Chapter 179. Across the Bridge

Chapter 179: 179. Across the Bridge

Carlos crossed the rest of the bridge with Cosmic. The Lizardmen stood aside when their Lord reached them, though their eyes stayed on the people coming from Ironroot.

The two older ones were easier to recognise. Carlos had travelled through Aurelian with them before, and one had the same worn shield strapped across its back. The other four had gathered nearer the barrack, holding their weapons without raising them.

"This is Carlos," Cosmic told them. "Lord of Ironroot. You have heard me speak about him. Our territory is connected to his now."

Carlos nodded toward them.

"I am glad you are here. Cosmic still directs your work. If there is an attack, we defend both places together. Kaia will organise that with him."

The older shield carrier looked at Cosmic before placing its fist against its chest. The others followed. Carlos liked that they still checked with the person they knew best. The merger had happened quickly, but these people had spent their lives following Cosmic’s voice.

He looked around as they began walking.

The land was much smaller than Ironroot. A packed path went from the Lord building toward the barrack, and the spear workstation stood beneath a roof near the warehouse. Several shafts leaned against its frame. One had been cut shorter than the others and left beside a tool Carlos recognised from his own workshop.

He stopped there.

"You still have this."

"It was one of the first useful things I got."

Carlos picked up an unfinished shaft, testing its weight in his hand. He remembered Cosmic offering him a spear when his own territory had only a Farmer and a hoe.

"That first spear saved my life."

"Heh, I remember you breaking it too."

"Let’s forget about that, man. We have more important things to worry about." Carlos shook his head but chuckled.

Cosmic smiled, then took the shaft back and set it where it had been. "I have kept the station maintained. It makes basic equipment useful enough to sell, but most of my income comes from trading other people’s goods."

The older Lizardman brought a finished spear over when Cosmic asked. It waited while Carlos looked at the straight head and the binding beneath it, then put the weapon back on the rack.

There was already work happening here that Carlos had never properly seen.

They went into the warehouse next, and Carlos stopped just past the entrance.

The shelves were filled with things. Coils of rope hung beside folded blankets, while bundles of leather straps sat above sacks of grain. Wooden buckets had been stacked inside one another near the wall. Farther in, Carlos could see shovel heads, nails, short iron bars and bundles of straight timber separated by length.

Some of the containers were open. One held small clay bowls with cloth between them. Another had spare axe handles, each tied to its own little bundle of fittings. There were even wooden spoons packed together beside a stack of empty sacks.

Carlos walked farther inside, looking from one shelf to the next. Nothing here glowed or had a special effect written above it, but almost everything was something a territory would need.

"All of this is yours?"

"Yes. Some is already sold and waiting for delivery. The rest is stock."

"When did you get this much?"

Cosmic looked along the shelves as if he had to think about which part Carlos meant.

"These sacks came this morning. The iron came yesterday, and most of that timber will leave before tonight."

Carlos turned back toward him. "You move this much every day?"

"Different amounts, but yes. Things come in, things go out. A Lord sells a whole bundle because he needs food now. Somebody else only needs a few pieces and can’t afford the bundle. I buy it, divide it and find people who want the smaller amounts."

Cosmic lifted one of the spare handles and checked the mark tied to it before putting it back.

"Sometimes it sits for a few days. Tools usually move well. Rope too. People remember they need rope after something breaks."

Carlos thought of how often he had sent Cosmic a request and received a useful listing soon afterward. He had imagined his friend searching the market each time. Some of those answers had probably been sitting on a shelf already.

Cosmic showed him two separate stacks near the door. Both had the outgoing trade records attached, and Carlos recognised one of the buyer names from a listing Cosmic had once forwarded.

"These are the orders I told you about. I will finish them this afternoon."

"Good. Keep your accounts here. If you need something from ours, ask whoever manages that section."

Cosmic looked at him for a moment. "You are going to let me continue normally?"

"That was the point of keeping this place intact. You know what you are doing better than I do."

Carlos ran his hand along one of the shelves. It had marks from heavy containers being pulled across it, but the goods were sorted and the walkway was clear.

One of the Lizardmen came to the warehouse door carrying an empty crate. Cosmic asked it to bring the smaller rope bundle before Carlos could step aside.

He untied it and checked the cut ends. One length had started fraying. Cosmic put it on the lower shelf, then counted the sound lengths into the crate.

"You check even these?" Carlos asked.

"If I send bad rope, the buyer remembers me when it breaks. He won’t care that I bought it from somebody else."

Carlos watched him attach the trade record. The crate disappeared after Cosmic confirmed the delivery, leaving the Lizardman holding nothing.

A moment later, another bundle appeared through a different trade. Cosmic checked the amount and pointed toward the space the rope had just left.

Carlos shook his head. He had watched people move timber with less organisation than these goods.

"And you wanted to do more of this?"

"Yes. I have turned down orders because I couldn’t handle them while managing everything else."

Carlos looked at the filled shelves again, imagining them emptied and filled several times.

"Then you will need more storage."

Cosmic glanced toward the door.

"You should see what I have kept inside my hut first."