter so all that carries it can read it.

I sneak through the hills and take the game trails to keep away from the road. There is only one road and I cannot risk that there are people to stop me there. Walking to Bank usually only takes two hours downhill, the backtrails usually takes twice as long. Running at full tilt and I am there in thirty minutes and not even breathing hard. Cultivation pays off. There is no wall and I run straight for the Temple to find their priest. He is a cousin of our own priest, just like the village head here is a cousin of our own.

“Why the heck are you disturbing me at this hour, Su.” The priests ask me when I finally wake him. He stands almost naked in the door and inside I can just make out his young wife in the light of the moon. “The tax collector and merchant arrived together.” I say and the priest snorts “I know, we sent word like you asked.” I shake my head “NO, they arrived together, the tax collector let the merchant ride at the front when they came up the hill.” There is silence from the priest while he digests this. “No, no, no fuck no.” He says with growing anger and anguish in his voice. He hits the doorframe a couple of times so it rattles. My message creates more furore than I would imagine and after having read my letter the priests send me out in the night to rouse the elders of the village.

I would like to say we marched that night in a great upheaval like a pack of hungry wolves. Like out of the tales and fables from the righteous rebellions in the past, we did not. I suspect from the handling of the elders in both villages that neither did those heroes of virtue and pride in the past. We are farmers not stupid, instead, they continued the plan. Boys and men were instructed to send the message on into the other villages and after some preparation, the village head and priest followed me back along the game trails home to Rapid.