Ariqa's quest: Origins of Maria

Chapter 8, part 2

Arbour's point of view

It was the next day. Me and my family were ready, Sebun got his ship ready, and 'Special guest' was waiting for us.

'Special guest': "So we're ready to go?"

Sebun: "Apart from the passengers and luggage, we yar pretty much ready."

So we began to put our luggage into Sebun's first ship he built eight years ago for travel and delivering cargo.

It took a few hours to get to the beach of the desert bastion nation, and it was beautiful with crystal clear water, bright sand dunes and buildings and a lot of guards, citizens and palm trees.

When we got to the port, there was a random guard waiting for us.

Random guard: "Welcome back, ambassador."

We were really surprised to hear that the 'special guest' was, in fact, the ambassador of the desert bastion!

Ambassador of the desert bastion: "Yep. That's correct. Because I they call me Alan. It means visible, overt, and not secret. Yes, I was not spilling out my secret, but I was visible as a special guest and was kept a surprise, but it's for a reason."

We were heading towards our dock with another two elite guards walking a very important person...

... Sultan Easifatan Sahra.

Sultan Easifatan Sahra got the random guard to get the mini bridge prepared for us to get out the bridge while Sebun lowered the anchor til it hit the ground under the sea.

After we got to the wooden dock off Sebun's boat, Sebun tried to pay to keep his ship there, but the Sultan said, "Don't worry, since You're both on vacation and on a business trip, it's on the house."

Sebun bowed, "Thanks, Majesty."

Sultan Easifatan Sahra nodded, and after that, Easifatan then gave us a tour around the desert bastion.

Sultan Easifatan Sahra: "First, we have the barracks over there." The barracks was a grey stone building with sculpted swords all pointed away as an outline for windows and the double gate, with guards guarding them.

Sultan Easifatan then took us somewhere else.
Sultan Easifatan Sahra: "This is the quarry." As he pointed to the circular, fossil shaped open mine.

"This is where we get our building blocks for both selling and making both our buildings and my pyramid we just finished to celebrate our freedom from the Viper Guild who enslaved us."

Sultan Easifatan Sahra pointed at the pyramid that must have felt like a huge personal achievement that must have taken a while and had done this with blood, sweat, and tears.

Enshi felt sick about that, which Enshi doesn't like it when any amount of crime happens.

Enshi: "I'm sorry it happened, your majesty."

Sultan Easifatan Sahra: "Don't worry, it happened in the past. We are in the present right now. And we have actions and goals we make that can help to ensure the future.... Speaking of which."

He took us to his palace, which from the outside looked luxuriously decorativejusr like Enshi's dress she took for this holiday, but the inside was insane.

The inside had marble pillars. The hard floor depicted a wasteland army with the then Easifatan Sahra leading the way to victory. And walls with artwork of the Marian map within the normal grey stone bricks.

The hallway was long and wide, and on the other end was Sultan Easifatan Sahra's son, who was quiet and shy but similarly dressed like his father. Bold polished copper decor with an overall gown covering head to ankle with saddles. The only thing his son didn't have was his father's gold and polished copper crown, instead showing an oxidised copper ring to signify that he's the prince of the desert bastion.

At first sight, Prince Aleadalat Alquswaa Sahra just looked down nervously, like he was being bullied.
Sultan Easifatan Sahra spoke in a nice manner, "This is my son, Prince Aleadalat Alquswaa Sahra. Now he's a bit nervous because of his first five years working alongside me and my late wife."

Enshi walked up to Prince Aleadalat Alquswaa Sahra and, "Hi, I'm Enshi Lake Inn."

Aleadalat: "Hi Enshi..." He said quietly.

Enshi asked, "So... What do you want to do?"

Aleadalat looked up warmly. "Can I show you something?"

Enshi: "Well, sure."

Aleadalat then got up and signalled Enshi to come along, Enshi said to us, "See you later?"

Sultan Easifatan Sahra said, "Remember to meet back inside the Palace before sunset you two."

Enshi and Aleadalat: "Sure thing."

And with that, Enshi and Aleadalat went outside the Palace.

Sultan Easifatan Sahra: "Now I want to like into the desert bastion-Freelance Guild trade deal with you three because you all started it, right?"

Sebun: "Well, I came up with the name, inspired from the old guild I used to work with before being here."

Katelin: "I brainstormed ideas based on what trades the three of us didn't then, but expanded on other trades in the years after being founded."

Me: "And I was able to provide the materials then, and later created headquarters, offices, and actual ships based on Sebun's blueprints."

Me, Katelin and Sebun: "But we all did it together for a world based with free will and peace where people can work however long without making problems for both us and them."

Sultan Easifatan Sahra was impressed with what we had to say.

Sultan Easifatan Sahra: "And that's why I had come to your attention because the world needs trade to go around and to make civilization thrive. So let's get to the details of our trade deal."

One of the Sultan's servants came over with a wooden table while another two held the medium length trade deal paper delicately to the table.

We all reat the deal to what would our future with the sand bastion be like. It turns out to be a good trade deal, although we'll have to make use of carts to make the wasteland and desert crossings to save money, but it will add time.

I discussed the matter with the Sultan, and he suggested; "Maybe make use of two carts to make up for the time cost, and we'll pay for that accordingly."

Me, Katelin, and Sebun looked at each other confidently. We all nodded, knowing that we have made a solution to one big problem. That's what running a business is like. You handle many small problems with several big problems and rarely a huge problem.

We all said to the Sultan, "Deal!"

The Sultan got his hand out and said, "Deal!"

And so we all shock his hand...

Viper guild spy's point of view

And they made a trade deal with one of our deadliest enemy. The Freelance Guild wasn't previously a problem, but now they are going to cause a delay to our assassin plan by months if not years.

And so I let the desert bastion nation undetected and went straight for headquarters to give them the bad news...