Mateus listened quietly as Tilly did his best to describe the encounter that had lived in echoes and flashes at the back of his mind for the last month. When Tilly had attempted to describe what he had seen to Ichiro, it had come out sounding… flat, like a four-year-old’s drawing of a sunset.
He was sure he was giving the gist of what happened, but it had felt so empty when he tried to describe it. Yet, in the middle of the street, as Tilly dredged up the memory along with all the wonder and pain it touched deep in his soul, a look of relief softened all the lines of Mateus's careworn face.
‘Does he…get it?’ As the question rose to the forefront of his mind, Tilly began to worry that he was doing something he wasn’t supposed to. He abruptly stuttered his retelling to an early end, suddenly feeling like an imposter.
Mateus blinked a few times, wiping tears from his eyes, “Th-thank you, Mr. Tillman. You have given me a great gift today.”
“-Call me Tilly… Look, Mateus, I’m only one guy. I don't know if you should be hanging your hat on anything I say-” At that, the old Steward smiled, shaking his head gently in negation,
“No, Tilly. It is not the messenger that sings in my heart… It is the message. Our Lady is noble and true. I believe in her with all my heart as I do our cause. But she promises no end to the struggle, only the power to fight, and even that seemed to be waning in recent days. Now… Well, I have much to think about and even more to do to be ready for what is coming.”
Mateus put a hand on Tilly’s shoulder, eyes shining, “Thank you for your time, May the Light always Shine.” He said warmly before turning back the way they came, his countenance still glowing with the beginnings of a new hope.
With a long sigh, Tilly turned away from the man, taking a moment to look up at the sky, “You better not be setting me up as some sort of religious leader…” He muttered darkly before continuing to the manor gates.
He gained entry with a respectful bow from the guards and found the quiet courtyard had completely changed since the day before. Several tables were now set up, with aides running messages and delivering replies.
Behind one of the tables sat Hiro, in conference with a rosy-cheeked satyr woman, wearing a large white apron.
Level 74 Baker
“Again, I’m telling you, I don’t want it! All I care about is my baking. I’m happy to support the Alliance in any other way. You need bread? I can do bread… But this? This is just too much.” She growled, gesticulating wildly with a rolling pin that seemed to come out of nowhere.
Hiro’s crystalline eyes flicked over to the gate as Tilly entered and allowed only the faintest twitch in reaction to his presence, “Octavia, I am afraid you do not have a choice. The camps chose you for a seat on the Council. I am sure your counterpart will be happy to run most of the administrative tasks, but you must sit in on the meetings and represent your people.” He answered seriously.
“Have you met our Patron’s Champion?” He suddenly changed pace, laying a hand on her tense shoulder and turning her toward Tilly. Her eyes looked through him, as she started muttering to herself, “Nothing but a bunch of lost lambs, willing to follow anyone who will feed them…”
Then she half-heartedly shot him a little nod before pulling away from Hiro and storming past Tilly toward the gate.
“I’ll see you back here this evening!” Hiro called after her, allowing himself a smile now that her back was turned. She waved an acknowledgment with her pin as she passed through the gate and Hiro’s eyes settled back on Tilly.
“New Councilor?”
“Yes, she hates the commitment to the meetings… But then again, so do we all. Not even Linus is going to get out of all of them by making this move to take charge of our martial forces. Yet, I find myself surprisingly hopeful. However reluctant she is, she is an excellent choice. She held significant standing with the noncombat Class holders in the empire before its fall. Instead of leaving when she had the chance, she stayed with her workers till the end, and ended up here like the rest of us. She has been integral in our food program.”
“Who else did the camps elect?”
“Another functionary, Shuji put him forward. The man is relatively unknown by the people but has been instrumental in the Class cataloging and work assignment projects. He is off somewhere right now, counting something, I am sure. But they will make a good pair to help the camps and their people grow the infrastructure they will need to integrate well… Now, what can I do for you.”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“Oh! Well, I kind of came here to ask you the same thing, but I do have one request.”
“You first, I am curious about your plans in light of the timeline we are facing.” Hiro answered, gesturing for him to continue.
“Ah, ok. So you saw what I was able to do with these” Tilly said, shaking loose the two bracelets from his sleeves. Hiro nodded in reply, a small smile quirking the edge of his mouth at the memory.
“Well, that is not all they can do. They let me exchange my highest stat with any of the others for a short time. I probably would have died if I had tried that without Erash around. So I need to test the other four configurations. The kicker is that I can only activate this item once per day. So I need to prepare as much as possible for each test. I was thinking of using a designated space beyond the wall that you could notify the patrols to stay clear of during my… attempts. I don't know what will happen when I boost my other stats, but I need to understand what numbers at that level will do to my body and soul before I use them in live combat.
Hiro considered Tilly’s words carefully, “That can all be done. The Alliance is extremely busy growing production to meet the coming demand, which should set us up well to equip every soldier much more significantly for the coming large-scale engagements. That being said, there are several problems we have yet to solve in getting our new resource to market. The chief of which is maintaining anonymity. I do not think Dragon glass has been seen in this quantity on the market in living memory. Everyone will want to find its source.”
“Wait, I thought the thing with the Commerce Guild was going well?”
“It is proceeding amiably, but they simply provide a currency exchange. They do not purchase goods themselves. It is a restriction in their charter and why so many Factions use them. To sell goods across the plane, we need to use the Auction House.”
“Yeah, I have heard you guys mention that a couple of times. I have a pretty good guess at what it does, but once we qualify for one, what's stopping from selling through them?”
“That is exactly our aim and the institution is known for its discretion. They have maintained full neutrality through many great conflicts in the past. But you can not utilize their services without an agent to attend the events and make purchases. This is where we are having trouble. Any lapin, honu, or satyr would be easy to trace back to us, the newest Faction on the plane. Erash was my next choice to represent us, but for reasons she is not willing to divulge, she cannot expose herself to the other powers. However, she has served us very well, and such a thing does not fall within the responsibilities of her office.
“Without her, our choices become very thin. Our agent needs to possess a high level, strong aural mastery or both to stand up to the scrutiny that would surely come with such a notable sale. So while we are still aggressively pursuing Auction House access for our Faction… we have not yet solved the problem at hand. Our secondary option is to sell our stores to the Sanguine Order, and allow their agent to move the goods… but we would lose out on significant profit with that route, and possibly still be found out before we are ready to show our hand.“
With a sigh, Hiro droned on with a few more details about the Alliances economy and the challenges of scaling up so quickly, but they were lost on Tilly whose mind had shut down as soon as he heard the requirements for an agent.
“-We were able to sign a refugee resettlement agreement with the church for vetted craftspeople of significant skill-”
“It gonna have to be me… isn’t it?” Tilly interrupted as the pieces fell into place. At his interruption, Hiro looked up from his reports with a sharp glint of curiosity shining in his green crystal irises.
“Explain.”
“Well, if our Auction House agent can’t be from a race that can be traced back to us immediately, then why not a human? With our reputation on the plane, one of us showing up with mysterious wealth would be much more difficult to track back to the Alliance.”
“The thought did cross my mind. But to be honest I was leaning more toward Amelia. She has merchant experience, and is significantly less… recognizable than you.” Hiro finished, waving vaguely at Tilly’s primitive leather armor.
“Yeah… about that. I may have a solution-” Then without preamble, Tilly activated his Dragon Emissary armor form, and the transformation rippled out from his collar… leaving him once again dressed in the embarrassing well-tailored dragon skin suit.
Hiro’s eyebrows slowly raised in appreciation, and then he looked around quickly, noting the currently empty courtyard, “Change back please.” he whispered urgently. Without hesitation, Tilly rolled back the transformation just as several aides returned to a nearby table with a stack of fresh paperwork.
“What's wrong?” Tilly asked quietly.
“Has anyone else seen you in this armor?”
“No, why?”
Instead of answering, Hiro allowed a slow smile to play across his face, “I am sure you have not had a chance to discover this for yourself. But when you donned that armor, Identify changed your Class, simply reading, Dragon Emissary without a level displayed. When I tried to pierce it, I met a surprisingly fierce aura hidden behind the identifier.” He answered, his eyes shining with satisfaction.
“Woah… That is perfect.”
“Exactly. We are far from the only ones to anticipate the challenges of the coming fight for the Contested Lands. With that Class, you will sow much disinformation amongst our enemies and give us much more of a chance to reach the battlefield unmolested.
And just like that, Tilly felt the weight of one more responsibility settle on his shoulders, “Well I have to be back here when our dragon wakes up. I have no clue what he will do if we are not ready with pillaging suggestions…”
“You will be. And we will maintain a high priority on your goal to discover the full capabilities of your rewards. Our church contacts say there is an Auction event in 5 days. It will be very close, but with the influx of treasure, I am sure the dragon will be more than satisfied, and hopefully amenable to our direction. Such an ally… even one as dangerous as he seems to be, will be an invaluable asset in our preparations.” Hiro said thoughtfully, before pulling out a fresh sheet of paper and writing out a few lines on it.
“Hand this to the wall commander. It will authorize you to requisition anything that you need from our forces there and let them know your area of operations. Be careful, Champion. We need you now more than ever.