Chapter 305: Vacation Planning
"So this is both a vacation and a training activity," Ashlynn said with a smile when Talauia came to explain the task that Amahle had set for them. She leaned back in her chair as the late afternoon sun filtered through the workshop windows of her hut while massaging the forearm that had grown sore after nearly an hour spent stirring her concoction to prevent it from burning. The air still held the lingering scents of valerian root and other herbs from their day of concocting, though the heat had finally begun to ease as evening approached.
Talauia perched on a wooden stool nearby, offering a bowl of crispy fried okra she’d brought to share while they talked. The simple snack was a welcome distraction after the intense focus their work had required, and when Talauia mentioned that she’d left out the dusting of cayenne pepper for this batch so they could share, Heila reached eagerly for a piece as they considered Amahle’s challenge.
"First planning, then foraging, concocting, and selling our wares before we get to enjoy the rewards of what we’ve made. Or we find a way to have the least expensive vacation possible because we’ve utterly failed at the task," she said with a wide grin.
It was the sort of challenge that she would have loved to tackle with Jocelynn. Economics was a foundation of administering any domain, whether it was a small barony or a sprawling duchy and Ashlynn’s tutors had schooled her well in principles of supply and demand. Understanding the flow of goods back and forth between the old countries was something she spent many hours studying with her tutors.
On rare occasions, she’d been able to meet with the captain of a trading vessel or one of the masters from the Way Finder’s guild and those people had often posed practical hypothetical problems for her to solve, grounded in their very real experience. Ashlynn always delighted in those challenges, not only because they tested her understanding of many subjects at once but because it was a chance to broaden her very small social circle, even if only briefly.
But Jocelynn had a much better head for supply and demand of individual goods. She paid attention to what was in style among noble women, what was in demand by the merchant class, and the sorts of things that even the common folk would find an excuse to splurge on if the opportunity presented itself. She was always looking for opportunities to obtain what others couldn’t by finding benefits for everyone involved.
If Jocelynn were here, Ashlynn was certain that she would immediately know which questions to ask to figure out which potions would give them the best return on their efforts. Since she wasn’t, Ashlynn could only try her best and hope that the lessons she’d learned at home would translate to Eldritch Lands.
"I don’t think we’ll have a poor vacation," Heila said eagerly. "Even if we just made some cooling drops and other simple things, I’m sure we would earn enough silver to treat ourselves nicely in Crystal Lake City."
For her, this would be an entirely new experience where she visited an Eldritch city not only as Ashlynn’s lady-in-waiting but as a powerful figure in her own right. She’d had a taste of what that kind of life could be like when Jacques took her to the House of Iron but she couldn’t really enjoy it as much as she wanted with Jacques’s looming presence and his strange insistence on showing off his dueling prowess.