236 Shadows

As soon as Brym stepped out of Corco's study, he was confronted by one of the old Fastgrade accountants he had been acquainted with back in Arcavia.

*Alyn,* he matched name to face. *Somehow, they're all called Alyn.*

"Young Master Brymstock, welcome to Saniya," the accountant said with a bow.

"Thank you, Alyn. I'm glad to be finally here, reunited with everyone once more. I hope you've done a good job preparing my room for me." With a wink, Brym made sure his little jest would be understood as such. He remembered that this Alyn had always been too serious and direct for his own good, so the young merchant had to make sure he would not be misunderstood. Even so, the accountant managed to miss all the clues.

"Of course, young master. The old Fastgrade troupe has done it's best to prepare your new accommodations to the standards you would expect," Alyn replied in a stern voice and with no attempts at a smile. "Please follow me, I will show you to your new work space."

"Lead the way, Alyn."

With an immovable smile, young master Brym – the future head of Saniya's finance department – followed the stern accountant down the long hallways. He would not get into an argument about his guide's lack of humor, since he had bigger issues to worry about. Behind his back, Brym held the letter of orders he had just received from Corco. Not only did they indicate his future role within Saniya, they also gave him the authority to work freely, without supervision and with considerable resources.

While Corco had wanted to make Brym the head of the finance department right away, Brym wasn't so keen on the role without any contributions of his own. Although his big brother had talked about 'getting the bean counters in line', Brym knew that they would only breed resentment if he became everyone's boss right away, without any achievements. To his luck, Fadelio had sided with him and convinced Corco of a slower course of action.

Thus, the king had compromised. For now, the young merchant would only become boss of his own little division within the finance department. He would not be involved in budgetary work at all. Instead, he would only be responsible for the southern kingdom's still non-existent mint and the almost invisible banking industry of Saniya. Only if his current assignment went well would he be allowed to run the entire place and get access to core institutions like the treasury.

A ray of sunlight caught Brym's eye and interrupted his thoughts. When he looked up from the carpet below his feet, he realized that they had reached the outer parts of Rapra's upper castle floors. Through the open balconies, he was confronted with the morning sun, and a view of the entire city below him.

First was the lower portion of the castle itself, with its constant, hectic activity from servants, guards and accountants. Then came the Mayura River with its many piers and harbor. Ships traveled to and fro between the river banks and out into the ocean. Some were military vessels to guard and the three large river islands where most of Saniya's technology and military was stationed for now. Most however were merchant ships, on their way north to Amautu's kingdom or west to the Verdant Isles and Chutwa, all of them eager to make a fortune.

Farther yet, besides the river, the old city surrounded by the city wall could be found. When he had arrived in Saniya and made his way to the castle, he had already felt the energy and optimism of its people within every street and every plaza. Workers, merchants, priests or travelers, they all rushed along the wide roads while carrying all kinds of items to sell or show off. Even so, they still took the time to greet each other.

With the new king had come new rules, and the commoners were much more free to express themselves in public without fear of repercussions. From time to time, a young student would walk through the crowd, his head buried in some scribbled paper he had brought from the royal academy. In fact, ever since Corco had opened his school, it had grown quickly and integrated children from all over the Chawir marches. By now, almost one in five citizens of Saniya were students.

While Brym had taken to the place right from the start, the warm atmosphere of the people also felt foreign to him, unreal like a painting. As a man who had spent most of his youth on the run, traveling from kingdom to kingdom, the young merchant had never truly called any place his home, and Saniya was no exception. No matter how much he was welcomed by the people at the harbor or inside the castle, no matter how glad he was to see Corco and the others again, he still felt like a stranger, and the tension he would feel in an unknown, possibly hostile environment never quite left him. His anxiousness clenched his fingers, and with it Corco's written orders.

For Brym, they was more than just a piece of paper. Maybe, he hoped, it would allow him to find a home at last. Maybe equipped with a mission, with purpose and responsibilities, he would have something more, something that would bind him to this place and make him one of its own. If all else failed, he would still be distracted by the mountains of work, at least for a little while.

After a lengthy walk and far too much time for his private thoughts, Alyn and Brym had reached their goal. Behind a simple, innocuous door within the lower castle, they uncovered a large, open room equipped with at least a dozen work desks. Officials ran back and forth and carried pieces of paper between them, with even more urgency than the people within the city had displayed when they had carried their goods.

"Young Master Brym, welcome to Saniya's finance department," Alyn said with a pride in his voice Brym couldn't understand.

"I'm glad to be part of the team again," he answered as he offered a friendly nod to one of the accountants near the entrance. As Alyn and Brym marched through the rows upon rows of tables, all the old accountants from the former Fastgrade merchant company greeted him with warm enthusiasm. Although the many Saniya youngsters who had since become their apprentices looked confused at first, they still followed their masters' lead and did the same.

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"Young master Brym, this will be your new office space for now." His words spoken, Alyn slid open the paper door to Brym's private office. Since he wasn't in charge of the whole finance department for now, he wouldn't get the large office at the end of the hall. Even so, he was in charge of an independent sub-division. As a result, he had been given his own little office, removed from the noise of the main hall.

"Thank you, Alyn," he said with a practiced, natural smile while he took a seat behind his desk.

"I have already prepared all the relevant documents on the kingdom's finances to bring you up to speed, young master. Just call for me once you have oriented yourself, or if you need anything at all."

With that, the stern accountant closed the door behind him and left Brym to his own devices. Hidden behind the paper door, the young merchant could see shadows rush back and forth, so close to him and yet impossible to grasp.

With a sigh, the finance department's new recruit picked up the first paper from the stack of documents to his right and concentrated on his work. As the stack to his right became shorter, a new stack to his left came into being. All the while, the silhouettes of his fellow coworkers created a constant background noise.

Once he had finished about half the stack, he had managed to get a rough idea of the kingdom's financial dealings, as well as their trade volume and what could only be considered a laughable amount of money lending and banking within Saniya. For the moment, his goal was to turn this loose and weak branch of Saniya's economy into one of the trunks the entire system would be built upon.

While it sounded like a grand goal, Corco had already done quite a bit of the prep work and the two of them had worked out a detailed plan of operations a long time ago. Now that he had an in-depth look into the actual numbers, it was time to start his work proper. Thus, he stood and marched towards the busy hall just outside his office.

"Alyn," he called out of the opened door and into the de-silhouetted crowd. "Come into my office."

After he had returned to his desk, Brym began to scribble down some notes to make a preliminary plan for the future of his little division. For now, he had a lot of work to do, but at least he wouldn't have to do it alone. Soon, Alyn appeared again.

"You needed me for something, young master?" Alyn asked with a stiff bow.

"Sit." Brym pointed at the chair in front of his desk, and the accountant obliged. "First off, I'll inform you of the orders I received from the king."

"Am I allowed to know their contents?" a wide-eyed Alyn asked.

"You need to know them, actually, since I was ordered to create a new sub-division within the department of finance. You are its first member. Here is a number of other names I want to be added to the group, five people in total." Brym stretched over the desk and handed Alyn the paper he had been working on before.

"Thank you, young master," an enthusiastic Alyn replied. Since he had been with them since the days of the Fastgrade Merchant Company, Alyn would know how much Corco valued Brym, his younger brother by oath. As a result, even without a raise, any of the experienced workers within the department would be thrilled to work for the new banking division, if only to get in the king's good graces. Anyone who had done so before had found riches or fame soon after.

"And... what does our special department do, if I may ask?" Alyn spoke in a careful tone and leaned forward as if he had just become part of a conspiracy.

"For now, our most immediate goal is to manufacture an over-abundance of copper supplies within the southern kingdom, and a shortage of silver and gold. That part shouldn't be too difficult. Our trade volume is already astonishing compared to our low overall population, and we have two good-quality copper mines running at high capacity. In fact, ever since Cashan's mines have been reopened, Kapra's own Lord Ogulno seems to have increased his own output for some bizarre reason." Although Brym repeated what he had read in the documents earlier, he really couldn't understand the reason behind House Ogulno's actions.

"It seems like Lord Ogulno has concluded that Cashan wants to challenge his position as the main copper supplier of the south, so he increased the volume in turn to oppose them." Though Alyn answered, it didn't clear up Brym's confusion.

"So it said in the documents... but what's the point? Do they want to show off how much copper they have in the ground? Even though this Lord Ogulno seems a bit dim, he should have a servant or two who can understand that an excess of copper on the market will only reduce prices and harm both Cashan and Kapra, right?"

Again, Alyn leaned forward and lowered his voice. This time, he even looked around the empty office to check for spies.

"According to rumor, that is exactly the idea. House Ogulno cannot know just how efficient Cashan's new tools and mining methods are. They may think that Cashan's mining operations have been started for the same reason they did under the previous Lord Villca: They have been launched so the north-east can be less dependent on Kapra. Since they are born out of political necessity, the mines are not profitable in the least. If Lord Ogulno reduces the cost of copper by flooding the market, Cashan's operations would lose them even more money than before. Thus, they would be forced to give up on their attempts and go back to buying from House Ogulno."

"Those are just rumors, right?" a baffled Brym asked. "How could you possibly know all this?"

"The ghost warriors have been snooping around Kapra, and their findings in the matter are considered an open secret in the castle. As a result, this information should be treated as confirmed."

Brym only had to think for a moment before a wide grin spread on his face.

"That's good. In fact, that's great. This way, Lord Ogulno's misunderstanding has already made things a lot easier for us. All we need to do now is give the market a little extra push. Since Ogulno wants low copper prices so bad, we may as well oblige him. First off: I want you to talk with the departments in charge of trade and borders. I want to make sure we only buy goods entering into the kingdom with silver and gold, and I want to make sure we only sell goods going out for copper. I also want the crown to pay anyone on its payroll in copper coins only. Whatever silver and gold is left over will be hoarded."

"That's easy to enforce so long as the products are purchased by the crown, but most of our trade volume comes from independent merchants," Alyn reminded.

"Not an issue at all. We'll just put a tariff on all outgoing copper and all incoming silver and gold. That way, the merchants will naturally do what we want. After all, they're always most interested in their margins."

"Very well. I will take care of it right away," Alyn bowed again and stood up to begin his work.

"No need to hurry," Brym held him back. "First, inform every member of our new team of their reassignment. We won't start with our work until everything is properly organized."

"I will get to it right away," Alyn repeated and marched towards the door.

"Oh, and another thing."

"Yes?" Again, the accountant turned around, his hand already on the door. If he was irritated, it was impossible to tell.

"We need to talk to some craftsmen about getting a few custom presses made."

"Presses?" a confused Alyn asked.

"Yes. High pressure, easy to handle and easy to mass-produce with. That is the second part of our orders: It's high time Saniya got its own mint off the ground."