Gemwright Ch 30

We head back over to the docks, Hana, Vai'yun, Bor'wa, and I. Vai'yun, as always, has engaged us with telepathy.

Me, "Vai'yun, are you sure you won't find this boring?"

Vai'yun, "They move hundreds of boxes! And they follow a system! To deal with those hundreds of boxes! So they all go to the right place!" She seems to be excited about it, which is a good enough reason for me.

The warehouse in question is offside a pier with a particularly large boat. It has a couple bridges out, but nobody is moving boxes yet.

Me, "Hmm. Who are we supposed to find? Should we go inside?"

Vai'yun spots someone, and shouts "Musa!"

A well dressed man, less bulky than the waiting dock workers, turns, and with a strained smile, comes over to meet us. "Good day, honored guests. Madam Vai'yun, and mister Vai'grey, I presume?" I nod. "Good. I am Lead Inspector Musa ahn'Hibin Vak, the overseer of this warehouse, tasked with overseeing goods coming in and going out. We keep the docks safe of dangerous contraband, while allowing all other goods to pass through unmolested, with no greater inconvenience than is..." he yammers on for a while. Vai'yun is listening with rapt attention.

Hana looks at me with a crooked smile. ¬He sure can talk to a pretty woman, huh?¬ she sends.

Me, ¬He didn't even ask your names.¬

Hana shrugs, and Bor'wa giggles.

Musa, ".. and utmost efficiency."

Vai'yun, "I want to see it! The efficiency, and the 'well-oiled machine', and everything!"

Musa looks a bit surprised, but turns around, and gestures for us to walk to the pier side of the warehouse. I note that we cross a thick red line painted on the road. I ask, "What's this red line for?"

Musa, "No cargo can cross over this line. Everything must go through inspection. A dock worker who crosses this line with cargo will be flogged and blacklisted." Harsh. We get to the back soon enough, and he shouts forward, "You lot! Start bringing in the crates! We're opening early today!" The dock workers, almost all sitting down, look at each other. After a moment, they get up and start walking toward the boat.

Musa waves us over to the warehouse. Someone must have heard the call from inside, because a massive door is slowly pushed open.

Vai'yun, "Look! The door has wheels on it! Vai'grey, how heavy must this door be, that they need wheels to open it!" The door does in fact have wheels on the bottom. It looks about 8 feet tall and twenty wide. There's another such door, but it isn't being opened.

Me, "Probably four... five hundred pounds? Good thing those wheels are there or it would be hell on the hinges."

Musa, "An accurate estimate. Now, come inside."

We walk through the door as it is being opened, pushed by two large men in some sort of uniform holding thick metal bars. I note the people in the warehouse are mostly in that uniform.

Someone dressed similarly to Musa, but tall and angry looking, walks up. He spares a glance to our group, and looks at Musa. "Musa, what is this?"

Musa, "These are valuable guests of the Fahas. They have

asked

that we accommodate madam Vai'yun's curiosity about customs and cargo."

The man does a poor job of hiding his incredulity. Just then, two other men in the laborer's uniform come up to Musa and start complaining about something.

Musa, "Figen, I need to deal with this. Give them the tour and tell them whatever they want to know." He walks away with the laborers.

Figen sighs. I can't help but laugh. "Sorry about this, mister Figen. Vai'yun is from a simpler upbringing in a very small village, and is fascinated by the idea of bulk transportation. Please bear with us. I am Vai'gray, by the way, and these two ladies here are Hanamaya, and Bor'wa. If you could give us the walkthrough of how a crate comes into your care from the pier, through to when it leaves you, we would appreciate it."

Vai'yun, "And I would like to inspect a crate, please!" She's adorable when she's excited.

She looks sideways at me, face still beaming. ¬Of course I'm excited! I'm learning more and more about The World Beyond!¬ I return her smile and simply nod.

Despite myself, I'm starting to get a little interested as well.

Figen straightens his back. "Oh, anything for our honored Faha business partners. Well then. Follow me, if you would."

We walk away from the entrance. Looking back, I see in the distance the first box has just been taken out of the ship, and is on its way over. "When the lowborns bring the crates in from the pier, they will drop it off in this first area. This line is where they may not cross, as it is where official business begins." He gestures at a yellow line that runs the entire length of the warehouse. "From here on, only company men may cross. You are of course exempt for today.."

It seems we're waiting for the first crate to arrive, so Vai'yun asks, "How do you become an inspector?"

Figen answers it, but I don't listen. Sentral informs me there is another intruder, but this one comes with a large box. I watch with Sentral's Zone as one of the Crew has the delivery men set the large box down in the middle of the encampment, near my new table.

Hana, ¬That's the vase right? That you need to make the Spinel?¬

Me, ¬Yeah, looks like it. The size of the box is about right. It's packed pretty tight, but it seems to be a vase.¬

I ignore the delivery, and focus on Figen again. He's droning on about stamps or something. I look around, and there's all sorts of subdivisions where people are getting ready to do something or other.

Vai'yun, "Why can't the dock workers come past the line?"

Figen, "Because every member of our company has been vetted and is trustworthy. Their higher pay reflects this trust. Those out there are known only for their brute strength, not their moral fiber. They are suitable for the long haul across the pier for lower pay. Of course, their union is responsible for any damages incurred should they drop something."

Vai'yun, "Union?"

Figen scowls. "An unending thorn in my side. The workers work for the union, which allots workers for ship loading and unloading according to overpriced contracts. I long for the day when the sultan abolishes such troublesome organizations."

Figen turns to the dock workers, the first box is almost here.

I laugh in my mind. Vai'yun sends a wordless question.

Me, ¬Perhaps it is not the same here, but unions are a way for laborers to organize and demand fair payment, and to protect their members from unfair treatment. Those who hire from unions would prefer unions to not exist, so they could get workers for less money.¬

Vai'yun, ¬Organizing.. To demand additional money from work? I suppose it makes sense. It seems complicated.¬

Me, ¬Most people will work hard to earn money. Earning more money per hour or per day marks an improvement in the quality of life.¬

Vai'yun nods, then turns to Figen. "How much does a dock worker earn for a day of work?"

Figen answers, a sum so low even I am surprised. Vai'yun feels a stirring of anger.

Hana chimes in, ¬Vai'yun, don't say anything. I know it feels unfair, and that's because it is. But, this is the way of the world.¬

Vai'yun, ¬But they could work a month, and not have enough to have even one gold! How do they afford food?¬

Hmm? Have we perhaps skewed her perception of the value of food?

Hana. ¬It's okay. They wouldn't be working if they'd starve anyway. Now, the boxes are almost here.¬

Vai'yun looks at the two of us, then nods, and cheers up a little. Bor'wa just looks confused, perhaps later I'll run through it all again for her benefit.

Two men carrying the first box set it down inside the warehouse, a few feet away from the yellow line, then leave out the front door. Two men in the lesser uniforms move to the box, and carry it over the line. Someone on the other side shouts, "Here," and the men change course to him.

I see in Vai'yun's mind a brief remembrance of jars and lighthouses, and she goes out to meet the men carrying in the next box. I start to say something...

Hana, "Don't stop her."

Hah, alright then. I stand by with telekinesis at the ready in case she needs it. She jogs up to two 'lowborn' and takes the box from them. It's large, but so is she. Making it look light as a feather, she carries it across the yellow line, and looks at Figen. "Now what?" The man in question is wearing an expression that says 'Why me', but then turns and walks further in. We follow.

Figen looks at a line of officers attending strange looking stations. I note with interest that there are curved walls behind and to the side of each station, extending slightly to the front as well, with the paths leading back behind them

between

the bowl-shaped stations.

Figen, "You, Shah."

The woman thins her lips, straightens her back, looks at Vai'yun, and barks, "Here!"

We all walk into the 'bowl'. The station is about 10 feet wide, with a conspicuous square painted on the ground, a chair, and a small rack with 12 'wands' with leather hoops are hanging. Miss Shah stands at attention, with one hand 45° from her legs, gesturing to the square. "Please place the box here."

Figen walks up. "By the books, no nonsense, treat this as an inspection. Inform us what you are doing as you do it."

Shah nods. When Vai'yun places the box down, Shah says, "Please stand back, ma'am. I must inspect the box for dangers."

Figen speaks up. "This is the security check. Because these exist, nobody would be stupid enough to send detonation-enchanted goods through our port. But, to keep it that way, we must check every crate."

Shah, "I will now cast Identify." She raises both hands at the box, and repeats, "Identify." .... "It is a crate of tomatoes." Shah steps back to a wooden board, and picks up the left-most 'wand'. "I will now test the box for detonation enchantments."

Figen, "You may step back if you feel the need, but there is no chance that

this

crate has any dangerous magics or artifacts. These manatech devices are attuned to specific detection spells, which we use to assure nothing dangerous gets by." True to his word, he makes no effort to set himself apart from the box that apparently has a miniscule chance of exploding.

Manatech...? There's a new word.

Shah manipulates the wand, then holds it over the box, passing it slowly over the top, one side, and then another side. "This crate has no detonation enchantments."

She hangs the wand back where it was, and picks up the next wand. "I will now test for pestilence magic."

Holy shit.

Figen, "Continue on, officer Shah." He steps around her and picks up the right-most wand. "Madam Vai'yun, would you care to assist in this step? Understand that the Inspector Shah will have to re-perform your work, but you seem ... interested."

Vai'yun, already leaning forward, nods and grins excitedly.

I notice that other crates are being taken to the bowls at our side.

Figen, "This magic item is not dangerous. Note that the bottom can twist, so do so.. exactly. Now, pass it over the box as you saw Officer Shah do it."

Shah, "This crate has no pestilence magic."

Figen, "Thank you Inspector, our guests have the picture, please continue in silence."

Shah, a professional it seems, nods, and resumes her inspection with the third wand. I vaguely wonder what the hell else they're testing for.

Vai'yun mimics Shah, and says, "This crate has none of this bad thing." She smiles and hands the wand back to Figen. He takes it, and tosses it at the rack... and sticks the landing perfectly? Wait...

The 'detonation' wand floats back to him. Oh, he's got telekinesis. Huh.

Figen shouts, "This is only a test! Do not evacuate." Before manipulating the wand, and passing it over his hand, which has a few sparks flying off...

The wand makes a loud 'Kiiii' sound for a half a second, before he twists it again, and the noise stops. "That was only a test! Any further warnings will be genuine!" And tosses the wand back at the wall; it lands perfectly again. "That is what happens if the detectors discover their magic. Shah, if your wand were to give out its warning

right now

, what happens next?"

Shah stands up, "The building is immediately evacuated, and the Docks Authority mages are called in to inspect the box, and dispose of it if needed. I personally would be quarantined until Dock Authority mages have analyzed me."

Figen, "Correct." He gestures at the wands, and the remaining eight fly off to circle the box, before flying back onto the pegs. "Inspections normally continue by hand, but there is no chance that Captain Gerelt would transport anything foolish, so I'm expediting this one. Thank you for your work Inspector Shah." Both of them pull out a stamp, open something on a nearby table, press their stamps to the reddish material, then press them one at a time onto the cart. "This box has now been marked as inspected by the two of us. Boxes normally are inspected by a single person. Madam Vai'yun, would you like to carry the box to the next area, or shall our workers do so?"

Vai'yun gives a predictable answer.

Figen, "I thought so. Before you pick it up, what color is marked on the far corner?"

Vai'yun looks. "Blue."

Figen, "Remember that. Let us away."

Me, "I gather that you're a mage from what I've just seen. Are all workers here mages? Shah surprised me by having Identify, isn't that expensive?"

Figen, "Some of us are. I generally maintain the detectors, so I need to be able to perform the pseudo-spell 'Channel Detonation' so we know it works, as well as others. And no, I won't be casting 'Channel Pestilence'. We have a special device for that. Some other roles require magic talent. Most of the staff are not certified mages."

We arrive at the section behind the bowls. There's a few tables with a single-colored flag above them. Figen says, "Note the flags above. You know which flag to take your

blue

box to, yes?"

Vai'yun happily pivots to the blue flag, and walks over to the grouping of tables near it. There's another obvious marking where boxes should go, but only one of the tables has someone... at it. He's not sitting, but rather moving documents around into various drawers and folders on the tabletop. The sitting man looks up, sees Vai'yun carrying a box. He stops, looking very confused. "What...?"

Figen, "Madam Vaiyun, place the crate in this yellow square if you will. And you," pointing at the man, "process this crate." He turns back to us. "This man checks the paperwork." Then back to the pencil pusher. "Is Captain Gerelt in good standing?"

The man looks confused. "Of course he is."

Figen, "Are the taxes for this crate paid?"

The sitting man shuffles some papers. "Probably? Gerelt wouldn't mess that up, but since we opened early for some reason, I don't have the documents from him yet."

Figen walks over to the table, and flips open another... small lid, this time with something blue inside of it. He again takes out his stamp from his clothing, reaches towards the blue stuff, then then hesitates. "Madam, would you take this stamp, apply the blue dust, and press it against the crate?" He hands Vai'yun his stamp, gestures at the open stamp-dust-container-thing, then presses his finger beside the other red stamps. Vai'yun takes the stamp, smushes it against the dust, and then presses Figen's stamp. "Good, now anyone looking at this crate knows that I've approved the paperwork." He takes back his stamp, and holds it off to the side. The dust somehow falls off, and he pockets it again.

Vai'yun looks confused. "Even though the 'documents' aren't here?"

Figen shrugs. "This part would surely be boring even for you. It involves checking the documents to make sure that the good Captain paid his taxes for this crate, specifically. I'm sure he did. Come come, the next inspection is more interesting."

Vai'yun, ¬I won't argue with him, but I did want to see the documents and how they know the Captain did 'taxes' correctly, and what 'taxes' are exactly."

She picks up the crate again, and we move to another section behind the tables with colors over them. This area is pretty open, but like the first row of inspections, someone sees us and shouts, "Here."

Vai'yun moves the crate over to a familiar yellow square, this one raised a few inches off the ground, and surrounded on three sides by tables. There are a few other setups like it nearby, but none have crates yet. Figen narrates for us again, "This is the last inspection, where we actually open the crate, and confirm the contents. It would normally be sent over with some accompanying documents, but we're skipping that." He looks at the officer, who is uniformed in a similar way to Figen. "This is a crate of Tomatoes. Confirm this. The madam will be taking part as she pleases."

The fellow looks perplexed. Vai'yun steps up. "I'm Vai'yun. I'm learning about your ways today. I am pleased to meet you."

He furrows his brows, but nods. "Likewise. I'm Khamis."

Khamis looks again at Figen, then shrugs. He takes a crowbar, then pries open the crate's top, and puts it on the outside, away from the tables.

I had been wondering how the tomatoes manage to withstand the weight of themselves when they're stacked so deep. It turns out the interior is twenty seven boxes arranged 3x3x3, stuffed full of tomatoes. I see in one of them what appears to be a cold crystal. Khamis starts grabbing boxes, and putting them on another table. Vai'yun gingerly grabs a box, and looks at it. "What is this? It appears to be iron, but it's so thin, and it's holding its shape somehow."

Figen, "A relatively new invention called 'wire mesh'. Lightweight, reusable, but somewhat expensive. I would question the wisdom of putting tomatoes inside of them, but it doesn't appear to have done any damage to the goods."

Vai'yun continues examining it, then puts it on a table. She turns back to the box to find it already emptied out, and looks a bit dejected.

Khamis, "The next step in this case is opening the boxes to confirm they're actually filled with tomatoes. As I confirm them, I will put them back in the crate." He manipulates a latch on one of the edges, and the top swings open. Khamis swiftly removes a surprising amount of tomatoes, seems satisfied that the box is what it appears to be, then replaces them in the box, closes it, and replaces it in the crate.

Vai'yun inspects her own box. Though not clumsy by any means, the professional easily outpaces her 22 to 5. I don't really have much to do, so I connect to Sentral, and start getting some Diamond ready for tonight. I also unbox the new magical vase, move it beside Sentral's box, and dump a lot of mana into it, causing it to overflow with sand.

Hammering brings me back to the present. The fellow is closing the crate by hammering the nails back in. My wife is watching closely. The Hardbarks don't use nails, I think, so this is new technology for her. When he's done, she experimentally lifts the lid, but nailed down as it is, it doesn't budge at all. "So that's how it is done! I wondered how these crates stayed together!"

The two men look surprised, but thankfully keep their comments to themselves. The inspector takes his stamp, opens another lid to reveal green dust, and puts his own stamp to the side of the blue ones.

It looks like Figen doesn't plan to stamp this one, but Vai'yun turns to him, puts her hands together, and gives him a full smile with wide eyes.

He only withstands it a few seconds before taking out his stamp and handing it to her, "Oh, do as you please."

Vai'yun gives a cheerful thanks, jogs over to the dust, then the crate, and stamps Figen's seal on the box, also in green, before handing it back to Figen.

He takes it back, and says, "The last step in

our

journey is deliveries. Madam Vai'yun, if you would." She happily picks up the crate, and follows Figen towards other, currently closed massive doors in the back - or perhaps the front? - of the warehouse.