Molting the Mortal Coil

Why was Sage here?

After finally leaving behind that monster, he took some time to reference the map of the Depths and, after confirming his location, he was close to Oyster Quay and felt drawn to investigate. It was similar to learning where a coin minting facility or a gold refinery was and wanting to visit it. Sage was curious to see the source of the Spirit Pearls that he’d been stocking up for the last few years. In addition, he was eager to see if he could get his hands on the special technique used to control the growth of the oysters.

So far it seemed to be similar to the Great Pod and their songs. The technique seemed to be controlled by the Oyster Pavilions, large business groups that seemed somewhere between a Clan and a corporation. They weren’t made up of just family members, but they seemed to have strict requirements to join as well as harsh loyalty enforcement. Unlike the Great Pod he couldn’t just pay a fee and learn their secrets. There wasn’t anything stopping him from joining one of them, but if he did he’d have to stick around a long time and pledge his loyalty. Since he had already been in the Depths a decade and wasn’t planning on staying too much longer this became quite the sticking point. Sage somewhat regretted not knowing about this system earlier, he could have left the Great Pod a long time ago and come here to join one of the pavilions.

This oversight meant it was going to be quite a bit more difficult to acquire the techniques, but then again maybe it was for the better. He would certainly not have enjoyed being tied down to one of these organizations over the long term. Since he couldn’t take the simple path he was forced to use more illicit means. With so many different groups all utilizing these techniques there was bound to be at least one or two of them that found a way around their oaths and spreading the techniques. With so many different groups competing with each other it proved there was no single force that monopolized the method of cultivating Spirit Pearls. Since these groups even spread to other cities, there was definitely some way to learn the technique. Perhaps he wouldn’t be able to get his hands on each pavilion’s individual advancements, but he could likely find the original technique that made this place famous.

Sage released a few agents into the city, not Lang Clan members, but those trained using the methods improved by his son Yahui. While Sage understood the basic principles of subterfuge and gathering information it was never his forte. Just because he read the manuals didn’t make him an expert. It was better to let the specialists do their thing. Sage had a much easier time giving them orders and funding to get the work done instead. These agents weren’t even Lang Clansmen so he felt no reservations about them losing their lives seeking back alley deals. This was a practice Yahui had started a long time ago, using outsiders to do their dirty work so none of their actual family members would be put into such danger. Or at least that was the way they spun it after the fact. Yahui had mainly used outsiders so nobody in the Clan would realize what he was up to. It was only after being an expert in the field for hundreds of years when Yahui finally matured and shared his contributions with the clan.

Progress was made in a very unusual way. They finally got a lead on a group that had the oyster cultivating techniques available and it turned out they were already acquaintances. They didn’t meet in person, but Sage’s agents got hold of a Messaging Jade. When he heard the voice, Sage was surprised.

“I’ve been told you wish to become a client?”

“To think we would encounter each other again in such a way. It seems we truly are fated to meet.”

There was silence for a moment then a deep laugh, “You again? How interesting.”

The voice on the other side of the jade was one that he hadn’t heard for years. There was a certain pirate that wanted to rob him, the leader of a gang of Orcas. Sage had been ‘rescued’ by a group of Narwhals, but in his opinion those sword-nosed whales were actually saving the Orcas. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise since he’d never be able to get this technique from the Orcas now if he’d already captured them all in the past. This wasn’t something they always had but far more likely to be something they’d recently plundered from someone else. These pirates weren’t crazy enough to keep their illegal acquisitions for too long. There were any number of strange ways to track things so they ‘fenced’ their goods very quickly.

Sage was eager to get access to these techniques, enough that he was willing to take the risk of ownership. He also felt that the Inner World would add a significant barrier to tracking it down after the fact. There was also the fact that not every stolen object would be tracked down with such fervor, it was merely the standard practice of pirates in the Depths to get the goods out of their hands as quickly as possible to reduce risk. For these groups that have existed so long as criminals they had many rules of operation. Sage knew none of this before his agents had spread and inserted themselves into the customs of the local underground forces.

After a bit of negotiation, both parties acted as if they were upset, but both knew they were pleased. The gang of Orca Pirates wanted to convert all their illicit goods into currency. They liked their treasure in the most basic form and forced Sage into purchasing everything they had. Considering that Sage had spent a decade building up relations with the local buyers and collecting a huge stock of Spirit Pearls he was already confident he could get rid of much of these stolen goods. Even better, he could send the stolen goods to the Inner World, converting them into unrelated materials to sell on the outside world again to recover his losses. The Orca Pirate Captain forced him to pay a premium for all of the miscellaneous items because he knew how much Sage wanted the one valuable piece of loot. It also seemed to be a common thing to do, forcing their clients into buying a massive bundle.

While he was forced to deal with a bunch of stuff he didn’t care about, Sage didn’t care all that much as long as he got what he wanted. The only downside was that it cut into all his liquid wealth, putting a huge dent in the Spirit Stones he had on hand. He’d spent too long collecting Spirit Pearls to get rid of them all now so he was forced to burn through all his Spirit Stones instead.

Some of the agents disappeared forever, and Sage had no idea how many of them screwed up and how many ran away on their own, but the rest of them were given the option to leave as a reward so Sage didn’t care. The reward for this whole ordeal was worth it. Along with earning the basic technique manual to grow and shape the giant oysters they were also able to make a deal with one of the Oyster Pavillions to buy some oyster larvae and learn the process to turn them into ‘spats’ by attaching them to a substrate. With these initial materials a portion of the tidal zones on the Inner World was immediately put into use as giant oyster beds and groups of people were put into training to make it their new profession.

There were already a few Spirit Stone mines on the Inner World, but they were small scale and only grew spirit stones at a slow rate. The existence of these mines were what gave Sage his guesses about the existence of bigger and far more valuable sources being the basis for the Kingdoms. He was quite pleased to be able to create a source of Spirit Pearls, both to strengthen the Inner World and also to make more of his wealth more liquid, just like the Pirates wanted to do. The amount of resources he had available was immense, but most of it was in goods and materials which brought attention if he tried to sell them in vast quantities.

I’ll just have to stay in the Depths a little longer.