Chapter 122. Seeds Before Food

Carlos was halfway across the southern field when the wheat in the Spirit Farmland began to change.

Then the green stalks rose. They pushed higher one after another beneath the pale light of the Tidal Silverwood, their heads filling out, their color turning from green to gold. The whole row changed in less than a minute.

Tarin saw it before anyone else.

"Rowan!"

The shout brought everyone running from the new farmland. Carlos reached the marked path at the same time as Mira and the two new Farmers.

Blue was already above the wheat, drifting from one end of the row to the other with so much energy that its round body kept swelling and shrinking.

Carlos looked at it and smiled.

"Good work."

Blue spun once in the air. Rowan put one arm out before anyone stepped off the path.

"Nobody enters yet. The roots of the Silverwood run beneath this side. One careless boot is enough to make our first harvest expensive."

The two new Farmers stopped immediately.

Carlos did too, though he had already been leaning forward to see the wheat better.

Rowan crouched at the edge of the plot. He checked the first stalk, then another. He opened a grain between his fingers, pressed the inside with his thumb, and stared at it for long enough that Tarin began shifting beside Carlos.

"Well?" Carlos asked.

"Healthy. Mature enough for seed." Rowan looked over his shoulder. "The crop itself could be used for food. The seeds are the more useful result."

Carlos looked at the golden row. It was a small amount of wheat. The southern field needed far more than this, and the kitchen had already started the day’s cooking.

Mira came to the same conclusion from the other direction.

"Seed basket," she said to a Hearthkeeper. "The blue-marked one. And bring the small cloth bags, not the food sacks."

The Hearthkeeper hurried away.

Carlos looked at her. "You are fine with giving up the wheat?"

"I am fine with people eating tomorrow too." Mira folded her arms. "One row will not change today’s meal count. A better seed stock could help change what future food could look like though."

That was the answer he wanted, even if he had needed to hear it out loud.

"Seeds only," Carlos said.

Rowan harvested slowly. He separated the best heads of wheat first, checked them, then placed them in the blue-marked basket when the Hearthkeeper returned with it. Tarin and Sela stood on the path and watched every movement. The new Farmers did the same, but Carlos could tell they were trying to memorize the order rather than simply look impressed.

When the final seed head went into the basket, the system panel appeared.

--

[Common Wheat seed harvest complete]

[Seed quality: High]

[Seed stock increased]

--

One of the new Farmers leaned toward the basket.

"Can we plant those in the south now?"

"No," Rowan said.

The Farmer stiffened.

Rowan pointed at the basket. "We will count them first. Then we will compare them to the seed we planted. Then we decide what portion goes into the southern field and what portion remains protected. If you spend every seed because you are excited, you have learned nothing."

The Farmer lowered his head. "I understand."

Mira tied the basket closed. "Enough to matter. Not enough to waste. Can the next row be larger?"

"After we record this one," Rowan said. "Seed, spacing, ordinary water, Blue’s Mana Water and the soil condition all go on the board. We cannot copy a result if we only remember the result."

He tapped the edge of the plot with one finger. "The next crop might grow faster and give worse seed. Or it might take longer and give us twice as much. A farm becomes reliable when we know which change caused the result. Until then, every success is only luck we happened to see."

"Fine," he said. "Records first. Then we expand the seed rows."

Mira called for charcoal boards. Tarin carried one over from the kitchen. Sela followed with a small bundle of charcoal, and the new Farmers gathered beside Rowan before anyone had to tell them twice.

Rowan began with the planted seed count.

"Write only what you saw or measured," he said. "Do not write guesses because you think they sound right. Tarin, you handled the spacing. Tell them the distance between the stalks."

Tarin answered immediately, then stopped when Sela gave him a look.

"Wait." He crouched beside the old pegs. "I need to check."

Carlos almost laughed. That was better.

The Farmers wrote as Rowan listed the numbers: the seed count, spacing, ordinary-water cycles, one controlled Mana Water irrigation and the time shown by the panel.

Carlos pointed at Blue. "Add its work too. Write how much and when."

Mira came back with a food ledger tucked under one arm, and the empty ground stopped being the problem he wanted to solve first.

"We need to talk," she said.

Carlos knew that voice.

He walked with her away from the seed row, stopping near the edge of the kitchen yard where the Hearthkeepers could still see them if they needed her.

"The agreement," he said.

Mira nodded.

"The four Lords are waiting to renew it. If we continue giving eighty meals every day, we receive Wood x120 and Stone x120. The trade is useful. But after Ironroot’s ninety meals and Cedric’s group’s nine, our kitchen keeps working hard just to stand still."

"How long before the reserve becomes safe if we keep the eighty-meal agreement?"

"I cannot give you an honest number." Mira turned a page. "The southern field has only just been planted. The Spirit Farmland is producing seeds, not food. The cucumber bed is still uncertain. Any answer I give you depends on crops we have not harvested yet."

"You told everyone we would build a reserve before more summons. You told the Bearkins and the new Farmers that Ironroot would not keep growing until it could feed the people already here. If we renew the old deal as though nothing changed, that promise becomes a nice sentence we said at a meeting."

"What can we give without making the reserve a lie?"

"Forty Basic Cooked Meals each day," Mira said. "Wood x60 and Stone x60. Three days only, then we review the stores and the first field progress."

"Three days is enough to see whether the kitchen can actually begin putting meals aside," she added. "If the southern field gives us good growth and the seed work stays stable, we can talk about more later. If something goes wrong, we will still have time to react."

"Half."

"Half," Mira agreed. "The other Lords may refuse. They may try to pressure Cosmic for more."

Carlos looked over the field. The wood and stone mattered. Food mattered first.

"Then they can refuse," he said. "We are changing the agreement. We are not gambling meals we have not grown."

Mira’s shoulders eased.

Carlos opened his message panel.

--

[Carlos Goldwin] - The food agreement needs to change for now.

[Carlos Goldwin] - Ironroot can provide forty Basic Cooked Meals per day for Wood x60 and Stone x60. The agreement will be reviewed after three days.

[Carlos Goldwin] - Ask all four Lords. If they do not want it, do not argue with them.

[Cosmic Merchant] - Cutting it in half will make them panic.

[Carlos Goldwin] - Then tell them why. I am not promising food I cannot safely provide.

[Cosmic Merchant] - Alright. I will handle it.

--

Brann came over from the field at exactly the wrong moment, carrying a stone nearly as large as Carlos’s torso. He put it down beside the water route and wiped his forehead with the back of one hand.

"Mira say lunch late. Is because shortage?" He asked.

"The kitchen is counting first," Carlos said.

Brann’s face became serious. "Brann’s five meals are counted?"

Mira stared at him.

"Yes, Brann. Your five meals are counted."

"Good." He nodded once, satisfied. Then he looked at the southern field. "More wheat means more meals later. Brann clear all the stones."

He picked up the stone and headed back. The reply from Cosmic came several minutes later.

"We can use this strip after the first records are complete," Rowan said, indicating a narrow outer section. "Wheat first. Beans after we see whether the root depth interferes. The vegetable seed plots must stay separate because cabbage and onions need more than fast growth if we want proper seed."

Carlos nodded. "How many times can we run wheat before we have enough seed for the whole south field?"

"That depends on today’s count." Rowan looked toward Mira’s basket. "But we will know after this harvest. That is why the numbers matter."

The message panel finally appeared.

--

[Cosmic Merchant] - Three agreed immediately.

[Cosmic Merchant] - The fourth wants to know whether this is the first step before you stop selling food completely.

--

[Carlos Goldwin] - Tell him the truth. If Ironroot’s reserve is safe, I will keep trading. If it is not safe, my people come first.

[Cosmic Merchant] - That is a very Carlos answer.

--

Carlos put the panel away as Tarin called out that the seed count was ready. The basket was small. The plan behind it was not.