My Farming Domain Is Broken

The Director was waiting inside what had once been an abandoned logging station.

Carlos expected someone surrounded by guards, sitting behind a large desk and acting as if the Glasswood Basin already belonged to them.

Instead, Mara Kells was standing beside a long worktable with three other Lords. One counted stacks of transparent bark. Another wrote numbers on a board. The third argued about whether the group guarding the northern trees should receive the same contribution as the group cutting them.

Mara did not look up at Carlos immediately.

"The guards kept people alive," the northern Lord said.

"But they also did not carry the wood back, the people did" the other one answered.

Mara tapped the table once and both stopped.

"Split the difference for today," she said. "Tomorrow, we count guard hours separately. If anyone dislikes it, leave with what the agreement says is yours."

Neither Lord looked happy, but both accepted it and walked away.

Only then did Mara turn toward Carlos.

She was thin, wore a green coat with dirt at its cuffs and had a small cut across one cheek that looked recent. There was no expensive armour on her. Her only weapon was a short axe resting beside the table.

"Mara Kells," she said. "Director of the Glasswood Cooperative until twenty-seven people decide they would rather choose somebody else."

Carlos looked around the logging station.

Every agreement hung from one wall with names, contribution percentages and withdrawal conditions. There were no chains, no threat panels, and no sign that Mara owned the other Lords’ territories.

"Why do they listen to you?" Carlos asked.

Mara did not act offended by the question. She smiled instead.

"They do not have to. The first day, everyone rushed the trees and started fighting over which group could cut first. Two people got injured, one troop died, and nobody had enough wood to show for it." She pointed at the agreements. "I suggested we write down who works, who guards, and who gets what. It kept them from killing each other over bark."

"That made you Director?" Cosmic asked.

"It made me the person who had to listen when people started shouting. I am still deciding whether that was a reward or punishment."

Cosmic walked closer to the wall and read every agreement carefully. He spent longer doing that than he had spent looking at the transparent forest.

"This is good," he said.

Carlos looked at him. "You sound jealous."

"I am appreciating professional work."

Mara smiled a little. "You understand trade?"

"He understands it too much," Carlos said.

"I heard that," Cosmic replied.

Mara asked Cosmic what Domain he had. After hearing that he already had his own territory and worked with Carlos, she looked disappointed for only a second.

"I was about to offer you a place managing our exchanges," she said.

"He is with me," Carlos said.

Cosmic looked at him. "As a guest."

"A guest who keeps trying to take my food away from bad trades."

"That is called saving you from yourself, bro."

The small argument made Mara study both of them more carefully. Carlos could tell she was trying to understand whether Cosmic was Carlos’s subordinate, a business partner, or simply someone Carlos trusted enough to interrupt him.

But she did not ask.

"We saw your name when the regional network awakened," Mara said. "Partial ownership of the cultivation district gives you a place on the map. That is all we know."

Carlos relaxed slightly. Nobody had discovered Ironroot’s private information.

"Then why call me here?" he asked.

Mara looked through the open wall toward the pale trees outside.

"Because Glasswood has materials, but the trees are drying. We can cut them, but we cannot keep the place stable alone. You restored water channels, have an Agriculture Domain, and somehow brought a group capable of crossing the northern road without losing anyone. I wanted to know whether you came here to take our work or build something useful beside it."

Carlos’s eyes sharpened, "How do you know I fixed the water channels?"

Mara smiled, "That trade booth you made, the ones who traded with you came here directly. They told me things."

"Hmm" Carlos accepted the answer and then went back to the question she asked. Take her work or build something useful with others. The same thing that Cedric asked.

"I will not pretend I do not want Glasswood," Carlos said. "But I did not come here to demand what you already built. I came to see whether there is something worth working for."

Mara nodded once. "That is a better answer than most people give."

"And also, we don’t want to fight you, I will be completely honest. Looking at your toops, I have a feeling we might loose half of the troops and some lords if we fought against you."

Carlos heard that and looked at her for a few second before he sighed.

"If you want fight, we fight" Brann spoke with his heavy voice which made Mara’s eyebrow twitch in a little panic. If that Bearkin would go berserk here, nothing would stay as it is right now.

"Don’t do that, Brann. We need these people, isn’t that right, Mara?" Carlos spoke with a smile and Mara kept looking at him before giving a brief nod.

For the first time in maybe forever, Cosmic couldn’t read Carlos’s mind. He was onto something.

Mara wanted food, clean water and access to cultivation materials. Carlos wanted Glasswood, permanent channel supports and information about the Settlement Authority.

She also requested access through the Domain Portal which seemed absurd and made Carlos frown.

Carlos refused before Cosmic spoke up

"Nobody enters Ironroot because they bought timber."

Mara raised both hands. "I only asked" She looked at the chain on his hand that started hovering around the hand ready to be whipped.

They agreed that exchanges would happen inside the cultivation district. Cooperative workers could enter its public market but received no protected-field, regulator or Ironroot access.

Mara accepted without arguing. That made Carlos trust her less, not more.