The state suite still smelled of plum blossoms, lilacs, and warm pine needles.
Governor Zhao and twelve councilmen came in carrying two gold tablets. They were excited by the flowers and healed injuries across the city, but Zhao kept the discussion practical.
“Sunset Peak clearly can’t operate under ordinary provincial control,” he said. “The council has approved an autonomy treaty. Read it before anyone celebrates.”
Austin stood beside the worktable with his clipboard under one arm.
Jiang remained seated. Guarding Austin from visiting officials was not part of his probation, and he knew it. Xiaoyao brought out the signed scrap-market agreement so they could attach it to the trade terms.
Austin walked around the table and pointed at the tablets.
“What’s this? Another noise fine? If it’s about the modem, old communication equipment is exempt.”
“NO! HEAVENS WITNESS, NO!” Zhao squeaked. “It is the Grand Provincial Sovereign Treaty! Passed unanimously by the Imperial Council, co-signed by Grandmaster Ouyang, and sealed by the Great Yan Empire!”
Austin bent to examine them. Each tablet was three feet tall, half an inch thick, and made of polished Nine-Yang Gold. Flowery poems ran down the faces inside the frame of a nine-clawed dragon coiled around an anvil.
Four hundred pounds of soft gold to carry a contract. Terrible document design. Twenty-pound bond paper would do the job. Drop one on your foot and you’ll spend the afternoon in a cast.
His HUD translated the poetry into plain terms.
Austin read the first clause twice.
“Full sovereignty and no imperial taxes for ten thousand years? No building permits, zoning hearings, or property tax?”
“Yes, Patriarch!” Zhao said. “The entire Mount Clear Sky range will be your private domain. No tax clerk, judge, or soldier may cross your survey markers without written permission!”
Austin whistled.
“Ten-thousand-year tax holiday. Companies back home spent fortunes on lawyers for ten-year breaks.”
He moved to the monthly deliveries.
“One hundred wagonloads of copper and oil. Fifty crates of meat. Ten thousand spirit stones. Delivered automatically, without me escorting wagons through bandit country?”
Ouyang lifted his damp eyes from the floor.
“The Royal Metallurgy Guild will oversee every shipment, Master Chu. Wagons will reach the southern foot of Mount Clear Sky every thirty days. If one copper bar or one drop of oil goes missing, the Guild will replace it tenfold!”
Austin looked at Xiaoyao.
“Run the numbers.”
The boy straightened. “Enough copper to wire five underground substations every quarter, Master. And the meat will keep Pug fed all winter without touching the emergency stores!”
Under the table, Pug gave an enthusiastic two-headed bark.
WOOF-WOOF!
Austin grinned.
“A recurring monthly login reward bundle. Passive materials, steady currency, and dog food on schedule. That clears most of our Floor Two supply problems.”
Zhao signaled an attendant. The man crawled forward with a jade bowl of powdered red stone and steaming fire-dragon blood.
“Patriarch, please seal the treaty with your divine soul-blood!”
“Get that biohazard away from me. I’m not cutting my thumb for a supply contract. Blood contaminates the paperwork. Use a writing tool.”
Austin took the yellow grease pencil from behind his ear.
He leaned over the gold tablet and wrote beneath the dragon seal in large block letters.
AUSTIN (CHU YUAN) — MASTER BUILDER
SUNSET PEAK FABRICATION & REPAIR LLC
Squeak, squeak, scritch.
He blew away a curl of yellow wax and tapped the gold with his knuckle.
Tink.
“Terms accepted. Standard wholesale supply agreement. Net thirty after delivery inspection. Now listen carefully.”
Zhao and the councilmen leaned forward.
“All wagons use the southern service road. Stay off my new clover lawn and keep clear of the ditch walls and culvert footings. That concrete is still curing. If an overloaded wagon chips my new work, I bill the imperial treasury for repairs at time-and-a-half.”
“We’ll instruct the drivers,” Zhao said. He filed the signed tablet with the attached scrap terms. “The treaty and the market agreement take effect together.”
Ouyang kept the guild copy. He would be responsible if the first pickup used the wrong scale.
Austin picked up the First Epoch core.
“All right. Paperwork filed, rewards secured, deliveries locked in. Xiaoyao, Jiang, get down to the royal stables and balance the mule packs. We leave at first light. There’s a hydraulic press waiting for Floor Two.”
Xiaoyao took the shipping list. Jiang picked up the cargo straps without calling the task a sacred test.
Pug scrambled out from under the table and trotted toward the hall, his tail wagging hard enough to shake his hips.