Jeff Inlo - Chain of Bargains

"I wouldn't want to be those two," Ryson offered, referring to the goblins.

"Neither would I," the woman replied with a matter-of-fact tone that revealed she was not too impressed with the stranger's opening line.

"What do you think they'll do with them?"

"I don't like to think about it."

"I always wondered why they even come in here," Ryson pressed.

"They had to. They're not going to let the goblins fight."

"No, I meant the goblins, not the inferns. Why are the goblins here?"

The woman just shrugged again, as if it was simply the way things were. She continued to look down at her meal, but didn't seem to enthused about eating it. She just stirred it with her spoon.

"Seems like they're everywhere," the delver declared while trying to sound both frustrated and surprised at the same time.

For that, he got a nod. The woman was certainly not in a talkative mood.

"Do you have to deal with them a lot?" he asked.

"Everybody has to deal with them. Part of business."

With that, Ryson was certain the woman was a local merchant. He had already caught the scent of fresh goods still on her clothes. He could always pick out merchants that way, especially general store owners that dealt with a wide array of inventories.

"Yeah, but do they make good customers?" Ryson pressed.

Ryson finally stirred the woman's interest. He had found a topic she was more than willing to discuss with fervent opinion.

"They're terrible customers. They always argue. They don't bargain. They just argue. And even after you've agreed to a price, they start arguing again."

"Combative little creatures," the delver agreed.

"Combative, stubborn, and dishonest."

Ryson just kept feeding her frustrations.

"I bet that makes it hard to run a business, especially a store."

"It's almost impossible. At least the inferns keep them from stealing, I know they want to, but they don't dare."

"I guess that's something. If they could steal from you, you'd probably be out of business in a few days."

"I'm almost out of business anyway. The little cretins just find a way around it. They don't actually steal, but they always demand samples of everything, especially food. They take more than they should, eat half of it, then spit the rest on the floor. That way they don't have to pay for it."

"They are a conniving lot," Ryson agreed. "And you know they're doing it on purpose. They probably sampled the same stuff from a different store down the block."

"Tell me about it. I've talked to merchants that have just given up and shuttered their stores."

"You thinking about doing the same?"

"And do what? Farm? Not me."

Ryson saw an opening to gain additional information on the outlying lands. Although he risked losing her attention with a subject she didn't appreciate, he decided to fish for at least sketchy details.

"It seems a lot of the farmers are leaving, too."

The woman actually offered more perspective than Ryson expected.

"Can't blame them. They're out there alone with those goblins, living next to them and no one to keep the peace. At least in the city we have the inferns to keep the goblins in line… at least somewhat. Out in the farms, they don't even have that. It's just the farmers and the goblins. I'd leave, too."

"So you're happy the inferns are here?"

The woman appeared surprised, and then insulted. At first, she wondered how he could even ask such a question, but then she thought he was judging her and she felt the need to defend herself.

"I'm not happy any of them are here… goblins, inferns, the whole lot. I wish they'd all go back to where they came from."

"But it seems like all the people accept the inferns as kind of the law here."

"We were told they were going to keep the peace."

"Told by whom?"

"The councils, the guard, the mayor… everyone in charge."

"And do they keep the peace?"

"Sort of."

"Can you be more specific?"

"You just saw it. They didn't let the goblins back there get out of control. The inferns are harsh and they don't care about anyone or anything, but they keep things from breaking down into chaos. And chaos is all the goblins really want. They don't do anything else. They don't work. They just drink, gamble, and fight. "

The woman paused again and took a good look at Ryson. She thought of what she said, and realized it was probably too much. Anyone who lived in Ashlan didn't need to ask whether the inferns kept the peace. They would know. The stranger across from her was not from Ashlan, and though travelers and merchants from other towns still entered the city, she believed just about everyone in the Great Valleys knew of the situation.

She couldn't understand why he would even ask such questions, and then, she worried about her answers. Talking about inferns in a derogatory manner to the wrong person meant trouble, trouble she didn't need. The expression on her face revealed she was sorry she even spoke at all to the stranger at her table.

"I think I've been here too long. I have to go."

She put a few coins down on the table to cover her dinner, food that she left basically uneaten.

"It was nice talking to you," Ryson stated to her back.

She said nothing further and never turned around. She hurried out the door.

Holli explored Ashlan with the greatest caution, wrapped in spells of shadow and avoiding busy streets and crowded taverns. She inspected the city from above, creeping on the ledges of rooftops and crouching behind chimney tops. As silent and inconspicuous as hay stored in the loft of an abandoned barn, she became part of the city skyline. She leapt from building to building without making a sound, not even creating a silhouette in the night sky. She was the swirling breeze no one could quite feel, and the rustle of leaves no one really heard.

With an elf guard's patience, she monitored the movements of those that walked the streets and alleys below-humans and dark creatures alike. She noted their patterns and analyzed their motives. She evaluated them with a mind to her experiences in the towns of Connel and Burbon, but she found few similarities. The elf quickly realized that any comparison was futile. The situation in Ashlan challenged all reason. Watching humans and goblins move about the city in both opposition and separation, yet acceptance and close proximity, left her stunned.

Unprecedented.

The human element she could almost understand-almost. People were adaptable, curious, sometimes even inviting of change. Not all of them, of course, but even those that found comfort and security in consistency could learn to live in new surroundings. She had seen that in Connel after its citizens and dwarves agreed to trade treaties and assistance pacts. Dwarves mingled with humans in nearly every aspect of life, they came together out of mutual respect and benefit. Dwarves and humans gathered together, worked towards common goals-a natural acceptance became commonplace within days.

Still, it wasn't dwarves, or elves, or even algors that marched through the streets of Ashlan. It was goblins, and humans were naturally repulsed by such malevolent fiends. Adapting to such creatures might be within the realm of human capacity, but they would not do so easily.

More confusing than the humans, the goblins defied Holli's understanding of dark creatures with even greater emphasis. The repulsive creatures were nothing if not aggressive, combative, and hostile toward other races, especially those they deemed inferior. Certainly, goblins could be subjugated. They would bow to the will of a superior, become the pawns of the more cunning monsters and evil mages. That was part of their very heritage, but they never succumbed to harmonic co-existence whether by treaty or even necessity. Cowardly creatures, yes, but agreeable, even peaceful neighbors living in passive acceptance with humans? — not in all the pages of elflore.