Chapter 35: Greenstone (1/2)

“Anything?” Rufus asked as Gary walked in. They were renting a three-bedroom suite for their stay in Greenstone. Rufus and Farrah had been waiting for Jason in the sprawling lounge with the huge glass windows overlooking the ocean. The doors to the balcony outside were open to let in the sea breeze.

“Nothing,” Gary said. They had been checking daily to see if Jason had registered with the Adventure Society.

“It’s been a week,” Farrah said. “Do you think it’s time to make some discrete inquiries?”

“Not yet,” Rufus said. “Remember, everything is new to him. He’s probably just taking his time to look around.”

Jason was riding on a wagon along the embankment roads of the delta. The wagon was filled with crates containing all kinds of plants, only a few of which were fruits and vegetables. Jason was riding shotgun next to the driver, a man in his mid-twenties. The driver reached back, grabbing a plant with a celery-like stalk. With one hand on the reins, he snapped the stalk in half with the other, a practised gesture. He offered one half to Jason.

“Not medicinal, this one,” the driver said. “I just picked some up because I like it.”

The driver, Jory, was technically an adventurer, although he was the first to admit he rarely went on adventures. His true calling was alchemy, the brewing of potions and elixirs. He went out to the towns and villages looking for materials he couldn’t find in the local markets.

“Or at a price I can afford in the local markets anyway,” he’d cheerfully explained.

Jory had found Jason in a village, swamped by people looking for healing. It was something Jason had gotten used to as he slowly closed in on the city, through eight towns and villages in as many days. Jory had offered him a ride for the final leg of the journey.

Jason was never shy about filling a silence, but that was far from necessary with Jory, who talked so much he kept having to wet his mouth from a canteen, even in the humid delta air. He started telling Jason about his alchemy lab in Old City.

“Old City?” Jason asked.

”You really must be new to the region. Greenstone is split into two sections. Old City is the original city of Greenstone, situated on the original harbour. The other part of Greenstone is the Island. Originally it was meant to be a massive breakwater when the ports of what is now Old City were expanded. Somewhere along the way, they turned it into a haven for all the rich people to leave the rest of us behind.”

“Alchemy doesn’t rake in the money?” Jason asked.

“Not the way I do it,” Jory said.

“So, they made an island, and called it the Island?” Jason asked.

“Unimaginative, right?” Jory asked. “You do want to live there if you can afford it, though. It is very nice. Old City is where the money is made, but the Island is where the money goes.”

Jory explained that adventurers could afford to live on the island, so long as they were actively working. Most of them had been born rich anyway, which was how they got their essences in the first place. Jory’s own family lived there, but he himself lived in Old City. Everything he earned was sunk back into his alchemy research.

“Most alchemists drive their work forward by pushing the boundaries of what alchemy can achieve at its strongest,” Jory said. “The most elaborate techniques, the rarest and most expensive materials. I go the exact opposite way, trying to make things cheaper and simpler. If I can make alchemical products affordable to everyone, not only can it help a huge number of people, but it will open up huge new markets.”

Jason had seen for himself that medicine in this world was essentially just whoever had the healing magic. Both ritual magic and alchemy had ways to heal, but the cost and expertise required placed both out of the reach for most people.

Most healing was done through the church of the Healer. From what he'd been told, their god supplied the essences and awakening stones that gave them their healing abilities. They could be sought out for a fee, but also sent people around the delta to heal people at more reasonable prices. It sounded good, but Jason had seen firsthand that there was always more demand for such services than supply. Jory hoped to rectify that with easy and affordable medicines.

“That’s a noble goal,” Jason said. “How’s it going?”

“Reasonably well,” Jory said. ”The advantage of researching cheap and plentiful materials is that they’re cheap and plentiful. I’ve even started a clinic out of my laboratory, selling some of my early successes. It helps pay for my research, although the margins are thin to keep it affordable. That was the whole point, after all.”

“Maybe you should talk to the church of healing,” Jason said. “They might be willing to fund your research.”

”I had the same thought,” Jory said. ”As it turns out, they see who gets healed and who doesn't as theirs to choose. The poor, in their uneducated ignorance, don’t get the chances the wealthy do to understand the glory of the gods. As such, they need suffering to wash clean their souls.”

“That sounds familiar,” Jason said, shaking his head. “You get that kind of thing where I come from, too.”

Moving closer to the city, the embankment roads that crisscrossed the delta gave way to flat ground. All vegetation had been dug out or cut down, leaving a wide-open space in front of the city wall. The wall itself was red-yellow stone, a dozen metres high. Roads leading from all around the delta led up to the high gates.

“Those are some big walls.”

”There are only a few secure towns in the delta,” Jory said. ”Most of the population comes into the city during monster surges.”

“This clear space is to see the monsters coming?” Jason asked.

”That's right. It's a lot of work to keep land this fertile clear. Back in the day, they used to try and spoil the ground, stop anything from growing.”

“I wouldn’t think that would be hard,” Jason said. “I mean, magic is a thing, right?”

“That might work somewhere else,” Jory said, “but not here. There’s an inherent magic to all the water coming down the Mistrun River. It has a strong life vitality, so you can’t stop the growth here. The best you can do is beat it back. After a surge, they let it go until the next one is due. They’ve been keeping it clear for more than a year now. The last few surges have all taken longer than expected to arrive.”

“Aren’t longer gaps good?” Jason asked.

“Yes and no,” Jory said. “Think about the logistical costs of a surge. Whole populations shift, herds have to be culled and moved. Being in a state of readiness for years at a time is expensive.”

“I can imagine,” Jason said.

“Haven’t you seen it for yourself? You would have been, what? Ten, twelve when the last surge hit?”

“They don’t have monster surges where I come from,” Jason said. “They don’t have monsters at all.”

“They don’t have monsters?” Jory asked. “Where are you from, exactly?”

“I was living in a city called Melbourne,” Jason said. “A long, long way from here. Very lean on monster activity.”