[Palacrisis D Jones]

“The following brightening”

The deal was done the estate could function again, Bubba was as good as his word and by the following dawn a motley collection of humanity and other races were standing at the gates of the estate under the hard gaze of their lord and master the overseer. Men women and children of various ages dressed in clothes that barely deserved the name. Their eyes cast down and spirits at their lowest ebb. The threat of the whip was enough to drive them to their work.

More money changed hands Kallick wrote a cheque to Bubba for the agreed price of 40.000 crowns and passed the order across feeling vaguely dirty as he did. But the matter was done and dusted the estate could get back to the rhythms of work. The planting was completed within two brightenings and the workers were charged with the duty of protecting the precious plants from their deadly enemies the “Humming Moths”.

Fortunately the plantation had plenty of wood and some of the stronger workers were set to build rude cabins and shelters to house the loose knit families on a secluded spot well away from the main house. Scrimpy’s Second Hand Furniture got a large order for old furniture, “nothing fancy just the bare necessities” and certain shop holders found they had a steady order for nourishing foodstuffs. Lots of potatoes and beans and cuts of cheap meat. Cedric Rioja was busy baking bread everyday and his blackened cauldron was always full of a stew that was added to every morning.


The children were set to work hunting the lava of the moths called “hornworms” quick nimble fingers snatched the awful harbingers of doom from the underside of growing leaves, hard back breaking work at the best of time under a boiling sun of the Taralon summer but vital in the battle to grow the crop.

Good food and sense of safety allowed some spirits to rise. Bubba the over seer and his whip was never far away his hard eyes glowering and looking for slackers amongst the workers but the huge Dorin was never far away either and the workers were of the opinion that the overseer was being watched as well. Which was true but Kallick was learning all the time asking questions of Bubba about the details of the process of growing tobacco.

It was perhaps a month later that rumours spread amongst the “slaves” and words like “freedom and jobs with wages” began to circulate amongst them. Kallick went about the process quietly dropping the occasional hint when he leaned over a sweating slave and asked about the future of the man grafting in the fields. Words like “Arakmat and self determination” began to circulate, “after the harvest” was the time scale and “help” appeared to be being offered.

Only if the “harvest was brought safely in” was the caveat to these rumours. If the slaves believed these whispered bits of language it was up to them nobody was saying anything with any degree of concrete certainty!