Bnnk. Bnnk. Bnnk. Bnnk. Bnnk.
The ball slammed forcefully at the wall of the office again and again and again, not that the person throwing it was angry, but it took a fair amount of force to get the small leather and twine ball to bounce back- as had been discovered with ample experimentation. It'd taken about an hour, but now Elliot could beam the ball off just about any wall and get it to return to his hand, as such, he'd taken to leaning back in the chair, putting his feet up on the meticulous desk, and sought to making himself a nuisance.
See, Elliot loathed the administrative side of the Merchant's Guild, so when said guild voluntold him to fill an officer position temporarily as the previous owner of said position had just spontaneously woke up dead- the traveling merchant wanted to make damn sure that this assignment stayed temporary.
B-dnnk. Elliot this time launched the ball at a corner, spiking it at two walls before it sailed back to his hand. Thankfully- the woman who'd been previously holding this position had been meticulous, working far far ahead of what she needed to. She'd been a 'Repetitious Acquisition Overseer' which was a stuck up way of saying that she made sure locals who regularly requested things like supplies for their business from the merchant guild had their requests filled in a timely manner. And she's done her job masterfully, deliveries had been routed and scheduled nearly a year in advance, though looking through past records indicated that she wasn't prophetic in her forward thinking, adjustments had to be made occasionally.
See, the Merchant Guild wasn't a just coalition of traveling merchants- Not anymore. It was a Logistics Company. Connecting sellers in one city with buyers in another, for a cut of course. Massive Caravans moved from major trading post to major trading post, unloading goods meant for that city into Merchant Guild Warehouses, and loading up with goods meant for another city. In Arca alone, the merchant's guild probably owned over a million square meters of warehouse space. The traveling merchants weren't really the main revenue source for the Guild, not in almost a decade. They were, however, a valuable source of information. Some podunk, middle of nowhere town find and start mining gold? A caravan could be routed to buy as much as they had and sell it elsewhere. Some other area struggling due to a bad crops yield or a drought? Route a Caravan that way with relief supplies, build goodwill and maybe make some good trades- Elliot appreciated that not everything in the guild was profit driven. Relief efforts were usually a loss on the part of the Guild, but this whole new model was a little too.. efficient for his taste.
Bnnk. B-dnnk. Bnnk. Bnnk. Bnnk. Bnnk. B-dnnk. B-dnnk.
"Can you cut that out? I'm working on tax reports to the Crown." came the muffled, nasally voice of the person in the office next to his. Elliot hadn't met the man, but he seemed highly anal retentive.
"Oh sorry, that sounds really important."
BnnkBnnkBnnkBnnkBnnkBnnkBnnk.
Elliot was interrupted of his peppering with the shared wall by a knock at his door, followed by a mousy looking girl that he recognized as one of the warehouse overseers that worked at the nearest warehouse- she was maybe 17? Too young to hold that position without having put some years into the job already. "Mr. Coldwater, sir, there's an iss-"
"You can call me Elliot, Bernadette ."
"Er, Okay. Mr. Cold- Elliot, sir. Like I was sayi-"
"Are you still interested in getting dinner with me tonight?"
"Um, this probably isn't the right place or time to discuss tha-"
"Right right, of course, there was an issue, you said?"
"Um.. Yes. Sir. An overdue shipment to the Prosperity Magic Academy for the Arcanely Gifted has arrived, but our delivery cart is already out on another delivery and won't be back until end of day. What should we do?"
"Have my wagon brought out, load it into there. I'll be there in ten minutes to take it myself."
"Um, sir, do you think you should leave the office in the middle of the day? What if something el-"
"It's fine, Bernadetta. This is the first issue to arise this week and it's a minor issue. And I'll be damned if anyone but me is driving my wagon for a delivery. Plus if I don't get out of this office, I may in fact wake up dead myself." He stood up, threw the ball against the wall one more time, then stuffed it into his satchel. "Go on now, we have an important delivery to make."
