The Bagii Atoll is a broken ring of fourteen islets off Kretavia’s east coast, at the eastern end of the Sea of Coin. It is the second home of the Bagii and the only place where Feldian and Kretavian merchants reliably do business face to face. There is no seat of government. The market moves with the season, and both sides prefer it that way.
The ring
The atoll is the last of the mountain chain that walls off the Wastes. The range runs south the length of the world, drops into the Sea of Coin, and surfaces one final time here as fourteen peaks with their heads barely above water. Kirchberg scholars worked this out from the rock a century ago and were pleased with themselves; the Bagii had been saying it for longer than that.
The islets are low, hot and bare. Nothing grows on them worth eating. There is no spring on the atoll and no timber, so drinking water is caught in cisterns, sold by the barrel, and rationed openly in a dry year. Buildings are coral rag, mortar and imported wood. The lagoon inside the ring is broad and calm enough to hold a great many hulls, and one deep channel — the Gate, on the north-west arc — is the only way in for a loaded ship. A Bagii pilot takes every vessel through it.
The market
The fair runs from the end of the winter gales until the autumn turn, and the lagoon in high season holds more tonnage than most Feldian ports see in a year. Warehouses on the two largest islets are leased by the month. Berths are assigned by the Bagii harbor-keepers and lost the same way.
The customs are short and enforced without much discussion. No flags. Weapons stay aboard, which applies to Kretavic escort troops and to Feldian hired swords alike. Disputes go to a panel of Bagii who hear both sides and rule the same afternoon, and a merchant who ignores a ruling does not get a berth next season — a penalty that sounds mild until you price the alternative. Weights and measures are checked against a set of scales the Bagii keep and both sides have agreed to trust. The agreement is older than most of the houses trading under it.
Goods
North to south: grain from Kornfeld, wine from Kronstadt, furs and timber from Waldheim, iron and coal from Steinmark, salt fish from Seehaven. South to north: Kretavic metalwork and textiles, dates and citrus, dyes, spice, and finished goods a Feldian workshop cannot match. Very little is consumed here. The atoll is a place things pass through, and it takes its cut on the way.
Most cargo now moves on credit rather than coin. Letters drawn in Kronstadt are honored on the atoll, and the Bagii houses that clear them have grown wealthy doing nothing but standing between two parties who dislike each other.
Getting there
From the Bagii Isles the crossing takes ten days in fair weather, and the two Bagii settlements pass ships, crews and news between them constantly. From Feldia the atoll route avoids the Seehaven canal, which is slower and dearer than the direct passage and much less likely to end in an argument with a Kretavic patrol.
What merchants are talking about
Traffic in iron and weapons has climbed sharply over the past two years. Consignees are vague, shipments arrive broken into small lots under several names, and payment comes through instruments complicated enough that nobody at the quayside can say who is buying. Berth rents on the eastern islets have doubled. Kretavic escort detachments have grown, and they now stay through the whole season rather than sailing home with their convoys. The Bagii have made no comment about any of it, which the older factors say is the Bagii making a comment.