11. Expansion

  The 22nd of January Bari the work on the city continued unabated, Guiscard tried raiding, but was rebuffed, losing a few men. A tower with soldiers and a ballista was erected in the dead of night, surprising the Normans who watched a fully functional tower be erected not that far from their siege lines. Bolt shooters lined up on the construction site, and Adaneus paid a hefty sum to make sure it continued. The construction was slow and arduous and the hiring of bolt shooters was likewise a longwinded affair, Adaneus wanted the town to expand logically and methodically, he knew with his fortified town he could at least rebuff besiegers, but he needed to make sure he had enough room and enough people to actually allow his economic miracles to work. With each passing day he could grow economically, but he had to be smart about how he did it, for if the city fell he would have to do it again.

  “The city must be impregnable,” Adaneus said musing to himself, “if they take the town we’re fucked and I have to find another place to go, we are not too far from east, from Africa, from Greece, from the Adriatic, from the French kingdom or the German. It must be here.”

  “If it is here, we must be careful,” Kwame said, “for there is nothing but enemies abound. I think you should read these books on dualism, they will help us proselytise to the disbelievers.”

  “Two deities, good, one bad?” Adaneus said, “what is the benefit to that.”

  “Muslims and Christians have a laughable cosmology,” Kwame said, “they believe a good god made evil, it is a cheat code we can use to make them question their beliefs.”

  “The Devil right?” Adaneus said.

  “Economic affairs is important, but these arguments can allow us to convert the countryside, we need priests to Helios, who understand that the Christian and Muslim doctrine on evil is frankly garbage.”

  Butros pointed at Kwame almost violently.

  “What the hell does that mean?” Butros said.

  “The monotheist has to say that god made everything correct,”

  “Sure,” Butros said.

  “Well who made evil then according to the monotheist?”

  “God, I guess,” Butros said.

  “Exactly, so the all good god according to islam and Christianity made the devil, and yet it can always destroy the devil whenever it wants to, and this is a cosmology that makes no sense, why does Allah or Yawheh not simply destroy evil if he is so powerful. There is no sense, the polytheists never make a claim that evil was created by some all good, all powerful, all knowing deity. In fact most polytheists make the claim that the gods are a mixture of good and evil. Zoroastrians are dualists, they claim that there is an evil god Ahriman to contend with the good god.”

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  “Right,” Butros said, much calmed down, “so you’re saying a good god making evil makes no sense. But I heard the priests say that evil is merely an absence of evil.”

  “Incorrect,” Kwame said, “what you are describing is passive evil, that means I don’t help somebody for example, I see a homeless guy and I do nothing, active evil would be running around kicking beggars, slicing people’s heads off who had done no harm. Do you understand?”

  Butros nodded, his fair skin now tanned, frowning and with wrinkles as he tried to parse the words coming to him. Touching his own face, and nodding with understanding.

  “What about polytheism? They argue the gods are at least partially malevolent,” Butros said.

  “Yes some of the gods are malevolent, but it doesn’t mean that all of them are, we acknowledge diversity in temperament, an all good god can’t possibly make evil, it doesn’t make sense, the Theodicy is an achilles heel of monotheism,” Kwame said.

  “I will use these arguments Kwame,” Adaneus said, “this argument of theodicy seems useful, I will use it in public sermons from now on. If magec or Helios is to prevail, we must use all the weapons we have.”

  Butros still was stunned, in many ways he was perhaps a monotheist, or had a monotheist mindset, thinking that god was all powerful, perhaps he had seen Adaneus use his crystals and had just assumed this was the one true god, but the questions attacked his programming slightly.

  Adaneus went out about his business over the course of the day planting cardamon and growing it instantly with the crystals, but he had to wait for other products, some of the citizens had already begun preparing the new city district, bolt shooters shot at Guiscard who impotently watched as the construction continued unabated. Walls slowly came up, with mortar, and it was quickly fortified and thickened to make sure enemies like Guiscard could not exploit the weakness. A catapult came to bombard the city, but the city quickly responded, the ballista shooting and counter battery fire quickly hitting Guiscard. Guiscard still kept siege lines, but he could not do anything as the locals built the city right under his nose. 8800 solidi were in the city coffers, and all Guiscard could do was watch from afar and seethe. Adaneus sold 1300 solidi worth of black pepper now having 10,100 solidi in the coffers. The day wasn’t so productive, but he could see there was progress.

  “So this part of the city will be an industrial agricultural zone?” One man said.

  “Alternatively I can make that part the new industrial agricultural zone, but it is far from the port, and I’d have to destroy the crops I’m growing here, or at least leave them.”

  “I understand, for the good of the city we will move.”

  They did as much, Adaneus watching the new houses that were being built alongside the walls. Another tower was erected, and the walls were being made wide so as to avoid any intrusions, bolt shooters were made, the manufactories were thriving and money was circulating and the city was truly a blessed place; for Adaneus to have so thoroughly removed any and all effects of siege on the city made the new religion almost untouchable, known as Helios to the citizenry or Magec to some, the new construction right in front of the Normans noses was unquestionable favour of god, but his cult was little known outside of Bari, with only curious merchants having witnessed it.