"How is everyone else? There's something wrong with my interface, and I can't see the Guild List." Mary whispers back.
"It is likely fine. We are all that's left. But we can hire more sailors and try again. This region looks pretty good, though. Maybe they'll be willing to set up a deal to trade with us; we could circle the western continent to make the drops."
"Or you could join us entirely, and I'd help you get a proper warehouse to distribute food and goods from the Darklight Host to the eastern and western Continents," Cain suggests, sliding into their conversation.
"A proper warehouse? What did you have in mind?"
"Large facility, over ten bedrooms so it could count as a Guild House, Intercontinental Travel Circle to bring food and gear directly from our allied farms and Crafters to the Port you're working out of. We've got direct ocean access in Long Fang Valley. If you get a chance to look over the city later, you'll see the Queen Rose docked here."
That has their complete attention. Paying for rented space and a dock killed their margins, but with a backer wealthy enough, they could open their port on a section of quiet shoreline.
The Eastern Coast of the East Continent didn't belong entirely to the Elves. It was contested territory, constantly at war like the region around Skyview, but that made their food imports from the Western Continent worth the risk.
"I have an idea for where to place such a building. Can we retire inside to talk in private?" Juan asks.
Cain nods and waves everyone back to the party. "We will have the boring business talk; you all enjoy yourselves. Just try not to party too hard; there's still eight more days of celebration for the King's coming of age."
At the Skyview Castle, parties were the last thing on King James's mind. Last night had been the single best experience of his entire existence, and he had only just gotten out of bed in the early afternoon.
All of his chosen lovers were with him, none dressed for the day yet. There was no rush, though; everyone in Skyview understood that the King only made a brief evening appearance at the party and hosted a daily dinner. The rest was entirely up to the citizens, with food and drank supplied by the Palace.
After the first night, the Palace Grounds also opened to everyone. Most of the Upper Nobles would be having their own parties all week, so the lesser Nobles and anyone else who could manage an outfit suitable to be allowed entry to the Palace Grounds would fill the area all week long.
That made the palace much more lively than the upper nobility ever got, with their need to maintain their dignity and the competition between them.
In public, his childhood friend Rae might be the one who steps forward to take charge and enjoys the limelight, but behind closed doors, it was a very different experience. There it was the dainty and delicate Elf, Luann, that took the lead.
None of them had any practical experience, but King James thought it had gone relatively well. There was only one way to find out, though. He needed a larger sample set to compare to. Good thing they hadn't bothered getting fully dressed.
Duke Chen, along with a large portion of his Sect, showed up at Long Fang Valley that afternoon. They don't hold parties at their compound; it would interfere with the training of the others, but they're not celibate monks, so getting out to celebrate now and then was still part of their routine.
That seemed to be the trigger for the actual party, and by the time dinner rolled around, a garden party for fifty noble ladies had morphed into a City spanning party for five thousand, and every Puppet Cain had in the area was busy.
The locals had been expecting this holiday, so they'd stocked up on everything in preparation, the smell of barbecues in the public parks filling the valley and drawing the farmers in to party with everyone else.
Many citizens from the villages outside the valley came as well, having been informed by their friends here that the Lord opened his parties to everyone and didn't expect any official duties to be done for the duration of the King's Coming of Age.
In essence, Long Fang Valley was closed for business, and Svetlana had convinced Damien to loosen the purse strings from the city's taxes to fund ten days of free drinks and food.
The change in culture, from their serious "fight to survive" life as merchant sailors, was a shock to Mary's family and the deciding factor not to rebuild their decimated Guild. Instead, they agreed to merge it with the Darklight Host, giving Cain an additional Guild House near the coast and one very battered ship plus four new members who turned out to all be family.
Manuel, as Cain learned while negotiating with Juan, was His wife Sofia's brother.
The ship was in for rebuilding at a dry dock on the coast and wouldn't be ready for at least a month, so they had plenty of time to look for a better facility. The House they inherited was a treehouse in somewhat a run-down shape, so Cain intended to scrap it and build something better.
It would be no significant loss; they didn't even have a travel circle there and had to use the one in town. Cain suspected that Juan wasn't very good at business, but he was a very animated man when talking about sailing.
In the future, Cain would have to assign either a Lieutenant or a Puppet with business skills to help out on the eastern continent. Leaving Juan to run the business side of things clearly wasn't a great idea.
If they are going to represent the Guild, they will have to do it well, so Cain is willing to put some upgrades into their trading vessel to get it back to peak shape. He will send Nila to look at it later, and if it's unacceptable, he will have another one built.
The prospect of having access to Guild Summons and not being helpless against Pirates opened up a whole new world to Juan, and Cain had high hopes that he just needed someone with business sense to turn the imported food business into a profitable one and a high volume trading partner for the Long Fang Valley.
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