Originally Posted by
John-Axe
Marjorie and Ben grew up on neighboring estates. Best friends since childhood, they confided everything to each other. When Marjorie’s widowed mother wed the king, Marjorie was whisked away to the castle. She knew her fate - she would be married off to a foreign nobleman to secure a treaty. She pleaded with the king to give Ben a chance to earn a title and then her hand - what could he do? Her new kind father was blunt - if Ben could buy the southeast island, and turn it over to the crown with its titanium mine, saltpeter mine, and two gold mines, he would grant Ben a title and gratefully permit her marriage to Ben. Otherwise, she was destined soon to marry the third prince in France in exchange for an annual shipment of truffles.
Her fate was sealed. Either Ben would miraculously get the owners of the southeast island to sell, or she would be sent to Prince Antoine in France so her home island’s restaurants could serve truffles.
She dreamed of standing outside her castle with her father’s crown, the signal her father approved the marriage, to give to Ben who would in turn return it to her father to confirm he wanted to marry her. The task seemed daunting - how could Ben talk the southeast islanders into selling their homeland? He knew they would sell it for gems, but they would need something more before they would sell. How could he persuade them?
He found the Excelsior and begged Sonya, the renowned explorer, to tell how he could persuade the islanders to sell. But he forgot how magnetically charming he was while dressed in his business armor. After evading Sonya for three days until he could find a way off the Excelsior, and with Sonya’s feverish declarations of her love for him still ringing in his ears, he despondently visited the friary. There in a series of coincidences too lengthy to place in this paragraph, he chanced to meet a former southeast islander who had left the island to become a monk, and then ended up handling payroll and human resources at the friary.
Ben happened to be well schooled in the use of Ye Olde Quicken. After bringing the monk up to speed in using YOQ, the monk asked to do a return favor. “If I can buy your homeland, I get to marry my best friend who grew up next door to me” said Ben. “I need to know what your people want along with gems”. The monk’s answer shocked him. They craved Bottled Innocence, a magical substance which changes an island’s deer into unicorns for seven days. He explained a visitor had done that for them many decades earlier, and that later generations were raised learning about the legend of a week of unicorns. His people would gladly sell to gain a case of Bottled Innocence for themselves. When Ben asked if it was because the monk’s people were sentimental, he responded no, it was because they could lop off the unicorn horns and sell them in Lombardy for 500 coins each.
Ben rushed to his Island’s Market. He was confident one of the thousands of daily visitors had Bottled Innocence. The southeast islanders could not use the main island’s market, but he could. It took a day, but he discovered what to offer and secured 10 acceptances to his offers - he secured 10 Bottled Innocences. What he offered is not placed here since this author can now use it for himself.
In a tender exchange in the garden with bluebirds singing and cute animals making cute background noises, he told Marjorie what he had done and begged she get the necessary gems from her father. She returned quickly with the bag of gems, he took them southeast, he had the islanders choose one of the Bottled Innocences which he then used to prove they worked, he offered 3,495 gems with the other nine bottles, and they gave him the deed to their island. He rode back with the deed in his right hand which you cannot see in any of the paintings commemorating it since the paintings got cropped. Marjorie stood waiting for him with the crown which assured their wedding.
… Ben never told Marjorie that his monk friend did him a favor by keeping Prince Antoine smashed in the friary for seven days while Ben rode to and from the southeast island to obtain the deed …