Chapter 67 Northern spice
“Come on, come on!” Silk yelled at me as we made our way to the nearby city. Her tail swished from excitement at the new environment we were in. Even though Silk wasn’t born in our village, the only time she went around exploring, she was worried about her family, so she couldn’t enjoy it. Now that she had her own family, her own children, and people she knew would protect them, she could finally spend some time travelling from city to city, just enjoying the process of travelling.
That was what we were doing, going from town to town to sell our northern spice bundles. I had decided to separate the spice and northern spice bundle because they were just too different. The normal bundles would be more like a tease for the Northerners, and half the spices of the Northerner bundle would go unused by anyone who wasn’t a Northerner.
Olivia also said they’d be far more likely to buy the ‘needlessly expensive’ bundles if they could sample the powder first. So that’s what we were doing. After word got out that our northern bundles were legit, we wouldn’t need to do this. But it was a nice break from the monotony of farming. She couldn’t hide her enthusiasm as she looked around, a very similar design to our village city.
The newness of the situation was what made Silk happy. We made our way to the trader and had to convince him to allow us to set up shop next to him. Almost anything could be bought or paid for at a trader, and plot space next to them to sell a product yourself was one of the things you could purchase.
Northerners were rare; besides Olivia, our small village didn’t have anyone else. This town might only have five out of hundreds, if not thousands, of townsfolk, but that wasn’t the goal. It was word of mouth. Selling a single one would begin the spread of news of our bundles. Northerners tended to stay well-connected on account of solidarity and discrimination.
Being around someone who looks like you and has the same preferences compared to the average citizen was very common, and having someone to rely on for help if someone cheated them because they were a Northerner was very common. The most work Northerners got was from other Northerners who got cheated out of money for a job they did.
I watched and waited as Silk tried to sell our spice bundles to people who didn’t care for them because of the price. I hadn’t made any move to offer the free samples to them, because none of them looked like Northerners. Finally, I found someone who wasn’t as light-skinned as myself and I began my sales pitch. “Hello there. Would you like to sample these delicious northern spices?”
The younger girl looked at me warily. I had seen Northerners before, and she wasn’t fully northern, possibly a mixed child with a Northerner parent. She was young, possibly no older than ten, but she could just be older and just look younger. “Hello, little girl, would you like to try these northern spices?” I got a side eye from Silk, who saw I had finally begun speaking, and it was only to a random little girl.
I didn’t explain my thought process as the girl slowly walked up while constantly checking to make sure it wasn’t a trap. She looked confused at the several piles of different powders before I pulled out a few coated toothpicks to try the spice along with some chicken nuggets to coat them in, if I saw she did enjoy them. She took the first toothpick, still eyeing us, trying to figure out what we were playing at before she finally put it in her mouth. The instant her eyes shot up in delight, I knew she was at least part Northerner.
“Oh wow, that’s really tasty.” I put on my best customer service voice as I explained. “From left to right, it goes up in spiciness.” She started at the left, and to be honest, it was a really tasty albeit spicy pepper powder. It was more flavourful than the most popular peppers grown in the West. Moving on, I could see the changes in her expression, happiness, and surprise at the heat.
She finished the last one, and while she hadn’t started crying like Olivia, she definitely enjoyed the shit out of the spiciness. Thrumming her hand on the table, she asked. “How much?” Without dropping my smile, I spoke. “Three platinum.” The trader who was bartering with someone else and eavesdropping went silent for a moment as I said the price.
Instead of her shouting or saying it was too expensive, she sighed before saying. “Follow me, I’ll have to talk to my grandfather to get the money." I picked up some of the prepared powder toothpicks as I followed behind her, giving Silk a shrug before following. I hope she didn’t think I was looking for other wives right now, which very well could happen with how much Northerners love these spices, but not with this little girl.
We walked between houses, through maze-like alleyways, and into a house that was separate and unique compared to the other ones that were probably all built at the same time. She walked in before yelling. “Grandpa, you have to buy something for me!” I didn’t know if I was allowed inside, so I sat at the entrance of the house like some sort of vampire.
She came back down a minute later, pulling along an older Northerner man by his sleeve. I could tell by the slack that the man was missing an arm. He was old, but I suspected he was actually much older than he looked. He smiled as his granddaughter led him to me. “Grandpa, buy this man’s spice bundle. I love it.” He warily eyed me as I gave him a northern salute before saying. “May the sun god Ra bless your family.”
Without missing a beat, he spoke. “And may the wind god Shu bless your travels, stranger.” He looked pleasantly surprised at the northern greeting I gave him. I pulled out the spiced toothpicks as I handed them over for him to try. He went through the same expression as his granddaughter, except he paused at the final one. I think he knew what type of pepper it was, as I could almost see the nostalgia in his eyes.
He licked the toothpick slowly, savoring every single grain of the powder as he chewed the toothpick in half to not miss any of the flavor. He stared at me with a more appraising expression before asking. “That northern salute isn’t that rare, but I’m surprised that someone as young as you knows it. Most people learn it after helping a Northerner with a problem to let other Northerners know that the person has helped one of us before.”
“My Northerner wife taught it to me. After I made that pepper, she kind of went a little crazy for it.” Smiling, he spoke. “It must have been Ajax and Olive’s kid you’re talking about, poor girl. Everyone here chose to be here, but she wasn’t given a choice. I’m glad she’s still doing okay.” The smile fell off my face as the conversation changed to any knowledge he had on my wife or her family.
It turns out this man was a sort of go-to for all the Northerners who lived around here, and he met them as they passed to live in the southernmost village. I told him about the bundles, and he bought all of them from us while promising to spread the word that my future bundles were worth buying.