Chapter 7

Samasan feels himself moving around in the void of nothingness. He is free from the pain and torment that he felt from the world. A dim light appears far away, and a voice calls.

"Return, and be my will."

"Who's there?" Samasan calls out.

"You must build to my desire."

"I don't understand."

"Go back."

"No, I- ahh..hh...!"

Samasan felt only pain as the light grew brighter. Everything of his being felt pain as the light turned into flames. The pain caused him to recognize and feel every part of his body, from bones to hair in agonizing torture. Everything burned. He wanted to escape, and there was only one way out. Going back to his fleshly body. He moved towards it, and found himself to be blocked.

"What do you want!" Samasan screamed.

"You must build to my desire." The voice answered.

"Okay, fine. Let me go."

Samasan's consciousness shot back into his body. He sat up screaming, and reaching for his neck. He desperately tried to feel for the divide that had separated his head from his body.

"You are fine now, child." A voice comforted Samasan.

"Wha- where am I?" He was confused by the large room filled with tapestries.

"This is the temple of Irida." The priestess answered.

"I- Uh..." Samasan continued to look around and at himself in confusion.

"Are you the child of Carna?"

"Who?"

"Goddess of invention. Mother of fire that fuels the soul's desire for something more."

Samasan thought for a moment, "Maybe."

"There can be no maybe, you have returned in her glorious name."

"I don't understand what is going on."

"You have been gifted a second chance at life by Carna. She wills you to create." The priestess tells Samasan.

"Make stuff..." Samasan asks.

The priestess nods her head, and a priest approaches Samasan to give him water. Samasan drinks it, and can't get enough of it. It doesn't feel like it fills his stomach at all. While drinking the second cup he looks into it, and sees a ruby-red liquid. Samasan drops the gold cup onto the polished stone floor. It clangs as it knocks around. He tries to stand, and falls over. The priestess and priest catch Samasan. They take him to a bed in the cathedral to rest.

"How are you feeling?" A familiar voice asks Samasan.

"A little better, where is Jutwaso?" he asks.

"She's gone." Poh says.

"Left because we agreed with your way of doing things." Lira adds in.

"It should be our way." Samasan says. "Can you get her to come back?"

"She left the city." Poh answers.

Samasan sighs, and then runs for a wooden bucket as his stomach grumbles. A chamber-maid takes the bodily refuse away.

"The church is asking for a donation." Lira states.

"I suppose they were the ones to revive me." Samasan grumbles.

"Church revivals are expensive." Poh adds.

"How expensive?" Samasan asks.

"Two emerald." The priestess responds.

"Religion without modesty." Samasan says to himself.

He pays for the resurection out of his own coin locket. No more. No less. Wesro takes Samasan back to the warehouse. The place has been raided by the city guard. All the materials and products have been taken. Even the tools are gone.

"There's no shame in war." Samasan mumbles as he looks around the barren warehouse.

Poh and Lira show up.

"What are we doing now?" Poh asks.

"Starting from scratch." Samasan sighs.

The hired adventurers are still around, because they are paid in intervals by the guild. Technically they failed their task after Samasan was killed, but he wasn't about to split hairs. Samasan started by buying up the entire lunar-fiber supply in the entire kingdom of Irida. He sold his farm land after harvesting it to afford it all. The entire supply of lunar-fiber was cornered. It was all bought under various aliases. Under the cover of night, Samasan, Lira, Poh, and the adventuers dumped the entire supply of lunar-fiber down the Solus river. Lost into the chasm forever.

"Why did we just do that?" Poh asks.

"I think Samasan is mad." Lira answers.

"This is how we fight the war." Samasan told them.

The warehouse stopped making fabric, arrows, and ballistae after the public execution. The focus changed to cutting lumber, and making nails. They hired out blacksmiths and carpenters to build wagons, and charged double the normal cost for them.

"You're insane if you think I'll be paying a ruby for a cart." A customer cussed out Poh.

"That is their price." Poh told him matter of factly.

The customer left in a huff. The warehouse was storing up a massive supply of lumber, and Samasan was refusing to sell any of it. Samasan's budget was on a shoe-string, and the group had been eating minimal amounts of moon-wheat grains for a month now. The information network that Samasan had set up was keeping him updated on the war. The massive buyout of lunar-fibers had upset the market, and caused the war to stop progressing.

All levels of society were unable to buy clothing. The Iridan soldiers needed a constant supply of food, but the demand for lunar-fibers caused peasant farmers to harvest before seed maturity. The unripened seeds were inedible. An edict was served by Queen Irida for all fields of lunar-wheat to only be harvested at maturity, under penalty of lashing. This didn't stop some farmers and thieves. The price of food and clothing sky rocketed. More shipments were being made to keep up with demand, which meant more highway robbers.

Samasan hired Iridan mercenaries under multiple aliases to attack merchant carts. Not to kill, or steal. Just destroy the carts transporting goods, but let the carts go if they're too heavily guarded. Soon the Iridan army was marching with caravans to keep guard. The number of soldiers on the front lines dwindled, and they were starting to be pushed back by Halgar's troops. Samasan sold the lumber for a hefty profit, and the carts started to sell too. The war supply had ground to a halt, and Samasan's group was raking in money.

The warehouse was raided by the city guard under suspicion of hoarding lunar-fiber, but they found none. No one would confess to it. The guard left without arresting anyone. There were too many leads that all followed into dead ends. Samasan slipped a smile after the Waterton city guard left. He was satisfied that the war was failing. And then the deaths started to pile up. Serfs were starving to death, because the Iridan army was taking all their food. More peasant conscripts were added into the army, which took away hands for the fields, but fighting was the only way for people eat.

"It was not supposed to be this way." Samasan shakes his head while talking to himself.

The nobles of Waterton were complaining about the stench, because the horse shit was piling in the streets. Samasan had kept the streets very clean before, but now it was worse. The city guard didn't have enough people to guard the city, and do public works. Many of them were taken to the front lines of the war.

"We need your assistance with sanitation." The guard captain tells Samasan.

"I wish I could help, but my warehouse was raided after my false allegations." Samasan talks to the guard who is trying to hold his temper, "I've lost too much to be of help."

"You have plenty of wood in here." The captain points out.

"I'd be happy to sell you wood, but I cannot afford to clean the streets. I'm still recovering from my losses from the theft of my warehouse." Samasan states in a low tone.

"Are you sure there is nothing you can do?" The guard asks him.

"I wish I could help, but until I recover my losses, I won't be able to hire the necessary workers, Captain." Samasan lets out a sigh.

"I see then." The captain takes his leave.

Samasan felt like he won a second round against the city guard. The captain couldn't confess to his brothers having taken all of Samasan's things. They had already divided up the profits from selling off the stuff. Most of that money was already spent on booze, prostitutes, and old gambling debts for the city soldiers. There was no way to recover the lost money. The army's coffers were dry. The city guard captain knew he would face life in the dungeon, if the news of his false allegation and illegal confiscation of property came to light.

That information did come out, thanks to prostitutes in Samasan's information network getting a few city guards too drunk. They lost all their money, and were offered to have their gambling debts removed for information on the warehouse raid to come out. Samasan received an official apology letter from the city Duke, and an invitation to the trial against the former city guard captain.

Samasan stood at the front of the crowd, while the hearing took place. The new city guard captain called out the former captains crimes and names of witnesses. The captain, and his family, and his servants were in attendance. Crimes that Samasan was unaware of became revealed. The list piled on and on.

"The penalty for these crimes is death for the criminal, and his associates." The captain rolled up the scroll.

The former captain's family began to cry. A fight broke out in the city guard unit, and those rebelling guards were swiftly killed by other city guards. Samasan felt a tight knot in his stomach. The former city guard captain was forced to watch his family from wives to children ingest poison, and then he was locked in the stocks at the guard captain's station. Samasan watched the whole thing, including the children's last desperate breaths for air. He made eye contact with the former guard captain, who was locked in the stocks with pure hatred and despair in his eyes.

"You bastard." The former captain screamed at Samasan. "I'll kill y-"

The locked up man was punched unconscious as Samasan turned his back on him. Every day Samasan silently visited the former guard captain. He was fed water to prolong his death.

"I'll kill you.." The locked up man weakly stated.

Samasan walked up to him, and whispered.

"How long are you going to let this suffering continue? Don't you want it to end?"

The man stared at Samasan with anger burning through his eyes. Samasan had his knife pressed against the former guard captains throat.

"Do it." the imprisoned man growled.

"Okay."

Samasan used his knife to shave the mans beard, and left.

"I hate you! I hate you! You bastard! Why didn't you just kill me!" The man yelled at Samasan's back.

Samasan didn't turn around because there were tears flowing down his face. He didn't want this to happen. He felt guilty. He wanted to undo what had happened, but couldn't. The only thing Samasan could do was show the dying man a little bit of respect, before his demise. Samasan stopped visiting after that day. He couldn't bear to watch the man die slowly. Samasan worked quietly up to the day his information network announced the former captains death.

"I hate war." Samasan sighed.

"More news about death?" Lira asked Samasan as the informant left.

"Yes." Samasan answered Lira.

"We sold the rest of the lumber." She told him.

"How are you and Poh doing?" Samasan asked her.

"We're not having any trouble building the new looms and spindles." Lira answered.

"I meant how are you both feeling about this war." He corrected himself.

"I- uh... I'm not sure what you mean." Lira told him.

"Forget it." Samasan sighed, and left Lira to check on Poh.

"How are you doing Poh?"

"Almost finished building the new loom design." Poh answered.

"That's good." Samasan spoke as he walked away.

Samasan was deep in thought about the former city guard captain. He couldn't pay anything back for what had happened. The captain's family was dead now. Samasan had to live with his guilt. His hatred for war and suffering grew. Samasan stopped the mercenary attacks on supply lines slowly to avoid suspicion. Since the price of lunar-fiber became a premium, Samasan focused on making fabrics with woven designs.

The new looms were built with treddles. Foot pedals that customly select which group of threads to raise on the loom. The new looms required four people to operate. One person on each side to throw the thread shuttle, and two people to operate the treddles. Samasan had them alternate every couple of hours. A bolt of the finished product was gifted to the Waterton city Duke from Samasan. This wasn't a 'thank you' but advertising for his product.

Samasan knew people who visit the Duke will take notice of the fabric with woven designs. Tailors had many shades of dye to color clothes, and lace was in existence but expensive and time consuming. Woven designs we're an affordable alternative for nobles wanting clothes similar to royal lace designs. It didn't take long for supplies to sell out. Samasan would change the weaving design every week to force nobles to stay fashionable. Cloth was made in limited quantities, and kept in high demand.

In truth, the lunar-fiber supply wasn't as limited as he told people, and the woven designs were easy and cheap to make, despite the rumor that Samasan had hired fifty people to make one golden-rod of cloth per hour. Those extra fifty people worked on making beer, and were payed extra to say they worked on making fabric. The beer was actually an alcoholized porridge of moon-wheat paste. It was stored in wooden barrels, and sent to aid the war.

The Iridan army loved and hated the poridge beer. The poridge was a good food that didn't spoil quickly when kept sealed, but the high alcohol content of the beer kept most of the soldiers too drunk to fight. They couldn't fight on empty stomachs, nor while drunk. The Iridan soldiers had to refuse more shipments of beer poridge to stay battle ready. Samasan gave the barrels of beer porridge to starving villages in exchange for ten percent of their lunar-wheat harvest over the next five hundred cycles.

Most of the village leaders accepted the deal, because they were starving, and couldn't keep moon-wheat for themselves. Samasan paid each village one silver per month for information about wildlife, including prefered foods, habitat, behavior, and size in rods and centicoins. Villages with matching information would be paid two silvers per month. This fed Samasan's interest in animals, and gently forced the Iridan peasants to adopt the rod and centi-coin measurement. He even gave villages free silver-rod measuring sticks and ropes with knots per golden-rod.

Samasan became obsessed with tracking animal information. It was the only thing that distracted him from the thought of war and suffering. He was able to construct a map of the local kingdoms, with information on beast locations, and their territorial areas. Samasan linked the migration of giant rats to crop attacks, and the hunting areas of eyeless-cats to where the rats moved to. The main predator to giant centipedes were wryverns, which were solitary and territorial.

The information was used to buyout moon-wheat crops before rat pestilence. Samasan would offer to buy the moon-wheat for less than the Iridan Army pays for it. At first, Samasan was refused, but soon the rumor of pestilence always following his offer circled the villages. He gained the nickname 'Reaper,' because he reaps his harvest either way. Samasan would sell the dried moon-wheat grains to the army at full price. Some of it went back to the villages as beer porridge. Not every village could be saved.

Harvesting wheat before rat pestilences only made the rats move elsewhere. Samasan led the rats to the border of Iridan and Halgar, where the armies were fighting. A swath of unharvested Iridan farms led straight to the armies. The rats were killed, but they ate much of the army rations. The soldiers didn't remove the soul-rocks from the giant rats, and their corpses disapeared. The eyeless-cats followed their prey, and when they found few, soldiers went on the menu. Samasan justified the situation as fair, because the same number of soldiers were dying as before. Only a different enemy was killing them.

"They were going to die anyways." Samasan told himself.

The Iridan cats moved into Halgar, and competed for territory. Halgar experienced a boom in wheat production, because more giant rats were being killed. Irida experienced a sudden rat pestilence destroying all crops, because the eyeless-cats that hunted them had left. Samasan used his money to buy food from neighboring countries for the starving people of Irida. He did not see himself as the hero of the people that others saw him as.

"The new fabric has started production." Poh hands Samasan a sample.

"This is good." Samasan inspects the denim fabric. "Hire ten more people to work it on the new loom."

"Lira wants to know if you know anything about Jutwaso and the other Stoney-Brook people."

Samasan wiped the sweat off his forehead with the denim sample, while sighing.

"I don't know much. It's hard to track nameless slaves. Some of them are working for the Halgarian army. There's no way to get those we can find away from danger, without killing the many other people that stand in our way. Jutwaso is..."

"Is what?"

"Jutwaso is working as a mercenary spy in Irida. She is killing Iridan people without mercy to aid the Halgarian army's advance." Samasan answered.

"Can you stop her?" Poh questioned him.

"Yes... No. Do you want me to?" Samasan asked back.

"Which is it?" Poh was confused.

"I can only stop her," Samasan sighed, "if she is dead. I'm not willing to kill her."

"More people will die though." Poh stated.

"She is our friend. What she is doing is wrong, but I can't be the one to kill Jutwaso. Maybe if we save all of the Stoney-Brook Villagers, she will stop."

"What who is doing is wrong?" Lira asked while walking into the room.

"Jutwaso is killing people." Poh answered.

"She wouldn't do that." Lira defended her.

"I think she blames Irida for what happened at Stoney-Brook." Samasan told Lira.

"It was Irida's fault. If they hadn't gone to war with Halgar..." Lira complains.

"War is all Halgar knows. If Iridan hadn't attacked, Halgar would be attacking another country." Samasan told her.

"Lord Halgar wouldn't needlessly head into an unjustified war." Lira shot back.

"There's always a justification for every war. Until it is lost, both sides are right." Samasan grumbled.

"Irida is the one who is wrong here." She told him.

"Only when it's against us." Samasan mumbled to himself.

Lira and Poh left the room. It felt empty and lifeless. Samasan inspected the wildlife maps. He knew where to press to cause the most damage, but not how to save people.

"Damnit!" Samasan punched a wooden support beam.

Halgar's armies were pushing deeper into Irida. They were half way to the capital city of Waterton. Samasan thought Irida would concede defeat, and give up a few lands, but they continue to hold on. He couldn't stop seeing the eyes of dying people. They were begging him for mercy, and blaming him for their deaths. Samasan saw an endless battlefield covered in mangled bodies.

"It's your fault." The voices accused him. "You killed us."

"No. I didn't mean for this to happen." Samasan pleads.

"Your fault." The masses of lifeless bodies rise into skeletons with decaying flesh.

"I was trying to save you."

"You killed us." The skeletons crowd around Samasan.

"No. I'll stop it. I'll stop the war. Just let me build something that will work."

Samasan pleaded as the skeletons piled on top of him. Soon as he offered to build something, the skeletons burst into flames, and Samasan was awake again. He wiped the hot sweat off his face with the denim cloth. Samasan knew more dead would pile up, while this war continues, while any war continues. The only way to stop war in Samasan's mind, was for one victor to come out. He didn't trust any leader or country. The only person capable and reasonable enough to bring peace to this world was himself.

Samasan expanded his merchant network to other countries. He brought food into Irida, and sent out cheap and durable denim fabric to the neighboring countries, except Halgar. The farm land Samasan bought in various countries began to out produce what other serfs could handle. The peasants flocked to his lands for food and shelter, because they couldn't make enough money with what little they could make.

Those abandoned lands were bought up by Samasan. He bribed the armies of the other countries surrounding Halgar to attack it. Halgar was defeated in two months by the six way attack. The country was divided up amongst the kingdoms. Irida took a large portion of Halgar for herself. The kingdom of Irida was at a time of rest now. Samasan focused on making glass. Canning of fruits and vegetables became Samasan's goal.

The glass jars of food were sent to desolate areas where food was scarce. The glass jars were sealed by covering the glass lids with beeswax. A paper cover tied on with string was included. This allowed people to heat the jars, and pour the melted wax into a paper cylinder with the string to make a candle. The glass was expensive to produce, and Samasan began making steeled tools to sell to blacksmiths to compensate for the cost. He knew the tools were aiding war efforts, but the glass jars were feeding people in remote areas.

Samasan chose glass over clay, because it is more expensive. He knew the people that bought the expensive jarred foods would need money. The glass jars could be resold to other merchants willing to travel the distance. The glass canned foods were only sold in remote areas. Although the wax that sealed the jars could be reused into making candles, Samasan found out that the people were scraping it off with a knife, and discarding it as trash. Rather than being upset, he reduced the amount of wax used, and stopped adding a paper cover tied with a string.

The kingdom of Irida was at rest, but Samasan couldn't find peace. There were more wars constantly going on in the background countries. He knew those wars would eventually spill into Irida, one way or another. The time for awaiting peace was over. Samasan was going to force peace upon the nations the only way they knew how; by subduing each and every one of them to obey his rule. He started tracking the movements of armies, and the territory lines of kingdoms like animals.

Samasan relied on his information network like an almanac. He became obsessed with predicting army movements, and forcing them to move to his will by buying out foreign village's crops before the armies could sequester them. A few people starving was a cheap price to pay compared to the thousands of potential deaths from fighting. The number of deaths occurring every day became background noise in Samasan's mind.

"How are the weapons coming along?" Samasan asked a slum worker, while they grinded an ax.

"We're low on iron ore. The swords won't be finished until more comes in." They responded.

"There's no need to rush." Samasan assured the man.

Nearby Poh was visiting Lira.

"How is the fighters' training going?" Poh asked.

"They're learning fast." Lira answered. "They're motivated by the payment of food and shelter in exchange for training."

"The apothecaries have consented to training our apprentices for one gold per person per week." Poh told her.

"Do you know why Samasan is having us do all these things?" Lira questioned him.

"I think he's upset by the raid, and wants to protect himself." He answered.

"We are training over a thousand people, and sending them to villages as protection. How can we protect ourselves, if everyone is somewhere else?" Lira asked.

"I don't know. I don't understand it." Poh told Lira.

Samasan walked into the room. "How are things going."

"Good." They responded in unison.

"The weapons are delayed. Focus on unarmed group combat techniques for the time being." Samasan told Lira.

"That is Reaper." One of the woman fighters whispered to another person.

"Halt training!" Samasan ordered the group.

The practice fighting stopped, and the group of fighters stood at attention.

"My name is Samasan. I am not Reaper. Come here." He called forth the woman whom called him Reaper. "What is your name?"

"Jora!" The woman shouted.

"There's no need to shout." Samasan spoke while rubbing his ear.

"Sorry, sir." Jora replied.

"Is Jora a good fighter?" Samasan asked while looking at Lira.

"She has met all expectations." Lira responds.

Samasan hands his walking stick to Jora, and points to the person Jora had just talked to. "Kill that woman."

"What?" Jora's voice shaked as she hesitated.

"Was I unclear? You believe me to be the reaper. I'm ordering you to reap for me."

The stick in Jora's hands shook as she looked at her comrad with guilt. "I... I..."

Samasan tore the walking stick out of her hands. "Then I will do it."

"No. Don't."

Jora grabbed the walking stick that Samasan had swung over his head, and pulled him back. Samasan pulled out his knife as he turned around to face Jora. She kicked Samasan in the side of the leg, causing him to fall on the ground. He started laughing.

"Good. Good." Samasan started to calm down. "This is what I wanted from you. This is what I want from all of you. An appreciation for life."

"I'm sorry." Jora held out her hand to help Samasan up.

"Was this necessary?" Lira asked with a pale face.

"Yes..." Samasan told her. "If I wanted murderers, I wouldn't be going through all this trouble."

"Why train people to kill, if you don't want them to kill?" Poh asked.

"Mr. Samasan." Wesro interrupted Samasan's thinking.

"What is it?" Samasan asked her.

"Jutwaso has returned." Wesro told him.

"Oh? Good. Take me to her." He responded.

Wesro led Samasan to a different area of the warehouse. The smell of sawdust from the saw mill permeated the air. Jutwaso was sitting on a log, with a gloomy expression.

"Jutwaso" Samasan said.

"Brave idiot." Jutwaso said back.

There was a long moment of silence, and then they softly smiled with pained looks.

"I've heard you been travelling a lot." Samasan commented.

"Is that all you heard?" She asked.

"No." Samasan answered plainly.

"I couldn't find them. Not any one of them." Jutwaso complained while looking down.

"I've heard." he responded.

Jutwaso took out her short-sword, and began beating it on the log. Wood chips flew into the air as she screamed at the log. Samasan stood silently, and watched. He felt bad. He wanted this reunion to be on better terms. The short-sword bounced wrong off the wood, and hit her in the collar bone. Jutwaso let out a louder scream as the sword cut into the bone.

"Need a healer here now." Samasan yelled for someone to come.

"No." Jutwaso refused.

"You're injured." He argued.

"I'm fine." She growled while taking off her knapsack.

Jutwaso took out a glass jar of herb jelly, and applied it to her wound. She grimaced as the wound closed shut.

"It seems I don't hear everything." Samasan commented while holding up his hand to stop the approaching apprentice wizard.

"No. You don't." Jutwaso responded.

"I tried finding them." Samasan tells her.

"So have I." She sighs.

"Let's have a drink with Poh and Lira." Samasan offers Jutwaso.

"That... would be nice." Jutwaso hangs her head in defeat.

The group of four enter a tavern by the docks. It is crowded and loud. The smell of smoke and alcohol fills the air. A pair of men are playing a game of knife foot, where the winner is the person who can throw a knife into the ground by their foot the closest without hitting it. One of the men screams as the knife embeds into his foot.

"I feel very thirsty." The other man cheers.

Samasan and the others sit at a table in the middle of the room. They drink until they forget where they are. Poh is reminiscing about the names of Stoney-Brook villagers, while Lira is singing along with a bard playing a song for the crowd. Samasan and Jutwaso are laughing at Lira, who can't sing worth a damn. The mood is cheerful, and then a fight breaks out in the back of the room. No one takes notice as fighting is common place, until a thunderous roar silences the room.

Everyone and everything in the bar had been thrown two meters away from the fighting group. The others were grumbling in a bad mood as they dusted themselves off. The people in the bar had enough of these peoples' shit. As a group of people approached the fighting group with ill-intent, one of them threw daggers at the people. A couple hit their targets, and a couple missed. One of the daggers flew over, and hit Poh in the arm. It didn't look like a serious cut, but it started to bleed profusely.