Hold Matters

Writers: Chelle, Paula
Date Posted: 13th March 2012

Characters: Corowal, Sarban
Description: Corowal and Sarban go through some business.
Location: Emerald Falls Hold
Date: month 6, day 15 of Turn 6

They were now in the middle of month six, a half of the Turn behind them
and the second half ahead of them. It was time to stop to do a survey of
how they were doing and where they needed to concentrate for the second
half of the Turn.

"Sarban! You have those tithe reports ready yet?" Corowal asked. "The
account records?" he requested from an assistant steward and was given a
bundle of hides.

"Coming!" came a shout before a few understewards followed Sarban in,
carrying a few very large ledgers. They set them on the big worktable
before heading out. Sarban sat down, put some empty hides and a stylus in
front of himself, and nodded. "The records are in the books of course, but
the hides on top have summaries for quick looking at the major figures."

"Good." They used few minutes to set up the table and spread the records
for easy reading. Then Corowal poured them klah. "So, in short, how does it
look?"

"We're doing better than last turn, in part because of the Gather of
course. The help of the riverboats with transport has also increased
production. We opened up a few of the old holds, but there are still many
that have not been brought back to what they were. I believe once the main
Hold reached capacity, we were going to try and create incentives for folk
to head to the closed settlements." Sarban knew Corowal had the map of
those that he was looking at so he didn't say which they were.

"Happy to hear it," Corowal nodded. "We need to find good holders for all
those abandoned holds." His brows wrinkled. "For instance, both Giffin and
Luter are happily using Merry Brook's lands, just because there's no holder
to tell them not to."

"Exactly. Maybe you should make an announcement. Ask folks to sign up if
they want to go. You handpick the holder to be in charge at first and then
send them on their way. We'll provide food stores and livestock for a half
turn. See how it goes maybe..." Sarban though that would make people less
leery about leaving the hold.

"Might work with closer holds, like Verdant Grove and Merry Brook. But the
bigger problem is those distant holds, River Wood and High Hills. There are
wild felines and holdless to fight. I've gotten another report of holdless
raid from River Wood's cotholders. Few of them are ready to quit and move
to someone safer, less wild."

"Can Zandan send some men down there? As far as the felines, I find that a
few watchwhers help with that." Sarban sighed, considering. The south
certain had its problems. "Of course if we maybe built a wall around where
they're going to plant crops, that would help as well. Put them all behind
a palisade." It would give some of their workcrews something to do and an
excuse to send more men that way.

"We can try that," Corowal agreed. "But holdless people would just retreat
back to the wilderness," he sighed.

"I'd like to make them settlers, but some of them are so stubborn. I don't
know why one would want to live like that when a threadfall could kill them
so easy. If we fed them, they might come around, but then our holders would
be angry at us for doing that." It was a definite problem with no easy
solution.

"Some of them are sturdy folk who would become good settlers, not scared by
hardships," Corowal said thoughtfully.

"Maybe if we sent someone to live among them, to try to bring them to our
side. They probably don't have healer care." He went through the
possibilities inside his head.

"We could try it out. If we find the right person." Corowal was eager to
try. Turning holdless into profitable holders... now, that was something.

"Definitely something to think about. I still say the wall would be a good
idea, though, at least to keep away the felines and we have watchwher eggs
we can send if Zandan has some wherhandlers that would be willing to go."
He scribbled notes, thinking they needed to at least manage it.

"Yes, it is." Corowal took a sip of his klah and concentrated on the
reports for the while.

Easy with the companionable silence, Sarban got his own klah and began
drinking, while he let Corowal look over the information. They had done
this many times before. He, of course, had already looked everything over
so he was prepared to answer questions when they came.

After finishing reading, Corowal leaned back. "Not bad, this Turn seems to
be profitable. Especially with fleece-production."

"Indeed. selling the yarn to the weaver hall helped. And the trade
agreements you made at the Gather. The riverboats have been a boon too."
Sarban didn't have to say it but fostering a relationship with them had
gained quite a few advantages.

"Let's just hope it keeps up that way. No fires or other disasters,"
Corowal replied.

"Don't say it or it'll happen, though I wonder if we shouldn't raze some
of the old buildings and requarry the stone to use with the harper hall.
Things are going apace there, though there have abeen a few hiccups." He
didn't have to mentioned the few times the old Masters were unhappy since
Corowal had received the reports, but he'd handled it.

"It's possibility, although I would prefer to see those old buildings
resettled," Corowal said.

"The ones here and here and here are in good condition and could be
resettled with no problem. These and these, though, have been empty for so
long without repair, I'm afraid if we did resettle them versus building
new, it would take a lot more work." Sarban had made detailed inspections
on his last ride around. He showed Corowal his notes.

"Right, those. All right, as long as it's cheaper to build new than repair
the old ones," Corowal said after inspecting the notes.

"In that case, we'll start to requarry and focus on trying to resettle the
better buildings first." He'd leave interviewing possible new minor holders
to Corowal. That was his business. Sarban knew the ones with bigger
families usually worked out better and their extended family followed them,
guaranteeing enough people to start and work a settlement.

"Let's do that. Now, let's take a closer look at those tithes...," Corowal
said and pulled a hide closer.

Last updated on the March 20th 2012

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Hold Matters