Chương 137: Chapter 134: An Impossible Margin.

"Helloooo, you still with us?"

"Violet, she's thinking. Let her."

"I don't think she's just thinking, rockboy. She's moping." Violet said it louder than the last part. I ignored both of them. The humming of the crowd outside had faded into silence. With the announcement done, the City Watch had dispersed everyone. I had maintained my composure in front of them, but only just. Now we were back in the tent, in the quiet. I might have gone back to Violet's home altogether, but I wanted to think. Greenward had issued a thirty percent cut on all foodstuffs sold through his District.

By our estimates, the grain from Solair was already at a ten percent markup over the prices we'd had before. Now the gap was wider still. Something flickered at the edge of my vision. I ignored it. Greenward had obviously known about the arrangement for some time now. That part, at least, was no mystery. After all, every soul that passed through the Farstep Circles was documented, and I'd known he would learn where we'd gone within the day.

But knowing where we went and knowing the terms of our agreement were two very different things. For how long had he known? Even if he did control everything top to bottom, it wasn't like you could just slash prices at the drop of- A fist slammed into the makeshift desk in front of me, hard enough that the top of it caved in. I blinked and looked up to find Violet glaring down at me.

"Don't ignore her," Violet grumbled, and pointed. She was pointing at Sere, who stood just off to the side. Sere had her notepad half-extended toward me. The little annoyance I'd felt died in an instant.

"I'm sorry," I said.

"What is it?" Sere held the notepad out again. On an empty page there were just two words. This bad? I sighed.

"Well, it isn't good," I murmured.

"He might have just cut our legs out from under us."

"What, just because it's cheaper?" Violet demanded.

"People can't pay a little extra just to not eat from that snake bastard?!"

"Even a little extra was me asking something of them, Violet," I murmured.

"When it's a lot more expensive to buy from us, then I'm asking too much." Apparently Violet actually understood what I was saying, because she tugged on her braid and huffed. It could have gone worse. Julian Greenward could have shown up himself. Honestly, I was surprised he hadn't. It felt like he was saying, I do not even need to be there myself to ruin you. That part was especially annoying.

"He means to starve us out, then," Anias said.

"He believes he can afford to sell his food at a loss long enough for House Veyne to give up on what it is doing." That was the obvious thing to think, and it was what I'd thought at first too.

"He knew about our agreement before we announced it, Anias," I said.

"He was ready, and he was waiting for it. That means he likely knows the terms of our arrangement too. He knows that this will last years, not just weeks or months. He knows that, and he slashed food prices anyway. That means…"

"That he can afford to keep this up for years, if he has to?" Damian supplied. I nodded. That was the crux of the issue. If this move was just a short-term bluff, then it would never work. It would be downright silly, even. And he had to know that.

"Well, I'm stumped," I muttered, sitting back in my seat. I put a bit too much weight on its back legs, and the whole thing wobbled.

"Ours is still better," Violet protested.

"Bet whatever that fancy guy is sending us from Myrrheim is way better than whatever that snake is feeding everyone. And besides, now everyone knows that bastard is robbing people." I almost answered her. Damian answered first.

"It might be, Violet. But even if it is, then the only people buying from us are the ones who can afford more expensive food. That's… that's not a lot of people. Most people will still go to Greenward." Then he shrugged.

"And even if people know he was charging too much in the past, that doesn't do anything for people who need to eat right now. There'll be some grumbling but…."

"It's not just that either," I said absently, staring at the roof of the tent.

"He slashed prices only in his District. If someone from the Indri or Veyne Districts wants the cheaper food, they have to go to him. They have to cross a border, and make a choice. He played it well." He had played it almost too well. The plan was clever, but it was too clever. It had someone else's fingerprints all over it. Cordelia, maybe you shouldn't have applied yourself quite so thoroughly to your father's hypotheticals! Vaelin hummed.

I couldn't tell if the blade was impressed, or if it was commiserating with me.

"Wasn't the goal simply to ensure that he cannot starve our District again?" Damian said.

"If that's the goal, then haven't we already reached it no matter what he does to prices?"

"He will never starve our District again," I agreed.

"Instead, he will simply sell his grain for so cheap that ours rots away in warehouses. Or we spend so much coin on preserving it that it's even more expensive, until the few people who can buy it cannot afford to either." The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"So… what now?" Violet said finally. She was pacing in front of me, though from her it sounded remarkably close to stomping.

"Are we fucked or what?" I shrugged.

"I don't know. Probably not."

"Then why the hell are you moping?" I looked at her.

"I'm not moping." Violet turned to the others.

"Guys, she's moping, isn't she? Come on, back me up." There was a pause, one that lasted just long enough that I dared to hope.

"My Lady," Anias said carefully.

"You do…seem to be in dim spirits."

"Yeah. That's called moping," Violet agreed. She turned that pointed finger back on me.

"See?" I sighed. Betrayed by my own maid.

"Alright. Fine. I'm moping," I said.

"I thought this grain agreement would stab Greenward in the heart. That it would truly cripple him." I gestured vaguely at the crumpled newspaper still sitting atop the ruined desk.

"Instead, it seems the most it's done is inconvenience him a bit. I doubt he likes losing thirty percent on his margins either."

"That's all you had to say," Violet said, folding her arms. Then she took her chin in one hand, and there was a look on her face I could only describe as being deeply in thought. I could only imagine what she was thinking. For the sake of my own peace, I decided not to try. Estovan poked his head in through the tent flap.

"My Lady, House Solair's representative would like to see you." He glanced at me, and he must have read something on my face.

"If you'd like, I can send them away. Or forestall them, at the least."

"No, it's fine," I said, rising. Come to think of it, I had completely forgotten. Duke Solair had sent his own daughter at the head of an army of food, when he could have just as easily sent any one of the hundreds of people no doubt under his employ. What that meant, and whether or not it was about to become a brand new headache, I would have to go and see for myself. The massive wagons had looked enormous from a distance, and somehow they looked even bigger up close.

The only reference I had for gigantic things anymore was the head of a dragon. If I had to measure each wagon like that, then each one stood roughly half a dragon's head tall, and about as wide. Liora Solair stood at the head of the column. When she met my gaze, her head didn't immediately dip into a bow, or Gods forbid, the full prostration she had shown me back in that coliseum. Dressed in something resembling a merchant's traveling clothes, she looked a year or two older than when I had seen her last.

For a single second, she almost looked like she belonged at the head of a column like this. Then she spoke.

"I- in accordance with the trade agreement between the great Houses of- of Veyne and Solair," she said, "I am here to present the first of the promised shipments, before witnesses, as- as agreed." She took a breath. Her hands were clasped so tightly in front of her that her knuckles had gone white.

"House Solair asks that House Veyne acknowledge receipt of the same." The speech had been rehearsed. Thoroughly, if the stammering hadn't already given it away. I looked at her for a moment.

"We… acknowledge the shipment," I said, just as awkwardly. Liora let out a very long breath, and her entire body sagged.

"Thank the gods that's done," she murmured.

"So…is there anything left to do now?" I asked.

"Eep!" Liora took a full step back.

"Um. I won't do anything," I said. Had… had the girl forgotten I was standing right there? Around her, the men of the column all had their heads tipped respectfully low, as if every part of this were perfectly normal.

"Sorry," Liora said, straightening.

"I, uh. I don't actually know what I'm supposed to say for this part."

"You can say just about anything," I said.

"It doesn't matter. House Veyne isn't one for pointless formality."

"Oh." Liora tilted her head.

"You're… not?" Then she fished into her pocket and pulled out… a notepad. She started scribbling into it furiously.

"Does not care… about being formal," she mumbled as she wrote, the tip of her tongue poking out the corner of her mouth. I decided, in the interest of diplomacy, that I had neither heard nor seen anything at all. I looked up at the giant Farstep Circle, still thrumming faintly behind the wagons. There was supposed to be one shipment like this every single month, for years to come. Today was supposed to feel like a great victory. Given what Julian had done, it mostly just tasted bitter.

And since the daughter of House Solair herself was here, I probably wasn't supposed to just shake her hand and send her back on her way, was I? I was probably supposed to at least… what, invite her over for tea? That's what Duke Solair had done himself after all. I was in no mood at all for hosting. But I supposed I'd have to. I sighed.

"My Lady, would you like to-""Hmm. It is strange, though." Liora was musing to herself, still scribbling away in that notepad of hers.

"Their methods shouldn't have yields that high. Father was certain of it…" I blinked. Then I stepped forward and grabbed Liora by the shoulders.

"Eek!" she cried, staring up at me. I shook her, just lightly.

"What was that, just now?"

"Wh- what was what?"

"The thing you were mumbling about. When you were writing."

"Um," Liora said.

"I take… notes. It helps me remember things? So, uh, you said you didn't want to be formal, and-""Not that," I said.

"The other thing."

"Oh." She blinked at me.

"That's… I saw one of the newspapers on the way in. House Greenward slashed its food prices by almost a third." Her voice steadied as she spoke, until she was almost not stammering.

"But from everything I know, their grain isn't that much more expensive to grow than grain anywhere else. So… so they shouldn't have a thirty percent margin to slash in the first place." I nodded slowly. The only things I knew about grain prices were the things one could easily read in books or newspapers. I had assumed that in a world with mana and Gifts and Magical Implements and Artifacts besides, there were secret ways to make things cheaper. That Julian simply had some card up his sleeve I hadn't seen coming.

But if House Solair -a House with more experience, more reach, and more wealth than House Greenward could ever dream of= was saying it shouldn't be possible… Far in the back of my mind, Vaelin stirred.

"Are you sure your father said this?" I asked.

"I'm- I'm sure," Liora said quickly.

"And there's no Artifact or Magical Implement that could make this happen?"

"There…there are some Artifacts," Liora said quickly.

"But those are worth fighting wars over. Those are ones wars have been fought over. So uh- seems hard to believe he found something like that." I let go of her shoulders. Her father was sure the margin shouldn't exist then. And yet Julian had made a cut he would have to sustain for years. Two things that were both true, and that did not make any godsdamned sense together. Not unless there was a third thing.

"Liora." This time I grabbed her hand instead, and shook it properly.

"You've been a tremendous help. Honestly, I was wondering why your father sent you of all people, but I'm very glad he did."

"Um…that's…" Liora went red to the tips of her ears.

"Thank you? I think that was a compliment." She paused.

"Did… um. Did you figure something out?" I let go of her hands. And I grinned. I had put investigating Greenward up on that whiteboard, hadn't I?

"Yes," I said.

"I figured out that I need to figure something out."