A day later, loud shouts and protests could be heard from a marketplace in the Kingdom of Lanthanor.
"I have no choice! They bought everything and new honey still needs ti to reach the store!"
The location of the uproar was outside a large food store. Many commoners were protesting over the absence of honey on sale.
As the guards arrived to break up the commotion, the commoners dispersed obediently cursing under their breaths. No one wanted to go to jail just because they could not have honey in their al.
A similar sight could be seen in all the shops which usually stocked the commodity.In the night before, n from a minister’s manor had approached and bought out all of the stocks of honey available.
In another 2 days, Ether-driven carts could be seen everywhere on the streets transporting a strange contraption. It was a round tal box with the top open, while so sort of liquid seed to be sloshing in an unknown chamber inside.
These carts drove to every major rchant’s house where a box was dropped off with a parchnt holding detailed instructions on top.
According to the instructions, this was a product specifically developed to keep mosquitoes away from Ether and other precious materials. One would simply have to place this box near the storage area, and mosquitoes would stay away from Ether and be trapped inside the box. Each box would work for 30 days in a radius of 5 ters around the box, and the first box was free for all to try out.
Finally, the parchnt told that a shop would open in 10 days which would sell the boxes. The na of this contraption would also be revealed at the opening of the store.
Accompanied by the sweet sll of honey, many rchants were puzzled reading this parchnt. They spent hundreds and thousands of gold Lans each year to erect barriers to keep the accursed mosquitoes out. Now, this simple box could solve all of their problems?!
If it were true, it would simply shake the foundation of Lanthanor. One of the main imports of the kingdom were large barrier trinkets which were used for the sa purpose. Trinkets only worked for a set period of ti, so they had to be constantly switched out with new ones. This demand and supply chain had been going on for many years. In fact, almost no one could rember a ti when trinkets weren’t needed to keep the mosquitoes out. With ti, the demand had only increased.
Even with years and years of experints, no alternative had been developed. Although the trinkets burned a hole in their pockets, it was still acceptable because the alternative would be many, many tis worse.
As they had nothing to loose, all of the rchants decided to try it out.
Mosquitoes were not tied to a day and night schedule, so barriers needed to be up 24/7. Placing a box near a cupboard in which so ether blocks were stored, a rchant in the western part of the outer city gingerly stretched his hand towards the trinket which was maintaining the barrier.
He knew that as soon as he deactivated it, a flood of mosquitoes would rush in to devour the blocks of Ether. No material obstruction could stand in their way.
This was the reason why many premium establishnts erected barriers around rooms to avoid discomfort to custors who might be carrying precious materials. The Dwarve’s rum had had such an arrangent.
Ready to activate the barrier again in case the box didn’t work, the rchant switched it off.
The expected dark flood arrived, but all of the mosquitoes were funneled into the box in an instant.
It was as if sothing inside the box was much more tempting to the mosquitoes than the blocks of Ether that they were supposed to love so much.
Hence, any mosquitoes which ca near were always diverted to the box, letting the rchant relax.
But, a second later, his rchant’s mind clicked into place, directing him to find out and recreate whatever this box was doing. The fortune that could be earnt by selling such a wondrous product would definitely be limitless.
Opening the box, he saw that the mosquitoes had beco trapped in what looked like honey. To make sure, he dipped a finger in the solution before licking it.
Sweet, sweet honey! This was what he tasted, prompting him to run out and order all of the guards to go buy all of the honey stocks available in the market.
Sadly, the Kingdom had already been swept clean. Most of the honey left was in the houses of the citizens, so for a few days, anyone who had been lucky enough to stock honey at their hos were paid exorbitant prices. Gold Lans were spent without thought and soon, everyone started building their own boxes.
Yet, there were so who realized that this could not simply be honey. Actually, the idea to use honey itself wasn’t new. Everyone knew that mosquitoes lived on sweet food in the forest when there was no Ether available. And honey was, after all, their second most favorite food after Ether.
Hence, when given a choice, the mosquitoes would always choose the best delicacy, which, in their case, was always the Ether.
tal workers were soon inundated with contracts to build replicas of the tal cages. There was no proper patent system in the Kingdom, hence there was nothing stopping anyone from making a copy if they had the skill.
As the first of the replicas started undergoing testing, the hopeful rchants realized that whatever the box did wasn’t so simple after all. Try as they may, they could not make the mosquitoes enter the honey and beco trapped inside instead of the Ether. Whoever tried had their Ether stocks devoured and were left crying at both the losses from the Ether blocks and the huge amounts of money paid to procure the honey fast and make a replica. Now, the nurous boxes that had been made were simply trash that would have to be thrown away, unless they could procure more of that solution in the original box. Resolving to buy as much of it as possible when the store opened, the rchants could only bury the mory of their losses in their mind and wait.
While these cries of lant started to be heard from many houses around the city, Daneel was calmly seated in a training chamber in the academy, enduring the prickling sensations throughout his body.
The pleasure that ca from the knowledge that he was training both his body and mageroot at the sa ti eclipsed all the pain he felt.
His short term goal was to reach the level of an Eminent Human mage so that he could utilize the teleportation spell and shift the location of the natural training chamber. After finding out from Elanev just how much it cost to maintain the training chambers in the academy, he had realized further just how valuable any treasure that could naturally absorb magical energy was. Every second it lay there under his old house worried him, as he feared that soone might find its location and take it away. Thus, he had to train with everything he had.
Having nothing else to think about, he started to replay the events that had led to the creation of the box in his mind.
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