[Curiously, Familiar]

  “Good morning EG how are things going, any problems I should know about, anything you need from me.”

  “No Rose, thank you for asking, how are you coping with Sparky being away.”

  “Good EG, but it came to me in my sleep, I think, I’m the reason that Sparky had to leave.”

  “Why do you think that, Rose?”

  “When Arjun first got here, he said that ten days prior, Sparky had popped back up on his Locate Spell. On the very day that I removed Sparky’s curse. Maybe when I authored Sparky’s curse away, I somehow removed his cloaking spell as well.”

  “I suppose that there is a slight possibility that is true, if you had told Sparky that this outcome was a result of removing the curse, I’m sure he would have asked you to remove the curse anyway. Just imagine feeling like you are starving for over three hundred years, Rose, and there is nothing you can do about it. He’d tried over the centuries but nothing ever worked. That’s why he assumed that you wouldn’t be able to remove the curse either, because he never could. Also the past nine days were the happiest I’ve ever seen in the two hundred and fifty years I’ve known him.”

  “Thanks EG, that’s really kind of you to say.”

  “No Rose, it is the truth. If you really want to know if it was curse removal that somehow negated his cloaking spell, you should ask Draco.”

  “You’re right EG, no one knows more about magic than Draco.”

  Just then Arthur portaled in.

  “Hi Arthur, you’re here early, what can I help you with?”

  “Rose, the farmer’s cartel, has threatened to stop shipping produce, meats and other farm products to Wyldwood, if I don’t shut down the portal network and declare that giving away free food is illegal. I have until tomorrow, after that no more food for the town.”

  “If they don’t sell their food here, where else could they sell it?”

  “Duskhaven is the closest town to Wyldwood, next closest is Tranquility, but that’s be an overnight trip to bring products to market. So almost for sure they’d go to Duskhaven.”

  “Arthur what if I guarantee the food will be delivered, but not by the cartel. The only people who get free food at Lilies or the pub are those that would go hungry otherwise. I just need a list of the products, prices, and who to sell it to. If we can’t figure that out in one day, I’ll fill the town square with free food. So tell the vendors that if they balk at changing from the rich profiting off of hunger. It just so happens I was already talking about how terrible starving is. All that land on the other side of the town, close to the gnome colony, is that town land?”

  “Rose I’ll have Michael, bring you full lists, in an hour. Yes the town owns the deed to all that land. Are you sure this will work?”

  “Gaurenteed it’ll work, and instead of the rich gentlemen farmers starving us out, we’ll be forcing them to watch their products rot. When you have them at your mercy, you promise me the only way you agree to do business with them again is if they agree to pay town taxes just like every other citizen. If they make a profit off of the citizens it’s only fair that they pay.”

  “Thank you Rose, I’ll also have the vendors here by noon, to give you a list of what is needed.”

  “Arthur, let Nim know what is going on, so she can also inform Lily, this affects them both and they should have a say. Also I may want to buy that land, could you ask the town council how much they want for it?”

  “Nim already knows and is probably on her way here now. How much of that land do you want, Rose?”

  “Ahh, all of it, if it can be farmed, I’ll know that by noon, I hope.”

  With that Arthur portaled back to town hall.

  I stare off into the void. Juliet Hello Juliet, I really need your help, please come to the bookstore Juliet. A couple of seconds later Juliet appeared before adjusting her dress.

  “This better be important. Rose, Ivy and I were trying to have a private moment.”

  “I can see that Juliet, you have some straw there in your hair, should I pluck it out? You two really do love that barn don’t you. Anyway I need your opinion on farmland. Some rich people are trying to make the town a party to their greed, and forcing poor families to starve.” I pull the final pieces of straw from her hair.”

  “So you have a plan to crush the evil rich, don’t you?”

  “Yes I do, they're not farmers. They rent out their land to the real farmers, who do all of the work and get pennies while their rich landlords get richer. Mossbeard I’m sorry to interrupt your work, but we have a crisis on our hands. Please take Juliet to town hall, have Arthur or Michael give you a map of the town land. Then portal to the gnome colony, hire twenty five gnomes to accompany her, maybe clear some forest so she can tell me if the land can even be farmed. Then go back to the colony and ask to speak to Alvyn then tell him exactly what is going on and that if the land is farmable I want to hire every gnome that is available to be hired starting tomorrow to clear the forest and build farmhouses and barns.”

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  Just then Lily and Nim portaled in followed closely by Paula.

  “What are we going to do?”

  “Well Paula how do you feel about meeting with the vendors, if they don’t want to deal with us, because they have already been bought out by the cartel. Tell them, if they won’t buy it we’ll be giving our food away until we can arrange to start our own market, where we undercut their prices until we force them out of business. Our cartel has one guiding principle, no one in Wyldwood should go to bed hungry.”

  “Rose it would be my honor, in my old country, over twelve percent of the people were so poor they required assistance just to buy food. The so-called greatest country in the world, while the richest of them made obscene yearly salaries. It’ll be nice to see their cartel get what’s coming to them.”

  “What about Nim and I, Rose?”

  “First of all, if someone could go to the theater and tell them what is going on and ask that they come here to help, I would really appreciate it. Lily, we'll need portal muffins, maybe lots of them, plus lots of free bread. Nim, if that land is farmable I’ll try and hire as many gnomes as they have, so they’ll need food. We could open a second soup kitchen up there all for free, I’ll go after the store closes and create a magical field, and maybe another magical bakery next to the second magical soup kitchen. What about you ladies can you think of anything I’ve forgotten?”

  Then they portaled to start getting everything ready. I’m sorry Sparky, I know you said no new civic projects, but as someone who has known hunger for three hundred years I believe that you’d tell me to do this.

  Mossbeard portaled back in.

  “Juliet says it’s perfect farmland, you should buy it all, The elder says the gnomes will clear all the land, build the houses and barns, but instead of money they want a column of farms that border the colony to be controlled by gnomes.”

  I wrote out my plan for the land, asked the Elder to look it over and make whatever changes would be necessary to make it legal. Handed it to Mossbeard and asked him to go back to Alvyn and wait for a contract.

  I portaled to townhall, found Arthur in his office and told him I wanted to buy all of the land today, the town could name its price but for one year tax free. He called a town council vote for one.

  I portaled to the tower and went to Draco’s lair, where Draco and Opal and I made plans for later tonight. Then I portaled back to the store. McCracken, Gigi, Henry and Martha were waiting for me. Paula already explained what was going on, so I just asked them to help and they instantly agreed. They portaled to the bakery to get portal muffins.

  I was starting to get nervous, it was getting close to one and I’d have to portal to city hall. I wanted that paperwork before the meeting. I’d worried in vain, Mossbeard was back. Signed paperwork from the gnome elders and another contract for the town.

  I portaled to town hall, I gave both of the contracts to Arthur to look over, he smiled and nodded his head yes. We walked into the council meeting together.

  “As Burgomaster I call this emergency session of the town council to order. You all have been shown the extortion letter that arrived at townhall from the farmers cartel. Either we agree to let the poor people of the town starve, or they will cut off our supply of food. Rose Ryding is here with another proposal.”

  “Fellow citizens, thank you for allowing me to speak here today. First I’ve given a contract to the Brugomaster, I’ll just briefly say what it contains. First as to the threat to starve our fellow citizens I propose a three fold plan. First until the new farms are producing, I will guarantee a supply of food through our magical portals, second I propose to buy all of the town land adjacent to the gnome colony for whatever price you the council determines is fair, thirdly as per the contract the land will all be split up into individual farms and given fifty percent to the farmers who have worked the farm for a year the other fifty percent ownership will revert to the town. One row of farms directly adjacent to the gnome colony will be owned one hundred percent by the gnome colony and taxable by the town in the second year of operation. Do any of you councilpersons have any questions or suggestions?”

  Councilman Orin Underhill got to his feet, “And what do you get out of this deal, Miss Ryding.”

  “Councilperson Underhill, I get a great deal of work for the foreseeable future but I also go to bed at night knowing that Wyldwood won’t sell out its most vulnerable citizens so that rich people who don’t even pay taxes to the town, can become even richer.”

  Underhill continued, “If you are willing to put up ten thousand gold as collateral, I propose we sell Miss Ryding the land for one gold. The ten thousand to be returned when the farmers and town become co-owners one year from now, is that something you’d be willing to agree to, knowing how much it will cost you to develop that land.”

  “Yes, I’ll happily agree to it.”

  Then the debate began.

  “Miss Ryding we have a question, why give half ownership back to the town, why not give one hundred percent to the farmer or conversely why not give one hundred percent to the town”

  “Councilwoman, if the town owns fifty percent it can block any attempt to combine farms, which led to where eight families can dictate terms to a town, also that works in reverse, if in the future less enlightened councilpersons or Burgomasters were voted in they couldn’t combine all the parcels and sell without the farmers approval. Also farmers that own a fair share of the farm will work much harder to improve the land, then hire laborers or sharecroppers.”

  “Miss Ryding one last question or comment. Your last initiative, the free portals, have received almost universal praise. But it’s caused havoc for the stable owners and workers.”

  “Yes Councilman, I’ve heard that as well, that’s why they all with the cartel sharecroppers will be offered plots of land before anyone else, except for the column already sold to the gnome colony, assuming that you agree to sell to me, that is.”

  “How soon before you can transfer us the ten thousand gold?”

  “Instantly.”

  “Make that transfer ten thousand and one gold.”

  I jumped to Juliet World and authored ten thousand and one gold. I had to jump back and forth a few times. Gold is very heavy.