As it turned out, counting the wispbeads happened faster than I had thought.

We were in a small, nondescript room in the back of the merchant house's stockyard, next to what looked like barracks for their workers. At a glance, it looked like someone's office, presumably the manager of the stock yard, or maybe where they kept immediate copies of inventory records. Another of Ravia's brothers had met us when the wagon had come into the stock yard, directing the sacks of beads here. Presumably it was to minimize the number of people who'd see the sacks of beads before the merchant house was ready. Someone had taken a pair of calipers and measured several of the wispbeads to confirm their diameter. Once they'd gotten an average, someone else had brought out several wooden trays and started dropping the beads into them without counting them.

"The trays are what we use to count out large beads," Ravia explained as I watched the beads being counted by presumably trusted people. "They'll hold a hundred beads each when full. Much simpler than counting every bead one by one. Though given the direction matters are going, in future we might have to invest in ways of more efficiently counting large numbers of beads quickly."

"I'm sure someone can design something," I said. "I can already think of some off the time of my head, but I'm not really much for making things. Though speaking of which… can I borrow something to write with for a moment?"

Ravia raised an eyebrow, but immediately went to a nearby drawer. From it he drew out a pale slate and a piece of chalk. "Here. You may use these."

"Thank you," I said, starting to write. "I sold some beads to a few workshops yesterday to test the market. Don't worry, they were specifically set aside for the purpose, so it won't affect the count. Could you approach them when you're ready to start selling the wispbeads? I wouldn't want them to have to worry about where they'd get further supplies."

"Ah. Master Yhosed was one of them, I presume?"

I nodded. "I'm just listing out who they are and what I can remember about the directions to get to their workshops. At the very least, it's a list of people who won't doubt that the wispbeads are real. You probably won't have all that many problems finding customers for the beads, but I'd appreciate it if you can let them know they can buy from you. Call it due diligence on my part. I'll try to tell them myself if I pass by, but I might not have the time."

Ravia nodded. "I understand perfectly, Master Rian. A pity you seem to already be employed. I would very much like to hire you to work for us."

"I take it as a high compliment that people wish I'd work for them instead," I said with smile, then glanced back at the beads being counted. "Wow, they're working fast. I have to remember this. It would make our own counting much easier."

"It's not something most people would need to know about," Ravia said, also watching the counting being done. The beads were measured out and then placed in canvas sacks that were far larger than the sacks we had brought. "Few people are in a position to have so many beads."

"And most of the ones who do usually have people to count it for them."

Ravia laughed. "Yes, that too."

I finished my list, handing it to Ravia, who took it graciously and actually looked it over, then took the chalk and began to mark the names. "I'll have to ask, but I think we do business with some of these workshops already. Very likely, if they're nearby. I'll see about informing them about availability. We'll need people who can spread word in the right floors, after all."

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When the beads were counted—and the number of 'eleven thousand' was confirmed—I received a receipt confirming the amount, as well as the total I was owed for them. It… was honestly a lot. Well, it probably wouldn't last very long for someone living in Covehold Demesne, what with the prices of everything, but we'd only be staying a few more days.

Now that I had a large amount of beads that the merchant house technically haven't gotten around to giving me yet, I set about on the second phase of this trading trip, which was buying the things that our demesne needed.

Bolts of sturdy cloudbloom cloth, to make more trousers for everyone. Paper, both the thick, heavy sort that we can use for windows, and the thinner sort for writing on, so we can finally stop writing on pieces of wood. Ink. Pens. Thick leather for soles so that our cobbler could try to make new shoes, or at least repair the ones we already had. Seeds or cuttings—preferably the latter—of cloudbloom and tressflowers to grow for fibers and oil. Mesh screens, because our smiths didn't have time for those. Wire, now that we could afford it. Bread riser cultures, brewjelly and vitrioljelly…

It was a long list.

The first time I'd come to Covehold Demesne, I thought I'd need to run around the town looking for and sourcing what we needed. Thankfully, I found out about the merchant houses before I did, or else I'd have wasted a lot of time. For a relatively small fee or small markup, the merchant houses would source and assemble the materials you were looking for, and depending on the house might even be willing to deliver it to your demesne for you. After all, I wasn't the only one coming from another demesne who didn't have the time to go looking for what they needed.

While we couldn't have things delivered to Lorian Demesne—it was too far over land, and not on the same river Covehold was on, so it couldn't be brought upstream by one of the small boats—they could gather the materials for us. Their rates and margins were reasonable, which was why I'd also used them to gather the materials we'd been bought last time.

"It will take a few days to assemble all this, Master Rian," Ravia said.

"I know," I said. "We were hoping to be able to leave in five days, so if possible see about fulfilling this only with stock that's already available."

"That shouldn't be a problem." Ravia's smile became slightly smirk-like. "Especially if the workshop in question has a bound tool for drawing wire that they can now use."

"I leave the matter in your capable hands then," I said cheerfully. "Also, I was wondering if you could inquire about bound tools that people would be willing to sell cheaply since they can't use them anymore?"

Ravia's smile became less 'like' and more definitely a smirk. "Ah. I believe I understand. As soon as I get these orders arranged, I'll make the inquiries. There will only be a small window of time before word spreads, so we should move quickly. Are there any sorts of bound tools you're looking for in particular?"

"Wisplights and small, hand-held bound tools," I said promptly. "Saws as well, as long as it's not too big."

Ravia nodded slowly. "We will probably start purchasing such tools ourselves soon," he said with a slowly growing smile, "but as our partner, I'm sure father wouldn't mind if we provide the tools to you at cost before the price changes."

"Why, thank you." Honestly, I'd just realized that people might have started selling off their bound tools because they couldn't use them anymore. And while Lori's bound tools were usable, I'm sure she'd like some samples she could examine and study to improve what she could make.

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We got the sacks back, which was nice.

"All right," I said out loud as we stepped out of the merchant house. It was early afternoon, so there was still a lot of daylight ahead of us. "We need to buy food to bring back for the others later, so keep your noses open for anything that smells great. Booze too if you see anyone selling them in big enough bottles or casks."

"Right, Rian!"

"Slug skewers!"

"No slugs!" Multaw and I cried.

"Aw…"

"I'll buy some for you if we find any. Multaw, don't tell the others and I'll buy you something too." Ugh, now I have to remember to get the others something for when it was their turn to eat out. I thought I'd left acting like a parent behind with Lori. "But food is for later. We need to recruit those Deadspeakers Lori said we could finally have. So let's go find some Deadspeakers willing to change demesnes for a free baths, a small house, most of their needs taken care of, and living under Lori."

The three of us considered that as we started walking, Cyuw carrying the sack full of the sacks.

"It all sounds good until you actually meet Lori," I said eventually. Multaw and Cyuw nodded. "And then it sounds good again once you realize she's not that bad, or at least you don't need to talk to her." Multaw and Cyuw nodded again. "No, no, that won't work. They'll be Deadspeakers. She might actually talk to them regularly, if only to give them orders." More nods.

I considered the problem quietly for several steps. "Well, by the time we get them home, there'll be no escape!" I concluded cheerfully. They nodded. "Is that evil?"

"A little bit," Multaw said.

"Just a little, though," Cyew added.

I nodded. "Well, I'm sure I can live with myself afterwards. Now, let's find the poor fools—I mean, lucky people who'll be our new neighbors!"

Our search for poor fools—I mean, lucky people led us to walking around looking for a job-placement office. It was a little stall, but the three walls were covered by little bills listing jobs that were looking for people to do them. I was familiar with them. I'd gotten my job at the lumberyard from a job-placement office, and had even placed bills with them to hire other people. The system was familiar to me, and moving to another continent didn't seem to have changed it much.

That being said, there had been few changes. Back in the old continent, if you didn't have a bill that you'd written already office had let you have some paper for free, as well as a pen and ink. Granted, it was a small piece of paper, but it was free. The larger sheet that was less likely to be overlooked, they charged a little for. I remembered it was usually 5 bead-yutani per sheet of very cheap paper.

In the placement office we found, they offered the small sheets for twice that much, and the larger sheets for 25 bead-yutani. The pen and ink, we could borrow for ten bead-yutani for writing on one sheet. If we wanted to write on another sheet, we had to pay again. I'm surprised they didn't charge for the writing surface, but I kept that thought inside so I didn't give them ideas. Posting was a single bead-yutani, but by that point they'd already made their profit. Most of the bills posted was on their paper.

Another change was the postings were divided into three categories. One wall had the job placement bills I was familiar with, where people who were hiring wrote down what sort of people they were looking for. Another wall, bowing to the market pressures of the area, had listings from demesne trying to recruit people, looking for farmers, carpenters, farmers, sawyers, farmers, weavers, farmers… it went on like that for a while. I didn't know if it was from there not being enough farmers or people making the mistaken assumption that more farmers meant more or faster-growing crops

The third section was the inverse. People had posted bills about themselves. There were no names, but people described what they could do. Carpenters, smiths of various kinds, a surprising number of Horotracts and Whisperers who were unemployed by implication… presumably, it was in the hope that people looking for skilled workers would hire them.

I wasn't sure how effective that was, but it couldn't be completely useless if people were using it, could it?

Checking over the listings unfortunately didn't bring up any Deadspeakers. At least, none that I would hire. The Deadspeakers who'd posted of their services listed prices first thing, as well as used vague language and seemingly random letters that probably meant something to someone. It meant nothing to me, but I got the feeling it was probably something illegal.

Shrugging, I bought some paper and paid to use the pen as I started writing out our bill recruiting Deadspeakers.