Chapter 223: Chapter 208 – An Amicable Talk

"What we know as the worldwide unified guilds of professions nowadays, something we have taken for granted, is actually a rather recent thing. Some older dwarves and many elves would recall days before its time, as it happened during their lifetimes.

 

Guilds becoming respectable, impartial entities which guaranteed the competence of their members, and so coordinated that information from one corner of the world would be updates even to the other corner within a month, only started to be that way in the past three hundred years, as relative peace settled over the continents and prosperity grew.

 

Prior to that time, most guilds were small time collections of like-minded people, often with little more than local influence. Some of the larger ones often abused their newfound monopoly of a desired thing in the region to jack up prices or worse.

 

It was not rare for such guilds to come to a violent end, which often caused their members to be persecuted as a result, which in turn led to the rise of another such guild in the future in an endless cycle." - Leigh Wainwrought, Sociology student at the Levain Institute of Higher Learning.

"Well, that's sorta the point," replied Aideen with a smirk, now more relaxed as she realized she was dealing with one of grandpa Aarin's people, even if the person in question was foreign royalty. "I mean, certainly you've noticed what they've been doing around here, no?"

 

"We did," grumbled Ginnie as she pouted and brought out a couple of large tankards - easily the size of Aideen's head - from her storage, along with a small barrel of what smelled like ale that she poured into them, before she offered one to Aideen. "That's why I hate being saddled with my position, honestly. Gotta always think of the politics and justifications and all other such bullshit all the time."

 

"Politics, huh?" asked Aideen in turn as she took a gulp of the ale. It was crisp, excellent ale, as was to be expected when one was in dwarven lands. "I take it there's circumstances that prevented illegalizing such bullshit."

 

"Our little kingdom here ain't the most peaceful. If we did a purge… we'd be short on good healers should a war break out again," explained the dwarven princess with a sigh. "Those bastards exchanged a pledge to support us in wartime for us to turn a blind eye to their shit. Too many in the court were eager to make that compromise. A couple might also have lined their pockets with 'donations' from them as well, though we ain't got proof."

 

"Blargh," said Aideen with heartfelt disgust. She had never liked politicking to begin with. Vitalica under her parents rarely needed to debate much on what to do. Ptolodecca… simply obeyed whatever the Bone Lord decreed. Even Elmaiya these days were pretty much under Lucea's firm hands. While her ministers advised, the decisions ultimately lay in her hands alone.

 

"Oh yeah, that's about the right word for it," admitted Ginnie as she knocked back her tankard and gulped down its contents in one long drink before she sighed once more. "I've been in the Lichdom for decades myself. You have no idea how many times I wished I could just bash an idiot's skull in on the hearings. I blame my bloody ancestors for being such nice bleeding hearts."

 

"People always liked feeling like their concerns were heard," said Aideen as she nodded in understanding of the dwarf's issues. Knallzog ran a parliamentary system of government, where the monarch, nobles, and representatives from the populace met to discuss policies.

 

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"But there's just some people out there who had no business being part of governance, much less representing others, yeah," said the dwarven woman with another long-suffering sigh. "And yet others who should have been there to speak, but couldn't due to various reasons."

 

"I won't claim to be an expert on this," admitted Aideen as the dwarven woman refilled her tankard to the brim. "I've pretty much… stayed the hell away from politics ever since I died and rose as an Unliving… and that was almost two centuries ago."

 

"Wise of you. I wish I had as much foresight when I was younger. Now I'm saddled with too much responsibility I'm loath to let down," complained Ginnie as she shook her head. "But enough of political crap. Tell me. What do you have in mind for the local healers?"

 

"Nothing complicated, really," said Aideen as she smirked in a way that suggested someone was about to have a very bad time. "Just going to go around healing people for free. Making it all too obvious that the healer's guild are just a bunch of money-grubbing bloodsuckers."

 

"That'd get some reaction out of them all right," admitted Ginnie with a nod. "Ten gold says they'll try to seduce you into their fold first, before resorting to more… violent means to get you out of their hair."

 

"No bet. That's what they'd do unless they're raving idiots anyway, and raving idiots wouldn't try to run something of this scale while remaining legitimate the whole time," replied Aideen with a smile. "And they're welcome to try me anyway. I mean what's the worst they could do? Kill me?"

 

Both women shared a good, long laugh over that, and toasted each other with their tankards. They made some small talk for a while more, before Ginnie excused herself to handle the rest of Aideen's paperworks and permits.

 

By the time she left the guardhouse and said her goodbye, it was already evening, the sun just about to set behind the mountain. Aideen then made her way to an inn Ginnie had suggested, one favored by visitors who appreciated beds that were not too short for their bodies.

 

The Inn's proprietor, a stout, robust, middle-aged dwarven man welcomed her. His wife, a heavyset human woman with broad shoulders heavy with child, manned the reception desk, and Aideen quickly booked a room for the week.

 

She was brought to her room by the couple's oldest daughter, who was short and stout much like her father, if to a lesser extent, and had a short, fuzzy, well-groomed beard on her chin. Aideen thanked the girl and gave her a tip before she closed the door.

 

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