Yaridek

Under the Wet Canopy

Standing water and constant drip define Yaridek. Temperate rainforest closes over the town on every side, huge dark trunks and moss to the shoulder and mist that does not lift until the morning is well on, and every road out must be cut back again and again or lost to the green. Trade is what the place lives on. Goods moving between the forest country and the open land pass through Yaridek's hands, and everything about the town is built for that work: storehouses raised clear of the wet ground, wide covered floors where bales can be opened without soaking, drying sheds kept going through the rainy months.

Bargains Made in the Damp

Its people are Ashanar, third-wave settlers who took ground the earlier waves had passed over, and they keep the far-trader's habits: slow to commit, thorough about terms, unwilling to be hurried by weather or by buyers. Yaridek answers to Tamazor, the great grain city out in the open country, is governed by the faction seated at Lemmalu, and belongs with both of them to the wider bloc of Saradir.