“Where are the caravans?!”
My day had gone to shit real quick. After a month of negotiations I had managed to set up a trading deal between the Merchant Guild in Radasanth and the mining town of Stormhope. I should have been kicking back at a bar enjoying a Corone Sunrise and playing with the little Akashima folding umbrella in my cup, and instead after only one shipment the caravans had stopped. Instead I was sitting in the officer one of the Merchant Guild’s representatives getting yelled at by a man who looked like the love child of a potato and a shaved cat.
“Well!?” he spat.
“I don-”
“You don't know! You don't know! I bloody know you don't know!”
“Then wh-”
“Because Miss Remedy Blue, because I wanted to see you say it! Now this is what is going to happen. You will go to Stormhope, you will find out why they stopped and you will start them again. Am I clear?”
I nodded.
* * * *
“Y'edda’s butt!”
I paced in my room trying to work out what I was going to do. As soon as I had heard the caravan hadn't arrived I sent out a man to check it out. He had not come back, so I sent another. Then another. None had returned, a sizeable issue given they were only to be paid upon returning the information to me. That left only a few options. Robbers could have taken the caravan and the riders out en route. However it would be rare for robber to take a load of quartz as their prize. Perhaps it was something with the town itself….
I sighed and huffed in frustration. There was no choice, I had to go. The contract had an clause providing me with ongoing stipend to ‘ensure the contract is fulfilled’. A throw away line that is generally just there to ensure a steady stream of income. Now it forced me to investigate the missing caravan. But I couldn't do it alone. Well, perhaps I could have… but it wasn't wise to do it alone. I needed to hire help.