No shortage of obligations and duties seemed to very much dictate or change the situation going on presently within the Hargeon Docks. The contentious infighting that was taking place between the businesses that had long existed there and the numerous people, namely politicians that were attempting to rise up the political theatre, had only continued on and on with the actions being taken between the two seeming to get more and more extreme. It was an isolated incident, something that people would have preferred being handled on their own, that was only standing to get worse and worse, getting to a point that it was risking dragging the entire city into it as well. Fallout from the reactions of either side had begun to strike more and more frequently, to the point that some had begun to feel that the situation was getting out of hand, even worse than perhaps what the politicians had first expected when they began this crusade.

161/2500

It had initially begun as isolated, if not entirely one-sided engagements, typically those who were more native to the docks, the locals as they regarded themselves as, finding whatever sort of justification and excuse that they could to make the lives of the people who were responsible for running the docks as impossible and irritating as they could. Whether directly interfering with their work, being obstructive, or otherwise just causing problems that by themselves would not have amounted to much but collectively would become a growing point of frustration, it was doing nothing short of making it so that whatever sort of resistant may have been felt, it would be lessened. This behavior also came as a byproduct, at least partially, as a result of a move that the politicians had believed would have helped to stop the tides of reliance upon the corrupt trading companies, covering and willfully insuring all sorts of imports, but that had only made the problem worse.

323/2500

It only stood to embolden the locals, knowing that however bad things stood to get in their campaign to ruin this attempted reform by the politicians, at the minimum it would make sure that they did not lose any money. Because of this, the practice had become behave in as aggressive of a manner as possible. The locals had little to lose, but those who were hired by the politicians, everything was at risk. Being violent towards the locals would be grounds for them to be removed from their roles, the contracts signed being voided, but it would as much cause significant issues with respects to finding people to replace them. Either private military groups or contracted groups, there were only so many people whom were willing to take the job of patrolling the docks, either out of existing sentiment or otherwise through word of mouth. But regardless, the availability of people was declining.

477/2500

That distrust was causing a greater deal of issues for the politicians, as the lack of people whom were willing to work within the Hargeon Docks was as much an indication that the efforts to attempt to stop the issues that were plaguing the docks were failing. If nobody wanted to help maintain a sense of law and order, then it was clear and evident that whatever had been allowed to fester there for so long was simply going to remain. In what was being considered a desperate plea, there had been some members of the political sphere that had reached out to other forces, more official bodies, in hopes of establishing some sense of order, but because of the nature of how news had spread, it seemed that reports of this situation were at times controlled, at other times still in a serious state of disarray. This led to a constant issue of not being able to determine just what was true and not.

642/2500

For Vyra and those who were typical patrons of the Hargeon Docks, they found themselves caught in an uneasy situation, in some respects found to be stuck within a divide of alliances. Support an exploitive economy which they knew took advantage of their situation, both now and before, or otherwise align with a system that never cared towards her or people like her. It was a lose lose situation by and large, but it was not hard for people like her to find a side to align with. For Vyra, as reprehensible as it may have been, she found herself aligning more towards the locals at the Docks. At least there, she was among company of some who respected her, if even from a more superficial perspective. But in siding here, it meant that she was now subjected to both the criticisms and critiques that were levied against the people at the docks, but also was finding herself aiding them in various efforts to improve their side of the worsening conflict.

813/2500

It was a plight that was constantly being felt and otherwise forced among the people of Hargeon, having to make a decision to a conflict that nobody wanted, that people wished had come to a conclusion. It was taking a toll on everyone, not as much the people whom had begun to profit off of this conflict, as there were no shortage of those, having heard from one source or another the nature of what had been a constant plight. Whether it were the nature of the exploitive practices that were taking place, or even just those whom had been trying to push out more expensive products into Hargeon but having been struggling to otherwise touch the market given the high taxes and insurance costs that would have been normally attributed, a fee that almost always would have been one in which they would have had to cover. But thanks to the changes that the politicians had pushed, finding themselves capable of securing wealth out of this was hardly a challenge.

984/2500

Watching as the ships came in, unloading their contents and then eventually departing again for shores beyond Fiore, Vyra could not help but marvel and appreciate how whether they realized it or not, they were further feeding into the system. Each crate, whether it held bananas, jewels, ancient artifacts, miscellaneous shipping materials, or things of that sort, it did not matter. Every single one of them were tied towards the conflict, each one was an item that the politicians may have regarded as a lethal instrument meant to undermine the system that they were trying to establish. Each one was a possible risk that was put against the people. Each one warranted the reason to view it with extreme prejudice. And each instance that they viewed one of the crates only seemed to fuel the justification that the situation as it was could not stand. The fear of the trading companies rising back to power was inadvertently helping to bring them back to power.

1148/2500

There was a benefit though that came with this, with the emboldening of the trading companies, of the ships that were coming in from port to port, and the captains whom viewed the expensive costs of insurance that the politicians were promised towards all goods. It meant a huge flood of goods and services that were coming to Hargeon, far more than that of what would have been available historically. Even just the banana crates that were being unloaded off of the ships in port, even something like that was proven to be a glorious change to what was typically available to the people. That new excitement prompted in itself a large wave of delight and anticipation amongst the businesses that sought to capitalize on this. Bars, restaurants, private owners, there were no shortage of people and establishments within Hargeon that would have wanted to embellish in the availability of bananas, and that was only a single instance of where this trade war was benefitting the people.

1315/2500

Whether it were food, weapons, exotic goods, artwork by artists never heard from, there were no shortage of products that had suddenly found themselves worthwhile to the point that everyone was willing to put their hand forth in hopes of acquiring something for themselves. In a manner of speaking, it had become a golden age for the people of Hargeon, access to goods that they could have only once dreamed about, an unheralded potential of goods that were awaiting them. Though not the intended result of everything that they had been trying to deal with as they combatted the existing corruption and plight within the docks, the Hargeon politicians had found themselves fueling what could have only been described as the ambitious beginnings of numerous prospective sea-fairing careers. It was almost ironic even, that in an effort to shut down and stop the business practices of the trading companies that the politicians had managed to actually promote and encourage more people to either follow in their footsteps or end up joining with them.

1488/2500

The idea was one that had been commonly floated, particularly around the taverns and other places where people, particularly the younger souls of Hargeon flocked towards. Alleyways, outside of establishments that barred them entry or otherwise were too expensive for them to appreciate beyond looking through the window, these became the hub for all of the aspiring young traders to speculate aloud as to their plans, what sort of ambitious new item that they would go ahead and try to bring into Hargeon, or otherwise just try to bring into Fiore. There was no reason to think small, and while there were certainly no shortage of people who would have sought the chance to bring forward as much items of value as they absolutely could, there existed real problems and challenges with that. Challenges that not only the trading companies had been trying to work around, but challenges that a youthful boy barely old enough to determine whether he wished to become a soldier would have no consideration towards.

1657/2500

It was something that the trading companies had to be very mindful of, something that they were not used to; being exposed to as many new markets, with new potential clients, with all sorts of potential scattered throughout. But, while they had very little risk whilst within Hargeon, branching out meant that the protection that had so greatly emboldened the trading companies, the insurance that was covered towards everything that was thrown towards their products, was gone as soon as whatever they were investing in left the walls of Hargeon. That protection was what had emboldened so many merchants now to begin to seek out more ways and means of earning a fortune, or even going as far as to use that insurance to help launder their own criminal enterprises. Regardless of how risky an investment was, regardless of how much one company may have stood to lose or gain by making a dangerous play, they knew that they would be covered if anything went wrong.

1823/2500

But protections of that sort were expensive, and whether or not anyone had given consideration towards it, eventually it was going to end up costing Hargeon far more than what they could have ever imagined. In part, it was due to the shortsightedness of it all; the politicians who had put the decision forward, they had done so under the idea that there would be no long-term ramifications, that the traders would not attempt to manipulate this decision as they had proven to, and certainly not that the people would catch on to this behavior as well, hoping to replicate it. Thus, when it became more commonly known that this was happening, that people were purposely trying to manipulate and take advantage of the arrangement, they immediately set to try to stop the bleeding, limiting the insurance to anything that was slated to be delivered to any location outside of Hargeon. It was a minor change, but they felt that it would be enough to at least slow down how much people would pursue it.

1998/2500

The reaction to the change was not one that was met positively, at least by and large by the people in the Hargeon Dock section of the city. For those in the trading companies, they had reason to believe that this would eventually happen; they had been careful, making sure that their investments were not ones that were too outrageous to where if such an action were pushed like trying to limit the scope of the insurances, they would not suffer from it. That wasn’t to say that others were not as fortunate, as some ambitious upstarts who had begun to try their hand and make a name for themselves as a purveyor of rare and exotic items found themselves forced to be concerned over the survival of their contents, particularly on trips to areas such as Oak or Hosenka, where the roads inherently left more chances for things to go wrong.

2150/2500

But for those who anticipated that there would have been some sort of response or reaction towards the nature of the politicians, they had already begun taking the appropriate measures. Trading companies had been working more intriguing and creative ways of getting around the attempts by the politicians, including buying out existing orders that were placed by other merchants who sought to take full advantage of this insurance protection. Knowing that some of the incoming goods were destined elsewhere but lacked the sufficient means to protect them, they figure that they would be able to better sell them to clientele that could cover the transfer. For those who weren’t able to, that was what people like Vyra were for. Just common people essentially, nothing special about them, nothing that the trading companies much cared about, only that they were there at the docks, knew that there was going to be no resistant to that if they were to happen to take an item or two. If anything, that was encouraged, that was what they liked. Whether they realized it, Vyra was a crucial piece to the trading companies’ success.

2339/2500

And though she did not know it herself, nor would she have had any reason to suspect that she was being used, Vyra did manage to feed into exactly what they wanted. A person who knew the value of the items, at least somewhat, and knew that they were unguarded. Right there for the taking, and given how much trade was going on, given both the season finally coming to spring and also the trading having exploded of recent, it made it such that there was really no challenge in pawning the goods for some nice money. And for Vyra, she was hardly in a position to refuse such an option. Much like how she had before, Vyra found herself heading towards another stall, finding some nice gemstones. Uncut, so a bit more valuable than cut gems, but harder to sell as well given them being a much more niche situation. Regardless though, the money from one of them would have been able to cover her expenses for a few days for when she were to travel elsewhere within Fiore. Like clockwork, she waited until there was a change in the guard – if they were to be called that – and took her prize, wasting no time in leaving to pick up a few jewels for her work.

2556/2500