Hey, Sorry for the length of wait, but I have no time to write during the week. This chapter is a bit shorter than I planned, but when I got to the end, I decided that some of what I was writing wasn't appropriate to the story, so cut it. As always, I appreciate the readers, and welcome input. Hope you enjoy.
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It took a few minutes for Hope to calm back down, at which point the fact that I handed a loaded rifle to someone who had never heard of a gun before, was brought up. I assured her I had put the safety on...at which point Hope left to catch up with Aisha and Ethan.
The Adventurer’s guild had a number of requests available for Montevue posted on their boards, and when I reached the desk to accept the assignments, the local guild head was there waiting for me.
“Countess.” A large man dark haired man dressed in black robes said with a smile. My identify showed him to be a High Human of around a hundred and twenty, so getting into middle age. He had a set of magic spectacles on his face, which I identified as something to pierce illusions.
Here I thought my veil was working. “Sorry...do I know you?” I asked curiously as I placed the scripts of paper with the request notices down on the counter.
“Ahh, my apologies. My name is Lorian Greyson, and I’m what you might call a district head.” he said as the violet eyed Naomi appeared from in back. She handed Lorian some papers, which he scanned for a few moments and then handed back to her. “Go ahead and process the request. Let me know what the Abadern branch says though” he said before Naomi scurried off. Lorian turned his gaze back to me. “Would you mind coming to my office for a few minutes?” he asked.
“I suppose...is there a problem?” I ask curiously as Lorian stepped from behind the front desk to guide me back into the area where the different book keepers were logging records.
“No, no problems.” Lorian responded with wave of his hand toward one of the book keepers. “I just needed to cover some business related to your territories.” he said as we came to a small office. The place was very functional, almost spartan, lacking any real decoration, and a lot of filing cabinets. Lorian took a seat behind the desk, while I took one of the two chairs in front of it.
“I understand you recently acquired a large expanse of territory to the north.” Lorian said as he pulled out a folded map. There were folders under it, and what looked like copied segments of the map were bound to the folders with paperclips.
“...How did you hear about that? I just got the letter in the mail a day ago.” I said with wide eyes. I pulled my hat off, veil and all, and putting it in my lap. Lorian just stared dumbstruck at me, gasping sharply as he drew in a breath. “Do they CC the Adventurer’s guild or something?” I ask confused.
Lorian grasps at the edge of his desk, leering at me as I realize I shouldn’t have taken the veil off. I had planned to start using illusions, once I crafted something suitable, but that wouldn’t have really worked with Lorian to begin with, and wearing masks all the time would be uncomfortable. As I cleared my throat he managed to get control of his breath, and closed his eyes. “I see the reputation of your beauty was understated.” he said after a moment, opening his eyes to stare at the paperwork in front of him.
Lorian spent another minute trying to clear his head, and organize his thoughts, before continuing “...I’m sorry..what’s see see?” he asked confused.
“Oh...Um, it just means Carbon Copy.” I said a bit weakly, as it occurred to me that he’d have no idea what I was talking about. “You basically take a piece of paper and saturate it with ink, then sandwich it between tissue paper and a piece of regular paper. You place the paper you’re writing on over the tissue paper, and it copies it through to the other side.” I said to explain, “That’s basically copy paper, the carbon paper uses some sort of chemi...alchemical wax mixture along with paper soaked in specially prepared soot.” I said, realizing this wasn’t really making sense.
“...Wouldn’t the quill edges drag on the tissue paper if you were pressing hard enough on the sheet above it, to make a mark?” Lorian asked seriously, a frown on his face.
“Yea. It’s better to use a ball point than a quill or calligraphy pen.” I said with a shrug.
“Ball point pen?” Lorian asked, the look of confusion still on his face.
Grumbling internally, I used the crafting system to produce a silver cased ballpoint pen. Most of the mechanisms were simple to create, but the ink was turning out to be a pain in the ass. I started with coal to generate carbon black, then some of the dyes I got from the alchemist. I had to create Ethylene glycol to suffuse, and then getting viscosity right was difficult. Lorian must have thought I was nuts as I sat there muttering to myself, my hands moving between pocks, while my brain was skimming the ‘database’ for something to help with viscosity and drying. I know a bit of chemistry, but I was convinced when I finished the product, that ‘Magic’ was the way to go.
Finally ‘finding’ my ballpoint, I pulled it out and uncapped it. Reaching over I began writing on a blank section of paper on his desk. Lorian watched me write for a moment, before snatching the pen away. He stared at it as if it was a miracle made manifest. He began writing with it, and then stopped to press the pen down. He blinked a few times, then got up and left the office. He went over to some of the other scribes working with their quills and looked to be demonstrating it. Within a few minutes the entire room had stopped what they were doing and was watching him, or trying it out themselves.
“The ink’s already dry!” someone said wide eyed.
“It isn’t leaking, or blotching!” someone else exclaimed.
That went on for a few more minutes before Lorian came back into the office. The scribes were all staring inside. “Where did you get this?” Lorian asked seriously.
“Um...I made it.” I said with a wry expression. Maybe I should have just done a fountain pen.
“Can you make more? How many pages can this copy? Is it magic?” Lorian asked in quick succession.
“No...just some special mixtures for the ink. The internal mechanism is simple.” I said reaching up to take the pen. Lorian looked a little reluctant to let it go, as I began unscrewing it to show him the ink reservoir. I didn’t have plastic so I used a metal tube. “The ink goes in here, and you have to put some pressure behind it, but the ball at the end rolls and keeps the ink fresh as you write.” I explained showing him how the mechanism worked. I then put it back together and capped it, handing it to him. “It’s good for a while. You just have to inject more ink when it runs low.” I said.
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“Marvelous...Can you make more?” He asked, as people were whispering. I thought I heard something about ‘secret hoarding alchemists’ or something being bantered around with tones of irritation.
“I suppose...Didn’t you need to speak to me about something?” I asked trying to get the topic back onto why I was in his office to begin with. I was somewhat surprised that no one was leering at me, though quite a lot of scribes were leering at my pen. I went ahead and put my hat and veil back on while everyone was distracted.
“Oh...Right...I’m sorry, I was just a bit distracted.” Lorian said, going back to his door and shutting it on the people crowded in outside. When he took his seat again, he looked at me squarely, though he did make a point of holding tightly onto the pen. “Since you recently gained territory, I wanted to speak to you as a guild representative, to cover requests, as well as a proposal for a few new guild houses.” he said as he placed the ballpoint pen in his desk, and locked it.
“Oh...I saw that map of the territory...how did you find out about that anyway?” I asked curiously.
“I have some friends with the Duke of Flavia’s court. When the lines were redrawn, I received notice, and had been intending to meet with you in the next few days. The guild has to follow certain procedures when allowing requests to be posted, where they might pertain to the security or welfare of the territory in which they’re made. Beyond that, in the past we have not been able to secure permission to place guild houses in certain cities, especially Fairwind, and Valis, which are about twenty miles from the boarder to the Elven lands.” Lorian explained.
“Ahh, well I wouldn’t mind having people doing quests to clean up banditry and keeping those locations safe. It would save me on military forces...” I said warmly.
“Exactly what the Duke of Flavia suggested, which is why I felt confident you’d agree. I went ahead and had papers drawn up.” Lorian said opening one of his drawers, and laying an 8 inch stack of paper on his desk. “The top ones are for permission to place guild halls, and then the rest are for open requests, such as dealing with banditry. Missions issued by the territory in question, and covered by the territory in question. I thought you might wish to meet with those who keep your accounts, to agree on details of remuneration, such as rates.” Lorian said, pushing the stack toward me.
I glanced at the stack, took a moment, and absorbed the content. I pulled out a second pen and signed the permissions and then handed them back. “The rates seem appropriate. I can cover the costs myself, but I expect the guild halls to pay a tax on goods and services sold in the territory. “ I said looking at Lorian squarely.
“What type of tax?” Lorian asked, his mood shifting toward suspicion.
“I’m going to institute a three and a half percent tax on sales. They’re all for local building.” I said pushing the rest of the papers back.
“Seven shares in two hundred...The guild normally makes payments based on land assessments, and tariffs into and out of their respective cities.” Lorian said, looking at the papers and then back to me.
“Five of those seven towns in which you wish to build, don’t have walls to begin with. You’ll agree to it, or I’ll deny privilege to operate regardless of what you build. Land taxes will be based on cost of the city to maintain the area in which you place the hall.” I said as it occurred to my why he jumped me here to get my signature. If I just signed off on building, and let the locals decided on the other details, money would change hands out of sight, and the guild would simply avoid any costs.
Lorian cleared his throat, “If you desire. I’ll run it by the guild council so they can make a decision, but if you can agree to not elevate the percentage later, I’m sure they’d be willing to settle on that.” he said.
“Well, let me know. I’ll keep the requests for Montevue. Since I’m paying myself, it being in my territory, you won’t need to pay me.” I said before heading for the door.
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When I finally returned to Caliburn I found Hope upstairs secluded in our room, and Ethan surrounded by the women currently serving as maids. Aisha and Mother were talking quietly as Ethan was being comforted. Hope had managed to get into another argument, and then refused to turn Ethan back to normal. Ethan looked about as uncomfortable as I had ever seen him, as I could swear that two of the women were groping him, though they might just be overly friendly.
“I’ll restore Ethan.” I said to Mother and Aisha as they were watching Ethan.
“It’s unfortunate this all happened...and Hope isn’t making the best of impressions on everyone right now.” Mother said, causing Aisha to frown.
“She got upset, and let things get out of hand. She didn’t mean for anything to happen to Ethan, and shouldn’t be blamed for what did happen. Everyone’s just upset, even Hope...I think she likes Ethan too.” I said the last quietly to Mother.
Mother nodded knowingly, as I stepped in to break up the press of women on Ethan. With a wave of my hands his body shifted proportions, causing his current attire to appear a bit ridiculous. I walked up, and gave Ethan a hug, and then told him to go change into something more comfortable. After he left I got a few *knowing* grins from the other women.
“What happened after Hope caught up?” I asked, turning back to Mother and Aisha.
“Uhhh...well, Hope I think was trying to apologize, but Ethan had started screaming, and waving around the weapon you gave him. I took that away from him, by the way. Afterwards, Hope got defensive, and Ethan started crying. Hope tried to be comforting I think, and then Ethan snapped at her. Hope got upset, and they argued until we got home. After which Hope refused to change him back, and fled upstairs. Ethan broke down on the couch, and everyone came in to check on him. “ Aisha said, filing in the details.
“Well, after he bathes, and gets changed he should feel better.” I said hopefully.
Mother and Aisha just looked at me and then between each other, and sighed. “Eventually, baby. Eventually.” Mother said giving me a hug, and then walking off. Aisha went back to her room to pack for the trip.
On the other side of my mind, I could feel Hope was upset, and trying to come to some type of decision. I didn’t wan to intrude on her thoughts, so I decided to go find another room to sleep in for the night. Somewhere in the late afternoon I went to take a nap.