Trade Deal (Born to the Blade Season 1 Episode 5)

This is the fifth episode in the first season of Born to the Blade, an eleven-episode serial from Serial Box. This episode is written by Malka Older.

The warders of Twaa-Fei are reckoning with the biggest upheaval in generations. Kris Denn, champion of Rumika, has won the Gauntlet. Their nation joins the six that formed the Warder's Circle, dedicated to a fragile peace maintained by diplomacy and duels of blade and magic. The Mertikan Empire and its two vassal nations are now in a minority, but Mertikan Warder Lavinia Junius is not one for licking her wounds. She comes down hard on Oda no Michiko, the junior warder from Kakute whose loss in the final duel of the Gauntlet allowed Kris' ascent. Michiko continues to be torn between loyalty to her masters and to the ghost of the grandfather she never knew, The Golden Lord, last ruler of a free Kakute. On the winning side, Warder Ojo Kante of Quloo nervously and eagerly awaits a shipment of aerstone from his nation's newest ally, Rumika. Kris has let slip that the Rumikans have discovered a way to highly refine the mineral that keeps the sky islands afloat, something Quloo desperately needs before it sinks into the deadly mists below.