Tales of the Pearly Kingdom (Pearly Tales Vol. 2)

97. Peter's Lecture

"Peter?" Achilles asked at her desk.

"Hm?" he responded.

"You... don't seem like the type that would normally hang around Cal."

Peter sighed. "Look, I know Cal isn't everyone's best friend, but I respect the man and that comment isn't a compliment. You may not know this, but I very literally owe him my life and my family... twice over."

"I just meant that everyone from Shayley to the pirates, the monsters to the half-breeds. Everyone and everything around Cal is a grand gathering of eccentrics. And you just seem so... Normal. But that's not what I wanted to ask about." Achilles corrected herself.

The tea kettle started whistling. "Hold that thought." Peter said.

The office was brightly lit with large windows that showed the street. Across the street was something called a grove, an open plot of land with a small pool fed from the waterway. There were small berry bushes, a shady tree and several different species and races lounging.

The office itself was in neutral colors. It had six desks facing each other inside short cubicles. Peter had seventh desk at the end of column and was the biggest of them all. The workmanship of just this room put to shame everything that Achilles knew of. The fact that it had sprung up overnight boggled her mind. From the potted plants to the appliances, even the counters and desks were finely made as if mother nature had a hand in making them and considering the density of magic in the air she couldn't help but wonder if maybe she had. At the end of the room were three doors the first led to a private room with a desk and filing cabinets. The second led to a mini storage room with a staircase to the second floor. And the third led to a bathroom.

Peter poured a couple cups of honey and lavender tea. "What's on your mind, Instructor?"

"I was wondering about the magical energy of the city, it's too intense to be natural." She said.

Peter handed her a cup and sat down at his desk. "Oh that." He smiled. "The Deists call it Calloway's Blessing, a sign that he loves everyone in the city and views us as his chosen people. The man himself had something else in mind while he bragged to me about it 250 years ago."

"Why would he tell you?" she asked.

"I guess that goes back a ways too. You see, Calloway and the princess weren't always close. You could say that the princess was bitter after her complete defeat by the late North Wind guild. She was a hardened elite warrior princess and their prized 'greatest warrior'. After her sound defeat she was obligated to become a warrior for the North Wind. However, instead of being on the front line she was placed on a pedestal and saw very little combat compared to her old life."

"That makes no sense, why would a guild put a foreign dignitary on the throne of their city?" Achilles asked.

Peter smiled. "Cal told me that when you settled down you'd have a lot of questions."

"And? Did he tell you to give me a fake story or feed me lies to get in my good graces." Achilles narrowed her eyes.

"Not even, he told me to tell you the truth. Even if it painted him in a bad light so long as it was in my power and right to tell you."

"Pfft, why would he do that?"

"Master has more to gain from you trusting him then liking him, I guess." Peter shrugged. "Anyway, Naomi was always the inquisitive girl so answering a tide of questions isn't exactly out of my element. I digress, the guilds of the past were every bit a part of world politics as your everyday kingdom, but they had their own set of rules and agendas. The infamous Great Ones comprised both the world's greatest heroes and their greatest villains. They were the finest craftsmen and most lucrative merchants. They came from another world and lived in ours like the blood to our body. When enough Great Ones got together they would form a group called a guild. Not to be confused with the adventurer's guild organization, they just gave jobs to the more daring Great Ones and citizens." Peter sipped his tea while flipping through his paperwork.

"The favorite past time of the Great Ones who formed these Guilds was to compete with one another. They would build towns, cities, and fortresses on civilization nodes." He pulled out a map of the world and pointed at the northern continents at several spots. Blue, Green, and Red dots marked the otherwise simple map. "City nodes were more or less home to major cities of this worlds citizens although it wasn't unheard of for a guild to either ally themselves with one of these powers, completely overtake the native population, or find their own and start a city. All the biggest capital cities in the world are built on one of these nodes and only a few uncontested ones remain through mutual treaties or due to them being too dangerous. City nodes are usually the most fertile of all the nodes, with more crops of better quality they can support large populations." He moved his finger from a blue node to a green one near the Pearly city.

"Trade Nodes are interesting because they are usually placed on strategic places between city nodes. They attract commerce and a town built on one of these nodes is sure to be prosperous in trade. The one here next to us is empty because of the proximity to the Pearly City and our poor relationship with our neighbors. Great One craftsmen and businessmen flock to these towns for their ready access to raw materials. And because of all the talents gathered in these places, Adventurers flock to them because of the quality merchandise. This is part of the reason we are building the new Demonkin trade town on this plot of land and the guild is currently being charged with clearing it out."

"The Demonkin aren't we-"

"No," Peter cut her off. "That's why they came to us for help. The Demonkin are essentially the long-lost half-breed ancestry of the true demons. They anticipated discrimination from their Beastkin neighbors and wanted a fallback in case things go from bad to worse for them."

"What's this node's Resource?" Achilles pointed at the fledgling trade city location.

"It has a few, but I'd have to say that it's most strategically useful and valuable resource is that it is placed above a giant untapped vein of Mithril." Peter shrugged.

"ARE YOU KINDING! And the Pearly City is just giving it to them?"

Peter laughed. "Sounds kind of ridiculous doesn't it. We are more worried about having allies though. We get priority on certain goods, but we are really going out on a limb for them, and the future benefits far outweigh the current risks."

"Okay, I won't pretend to understand politics on that scale. Then what are the red nodes?"

Peter pointed back at the map at the red mark over the Pearly City. "Fortress Nodes, they are not build on extra fertile land, nor over deposits, but for warring guilds they were invaluable since they produce a defensive and offensive bonus to residents. In short, a novice soldier from a fortress could easily match three novice soldiers from a city. A veteran or elite from a fortress could easily equal ten to twenty soldiers from a city. In terms of war potential, we are vastly superior to cities and trade towns no matter how you slice it. Fortress nodes were popular on the global stage for War Guilds. The North Wind was on this global stage of giants. Comparatively..." Peter sighed and looked at Achilles somberly. "... the western shore was widely considered a starter area for Great Ones. A neutral point where Great Ones would appear in relative infancy at level one and begin a journey."

"What does that mean?" Achilles didn't like what Peter was implying.

"One of the weakest locations, weak citizens, weak monsters... weak gods. It was considered dishonorable or a waste of time for big guilds to go after guilds from a starter areas because they were so weak."

"Is that how he sees us!" Achilles slammed her hand on the table.