It was a busy night in Esp?rance, and yet Alain DeMuer, the man they had named Lord-Protector almost a year ago, was nowhere to be found.
In the spring when he had first accepted the title, hiding in the village of Esp?rance would have been no easy task. Only the center of town had a cluster of complete buildings, and scattered elsewhere were frames and foundations, the chapel at the top of the hill, the waterwheel down at the stream (since named the River Sterling) that provided a little electricity, and the little silver mine south of the village. The villagers had recently been refugees huddled in a muddy, miserable little camp south of RhyDin City, and in those early days of the village they still could not help but feel, in many ways, like refugees. Providence had smiled upon them so suddenly that they had trouble believing it was real, or that it would last; but Providence demonstrated it was real and lasting, and so the villagers set to work continuing to build up their community, and even expand.
Lord DeMuer's visits were unpredictable, sometimes quick ones, once or twice a week; others for days at a time; and, especially during the summer, he would go for weeks at a time without seeing the place that would swear all its allegiance to him, if he would just accept it... The notion unnerved him, and over time, the townspeople learned it and learned to deal with it.
Esp?rance grew from two hundred to three hundred by the fall, and nearly four hundred according to a census right before the winter solstice - workers Alain had contracted in the past, those he had previously hired and looked for an even fresher start than a new job in RhyDin, some of the refugees from Nouveau Bretagne who had not remained in the camp but who caught word of the new village, and prospectors seeking contracts and other arrangements with the village's state-run mining company worked their way into Esp?rance as well as other places. Sainte-Ouen, a fishing village on a cove, grew from several lobstermen's families to over one hundred people, mainly fishermen the lobstermen had befriended that had eked out a living in the run-down shacks stretching along the coastline south of RhyDin.
The road north into the realm had always been tricky, dividing the vast and mysterious (and aptly named) Ostmore and Estmore where few dared to live, but at the edge of a swamp, at a bend in the road where the silver-wagons and other caravans often liked to pause to make to camp, someone had the clever idea of building a great house for himself and his family and renting out rooms to travelers, and several other families did the same, while still others moved in to provide other services, where they could - it was barely a village, but enough of one to feel confident naming itself Grenmarsh Bend. And further up the road, just beyond the moors and at the southern edge of the farmland that ran along the River Sterling, a man from the West End whose tavern had burned down over the summer built another, simply known in the realm as Armand's Tavern, and several houses and a few shops sprang up there, too.
In a road east from the tavern, a good distance south of Sainte-Ouen, a tiny seaside community of outcast half-elves that made its home near the River Sterling Delta called Teobern had grown in wealth and reputation by trading with their new neighbors. Alain DeMuer signed off on an agreement to a loose confederation back in October, and since then the community had been flooded with many of the half-elves and hybrids of other races that struggled to find acceptance elsewhere and would not settle for getting lost in the shuffle of a vast and changing city.
North of Esp?rance, at the source of the River Sterling (a small, clear mountain lake with many springs nearby), a community of trappers had sprung up at Noirmont, at the foot of a mountain carved from strangely dark rock. Whatever its origin, Silas the Mage was the first to discover it was conducive to great concentrations of magick, especially energies normally associated with the Nexus... He was investigating the viability of a gate to another realm, under Alain's cautious blessing.
And each community was guaranteed some growth by the steady trickle of escaped slaves from RhyDin, or passing through RhyDin, that worked their way through the "underground railroad" Alain and Zonker had arranged together - and each community had agreed to some form of law regarding the status, namely the continued freedom, of escaped slaves.
All told, the realm that had not chosen a proper name for itself had grown to nearly sixteen hundred citizens that were all quite willing to swear allegiance to whatever government Esp?rance belonged to, except Esp?rance's own political arrangements were quite peculiar, in that it was an independent township ruled by an elected council and led by an often-absent noble they had called Lord-Protector. In recent weeks, each community had elected a representative to go to Esp?rance and enter negotiations to create something more closely resembling a state. They had their own varieties of democracy, taxation and other sources of "communal" funds, and the guards and few officials they deemed necessary, while the porous "borders" of this strange, isolated land were patrolled by the Knights of the Holy Order of Saint Ouen to protect the caravans and hunt the bandits and bounty hunters sent by slavers, more often than not putting them to vigilante death in the lawless wilderness to deter others like them.
It was becoming a state, or group of states, in everything but official arrangement and naming, and after eleven days of deliberation interrupted only by Solstice for the representatives from Teobern, and Christmas for most of the others, they had reached a number of agreements.
Each community had to meet certain standards regarding slavery (escaped slaves were to remain free if ever any sought sanctuary within the realm, and slaves could be slaves with their masters within the communities only with the permission of that community, and for no longer than thirty days most of the year, and ninety days in winter) as well as democracy both local and collective (most opted for their own elected councils, and sending either the council leader, another elected councillor, or a separate elected representative to govern with the other communities), resulting in a sort of confederation of self-governing communities that traded freely with one another, agreed to let whoever already had residence within the realm to reside wherever he or she wished in any of the communities, demarcated collective land that they would help to patrol and govern until such a time that the residents of those areas asserted semi-autonomy, and decided that they should be the Barony of Sainte-Ouen, and that on the Council of the Barony ought to sit the Baron of Sainte-Ouen. The title had existed in the past; all they needed now was the permission of its heir.
"Concessions," was the first word Alain said when a councillor escorted by one of his knights found him in his waterfront home in the vilage of Sainte-Ouen, reading a few very old books in his study and making notes and sketches in a little black journal. "First, I am to relinquish my position as Lord-Protector of Esp?rance to take a similar position on the Council of the Barony, as a tie-breaker and a representative of our interests abroad." He had known, through the valuable information network that was the Knights of Saint Ouen, what political arrangements were coming, and what they were likely to ask of him - that he take back his ancestor's title. He had a mind to turn it down, except for a conversation he had with Maranya Valkonan in the Red Dragon Inn on 23 December, regarding some of the poor and homeless in RhyDin that her clinic provided care and shelter for. On Christmas Eve, House DeMuer's properties in RhyDin as well as those of its workers that did not observe Christmas provided care and shelter for what turned out to be a few hundred poor and homeless, and all through Christmas Day.
At the end of Christmas Day, after they had all been observed by Alain's workers and answered a few questions, and it had been decided who would be inclined to settle down into honest work, Alain had approached them and made them an offer. Work for the House and its holdings and businesses in return for food and shelter for them and their loved ones, as well as directly providing or arranging for job training.
It turned out many of them were farmers, and all they wanted was a chance to have some land again and make some good of it. Alain replied to these requests that he would see what he could arrange.
The councillor agreed to Alain's first request with a bob of his head, a stiffly bounced sort of bow, and said, "Of course, of course..." This the councillors had anticipated - the next, they did not.
"And another thing. There are more people in RhyDin, come from situations like your own, with nowhere to turn... I want to bring them here - give them a fair chance."
Surprise registered on the man's face. As far as his sources had told him, Alain had been completely inactive since Miss Jefferies' unfortunate death, making few business plans if any at all and taking no interest in the politics of the realm. The move would ruffle a few feathers... but in order to have DeMuer as Baron of Sainte-Ouen, they would agree, the councillor was sure. "But of course... Baron DeMuer. I must hurry back with the news, and should return before dawn with a contract... Excuse me." He bowed his way out, shutting the door behind him.
Alain and his knight shared a grin, and the former returned to his reading, shaking his head.
In the spring when he had first accepted the title, hiding in the village of Esp?rance would have been no easy task. Only the center of town had a cluster of complete buildings, and scattered elsewhere were frames and foundations, the chapel at the top of the hill, the waterwheel down at the stream (since named the River Sterling) that provided a little electricity, and the little silver mine south of the village. The villagers had recently been refugees huddled in a muddy, miserable little camp south of RhyDin City, and in those early days of the village they still could not help but feel, in many ways, like refugees. Providence had smiled upon them so suddenly that they had trouble believing it was real, or that it would last; but Providence demonstrated it was real and lasting, and so the villagers set to work continuing to build up their community, and even expand.
Lord DeMuer's visits were unpredictable, sometimes quick ones, once or twice a week; others for days at a time; and, especially during the summer, he would go for weeks at a time without seeing the place that would swear all its allegiance to him, if he would just accept it... The notion unnerved him, and over time, the townspeople learned it and learned to deal with it.
Esp?rance grew from two hundred to three hundred by the fall, and nearly four hundred according to a census right before the winter solstice - workers Alain had contracted in the past, those he had previously hired and looked for an even fresher start than a new job in RhyDin, some of the refugees from Nouveau Bretagne who had not remained in the camp but who caught word of the new village, and prospectors seeking contracts and other arrangements with the village's state-run mining company worked their way into Esp?rance as well as other places. Sainte-Ouen, a fishing village on a cove, grew from several lobstermen's families to over one hundred people, mainly fishermen the lobstermen had befriended that had eked out a living in the run-down shacks stretching along the coastline south of RhyDin.
The road north into the realm had always been tricky, dividing the vast and mysterious (and aptly named) Ostmore and Estmore where few dared to live, but at the edge of a swamp, at a bend in the road where the silver-wagons and other caravans often liked to pause to make to camp, someone had the clever idea of building a great house for himself and his family and renting out rooms to travelers, and several other families did the same, while still others moved in to provide other services, where they could - it was barely a village, but enough of one to feel confident naming itself Grenmarsh Bend. And further up the road, just beyond the moors and at the southern edge of the farmland that ran along the River Sterling, a man from the West End whose tavern had burned down over the summer built another, simply known in the realm as Armand's Tavern, and several houses and a few shops sprang up there, too.
In a road east from the tavern, a good distance south of Sainte-Ouen, a tiny seaside community of outcast half-elves that made its home near the River Sterling Delta called Teobern had grown in wealth and reputation by trading with their new neighbors. Alain DeMuer signed off on an agreement to a loose confederation back in October, and since then the community had been flooded with many of the half-elves and hybrids of other races that struggled to find acceptance elsewhere and would not settle for getting lost in the shuffle of a vast and changing city.
North of Esp?rance, at the source of the River Sterling (a small, clear mountain lake with many springs nearby), a community of trappers had sprung up at Noirmont, at the foot of a mountain carved from strangely dark rock. Whatever its origin, Silas the Mage was the first to discover it was conducive to great concentrations of magick, especially energies normally associated with the Nexus... He was investigating the viability of a gate to another realm, under Alain's cautious blessing.
And each community was guaranteed some growth by the steady trickle of escaped slaves from RhyDin, or passing through RhyDin, that worked their way through the "underground railroad" Alain and Zonker had arranged together - and each community had agreed to some form of law regarding the status, namely the continued freedom, of escaped slaves.
All told, the realm that had not chosen a proper name for itself had grown to nearly sixteen hundred citizens that were all quite willing to swear allegiance to whatever government Esp?rance belonged to, except Esp?rance's own political arrangements were quite peculiar, in that it was an independent township ruled by an elected council and led by an often-absent noble they had called Lord-Protector. In recent weeks, each community had elected a representative to go to Esp?rance and enter negotiations to create something more closely resembling a state. They had their own varieties of democracy, taxation and other sources of "communal" funds, and the guards and few officials they deemed necessary, while the porous "borders" of this strange, isolated land were patrolled by the Knights of the Holy Order of Saint Ouen to protect the caravans and hunt the bandits and bounty hunters sent by slavers, more often than not putting them to vigilante death in the lawless wilderness to deter others like them.
It was becoming a state, or group of states, in everything but official arrangement and naming, and after eleven days of deliberation interrupted only by Solstice for the representatives from Teobern, and Christmas for most of the others, they had reached a number of agreements.
Each community had to meet certain standards regarding slavery (escaped slaves were to remain free if ever any sought sanctuary within the realm, and slaves could be slaves with their masters within the communities only with the permission of that community, and for no longer than thirty days most of the year, and ninety days in winter) as well as democracy both local and collective (most opted for their own elected councils, and sending either the council leader, another elected councillor, or a separate elected representative to govern with the other communities), resulting in a sort of confederation of self-governing communities that traded freely with one another, agreed to let whoever already had residence within the realm to reside wherever he or she wished in any of the communities, demarcated collective land that they would help to patrol and govern until such a time that the residents of those areas asserted semi-autonomy, and decided that they should be the Barony of Sainte-Ouen, and that on the Council of the Barony ought to sit the Baron of Sainte-Ouen. The title had existed in the past; all they needed now was the permission of its heir.
"Concessions," was the first word Alain said when a councillor escorted by one of his knights found him in his waterfront home in the vilage of Sainte-Ouen, reading a few very old books in his study and making notes and sketches in a little black journal. "First, I am to relinquish my position as Lord-Protector of Esp?rance to take a similar position on the Council of the Barony, as a tie-breaker and a representative of our interests abroad." He had known, through the valuable information network that was the Knights of Saint Ouen, what political arrangements were coming, and what they were likely to ask of him - that he take back his ancestor's title. He had a mind to turn it down, except for a conversation he had with Maranya Valkonan in the Red Dragon Inn on 23 December, regarding some of the poor and homeless in RhyDin that her clinic provided care and shelter for. On Christmas Eve, House DeMuer's properties in RhyDin as well as those of its workers that did not observe Christmas provided care and shelter for what turned out to be a few hundred poor and homeless, and all through Christmas Day.
At the end of Christmas Day, after they had all been observed by Alain's workers and answered a few questions, and it had been decided who would be inclined to settle down into honest work, Alain had approached them and made them an offer. Work for the House and its holdings and businesses in return for food and shelter for them and their loved ones, as well as directly providing or arranging for job training.
It turned out many of them were farmers, and all they wanted was a chance to have some land again and make some good of it. Alain replied to these requests that he would see what he could arrange.
The councillor agreed to Alain's first request with a bob of his head, a stiffly bounced sort of bow, and said, "Of course, of course..." This the councillors had anticipated - the next, they did not.
"And another thing. There are more people in RhyDin, come from situations like your own, with nowhere to turn... I want to bring them here - give them a fair chance."
Surprise registered on the man's face. As far as his sources had told him, Alain had been completely inactive since Miss Jefferies' unfortunate death, making few business plans if any at all and taking no interest in the politics of the realm. The move would ruffle a few feathers... but in order to have DeMuer as Baron of Sainte-Ouen, they would agree, the councillor was sure. "But of course... Baron DeMuer. I must hurry back with the news, and should return before dawn with a contract... Excuse me." He bowed his way out, shutting the door behind him.
Alain and his knight shared a grin, and the former returned to his reading, shaking his head.