Osterian Chimney-Stacks [NoM/Fashion]

As she trudged along the narrow dirt-road inside her wagon, Zubaidah watched the Sun brush the Osteri countryside with a light touch. The hay had long been cut and carried, and the new-mown fields were as green as crickets. There were only the uncut cornfields showing the coming golds of summer, but there were not so many of them as there used to be. Zubaidah counted nine, a poor hundred acres in all, where once all the slopes of the valley had been golden.

She remembered how Silius would take her and Lucia here and listen to the millers sing about ‘when the valleys stand so thick with corn that we shall laugh and sing’. But now all that was changed - a few yellow patches on the green, but mostly the stone of Reiman windmills. On the southern slopes were the Muner mills, long neglected, and now mortgaged to the Ash Company that had helped assure Zubaidah’s dreams.

She was meeting with the Muner family, from whom Zubaidah had bought the Osterian mills, before Denime introduced the Louve’s materials to the local workers. After all, she had tasked the family-head Oskar Muner with converting grain mills into commercial ones. It would be best if she ensured he was on their side before continuing this long-term contract, in case he had concerns and tried to leave. She could not allow her business-plan to be damaged by ignoring such concerns.

‘You must be lady Zubaidah?’ She was greeted with an older gentleman when she arrived at the Muner estate, grey hairs drifting from his long and messy ponytail, ‘I have heard about your intentions from Silius.’ He offered herself and Denime seats and a tray of tea-time snacks, before staring point-blank into her eyes, ‘You are asking for much.’

‘I understand, but - ’ She began to mount her counter-argument, setting her chamomile aside, before Oskar interrupted her with a raised finger, ‘I do not think too much.’

‘You ask that our older mills be repurposed?’ He waved towards his steward, calling for more cakes, and took out a report for Zubaidah to read, ‘That is fine.’ It showed the losses that the Osteri had made due to Reim not using their old mills.

‘Our new mills are all that is necessary, according to Reim. As such, our older mills have been left unworked. It is frustrating that our workmen were dismissed as soon as something new came to automate its processes. Indeed, there seems to be a large part of my people left without work ever since the new mills were installed. After all, the new mills require but a handful to operate.’


‘I cannot guarantee its success, but - ’ He raised his finger again, putting the report and other papers atop Zubaidah's own files, and smiled warmly, ‘Success can never be guaranteed. Chance is enough that success can be assured.’


His words echoed in Zubaidah’s head for longer than that conversation. As she oversaw the final touches to the newly-improved Munster mills, she thought about how her decisions were affecting more than just herself and the Ash Company. She was granting new life to the Osterian workforce, where Reim had taken the fruits of their labour without acknowledgement of their efforts. It was no longer just about Zubaidah’s own dreams, but those of Oskar and Denime and Silius. She had sown the seeds of hope in their hearts.