Preparations

Looking over the waters one could see many ships that were docked at the harbor and some more that were already sailing out of the cove and along the waking sea into the distance.

Today was a rather pleasant day at the storm coasts of Highever and many ships were sailing along the waking sea to bring their goods to the various harbors and therefore to their respected merchants.

Nero looked around while relaxing in a sitting position on an anchor post at a larger berth. His eyes traveling along with the events occurring in the bustling port.

One could see many men transporting goods from the ships to the various storage areas that were constructed not too long ago. There were even people selling marine goods like fresh-caught fish at their stands.

This port in Highever became larger and larger the more the city around the Highever Castle started to expand.

Through the influx of goods and riches, the once average town that surrounded the castle now became a glimmering metropolis in the making. It would only take a few more years and it would become even larger than the current capital of Ferelden.

Yes, it would at some point outshine Denerim. It was already becoming a big city itself. The geographical position that Highever stood at was a rather strategic one that let this town profit from being protected by a castle and be able to take in a lot of trade by newly built roads and the nearby sea.

And because the sea was generally saver to navigate than the ocean it was a foregone matter that it would be used more often than the harbors at Denerim and Gwaren that were both harder to reach being at the eastern and southern side of Ferelden.

Maybe Nero just lucked out that everything beyond Ostagar was basically uncharted territory filled with swamps and tribal folks not civilized enough to have trading coming from the south?

Nero did plan to explore the Korcari Wilds and the lands to the south beneath that at some point. It irked him why no one took control of that land there.

It could serve humanity much more being explored than just feared for no reason but barbarians. But all that had time and it didn't matter at the moment. Nero would get to that later in his life.

Currently, Nero was watching a certain ship and saw that a dwarf was coming down from it. Knowing it was the person that he was here to meet Nero approached and greeted him friendly.

"Welcome to the Highever. I assume you are the dwarven merchant Valknahr?", said Nero and curiously asked the dwarf.

"Aye, that I am. But what the hell happened here? I may have only been a few times in Highever but I don't even remotely remember such a fine port being present here last time."

"I had thought rumors spread fast in the dwarven kingdom?", asked Nero and chuckled lightly. He felt a little bit proud that the changes he implemented were basically impressing everyone.

"Hmm, they don't do this place justice at all. This place is nothing like it once used to be." The dwarf sighed in reminiscence, clearly remembering the old port that stood here. Then the dwarf stopped looking around and nodded in confirmation to his own thoughts. "You must be the young lord that made the purchase I presume?"

"Yes, my name is Nero Cousland. And I hope this little deal of ours is going to go smoothly as I would like it to be done without much trouble."

The dwarf Valknahr nodded again and looked at two other dwarves on the ship and seemed to signal them something that made them move and carry a barrel down that they took from inside the ship.

"This here is the stuff you wanted. I must say you buying so much of it made me kinda scrape at my capacities, and possibilities.", said Valknahr and looked at the barrel suspiciously. One hand of his was caressing his brown long beard while the other patted the barrel that he presented.

"May I take a look inside?", asked Nero and approached the barrel.

"Whoa, lad! I don't think that is such a good idea!" The dwarf immediately pushed Nero aside stopping him from coming closer to it.

"Is something the matter? I don't like buying the cat in the bag after all..." Nero frowned and looked at the dwarf for answers.

"It is not because of that. You should know how that stuff is reacting to people touching it. I don't know what you actually need it for but I can open and take a handful of it and show it to you." And like he said he opened the barrel after removing some safety measures. A handful of blue glowing sand came shining through.

"This is the best quality pulverized Lyrium we could mine and bypass from the chantry. A whole ship full of about a hundred barrels of it. And that other unrefined barrel inside is marked with red paint. Be extra careful about it, please. Touching it can cause some heavy side effects for people that are not from our race or used in handling it. That is why most of my crew is made out of dwarves. I even had to keep other useful handy-man away like elves. So don't take it the wrong way when I want to keep you safe, kid. At least until I am gone here that is...Whatever you do with it later is none of my business."

"Oh, I see. Well, I should keep that in mind and only let the dwarven smiths work on it then.", smiled Nero. In actuality, it didn't matter if he made contact with Lyrium. Unlike other species that would be attacked by its magical properties, he himself was unaffected by it. At least from the standpoint of small amounts.

"Now, we can get this exchange over with quickly but I want to see if it was worth the effort.", Valknahr smirked and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

Nero smirked back at the shorter man. He knew what he was implying. "Of course." He gestured to some soldiers that were with him and they carried two chests and placed it in front of the dwarf. Opening them they could see one brimming with cold coins and the other with jewels of all sorts.

"That is good but what is about the more important stuff?", asked the dwarf now.

Nero handed the dwarf an iron key. "The storage that you are placing all the barrels is opened with this key. Inside there are 150 Barrels filled with the best beer and 50 barrels of the finest whiskey. All ready to be taken. After you are finished exchanging the contents of the storage with the Lyrium just give the key back to one of my guards."

In this harbor, there were many soldiers patrolling along the streets. And basically, every storage was under the eyes of said soldiers.

That was a measure Nero made to keep order in the city of Highever. There were city guards and such things known to this world. But those were mostly small and mainly kept the surrounding area near the wall under a watchful eye for sieges and such.

Besides that, they were only under the command of Nero and no other aristocrat had a say about how they fulfilled their duty. Everyone was equally valued. So corruption lessened drastically in Highever and with the orderly and systematic eradication of crime, it basically became the first-ever real police force in this world.

A feat of course not taken lightly since in modern times it would be nearly impossible to do so. And the larger the city becomes, the harder it would get to maintain such status quo.

Then dwarf reacted again and smirked brightly taking the key into his own hands. "Pleasure to make business with you, lad."

"No, the pleasure is all mine. I hope we can come to some other agreements later as well." Nero smiled back at him. For him, that liquor was just worth a few thousand gold coins in value. Hell, it was even worth less than that in his mind. He would gain that amount back in no time.

But the Lyrium was another matter since its trade was very protected by the chantry and dwarves themselves. Of course, if you had your connections at some point you could get everything for the right price.

And for Nero, this was worth all the gold invested into it.

Bowing lightly and leaving the dwarf to his matters Nero went back to the castle where he saw Wallace waiting for him.

"Did everything work out?", the old man asked.

"Yes, and even better than I expected. Now we can equip our best men with enchanted equipment. Make sure the hired blacksmiths do their jobs properly."

Wallace saluted sharply. "Understood, it will be done, young lord." A fierce grin on his face. He was proud to serve under this kid that gave so much for just mere soldiers. No other noble had such a unique viewpoint on keeping his subjects high in moral and especially well-fed with nearly no other worries but to train and improve so that they could serve and fulfill their duty as soldiers.

When Nero walked away from Wallace he could not stop smirking himself. But for another reason entirely. 'Now I can finally invest a little bit of time into magic. Though I still should be careful about it. Even if I normally don't seem to be affected by normal Lyrium...Just now I could clearly hear it singing to me...So quantity still could affect me.'