Riverworld, Day 68

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After three hard weeks, the mine had begun to bear fruit. Benjamin and
Toyoda directed the labor of the Celts and the Japanese toward digging
up the iron ore, a dirty and tedious process with stone tools. At
Ehrich's suggestion, they dug first to determine the breadth of the
mine, and found the ore to be embedded in the ground in a nearly perfect
cylinder, four feet in diameter. They had dug three feet into the
ground, and the metal showed no signs of stopping.

Robbie, who had some experience as a smith, hit upon the idea of using
the grailstone's fiery bursts to smelt the ore, and fashioned some
crude metal shovels which speeded the extraction process. Soon, the
lazari knew, they would have to determine how the metal would be
used. Benjamin, Shaw, and Charles seemed to favor initially creating
molds for tools, rather than the tools themselves, and delaying the
creation of weapons. Ehrich was more anxious for practical articles,
and Toyoda's men were eager for metal wheel and axles for their carts.

Socially, the group had shifted and coalesced as it settled into
village life. Sid stole a raft and vanished one night.  Louis,
initially depressed about the loss of his right arm, spent two days
drunk, consoled only by Jeanne's company. The former French soldier
held Louis in new esteem for his wound, and, uncomfortable with the
Celtic society, soon found herself drawn to Louis personally as well,
an affection which seemed to be reciprocated. She spent much of her
time with the Frenchman, and much in the chapel-hut she had fashioned
for the group and adorned with a bamboo cross. Louis began to learn to
write and fight with his left hand.

Robbie seemed pleased to settle down. He regaled the others with
poetry and drinking songs during their suppers, and began a merry
wandering from hut to hut, taking new companionship every few
days. His current lover, one of the Japanese women, knowingly kept a
vigilant eye on her beau.

Ehrich spent his days considering the obviously unnatural mine. His
inquiries to the Celts about lion gods and Benjamin's half-finished
chessboard had yielded nothing but blank stares. 

An idea had come to him, though, in the dark of one night. If this was
the land of the dead, perhaps a seance could let them contact the
living again. He had told no one of the idea yet, as he considered the
possibilities it offered.

Shaw had set up his hut away from the others, near the woods. When the
others came to visit, they found the floor strewn with models of
flying machines, which Shaw called 'airplanes', made of bamboo,
fish-gut, and grass. With bags under his eyes, Shaw worked almost
obsessively on his models, and looked forward encouragingly to the
mine's output. He refused to let Freud into his hut, however, and
often watched the man with warily.

Shaw's private dreams, more often nightmares, came only when he chewed
the gum, which he did nightly in lieu of sleep. He often saw himself
chased by Freud, who rode a lioness; on good nights, he escaped by finding
a Fokker plane, flying into the sky, and then turning on Freud and
gunning him down. On bad nights, Freud grew larger and larger, picked
him up, and ate him.

Josephine saw no more or less of Shaw than the others. While she
continued to give him her dreamgum at every meal, she spent most
of her time with Diana, Charles, and Culwyn, her new hutmate. She
discovered that her duties as a "priestess" required little of her
time; Diana seemed content to let Charles and Culwyn manage the daily
affairs of the village, and served primarily as a counselor to the
Celts. Josephine spent much of her time with the one Celtic child, a
orphan boy of about 10 named Llyr.

For his part, Charles seemed pleased with the arrangement and the
progress of the village. Culwyn he found agreeable, if sometimes
dull. Diana he found enchanting. He soon learned that she was of Welsh
descent, but not actually a Celt; she had lived during the 20th
century in America ("What a populous place it must have been," he
thought) and rediscovered her roots. She found the former Holy Roman
Emperor equally enthralling.

The news of the mine had spread like wildfire down the Valley. New
Detroit sent offers to trade finished products for raw ore, but no
response had yet been sent -- Toyoda seemed willing to accede to trade
agreements but was wary of actually inviting the Detroiters to join
their as yet unnamed village. Shaw, on the other hand, seemed almost
fanatical about asking Ford to merge his city with theirs. In
addition, rumors of massing armies and growing city-states downRiver
had reached the village, and curiosity had brought many strangers to
their land. Most had looked and left, but three women had stayed on.

Josephine had noticed the first paddling down the River in a bamboo
canoe during one of her nightly swims. The woman, who introduced
herself as Matoaka, was tall, with copper skin and long, braided black
hair. Her eyes were dark and narrow, and narrowed further when she was
introduced to Shaw and Robbie, though she said nothing that would
indicate that she had met them before. She spoke some English and
Latin.

The second newcomer appeared by the grailstone, resurrected again from
temporary death. She called herself Cixi, and spoke primarily
Mandarin, though she could also converse in broken English and
Japanese. No more than five feet tall, Cixi walked slowly and
carefully on dimunitive feet, but her stance had an aristocratic
mien. Her face was skinny, with large eyes, a tall forehead, and thin,
taut lips. Her hands were soft, with long fingers, and her hair long
and black.

The third was a large, fair-skinned, yellow-haired woman named Helga,
who arrived by land. She was popular among the Celts for her practical
jokes and booming laughter.

The three women were lodged together in one of the communal huts, and
joined the activities of the village. Benjamin and Charles suggested
that some form of citizenship rule would be necessary.

Benjamin, in fact, had laid out extensive plans for the mine and the
growth of their community. Over dinner one night, he proposed an
economy based on the "rio", an iron coin that could be minted from the
ore, and standard exchange rates for labor and materials. He suggested
that 10% of all labor and materials be dedicated to building and
serving the community.  "I guess I was wrong," he chuckled at his own
idea. "There is only one thing that is certain after all.  Death
turned out to be escapable, but Taxes are inevitable." Others,
particularly Culwyn, felt that the mine could be put to better use
making practical implements than currency.

The need for some form of governance became clear when some of the
villagers began to report small personal items missing. Tempers and
accusations flared until the day before, when Helga was found sneaking
from the hut of one of the Japanese men. An inspection of her grail
revealed many of the missing items; others were never located and
Helga would not say whether she had taken them or not. Culwyn argued
that she could not be trusted and should be killed. Toyoda suggested
that imprisonment might be more appropriate, but noted that the
village had no magistrates, jails, or guards. Some murmured suspicions
about Matoaka and Cixi, as well. As the month's end approached,
decisions would have to be made about how the new city would rule
itself, and face its new challenges, within and without.

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