Enlightened Empire

Chapter 266

Never before had Sami felt this cold in summer. Though he really shouldn't have been surprised, since that was exactly what he had signed up for back in Vallunaraju. His home had always been a cold place. Dominated by fishermen, lumberjacks, and endless ice, Vallunaraju used to be one of the poorest and smallest estates in all of Medala.

Outsiders who traveled to such a far-off place were either merchants who made a killing on selling basic goods like salt and cloth to the idiots who would spend their lives among all the snow, or the visitors were religious pilgrims who would come to see the legendary Aurora Australis in the sky above the southern waters. However, beyond those times, there was little going on. Even less so during the long nights of winter. All in all, his home was one of many tiny specks within the Medala Empire, and even among those tiny specks, it was the poorest. Within this insignificant place, he had been just one among any number of carpenter's apprentices.

However, much had changed after the southern kingdom had been established several years earlier. The King of the South had soon become a famous man within the entire empire, but nowhere had he become more famous and beloved than in Vallunaraju, of that Sami was certain.

As one of the king's earliest supporters, Lord Huaman was also among the first southern lords to enter into a close partnership with Saniya. With the new southern capital's rapid growth and insatiable hunger for resources, Vallunaraju's lands had become a prime source for various raw materials like amber, fish, whales, and timber. As a result, everyone within the estate's borders could find good work if they wanted it. Even more, the king had brought them hardy crops that could withstand the cold better, so even the poor farmers benefited.

Most citizens of Vallunaraju would praise the king for their new-found prosperity, but Sami had no love lost for his ruler. After all, while the woodcutters and fishermen had more work than they could handle, the craftsmen had suffered from the changing world around them. Since Saniya was swallowing so many raw materials, they had to go somewhere. According to the word of the merchants, the king had set up giant workshops in his capital, where countless craftsmen would fashion these resources into finished products at impossible speeds, and in far greater number than even Saniya's growing population required.

Sami had no reason to doubt them, since such overproduction could be felt even in Vallunaraju. Down there, the products imported from Saniya had quickly become famous for their high quality and low price. Again, the new goods brought benefits to most, making money for the merchants and saving money for everyone else. However, it had come at the expense of the estate's craftsmen.

While many who owned boats got rich, sheer survival had become a true challenge for people like Sami and his master. In the end, his master had no longer been able to feed all of his apprentices with his dwindling income. Sami had no ill will towards his master, who had tried his best up to support them until the very end. Even so, the truth was that his master had thrown him away. Now he was homeless, and his education wasn't finished either. Without a home, without money and without the skills of a master craftsman, what was he supposed to do?

While Sami had already despaired, his fellow apprentice had never been one to dwell on negatives. As far as he was concerned, why shouldn't they simply follow the flow of the water rather than bemoan or fight the changes around them? Since all the apprentice work was in Saniya now, why shouldn't they make their way to Saniya? Thus, they had found work as temporary hands atop this merchant ship. Or rather, they had found work within it.

“Tell me again why we're here,” Sami heard from beside him. However, next to him, there was only a giant wall of ice. Even so, he knew that on the other side, there was his fellow sufferer, his fellow apprentice by the name of Chanca. Although his fellow was optimistic, he was also a bit slow. Yet somehow, Sami had become convinced of their new path, maybe just because he had no better idea himself. As he looked around the dark room filled with giant cubes of ice, he doubted his decision more than ever.

“Wait, you don't even know what we're doing down here?” a baffled Sami asked. “We've been down here for days. What have you been doing all this time?”

“I know we have to look after the ice, but... why? I mean, it's ice, right. It won't go anywhere. Ice don't have legs. This is pointless anyways. What good is all that ice, other than be cold?”

Sami stifled a sigh. At the same time, he looked at the cracks within the bobbing ship's hull, and at the sky and open sea behind it.

“The big people are using niter for weapons now, so they can't use it to cool their fancy houses in the summer. That's why these merchants are using ice from Vallunaraju and shipping it up here for sale. The last ship they sent was in such bad condition that saltwater came in halfway through the trip and melted almost all their ice. It cost the boss a lot of money, so now there's us, looking after the ice so it won't melt. I mean, that's how people like us could get a decent paying job on a ship in the first place. We don't have any ability to play sailor, and you get seasick all the time. But for this, all we need is stare at ice and shout for help if we see any water. The boss already said all of that though, back in Vallunaraju. Didn't you listen when we got the job?”

“Well, kind of.”

“Kind of?” he looked to the side, but cursed himself in his head for his stupidity. The view was still blocked by ice.

“I maybe kind of sort of was too busy looking at the boss's daughter,” Chanca confessed.

For a second, Sami thought back to the pretty teenage girl with the pinned-up hair and fancy dress. Soon however, he returned back to reality. They couldn't waste their life on fancies, even less on risky ones.

“You better forget about stuff like that in the future. A girl that expensive that is too far away from us.”

“Ha, maybe for you. But aren't we about to reach the city of gold? I'll get a job, then make my fortune there. Soon, I will be a great master of repute. And then, I can get all the merchant's daughters I want.”

Rather than deny him his delusions, Sami only shook his head at his friend's optimism.

“Just look after your half of the ice,” he said instead. All around them, everything was still cold and dark. Nothing had changed, despite the fanciful words. Soon however, they would return to the light, and arrive in Saniya. Maybe then, their fortunes would turn, and they would reach a point where they could dream again.

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Two days later, their ship arrived in Saniya from the western coast. Back when Sami had still lived in Vallunaraju, he would need half a day to cross the city from one end to the other. That had always seemed like an eternity to him, who was born in a small village among ice and snow. In those days, he couldn't even imagine a larger city than Vallunaraju. Now, he didn't have to imagine anymore.

Like the mouth of a giant animal, the Mayura River delta opened up to welcome them inside. All along that maw's western side, stood building upon building like a row of teeth, all of them many stories high.

If the river was the beast's mouth, then all the flowers around the city were its skin, glowing in the beautiful purple the city had become so known for. Even more beautiful to him was the castle right in the middle of the river that reached up into the sky itself and dominated the river around it. Under the oppression of this marvel of craftsmanship, ships upon ships filed inside the beast's mouth in an orderly fashion.

Despite the size of the city and its many ports, it was the first time Sami had seen ships wait in line like peasants trying to enter town during harvest season. Although he didn't quite understand the reason, their own ship was allowed to pass the entire line and dock in the city's harbor first. Not long after, they were off the ship, though even then their work was far from over.

After all, they still had to move all the ice out of the cargo hold and into storage before it melted in the hot weather of the north. When he had first gotten the job, Sami had been suspicious. How would these people even store ice in a warm place like Saniya? What would be the point of moving it all the way up here if it just melted anyways? However, he understood as soon as he saw the storage barn erected right at the city's pier.

Right from the ship's dock, they had set up a long line of wooden logs. With hooks of cold iron, they would slide the giant ice cubes along those logs, one by one in an endless line. None of them would spend more than a few seconds on its path from the cold inside of the ship's hull to the foot of the building.

Once the ice reached the barn, it was put atop a continuous pulley system and dragged up into the top floor. From there, another worker would pull it inside and slide it along another system, so the block could join countless others like it in the center of the barn.

All the while, the ice was being surrounded by a substance the local workers called pykrete, which just looked like frozen pieces of pressed wood to him. Whatever it was, it was cold as ice, but would melt much more slowly. Thus, the pykrete on the outside kept the ice blocks in the center nice and cold. Put together like this, the ice and the pykrete made the room feel cold like winter. It was no wonder the ice would last a long time in here.

From its cool and cozy place in the barn, the ice would be sold off to the local rich men or shipped to the northern kingdoms, Chutwa and the Verdant Isles in the west, or wherever else it would sell.

All in all, handling the giant ice blocks was hard work, but at least Sami wasn't cold anymore out in the summer sun. Though of course, the best part was when they received their pay for the day, enough to eat and sleep without worry for an entire moon.

Yet right after the best part of the day came the worst. Once they were done with their job, they no longer had one. Although Sami didn't mind pushing ice cubes around for a while longer, they were only hired hands for a single trip. Now that everything was stored, they were no longer needed. Thus, the two of them stood outside the barn, the sinking sun in their backs.

“What do we do now, senior brother?” Chanca asked.

How would I know?

Of course that wasn't something he could say out loud. Thus, he straightened his spine and tried to show the same optimism his fellow apprentice was so good at. With what he hoped was a heroic look, he turned towards the busy streets that led further into the city.

“First, let's look for some other work,” he said and began to walk down the road.

“Other work? We can't stay here?” Chanca asked. He stared back at the barn with an unwilling look, but he still followed along.

“You want to freeze to death?” Sami tried to find the positive. “You should have heard the man, cause this one didn't have a daughter with him. They only hire us for trips of their fleet, and they don't make any trips back south from here.”

“Why not?” Chanca's insolent tone sapped all of Sami's energy.

“Because the south has too much ice as is,” he explained. “From here, the ice ships only travel north and west. You wanna sail across the ocean?”

“Doesn't sound too bad. There's bound to be lots of daughters over there.”

“And what about the sea snakes on the way?” Confronted with Sami's grin and question, Chanca's face turned pale as a sheet.

“Senior brother, let's look for some work here in the city,” he said.

As they walked and talked, they came by an empty lot, where a building was about to be constructed. On the edge of the property, there was a sign that read: Tasa Manufactory. Looking for craftsmen of all kinds. Experienced workers may apply at Saniya's Tasa bank.

“I think we don't need to look any longer. We've already found a place.”