Chapter 713: The Price of Keeping It

Chapter 713: The Price of Keeping It

"You’ll lose part of that deposit before it reaches your boxes," the woman said.

Leon glanced at Lu Pei, who had just set a chisel against a blue-white seam.

"Wait a moment."

The collector lifted his hand.

Their visitor stood outside the pegs, her short sword still sheathed. Up close, Leon could see pale marks along her fingers and an old burn disappearing beneath one cuff. Her coat had been repaired at both elbows.

"Captain Hale Orrin," she said. "Vessian Company."

"Leon. Jade Moon Palace." He indicated the seam. "What are we going to lose?"

"The part you probably came here for." Orrin looked toward her own collectors. "May I bring someone over?"

"One person," Leon said.

She beckoned to an older man carrying a shallow ceramic case. While they waited, the banner expedition turned away from the contested belt. Its bearers followed a leader toward the southern workings, keeping their weapons lowered.

Leon let them go. He already had enough unfamiliar equipment to sort through.

Orrin’s specialist stopped beside Lu Pei and opened his case. Inside were small jars, flat wedges, and sheets of thick, dull cloth.

"Two neighboring chips," Orrin said. "As similar as your collector can make them. We’ll handle one."

Lu Pei looked at Leon before touching his chisel.

"Go ahead," Leon said.

The first chip came free with a soft click. A faint blue haze lifted from its freshly broken edge, barely visible against the stone.

For the second, the Vessian specialist spread a paste across the intended cut. He worked a wedge beneath it, lifted the fragment into the cloth, and folded the material around it without exposing the underside.

Lu Pei brought his lens close to the uncovered chip.

"The surface is dulling."

"Watch the fracture," the specialist said.

A hairline crack ran through the blue-white growth. As Leon watched, its light faded from the outside inward.

He crouched beside Lu Pei. The energy escaping from it was slight, but steady.

"How long until it stops?" he asked.

"Depends on the deposit," Orrin said. "Sometimes you get a useful piece home. Sometimes you carry a pretty stone."

"And yours?"

"Much better odds." She nodded toward the wrapped fragment. "You can test it when we finish talking."

Leon straightened. "What do you want?"

"A share of what you cut here. We provide the treatment, packing material, and people to teach your collectors."

Orrin indicated the unclaimed ground beyond his northern outcrop.

"My company will work there. We don’t need your entire section."

"But you want some of it."

"Yes," she said. "Ours may be richer. Yours may be easier to extract. I would rather benefit from both."

Leon liked that answer more than he would have liked a sudden declaration of friendship.

Behind Orrin, her swordsman was helping a collector move a case clear of a loose slab. He kept glancing their way. Whatever he had thought of Leon during the race, it had changed considerably.

"State the share," Leon said.

"Two loads in five."

Ira made a small sound behind him.

Vyra stepped closer. "For packing lessons?"

"For keeping what you harvest," Orrin replied. "The treatment materials come from our stock. We brought them through the gate ourselves."

"You’ll also be gathering on the neighboring beds without a dispute," Vyra said. "That has value."

"It does. So does having neighbors who understand a boundary." Orrin looked at Leon. "One load in four."

"One in five," Leon said. "With the method demonstrated until our people can repeat it. And a copy of your observations about this region."

The captain considered him. Her fingers rested against the seam of her coat, motionless.

"Observations," she said at last. "Not our private techniques, and not the locations of stores we’ve left elsewhere."

"That’s fine."

"Only material cut from this section while we’re assisting you. Nothing taken from Ashvard." Vyra pointed toward the seized crates. "Equal loads, sorted by the material inside. No selecting the best case for yourselves."

"Agreed," Orrin said. "I’ll need the same treatment when we divide them."

"You’ll get it," Leon told her.

The captain offered her hand. Her grip was dry and firm.

"You handled Ashvard before?" Leon asked.

"We worked the same field yesterday. They preferred easier neighbors." Orrin looked toward the departing survivors. "Their formation encouraged some expensive habits."

"Did you expect it to work on me?"

"I expected to see whether it did."

Leon considered that, then laughed once. She had watched from a safe distance while other people supplied the answer. He might have done the same.

Orrin’s expression eased a little.

"My collectors are coming here because I told them we have an agreement," she said. "I want them to return to their own camp this evening."

"They will," Leon said. "As long as they keep their part."

"That is what I told them."

He watched her specialist patiently explain a wrapping fold to Lu Pei. Orrin had something useful to sell and people she wanted to keep alive. For now, that was enough to work with.

Leon released it, pleased with the bargain. A smaller haul that remained useful suited him better than dragging wasted energy back to Bai Heng.

"How much time do you have?" Orrin asked.

"Until this evening. We leave with enough time to make a scheduled contact tomorrow."

"Then stop trying to take the deepest growth." She turned toward Lu Pei. "The thin branches separate quickly. Your tools will spend half the afternoon fighting those solid roots."

Lu Pei looked down at the chisel he had chosen and replaced it with a narrower one.

"And after transport?" he asked. "Does this treatment interfere with refining?"

"It must be washed away first," the specialist said. "Your refiner will see why if he heats a trace separately. Give him some unused paste."

He set aside a small jar.

Leon was glad Bai Heng would be examining it. The unfamiliar material in front of him was promising, but he had no intention of trusting every consequence of a foreign recipe simply because the first demonstration worked.

Orrin fetched a chart while her specialist showed Lu Pei how to spread the paste thinly enough to avoid wasting it.

Her map covered the storm plain and several approaches. The written symbols meant nothing to Leon. She named the marked features aloud while one of his recorders copied them in familiar characters.

"The ground sinks here after a discharge," she said, tapping a shallow depression. "We lost a cart wheel in it. This ridge is firm. The water below it tastes bitter; we haven’t used it."

"Any exits?" Leon asked.

"None that I can promise you." Orrin met his gaze. "We’re looking too."

He nodded and let her continue. He would rather have that answer than certainty she couldn’t support.

When they returned to the samples, Lu Pei had finished checking the untreated fragment. The wrapped one still held a brighter glow beneath its thin coating.

"The loss is much smaller," he said. He sounded almost offended on behalf of the first chip. "We’d have been opening every seam to the air."

"Now you won’t," Leon said.

He looked across the two hundred paces of mineral growth. A few hours suddenly seemed far too short.

"Show the others," he told Lu Pei. "Then take everything we can preserve."