On the third day of the trip, a message from the battlefield he’d left caught up to his carriage. Soon after he’d left, Birg’s new second in command had arrived, an assistant in tow. They carried orders to send one hundred of the soldiers to each of the four other fronts in the kingdom. Nothing else had changed, but the light Vle now seemed to be utterly without spirit. Where before there had been just three or four deaths per encounter, on average, now there were as many as fifty. And that seemed to enrage them, for the attacks were now coming every day.
That struck Taréz as somehow odd.
He arrived at the camp the next day. Yis was there as usual, but not in the overlook. Taréz looked down on the camp, and picked him out easily. Wearing his robes of state (though without the royal thale weave) he stood out even among the colorful clothes of his kin.
“Hello, Sire. You received my message.”
“No, actually, I was just passing through. It looks good.”
“In fact, it’s finished. The camp meets all promises and requirements. Everyone has a roof to sleep under and there is adequate space within the compound.” Taréz could see that Yis had much to be happy about- that is, if anyone could be happy in such a situation. The two story buildings below had shake roofs and closable windows; it was not possible to see the entire perimeter. There was commerce and production going on below, a huge self-sufficient city that was now second only in population to Kezantopil.
“Any food shortages?”
“Right now, no. But we’re not getting a fair trade on our finished goods. If it continues...”
“I’ll get on it.”
“I know you will.”
Usually, such confidence was a source of pride. Not in this case.
“Tell me about daily life here...”

Taréz woke and finished his journey the next morning. There were numerous coaches already at the palace, those of all the King’s advisors. Taréz debated whether or not he ought to join the meeting.
But the answer was no: as he entered the hallway to the council room, the doors opened and all the advisors poured out. They were so intent on their debate that they hardly acknowldged the prince’s presence. He let it pass.
One Vle was left behind as the King headed toward his quarters. “Kreylek, what did you say?” asked the prince.
“I said that we ought to contract with trolls to mine our cobilum.”
“Ah, that would do it. Let me in.”
“Okay. Across the country, mines are still. If the workers are light, they’re in camp; if they are dark, they’re on the battlefield. But we desperately need the miners to get the metal out of the ground.”
“And since the humans and dwarves have attacked us, we have to choose the trolls, is that it?”
“Well, yes, but there’s more.”
“And why cobilum? It just corrodes, doesn’t it?”
“Precisely my point. The trolls have a process to harden it. They use it all the time! And here we have all these reserves just waiting for us to use!”
“But why would the trolls come all the way into Larmania to mine for us?”
“Because, the trolls don’t have enough mines to employ their miners.”
Kreylek had obviously thought this out, but there was one last question. “And how are we supposed to pay them?”
“With the ore they mine. And we’ll send along more to pay for the weapons they make for us.”
“That’s a rather intensive pay. Especially given our cool relations. What guarantee do we have that they won’t use their cobilum to attack us?”
“Gardric. Especially considering his recent success. Besides, they just might attack the dwarves, and occupy them enough for us to regain our losses. Well, I’m no military expert—”
“But what you say makes sense.” Gardric was a deterrent before, and if he won this war, he’s be even more of a deterrent. If only Taréz didn’t have his misgivings. “Is your plan dead? It didn’t see you sold the other advisors on the plan.”
“No, His Majesty didn’t end the meeting. It’s merely adjourned for lunch.”
The sound of a departing carriage made its way through the window, so Taréz went to take a look. “You could be wrong. ‘His Majesty’ is leaving.”
“Oh, dear, maybe I made a larger error than I thought.”
A chuckle came from behind them, and the two Vle turned to see Stecky coming up the steps. “Rest easy, Minister Kreylek. The King received news that the camp is finished, and is headed to take a look.”
It was Taréz’s turn to chuckle. “I just came from there today. It is remarkable." But felt less light as he said, "It will be interesting to see how the historians will remember it.”
No one replied to that.

The advisors returned after the lunch hour, with Taréz joining them. The King was a half hour late, and Taréz absorbed as much of the chatter as he could for his father. He’d want to know what was said in the unstructured chatter, but as decor demanded, they immediately fell silent when he entered the room. Taréz resolved to remember to stop at the door a moment before coming in when he would be King.
“Right then,“ began the King. “Give me a solid, unrefutable, factual reason we should not contract with the trolls.”
There were a few false starts, but most of those who talked realized mid-stream that they were merely repeating prejudices- their dirtiness, their lack of etiquette, their lack of culture...
“Very well. Reasons the trolls would want to deal with us?”
“They need cobilum.”
“They need work.”
“They need weapons.”
“What do they need weapons for? If they have weapons will they start fighting us like the rest of the world?”
“No,” said Taréz, “They’ll start fighting the dwarves.”
His father appeared taken aback. “Taréz! What are you— never mind, we’ll discuss it later. Go on about the dwarves.”
“The dwarves have been taking holdings along their border with the trolls, places where they can hide war machines, and extending the length of their border with us.”
“Have the trolls done anything about it?”
“No. Our intelligence says they are preserving their weapons as much as they can. The locations are hard to attack and not very large.”
“Still, it must bother them.”
“Yes, they want to retaliate, especially while the dwarves are engaged with us.”
Premet cleared his throat. “Excuse me, Your Majesties, but does anyone know just how we’re going to set up the agreement? We may have decided to just ignore centuries of wisdom in dealing with those creatures, but we’re going to have to be careful in making our plans.”
“I’ve already asked the chamberlain— er, acting chamberlain— to find a translator for us,” Kreylek replied. “Through him we can probably find a government official who can handle everything.”
“How do we know we can trust that troll, whoever he may turn out to be?” asked Premet.
“Intelligence, how else?”
Tarez shook his head. “We can send spies anywhere as long as there’s forest, but it’s a totally different matter to disguise someone as a troll!”
The King apparently decided that it was time to be in charge again. “Well, if everyone knows what their part in this will be, we might as well adjourn. Until—”
“E- excuse me, Y-your Majesty?”
“Yes, Kreylek?”
“I thought you might like to hear the good news from the banks.”
“Good news? Go on.”
“The budget in the last month balanced perfectly. We can’t make up the deficit from the last months, but we’re balanced.”
“How?!”
“No miners, no one to pay. Taxes from agriculture have begun to come in, and there are more profits from the camp than there are expenses.”
“You’re kidding.”
“No, Sire. The light Vle have proven very industrious.”
“Well, I guess we can all breathe easier from that news. Does anyone have anything they want to add?”
There was no response, so the King adjourned the meeting for good. “Taréz, let’s go to my chambers.”