Dinner ended and afterwards Brutus Maddoc and his nephew both decided that they should take their conversation somewhere more private.
Later the two men would find themselves sitting in the study on the top floor of the Maddoc Chateau. They both sat in silence. Each of them having retreated to the refuge of their own heads.
“Drink?” asked Brutus. Immediately struck by a sense of inappropriateness, as the last time he’d seen Billy had been when the boy was around eleven or so.
“...Sure.” said Billy.
Brutus startled as if not expecting to be answered, or to be taken up on the offer he’d just made. He stood and in a daze he bent down and pulled two glass and a decanter of brandy out from the cupboard behind the desk.
Billy watched him do it, quietly displeased to see the man sitting at his father’s desk. In his father’s chair. Unhappy to know that he’d been drinking his father’s treasured thousand year old, aether enriched, brandy.
Unhappy to see the extent to which his Uncle had been acting like he owned the place. Making himself at home without any sense of guilt, or reservation. Inside of Billy there was a smoldering spark of anger. Muted by just enough time allow him to pretend he didn’t feel it.
If his insides matched with the youth of his outsides he might have said something or at the very least his feelings would have shown on his face.
Fortunately that wasn’t the case, fortunately he was viewing it all from so far away a distance that it was only later that it’d fully register that he’d been more than a little upset.
Thus for now, Billy wore a look of slightly amused indifference. His eyes empty, his expression devoid of any real emotion, as if none of what was happening at the moment was real.
Like he wasn’t actually conversing with his uncle, the man responsible for setting him on a path of bloodshed and suffering, and was instead reading a fictional account of such a conversation.
“So...Well, You’re back!” said Brutus, nervously chuckling as he drained his glass.
“That, I am.” said Billy.
“That’s great...Just great. Uh, What happened? We looked everywhere for you, kiddo.” said Brutus.
“I’m sure you did, Uncle. Under the couch. In the wine cellar. In the family safe. Between the maids’ legs. I’m sure you exhausted ‘all’ the options before you gave up and stopped looking for your least favorite nephew.” said Billy, with wry laugh.
Idly sipping from his glass of brandy as he paid close attention to the man across from him. Ready to act if it looked like his Uncle was about to go and do something inadvisable.
Like say calling the guards or pulling out the pistol that Billy knew was in the desk’s topmost drawer. Billy wouldn’t have known about the gun if the man’s every thought and action wasn’t screaming about it.
Announcing it’s presence with the way he was glancing at the drawer and the way his thoughts leaned on the little revolver for moral support. Turning it into a security blanket, a heatsink for his anxiety.
“Now you hold on one damn-!” said Brutus. The volume of his voice rising and the color of his face darkening.
Billy rolled his eyes.
“Please, Uncle. We Maddocs may sell everything from magic tools to fertilizer but ‘I’ am not a farmer in need of bulls’ shit today. We’re both adults, let’s act like it. Six or seven years ago, I took a ride to neighboring town. Heading there on an errand for ‘you’ and the family. No security, no guards. No one there to stop a certain band of raiders from killing the driver, taking me and selling me to whoever would pay. For the sake of civility let's pretend that all that was just a bit of bad luck, with no plot or conspiracy…”
“Pretend nothing! That’s exactly how it-!” said Brutus. Nearly shouting now.
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“Oh, hush. Your son’s downstairs sleeping.” said Billy. His tone scolding.
“What matters is that I didn’t come here to talk about that. What did I come to talk about was me doing ‘you’ a favor.” said Billy.
“Favor? What the hell kind of favor do I need from you?” said Brutus.
“The kind where I don’t take this house and my place as the rightful heir of the controlling share of the Maddoc holdings. As a certain will that’s been publicly disclosed, would have me do...”
Brutus glowered his hand not so subtly moving towards the drawer with the gun in it. Billy pretended not to see it, simply setting his eyes on the man.
Billy drew on the aether within his core manifesting it as a wave of semi-visible pressure, an aura. Staring unblinkingly as he let loose the aura, changing it into a heavy killing intent, that let the man know just how very bad an idea pulling out that gun would be.
Brutus gasped and Billy pretended not to notice as he watched the man struggling to keep his breathing even. He had to give his uncle credit, regardless of whether he was successful in doing so, the man never stopped attempting to keep his cool. Even managing to still any excess motion that could have possibly been taken for trembling.
“Okay...I’m not sure you understand what’s in your parent's’ will or why you’re taking this tone, but sure, I’ll hear what you have to say.” said Brutus, his voice dissonantly calm.
Even enough that if Billy couldn’t see his face turning purple and the sweat beading on his brow he might have really thought the man was truly unconcerned.
“I want two things and if you give me those two things, you and I will be done. You’ll never have to see me again and even if you do see me, you’ll at least never have to have this talk again. I’ll even sign a contract stating I’ve ceded my claim to the Maddoc holdings.”
For once Brutus didn’t look angry or uncomfortable. Instead he looked intrigued. Brow furrowing as he tried to figure out Billy’s game.
Eyes a little brighter at the thought of getting what he wanted in a way that would stand in a court of law and beneath the scrutiny. Especially since Billy just revealed that any attempt at using force, or methods similar to those Brutus used before, to settle the issue would get messy in a hurry.
“And what would these two things be?” asked Brutus.
“The first is the Lodge in country…The one on the far side of Garland?” said Billy.
“The country estate? Are you mad, why on earth should I-?!” said Brutus.
“...my FIRST demand is the lodge that lies out in the country. My SECOND demand is three hundred thousand denarii.” said Billy. Ignoring the interruption.
“Oh, NOW I know you’re mad. You’re out of your damn mind! If you think I’m going to-....” said Brutus. Indignant and full of bluster.
Billy sighed.
“Looking at the new paint job you gave the chateau and the number of new pieces you’ve stashed everywhere I assume you either fired old Dorsey...either that or he quit...”
Dorsey Richardson had been steward of the Maddoc holdings and one of their lead financial managers. Helping oversee the family’s business interests while William was too young to do so.
“Any disagreements between us and Mr.Richardson are none of your affair, boy…” said Brutus. Speaking through grit teeth.
Billy just shrugged.
“Whatever….in any case I know what the Maddoc holdings were before I was ‘kidnapped’. At our peak we had roughly thirty million. Even you and the people in your faction of the family couldn’t snort and whore your way through all that money by now. Which means what I’ve asked should be barely a three percent of what we own. What ‘I’ own. In short I ‘could’ milk you for more….But I’m not...I’m not even going to try. All you have to do is agree to my terms and I go away.” said Billy.
“And you think that’s enough reason for me to…”
“No...I don’t.” said Billy.
“What I do know is that I could ask you for more since I’m entitled to it...I could make an issue of my sudden conscription into a certain band of mercenaries as slave cannon fodder since I did remember to get some evidence before I came here...Or I could just settle all of this by going down to the local EITC trade guild and using my rights as legal holder to ‘take’ what I want. And do you know why I’m not doing any of that?” said Billy.
Having risen a little from his seat. Leaning forwards and pouring himself another glass of brandy. His eyes never leaving his Uncle’s. His gaze growing steadily cold while his little ghost of a smile grew steadily wider.
“.......”
Brutus didn’t have a reply, the boy’s aura had just spiked and now instead of trying to breath evenly, he was struggling to breath at all. The pressure the boy was putting out was so thick and heavy that it felt impossible to move. Brutus couldn’t wrap his head around it, he’d had friends who’d been to war the normal way, even ‘he’ had served for a tour or two. Not mention the dozens of quietly held clan disputes and matches.
While there ‘were’ changes in outlook and atmosphere, there’d been nothing this extreme. It was less like the boy had returned and more like there was a monster in his place. A sinister something that came from a place of cold and dark. Something unfathomable for mortal minds to think on.
It took a while for Brutus to fight those feelings and part of the reason he was able to win, was the boy sitting down and easing back some of that pressure.
“....And...wh-why is that?” said Brutus. Impressively enough his tone was only slightly shaken. His manner calm, as if he hadn’t just been slammed with enough pressure to make him feel like slightly punchdrunk.
“Because I’m a nice person, Uncle. I’m not trying to give you a hard time. I’m just here asking for a place to stay and some seed money so I can get my life started...Y’know the one you almost ended?”
Brutus snapped.
“You know what? I’ve had just about enough of your shit! I don’t care if you’re my brother’s only son. If you think you’re going come in here and-!”
“Shhh…. hush.” said Billy. Sipping from his glass of brandy in a lazy lounging manner. His eyes, now filled with the hungry cold of the void. There was no pressure now, but Brutus found his words dying in his throat. Something alien stared out at him from behind that boy’s eyes and it was enough to make sit down and fall silent.
“So...what do you say? The house and a scant three hundred thousand denarii and you and I can forget all our debts and grudges.” said Billy.
“Just the lodge and three hundred thousand?” said Brutus, feeling somehow fatigued. He was a haggler and a businessman by trade but somehow there was a sense that something important had been taken from him. Pulled from inside of him.
“Yes.” said Billy.
“Deal.” said Brutus.