[Deposit, Riches]
“What are you going to do, Rose?”
“I really am not sure, Lu, I just hope that I haven’t wrecked the food economy for Emain Ablach. I mean look at those fields after a day and a half. They are growing so fast you can almost see them grow. I mean even if we sold to thirty villages I don’t think that would be enough. Someone with big money would come in and buy up the farm output as cheaply as they could then ship it to where they’d get maximum gold for it. So we need two things, someone to manage a non profit to buy all of the farmers output. Sell some at reasonable prices to the town vendors. Then sell the rest at a higher price, somewhere else. I’ll be right back Juliet said we needed seeds and farm equipment for the thirty four farmers you signed up yesterday.”
I jumped to Juliet’s world and authored the seeds and equipment, maybe not all food would grow as fast. First thing first we need some ambassadors, the actors have done great but I’m sure they don’t want to hop around the country they came here to act and they have a commitment to the town to put on one play every month.
So we need some real ambassadors, that’s town business so Arthur. I will talk to him tomorrow. For now I jumped the seed and farm equipment to the farm portal. I know who I needed to talk to, Draco. Lu and Mossbeard were waiting for me and we all portaled home together.
I walked down to Draco’s lair, made to knock when I heard.
“Come in Rose, what’s wrong, I thought you’d be pretty happy about how things went in the market.”
“Oh yes I am, the market went really, the cartel sold to one vendor so it made some money but that poor vendor didn’t have a single sale, so he lost a fortune. I tried to warn him but he wouldn’t listen. But I have a bigger problem than that. The seeds the farmers planted yesterday are already almost as high as my knee.”
“That sounds like the kind of problem you want to have, abundant cheap food.”
“Abundant worthless food, the town doesn’t have enough citizens to buy all that food. I just wanted enough food, without the farmers having to kill themselves producing it. So I had the thought, could we drain some magic from that massive magical field?”
“Sure, every time we need to refill our magic we could go down there and suck some in, but it’d probably take years even if we filled up everyday. Then there are the trees, what happens to them if the magical density drops. Does their consciousness fail if the density drops below a certain point?”
“Good point, we can’t take a chance with sentient creatures like that. The safest thing I can think of is selling to a fictional world. Dwarves don’t like to farm, they like to mine.”
“Well, doesn't the same thing hold true for dwarves in our world?”
“Yes it does but if it’s a fictional world, I have more control over the exchange rate. I’m not going through all this work to throw out a rich cartel to replace the eight member cartel with a sixty six member cartel. I just made the problem eight times bigger.”
“You have infinite wealth right?”
“Why don’t you buy all the farm output for a fair price, that makes each family comfortable but not rich. Then hire all the unemployed in town, to move said food wherever you want. Sell some at a good profit to Dwarves but give the rest away to the poorest of the poor. Earth has people starving to death everyday. You started out trying to solve a hunger problem here in Wyldwood. Maybe you can make a dent in solving it on Earth as well.”
“Well I don’t really need to make a profit at all so I wouldn’t need to sell to dwarves. But I want to write and I still have six more years as an apprentice, but I have the perfect candidate in mind for the job. The problem is he wants to write too. Thanks for talking this out with me. I’m not sure what to do but I know what I can’t do so that helps a lot. Would you mind watching over the actors again tomorrow?”
“Rose, no need to ask, as long as our friends are potentially in danger I’ll be there to make sure they are safe. What would I ever say to Maz, if something happened to Groucho or Ruby or you if something happened to Opal.”
“Thanks Draco”
I was up extra early and jumped to Juliet's World, I authored ten times the normal amount of expensive items and five times for the lower priced items. Which I portaled to the warehouse site. Mossbeard and forty more gnomes were already waiting for me. Mossbeard and I had paired magic paper, he would contact me if any of the supplies needed to be refilled. I was now free to move to other tasks.
But then vendor number six arrived.
“I’ve decided Rose, I’d like to sell you my whole operation, warehouse and store front. Just come by my warehouse later and we can work out the details.”
“I’ll try to be there by mid morning, if that’s okay with you?”
“Yes, that’ll be fine.”
First I wanted to reward the trees for protecting the farms, but how do you reward a sentient tree? First I’d ask McCracken if he will audition some trees. I jumped back to the tower, everyone was having their breakfast so I gave Ruby a paired magic paper and asked her to contact me if anything unusual happened at the marketplace today.
“McCracken, do you have any plans to perform Macbeth at the theater? I have a number of birch trees, who want to audition because they think they’d be perfect for the Birnam Wood scene.”
“It’s the Scottish play or the bard’s play. You never say the main character’s name in a theater, it will cause a disaster, Rose.”
“You can’t believe that McCracken, it’s just superstition.”
“Oh yeah, in early November 2024, I mistakenly uttered his name while touring the reconstructed Shakespeare's Globe in London. Less than twenty four hours later, Trump was elected president. A disaster Rose, a literal disaster. So please never say that name again, never. But if you have some trees that can walk, I’ll be happy to audition them, they can’t talk as well can they?”
“Yes they walk and talk and don't care for your knock knock joke.”
“Wait, are you serious, you really have walking, talking trees. They should be onstage with us at the market place. Who would know more about produce than a tree. Please take me to them, right now.”
“Rose, can I come see the talking trees? I'd really like to see them, to talk to them.”
“Sure honey, as soon as you finish your breakfast we’ll go.”
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Opal is usually a very slow eater. I’ve seen her nurse a sweet bun for an hour while she drew at the counter in the bookstore. But not today, I was afraid she’d choke because she ate so fast. McCracken finished his coffee and we portaled to the farm site. I was dismayed to see that the planting of the first farms from two days ago was already hip height. I saw a moving grove of trees in the distance. We headed in their direction and they in ours.
Woody was at the front of the moving grove, we soon met in the middle of a bare field, where the tree encircled us as usual. Woody bowed stiffly to Opal and said.
“Knock, Knock”
Opal replied. “Who’s there?”
“Pine.”
“Pine who?”
“Pine-ting to the fact that I’m rooting for you! It’s so nice to meet you fey witch, you must be Opal, my name is Woodrow, but you can call me Woody.”
Opal clapped delightedly.
“It’s nice to meet you Woody.”
“You must be the great director, McCracken. I already summoned the birches, they are so excited to meet you. Thank you Rose for bringing them both to meet me.”
“Your welcome Woody. I came to thank you for protecting the woods from the arsonists, I wanted to know if there was anything I could do in way of a thank you gift.”
“Thank you Rose, that’s very kind of you. But trees don’t really see the need to collect possessions that seems to be something only humans and crows get up to. It’s very confusing to us. Always toiling away to collect more stuff, building bigger houses to fit it all. Opal I have a question for you, what do trees eat?”
“Sunlight and water.”
“How very scientific of you, you sound like Maz, but we snack on root vegetables with branch dressing, hoot, hoot, hoot.”
Opal was laughing gleefully, when a smaller grove of six birches approached. They bowed low to McCracken but didn’t speak. McCracken smoothly bowed back.
“Birches we are entertaining in the market today, I hear that you want to do the Birnam Wood scene in the Bard’s play. If you’d agree to come with me we’ll do that scene, and if you know any other of the bard’s plays.”
One of the birches in the back quietly said, “I will come, we should all go sisters, to be on stage, instead of being made into one. I will trod the boards.” The others all tittered in seeming agreement.
“Woody you haven’t heard anymore threats against the farms, gnomes or actors have you?”
“No Rose, but Elma and her brother Elmer would like to go with you, Elmer would like to live in the tower, Maz said you already gave your permission and Elma would like to live at the bookstore, even though it has so many books around.”
“You don’t like stories, Woody?”
“No we love stories, that’s why Elmer and Elma want to go with you, to see what you get up to next. It’s books we don’t like, Rose. How would you like to read a story printed on a human being that’s been run through a wood chipper.”
“I’m sorry Woody, that was insensitive of me. I’d love to take Elmer, Elma and the birches with us but are you quite sure it’s safe to leave the magical field?”
“Oh yes, Rose, it’s perfectly safe.”
“Alright then that’s great, well I have to get back and open the store, but thank you again for defending the farms.”
Two elm trees walked forward. The smaller of the two, around six feet tall, made a short bow.
“I’m Elma ma’am, and this is my brother Elmer.”
“It’s nice to meet you both, but please just call me Rose, okay?”
“Okay, ma’a, err. Rose.”
McCracken, Opal and the birches portaled to town hall the closest portal to the marketplace. Elmer, Elma and I portaled to the library. Where I introduced Daisy, and Doug to Elmer and Elma. Then Elma and I portaled to the bookstore.
“Good Morning EG, this is Elma, Elma, meet EG, who is the magical bookstore Enigmatic Parchments”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Elma.”
“It’s nice to meet you EG, are you the one who chops up the trees.”
“No Elma, I sell the books if no human is around, to help the customers. I make recommendations based on what other books the customer has liked in the past. What’s your favorite book?”
“"The Botany of Desire" by Michael Pollan.”
“Good choice so just based on that one bit of knowledge about you, I’ll try a safe pick, ‘This Is Your Mind on Plants’ also by Michael Pollan.”
“That sounds wonderful, but I can’t read anything that might be printed on a cousin. Do you have any books printed on papyrus, that’s a much more distant relative.”
“Actually we do have the Egyptian Book of the Dead written on papyrus with cinnabar ink. It’s very expensive, but you’re welcome to read it. Do you know hieroglyphics?”
“Oh yes, many people think Egypt is all sand but it actually had many trees, my favorites were the fig and the olive.”
“You’ll find the scrolls in the third aisle from the door about halfway on the right, second shelf. I’d love to discuss it with you when you finish it.”
“That would be pleasant, EG.”
With that Elma wandered down the third aisle.
