TWENTY-TWO
“What was that?” Alexandros did not yell, but his voice carried the authority of a man used to be obeyed. Benny hardly looked up from his holo as everyone lounged around the table. Kon, Alice, Benny, and the three mages had all broken into the kitchen, filling the dining table with a wide variety of finger foods.
After their dramatic confrontation, Benny had whisked all the kids away while Alexandros had stayed behind. Alexandra had been torn between her own ntor and grandfather, and the living legend that had founded her line. When Alexandros hadn’t co to join them, she had led her small coterie of mages with them.
“I got pissed and did sothing stupid. The kids are wearing off on ,” Benny said through a mouth full of dry cookies. A spray of crumbs launched from his mouth and peppered the ends of his long mustache as he cursed and grabbed a cup of water and swished it down.
“You’ve basically announced to everyone that we are at war with the lion. You’ve drawn battlelines in the sand before we could even begin to figure out who would stand wear,” Alexandros said in the sa asured tone as he sat down. He reached out with his long fingers and plucked a cracker from the pile, biting it in half as he stared at Benny.
“It was a mistake, I concede the point. Turning back ti is a lot more difficult that people think, so we should move forward with how to fix the situation,” Benny said. Kon froze at that and looked over at him.
“I thought ti travel was impossible,” Kon said quietly as every single eye went to Benny.
“Technically,” Benny said with a one shoulder shrug.
“We’re getting off topic,” Alexandros said as he finished his cracker. He didn’t seem to have been shocked by Benny’s unintentional admission.
“We’ll have to co back to that,” Kon muttered, but the two elders were moving on with their discussion.
“You scared the shit out of the soft power in the room. rchants and bankers were running the mont after you left. If there's an internal war, they need to be ready for it so they can profit,” Alexandros said.
“Hopefully it won’t co to that. We support the Ulmna and their allies and they are the ones who fight the lion directly. Goblins and wolves are fair ga, but our primary objective is keeping this from becoming a hot war. We grind down the lion and send them slinking away in sha. With the loss of prestige, n, and treasure, that should make them weak enough we can move to arrest and try those who have directly led to the death of Knights and the destruction of Titan's Resolve.” Kon stared at Benny and wanted to shake his head in pity.
“He doesn’t want to see that this is going to co down to a small civil war. We’ll have to kill the traitors.”
“While an honorable and worthy goal, I don’t think that’s going to be possible. Somrs had a lot of supporters there, deep, deep, roots in the comrcial sectors. The dragon doesn’t have the history and contracts to rival the lion, not in this sphere. Maybe in a direct confrontation they can fight them, but in this they are greatly outmatched,” Alexandros told the group.
“So we don’t have money. We get the money from the Ulmna for the contract that Benny holds,” Kon said.
“Were you paid upfront?” Alexandros asked. Kon froze and looked over toward Benny and the old man nodded slightly.
“Retainer. Should be enough to hire a few small Chapterhouses. But bringing over any large independents I’d have to dip into my own treasury,” Benny said.
“Can you afford that?” Alice asked, unapologetic for her probing question.
“I could. Should I though? It would greatly weaken our ability to complete our own long term goals,” Benny said, eyeing Kon before he could speak out.
“Ho. We need his wealth to fund the research needed to find ho.” Kon bit his tongue and nodded.
“Normally what we’d do is secure a series of loans to payout to the troops before deploynt. Allow them to load up on personalized gear while we stock basic supplies. From the sounds of it the banks aren’t going to be willing to do that?” Benny clarified as he checked with Alexandros.
“Not the major ones. You’ve been away too long. They’d have to search through the deep archives to find out who you are, but even then I don’t think it would move them to open their hoards for us,” Alexandros said.
“Minor banks?” Kon asked. Alice snorted and shook her head.
“Minor banks are basically just wealthy rchant families who have used their wealth as collateral for loans. None of them would have the wealth needed to outfit a large fighting force. Especially if the major banks are moving against us and giving loans to the lion,” she explained.
“So what’s our fallback?” Kon asked. Benny grimaced before shaking his head.
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“Rights to salvage. It’ll be one of the few things that will get a Chapterhouse motivated enough to spend their own di on equipping their teams before they go out to fight.”
“I don’t know what that ans,” Alexandra admitted and Kon kept the grateful look off his face. He’d been about to ask just what that ant himself.
“Anything they find they keep. Well…close enough,” Benny said with a wave of disgruntled wave of his hand.
“Which can be anything from a cache of monster cores to a battleship. Generally there’s a percentage that people keep, eight to ten percent, but right to salvage contracts they can keep anything,” Alice said with a bit of greed in her eyes.
“Can we even offer that? What’s the contract from Daniur say?” Kon asked. He hadn’t been part of that discussion while the two old monsters had hamred out a deal.
“Straight cash up front per fighter with variable pay depending on strength and tasks. It’s not complex as far as these types of deals go, but it is a contract for a multi-system war that can go on for decades if not decided quickly.” Benny sighed and wiped at his eyes, turning to look them over.
“We’ll see if we can lean on small banks to pay out the lesser independents. For the big independents we’ll do a modified right to salvage. Anything that isn’t owned by the Ulmna or Orgo is fair ga to be taken, no payouts needed.”
“That’ll help. Kon, I saw you talking to so dragon Squires. Anything to add?” Alexandros turned to him as did every other eye.
“Alice decided to challenge Draconis Jurgen to a wrestling match for the help of his personal company. And I made a small bet with the Squires about it,” Kon added the last part in a whispered rush.
“And if you lose?” Alexandros asked, turning to look over at her.
“He wants to et Benny,” she said as she leaned back in her chair and ate a stack of crackers in one go.
“They want in on the fight then,” Alexandros said, rubbing his chin before looking at Kon with a questioning gaze.
“The four Squires with all want to take a two-year contract with the mysterious Chapterhouse we’re building,” Kon admitted.
“Trying to offload spies or..?” Alexandra asked, leaving it open for anyone to fill in. Her grandfather frowned and leaned back in his chair.
“No, that doesn’t feel right. Not this clumsily. Benny, I think you would have better perception of this than I would,” Alexandros batted the question back to Benny.
“He’s looking out for his washouts. Four of them there where there can be fighting? No, he’ll have his true Squire staying back and out of sight while he brings these ones forward. They’ll have talent or skill he admires but doesn’t have the wealth or connections to see them made Knights."
“Even the Orders struggle with that? Thought it was just us independents,” Alice said, face scrunched up in annoyance.
“There are only so many cores to be given and treasures to be harvested. We’ve seen what a pit that Kon is and we can only imagine what these ones will be like,” Benny said, waving at the three mostly silent mages.
“Boy has absorbed enough treasure to buy a ship. A nice one too,” Alexandros whispered to his three students.
“You told him?” Kon said, incredulous that Benny would reveal the depth of their experintations.
“Alexandros has pushed further into mage craft than I ever have. We’re trying to blend three distinct cultivation styles to make sothing superior in every way. Of course I’m going to talk to the foremost expert in one of those paths,” Benny said.
“Benny honors , but he has forgotten more about mage craft than I’ll ever know,” Alexandros demurred.
“Nothing is forgotten. But sotis the search for that information is harder than it should be,” Benny said. Kon had a flashback to when Benny had been caught muttering to himself before speaking before.
“Is he using Truth to rember things? He’s been alive for so long that there’s no way his mory can hold everything he’s seen.” Kon mulled over that thought and wondered how regular cultivators handled that problem.
“Can they know? About the hybrid path?” Kon asked. Benny frowned and shook his head.
“The only ones who truly know are in this room. I put forth the paperwork for our Chapterhouse to be recognized the mont we got within range of the Oasis, but that won’t tell them anything.”
“Aside from Benny Lorgairi is forming his own Chapterhouse for the first ti,” Alexandros said with a snort of laughter.
“There is that. Could be just early jockeying, trying to implant young talent into what could beco sothing bigger. Who steered them though?” Benny mused.
“Mathis said that Jurgen was approached by soone he didn’t recognize. That’s where this whole eting thing is stemming from. Whoever that was decided to push him towards you. Could it have been Lero?” Kon asked.
“Doubt Lero would be that apparent. Our connection is vague except at the highest levels and if a low-level dragon like Jurgen attracted Lero’s attention he’d have been shitting bricks and looking for a high ranking mber of his order. Not looking for ,” Benny surmised.
“Who could it have been then?” Kon asked.
“There’s plenty of old things around Oasis. Fleet Guardian could have done it, but again, too powerful. A mber of his own Order or maybe even from one of the guiding councils. Who knows? I’m sure he’ll tell us when we have the eting,” Benny said.
“That’s going to be a problem, cause I’m not losing,” Alice said. She was still leaning back on two legs of her chair, boots propped on the edge of the table as she looked them all over.
“I don’t think it’ll matter if you win or not. The eting will happen,” Alexandros said.
“Alright. As long as none of you are asking to throw a fight for sothing as stupid as this. Could just ssage him and get this all over with,” Alice groused. She pulled her boots off of the table and rose up and stretched.
“I need my beauty sleep before I turn that Knight into a pretzel. Good-night,” Alice waved lazily as she walked away.
“Is she always like this?” Beto asked. The other boy couldn’t decide whether he wanted to sneer or be impressed by Alice’s nonchalance.
“Believe it or not, she’s behaving right now,” Kon muttered.
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