My Farming Domain Is Broken

The boundary was one Mara’s own cooperative understood.

Neither agreed to the first price. Mara wanted five meals for every ten Glasswood lengths. Carlos offered one meal for the same amount.

They moved slowly toward the middle until Cosmic stopped them at twenty meals for sixty lengths and future crop buying.

"Food has value now," Cosmic explained. "Glasswood has value after we carry it all the way back and repair something with it. Both of you stop pricing the other person’s work as if it is free."

Mara laughed. Carlos did not, but he accepted the deal.

Cosmic and Mara argued over quantities while Lydia inspected samples of transparent timber.

"This can reinforce the aqueduct," she told Carlos. "It is lighter than stone and does not soften in water."

That made it worth buying.

Carlos traded twenty preserved meals and future access to common crops for sixty Glasswood lengths.

He made that condition repeat three times in the system contract. Ironroot would never owe seeds it needed for its own fields.

Lydia inspected each length before Carlos stored it. Six contained internal cracks, and Mara replaced them without complaint.

"You brought a useful specialist," Mara said.

"She invited herself."

"He needed me," Lydia answered.

Carlos did not deny it because the repaired channels proved she was right.

Mara also showed them the restored structure beneath her camp.

--

[Glasswood Distribution Station]

[Partial operator: Glasswood Cooperative]

[Regional connection: Unstable]

--

"We activated it this morning," Mara said. "Then your cultivation district appeared on the map."

The station held one damaged record.

Mara had spent three days trying to open it. Carlos’s Crop Keeper recognition and Lydia’s Soil Mason recognition caused two additional symbols to light.

"It needs operators from several sectors," Lydia said.

"Then the Settlement Authority may need all of us," Cosmic answered.

Mara became guarded. "If central authority commands every sector, nobody should claim it alone."

Carlos had planned to do exactly that. He kept the thought to himself.

--

[Settlement gates sealed during evacuation]

[Distribution routes require central authorization]

--

The Settlement Authority was becoming more important with every discovery.

Carlos was questioning Mara about the western road when his message panel flashed.

--

[Cedric Vale]- Someone is cutting the third channel.

--

A second message arrived before Carlos could answer.

--

[Cedric Vale]- Eight troops. One Lord. He rejected our warning. We are holding.

--

Cedric had not asked whether he should fight. The attack had already reached the preserved beds.

Carlos stood so quickly that his chair fell backward. And made Cosmic read the messages too.

Mara’s face changed when she read the messages. She understood enough to see that Carlos needed to leave.

"Take six guards," she said. "They know the northern road."

Carlos walked toward her with a hard look. "How do I know you did not send that Lord there?"

Mara went still.

The timing was too clean. She had called him into a camp, asked about the aqueduct, requested portal access, and then someone attacked the third channel while his strongest people were far away. Carlos had no proof that she was involved.

He also had no reason to trust that she was not.

Cosmic stepped between them before the silence became worse.

"We will know that when we get back, Carlos. We don’t have time. Let’s go."

Carlos looked at Mara once more. "No guards. No one from your camp follows us toward the aqueduct."

Mara’s jaw tightened. "Fine. I did not send anyone. But I understand why you are saying it."

She held out a Glasswood flare. Breaking it would send a visible signal across the northern road if he required assistance.

Carlos did not take it.

"Keep it," he said. "Until I know what happened, I take nothing from you."

Mara lowered her hand without arguing.

Carlos gave the camp one final look. The Glasswood stored in his inventory had been purchased through a system contract. That was not a favor. Everything else Mara offered could wait until the attack was explained.

"What happened?" Lydia asked.

"Someone touched my land."

He turned and ran for the gate.

The return journey took less time because nobody stopped. Carlos used Swift Oat rations despite the hunger that would follow while Brann carried Lydia when she could no longer match their speed.

Smoke became visible before the cultivation district.

Lydia saw it and stopped complaining about Brann carrying her.

Carlos felt the Warden Chain reacting to his anger. The links pulled forward even before he gave them a direction.

He forced the weapon to remain around his arm until he could see who was fighting. Cedric and the others were still mixed among the attackers. Throwing a chain blindly could kill the people protecting his land.

The outer field was filled with broken soil and fighting troops. Just that image made Carlos’s blood boil.

Cedric’s two Axemen stood inside the third channel while Tomas’s damaged Shield Militia blocked six unfamiliar soldiers. Rhea and the others carried water away from a burning preserved bed.

One fired Water Shot at anyone approaching the regulator. Cedric had blood running down one side of his face.

He saw Carlos and shouted over the fighting.

"CARLOS, he is trying to destroy your claim!"

Carlos did not ask why Cedric had chosen to defend it.

He looked at the cut channel and felt something inside him become very calm. The Warden Chain rose from his arm.

Lydia jumped from Brann’s back and ran toward her Clayborn Masons. Both were alive, but one had lost part of its shoulder protecting the repaired junction.

The sight removed every trace of amusement from her face.

"Do not kill the Lord until we know what the full motives are, we need him alive" Kaia warned.

Carlos had not decided whether anyone sent him.

He only knew someone had crossed protected land, attacked people working under his authority and set fire to crops that survived three centuries.

And the fact that there were lesser military troops and more productions ones being attacked did not help anyone.

That was already enough to make his fury feel reasonable.

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