Chapter 471 471 Dealing with Faeries
Darius, the helicopter pilot, came over to Wolfe with an expectant look.
"Should we take the big bird? It will blend in with the human gear that's already in the area, and we can bring them more stuff." She suggested.
"I suppose it wouldn't hurt. They're going to find out that we have it eventually, and if we have enough gear to load one of the containers, I think that we can swap with them for an empty one to take back.
The last time I was there, they were looking to get more delivered so that they would have enough for their delivery needs, so they should have some.
We will have to make sure we have enough of the good stuff, though, since the Morgana Coven isn't getting modern weapons at this point. They're working the Gormana's army, and I still don't trust the humans not to turn our own weapons on us." Wolfe explained.
The Witches calculated what they had on hand versus what they wanted to ship to the Covens and reluctantly nodded.
"We have enough to fill a container. Clothing, some utility magical items, a few boxes of spells, lots of magical reagents that they wouldn't be able to grow without the incredible mana density we have down in the gardens, and then a load of weapons and bows to the usual trade standard." Priya decided.
"That should do. Let's get it loaded on a boat, and we will fly it south today. They will be happy to see the trade goods, and we can earn some goodwill from Gormana, as well as their cash."
The witches laughed at that, then realized that if they had Gormana cash, they could buy parts for all the mundane vehicles that they were converting to magical power or even have whole units delivered to them for refurbishment. It would be a great advantage for the locals to be able to get equipment without bullet holes and blood in them.
It would be an interesting change in the dynamic between regions, but being able to buy brand-new mundane vehicles from anyone would be a big advantage for the Frozen Wastes, who were used to relying on the scraps of abandoned military equipment.
How they would get the equipment that Wolfe was sure to request here to them was another question, but there was no doubt that he would soon be in a position to buy anything that the Witches requested out of the common funds from the gear that they were selling.
If this load they were preparing for the boat was put on the regular market in Morgana City, they would be filthy rich but spread across the whole village of Forest Grove, it would be half a year's wages for everyone at market rate in Morgana Fortress City.
"How are they even able to afford all this?" Priya asked when she realized the scale of what they were shipping off.
"They intend to split it between twenty or so villages and sell some to travelling merchants who are going further out into the swamps to trade. That should make it a manageable amount for everyone, but then we likely won't have to be there every ten days if we're going to bring this much at once." Wolfe agreed.n./o-/v(-e)-l)-b.)1-)n
He also wondered how the oil production village was doing. They should have a harvest rather soon, and it was going to cause a huge uproar among the Gormana merchants when they started to ship that amount of Palm Oil out.
In the end, it took two riverboats to get everything, including the gear, and the first shift of workers moved to the new airstrip. The trip was over two hours by boat, but not terrible on a day like this when the river was flat and smooth.
On a day when it was running fast, or the wind was whipping up waves, it would be a much slower run through open grasslands for part of the trip, but the boat drivers caught the signal for the entrance to the cavern on the first try, and after carefully poking it with a stick to make sure they weren't going to drive into a rock wall, both boats managed to enter without incident.
"Wow, this place is nice. Oh, there are already carts. That ramp looks steep, though, so watch how much you load on them. There's only a dozen of us here." One of the men cautioned them.
The Witches frowned, and Wolfe realized that they were outside the zone of the Fae Forest's effects. Until he found a way to isolate them from the curse here, they wouldn't be able to communicate properly.
The problem was that he didn't know what part of the effects over the Forest were blocking the curse. If it was part of the Fae Magic, there was nothing that he could do. But if it was something else, maybe he could still work on it.
But there might be a solution. They had a Pixie here with them right now, a Familiar to one of the Witches who had volunteered to be a Pilot.
"Little Pixie, would you agree to trade me a service? I want to suppress the curses here so that everyone can talk to each other. Do you know how to do that?" Wolfe asked.
The Pixie thought for a moment, then nodded. "The Pixies know how. I will cast the spell for you in exchange for a favour."
Wolfe smiled at the tiny creature's negotiation strategy.
"Name your favour in advance, and I will consider it." Wolfe offered.
"I want a shiny new airplane. With my own chair. And you can't make it boring green." The Pixie demanded.
Wolfe smiled at her. "I can do that. My witches will make the plane's chassis, and I will enchant it and put your name right on it so everyone knows it's yours. What colour do you want?"
"Sky blue with sparkles, and my name has to be in pink, and you have to enchant my chair too, no cheating out. I want it just as good as the chairs back in the Den."
The Pixie clearly didn't know that they usually didn't enchant the chairs in the planes at all, but doing it for her personal craft wouldn't be hard.
"You have a deal."