"Why? Why?! WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?!!" Like a page torn straight out of a fairy tale, gold was raining from the sky and gems were becoming as common as pebbles. This was terrible. Absolutely terrible! The sheer amount of money and precious minerals being poured into the world economy would cause the prices of everything rare to hit rock bottom! It wasn't bad enough that gold was severely devalued after the tomb raiding of Aysut, now everything else was going to plummet straight into the ground. Why was this bad you might ask? The price of what things went for was based on rarity. When supply fell, the value went up. And when the supply rose…value would fall. Most would think this would make valuable things more affordable, and to a certain extent they would be right. However, to combat the losses merchants would instead hike up their prices making your newly gained riches worth a lot less. If you could initially buy something for ten silvers, you'd have to pay double or more to get the same thing after. Pouring more money into people's hands was not a solution.

And yes the idea of being able to buy more metal in bulk was a temporary windfall, but families who relied on mining would be severely hit. With so much material floating around, people could just comb the beaches to get what they wanted instead of paying miners to dig it from the earth. Jewelers would have more business at the cost of record-breaking low prices which meant less profit, all the middlemen and brokers for gems and metals would be essentially out of a job, and the cost of living would increase. This was a nightmare. There was only one way to put an end to this runaway caravan heading for a sheer cliff–forced removal of the influx threatening to throw the economy out of balance.

Shiloh was running around Horae with a prototype contraption she designed to speed up the collection process. It was some sort of propeller enclosed inside a tube which was attached to her Reynash's endless bag that when spun using wind magic would suck any loose coin and gemstones into its vortex. The collected treasure would then be dumped inside a large hole–preferably in a hard to reach location to prevent massive scavenger hunts where hopefully they would go undisturbed for decades. Was it the best idea? No. Was it effective? Yes. Until she could find a better way to stop the literal rain of gold, she was going to be doing a lot of legwork. It was too late to tell Angela and Zanar to stop now…

While people were stuffing free money into their pockets, she was vacuuming faster than they could grab. How ironic that this prototype intended for cleaning would be put to use now of all times. Any valuables that people already had in hand she would leave alone. Sure she wasn't against people improving their financial situation, but handing out money was not something she supported. It'd only make things worse if those with less impulse control went all out and sunk themselves deeper in a hole they just crawled out of. Around the four regions people would see a blurred image of a strange figure hunched over with a strange bag inhaling all the glittering goodies from the ground muttering to themselves before running off to another area.

Concern grew within his mind. Partially for the economy. Mostly because heavy gold was raining down from the sky along with other jewels. At first it was pleasant to see the vast amount of resources. Now he was concerned for the people below. If a gem was falling from such a height then it might hit somebody in the head. With that height and speed along with the toughness of the gem…it would be able to crack somebody's skull. Then there was the fact that some fools had brought their children along… Caius let out a small sigh. He had came here for the flowers. People had been talking about the island so much that he became interested in it. He read up about the island and learned about the lovely wildflowers on a part of the island. Several flower crowns hung from a string attached to his backpack as he walked through the soft field in the Terra Section. Despite having all of this treasure, there weren't as many people as the jewelry maker had anticipated.

He went around the island, avoiding falling treasure, to figure out the reason why. It was only when he got to the docks of the island did he understand. Wealthy merchants and nobles were starting to block off the island. Ships were sailing to surround the island so that no other ship could dock. Hired shape shifters were taking to the skies to alert when an airship would come. These wealthy nobles and merchants must have realized how the economy would fair if this amount of treasure were to be released to the public. However…they weren't here to help. It was obvious that they were trying to take it all for themselves. A few commoners and strangers managed to get to the island but most fishermen and common people were turned away. Even some other merchants were starting to be blocked from the island. If this were to continue then nobody else would get the treasure.

That would mean that the wealthy could hoard even more jewels. With those jewels they could withhold them from the market and start using their influence to buy independent mines. If they did that then they would have a monopoly on the gems and gold. After this event, prices would be low for gems however if a monopoly was built and time passed, then prices could skyrocket. Making it impossible for anybody to buy jewelry. This would be bad for business in every way. Caius lifted his head to the sky, looking for answers. An idea popped into his mind. But he didn't have the resources to do it. Suddenly he caught blurry sight of a prototype running and vacuuming up a large amount of the treasure. He decided to see if this was property of one of the merchant's belongings.

Caius went over to a tree and began to work. He had a large amounts of thin wire that he was going to use for jewelry. Instead he began to make a net made up of many wires. It took him a long time but eventually he did it. Then he set up the trap and covered it with leaves. When the prototype stepped on the net, the machine would be caught in a matter of seconds. The jewelry maker carefully placed an amethyst and gold piece on the trap then waited behind a tree. His hopes were to catch the prototype and find the merchant who owned it and talk to the merchant. 

"Wrong! IT'S ALL WRONG!!" She muttered, drawing the concerned looks of several treasure scavengers as she ran about. To the others she looked like a madwoman, chasing people off from piles of gold and coins before throwing them into holes she dug. It was then she began to realize a problem. She was running out of places to dig. That meant there was only one other place she could dump this…the ocean. Yes, the ocean. The biggest bottomless pit in the entire world. Things that sank rarely came back out depending on the depth, and heavier objects would say buried indefinitely. Desperate times called for desperate measures. As well-intentioned as the deities' generosity was, people were already succumbing to greed. This wasn't the reason why Horae was here, and who knows what lengths people would to through to ensure the most 'efficient' harvest? Once she had cleaned out an area she would then open a portal straight into the aquatic abyss and then–

In her scheming on how to save the world's economy, Shiloh absentmindedly ran straight into the trap that someone had made. Instead of just the suction-bag she was holding, her bag, her things, and herself fell right in. A cat-like shriek pierced the air as she was writhing about inside a fine-mesh net. Her device was actually making escaping worse by making the net climb closer and she attempted to chew on the wires in her frantic attempt to get out. It was a very awkward sight to behold. Good thing nobody suspected the woman ranting and raving about 'runaway inflation' was actually a deity, or else that would get real weird fast. "LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!! THE WORLD MARKET PRICES ARE SINKING!!" With his trap successful, Caius would now have his very first encounter of the deity of fortune in less than ideal circumstances.

"How pitiful," echoed from the lips of the orc, snapping his fingers to spawn a ball of fire on his thumb before bringing it up to the cigar that rested in his maw, next to his left under-bite. It took a couple puffs to get the tip truly ignited before he puffed out of the side of his mouth the smoke he intook. The riches that rained down from the heavens… absolutely disgusting. The merchants who ran around, trying to grasp what they would… DISGUSTING! Sure, Qadim could have easy been one of the many joining in the rain of gold, but his eyes were filled with too much disdain. It was too easy. It was too simple. There was no CATCH to any of this! At least that was how it looked on the cover.

The orc stomped across the land of falling gold and gems, not making any effort to avoid the treasure or to collect it. Instead, he let the gemstones bang across his head, hardened with Stone Skin as he treaded the land. It did not take him long to come across a "business" getting themselves set up with the newly found riches before spouting to them, "Hey, Undur Kurvs," to get them to stare up at him. A flash from behind the monocle before he commanded, "Drop the treasure and leave," drilling the words into their minds to have their fingers loosen their grip and walk away, as if zombies to his words. "And dare not think about returning to these lands!"

With the two out of the way, Qadim's feet continued to step forward before finding a new scene: A woman screaming profanities as she tried to escape a pit, buried with an inhaling bag which was drawing in an impressive-woven net.. "The hell is this even?" Qadim muttered before shouting down the pit, "You also trying to get your fingers over this treasure without worry?!" He locked his psionic eye from behind his monocle to be ready to plant the mental seed once more. Sure, he has worked more to ensure the greedy would step away, knowing the risks of doing such, but for now, it was time for damage control.

This was not what he was expecting…. The woman was not a merchant. That was to be certain. Timidly peeking out from behind the tree, he quietly watched as a well dressed orc approached the pit. A look of concern was on Caius' face. When he heard the woman talk about world markets, he suddenly realized that he had made a massive mistake. This woman was not one of the merchants who had been taking up all of the gold.

The orc stranger appeared to be uninterested in the treasure as well. Otherwise he would have been chasing the jewels instead of looking into the pit. The jewelry maker had to fix this. He held up his hand and a bright portal opened up in front of him. Another portal opened up inside the pit. He walked through the portal and ended up inside the pit, next to the woman. Grabbing a wire cutter from his backpack, he searched for the wires that held together the net. Once he found it Caius began to cut the wire. 

"….Sorry." He said with genuine sadness, "I was trying to stop the merchants…..too bad I don't have a net to catch the falling treasure…..The merchants seem to be trying to block the island to the rest of the world." 

In a matter of seconds, the wire was cut and the rest of the net relaxed. Its wires fell to the ground and set free the captive goddess. Rising to a stand, he began to walk through the portal. The portal would remain open until she was out of the pit. Caius looked over to the orc gentleman and spotted a falling gem. The gem was medium sized but it was falling at a speed that would result in an injury. His hands moved rapidly through a set of motions. Suddenly a blast of wind erupted from his hands. The wind blasted above Qadim and shoved the falling gem away from the orc's head. A relieved sigh escaped Caius' lips. Nobody had been harmed. 

While she was attempting to claw her way out, a man's voice shouted down at her asking if she was one of those saps looking to get rich quick. Finally remembering to turn off the blasted suction-bag, she hollered right back: "Do I look like the queen of Adeluna?! I'm trying to get rid of the treasure not hoard it! I don't love shiny colorful rocks that much!" A new face peered down and apologized after he cut a hole in the net she was squirming around in. He left a portal behind for her to use, a nice gesture but not really necessary. Either way she wasn't going to look a gift portal in the vortex so she used it. Back on ground level, she took a look at who was here. There were two men–an orc with a posh outfit and a young man who looked more or less human. "I was trying to stop the merchants…too bad I don't have a net to catch the falling treasure…..The merchants seem to be trying to block the island to the rest of the world." The human was sorry judging from his posture and face, while the orc was skeptical. To be fair she herself would be skeptical if she wasn't still trying to pull together a plan to stop this ungodly hailstorm of valuables. 
 
"Naval blockades are easy to get rid of–just blow a hole in the ships or something." She said nonchalantly, waving a hand. "Anyway, it might be better off that they're restricting access. Less people traipsing around to handle." She spent the next moments staring off into the distance absorbed in her own thoughts, muttering things when something the human said suddenly clicked. Even with the suction-bag she couldn't stop the rain…unless she had something to intercept it from reaching the ground. "A net… A net!" She repeated to herself, eyes staring wide. Yes! "YES!!!" She shouted throwing her hands up in the air. "That's it! That's what we need! But how am I going to get a net the size of a bloody island on short notice? Do I even have that much stuff in here?" Yanking off the tube of her contraption, she shoved it into the Reynash's endless bag then stuck her hand back in to rummage through the contents. "No. No I don't. Of course not. Curses…" It was a good idea however, though the problem wasn't finding a way to get it in the air.

"…Maybe I should just open a massive portal over Horae and let it dump itself into a volcano, then sink the merchant armada." Yes that was a lot easier. Physically more strenuous, but much easier. Come to think of it, wouldn't melting down minerals and precious metal in an active volcano's caldera be considered recycling? After all those things technically did come from the earth; she would just be returning it to its initial state. The pelting of a gold doubloon reminded her that she should probably put on a helmet or something. Retrieving a shield from her storage, she held it above her head while she mulled over the idea a bit more. 

A wise crack coming from the trapped woman below. It made a grin come across his face as took his cigar out of his mouth before he hollered back, "Of course you don't look like the queen. Your hair is not all THAT grey yet!" bolstering a laugh out before settling it back in when he caught his breath to intake another puff. Still, he watched as another came to her rescue, getting the woman out of the net before the two escaping the pit, talking to each other about the situation. Seemed like the man was trying to deal with the merchants were trying to deal with one part of the issue and the woman with the enhanced bag with the other. Still, as it currently sat, handling the pair was still an issue.

"Do what ye want with the other ships. As long as mine is not affected, I could give less of a damn," Qadim commented, addressing the talk about sinking the current armada. "As for the portal, you will need to be able to cast and hold one hell of a gate if you want that to wo–" His words were interrupted as a strong magic gust of wind flew at Qadim. The aim was lower than anticipated, however, and struck the orc's head, causing him to stumble back and two things to fly off of the orc's face. One was the cigar that rested with his lips. The other: the mirrored monocle.

When Qadim's attention went back to the one who fired the gust, the secret he hid behind it was for the word to see: a blue psionic medium with  faint glow in the middle of its iris, though it was quick to fade away. After all, with the secret to his tactics exposed, it was simply much easier to fight against it. A heavy sigh left his lips as he wandered off to collect what was dropped, pocketing the monocle before muttering, "Waste of a perfectly good cigar," before setting it ablaze, burning away the sand, dirt, and the cigar itself until it was nothing but ash. It was only fate for yet another gem to strike him square upon the head, though only to leave at worse a bruise with the magic armor he encased himself with.

Brushing the ash from his hands, he picked up the gem and looked it over before stating, "Before we deal with the clean up, we should ask where the hell these things are coming from," before tossing it over to the woman to look it over. "Sky doesn't exactly rain perfectly cut gems and coins of the land naturally, and I would bet my ass that magic cannot just create something from nothing. These treasures have to be coming from somewhere…"

Realizing that he had accidentally hit the orc, Caius decided to put himself in time out. He hadn't meant any harm but harm had been done. The jewelry maker slowly moved to sit on the ground as he listened to the other two speak. Pulling out a stack of flowers from his bag, he began to weave them into a flower crown. He began with a pink carnation then plucked up a daisy. Carnation, daisy, carnation, daisy. This was the pattern that he ended up creating with the flower crown. His mind delved into the work but his ears still listened to the conversation.

"A god or goddess could do this." He finally said softly, "…And it might not be coming from the same place. It could be coming from multiple places."

His finger nimbly worked on the crown he held while his lips moved. Each flower weaved in and out at a rapid pace. Despite the speed, none of the flowers appeared to be injured during the process. The carnation and daisy crown had been completed. He plucked blue orchids out of the flower pile and began to weave them together to make another crown.

"…The treasure falling might take multiple days. If you use a portal, I can give you some mana potions to help." He said in his gentle voice, "But it would have to be a temporary solution. We don't know how long this magic will last. Perhaps….."

He let his voice die out. Caius had an idea but the idea of talking more did not appeal to him. The damage that he had done already was enough. There was no need for him to continue messing things up. Besides, the both of them were frightening. The orc had looked almost enraged after the gust. And the woman had bitten the net when trying to escape. What if they tried biting him? He didn't like pain…

She already had an idea who was responsible, but that didn't make it any better. When the human man mentioned the showers of gold were likely coming from all over the island, she groaned. "Oh of course it is…it always is isn't it? Oh for the love of…" There was irony in the word that would complete that sentence. The offer to give her mana potions was nice, but she refused. "No, don't bother. I can't make something that big let alone hold it for more than a few seconds. I guess the net might be a more realistic option after all." Sighing in frustration she threw herself down on a fallen log. The thought that this could continue for a few days was enough to make her grind her teeth. She was back to square one. "For the sake of my sanity I'm going to assume that this ungodly money rain is supposed to stop sometime, which means there'd be a limit to how much filthy lucre pelts this island. And if my map is up to date…" Pulling out her wayfinder's widget she projected a rough topography of Horae's four sections. "…There's supposed to be a volcano over in the Ignius region."

The local volcano would make it a much shorter trip for dumping the gems and coin than Apoy, saving her energy. "The Ignius section's already tough to get across so it's a perfect furnace to throw this all into the fire." But that still didn't solve the problem of removing the treasure faster than it was pouring down. She was going to need help, lots of it. "I can sink the armada later. I pretty much have most of the pieces to put this situation under control." Out of the sight of the two men, she discreetly opened a portal to Antikythera before looking to the sky and whistling in a pattern loudly. The sound of flapping wings drowned out all the other noises as a swarm of cat-sized wyverns began descending from above. It was like a nightmare, leathery wings beating as a mob of reptiles settled into every branch and perch nearby. One of them landed on her shoulder, clinging to her from behind.

"Alright boys, I'm going to need you to handle a very important mission." She said to the beady eyes peering from all around. "I need you, you, you, you and the rest of you–to collect these." Grabbing a pea-sized ruby, she held it up. "Bring as much as you can carry back to me, and if you find any creatures out here who want to help pass the information along. It's going to be hard, but I know we can do it." If her hands weren't enough, then why not ask for more? Once she had a big enough pile she would then open a portal to the volcano and shovel it down into the caldera. Maybe these efforts would just be a small leak in the bucket, but once the gemstone hail stopped they'd start draining it eventually. With a cry, the wyverns save for one dispersed into the rest of the island to carry back treasure. Looking at the other two, she said: "Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to burn it all. But it beats running around with a suction-bag and dumping the contents back out before disposal." She gave them one last look before heading to the jungle that separated Terra from Ignius.   

Multiple places? He hated that idea along with how right it actually could have been. After all, this could be affecting multiple kingdom's treasuries, which in turn could affect the value of the coin to alter drastically. And if they did come other locations with the wild woman's idea to melt them all down into the volcano, then it would be ages as kingdoms are reverted to an older fashion of trade as they try to refill the collected gold.

Either way, the gods must have been drunk if they thought this was meant to help any. The question is: which of these two hells were the better option?

"If you got something to say, then say it!" Qadim barked at the man weaving flowers, easily able to take note of his muttering fading away, as he snapped his fingers. From the nearby shadows, a woman stepped out and over to Qadim's side. "My inventory," he demanded, holding a hand out to the woman, who was handed his ledger book. "Now get the fleet over to Glaciem and aid with the 'clean up' there, and make sure they know if that anyone dares to try even stow away a single coin, they will be fired on the spot. I am the one writing their paychecks, after all, not these ludicrous deities…" Another nod from the woman before she slinked back into the shadows.

Before the woman could vanish deep into the woods, the orc placed his hand on the woman's shoulder. "Before you take off, maybe you can find something in here that can help aid your cause? After all, we of the Garakh Trade Organization help deliver cargo from one land to the next. Mostly nonperishable, though exceptions can easily be made. If there is anything here on my list that can interest you, I am sure we can come to an agreement, no?" It was then he offered his ledger over to the woman along with a business card. "And I think its safe to say that neither of us wants to do business with these 'forgeries,' either." The coins could have been real, but to him, the ease of gain made them worthless, and the fact that she wanted to dispose of them meant she felt the same…