Tyranomaster

  "I need you to e up with a fitting punishment for what Tiberius has done." I pinly state to Zaka. I had to position myself between Tiberius and the door, as he kept trying to sneak out.

  Zaka watches the situation and chuckles, "Well, he's certainly ag like he's guilty of something. What did he do?"

  "He lied to some fishergoblins and said that I was going to pay them a signifit sum of moo help him acquire certain fish."

  Tiberius winces like a child despite his age at hearing my statement.

  Zaka chuckles again, "Need he be punished? That does seem like something you'd do. Perhaps he simply assumed he had permission?"

  "See, I be punished! I've dohing wrong!" Tiberius testifies as soon as he hears what Zaka says.

  "Given the price you said you'd pay them, which is double what I've brought them down to, and that is already 50% more than I would have offered, I think you know that you've done a bad thing, which is why you're ag this way!"

  "I only did what I o in order to tinue my researbsp; My research that YOU enced." He says, like he's trying to shift the bme onto me.

  "Calm down, both of you. This doesn't seem as severe as you made it sound, Zak, but that doesn't mean it's nothing. I'm going to go talk to the two fishergoblins to hear their side of the story." Zaka rose from his throne, his figure standing at nearly twice our height. He strode past us, and out the door that I reviously blog, but hastily moved away from as Zaka approached.

  After almost an hour, Zaka returned.

  "Though they both seemed disgruntled, both of the fishergoblins seemed to think the deal was 'too good to be true'. Some of the fault lies with them for falling for an obvious falsehood, though their punishment is already served, having worked for reduced pay." Zaka says, striding back to his overly rge chair, which looks more like a throo me right now.

  "And what of Tiberius? We 't just have people telling other people we've promised things we haven't. There o be a punishment."

  "Yes, well I suspect, to some degree, Tiberius did think he had freedom to use your money. At least I believe that is the case, based on the versation I had with the fishergoblins." Zaka looks at Tiberius sternly, "Though make no mistake, iure, you aren't to do this again. The punishment will be much more severe if you do."

  Tiberius audibly gulps before responding quietly, "Yes, I uand."

  "Though, yes, there will be a punishment, albeit a light one. Tiberius is going to work with the fishergoblins iide pools until he's earhe differeween what you paid the goblins, and what you would have liked to pay the goblins, so he more accurately uand the value of bor in our try."

  I have difficulty imagining Tiberius doing physical bor after how he hauled water to the b, but if that's all that Zaka wants him to do, I suppose that's fihough Tiberius himself looks like he's just beeeo death, rather than bor for about a month. He slinks out of Zaka's house, and I have a feeling that I'll have t him to the tide pools to actually plete his punishment.

  As I thought about my previous pn to make a or seal, I realized that without literacy, there isn't even a good way to ehat the correct message gets reyed, and the same situation would have probably occurred anyway. I did have another question to ask Zaka though. "What did the fishergoblins say that made you assume it was some kind of misuanding?"

  "They said that he talked a lot about how he was doing research for the noble, Zak, for starters. I suspect where he came from, this was the norm for him, and he could just get funding as needed with no s, and that he has no cept of the value of wiven that history. If you weren't so insistent that this roblem, I probably would have only had him work for a week at the tide pools."

  "I'm surprised you're as x about this. I feel like this could be a major problem. Our society currently runs on trust. We live in a somewhat small unity, so it's uandable, but as the popution grows more and more, we're going to have issues relying on trust only."

  "Well, a society without trust isn't a very good oo live iher. I don't think this articurly major i, though it did highlight that goblins should recall that official jobs will be posted at the job board, not a random messenger. Even if it is one of the leaders who es to ask."

  As I thought about it somewhat, I suppose I uand what he means. The fishergoblins did sort of just let this happen to them, we do have official els for these requests. Though it does beg another question. "Did it not seem that odd to them? The fishergoblins I mean?"

  "Well, they had suspected the pay was really high paratively, but let me ask you something instead. Was it any more odd than being asked to spend weeks away on a boat diving in the o to recover metal? Or perhaps breaking rock to build a pit, then hauling that rock to build a path into the sea? These seem more odd to me than being asked to catch a particur fish. Odd is the norm, and I recall we fought together a few years ago over the idea of allowing more such odd events to occur, rather than banishing you from our vilge." Zaka pauses as out a bit of a sigh, "Though I do uaer now the that Kurg had all those years ago. I'd say many of his s have e to fruition even. We chose our path though, and we best stick to it, because straying from it now seems more dangerous than not."

  After Zaka's speech, I felt somewhat foolish for thinking that Tiberius o be heavily punished. Sure, he's an outsider from another try, but in a way, so am I. As long as he doesn't do something like that again, it should be fine. Perhaps he holy should be given a budget to work with already, so he knows what sort of funds he use. I think it's reasoo be watchful of any new individuals ing to our try, but I think that Zaka has a point too.

  "Alright, I get your point, as long as we're being watchful of any problems I don't have any more pints." I say, before trudging out of Zaka's house.

  I did, in fact, have t Tiberius to the tide pools when it was time for him to start w the day. Though I think he was surprised when he only had to work for a few hours. I'm sure he thought he'd be w out here all day with a fishing rod. The tide pool work is actually quite easy, so it's not that much of a punishment, though you do get quite a bit of leg work in because of the amount of stairs you have to use. Ultimately, the fishing time is limited to low tide for a few hours, a all the work dohen.

  After that, Tiberius was free to go work on what he wanted for a few hours until the sed low tide te in the evening. I told him that he only o be at the tide pool once a day, but he show up for both low tides if he wants, to reduce the amount of days he o work.

  I've decided that I'll help Tiberius for a little bit when his punishment is finished. I may have been a bit too quick-tempered oter. I also feel partially responsible, since I didn't clearly tell Tiberius what his standing was, and I never did assign a goblin to fun as a b assistant to him.

  While he works iide pools though, I've got a few projects I'd like to work on that I think could be valuable, though they're somewhat mundane. They also let me keep an eye on him, to make sure he doesn't sck off or try to get out of the work. Regardless of the situation, he does o finish his punishment. I pn on tinuing to expand the jetty, while also occasionally using pulverize to try to improve soil quality in more of the fields.