"Yes. But they're extremely serious business, naturally. Not to be used lightly."

"Not lightly, but if there were some sort of code that we and the others could agree to...this works much better than the medicals hoarding everything to themselves."

"Are there other, for lack of a better word, bandit factions out there? I see the hospital, established farmers, and you lot as the three sides so far. Minor split offs could make things complicated."

"Bandit clans are all separate, if you've go out far enough; but we all want food and water and entertainment. That's why the geas system might work better than government, now."

"I've never written geases much, before. I think a solid starting point would be "do not initiate violence unless - various caveats - within such and such an area.' It does seem potentially promising, but I don't like the idea of being too geas-happy."

"Communication will still be a big deal, and if you're the relay, people won't want to make you mad."

"That's good! I can ramble at a few people about farming basics and forest foraging for a little while before going back - you've got a lot of work to do to get a farm running even with seeds, may as well help you get started. You know where you're going to put your farm?"

She frowns thoughtfully.

"We will need a large plot of space. I don't believe we have anything that would do it, now."

Yannis nods in agreement. 

"Some of the other clans could share some territory with us and put a farm there, if we can secure their help."

"You can also clear land, with enough effort. And small gardens are better than nothing."

"Gardens cannot be maintained in the center of our camp, but we have some land at the outskirts that might work. I'll show you that now, and you can judge the suitability of the soil."

"Certainly, let's have a look."

She leads her way towards the camp.

There are a few children outside, gamboling about the fire. Their parents watch while they work.

They head into the abandoned school building, which contains beds, tools, food, clothes, computers...

They pass through.

She is scanning the environment for threats. She doesn't seem to recognize the place as anything in particular, though it looks like reasonably solid construction.

No threats in evidence. The bandits are fairly safe in their own camp. It wouldn't do to rob each other. 

They exit the building into a grassy field. The soil is more rocky than soft and loamy, but it might do for hardier plants.

"Hm... Yeah, this isn't great. Some things that don't care about the soil quality much... Carrots, radishes, corn, zucchinni. Olive trees grow in just about anything but it seems like it'd be too cold here. What are winters like here? ...And I don't have any olive pits."

"Winters here are too cold," she agrees.

"Zucchini seeds we have, and corn would be useful," adds Yannis.

"Corn mostly cares about having plenty of space and water. And, you don't know nothing about farming, but let's get started on the something!" Cue a lecture on how to grow zucchinni effectively in this soil - couched as educated guesses when she isn't sure - since they already have some seeds for it.

Most of the bandits gather around for the lesson. 

Yannis takes notes. The bandit queen listens intently.

One of the parents brings their children over to learn as well.

There are questions about what they can even do with zucchini, do they cook it, do they eat it with other vegetables, with meat, with milk?

You should probably at least boil it, if only to make it easier to eat. It's a good all-rounder vegetable that goes with a lot of things. Not a whole lot of energy in it but some nice vitamins, and it's filling.

There's a lot of discussion about how best to avoid disturbing the future garden. They decide to rearrange the layout of their camp to avoid damaging the soil. 

Yannis approaches her while the bandit chief is explaining the situation to the others.

"Have you thought about what happens if someone reneges? The farmer we met might not, but I don't trust the medicals."

"Violence happens, probably. Geases for peace might be a good idea after all."

"Maybe it is extreme, but the situation here isn't stable, and some people might...like that. People who take the opportunities that chaos offers. If you're willing, I think it's worth using them."

The bandit queen delegates. Some of her subjects are tasked with learning good farming practices, others with the manual labor required to set up the land, others with preparing for diplomacy with the farmers, other bandit clans, and the medicals.

Nino approaches Grendyne, grinning.

"Congratulations. You've possibly just saved the entire species. How do you want your section in the history to go?"

She makes sure to teach them 'forest farming' too. It requires less initial labor, and acorn flour is perfectly edible.

"Still lots of work to do. There's probably more people around... And I don't think I'm on my original planet. Too many discrepancies. So there's more people on other planets."

He strokes his chin. 

"Not surprising. The disease came from space. But you traveled here without a spaceship, as I recall."

"Yeah. Lytee Normanssen's magic can teleport people and things long distances. She deploys us to fight fast-response missions most of the time. I think she... Messed up pretty badly, to send me to some random place instead."