A day later, loud shouts and protests could be heard from a marketplace in the Kingdom of Lanthanor.
"I have no choice! They bought everything and new honey still needs time to reach the store!"
The location of the uproar was outside a large food store. Many commoners were protesting over the absence of honey on sale.
As the guards arrived to break up the commotion, the commoners dispersed obediently cursing under their breaths. No one wanted to go to jail just because they could not have honey in their meal.
A similar sight could be seen in all the shops which usually stocked the commodity.In the night before, men from a minister’s manor had approached and bought out all of the stocks of honey available.
In another 2 days, Ether-driven carts could be seen everywhere on the streets transporting a strange contraption. It was a round metal box with the top open, while some sort of liquid seemed to be sloshing in an unknown chamber inside.
These carts drove to every major merchant’s house where a box was dropped off with a parchment holding detailed instructions on top.
According to the instructions, this was a product specifically developed to keep mosquitoes away from Ether and other precious materials. One would simply have to place this box near the storage area, and mosquitoes would stay away from Ether and be trapped inside the box. Each box would work for 30 days in a radius of 5 meters around the box, and the first box was free for all to try out.
Finally, the parchment told that a shop would open in 10 days which would sell the boxes. The name of this contraption would also be revealed at the opening of the store.
Accompanied by the sweet smell of honey, many merchants were puzzled reading this parchment. They spent hundreds and thousands of gold Lans each year to erect barriers to keep the accursed mosquitoes out. Now, this simple box could solve all of their problems?!
If it were true, it would simply shake the foundation of Lanthanor. One of the main imports of the kingdom were large barrier trinkets which were used for the same purpose. Trinkets only worked for a set period of time, so they had to be constantly switched out with new ones. This demand and supply chain had been going on for many years. In fact, almost no one could remember a time when trinkets weren’t needed to keep the mosquitoes out. With time, the demand had only increased.
Even with years and years of experiments, no alternative had been developed. Although the trinkets burned a hole in their pockets, it was still acceptable because the alternative would be many, many times worse.
As they had nothing to loose, all of the merchants decided to try it out.
Mosquitoes were not tied to a day and night schedule, so barriers needed to be up 24/7. Placing a box near a cupboard in which some ether blocks were stored, a merchant in the western part of the outer city gingerly stretched his hand towards the trinket which was maintaining the barrier.
He knew that as soon as he deactivated it, a flood of mosquitoes would rush in to devour the blocks of Ether. No material obstruction could stand in their way.
This was the reason why many premium establishments erected barriers around rooms to avoid discomfort to customers who might be carrying precious materials. The Dwarve’s rum had had such an arrangement.
Ready to activate the barrier again in case the box didn’t work, the merchant switched it off.
The expected dark flood arrived, but all of the mosquitoes were funneled into the box in an instant.
It was as if something inside the box was much more tempting to the mosquitoes than the blocks of Ether that they were supposed to love so much.
Hence, any mosquitoes which came near were always diverted to the box, letting the merchant relax.
But, a second later, his merchant’s mind clicked into place, directing him to find out and recreate whatever this box was doing. The fortune that could be earnt by selling such a wondrous product would definitely be limitless.
Opening the box, he saw that the mosquitoes had become trapped in what looked like honey. To make sure, he dipped a finger in the solution before licking it.
Sweet, sweet honey! This was what he tasted, prompting him to run out and order all of the guards to go buy all of the honey stocks available in the market.
Sadly, the Kingdom had already been swept clean. Most of the honey left was in the houses of the citizens, so for a few days, anyone who had been lucky enough to stock honey at their homes were paid exorbitant prices. Gold Lans were spent without thought and soon, everyone started building their own boxes.
Yet, there were some who realized that this could not simply be honey. Actually, the idea to use honey itself wasn’t new. Everyone knew that mosquitoes lived on sweet food in the forest when there was no Ether available. And honey was, after all, their second most favorite food after Ether.
Hence, when given a choice, the mosquitoes would always choose the best delicacy, which, in their case, was always the Ether.
Metal workers were soon inundated with contracts to build replicas of the metal cages. There was no proper patent system in the Kingdom, hence there was nothing stopping anyone from making a copy if they had the skill.
As the first of the replicas started undergoing testing, the hopeful merchants realized that whatever the box did wasn’t so simple after all. Try as they may, they could not make the mosquitoes enter the honey and become trapped inside instead of the Ether. Whoever tried had their Ether stocks devoured and were left crying at both the losses from the Ether blocks and the huge amounts of money paid to procure the honey fast and make a replica. Now, the numerous boxes that had been made were simply trash that would have to be thrown away, unless they could procure more of that solution in the original box. Resolving to buy as much of it as possible when the store opened, the merchants could only bury the memory of their losses in their mind and wait.
While these cries of lament started to be heard from many houses around the city, Daneel was calmly seated in a training chamber in the academy, enduring the prickling sensations throughout his body.
The pleasure that came from the knowledge that he was training both his body and mageroot at the same time eclipsed all the pain he felt.
His short term goal was to reach the level of an Eminent Human mage so that he could utilize the teleportation spell and shift the location of the natural training chamber. After finding out from Elanev just how much it cost to maintain the training chambers in the academy, he had realized further just how valuable any treasure that could naturally absorb magical energy was. Every second it lay there under his old house worried him, as he feared that someone might find its location and take it away. Thus, he had to train with everything he had.
Having nothing else to think about, he started to replay the events that had led to the creation of the box in his mind.