592. Gifts of Silver

592. Gifts of Silver

The Duchess watched the group leave, ruminating on the meeting. Adam’s behaviour was queer, queerer than she had expected. She could sense some distaste of nobles from him, something which would lead to his death within years if he did not hide it better, but there was something else. Though he had tried his best to hide his thoughts early in the conversation, he had relaxed upon mention of the Iyr, but there was something else which had changed his behaviour, something which had unnerved her, even beside her guards.

“Your Grace, Stone Sword will arrive at noon,” one of her guards reminded her.

“Prepare the garden,” she said, before a scroll was brought to her. Her eyes scanned the text, refreshing her knowledge about Stone Sword. She had already prepared her offer for the warrior, and then an offer if he refused, and a final offer she would not surpass, even for his abilities. Still, her mind was plagued by Adam’s expression.

Adam thought about the gifts she had presented in order to meet with them. He had half expected her to force them to make a deal with her, but upon letting them go, he realised that they had little choice but to work with the Duchess.

The gifts the Duchess had presented them were technically not the greatest items, and in terms of pure gold value, technically the other families may have offered more. However, the Duchess had offered them exactly enough coin to hand a hundred gold between the members of Fate’s Golden, including the porters, farmers, the Aswadians, save for the Red River Squad.

When they returned back to the guild, the others understood why Adam had met with her.

She had offered them weapons made of seabronze, finely crafted by the greatest smiths who worked for her family. Each weapon was very deliberately picked too, with the Iyrmen receiving weapons of their families. The farmers and porters received the weapons they typically used too, while the archers received bows made of bronzewood.

It wasn’t just weapons, though, as the Duchess had handed over two items which almost forced Adam to meet with her. Laygak and Jaygak received such weapons, as their companions had, but they had also been gifted plate mail made of fine steel. The plate mail well made, with very few markings, save for the mark of the smith’s workshop. With some minor adjusting, the pair would have the greatest armour available to them.

‘How scary,’ Adam thought, holding up the silver plaque which had been handed over to him by the knight who had escorted them back. The Duchess had not only gifted them thousands of gold, but also this silver plaque. It was fairly large, about the size of a letter, with various symbols all across it. One was the symbol of her family, but other symbols were also engraved into the silver. There were magical runes engraved all along the edge of the plaque too, which would be used to test its authenticity.

The others had offered similar items, but they had all offered bronze plaques. Bronze plaques would allow them to trade within East Port with very little issue. It also set all gate fees in the region to one silver per person at most, even during war time. It set the tax of goods at a certain rate too, depending on the items to be sold.

“Silver plaques can only be handed out by the greatest of families in each region,” Jaygak explained. “They can be used to set the gate fees in other regions, but business can only be conducted seamlessly in East Aldland.”

“Are there other plaques?” Adam asked.

“Gold plaques and platinum plaques,” Jaygak confirmed. “They can be used to conduct business in all of Aldland without issue.”

Adam had seen only the greatest families had offered them bronze plaques, but the Duchess had been the only one to offer them the silver plaque. “Can it be used for other things outside of it’s formal scope?”

“Yes,” Jaygak confirmed. “It alone can assist us in speaking with other nobles, especially since it’s the Duchess’ silver plaque. Gold plaques affect the entirety of Aldland, and can only be handed out by the royal family and the ducal families. Platinum plaques hold an even greater power by themselves as they are able to ward off most pirates. If one is awarded a platinum plaque, it means you hold a special relationship with the entirety of the kingdom, and are worth a great amount. It signals to the pirates that you have great loot on board, and that the navy and army will step in if something were to happen.”

“Damn.”

“Within weeks, tens of thousands of peasants formed together in a crusade against the east. The navies of the eastern states began to assault the empire with full force, and the navies of the western states assisted in patrolling their empty regions. It was a difficult fight, one they were no doubt going to lose.”

“Yeah?”

Jaygak inhaled deeply. “Aswadasad received the herbs which were found in the Confederacy in greater abundance. They were imported cheaply to deal with the plague. They even escorted the ships to Aldland, though their ships weren’t a welcome sight at first, until the situation was explained to them. Aldland, too, was suffering from the plague, brought by the birds and rats. The two great forces had been preparing to war again, so they had enough gold to spend, but the Confederacy made sure the herbs were sold for a measly sum. They heard of the situation to the far east, thousands of miles from their borders, but the Confederacy promised to bring more herbs to each land so the plague was dealt with, even while warring with the eastern empire.”

“Was the Iyr affected by the plague?”

“We Iyrmen dealt with the plague quickly. We lost very few Iyrmen, those who were not in the Iyr at the time. We brought their bodies back to the Iyr.” Jaygak smiled, before continuing the tale. “The Confederacy had never once broken the rules for the platinum plaques. They were the first to carry on the tradition after the empire of the Shen of Shens was broken and lost the territories within the region. It spurred the other nearby realms to follow the tradition too, since such trade was typically vital for the various nations.”

“When they finished unloading the herbs, they were rewarded greatly. Thousands of shields, spears, swords, and hundreds of thousands of arrows, brought back to the Confederacy by their Asfarawa ships, and dozens of other ships from both Aldland and Aswadasad. Such cooperation of great kingdoms hadn’t been seen since the time of the Demonic Devastation some seven hundred years prior. The assistance proved quite useful, since the Confederacy lost the war, but the Suruk Empire had paid such a heavy price, that it fell within a few years.”

Adam whistled, and reached up to wipe a near teary eye.

“A ship was destroyed by an sea kingdom some time later, apparently a storm had brought the ship to a sacred area. Upon finding out what the ship meant, the sea kingdom sent back an apology. It put the Confederacy and the kingdom in an awkward spot, but eventually the issue was resolved when the sea kingdom paid for their mistake, and the ships were painted at the bottom so the sea kingdoms knew. There was a question if it was enough, but the issue was put to rest as marriages were formed between some of the Confederacy and the sea kingdoms beneath.”

“That’s good,” Adam replied. It would have been easy for one of them to escalate the situation, but he was glad that it had been resolved lightly.

“Lord Morkarai’s marriage was one of such.”

“Ah?” Adam smiled wider. “How adorable. The story about the ships are pretty cool too. Do they have more ships now?”

“One ship per state, though some are river boats,” Jaygak explained.

“Are the river boats respected too?”

“We Iyrmen are raised with a saying from the story. The Iyr has its children, the Confederacy its Black and Yellow.”

Adam stared at her long and hard. Adam had understood its severity previously, but now? He couldn’t even joke about it. “Cool.”

What's this? A region Adam won't travel for at least fifty years?