1 Soul Bound
1.3 Making a Splash
1.3.1 An Obligated Noble
1.3.1.23 Wellington claims his boon
10:30 am, Saturday June 10th, 2045
8 bells of the dog watch
Zerday full, 14th day of the month of KrevinBelember, A2F1600
Kafana stood in the grand lobby, awaiting her turn at taking leave of the host and his family. Virgil had long since scurried back to the isle of Libri and his lectures, but Tori, Herberto, Sienna and finally Lord Claudio Landi were lined up at the base of the stairs they’d descended at the start of the visit.
The ritual was more leisurely than the arrival had been, with Claudio spending several minutes talking to each womble, and the other family members chatting with the womble in front of them until the next family member became available, so as the last in line she had plenty of time to observe the interactions.
Bulgaria and Bungo had been followed by Tomsk and Alderney. Tori seemed particularly taken with Tomsk, and offered to show him around Alto if he wanted to see the horse trials. Alderney, who’d brought along decorative ornaments she crafted for each family member as a parting guest gift, reduced Lady Sienna to tears when she received hers and saw the property it had been enchanted with, able only to give Alderney a wordless hug.
Wellington, when it came time to speak to Claudio, was extremely formal and had obviously been rehearsing. He bowed, carefully and precisely, as he granted Claudio his full titles before continuing.
Wellington: “Lord Landi, Count of Mercato, Councillor of Torello, head of House Landi and of the bond market, ratings agency and depository known as The Titulos. When first we met, at Villa Landi, in your generosity you granted me a boon, and permission to delay naming it until such time as I could learn enough about setting up in business in Torello to choose wisely. In addition you granted me access to and aid from your factor, Master Trader Marco, to help with that learning. He has done so most ably, even taking me on as an apprentice and then as a journeyman, and it is thanks to him that I can declare myself now ready to name the boon, at your convenience.”
Claudio matched the formality, but not without a twinkle in his eye, presumably forewarned by Marco about Wellington’s personality as well as his intentions.
Claudio: “Wellington ‘Peri-Banik’ Fiducia, Questing Spirit, Journeyman to my factor and ally of House Landi. A boon I did grant you, and none would deem any action since taken by you as justifying its withdrawal. Name now the boon you would have and, if it does not over-match your deeds, I will deliver it if it is within my power to honourably do so. This I swear upon my name.”
Wellington: “I have already established a handful of businesses, in connection with the project we discussed earlier, but I could do so legally in Torello only because, by your grace and Marco’s word, House Landi acted as a proxy for me.”
She’d seen the documents he’d had drawn up by their advocate, Emmanuelle Giambrone, who was young but had earned the title “Laureato” by graduating top in her year and who’d decided to specialise in legal issues relating to Adventurers. That she’d realised ahead of her peers how large a field that was likely to become, and that she’d been willing to stake her career upon it, had already drawn approving attention from the seniors of Torello’s legal field. Decisively winning her first case, which had been to represent Kafana’s interests in the matter of how to dispose of the items left behind by a group of rogue Adventurers, hadn’t hurt her prospects either.
The company holding the legal title to the property and easements they’d quietly purchased in the ‘Spettro’ area of the Basso District had been named “Spiritual Renewal”. Alderney had designed a logo for it that resembled one painted on the nearby orphanage run by the priests of Cov, but Wellington had vetoed her suggestion of calling it “Ghostly Possessions”.
The company they’d use for doing the actual building and restoration work was “Enduring Edifices”, which according to Bungo’s research would reassure Basso’s inhabitants. Kafana wasn’t too sure about that, but Alderney and Bulgaria’s arlife experts had put a lot of time into the project, and she had to trust they were in a better position to judge than she was. Currently it’s main assets were the architectural plans drawn up by Alderney and her helpers on the Burrow, the materials and equipment ordered by Wellington that were slowly accumulating, and employment contracts signed by the twelve high masters of various crafting professions that had sworn to serve Kafana for the next three years after she’d not only spared their lives when an assassin had forced them to attack the wombles, but she’d also used her magic to increase their lifespans - an ability that both Bulgaria and Wellington had firmly insisted that she do everything she could to avoid becoming public knowledge.
The third company established by Wellington was “Elegance”. Bungo had insisted upon it, after realising it would be the employer of record for the receptionists and other staff at the new Adventurers Guild. Alderney had responded to his gushing enthusiasm by creating a staff uniform with a pristine white ruffle-sleeved shirt partially covered by a darker triskellion-badged tunic. The ensemble looked very smart, combining practicality and formality (and of course, it being Alderney, cuteness). Several volunteers had already changed their Burrow avatar over to using it and were queuing up to sign on for regular shift slots, but that couldn’t be listed as a corporate asset. However Lady Pia Trinci had formally accepted an honorary post in the company as “Noble Liaison”, and the backing that implied was worth her weight in rubies.
The final company was “Sincero Holdings”, which was directly owned by Kafana and had been established to manage the ten tallero bars of mithril she’d allocated to Phase I of the Basso Renewal Project as seed money. “Sincero Holdings” currently 100% owned all three of the other companies and there were properly signed agreements between them that defined the terms of their relationships and mutual debts or obligations. She knew Wellington had detailed plans for a Phase II, in which some of the subsidiaries would be turned into limited liability corporations and then expanded, funded partially by selling non-voting shares and later floatation upon the The Azioni stock exchange, which would also help by increasing the number of people who wanted to see the project succeed.
Wellington: “To do such things in my own right, I will need the status of master, and be entered in the list of masters in good standing by the Equitable Guild of Creditworthy Merchants. To be eligible for that, I need to be level 40 (which I now am), the endorsement of my trainer (which I have), and a trading record of adequate length and quality to satisfy the examination board, a record whose provenance has been assured according to the standards laid down in the regulation of the guild.”
Claudio: “Do you have such a record?”
Wellington: “I have a record which, if its provenance were to be accepted, is of a length and quality that even the pickiest of examiners would accept it as displaying a scope, success and probity well suited to a master trader of Torello. Indeed, since our plans involve incorporation, expansion and public listing on a scale that only a high master trader would be trusted to enact them, I hope my record will meet the supererogation criteria that trigger fast tracking towards the ranks beyond master.”
Supererogation? That was the second time she’d heard that mentioned recently. She directed an puzzled emotion towards her listening expert systems, not even bothering to put it into words. She’d been training them to pick upon such cues, on the theory that if they were going to intrude on her privacy by continually scanning her mind anyway, she might as well reap as many benefits from it as she could.
Dinah: {Not many players of the Sang Sacré release of Soul Bound, that introduced Covob and some new game mechanics, have reached level 40. Only a handful have succeeded in raising a profession from journeyman to master, but yesterday CraftySquID released a recording of their guildmaster, Gustav, going through the process. It turns out that, if you do way more than necessary to pass, you can gain a useful achievement, that others in your profession can recognise. I’ve searched all the data I can access, and almost every NPC listed as high master did something exceptionally noteworthy during their trial.}
Oh. So that’s why Columbina busted her guts to serve a leviathan steak to a picky judge during her trial, rather than settling for a jam sandwich. High stakes and high rewards. And Wellington wanted to do the trader equivalent?
Claudio: “So the problem is with the provenance of your record?”
Wellington: “I have traded for many years. But not on Covob. I have provided Marco with the details, and he has used magic to verify that I believe those details to be true, but I cannot produce tangible evidence without violating the strictures laid down upon Adventurers by Cov, that serve to shelter you from unnecessary disruption. The standards set down for evaluating the provenance have not yet been updated to address this issue, but they do contain a rarely used provision, originally added to permit the registration of journeymen traders fleeing Sassari, who had transcripts but no living masters or evidence to support them.”
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
Claudio nodded.
Claudio: “The proxy clause. Originally the guild wasn’t willing to budget for the possibility of the transcripts being fake, but my ancestor offered to take on a formal assessment of the level of risk for each candidate, and find investors willing to fund them when repackaged as groups of similar rating, in return for a payment from the guild, split over ten years, that matched a group’s tier of risk. He did rather well out of it, the journals record, gaining good will and first pick of the most promising new masters, in addition to the fees he charged for carrying out the service.”
Wellington: “Exactly so. The boon I would ask is that you permit me to pay The Titulos to have one of its experts carry out a formal assessment of the risk that I am deluded about my past trading record or able to deceive the magic used to assess my testimony, and stand proxy for the guild by again providing the service of locating an investor willing to bear that risk in return for a mutually agreed payment. I ask this, not just to benefit myself, but also to set a precedent that future adventurers may follow when becoming traders, in order to shelter the guild from effects of the sort that concern Lord Pantalone.”
Claudio: “And one such investor would be Sincero Holdings, who might accept a reasonably low payment in return for taking on those risks in your particular case?”
Wellington: “As a company uniquely positioned to verify trading records from beyond Covob, I would be willing to recommend such an action to its prime shareholder as being a sound investment, yes.”
He said it without a hint of humour, or even a glance at Kafana, the “prime shareholder” in question.
Claudio: “All done by the letter of the regulations with no hint of favouritism or dubious practices. I run no risk, and even get paid for the service I provide. It is in the best interests of all parties affected, including Torello and the financial system, and I heartily approve. Now I’ve heard it, I’d do it from common sense, even were I not in your debt. It is hardly worth the boon you’ve earned. Is that really all you wish to ask of me? I promise I shall not take offense, and shall in all events grant what you have asked so far. Be bold and speak your mind!”
He raised his voice for the final statement, turning it into a ringing declaration - a command backed by his ruler skill. Wellington had been eying his own feet when Claudio had praised him, but now his head snapped up to look directly at their host. Wellington, normally so decisive, spoke in a hesitant voice she’d never heard him use, and she briefly wondered if he wasn’t entirely in control of the words he spoke.
Wellington: “I’ve never been very good at making friends. The five who stand here with me? I think they may be the only ones I have ever made, and even then I only recently noticed. When you named Kafana as a friend, at Villa Landi, something inside me cried when I realised I could have asked for that instead of financial stuff. I am a very wealthy man in the lands I am from; I am in the top ten by wealth of an area far larger and more populous than Torello and its surrounds.”
He paused a moment, pondering how to phrase his next words before continuing.
Wellington: “I am skilled at gaining money, but I have never valued it for its own sake. I recognise in you the same thing - a knowledge that its value lies in how it can aid you improve the lives of those you care for. Money has no hold upon you, for you delight in the act of giving it away effectively. Despite coming from different lands, and the admirable level of skill you demonstrate in areas I have never excelled at, something in me beyond the rational parts of my mind sees you as closer to being my peer than almost any I have met.”
Tomsk: {You don’t socialise with other billionaires or philanthropists.}
Wellington: {I keep my wealth anonymous, and my activities doubly so. Talking of which, Alderney, please mark the above recording segment as never to be shared or broadcast.}
Alderney: {Done. And Wellington? Go you! You’re doing great, I hope he responds.}
Kafana felt amazed he’d not only said it, but said it to someone he knew was an NPC. Of all of them, Wellington was the one who held most clearly to the distinction between ‘people’ and ‘expert systems’. Was playing Soul Bound, and experiencing recordings from her and Tomsk, slowly changing him, at least on an emotional level? Or was it merging minds with her, earlier in the afternoon when they’d been practicing reality magic and she’d noticed herself thinking like he did? If the same had also happened in the other direction, if he were now acting a bit like her, that might explain things.
Claudio: “You would have me call you friend? Even if just in private and it gained you no entitlements or public backing? Were you restricted to a boon for yourself, rather than for others, that is the desire you’d name?”
Wellington gave a small nod, looking up at Claudio through his eyelashes, appearing exposed and vulnerable in the aftermath of the truth he’d struggled against his ingrained habits to express.
Claudio: “Kafana is very open about her emotions, which made it easy for me to see in her a shared love of music. Indeed, It shines so brightly one would have to be tone-deaf to not see it. I believe Marco when he says how skilled you are at trading, and I myself have witnessed you match words and wits with Lord Pantalone. I have no hesitation in saying we share interests and that you have my respect, for your integrity and values as much as your skills and accomplishments. You name yourself my peer and equal which is, to not be overly modest, claiming a great deal. You have me at a disadvantage because while you have had time to consider me, you are by nature a reserved person and this is the first time you have let on about your status beyond Covob.”
Wellington was now fully back in control, his face revealing nothing. Alderney, on the other hand, was standing by the stairs almost on tiptoes, her fists tightly clenched against her chest as though she were trying to move an object by force of wanting it hard enough.
Wellington: “I do not mention it for good reason, and I would appreciate it if you and your family refrained from mentioning it where other Adventurers might eventually hear. It wasn’t a truth entirely safe for me to speak, but I decided that without knowing, you would never understand why I feel as I do.”
Tomsk: {You overrode a warning from the expert system we set to prevent accidental disclosure of information too revealing about our arlife identities?}
Wellington: {Yes. It assumes a general probability of information spreading from NPCs to adventurers, rather than assessing it on a case by case basis. I assessed the risk of Landi betraying my confidence as being acceptably low. XperiSense will know everything we tell Landi of course, but they already know from Marco how good I am at trading, and I’ve been careful not to reveal that information in our broadcasts. The additional risk here is minimal.}
Tomsk: {Ah.}
How very typically Wellington. Kafana grinned to herself.
Claudio: “Well. I did ask you to speak, and vow to grant the boon if able. I named you Fiducia, and I shall place my trust in you. If you see me that way, perhaps we are and in time I shall come to see you that way too. The poets say love is more than an emotion you either feel or not, a status you either hold or not; that loving someone is a process, composed of loving actions. If friendship can also be thought of that way, then perhaps we can make a habit of acting towards each other with friendly intentions, and learn as we go? Which I will start by granting your boon. Wellington, speaking here before my immediate family, I will number you and your vessel among my friends. I will work on developing friendship between us, as opportunity presents itself, and we shall see what develops in time.”
Wellington: “Thank you. I will do the same, and account the boon fulfilled.”
Really, not even a hug? Why did grown men find admitting it so difficult, when it came so naturally to 7 year olds? Was a need for friendship considered shameful? A vulnerability? Did they fear judgement or rejection so much they wouldn’t risk it?
Wellington, in a faintly bemused voice, spoke in the party chat channel, apparently more to himself than seeking feedback.
Wellington: {Sorry that took so long. Hmm, if he’s now my friend, I wonder what I ought to do? I guess I could look into creating an afterlife for NPCs, buy an option from ExperiSense to purchase an archive file in the event the game is terminated, so Claudio can keep running. I doubt Soul Bound will still exist in 10 years, which is 30 years velife time, and he’s young enough to still be around then.}
Bungo: {He agrees to speak nicely to you, and you effectively make him immortal? It’s like the story of an innkeeper being nice to a one-eyed vagrant, who turns out to be Odin. He isn’t going to realise how amazingly one sided the deal is, how much more he is gaining than you will.}
Bulgaria: {To Claudio it also appears one-sided. Like the innkeeper who feels he’s being generous to a vagrant who, though a poet and carrying surprisingly fine mead in his horn, is poorer than the innkeeper and someone the innkeeper finds hard to perceive as a social equal. Despite that difficulty, I think Claudio will give an honest try at looking past appearances, and the instincts forced upon him by the game’s reputation level mechanics.}
Wellington: {It doesn’t matter to me if it is one sided. As Kafana showed last week, part of friendship is not needing to keep careful track of who owes how much to whom.}
Tomsk: {Because you’re getting pleasure from seeing your friend benefit from what you do, even if they don’t know all you do for them. The more friends you find time for, the more pleasure you get.}
Alderney: {I think friendships are things of beauty that you jointly craft, each one unique and to be valued for itself rather than compared to others. They do sometimes need to be polished or repaired, though, so you don’t lose or forget them.}