“I hold neither an objection nor a motive to engage with the Dragon Puppets,” Tenver said, in a surprisingly quiet voice. “Why do you ask?”

Adam didn’t immediately consider the question about the Puppets. Instead, he tried to wrack his brain to remember whether he’d told Tenver about Solara’s Talent of resurrection. He was pretty sure that her Talent was among the things he’d skipped over in his explanation – it made it easier to hide his own ability to wager Talents.

Dude, if you were anyone else, I’d assume you knew way too much and had some weird plan going on. But because it’s you...

He looked at Tenver’s serene smile as the knight calmly watched Solara shut the door behind her, snap a couple more arrows off her body, and search for a spot to sit.

...I give it even odds that you’re just impossible to shock. Alternatively, he was playing at some weird game. Adam was still trying to figure him out.

“Well,” Solara said, sitting down and looking up at the two as if she wasn’t covered in her own blood. “I should probably start by saying I had a quick conversation with my father earlier.”

“Do you not need to speak with him further?” Adam asked. They’d spent a couple minutes setting Tenver’s crossbow trap before coming here, but it couldn't have been very long. “I’d understand if you need more time to catch up. We can wait until–”

“No need. My father and I have all the time in the world to speak to each other now...thanks to you, my lord.” Solara spoke calmly, a hint of a smile on her face. “He wanted some time alone to speak to Aspreay, anyhow. Tell him how everything went. It’s simply something he has to do.”

Aspreay’s soulless husk was currently stashed away in a safe tower guarded by Adam’s most loyal men. It wouldn’t be easy for Vasco to force his way in there with strength alone – but if he threw his authority around, the guards would be very, very hesitant to fight a lord.

Adam took a second to consider that. Another lord running around and doing as he pleases might reflect poorly on Adam’s rule. Perhaps make him look a bit weak. However, after everything that had transpired with his daughter, Vasco was probably feeling more than a little emotional right now.

Eh...considering the circumstances...it sucks, but I should probably let it go. It’s understandable.

Tenver leaped to his feet and drew his sword. “This is not Vasco’s castle. While he is an honored guest, he may not meet our prisoner without Lord Adam’s word.” He unsheathed his sword and looked at Adam. “My lord, your orders?”

“Halt!” Solara exclaimed. “You can’t mean – my father has not wronged you! He gave me permission to negotiate terms with you in the meantime!”

Adam had to work incredibly hard to keep a blank expression on his face. Tenver, you goddamn murder puppy, slow the fuck down for one second, won’t you? “Go...and escort him to see Aspreay.” Adam said. “With my permission.”

Tenver held his gaze for a moment, then nodded. “If that is your decision...well, then I shall see it done.”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Adam said, smirking. “Solara came here to request permission for that, didn’t she?”

“Ah,” Solara replied, realization dawning on her, “yes, my lord. That is why.”

“Then I will take my leave,” Tenver said. His grin didn’t fade, his tone didn’t shift, but his displeasure felt plain as day. “Lord Adam, I left my report on our finances on your desk. Now, if you’ll excuse me...”

Adam nodded. He was more than happy to let the matter end like this, even if Tenver was unhappy about the matter for some reason. No need to pry it out of him now and risk things getting more tense. Better to just–

“Is your hostility because of my ears, Lord Tenver? Do you resent my father for saving elves at the cost of spilling noble blood?” Solara asked sharply. “I admit I expected more of the famed Lord Tenver. Are you the kind of simple man that considers elves to be monstrosities?”

Just five minutes. Can I have some peace for five freaking minutes?

Tenver stopped at the doorway. He remained still for a long moment, then turned around with a smile. “Well, my lady, are you the kind of simple woman that thinks Dragon Puppets to be monstrosities?”

“That’s an absurd comparison. We rode dragons; we weren’t built by them like affronts to life itself.” Solara trembled at her own words as if the mental image repulsed her. “Elves are nature’s greatest champions, and the existence of Dragon Puppets is a sin against nature. You cannot compare me to those disgusting monsters.”

“Well, that answers it, doesn’t it?”

“Wait!” Solara shouted. “We aren’t done–”

Tenver’s grin merely widened as he walked out the door, closing it behind him without saying another word.

Solara sighed and put up her legs on the table between them. Her noble expression was gone, replaced by something between exasperation and pure annoyance, with just a touch of arrogant amusement in her smirk. “What a weird fucking guy you’ve got there,” she said, shifting her unbelieving gaze from the door to Adam. “He’s a bit off, isn’t he?”

At that point, she pulled out another bolt from her torso.

I legitimately don’t know if you’re fucking with me or if you’re that hypocritical.

She grabbed a glass, poured a drop of some sort of juice in it, and filled the rest with rum. Then, with the same motion, she put down the bottle, broke the crossbow bolt in two, and used the smaller side to mix her drink together. “This mixture tastes quite good. Do you want to try it, my lord?”

Well, that answers that.

--

“‘Mixture’ sounds like a misnomer. Isn’t that mostly alcohol?” Adam asked.

“Well, you don’t have to—”

“Hey, never said I wouldn’t try it!” Adam protested, leaning forward and accepting a sip from the mischievous elf. I can’t even taste the alcohol. Am I that tired, or is this juice something else? He handed the drink back to her, then said, “That conversation with Tenver was getting tense at the end.”

Solara sipped at her drink and nodded slowly. “Does my lord blame me?”

“You know, it feels almost patronizing when you call me ‘my lord’ and try to sound all regal while your feet are literally on the table.”

“Would you rather I was wholly formal?”

“Not at all,” he told her quickly. “But maybe if you could pick either the formal talk or the more casual behavior and stick to it, that would be great.”

Adam didn’t think anything he’d said was particularly troublesome, but it was hard not to notice the immediate impact this had on Solara’s mood. Her eyes widened for the second, and she held her gaze before suddenly appearing to find her empty wine glass very interesting.

“Picking one would be...nice,” she said, hesitantly. “I wasn’t raised as a noble until late in my childhood. Too late. This way of speech you take for granted does not come naturally to me.”

You think this shit is natural to me? Huh. Adam nodded gravely. “I understand,” he lied. He didn’t. Nobody who hadn’t gone through what she had ever would, really. But he could try. “You must work very hard for the sake of your father – and your noble house.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Aye, my lord. I do. And if you’ll allow some arrogance, I’m quite good at it. But sometimes...” Solara brought her glass to her lips and turned the bottom upside down. Then, after setting it down with a thunderous gesture, she said, “Sometimes it’s been a long couple of days—weeks—months—so I just want to go ahead and say this: what the fuck is wrong with Tenver?”

“Wish I knew,” Adam muttered, bitterly and honestly. Knowing Tenver’s background would help him make sense of the man’s actions.

“Do you trust him?”

“About as much as I trust you.”

Solara smirked. “Should I take that as a sign of the trust you placed in me, or of your mistrust in him?”

“Perhaps both.”

This wasn’t entirely true, but the truth was too murky for Adam to even be certain of, let alone state clearly.

He knew Tenver far better than Solara. After all, the two of them spent months finding common ground in their dislike of Aspreay. And now, knowing his past...Tenver had even less reason to help me than I originally thought. He risked a lot.

The problem was that Adam didn’t exactly know what the man’s goals even were. Sure, Tenver had claimed that his intention was to help the common folk, but...well, that could easily be a lie. Meanwhile, although Adam barely knew Solara, he had also been able to paint her soul.

Adam didn’t trust most things, but he did trust his Talent – his art. Even if Eric had tried taking that away from him.

However, just because he’d painted her soul, it didn’t mean he should trust her implicitly. Yeah, he knew her goals – so what? Adam knew she wanted to kill the Emperor, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t stab him in the back at some point. Everyone betrays everyone if they need to. I have to remember that.

Still...being aware of her goals was definitely worth something. The only question was what he trusted more: his months of time spent with Tenver, or what he could glimpse of Solara with his Talent.

It only took him a moment to reach a decision. Of course it’s my art, Adam thought, as if admonishing himself. I can be wrong, but my paintings can’t. Which means Solara is more trustworthy by default.

No reason to tell her that, though. “If you are here on Vasco’s behalf,” he said, changing the subject, “then let’s talk business. Where does Gama stand regarding Penumbria?”

Solara sat up straighter. “First, your rewards. As per my father’s agreement, Penumbria will have free access to our port. We’ll be light on the taxation, even.”

“How light?” Adam sharply asked.

“Enough that our own nobles won’t overly complain. I imagine that their barking will be soft and quiet after witnessing what happened to Belmordo. Ah, and of course,” Solara said, snapping her fingers, “the Orbs you were promised.”

With her gesture, a parade of red orbs phased out from within her body. They floated through the air, traveling in an arch towards Adam. When the Orbs entered his chest, he didn’t feel a thing, as if watching a projection rather than a physical object. I’m never gonna get used to this.

Adam withdrew his tablet and glanced at the number of Orbs he’d just received.

Name: Adam

Talents and Rank:

Painter [Apprentice]

Stained Ink [Apprentice]

Lord [Baron]

Orbs: ϕ4,960,508

Lifetime Orbs: ϕ4,985,508

Unbelievable...a million Orbs just like that. Plus the 640,000 that came out of Belmordo's personal pocket. Guess even a poor city like Gama still has so much more than Penumbria.

“I hope that is to your satisfaction, Lord Adam,” Solara said slyly. Her tone would’ve seemed modest if her smirk didn’t say she knew exactly how exorbitant of an ‘advance’ that was. “This should see you through the rest of the year until you can set up your trade deals, yes?”

“Eh...” Adam frowned. “Well, I mean...”

Solara’s eyes widened in shock. “You can’t possibly mean your funds are that – how badly did Aspreay screw up?”

Adam lifted up the report Tenver had left behind. It looked promising, but he knew better than to place his hopes too quickly. The nobles that the knight – was it fine to call him that? – had killed were no longer an expense for Penumbria to deal with, and their seized assets granted them an extra ϕ127,328 Orbs. I can’t access those Orbs, so Tenver must have them. He better hand them over. Still, even accounting for those...

He'd been planning to save the ϕ640,124 Orbs he got from Belmordo for a special project. If he discounted those Orbs from his current total, he had ϕ4,320,384 to work with. And if the yearly cost of operating Penumbria was ϕ5,050,000, they’d need...what, five more courtiers dead? One more, if he opted to dip into the Belmordo fund? I mean, we do have plenty of courtiers to spare.

Adam halted that thought in its tracks. It was too dark and too frighteningly logical for a joke. No matter how he personally felt about rich noble pricks, he wasn’t going to execute innocent people for money.

Then again...could he even say that those bastards who’d feasted every day while the common folk starved and froze to death were innocent? Maybe they hadn’t done anything, per se, but that was exactly the problem.

Easy there, Che Guevara, he told himself. Better calm down before those thoughts took over. Fortunately, there was something else for him to focus his attention on. “You seem surprised that Aspreay screwed up Penumbria’s economy to this extent.”

Actually, he wouldn’t be surprised if their estimated amount of needed Orbs was inaccurate. Aspreay was probably calculating it based on the bare minimum, and considering how he’d run the city, that probably accounted for stiffing some people on their pay and kicking other things down the road to pay later. A 5 million cost for operating the city sounded...a bit too low. Hell, it wouldn’t surprise Adam if Aspreay was artificially keeping the administration costs down for the sake of spending those Orbs elsewhere.

If he was going to be a corrupt official, couldn’t he at least have been a competent one that hoarded orbs? Then they’d be in my pocket right about now, and fixing the city would be way easier.

“Surprised?” Solara parroted. “I mean, yes. How was he running a city with a deficit of over a million Orbs?”

“He wasn’t, really. It’s...complicated.” Adam made a mental note to have someone do a deep dive on their finances soon. “But more importantly – you came in here to talk about doing business with the Dragon Puppets, didn’t you?”

Solara tilted her head. “What of it?”

“Only that you very clearly hate them. So if you’re willing to do business with them, it means that whatever you’re worried about is an urgent matter. And since you clearly thought Penumbria would be covered by that million Orbs, the issue isn’t a financial one.”

Adam lifted his chin in a quick snap to accentuate the point. “So, gotta ask. Why are you pushing for trade with them?”