Longborne sat alone in his office, with his hand folded beneath his chin, his expression fixed in a practiced severity. He appeared to be a man in his middle years, though the stillness he carried lent him an air of greater age.
Despite the hour, the room lay in half-shadow. Heavy fabric had been drawn across the window, muting the midday sin until it filtered in as little more than a dull glow.
Longborne sat as his eyes gazed at the piece of parchment in the table, it had been two weeks since he received it. He adjusted his jacket, strengthened his posture, and brought his fingers to his temples, pressing gently as with his habits.
The Decision had already been made.
He thought as a faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, He hadn't needed to lift a finger, vanishing as soon as it appeared.
The guild may report directly to the crown, at least, officially. In practice, information moved along quieter routes. Longborne had men within the guild halls, as did every merchant of consequence in every major trade. News reached him quickly.
Higher up, matters grew more delicate. There were limits even silver could not cross openly.
Salt was his domain.
The industry was tightly controlled within the town, it was not without reason that he had chosen this place, and operations had only proceeded smoothly with only Constance to worry about, given the stalemate and the strict equilibrium that both of them had maintained in the past.
Longborne and Constance were the two prominent traders of the salt in Bolivia, over the years, and after their time battling each other for dominance, they naturally came to a stalemate, and had decided to keep the quality of salt in circulation in Bolivia and the neighboring town below seventy percent.
Higher grades were possible. The methods existed. But refinement beyond that threshold demanded double the resources for diminishing returns. Profit, sensibly managed, lay in moderation.
Consumers received what was safe. Merchants received what was plentiful.
Everyone benefited.
Longborne knew he would have to get ahead of this, according to the report, this Lump-man had been able to produce a specimen close to royal grade. This would only merit more than passing interest under normal circumstance. Such result were expected of established workshop with ample funding.
However this journey man had been able to do this with minimal resources, refining and purifying salt was a daunting talk and cost a lot of money and resources. The young man claimed he could do better in better conditions.
Longborne's fingers tightened softly.
Refining salt was a costly endeavor. Any method capable of reducing impurities so efficiently threatened the balance he and Constance had preserved for years. Such a talent could not be allowed to operate independently.
He would need the man brought under control.
Longborne was a greedy man, who would often put profit first above everything else, to him wealth comes first before status, before favor, before the hollow gestures of loyalty to greater and lesser houses. What use was influence without the means to sustain it?
In this day and age anything could be bought, 'Without the silver all efforts are meaningless'.
Longborne silently repeated the line he heard from his father all those years ago, that single line was his source of inspiration, and had brought him thus far.
…
However even he understood that nobility was a shift in status silver alone could not cross.
This ambition had never been to sit comfortably among merchants, He wanted his name elevated to the ranks of a lesser house. The advantages extended far beyond titles and ceremony. A lesser house enjoyed protections unavailable to common traders, access to privileges that did not appear on any ledger.
And, in time, something else entirely.
This, he believed, might be the moment that carried him across that threshold.
For a name be recognized as a lesser house, one has to make a significant contribution to the kingdom, and this, this could be his ticket. Though it wasn't much, but it should be enough.
Perhaps even Constance was somewhere thinking the same thing.
Longborne had always been one guided by greed, even he knew as much. He would often throw causing to the wind in face of any kind of benefit. He was thinking if he played his hard right he might be able to get what he wants.
If it wasn't for one small problem,
'The little shit is nowhere to be found' Longborn muttered, the words edged with irritation.
This would have been difficult if the lump-man had studded under any capable master, turns out it was him, it just had to be him.
At this point events were turning in his favor it would take a miracle for the boy to get a license he knows, perhaps that was why he had resolved drinking himself to death, according to the report he received.
'What changed?'
He had little doubt that Constance had anything to do with it, it wouldn't make any sense for the journeyman to suddenly be interested making his status official, becoming a licensed seller.
It would make much sense for Constance to instead rope the boy to his side instead of going through this much trouble, it couldn't be him. As Longborne thought of the matter more clearly, a suddenly realization down on him.
'This could only mean one thing' There is someone new in the field. This was the only possible explanation, this young journeyman had a new sponsor.
Longborne once again massaged his temples, this realization only paved room for more question. If there is a new player in the field as he was thinking, then why did the other party not use his influence to secure the necessary position, when send the journeyman alone to the guild that day.
The report he received stated that apart from an unknown woman there was no one else with the journeyman when he arrived at the guild to acquire the necessary documentation two weeks ago. As far as he was concerned this woman was insignificant. So insignificant was this woman she wasn't even allowed in the guild halls.
He's had his people gather information on the journeyman. A cording to the reports, after the events five years ago, the boy had fallen into a state of utter despair. And had found solace in the embrace at the rear and of mug. He had even attempted suicide multiple time, which made an understandable sense.
And then all of a sudden he vanished, only to reappear apparently 'A new man' Longborne uttered in a low mocking voice. A lot might have happened in that short time, it seems.
'If only I can just find the boy' it was as if the man had mysteriously disappear off the face of the Earth. He's had his people search for the boy since he received the report, and two weeks had passed. Longborne was becoming frustrated. However there wasn't much he could do, he can only wait.
At that moment the door to the room was suddenly pushed outside. A burly man with thick grey beards with some strands interlocking into a messy braids, he was wearing darkish worn out grey coat.
Longborne quickly raised his head, expecting a soothing news. The man strengthened himself answering the question Longborne posed in his silence.
"We found him My Lord"