Methaphoras

16 SAND GRAINS

Oric Chontranate visited the palace city and the ports frequently where he gathered news for Agny.

The industry around sand extraction was expanding at full speed around the ports. Ships flew in and out with heavy transport bubbles to carry the pure white bulk to elsewhere in the multiverse. As the captains of these flights organized their travels as economically as possible, they already arrived with fully loaded holds and tried first to sell their freight at a good price. This traffic generated an influx of versatile, often interesting, but sometimes totally unnecessary trumpery as merchandise. For the time being, however, the pressure was limited to the surface, because it was assumed that there was little to gather in the Interior of Urantium.

With the transport and trade fleet news traveled faster than Ardor liked, which meant that the big entrepreneurs with the most lucrative projects were not interested. They were simply waiting to see whether Urantium was on the verge of collapsing or about to become a worthy partner before embarking on major investments, which was nothing but reasonable from their point of view.

Sporadically, some ships sailed anyway deeper to the core to bring as many samples of several exotic specialties back with them as possible. Because of the protective screen and the administrative mill around it, the exploration of a new universe obviously did not become any easier. Before, every interested person could equip a ship with a minimum of capital and explore the matter before going all in. Now, one could only file a claim with the harbor masters by means of a lengthy technical dossier concerning what, how and what activity one wished to develop inside Urantium without knowing what the potential profit would be. The result was that only a few ships left in the direction of the core and therefore also returned.

Outside Sintasja, the four dawn ships had the road to the Exterior almost to themselves if they brought mail for Ardor. Oric slid through it with the Titan occasionally, but nobody noticed, and this curious fact was only known to a few intimates. All sorts of persons, from various backgrounds, settled in the port cities and the flower city, which gave the three prayer growers much more freedom of movement. The colorful strangers populated the crust and caused cozy anonymity that suited them well. Oric compiled an alter ego and presented himself as Marzano Orta, a bringer of color and scent. Under this vague pseudonym, he came and went to the surface, under the light of the eight suns and the face of the universes.

In Portus Macu, Marzano regularly visited the inn "The Red Dragon Tail", the only relaxation retreat with style in Macu, where the host Shorthack was lord and master. Brandael, the harbor master, always dropped by at the bar when Oric, in the disguise of Marzano, was in town. Marzano knew all the news from the other ports, which always yielded him a grateful audience of listeners with accompanying treats. The current and the former harbormasters, Brandael and Ramael, were friends. They sat at their usual table, talking in the "Red Tail", according to the irreverent name with which Shorthack's competitors labeled the pub.

In recent times, the wormholes seemed rather unwilling to include the freshly supplied raw materials. The universe seemed to be saturated, and that worried the harbor masters because it affected the trade prospects in a negative way. The eight port managers checked everything that went indoors or out. If someone arrived on Urantium he had to register himself and his respective cargo. That some freebooters used to penetrate into the universes because the port managers cut a blind eye, was now a thing of the past. Theoretically, once admitted to the surface of the crust, one could leave his body behind to catapult himself immaterially to an unknown point beyond the mist of time. However, outside Kayros there were few who ventured something like that. The reason was lacking because no merchandise could be taken in such a way. Of course, this was a good thing for the tradesmen on the surface. The harbors gradually grew to become metropolises because in Anthinopolis only sporadically new permanent residents were admitted and no new constructions were built without Ardor's personal approval. The expansion drive, therefore, shifted to the ports that obtained the allure of bazaars where everything was for sale at the right price. Due to the unwillingness of the transit channels, unrest grew and the conversation between Brandael and Ramael about this only was interrupted when sir Orta, with his elegant plume hat, entered the room.