Mark of the Fool
Chapter 548: The Seeds of an Empire

There was a limit to the number of things one could do on their own.

Alex—being a summoner—probably knew this better than most. Being able to conjure a small army of minions had completely changed things for him. In times of peace, he had ready assistants and workers to help with tasks at home.

In battle, he could erase a numerical disadvantage with a few spells, and overwhelm enemies with a tide of bodies.

Baelin’s Art of the Wizard in Combat course always emphasised the importance of cooperation, teamwork and group dynamics. Even the ancient wizard himself had called on his own cabal when he wanted to besiege Jaretha, and he was the most powerful being Alex had ever known.

Numbers helped, in most situations.

And numbers were what Lucia was really offering.

In one year, she’d already built up staff and the beginnings of a successful business operation. She had a network ready to go, and that was valuable. Even if Alex could teleport his magical items anywhere he wanted to, he still couldn’t be in multiple places at once.

Having staff to organise shipping and travelling, find more potential buyers, and run different branches of a business, would be just prime. Even having a single staff member, Troy, had been a big help to him.

With what Lucia was offering?

He could grow faster than he’d expected to.

His own alchemy, Shale’s support, Hannah’s power and Lucia’s network would be massive in combination. Then there was Lucia herself: while she’d told him her story, he’d carefully watched her body language, analysing her mannerisms for common signs of deceit.

He’d found none.

She’d come to him honestly and—if her story was completely true—she’d revealed one of her major resources that she hadn’t mentioned in her pitch: herself.

Without putting her greatest asset—her own abilities—into words, Alex saw them. Lucia had shown drive, good judgement, risk assessment and analysis throughout her journey, all key traits for both a wizard and a merchant. They were also qualities that were—sadly—rarer than they should be in far too many people.

So allowing someone with those qualities to just walk away? That would mean he wasn’t much of a Proper Wizard, Proper Baker, or Proper Businessman if he was to let that happen.

Then there were other avenuesto consider as well.

“Lucia…” he said, making certain mental calculations. “If. If we did this. What would you say to me enhancing your business?”

She pursed her lips. “Go on.”

Alex leaned over the low table between them, placing his hands on it.“You have a lot of resources, staff and a network that’s growing. That’s fine. But other merchant empires have these things, right?”

“Right.”

“But what if…your workforce was enhanced by something that never tires, never grows bored, and never sleeps?”

Her eyebrows rose. “Are you talking about golems?”

“I am absolutely talking about golems.” Alex grinned. “Not every golem has to be an expensive, unstoppable war-machine. They can be made human-sized, or any size, for that matter. You can make small messenger golems; you’re an alchemist, you know that. What if some of your warehouses had golem labourers to support your shipping staff with certain things, like lifting and carrying? What if your merchant caravans and ships had powerful guardian constructs to drive off bandits and monsters? What if you had messenger constructs to communicate across long distances?”

“That sounds like every merchant’s dream.”

“It does, doesn’t it?” Alex chuckled, his eyes shining. “We could up efficiency while giving your—no, our—workers time to themselves. We’d have ultimate productivity while not killing our workforce.”

“Hmmmm.” Lucia drummed her fingernails on her knees. “That almost sounds too good to be true. Golems are incredibly expensive. Even small ones. Hiring labourers would be much cheaper.”

“On the surface? Absolutely.” Alex rubbed his hands together. “But that’s the thing about a golem: even a human sized construct can have the strength of ten men. They never tire, they can be extremely flexible…and one of them could do the work of more than one labourer. One single golem—even one that’s, say, only six or seven feet tall -- could do the work of five times as many of the strongest men. Add the fact that a golem never needs to eat or sleep, and you have an infinite productivity machine. Then, there’s the fact that a well-designed golem can do more than one job, to take into account.”

Alex began counting on his fingers. “A versatile golem can work as a labourer, guard a caravan or a warehouse, it can help tinkers repair equipment, it can help with setting sails and holding rigging…there’s few limits to what a well-designed golem can do, as long as there’s at least one sapient being around to direct it. And then! There’s the advertising that naturally comes along with them.”

Lucia’s eyes shone. “Yes…yes…who wouldn’t want to use a shipping company that owns an immortal force of workers, guardians, and labourers.”

“Exactly. Even with one or two golems per ship or caravan, that still beats the competition’s none.”

“Hmmm…hmmmm…” Lucia looked off in the distance as though she was thinking over what he’d just said. “It’s a very attractive idea. But I see two problems.”

“Well, let’s see if I can’t give you two solutions.”

She smiled at that, then raised a single finger. “First, there’s the initial cost. We’ll need at least ten to twenty golems to begin with, and while I have done well for myself, I haven't done that well.”

“SImplicity in itself.” Alex spread his hands. “I can ‘sell’ them to you on credit, at a very attractive rate of interest. You get the golems with a relatively small upfront cost—if you’re currently buying ships, you should be able to afford a fairly small expense—then you settle the full cost on a payment plan. I can offer you…let’s say two at no charge in return for a small percentage of the company. Nothing too big, maybe say…twenty percent or something like that.”

Alex’s mind sparked at the idea of future profits: crafting a small force of golems would be expensive at first, even with a few ideas he had in mind to keep costs lower,but in return for a share of a growing mercantile enterprise?

It would be more than worth it.

“Hmmmm, that seems reasonable,” Lucia paused. “Twenty percent isn’t a controlling interest, and you would be contracted exclusively with us for your shipping needs, unless you handle any through your own magic. But that takes me to the second issue.”

“Oversight. Who will command these golems? If we let just anyone do it, they could cause them to rampage if they made a mistake. We could be taking a big chance.”

“Not if the golems are programmed properly,” Alex said. “I could make it so that all golems only accept orders from those registered to do so, like you, me, and a limited number of trusted officers. Every golem would be connected to me, so I could shut them down from a distance.”

“How far of a distance? You’ll be mostly in Generasi or elsewhere.”

“And I’m also learning teleportation.” Alex countered. “If a golem starts rampaging, it’ll be programmed so I feel it through the connection—” He recalled Claygon communicating with him across the great distance of maze-scape between the gate in Cretalikon, and the heart of Jaretha. “—then shut it down remotely. I could probably design the golems to connect with you as well, so you also have the ability to shut them down from a distance if need be. Your staff can then take care of things until I arrive to determine the cause of the malfunction. In time, we could also entrust a few trusted managers with that level of control. They’d have to have mana, of course.”

He kept his body language open, honest and enthusiastic; every inflection, tone, and expression was designed to set Lucia at ease. “I think it could work well.”

“And golems would draw more attention to our business, which would encourage more customers to pick us for their shipping needs.” Lucia’s eyes were alight with possibilities. “I’m liking this…I think it’ll be big.”

“It’ll be a new path for business.” Alex grinned. “One forged by joining alchemy, a little thing called ‘crazy spending’, and enterprise.” The young wizard was already thinking of more ways to lower both costs, and the amount of time it would take to craft the golems.

“It’s sounding very lucrative.” Lucia grinned back. “But, I’ll need some time to think about it.”

“Yeah, that’s fair, and I want to consult certain people too…” He paused. “Do you have anything I can take with me? Nothing proprietary, but documents that prove your business’ financial position, and value up to this point?”

“Absolutely, I’ve made copies for you to take with you.” Lucia stood and made her way to an open door in the suite. “I’ll get them for you.”

“Good. How long will you be in Generasi?” Alex asked.

“Another week. I’ll be looking at some other avenues for expansion.”

“Good, I’ll get back to you before then. I’ve got some people to talk to.”

###

“I don’t know if a shipping network would be needed, Alex, even if it were supported by golems.” Toraka frowned, flipping the pages of his proposal.

They were in her office, the afternoon sun streamed through a tall window as she looked over the proposal he’d quickly put together from Lucia’s documents.

“Everyone needs shipping, Toraka,” Alex leaned back in his chair. “We have products, and we need to get those products to others.”

“But our products are specialty items.” Toraka looked at him over the pages. “They’re only bought by the very wealthy. And the very wealthy can afford to send a ship to collect their brand new golem when it’s completed.”

“Sure they can,” Alex said. “But that means they need to send a ship and servants to collect the golem. That takes resources. Depending on distance, sending a ship to collect a golem could tie up their own resources. Imagine if wecould deliver their golems right to their front door? It’d make things a lot easier for a client. It would also give our business a farther reach.”

“Maybe, but then we’d need to assume responsibility for golems lost in transit,” Toraka mused. “And sometimes, we just pay to have the golems teleported if the client pays enough.”

Alex’s eyes narrowed at that. “So…let’s say you had someone on staff that could teleport. That’d save on costs, wouldn’t it?”

“Yes…it would…why?” She peered at him. “Wizards who’ve chosen to work as teleporters make too much coin in freelance, and besides, we’d use them too infrequently to justify the expense.”

“But what if I could teleport?” Alex asked. “You could pay me less than you would some freelancer.”

Toraka paused. “You’re not anywhere near fifth-tier spells yet, are you?”

“Third-tier isn't that far off,” Alex said. “And I’m very very good at short range teleportation and summoning spells. You could say that I—” He couldn’t resist. “—have a gift for it.”

“Hmmm, well in that case,” Toraka said easily. “If you manage to figure out teleportation, then yes, you could handle the rush deliveries…actually…hold on now.”

She took another look at Alex’s proposal. “You know what, there’s something you missed.”

“What’s that?” The young wizard glanced at the papers.

“Raw materials,” she said. “Sure it might not make much sense to employ an exclusive shipping company for my golems, but for transporting raw materials…well that might make a lot of sense. Here.”

She opened her desk drawer, pulling out a map of the Prinean sea and surrounding territories. There were red markings on certain areas of Generasi, and in the countries north and south of the sea.

“These areas are the sources for most of our raw materials.” Shale pointed. “Stone, iron, wood and more come from several quarries, mines, and logging operations here, here, here and here, for example.” She pointed to the different areas. “Now, here’s the thing. Raw materials from Generasi cost more, but because of the shorter distance, they also have low transportation costs. Raw materials from elsewhere are a lot cheaper, but also mean greater costs for shipping.”

Alex bit his upper lip. “But if those shipping costs were lowered…say because of an exclusive contract with a shipping company…”

Toraka smiled. “You’re learning. For your business, it makes sense. For mine? You had it backwards. It’s not the final product that I’d use your friend’s service for, it’s for raw materials. But that said, I want to see how she works with youfirst. If she proves herself in the next six months or so, then I’ll meet with her directly. I have some shipping contracts that are coming to an end soon.”

“I don’t think you’ll regret signing with her,” Alex rubbed his hands together. “And now—”

‘Father…are you home?’ Claygon’s voice startled Alex as it suddenly came through their link. “I’m bringing our friends…home. They want…to see you.’

‘Tell them I’ll be right there,’ Alex thought.

He looked at Shale. “Can we pick this up when we work on the golem tonight? I need to catch up with some friends. A lot of things are changing, and…” Alex glanced at the proposal again. “...I think they’ll be changing for them too.”

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