Chapter 20: Chapter Nineteen: When the Door Is Slammed in Your Face, Use the Window

            Leo examined the interior decorations, the customers, and the staff of the bank as he waited, taking it all in. A pleasant-smelling air circulated, and he sensed a faint magic from the potted plant he sat next to.

            Hugh went to sleep, lying on the floor, and Lily observed along with Leo in companionable silence. Leo observed people go to the counter, turn in large amounts of gold, and in some cases, large objects. They would receive a piece of paper in return for smaller things, and a glowing steel amulet in the shape of a small shield for the larger objects or giant piles of coin.

            Leo leaned over to Lily and pointed at one of the glowing objects. “Do you know what those are?”

            “They’re markers that are tradable proof of ownership anywhere in the Inner Sea, Split Sea, and the Ten Lakes. Each one costs two gold to make, so the chits are only used on the largest transactions. The imbuers use Mind crystals to attune them to the owner and the bank, and the chits can only be traded by will, without coercion, switching the person they’re attuned to, or amounts traded between chits.”

            “And that works?”

            “There have been rumors of magic that can corrupt them, but no proof. And no major scandals with two people claiming the same vault or money.”

            “Huh.”

            Leo went back to people watching. He had felt as if there were anti-elf prejudice in the city, but it didn’t seem to affect any other species here. The dwarf, gnome, and ox-people were all served with what appeared to be the same respect as the humans, who outnumbered them.

            He couldn’t help but wonder why.

            After all of the other customers in the bank hall had been helped, and new ones had come in—including a rainbow-colored coutal, whom Lily had confirmed as a sentient magical beast. Leo watched three more people who had come in after him get served.

            But then an elf walked up to him, leaned down slightly, and whispered, “Mistress Orsini will help you now. If you will follow me, please.”

            Why make me wait past my turn, but less than a full rotation? Is one person specifically assigned to helping those without appointments?

            Lily walked up to the desk. Leo gently kicked Hugh, who woke with a snort. The dragon stretched and then followed Leo as they went to sit next to Lily, grumbling the whole way.

            The woman who was staring at them was quite a bit older, appearing to be in her sixties. She had gray hair but also had steel-blue eyes surrounded by wrinkles that looked sharp and hard. Leo could tell they would find no generosity or mercy with this one.

             “My name is Mavis Orsini. Welcome. What is it you wished to speak to me about?”

            “We wish to open an account, and also—”

            “Do you have coin?” Mavis asked. “Anything that you could put into an account, elf?”

            “Well, not yet—”

            “Then you have no business here. Why have you wasted my time?”

            Lily had red spots high on her pale cheeks. “Well, if you’d let me finish, I could—”

            “Nick, please come and take these paupers from my hall,” Mavis cried out, waving at the mustached guard.

            “What a louse!” Hugh said. “I should bite you!”

            Nick hurried over.

            “It would be the last thing you ever did, wretched beast,” Mavis said, staring daggers at Hugh.

            “Now wait,” Lily said, but Mavis called “Next!” and ignored her.

            Lily slumped and allowed herself to be led out by Nick. As she did, the old man hobbled out from behind the huge counter, walking as fast as his cane would allow him, sounding like he was trying to send a message in Morse code on the stone floor. He followed them outside and joined them on the steps.

            “I’ll take it from here, Nick,” the man said.

            “Of course, Master Orsini, sir,” Nick said, and then he went down the steps to rejoin Kyle in the patrolling.

            Leo glanced at Master Orsini.

The man was stooped and spotted and wore a long coat, incongruous in the heat, over a well-made doublet and breeches. Master Orsini’s face had deep lines, both laugh and frown, and his hazel eyes, under caterpillar-imitating white eyebrows, burned with intelligence. His wispy, white hair rustled in the tiniest of breezes.

He spoke without any introduction. “So, Duchess Willowynd, I must say that I’m surprised to find you here in our particular city. May I ask what your purpose at our fine establishment was?”

            Lily’s eyes widened in shock at hearing her title used, but she rallied and answered. “I sought to open an account, before the ‘mistress’—whose conduct was absolutely unworthy of a noble, even a noble whose rank is based on trading—kicked us out without even listening. The items that I have for sale will probably sell for thousands of gold, and I wished to have it held here pending various purchases I will be making.”

            The man folded his hands over his cane. “Reminding you that our institution prides itself on the thoroughness with which we keep our clients’ secrets, may I ask you what you aim to sell, and what purchases you plan to make? I concede that I am intrigued by the presence of the probable second-in-line to the old Averian throne and a Storm dragon in the same group. I will treat your disclosure as if you held an account with us already.” The man bowed over his cane. “I’m George, by the way. George Orsini III.”

            Lily exchanged a thoughtful glance with Leo, her eyebrow raised.

            “Up to you,” Leo whispered. “I don’t know enough to say if we can trust him or not. Given how this town is treating us, he might be our best bet, unless we want to sail elsewhere.”

            Lily hesitated for a moment and then spoke. “I have a Bloodline Scroll to sell, and our dragon friend has another.”

            “Ah…” George said, leaning back in his chair. “A Bloodline Scroll. A great treasure, indeed. I studied them quite thoroughly in my early years. It’s interesting that the elves of Averia acquired so many. At least four of your noble families had lines once, did they not?”

            “And the royal family,” Lily said. “I’m surprised you knew that.”

            George smiled a tired smile. “I have an odd personal connection.”

            “Now I’m curious.” Lily leaned forward in a pose that almost exactly matched George’s, sans the cane. “What connection could you have?”

            “A shameful one,” George said. “But let’s put that aside for a moment. I actually have need of your services, potentially, but I need to know—What is your actual purpose here, besides storing coin?”

            Now Leo was also burning with curiosity, but he respected the old man’s wishes and didn’t say anything. He leaned against a pillar in the front of the Shield Bank and watched Lily and George talk.

            Lily flicked her hair back. “As to what we wish to buy… We are outfitting an expedition to build a city in the forests of Averia.”

            “Excellent, excellent,” George said. “That’s what I thought when I saw Duchess Willowynd in our city trying to open an account. Nothing else made sense, since you can store money in your home city of Lakusi. But for outfitting an expedition, Steelport was the obvious first choice.”

            Leo was impressed with the old man’s insight. Why did he know so much about the elves?

“So, the rumors are true—old Chao isn’t active anymore, huh?” George asked.

            Leo hadn’t expected that news to travel so quickly, but he supposed that there had been enough time for a trip to and from the Blue River to this city three times, if that was all the ship had done, since Chao had disappeared.

            If someone moves first to claim the realm of Averia, we’ll never be able to make this work. Heck, if someone moves at all, even after we’ve built our first settlement, we might have serious trouble. It’s not hard to move military forces across this sea. There’s a reason the Roman Empire occupied everything within a couple hundred miles of the Mediterranean and not much else past that.

            Lily twisted a lock of hair around her finger. “Chao isn’t active. We confirmed it when we went to the site of his hoard ourselves. Unfortunately, his hoard disappeared as well.”

            George nodded along with her words, his eyes distant. “I see. Well, I think I can help you… That is, if you help me. I have a problem, but it’s one that will present an opportunity for you.”

            “What, exactly, would the help you provide be?” Lily asked.

            Hugh was obviously growing bored. He slumped to the ground, not unlike a dog in posture, with his head on his claws. He caught Leo staring at him, rolled his eyes, and mouthed ‘boring’ at Leo.

            When did I get good at reading a dragon’s lips?

            George said, “I can see to it that your account is opened, and your goods sold. But I do have a request first.”

            “Well, quit with the hype and just tell us what’s going on.” Leo crossed his arms over his chest—this conversation was starting to go in circles. “We’ve been dancing around this for a while. What do you need, and why should we help?”

            “My estranged son decided to try to make levels by fighting the Blood Tribes, to stop their advances across the shores of the Inner Sea. Thank the good gods that orcs and goblins rarely take to the water, right? However, his skill was not the equal of his zeal, and now he is their prisoner and slave.”

            “Wait, why hasn’t your family recovered your son? Couldn’t they just buy him back? Lily told me the Blood Tribes sell a lot of slaves.”

            George sighed. “My son is half-elf, and not of the House anymore. They won’t pay for him, and neither his mother nor I have the money to do so.”

            Lily’s eyes narrowed, and her hand clenched. “How did that happen?”

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            “It happened exactly as you’re implying, Lady Willowynd, only the tale is sadder even than you might imagine. Fifty years ago, when I was twenty, I was the up-and-coming genius of the House. I was nephew to the House Head, and better at deal-making, politics, and management than anyone else in the family—and not by a small margin. Plans turned to rivers of gold in my hands.”

“And humble,” Hugh muttered with his head still on his folded paws. “So humble.”

George ignored Hugh as he continued. “The family wanted to expand and solidify our place both. We were looking for a Bloodline scroll. We wanted our leaders and top family members to all be stronger, more likely to stand the test of the ages.”

“I understand,” Lily said, her voice low.

            He sighed. “In my supposed brilliance, I concocted a plan. A plan born of the folly of intelligence over wisdom. Why pay thousands of gold for a Bloodline scroll—assuming we could even find one given they have to be made by ascended mages on other dimensions—when we could buy a slave who already had a bloodline, I asked myself. I proposed the plan to the then-council of House Orsini. They said yes. There were, after all, four perfectly good bloodlines in the dying Kingdom of Averia.”

            “That’s… kinda evil,” Leo whispered.

            “It was,” George said, his eyes watering. “It was. But it worked. We purchased, for a couple of gold, a slave whom we had learned had a bloodline. They told me that I should be the one to father children with her, although I hadn’t proposed that part of the plan. I did. Two amazing, wonderful, beautiful half-elven children.”

            “That’s no way to treat a duchess of the kingdom.” Lily shook, but her voice was steady as she spoke. “What came of it?”

            “I… I’m sorry. I don’t wish to talk about it anymore. Suffice it to say that Ola is free, as are our children, and she’s not with me. For these purposes, that’s all you need know. I answered your question.”

            “I suppose.”

            George pulled a scroll from inside his coat and held it out to Lily. “Here, hold this end.”

            Lily took the scroll, and George unfurled it. He held one end while Lily held the other, leaving one of his hands free to point.

            Leo stood fully from his resting, and Hugh came off the ground with a “hunnph” of effort, and all four of them stared at the map.

It took a moment for Leo to piece it together, as he’d never seen it before. But it was a map of the Inner Sea and the surrounding territories—including the Blue River, Elgin Isle, and the ruins of Calasti. It all fit with descriptions that Leo had received from Lily, but the visual helped coalesce everything he had learned in his mind.

            “So, here”—George gently touched a piece of the map about a day’s walk north of where Leo had reached the Blue River the first time—“is the new base of the Blood Tribes. One of Grakith Demonborn’s many children, Chargath Bone-eater, created it. He took about four hundred, give or take a hundred, elf slaves—including my son—to help him turn it into a permanent outpost.”

            Leo winced. Exactly what I’m worried about—people grabbing territory before we can.

            “That’s where the famous temple of Iluvin Eturia is,” Lily said, eyes widening. “The temple of the Roothammer.”

            George had more immediate concerns. “If they control the river, and you don’t, it’ll be harder to build your city, since trade with the Ten Lakes, up the river, will be raided into oblivion. And you’ll not benefit from being on the only easy path for that trade to occur.”

            “And we need to free the elves of the Averian Kingdom.”

            George nodded. “You need to do all those things. But I just want my son returned. I’m too old to worry about the greater politics of it.”

            “As to advice, there’s a woman in town right now, Meryl Cavendil. She’s personally quite strong, Level Eight, and she established a mercenary company. While I wouldn’t advocate relying on mercenaries for your nascent kingdom, hiring them for a quick strike, to destroy the base and free the slaves, might be extremely advantageous. She needs a job, and soon, since she’s in hock for the costs of establishing her company. I would also recommend that you speak to the mother of my children, Ola the seamstress. She would likely join you on the expedition, as would my daughter. They have some small skill at fighting, more at other tasks, and would probably all be happier in a new city you created as well.”

            That’s… interesting, thought Leo.

            Lily grabbed Leo’s arm, then spoke excitedly to him. “We should find and gather the bloodlines back to the empire. You’ve seen your own perk—you know that these individuals would be strong if we could bring them back. They belong with us again—they were the best and brightest of the nobles of the realm.”

            But Leo wasn’t so sure. Getting some inherently powerful leaders would be advantageous, but I’m not sure how I feel about a magical aristocracy. We’ll deal with that later, Leo thought.

            “Where’s the next-nearest base of the Blood Tribes?” Leo asked.

            George pointed back at the map. He ran his finger from the mouth of the Blue River west along the northern shore of the Inner Sea, about eighty miles according to the key. He passed two rivers along the way, both coming down off the huge plateau that dominated most of the north side of the Inner Sea. There was a five-mile-wide strip of land along the shore between sea and plateau. He tapped the southern edge of the plateau itself, near the second river, where the map showed a city named ‘Dark Warren.’

            “Here. Dark Warren is an underground node, a dual node of Shadow. There’s a thriving goblin city of ten thousand—at least—there.”

            Well, shit, Leo thought. I’m going to be in a war soon, likely sooner if I attack that base.

            Suddenly, the strangeness of it all hit Leo. I can’t believe less than a month ago, I was working out of my tiny apartment in a normal world and now I’m thinking of ordering and joining a raid on what is, effectively, an enemy people.

I wonder what Audrey would think of all this?

            “I don’t really have a choice, do I?” Leo asked.

            George shook his head. “No. I’m sorry. If the Blood Tribes control the Blue River, you’ll be destroyed, sooner or later. Probably sooner.”

            “I appreciate the opportunity,” Leo said. “I do need to free more elves and secure the river. But I want to talk to you about your involvement in this.”

            “My involvement is done. I intend to push to get you your account and be done with it. I will have done the last thing I can for my children and the woman I love, and then I intend to die in peace, frankly.”

            Fatalistic… but it means he’d likely be down for another proposal.

            “I want to hire you to help me run this expedition. I’ll pay well in addition to rescuing your son. But since I must plan a military expedition and then go fight in it, I need someone here. Someone to organize everything, and, if we don’t get back in time, someone to start the process of settling Elgin Isle.”

            “I can’t do that as a member of House Orsini.”

            “Then leave,” Leo said. “You said you’re old and planning to die anyway, so screw it—do one last awesome thing before you go.”

            George contemplated for about thirty seconds, then smiled. A smile much more genuine than his earlier ones. “That has a surprising amount of appeal—they won’t let me matter enough here to accomplish anything. Very well, Leo, I will run things. Any details I need to know?”

            “We won’t be a slave-holding society, but I want you to buy slaves to set them free, to be our new citizens. Elf slaves mostly; they’ll be very heavily invested in a reborn Averia and remember being free both, given their lifespans.”

            George nodded, his eyes looking into the distance.

            Lily cut in. “We want an Omnieye device, and at least twenty lashes.”

            What? Leo thought.

            “Masochism is a new look for you,” Hugh quipped.

            Lily blushed. “Don’t be ridiculous, you silly dragon. ‘Lashes’ are extensions of the range of the Omnieye item, named after eyelashes.”

            “My way’s funnier,” Hugh said with a smile.

            Leo ignored the two. “I’ll need about a thousand gold for a couple of things I want specifically for the town, and for gear. How much should I expect to pay for the merc company you recommended?”

            “About two hundred gold,” George quickly replied. “It’ll be a quick campaign, but they still risk death and will be outnumbered.”

            “Interesting.”

            George’s eyes focused again. “Given what you’ve asked to keep, and how much the Bloodline scrolls will sell for… I can get a hold of about eight hundred slaves, as well as materials to build farms or shops for roughly twelve hundred, since I’ll assume the mission succeeds.”

“I also want a bow and a spear for every adult,” Leo added.

“I can do that. I’ll also focus heavily on durable and hard-to-build tools, but I’ll have enough food delivered to get us set up and through a bad winter if we have one. And you’ll have a small amount of wealth left over as well.”

            “And you’ll go yourself, to oversee the establishment,” Leo continued.

            George inclined his head. “I will.”

            “Great. Lily, can give you the final details of what we need. I, specifically, need you to get two very talented Earth magic architects to build bridges, and one Metal mage who’s talented at crafting. Also, at least one soldier to oversee construction of a fort and training a militia—we’ll need them before this is done.”

            George turned and looked out over the city from the top of the bank steps. “I know two Earth wielders who fit your needs from the noble families—Vincent Colonna and Felix de Medici.”

            “Excellent.”

And now… Leo thought. To the side quests.

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