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A toxic cloud came into Baron Gold's library. The cloud became a lich. It looked like a tiny dragon skeleton the size of a kettle.
Baron Gold was old. He loved watching the sunrise. Most often he did so in the kitchen while sharing coffee. This morning he was in his library looking through the windows. He moved from his chair to kneel before the lich.
Liches are given abilities by their bane. As examples, they can make objects move and control monsters. This lich's bane was collecting people without caring for them.
"Good morning," said Gold.
The lich nodded. It asked, "Are you ready to move on?"
"Yes," said Gold. "I think I have been a good baron. I could no do all I wanted to do. The other barons would not allow that. But I did enough."
The lich nodded. It said, "What will you do next?"
Gold said, "I am thinking of founding a town to the south, near where the mountains meet the sea. Another place for the kin to live side by side."
The lich nodded. It said, "A worthy task. If it prospers I will release you." Then it became a toxic cloud again and drifted out into the sunrise.
Baron Gold slowly stood up. He went down the stairs to the kitchen. The cook was out but Ms. Mikiela was there. She had two cups of coffee ready. They drank in silence. Ms. Mikiela saw Baron Gold was thinking, but had the wrong guess about what was in his mind.
Ms. Neliy began to stand when Baron Gold approached, but he motioned for her to sit back down in the rocking chair.
"You stay seated," he said, "I can lean on my cane." Despite his age, his walking stick seemed to be as much for swagger as support. "If I sit in that chair, I might fall asleep. And then what would you do?" he asked.
She laughed. "I'd put a blanket over you and let you sleep. Us old folks need to look out for each other."
He stepped up onto the porch and turned so they faced out, looking together at the fields and forest. To the left was her family's large vegetable garden. Straight ahead, the fields of toughweed flowed to the forest. To the right, a dirt road led first to the flattened dirt square where merchant caravans sometimes visited before continuing to Baron Gold's large house.
"How is she doing?" Baron Gold asked, glancing at Miss Neliy's newest granddaughter, who had been planted in a pot beside the rocking chair. Elves are all beautiful and graceful because their infants who are homely or uncoordinated are planted to become Active Trees.
Miss Neliy nodded. "Well enough. Her eyes aren't closed all the time yet. But she is rooting nicely."
Baron Gold looked out over the fields. Many elves were laboring there. Here and there Active Trees grew up above the fields, their auras helping the plants nearby grow larger and stronger. He sighed. "Toughweed is an evil thing. Soft as cotton. Strong as boiled leather. No plant should be that profitable." He looked at Miss Neliy. "Will you be okay out here when the revolt happens tonight?"
"Hush," she said. "That's not a good thing to talk about."
"True," he agreed. "But pretend I know as much as you, or more. Will you be okay? There will be elves from other baronies here. They might be rowdy and not respect old ladies."
She looked up at him. "So you have some hidey-hole? And maybe I should be with you in it?"
"I won't be in it," he said. "I think..." He paused. "Maybe I should watch everything from up on my roof?"
"Ha!" she barked. "That would be a sight. You on a roof! Well... I've seen so many things. I think I should see this one too. I'll take the risk."
She looked at the baby Active Tree, the fields, the garden, the book from his library on the small table beside her chair next to a cup of hot tea. "You do things, m'lord. You buy books and slaves. You get a good price for the toughweed so we all have food and a home and blankets and more. You let us keep our Active Trees, you teach us our letters and numbers, and you pay a share to the hard workers. Because of you I don't fear winter or outsiders. But me? My time for doing is done. I was a hard worker. I saved up for this rocking chair and my metal cutlery. Now I am just an old elf who watches. I watch my family. I look at books. I watch the sunrises and sunsets. The strangest night of my life? I'll watch that too."
She looked up at him. "Will Mendy be okay?" Mendy spent most of her time in the library room of Baron Gold's big house. Baron Gold said that because he had no family he needed a second pair of eyes to check the account ledgers.
Baron Gold shook his head. "Tonight, yes. It will not be her job to guard the library. But after? After the kobalt barons are deposed their siblings and children will sail from Ilulion to wreak vengeance and reclaim the colony. Our estate is the farthest inland and will have the most time. But kobalts will come."
She looked at the field. "We don't have enough Active Trees to fight an army."
He nodded grimly, but said nothing.
She asked, "You never talk about your family in Ilulion. Did they die in the war?" The war had happened in her great-great-grandmother's time. A province of elves, trusting in their Active Trees, had attacked its neighboring kobalts. But the kobalts had won and made those elves into slaves. Later this colony was set up across the sea, as farmland for the younger sons of kobalts who would not inherit land at home. The colony became important after the kobalts learned that toughweed grew much better there than back home in Ilulion. The colony was renamed Toughland.
A strange expression visited Baron Gold's face. "If I die, no one in Ilulion will care. But my lack of family there offers you no safety. Kobalts will not let Mendy do the ledgers, or Elmor talk with merchants."
It was Ms. Neliy's turn to nod grimly.
He continued, "What my family did do was to teach me to worship Maw Lute, and have worthy collections. Without my family I learned why I should also worship Little Humble and be content with having little. I have spoken about that balance."
"You have," she agreed.
"Tomorrow I say goodbye to this estate. I will go for a walk. I am thinking of founding a town to the south."
"A town?" she asked.
"A hamlet, at first," he admitted. "If the Powers are willing it could grow to be a town."
She nodded. "You like collecting people, maybe even more than books. Will you be okay without your collections and all the nice things in your big house?"
He chuckled. "Oh, I have other hoards. Books...well...books are easier to collect than people, and much more relaxing. Yet people are more important. And that reminds me..." He took a small book from a coat pocket and held it out to her.
"What's this?" she asked. She took it and began to look at the first pages.
He said, "About surnames used by different kin. Tomorrow the elves of Toughland will be free. No barons will own you, tell you whom to marry, or decree what happens to your metal cutlery after you die. You might want surnames."
She snorted. "Bosh! I'm Ms. Neliy of this cottage, and the ten of us who live here keep it cozy, and they will have my metal cutlery when I am gone. When you told my Tkom to leave us and marry Welza that was sad, but we could see her cottage needed more young men, and they fancied each other well enough, so it worked. How are surnames going to help?"
Baron Gold shrugged. "Not sure they will help. But I am sure that some folk will want them anyways."
She closed the book and patted it. "Fair enough. I'll share this." They looked at the view a bit longer. Then she said, "Be safe, m'lord. We'll miss you. You're a kobalt, but you're a good person."
He chuckled. "You're more of a person than I will ever be, Ms. Neliy."
Baron Gold and Mr. Elmor stood on a hilltop and looked down into a large, round, low, forested basin.
Mr. Elmor was very loyal to Baron Gold. Five years ago his wife, Genella, had been kidnapped by ogres. As soon as Baron Gold heard, he had his two fastest therizinosaurs saddled, and and they rode in pursuit as fast as Mr. Elmor could go. They returned a week later with Genella's body, which was given a proper burial near its cottage. Mr. Elmor would not talk about that trip, no matter how people guessed ways that he and Baron Gold could have tracked and caught the criminals.
After that, Mr. Elmor was lonely. Baron Gold did not pick a new wife for him, but instead began to introduce him to the merchants who bought the estate's toughweed. "It probably will not happen," said Baron Gold to these merchants, "but if I am away on a trip when it is time for the sale, look for this elf. He will have papers signed by me about the sale. I know it is odd, but I have no family here."
The other barons grumbled that toughweed merchants might talk to a elf. Some kobold merchants stopped doing business with Baron Gold, so he had to replace their business with merchants from Islehaven, Dwergaz, Meidprovinz, and Heraldia. But Baron Gold never did travel on a sale day, so the grumbling stopped.
Baron Gold gestured at the trees down in the basin. "There. A secret collection."
Mr. Elmor stared. "We knew the other barons sold most of their baronys' baby Active Trees. But we never knew who bought them. It was you, m'lord!"
Baron Gold chuckled. "They never knew either. I have taught you about middlemen merchants."
Mr. Elmor stared more. "There are some cabins down there."
"Where the tenders live. A few elves who fled from their baronies. They should have the Active Trees ready for you."
"For me?"
Baron Gold patted Mr. Elmor on the back. "It will be a slow march back south to the estate. But you will have plenty of time before any kobalts arrive from Ilulion. You are now General Elmor, and all the cottages of the estate will rely on you for protection."
"M'lord, I am not ready for this! You have taught me to bargain, not lead an army."
"The kobalts of Ilulion will be even less ready for these Active Trees. Let us pray that after such a surprise they will be ready to bargain."
"This is..." Mr. Elmor could not find any words.
Baron Gold said, "General Elmor, recall that elves were enslaved because they attacked kobalts who were wealthy and hired armies of mercenaries. Money won the war in that generation. It is okay if money now wins you freedom from the mistakes your great-great-grandparents made."
They stood on the hill as wind blew clouds across the sky. Baron Gold said, "Come. Let us go meet the Active Trees and their tenders. Then I will fly back, for I still have much to do before sunset."
Baron Gold saw Baron Withetheow loading a small boat. He walked close to watch and talk.
Withetheow said, "Mr. Gold! What are you doing here? I apologize, but at this time I am unable to see any visitors."
Gold leaned on his cane. He smiled and said, "Mr. Withetheow, such a pleasure to see you. I am here to discuss the kobalt idea named liberty. Yes, its first tenet is that a kobalt may decline to see visitors."
Withetheow said, "Then we are in agreement. Please excuse me, Mr. Gold. Perhaps tomorrow at afternoon tea we can talk?"
Gold smiled. "Oh, you do not expect that. I would normally think that you plan to rely on the second tenet of liberty, that a kobalt may cancel appointments without explanation. But tomorrow you will not be in any state to receive visitors. Why are you loading a boat?"
Withetheow said, "Mr. Gold, again, please accept my apology and depart. Your conduct shames your family name."
Gold shrugged. "Would you chat if I was part of your family? Probably. The third tenet of liberty is that a kobalt is only required to attend social events hosted by family members. Would this conversation at the riverside count as a social event?"
Withetheow tried ignoring him.
Gold pointed with his cane. "You even have a wheelbarrow! Should not a servant do this? The fourth tenet of liberty is that a kobalt is exempt from work that requires rushed labor or rushed decisions. A baron's role is to manage an estate, not haul or pack."
Withetheow said, "Mr. Gold! Your behavior is most improper. Farewell!" He turned back to the small boat.
Gold stepped closer and put a hand on Withetheow's shoulder. "Improper? Not at all. The fifth tenet of liberty is that a kobalt may detain people of lower status. But what if I was not a person?"
A few minutes later Withetheow was tied, gagged, and in the wheelbarrow. Baron Gold pushed it to the lawn in front of the Withetheow mansion. But on the front steps Mrs. Withetheow stood with a bow and arrows.
"Release him," she said.
Baron Gold breathed a thin line of fire that caught her bow on fire. The slaves who were watching rushed inside.
The lawn in front of the Withetheow mansion has a whipping post and pillory. (In all of Toughland, only Baron Gold's barony did not have those.)
Soon Mrs. Withetheow was in the pillory. She could not use her hands. But Baron Gold did not lock it.
Then Baron Gold tied Withetheow to the whipping post. "There, Mrs. Withetheow." said Baron Gold. "Now all of liberty is reversed. You are unable to refuse visitors. You are unable to cancel the revolt and in fact it might begin here ahead of schedule. You will frantically try to untie yourself. The slaves you never saw even as people, let alone as family, will find you soon. You are detained while the slaves are free."
Baron Gold checked his knots. "I apologize for the gag. But the sixth tenet of liberty is that a kobalt, when outside, may decide when start to talking with those of lower status and when to stop talking, but those of lower status may not make those decisions. Now that tenant is also reversed."
Baron Gold turned from the struggling kobalt to look at Mrs. Withetheow. "Come along," ordered Baron Gold as he opened the pillory. "Let's walk to the boat. Be glad that in kobalt life only lords are responsible for their estate's rise and fall, not ladies. See how the house slaves look at you from the windows? Some wish you harm. Most are simply glad to see you go. Unlike the cruel Mr. Withetheow you pained their souls but not their bodies. But for fussiness they have been whipped, so come quick while they still entrust justice to me."
All night during the revolt Mr. Gold stayed out of sight. He protected his library and his dogs.
In the morning he left a note for Mendy.
Dear Mendy,
The accounts and legers are in your hands. Mr. Elmor is now General Elmor and will soon be back. He will help you deal with merchants and any less agreeable visitors to the estate.
You know your letters and numbers. You have strength and health. You have people who care about you. Enjoy all five. Help others who do not have all five.
I am grateful for all the help you have given me.
—L. Aurynubiardit Gold
Then Mr. Gold slowly came down the stairs to the kitchen. Only Ms. Mikiela was there. She squealed, ran to him, and threw her arms around him. "You are safe! I have been so worried! Where did you hide?"
Mr. Gold felt the hug was most improper. He almost pushed her away, but changed his mind. He was no longer a baron. "I see you made the normal two cups of coffee."
"Well," she said. "I had hope."
"I would not leave without saying goodbye, or my morning coffee," he said.
"So you are leaving?"
"There are no barons any more. I cannot stay. I am thinking of founding a town to the south, near where the mountains meet the sea. After this coffee my last task will be to say goodbye to people."
She sniffled. "Then what will be here? I am scared."
He returned the hug. "Ms. Mendy and Mr. Elmor will keep this estate going. It will be new. It will be tricky. But it should work out. Toughweed makes life too easy, not too hard."
There were tearful goodbyes. Then Mr. Gold walked with his dogs out of Toughland.
A tiny lich watched and waved. No one saw it. No one heard it say, "Be brave, dragon. You are halfway to redeeming yourself from my bane."