Jayde and Elder Ryunzo were still sitting outside Rainer Gaires room waiting for the healers to finish attending to Rainer Gaires, Master Whitestone had already excused himself and retired for the evening. Elder Ryunzo had tried to get Jayde to go to her room to rest, but she insisted on keeping him company.
Finally, the door to Rainer room opened and the two tired healers exited.
"He is out of danger, we have given him a bone-mending potion, so his broken bones are currently mending, let him rest for a couple of days and he will fine," one of the healers said to Elder Ryunzo.
Elder Ryunzo thanked the healers and after paying a hefty amount of gold coins, he and Jayde entered the room to check on the old Mage.
Now that the old man had been cleaned up, Jayde could see that he was quite a distinguished looking man, although he was quite thin and sickly looking, a few good meals and he would be much better. The lines of suffering etched onto his face spoke volumes of the bitter life that he had led for the past decade.
Elder Ryunzo pulled up a chair and Jayde followed suit, listening quietly as Elder Ryunzo reminisced about his travels with Rainer Gaires.
From Elder Ryunzo's stories, Rainer Gaires sounded like a remarkable man, and Jayde was really looking forward to meeting him.
"Damn he is such a proud old coot, even if I offered him a helping hand, I know that he won't accept it" Elder Ryunzo with a sigh of irritation.
Jayde looked at the old Mage lying on the bed in contemplation.
"Why not ask him to come back to Tardide as a teacher" she offered.
"You have been saying for ages how you want to start a school in the village for the children, that you have always dreamed of giving the kids in Tardide a better future"
Elder Ryunzo looked up excitedly, Jayde idea was wonderful, and she was right the one thing he had always dreamed of was to start a school for the children of his village. Education was a privilege that only the wealthy could afford.
Now that village had a way to make gold, he could ensure that at least the children of Tardide were given the opportunity to expand their minds, and he had always believed that knowledge was power. If the next generation of Tardide were educated then the future of the village would be secure.
Just thinking of the possibilities Elder Ryunzo was filled with anticipation. Ha, you old coot I won't allow you to say no he thought.
Seeing that Elder Ryunzo was no longer depressed, Jayde bid him goodnight and returned to her room to rest.
***
The next morning Jayde woke up early, after her morning absolutions, she went to check on Elder Ryunzo and Mage Rainer, Elder Ryunzo was still sitting watching over the old Mage when she entered the room.
"How is he?" Jayde asked.
"Much better, but he is still out of it."
"Do you want to spend a couple more days in Oldstrand to wait for Mage Rainer to recover?" she asked.
"No" Elder Ryunzo said shaking his head.
"We can hire a carriage to take him back to Tardide, it would be safer and more comfortable for him."
Elder Ryunzo had already decided during the night to take Rainer back to Tardide, he figured that he would have a better chance of convincing Rainer to stay on as a teacher in Tardide once he saw the village, and he was convinced that once Rainer saw their innovations he wouldn't want to leave, the old Mage was notorious for his curiosity.
Jayde left to arrange a carriage for the old Mage, as well as to arrange some breakfast for all of them. Once they had all eaten they loaded up the old Mage into the carriage, then met up with the five wagons and mercenaries.
It was mid-morning when they finally left Oldstrand, as they were leaving Oldstrand Jayde once again saw the streets lined with the scruffy children and men and woman begging for food. Seeing those dirty, stick thin bodies pained her. While a part of her hated the federation, the one good thing they had accomplished was that there were no poor people in the Federation planets. Poverty had been eradicated a long time ago.
On the journey back to Tardide, Jayde was quietly listening to the conversation between Elder Ryunzo and Master Whitestone. They were busy making plans on how to organize the people of Tardide for all the new tasks that were due.
It was while listening to them that Jayde had an idea.
"Why not employ some of those beggars in Oldstrand" she chimed in.
"Huh?" Elder Ryunzo said nonplussed.
"One of the biggest problems that Tardide faces now it that you lack human resources, if you allowed just anybody to move to Tardide you would most likely allow spies or people with bad intentions to move in, but if you brought in those beggars they would be grateful and be loyal to Tardide" she said with conviction.
"You could even arrange for many of the couples to adopt some of those children, and if raised right those kids could be raised to be loyal only to Tardide, giving you a strong foundation for the future."
Elder Ryunzo and Master Whitestone were amazed by Jayde suggestion, nobody had ever thought of bringing another city's poor into their own city, never mind their orphans. But the more they thought about Jayde idea — the more they thought it was a perfect solution.
Those people had been treated like dirt, and if they were shown kindness and given back their dignity then surely they would be loyal to them, and those orphans could be raised in a proper family guaranteeing that they would be loyal to Tardide and given a proper education they would only benefit the village.
Elder Ryunzo and Master Whitestone starting talking about all the possibilities, they wouldn't let those people work with the charcoal or manufacturing of the plows and harvesters — well not yet, they would have to prove their loyalty before they would be allowed access to their secrets, but they could take over the other tasks like farming, hunting, and making of goods that the villagers needed.
Also, most of those men were warriors so they could teach their young men, and could help guard the village, and they would need builders to help expand the village.
Jayde also suggested that the village would need to upgrade its defenses, right now they didn't even have a wall around the village. The village of Tardide had a lot of resources, what it lacked most was manpower, but with Jayde suggestion that could easily be fixed.
"I will need to talk to the villagers about adopted some of those kids" Elder Ryunzo said.
"Yeah, but I don't think most families would have a problem with it" Master Whitestone concluded.
"I wouldn't mind adopting one or two myself" he went on to add.
"I am going to need apprentices and I have no one to inherit my smithy."
"Mmm and I am sure the missus would want to adopt some as well, she has always wanted children," Elder said happily, just thinking about having young children in his home filled him with joy.
With that, the two old guys smiled at each other, both filled with ideas and plans for their future.
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