B2: Chapter 3 - Not My Problem

Bram’s “little shop” was nearly the size of my cabin.
And that was only counting the building itself. If you counted the large basin sitting next to it that acted as the reservoir for the town’s water system–that Bram was responsible for building and now maintaining–he might technically have some level of ownership over the third-largest footprint in the settlement behind my own claim and the large Consortium that mostly operated as the refining center for the Great Oaks that Daniel’s crew cut down.
Once the quarry went in, depending on how much space the Council had actually granted him, he might actually move into second place.
There were a few new faces walking around the reservoir, checking a few of the gates and taking an odd amount of notes. I wasn’t quite sure what that was about, but it also–and this was important–wasn’t my problem.
Bram and Thomas were standing over a large worktable, a large piece of parchment spread over it when I walked through the door and they both turned my way. Thomas scowled slightly.
“Dusk take me, you weren’t supposed to come until tomorrow,” he said, pulling a silver coin from his pocket and handing it over to Bram. I felt my nose scrunch.
“Please tell me you’re the only one that’s started saying that too…”
“Huh?” Thomas asked, briefly confused before realization hit him and he shrugged. “Oh… um maybe? You’re muttering it all the time and it’s got a good feel to it as far as swears go. Is that a Lord of Dusk exclusive or something?”
“No,” I sighed, shaking my head. “Just not exactly the kind of thing the Church of Dawn usually likes to hear…”
“They don’t like a lot of things,” Bram said, brushing it off like it was no big deal as he smiled at me. “So Willow told you I got approved? I’ve got a plot in mind already if that makes it easier. Daniel specifically said he doesn’t want a giant hole anywhere near the town but there’s some nice space a few kilometers to the northwest of your property.”
“That’s… a bit of a hike,” I said, opening up the Territory interface.
Bram had in fact already submitted a request and, as we’d discovered once the actual Town Hall had been built and activated the Polling Place for the community, it also had a mark that listed it as Council Approved since I’d explicitly added them as a Legal Authority to Neverdusk. That said, Willow had said they thought a small quarry was a good idea. I eyed the twenty acre claim, well off the main road and out of the way, then refocused on the younger man cautiously.
“Wouldn’t something smaller and closer be a better idea?”
“Nah,” Bram said, shaking his head quickly and waving his hand dismissively. “I’m only going to place the initial quarry in a single acre. The rest is for storage and, well maybe a little future expansion. I don’t want to have to get them to give me more land when even more people move here.”
I blinked a few times, feeling an odd sense of déjà vu to when I’d purchased my plot from Dartigan and then laughed.
“Guess I can’t argue with that… though, it’s still pretty far to be hauling a ton of stone,” I said and he once again brushed it off.
“The Ed triplets are helping me with that actually. They’re putting in an order with Alban for a handful of wagons specifically to try and start up some trade. Daniel is actually open to letting them start up a Merchant Charter if Dartigan doesn’t take him up on the offer first. Anyway, the point is, I managed to convince them to add a few more to their order since they’d already talked Alban into a bulk order price. Adding three more for our business made things a bit cheaper for everyone per cart.”
“Huh… well there yah go,” I said with a nod, clicking a few things and approving the plot. Bram smiled as he got the obvious notification, nodding himself. “Just don’t go transporting anything before… let’s say, seven. I don’t sleep in all that late, but the only road into town currently does still go right through my land.”
“Hey, that’s on you for buying up everything on either side of the road, you could have bought all your land on the south side. Now, if you wanted to give us some clearance through that land, maybe a bit closer to the forest, we could always lay a road specifically for that louder traffic,” Thomas chuckled, moving to the side as Bram moved back to the blueprints. Bram shuffled just a few things around, the parchment changing to match.
“When did you get a Physical Interface Scroll?” I asked and Bram smiled at me with a bit of pride.
“Spent all the gold I had on it from what I got paid from the system taxes on the road the last time Dartigan came through. I didn’t want to have to give anyone but Thomas management permission for Bram’s Stone and Stuff, but I also wanted to make sure anyone we hired was able to see everything we’ve got managed over here.”
“Sheesh, you don’t know how to do things by half measures, do you?” I laughed. Thomas and Bram shared a look before they both stared at me.
“Do any of us?” Bram asked with a knowing smile.
“I guess not… Okay, I actually like the idea of a road that’s not going by my front door if you guys are gonna be hauling a lot of stone in. I’ll section off a spot in my interface and send you over the details here,” I said, cautiously looking over toward the window where the people were still looking at the reservoir. “Not that it matters, I’m sure… but what’s with the folks examining the water out there like it’s some sort of experiment?”
It wasn’t my problem, obviously I knew that… but I somehow felt wound up over Bram already having almost all of his logistical issues figured out. Which for some reason made me feel the need to probe. Maybe I had a bug or something.
“They’re looking at how we could divert some of the stream and reservoir into an actual bathhouse. Ever since we put the basins in, nobody’s felt all that comfortable bathing in the stream anymore. We’ve got some filters in place, but more than a few people, Darla included, think it’s unsanitary to be drinking the water people bathe in. Given the messes I’ve seen Ellie make, I can’t say she’s wrong,” Thomas explained and Bram grumbled while simultaneously scrunching his nose.
“If Daniel had just let me take Corbin’s Gourd when you tried to give it to me, we could have already started building that thing.”
“Hey my crops need it now… And I never said you could have it for your own for literally anything when I left. It was meant to be extra for the town infrastructure during the dry seasons… which is still on the table of course,” I explained and Bram brushed it off.
“Not really a problem anymore actually. Neverdusk sits right on the southern edge of Dawn’s End but it does include the actual streamhead that goes down and into the forest here. We’re looking into how we could expand the streamhead to increase the flow going this way. If we add in a second reservoir and isolate it from the main town line, we could potentially feed a nice place for people to go, relax, and actually get clean after a good day of work. Just don’t want to make a mistake and flood us out, y’know,” he explained, then crossed his arms.
“Sheesh, I know I basically just said this, but you guys really don’t know how to take things slow, do you?”
“Somebody’s gonna build one eventually, why not us?” Bram shrugged. “More than a few people are still looking for work too, and it doesn’t hurt to add a few more jobs if we can actually make it work.”
“It doesn’t exactly sound like you’re setting it up for failure… why wouldn’t it work?” I asked, looking at the blueprints on the table and noticing they weren’t for the quarry at all. Thomas pointed at a spot at the back of the planned bathhouse.
“It’s the heating aspect. Nobody wants to take a cold bath if we’re going to do it this way, but we also don’t want to have to burn loads of wood every day just to make the place workable. Most bathhouses like this use natural hot springs to make them really enjoyable, like the large one in Jestings, and unfortunately, we don’t have one of those as far as I can tell…”
“I probably would have seen one of those in the Territory Interface if there was one already in Neverdusk,” I admitted before they could ask the obvious question. Bram looked a bit disappointed, then eyed me hopefully.
“Any chance you got anything else like the Gourd that could help us?”
“You’re asking me if I happen to have a powerful magical item sitting around that you could use to heat the water for a bathhouse?”
“Yes?” Bram said, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“I don’t,” I said, causing him to noticeably deflate. “But…”
Bram immediately perked back up as I thought about the problem for a moment.
“If I got my hands on the right reagents, I could probably whip up a pretty steady stock of a Draught of Boiling that has a solid lasting effect. Pour one of those every few hours into the feeder channel for the baths and you should have a nice steady heat,” I explained, rubbing my chin.
I didn’t have any plants or crops with the right qualities yet, but the seeds of the Morning Sunflower were potent enough for something as simple as a heated bath and I could probably get a good starter bag without spending too much gold…
“And how much is one of those gonna cost us exactly? Not really a solution if it makes the place unaffordable,” Thomas said. He’d picked up a pencil and was already preparing to take a few notes.
“Well, the good news is that Morning Sunflowers are basically like weeds in the Southern Highlands and buying a wagon full of those would make a ton of potions already if we mixed them with just a bit of the Dewdrop Sproutlings that have basically taken over the entire field out there past my claim line,” I said, gesturing vaguely out toward the far side of my fields. “But if we pulled the seeds out of half the Sunflower purchase, I could have a field growing in no time and we’d have most of the stock on hand…”
“And how much is that gonna cost us exactly?” Thomas pressed again, tapping the pencil against his pad. I considered it for a moment, trying to check my own mental math on how much would actually be needed to maintain a steady supply of the Draft. It was another one of those things that had a bit of a lead time, but once I got it going, it wouldn’t even be all that much upkeep.
“Purchase the initial stock of Morning Sunflowers, add a few private stalls into the bathhouse, and let me use one of those stalls whenever I want without paying and I’ll maintain your stock for you,” I offered and Bram let out a laugh… then he pulled out a silver coin, potentially the exact same one he’d only just got, and handed it to Thomas.
“And here I thought you were going to want to be business partners. That sounds like a deal to me,” Bram said, beaming a smile and offering me a hand to accept.