Chapter 31: The War of Negotiations Part 1

A calm, comforting voice floated across the land, reaching the ears of thousands of people. Words were spoken, words of truth, words of understanding, but ultimately words that were etched into the hearts of thousands of people. These words were carried out by the former scholar (in training) Jacob Tiller, a man who has experienced both sides of the financial spectrum, rich and poor. When Jacob began to speak Trip was thoroughly impressed by what Jacob expressed.

When Jacob began to speak he wanted to shock, or even annoy the audience. This would be done by mentioning that he was a scholar, and that he was highly educated. He wanted to make sure that anything which could be considered a weakness of his he would immediately expose and then have people accept it on the spot. Being a scholar would definitely annoy homeless people and it would make everyone feel as if they were inferior to him, and that he was not fit to represent the homeless people.

After people thought badly of him he would atone for his weaknesses. This would be done by talking about how he had personally experienced how the rich people lived and how they could easily solve the homeless problem, but how they simply did not care. He would then speak of how he was now homeless and that he understood both sides of the story, from the perspective of a rich man and a poor man. From this he could tell with certainty that not only could the rich people change the situation for the people, but also that they could change it by pressuring the government.

This would immediately bring people to higher spirits. For any homeless person to hear that they would soon have a decent life again was music to their ears.

The speech went perfectly. Everyone in the audience went through a whirlwind of emotions throughout it, but at the end some were even crying in happiness, because they were so sure that they would be able to live a good life once again. It was a moving scene and in only a few days the entire homeless population stood behind Homeless United. They would march the streets for this cause; they would directly fight the government if they had to. Every homeless man had turned from strangers to brothers within a couple of days. There was a tight community with very strong bonds. Trip could feel that the spiritual bonds in this group of people far outweighed any place he had ever encountered before. These people would be willing to give up their life so that others might have a better life.

This atmosphere blew away Trip. Most of the people knew him either as the person that started the initiative or as the person who introduced Jacob Tiller to the stage. Either way he was a massive celebrity in the homeless community. However this did come with a problem. No matter how oblivious the government was to the events and interactions of the poor it would be impossible for them not to notice this movement of homeless people. Trip expected that this would cause the government to be slightly more cautious, but he found that the government had actually become terrified of the idea of a rebellion. This was because a lot of their current profits came from trade, and trade would go down if their city was in the middle of a crisis. Thus they decided to do anything within their power to stop anything from happening, and they made sure that none of the public knew anything about this.

Due to the unexpected government response Trip and Jacob had to be much more careful when it came to exchanging information and discussing plans. For all they knew there could be many government spies within the camp. Also with Trip being a celebrity within the homeless community the government could actually try to assassinate him. Luckily Trip actually realised that he could tell the difference between people that were homeless and those who were not. This was because the spiritual bond between the homeless people was so strong that anyone that was not included within in this bond was easily identifiable. However seeing how scared the government was Trip, Jacob, and Alex came up with a new plan. They found a government spy and they captured him.

They told this government spy the following message: “To anyone with a high position in the government of Cuvin. We, the leaders of Homeless United, would like to meet with you. Two days from today we will stand in front of the bank in the centre of the city; you can prepare a meeting room for us. Sincerely, Trip Levis and Jacob Tiller.”

It was a simple message; they felt no obligation to be very respectful to the aristocrats of the city. Trip and Jacob then spent the next few days preparing for this meeting. They had to make sure that they wouldn’t be assassinated by the government on the spot. Jacob knew that Trip could use magic, but he did not exactly feel safe with a ten year old as his bodyguard. That is why Jacob said that they should meet the government officials in front of the most popular building in the city, there they would not be assassinated as everyone there would be terrified.

Two days later Trip and Jacob arrived at the bank. The arrived at 6 in the morning and then they sat there discussing. At 10 in the morning some people came up to them. It was a group of 4 muscular men and two men who looked like how one would expect government officials to look like. They had an unimpressive physical stature and they stood with their back curved forwards, probably from bending over too much for their boss. They had a shrewd smile on their faces as they approached Trip and Jacob.

One of them then said “You must be Trip Levis and Jacob Tiller. Come with us.”

They led them to a secret room within the bank. It was very fancy. There was a marble floor and all the furniture was lined with gold. It was so sparkly Trip almost felt sick. They sat on a couch, while the two shrewd men sat on the couch facing theirs.

The shrewd men then introduced themselves. “My name is Robert.” One of them said. “My name is Donald. It is wonderful to meet you. It seems we have a lot to discuss.”

Jacob knew how these men spoke and he copied it perfectly. “Yes, it seems that way. We have many a thing to discuss.”

Trip was normally patient, but he was in no mood to speak cryptically and instead got to the point of the meeting quickly. “Gentlemen. We all know why we are here, I think it is time to stop these games and get to the issue at hand.”

The shrewd men looked at Trip in disappointment. They were thoroughly enjoying their little war of words and found it rude to be interrupted in such a way. However they knew the child was right and they could only follow his pace.

Seeing that he got the attention of the Robert and Donald he began to speak “Our organisation has a simple goal. Get all homeless people a home and a job. We know that the government could easily support these people and we request that you do so.”

Robert’s eye twitched, but then he returned to his normal shrewd smile. “Sorry kid, but jobs don’t exactly grow on trees. We can’t give such an amount of people a house and a job. That is simply an impossible task.”

At this point Jacob spoke up. “Actually we have a solution. Spearwood trees.”

They began to speak of their plans to build a society where the poor and uneducated could still live comfortably. They talked about how they could use all the homeless people for different aspects of the labour. The shrewd men were initially uninterested, but when they mentioned the estimated profit the government would earn from this their eyes lit up.

However Trip could tell that they were going to reject the offer. It was inconvenient for them. While they would earn profits it would not be enough to convince them to follow through with this plan.

When they eventually rejected Trip spoke up. “How many people do you think are willing to fight and die for this cause?” he casually asked.

Robert and Donald were at first shocked by the question, it was a scary question. These men distanced themselves from most everything to do with violence, and the very mention of death caused them to shiver uncontrollably.

Eventually Donald responded to the question, saying “Umm, maybe 5000 people?”

Donald would not be worried by 5000 people trying to fight against the government. They could handle that with only their police and guards.

Trip smiled as he looked them directly in the eye and said “20000 people.”

The two shrewd men nearly screamed. This number was frightening. Even if it were a bluff, it was too much risk. 20000 men would be too many for them to deal with using only guards and police, and since Cuvin did not have an army they would have to wait weeks for reinforcements. They both looked at Trip and everyone in the room realised, the battle of negotiations was about to begin.