The Supreme Warrior *2014 ABNA Contest 2nd Round*

CHAPTER 4: Gellan Ware's Disaster

FOUR: Gellan Ware’s Disaster

Maht-Hildis sent Conflict into the World to serve Mankind. Conflict gave birth to Order, who wed Ambition. They begat the Hunt, War, Harvest and finally their youngest offspring: Trade. The Warrior who fails to guest with all his Kin, is disowned by his entire Family.

—Caraazor 1:1 The Alchemy of War

Trader Gellan Ware sat in his booth on the fairground, trying to keep his growing desperation from showing on his face. No one was buying his silks. Over and over, his apprentices called out, “Finest silks anywhere, ten silvers a bolt...”

They might as well have been singing to cattle; not a single clothier stopped to look.

The apprentices repeated their come-on lines, their words blurring as they talked faster and faster. The day was two hours old and only five people had bothered to glance at his wares. Two of those had muttered variations of, “I’ve got better cloth in stock already...” and moved on. A third man looked disdainfully at his silks and said, “Four silvers a bolt.” He left when Gellan shook his head. The other two customers were a pair of peasants who only wanted to look.

The Trader slyly turned his head to see how much the other merchants were selling. The merchant to the right of Gellan’s booth shuffled through his silks with frantic speed, choosing new samples to put on display. Fat Drudan shouted at his trembling chief apprentice. Other senior traders watched their journeymen and shook their heads.

At least they aren’t selling either.

Not for the first time, Gellan Ware cursed his father for buying him an apprenticeship with a Trade Guild. He saved even harsher curses for Prince Keldrin, the man who had made his profession possible.

Little more than forty years ago, a young nobleman from Selinger devised a way to trade without transporting hard coin. He convinced his uncle to risk his vast wealth by distributing it in large blocks to selected locations in the Baronies.

Under this system, a merchant who wanted to trade would deposit his silver at one of these locations, and in return, would get a letter of credit. The Trader could carry this paper overland and use it to withdraw coin at his destination, eliminating the dangers of travel. In short, this young noble invented banking. To this day, almost every large bank based their operations in Selinger.

The Selinger Banks spawned large Trading Houses. Within a decade, trade exploded along the western shores of the Medvian Sea. That ambitious young noble now ruled the City as Keldrin I, the adopted heir of the last Prince.

Gellan Ware shook himself free of his reverie as his competitors began to lower their asking price. The clamor of voices died away as traders listened to one another, waiting for someone to set a new low price. One trader asked for eight silvers and no one stopped to look. Another lowered his price to seven but only earned scattered interest from the crowd. Drudan was even more daring and yelled out, “Silks, five silvers a bolt!”

Now the sheep were interested and they rushed Drudan’s booth. Gellan Ware watched the crowd develop. He finally murmured to his men, “Ask five.”

The tall, dark merchant pulled at his thinning hair. No chance for a profitable fair now: at five silvers a bolt, I’ll barely break even. Gods Curse that stupid Drudan! Without his father’s influence, he would never have won his Trader’s Key.

Calm down fool, Gellan told himself. Cut your losses, just like The Master preached to me when I was an apprentice. Sell just enough so you can go on.