Yearning for the Moon

Chapter Six

I knew that Andreas had said that there were different resources here, but it never made the most sense until I saw the stores we went past, herb stores casually having rather rare herbs growing in pots on the front steps, a crystal store with brightly glowing crystals on full display, a weapons shop that has signs advertising weapons made of hard to get metals. It was wonderous to see, though I noticed a distinct lack of spiritual beasts for sale, and I imagine it is because of the curse. As far as I knew once an animal or human for that matter had been infected, even if they come in contact with a lodestone it doesn't remove the curse's effect, meaning any spiritual animals not brought in from outside the tainted lands were likely infected.

Most of the stores I recognized, had seen something similar to them in the Valena empire, though these stores certainly had rarer items present, but we kept passing these strange stores with crowds in front of them, so much so that I can't see what is inside them. "Andreas, what are these store's everyone is crowding around?" I couldn't help but be curious, because certainly anything that drew that much attention must be interesting.

"They are Hematite Houses, stone betting is very crucial here." I can't help but stare at him in confusion having no idea what he is talking about, how did you bet on stones? Which person could throw the farthest surely not? The stores certainly didn't look like they would support that kind of space.

"I don't understand." Andreas laughs at me and nods his head understandably.

"Of course you wouldn't, it isn't a thing anywhere else. While the tainted lands are rich in plants and other resources as I'm sure you've already seen, what it is most known for is its minerals. Veins of Hematite are the most desired because in those veins usually are powerful crystals enriched in spiritual energy. The problem is when they are forming, they bond with the hematite around them, forming a hard shell if you will around them, concealing all traces of them, so chunks of hematite are brought up from the mines to Hematite Houses, where you can buy a stone and hope it has a crystal inside worth more than what you spent, it's a bet, a trial of luck. Different types of ores and their size, change their worth, but because it is all concealed in the Hematite stone, it is hard to know what stones are worth the money.

The government allows the people to mine for chunks of hematite, which the Hematite Houses buy, and then the people bet their money on a stone, and if a precious crystal is found, the City Lord offers a fair price for it, or they can attempt to leave the outpost and get a fortune for it in the Valena Empire, though the dangerous and expensive journey is quite a big deterrent. Not to mention that the process to get the crystals out is labor intensive, because of the fragility of some types of crystals, the stones cannot be just cracked open, but have to be ground down slowly, which the Hematite Houses will do for a price of course. The City Lord has ownership of the most bountiful mineral veins but with the smaller ones he allows the people to mine them. So that when they do find the few good crystals from those mines, he offers a fair price for them, and spends much less money on trying to work the smaller mines, which don't usually have too many good crystals. More often than not the Hematite stones are empty, which is why it is a risky business to do Stone Betting." I still couldn't quite understand it, and I suspect I wouldn't tell I entered a Hematite House and tried to bet on a stone myself, but the very idea of it had made me sufficiently intrigued.

We continue through the streets without anything else arousing my curiosity, on our way to see exactly what type of residence the Queen thought was better as my prize than a city. We are rather deep into the Outpost before the carriage rolls to a stop, when we get out we are met with a dilapidated residence. Truly it looked like a disaster, the door was broken, the courtyard was overgrown, and I didn't relish the idea of how many spiders likely lurked inside, but of course that same thought makes me wonder if they are affected by the curse and that makes the idea of spiders in there even worse.