Inheritor Of Magic: The Magi King

The village Elders gathered around the stalls full of trade goods with eager eyes, but Wolfe was the attraction that they were most immediately interested in.

"So this is the one? The helpful Demon who made your walker? Isn't he a cutie? It would be a shame to let your daughter have him all to herself." One of the old women was joking.

Cassie cleared her throat. "Who said anything about getting him at all, must less to herself?"

"Oh, you're a powerful one, aren't you? I suppose you have dibs?" The old woman asked.

Wolfe laughed and winked at the old woman. "I should make introductions. This is Cassie Noxus, my wife. And this is Lieutenant Priya of the Myrrh Coven army, who prefers to go by her surname only. You can meet the staff later. I'm sure you were all more interested in the Witches anyhow."

"Oh, you got right on it then." The old woman laughed, nudging Cassie with her shoulder.

Priya smirked. "Not fast enough. He's got another wife at home, working on new airplanes for our delivery services."

The village Elders laughed. As with Sylvan and Myrrh Covens, men were relatively rare among the witches of the swamps. Nobody really knew why, but female births all across the species had always outnumbered the males, and unlike the Fortress City, they didn't have a lot of humans to make up for the lack until this year.

"Well, we all have to share at some point, I guess. Especially if we go after the finest of the men. I wonder how the kids will turn out. With a Demon that powerful, will they have any Witch traits at all, or will they be outright Demons?" One of the Elders in the back mused.

"Enough about our family planning. We came here for business," Cassie demanded with a blush on her cheeks that made the old ladies smirk.

The Elders began to disperse among the tables so that they could get a good idea of what the Forest Grove group had brought to trade with them.

"Is this self-cleaning and self-repair on a casual dress? That is wonderful. The messenger said that you had some premium goods to trade, but I didn't expect this sort of luxury. Oh, what are these? Is that a mana crystal-powered stand mixer? I've seen those before, but we never owned one." 

The witches were gushing about all of the wonderful things that they had found among the trade goods while the old woman with the enchanted walker was standing next to Wolfe, carefully watching her daughter sort through dresses like a kid in a candy store.

"I think that you'll need to bring us more frequent deliveries than you expected, even with this volume. Do you have the staff for that?" She asked softly.

"Maybe. We've gained a lot of new allies lately, and we don't want to work our residents to the bone making luxuries for everyone else. But I think that we can still come every few weeks with a load this size. 

Once the first few rounds are delivered, more people will have what they wanted the most, and I think the demand will begin to drop." Wolfe assured her.

"I don't think that you understand the scale of the gathering here. These Elders represent over forty thousand adult women. There are what, two hundred dresses there? Maybe three hundred? It looks like a lot, but it would take a hundred deliveries for everyone to have even one.

Now, one favourite magical dress is great, but what about different colours and different weights for the seasons? These ones are great for the summer, but the winter is cooler and more humid here, and they will want different designs.

Then there are the weapons. We've gotten pretty good at integrating the Gormana men into our patrols, but every village has a hundred or more guards, and I don't see three thousand swords there. Not to mention the kitchen appliances.

Those are hard to get in the swamps. They make them in the cities, but we really don't have much trade with a city these days and haven't for some years.

I'm not saying it's not enough. It is more than we had hoped for, but the demand won't be filled anytime soon."

Wolfe looked at their offering of the day and nodded. The witches had been more concerned about how they would pay for all this in the swamps, but it looked like that wouldn't be the problem unless he wasn't willing to take Gormana's cash.

But Wolfe would happily take their money and trade it back to them for what he needed.

"I think that we need to gather some of the military leaders here and have a discussion about payment terms and pricing. There are some things that the Witches in Forest Grove have requested, things that they can't easily make themselves, and some of them would most likely come from the military." Wolfe explained.

"So, you aren't just hoarding cash. Alright, I will arrange the meeting. They're all gathered here, but they went into hiding when the crones got excited about the shipment of goods." The old woman snickered.

She was right; the only senior military official here was the local Colonel, but for a meeting like this, there should have been other military officers present to represent the villages that they were working with.

Everything was carefully placed back in piles on the tables, most of it clearly earmarked by the various witches and waiting for the approval to finish the deal.

"Do you have a price list for the goods?" The local village leader sighed, realizing that her dreams of becoming the trade hub would have to wait for one more shipment. This one was spoken for.

"Certainly. Priya, if you can distribute the pricing sheets, we can work out the details of payments when we hold a meeting with the assembled leaders of both the Witch and Military factions." Wolfe announced.

"You heard him, ladies. Bring your purchases to our lovely, fluffy accountant, and he will be happy to confirm your purchases before we go to arrange payment." Priya laughed.

The man she had designated as the cashier gave her a panicked look, but they were outside the Frozen Wastes, and he could talk to everyone. He just wasn't mentally prepared to be swarmed by old witch women who were ready to fight over their favourite items.