[Easy, Completion]
Lu brought us both a bowl of roasted tomato soup and a mug of Dwarven ale for Mossbeard and a glass of water for me. I like this soup almost as much as the cream of mushroom soup, I had her my last two times. No wonder there is a fight for tables for food this good. But I just hope that Lu will be safe here. If Dogberry hadn't been here would the rest of the men at the table have gone for Lu. I’ll talk to her about it tonight. For now I better learn about the gnomes before I get there.
“Mossbeard please tell me about the gnome colony?”
“What would you like to know?”
“Do all the families have individual homes?”
“No, we all live in one large building, if the population grows we add more space / rooms around the edges of the building if we have the space to expand on the land otherwise we start adding floors.”
“Do you have communal kitchens?”
“Yes, we have several on each floor, they post a sign at the door about what the main course is. That way if you don’t like what they are cooking you can go to one of the other dining rooms on your floor. You can also cook in your family’s rooms if it is a special celebration.”
“What about schools, libraries?”
“We have both, kids are separated by age for school.”
“Will I fit inside?
“The first room a colony builds is called the meeting room, it’s human or elf sized, this room is used by the whole colony to meet with outsiders. When we arrive, I’ll send one of the door guards to fetch my family. The ones who aren’t at work will join us in the meeting room. The meeting room has furnishings for both sizes and races so everyone can be comfortable.”
“Should I bring a gift?”
“No the opposite in fact, they should give you a gift, you saved my life, so you own me now.”
“Whoa, Mossbeard, I can’t own anyone, besides it was Lottie that saved your life not me.”
“That’s not how the doc put it to me. She said, ‘I was bleeding from so many places at once, that she couldn’t stop them all. So you step up magic us away, and just put my entire life on pause. The bleeding and everything else about me just stopped. Then you had to transform me into a human so the doc knew what to do about the damage. The doc then went spot by spot on my body and repaired me, halfway through you had to unpause me to see if I was leaking anywhere else. Then you paused me again. The doc fixed the rest of the holes. Then you unpaused me and turned me back into a gnome.’ So you saved me. I guess anyone could have sewn me up while paused. So you own me.”
“So that means that you have to do what I say.”
“Pretty much, yes.”
“Then I say, you are free to do whatever you like and don’t have to listen to me anymore.”
“Nope, that’s the exception, that’s why I said pretty much. You can’t free me, but if I annoy you, you can kill me. No hard feelings.”
“This is terrible, Mossbeard, I absolutely will not allow you to be a slave to anyone, myself included. Finish your soup, we need to go to the bookstore.”
I waved goodbye to Lu, all thoughts of the fight she’d been in forgotten now. A slave, me a slave owner, I’d read Huckleberry Finn, I knew what horrid people slave owners are. I was so upset, I forgot about the transport network and walked to the bookstore. Sparky glanced up when I arrived, but Opal looked delighted to see me walk in with the gnome.
“Hi Opal, honey this is my friend Mossbeard, would you mind showing him your picture and explain what you are doing to him, I need to speak to Sparky.”
“Yes, Rose.” Mossbeard went over and Opal handed him the drawing, grinning and talking excitedly.”
“I thought you were supposed to be sorting out a nursing school, even you couldn’t have completed that in a morning, and what’s with the gnome?”
“He claims that because I saved his life, he is now my slave.”
“That’s what you get for sticking your nose in other people's business.”
“Are you going to help me or not?”
“Not, the last guy you helped became your slave, you think I want you for a slave, oh no.”
“What am I supposed to do with him?”
“You could sell him.”
“I know you are joking but that is not remotely funny, slavery is just the first of a long list of things that humans have done to one another, like religion normalizing it in the bible.”
“Alright not another passionate rant on how bad religion is, you are preaching to the choir as they say, get it Rose, did you get it. What I meant is you could sell him back to his family.”
“Ha Ha very funny Sparky, I got it, preaching. How is selling him to his family any different than selling him to you.”
“Hey, I’d never buy or sell someone, I have morals, unlike some slave owners I know. Just get off your soapbox and think for a second, you give him back to his family and they give you a gift. If you went to their house and they served you their greatest delicacy ‘beat greens’ but you hate beat greens, you’d choke them down, because they were trying to do something special for you. This idea that the person saved owing their life is treated differently in different cultures. Some cultures reverse it, the savior is now responsible for the saved. If I were you, which I would never allow to happen. But if I were you, I’d sell him back to his family, but a word of advice, serious word of advice. Do not sell him back cheaply, that would just insult him and his family. You’ll have to go and negotiate with them.”
“Can’t I just ask him what I should offer?”
“He might lie, and value himself very highly, to save face with his family. Or if he really likes you and doesn’t care what happens he might undervalue himself. There is one other thing you could do, you could just ignore it. We’re all enslaved in one way or another. Lu is your slave and I’m pretty sure you are hers so all's fair there. If you like the Gnome, give him a room in the tower and see what happens. If his family offers a ransom, take it, then donate it to the library.”
“Alright, I’ll ignore it. Or accept if offered.”
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
“Get out of here, fix this and get this nursing school started will you.”
“Alright, Mossbeard, are you ready to go?”
“Can we keep him Rose?”
“He’s a person. Honey, just like Groucho, you can’t keep people.”
“But he says that you own him, Rose.”
“He’s just confused, hon” I glared at the little man.
“Come on, you. Now I understand why Orin was so frustrated with you.”
“Sorry Rose.”
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with you.”
“You could sell me back to my da, but he won’t offer you much, cause he’ll claim I’m not worth much. I’m probably not either, I’m not a very good carpenter.”
“If you could be whatever you wanted, what would you be?”
“Something to do with art, but my da says there is no money in art.”
“What kind of art, drawing, painting?”
“Yes both.”
“Are you any good?”
“Yes, pretty fair, if I do say so myself.”
“You saw Opals, work, could you copy it do you suppose?”
“Yes I think I could, why do you ask Rose?”
“We have to go back to the bookstore.”
“But we’re halfway to my house.”
“It’s alright I’ll get a portal muffin and we’ll portal there.”
It didn’t take long to get back.
“You again, I give you the day off and you just keep showing up. Really you are here more when you are not supposed to be.”
“I have an idea, give me a minute, Sparky.”
“Mossbeard follow me.”
I set him at my writing desk where he could see the miniature drawings we used to portal.
“Try and copy this drawing exactly as fast as you can but leave out these two books in the lower right hand corner.”
Five minutes later he handed me back an exact, at least to my eyes, copy. I went out front and showed Opal the drawing.
“Opal, honey could you please finish this drawing, it’s missing the two books in the lower right hand corner.”
Now Sparky was interested he came over from his stool and watched as Opal completed the drawing and it glowed golden from a magical field. I touched the painting and was standing in my library at home. I touched the bookstore drawing and I was back in the store.
“How much do you want for the gnome?”
“Very funny Sparky, he’s not for sale.”
“Mossbeard, could you come out here please?”
“How much do you make a week working for Orin?”
“Four gold pieces a week. When there is construction work to do, plus three meals. One gold if there is no work.”
“How would you like to make five gold per week, for eight hour days, five days a week. The rest of the time you can do whatever you like. Forty hours a week you’ll be copying Opal’s drawings but if you want to paint or draw something else in your off hours we’ll buy you the supplies, plus all the food you can eat. You can live at home or in the tower, it’s up to you.”
“No it’s up to you, you own me.”
“Alright, how much gold will you pay me to buy yourself back?”
“Fifty gold pieces, but I don’t have fifty, I only have three.”
“That’s fine, have you ever heard of a loan?”
“Yes, that’s what Earth people do to go into debt.”
“I’ll loan you fifty gold, alright, you give me the fifty gold back, you’re a free gnome. If you agree to come to work for Sparky and he pays you five gold a week, you give me two of your gold, in twenty five weeks the loan will be paid off and if Sparky thinks you did a good job you’ll get a fifty gold bonus. You get free food the whole time and you can live in the tower or anywhere else that you’d like. How does that sound?”
“It sounds like da is going to be P O’d”
“Why”
“Because I won’t be paying him three gold a week to live in his house anymore, I’m going to move into the tower.”
Opal started clapping. I made up an IOU for fifty gold, and had Mossbeard sign it. He insisted on holding the fifty gold pieces. So I jumped to Juliet’s world and authored the gold. Jumped back and gave it to Mossbeard. Then he handed it back, I gave it to Sparky, for Mossbeard’s bonus.
He was free and I was not a slave owner and Mossbeard didn’t even realize that he was never a slave and if likes it and stays for the full twenty five weeks and doesn’t spend any more then when he lived at home he should be one hundred gold richer and that is before he gets the fifty gold bonus.
Before we left for the gnome colony, I had him draw a copy of Lily’s kitchen, omitting the flour canister. I asked Opal to activate the drawing and it started to glow. I slipped the activated drawing into a large folder, careful not to touch the drawing itself.
Mossbeard looked very pleased with himself, as was I.
