175 Visiting the Harbor

Jayde and her group walked along the harbor inspecting the various buildings since this small port would play a vital roll in Jayde's future plans she was eager to check the area.The harbor was built in a U shape. The two wharves led out into a turning basin. There were three main docks for large ships to berth at, the fourth dock had a fairway, with slips for smaller boats to berth at. Jayde could see two small fishing boats moored at the berths.

At one of the docks, Jayde was shocked to see an ancient derrick device made out of wood. Walking over to the derrick, Jayde inspected the old lifting device. Elder Terrakeep was quick to explain how the derrick operated. According to Elder Terrakeep's explanation, the derrick was only used to lift large cages containing animals.

As Jayde questioned Elder Terrakeep about the loading and offloading of cargo, she wasn't surprised to find out that the mages of the Lower Realm relied on manual labor to load cargo vessels. Elder Terrakeep was astounded by the in-depth questions asked by Jayde. Not only did Jayde show a fantastic breadth of knowledge about shipping but she understood the complexity of loading and offloading of cargo.

Jayde was surprised to learn that Elder Terrakeep had such knowledge about shipping since the port of Shaihshire had never been used for transportation, as she and Elder Terrakeep chatted Jayde found out that Elder Terrakeep's family had been relocated to Shaihshire when the old king had built the village to run the harbor.

After the collapse of the old king's plans, the Terrakeep family had been forced to stay in Shaihshire. Even though the Terrakeep family had no harbor to supervise the elders of the family had insisted on teaching the younger generation about shipping and running a prosperous port in the hopes that the younger generation would have an opportunity to leave Shaihshire and gain employment at one of the seaside port cities.

During one of her conversations with Maianna, Jayde had been startled to find out that relocating to main cities in the Lower Realm was strictly controlled. As most cities had large slums, the guards of cities managed access to towns, in the hopes of curtailing the number of poor people moving into a city.

It was also during that discussion that Jayde found out just how vital a mage's life disk was, only mages who had bronze or higher grade life disks were allowed to move freely around the Lower Realm. Copper's who didn't have an authorized clan token were required to register at the town hall and apply for a permit to live and work in one of the main cities, whereas Stone's were automatically stopped at a city's access gate had had to show their owner's token before being allowed to enter.

Neither Jayde nor Isha had known that all city access gates had built in magical sensors which would automatically notify the guards should a copper or stone mage enter. Isha had been really apologetic when he overheard Maianna's conversation with Jayde. It was then that Jayde had found out that the previous contractors of the Proteus artifact had never been to the Lower Realm.

Isha had no idea how the golden tome ended up in the Lower Realm after the contract between the last contractor and the Proteus artifact was broken, Isha had fallen into a deep sleep, only to awaken two thousand years ago in the Lower Realm. During the two thousand years that Isha had been waiting for a new contractor, he had been limited to only observing the Freehold Estate and all his knowledge of the Lower Realm was based upon what he had learned via the mages in the Freehold Clan.

Surprising during the inspection of the warehouses alongside the docks, it was Nova who had knowledge about the structures and was able to point out that all the warehouses were still structural sound. The previous king of the Ayon Kingdom had spared no expense when building the harbor, and the stone warehouses had been developed using the best materials available.

Nova was quick to point out that the stone bricks had been bound together with enhanced mortarium. Unlike the mud mortar used in poor villages buildings to bind stone bricks together,enhanced mortarium was made with crushed limestone and sand. When magical enhanced water was added, it created a paste similar to cement which was used to bind the layers of stones together.

Not only had the layers of stones been bound together with enhanced mortarium but the inside and outside of the stones walls had been covered with enhanced mortarium, giving the buildings smooth white walls, and more importantly strengthening the walls. All of the warehouses were in excellent condition with only the glass windows and wooden window frames requiring replacement. Nova did point out that Jayde should replace the roof tiles as well to ensure that the ceilings did not leak.

When Nova mentioned to Jayde that she should purchase some enhanced mortarium to patch up a few of the cracks in walls, this was more for cosmetic reasons and was not required, Elder Terrakeep interrupted and informed Jayde and Nova that there was a large limestone quarry in the hills outside the village, which the stonemason and his sons used.

After inspecting the warehouses alongside the docks, Jayde then instructed Elder Terrakeep to take her to meet with the shipbuilder and afterward to meet with the stonemason. Elder Terrakeep was taken aback by Jayde's demand, but after a stern look from Maianna, he quickly led the group to the shipyard at the edge of the harbor.

Walking through the open shipyard, Jayde noticed a small fishing boat had been lifted up on wooden beams. Two young men were currently working on the fishing boat, while an old man was standing giving them instructions. As Jayde and her group walked up to the old man, he turned and looked at Jayde's group, before walking over.

"Elder Terrakeep, what brings you to here?" the old man asked suspiciously.

"Good morn, Master Abilles. This here is Lady Maianna and Lady Jayde the new owners of Shaihshire. Lady Jayde requested to meet with you," Elder Terrakeep said indicating Jayde and Maianna.

Master Abilles bowed slightly in greeting before turning to look at Jayde.

"Lady Jayde, what can I do for you?" he asked, his voice gruff.

Jayde looked at the old man standing in front of her, even though his shoulders were stooped with age, his weather-worn face bore the stamp of pride. His light blue eyes gazed straight at Jayde. This was a man not easily cowed, Jayde thought.

"Master Abilles, Elder Terrakeep informed me that you are a shipbuilder, I am curious to know if you only know how to build and repair fishing boats, or can you build cargo ships as well?" Jayde asked in her usual forthright manner.

Master Abilles was slightly taken aback by Jayde's forthright manner. Usually, people tended to um and ah before getting around to what they wanted.

"Lady Jayde I have been a master shipbuilder for over two hundred years, there isn't much that I don't know about ships," Master Abilles said bluntly.

"Unfortunately, there hasn't been many calls for cargo carry ships in Shaihshire since I forced to relocate here," Master Abilles said with some bitterness.

"Hmm, so just what would you require to build the first cargo carry ship for Shaihshire?" Jayde asked.

Master Abilles pale blue eyes stared at Jayde intently, before he asked cautiously: "Do you intend to open the trading port here?"

"Naturally."

Master Abilles eyes widen slightly at Jayde firm reply, even Elder Terrakeep was taken aback by Jayde's answer.

"Lady Jayde no one will ship their goods to Shaihshire, not with the large harbor available in Erstonia," Master Abilles said in a dismissive voice.

"Master Abilles, you are mistaken. I have no interest in opening a trading port like Erstonia. What I need are ships to carry my merchandise to all the trading ports in the Lower Realm."

"Hmph, Lady Jayde, while you might be able to send a ship out full of cargo, having those ships return with an empty cargo hold, would be too expensive, rather send your goods to Erstonia," Master Abilles advised.

Jayde lips curled into a half smile. "Leave the return voyage to me, I just need to know if you can build me fast seaworthy cargo ships."

Giving Jayde an assessing look Master Abilles nodded his head.

"Good," Jayde said succinctly. "Now do you have any building plans that I may have a look at?"

Master Abilles indicated to Jayde to follow him to his house, before leaving to follow the shipbuilder, Jayde asked Nova, Ash, and Raven if they could inspect the rest of the town. Nova gleefully accepted the task, while Raven promised to write a detailed report for Jayde.

While Ash, Raven, and Nova set off with Elder Terrakeep, Maianna and Jayde followed Master Abilles to his house. Once seated in his study Master Abilles retrieved his family plans.

Jayde carefully inspected the plans, as she pointed out specific changes she wanted, Master Abilles was initially skeptical about the design changes, but once Jayde described how future cargo was to be loaded into wooden containers, Master Abilles couldn't help being amazed at the whole concept.

Using Jayde's design with the derrick the people in Shaihshire would be able to load tons of cargo in a tenth of the time it usually took. As Jayde and Master Abilles discussed the design changes, Maianna looked on shaking her head slightly.

When Jayde and Maianna left the shipyard, Jayde had a list of staff required by Master Abilles to start building Jayde's first cargo ship. Master Abilles also gave Jayde advice on the seamen necessary to operate the cargo carry vessel.

One of the most important aspects of transportation via sea in Doha was that ships relied on water and air mages extensively. With a copper ranked water and air mage, a ship never had to worry about bad weather when traveling on the seas.

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