Sindra, as Master of Coin, was responsible for the monuntally important task of maintaining the guild's finances that at first Li, as soone familiar with working with numbers, did.
She had joined the guild almost a month after it was ford, quitting her job at the City Hall as a receptionist and file organizer.
When she knocked on Li's cottage door one morning, he had recognized her, knowing her to be the standout Feli that worked in the city hall amid humans, the one that had talked to him when he was filing out paperwork to obtain a herbalist's license, but never would he have expected her to have beco such an important part of this guild.
"Our finances have reached a new peak, though, if my calculation of its trajectory is to be correct, I should assu it shall be the first of many peaks." Sindra's voice was formal and she clearly enunciated every syllable of her words – the mark of soone who had been taught the language as opposed to having grown up with it.
She reached down to her seat to withdraw a stack of papers from a satchel which she then neatly placed atop the table, smoothing out the paper before reading through it.
"As expected, the sale of elixirs has yet to break even with the costs of constructing and maintaining the equipnt necessary for it. Of course, the entire purpose was to simply introduce the concept of elixir making at a larger scale to the Rivieran populace, so I do not consider this a true loss.
In terms of gains, however, the first harvest of the much coveted Goldwheat and its distribution throughout the city completely wiped out any debt accrued from starting the guild. The contracts with the restaurants in the upper end of Riviera, in particular, have netted us many high-profile funders, of which Lakeside Bounty is still our largest contributor.
The second harvest has provided a surplus of wheat, and to prevent the market from collapsing, Black Securities and their various contractors have begun the process of exporting the wheat last week. The profits from that I project will be monuntal, setting us at a gold base worthy of sitting upon the Trade Circle."
Sindra nodded to herself, indicating she had finished reading her notes.
"We should get an invitation soon, then, and when it does co, let's hold another eting," said Li. The Guild Circle was a council comprised of the largest and most influential guilds in Riviera whose votes influenced the flow and goods throughout the whole city.
With the farrs and the old faith revitalized and backed by Li's goldwheat grain and other blessed seeds, they were quickly set to dominate the entire market for agricultural goods. This in turn set the farr's guild off on a bad foot with the rchant's guild, for Riviera, once an importer of fard goods from Duvin, now was quickly on track to becoming easily self-sufficient.
Of course, fard goods were but one of many types of goods that the rchant's guild shipped, but they did not like that they were losing any ounce of control.
"You will not check my numbers?" asked Sindra to Li, her head cocked just a little.
Li shook his head.
When Sindra had first appeared, Li had been a little doubtful about her ability to handle numbers and had checked them over. From the jumpy and curious Feli he had seen, they were not at all suited to sitting down and crunching numbers, but Sindra was completely different.
She did not like to talk much about her past, but it was evident she had been educated, and highly at that, having studied in the university at Riviera. She used the lightning fast thought processing of her species, usually adapted to the high intensity environnt of combat, to excel in academia, but due likely much to her appearance, she was denied any job of real significance in the city hall.
When she heard that her own kin had been liberated here and were to form their own community, she had stepped in to help.
"Very well then," said Sindra coolly, though once again, her ears twitched, proud of herself that Li no longer checked her work anymore.
"My turn, then," said Ven'thur with a light clap of his hands. "The contracts with the restaurant owners and Black Securities have gone along splendidly. This month, however, I am to et a few representatives of both the Temple of Light and the rchant's guild, no doubt to hear them voice their own respective complaints."
"And those are?" said Li.
"The matter of healing for the temples. There is a tentative and unspoken agreent that the temple of light treats the common people for they are far more comfortable with its familiar presence, but the adventurers and villagers from outside the city prefer our elixirs, favoring portable healing.
It is likely I am to make this agreent official. To put it on paper, so to say."
"Try not to let the temple have a complete monopoly over healing for the regular citizens," said Li. "They are not yet fully comfortable with us, but in ti, they will be."
"I shall keep that in the back of my skull," said Ven'thur with a sly smile. "And as to the matter of the rchant's guild, well, I expect so standard thinly veiled threats to begin with."
"Really now? Even when they know that a high priest of the light got smote down by us?" said Li. "I thought that would be threat enough. I really do not have the ti and effort to be wasting on intimidating more fools."
"Oh, I assure you that I can handle that," said Ven'thur. "But when the threats fail to co to pass, I am sure the rchants will be more willing to negotiate with clearer heads. Until then, I shall do my best to limit harm to them or the rogues they hire."
"Nobody better to do that than you," said Li.
When it ca to subduing without harming, Ven'thur was a master with his expertise in mind manipulating magic. Plus, the lich was quite good with his words and had been a good Lawspeaker when he was yet human.
All he had to do was brush up on laws he was a few centuries behind on, but when he did so, he made an incredibly competent Master of Comrce that was not only good at negotiating, but also immune to brazen threats.
It also helped that the temple of Light was still being monitored by Swift, and it was evident even further asures had been made as the Head Priest of the temple had stepped down and been replaced.
A few weeks after Li had almost lted the high priest into mush, he had heard tell of so of the priests drumming up outrage against the old faith, but before that could lead to anything, the Head Priest of the entire temple retired.
More likely, the duchess had ordered the head priest to retire, and with that, things beca quiet again, leaving just the rchant's Guild to contend with.
Ven'thur leaned back into his chair, indicating he was done reporting
"Then Ivo, I already know what's going on in your end," said Li. "So, as usual, let's plan for the future."
Ivo, as Master of Ceremonies, was responsible for everything related to the old faith. Managent of the priesthood, procession of faith based ceremonies, and the like. But as Li's comfortability with his divinity had increased, so had his range of powers.
He could inherently sense where Ivo was at any ti. To a lesser degree, he could also focus to know where the other priests were and what they were generally doing, and the less advanced in their faith soone was to Li, the less he could perceive them innately.
This allowed Li to have a general sense of what his priests were doing, so he had no real reason to ask for reports from Ivo in the sa manner as he did with the others.
"Yes, Good Seer," said Ivo with a deep nod.
"I have heard tell from the harpies that they have scouted almost an army of orcs nearing the Winterwoods and headed straight to Riviera.
What do you propose we do about this?"
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