After I meet with the captain I headed into Maccleston to pay a visit to the local chapter of the Mercenary Guild and run some other errands.
The first thing I did was to arrange a venue for the Wake for the deceased members of the Brothers n Arms Mercenary Company. I had to visit several inns and taverns to find one with a suitable private room capable of hosting such an event that was at the same time still available even with such short notice.
With that taken care of, I had to visit several local shops and skilled craftsmen to buy some items I required for my trip to visit my sister and also suitable presents for her and her charge.
My visit to the Guild itself was for a number of reasons. Firstly to make sure that all of the people from my previous company who had been taken prisoner during our last disastrous contract had been released as arranged. Also to try to find out what had become of them and the other survivors of the company that hadn’t joined me in the Ebony Hyenas. For the most part, those who had remained mercenaries and not moved into other fields or been forced out due to illness or injury had managed to join new companies and were either out on contracts or had recently returned from one.
One or two hadn’t managed to find a new company to join or hadn’t yet recovered enough from their injuries to be accepted by new employers just yet. Since I had to find three or four replacement scouts for the Hyenas depending on what happened with my temporary Lieutenantship I paid particular attention to this last group. The rest of the company also needed new recruits to replace our losses and while my old company had all been calvary that wasn’t to say we hadn’t operated as infantry when necessary.
Secondly, I paid to have a notice about the upcoming wake placed on the Guilds Notice Board and to send invitations to the wake to as many of the former members of the company as I could find contact details for, especially those who hadn’t found a new company yet. While two days notice might not seem enough my hope was those who I contacted would inform the others or they would read the notice board and find out that way. Thus my hope was that the only ones who wouldn’t be coming to the wake were those still out on contracts or for various reasons not currently in the area.
Thirdly I went to see if there had been any word about the treacherous Lieutenant Barnes and Assistant Quartermaster Flick or my horse. Unfortunately, they seemed to have vanished from the face of Telondia and so had Lambourn. I was of course disappointed but to tell you the truth while I still hadn’t given up hope that they would turn up eventually I hadn’t been that hopeful in the short term.
Fourthly I was looking for news on the route I had to take to visit my sister. Making sure there hadn’t been any conflicts necessitating the hiring of mercenaries, word of bandit activity or anything like that, which there hadn’t been. This of course didn’t mean it was perfectly safe but I felt I could handle any small issues that might crop up.
Lastly, I wanted to have a look over what Class Skills the Guild had for sale to see if any of them interested me. Sadly they mainly concentrated on Professional Skills so their selection of Class ones wasn’t really that good. They only had two available that I hadn’t already picked up myself both of which I had no interest in.
Once I had finished everything I had set out to do in Maccleston I head back to camp and spent the rest of the day doing not much of anything to tell you the truth until it was time to retire for the night.
The last Payday of the season for many was the most important day of the Mercenaries year. Sure we all get paid after each successful contract but that doesn’t include the bonus payment we receive at the end of the year based on both our individual contributions to the contracts during the proceeding year and also how the company in general performed that year. In a good year that can add fifty percent or even more to a mercenary's total yearly pay. In a bad year well let’s just say it's negligible and in a really bad year, well your lucky to be alive.
Now you are probably wondering what sort of year the Ebony Hyenas had, well before the Long Bank Contract it was a bit of a mixed bag. Sure they had only lost a single mercenary but more than half the contracts had been duds with little or no combat. Now while the Long Bank Contract had been bloody it had been profitable, sure much of that profit was used to pay blood money to the families of those who had died and compensation to those too injured to remain in the profession. But a lot of the survivors had contributed greatly to the success of the contract and would thus be in line for a good personal bonus.
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Most Mercenary companies liked to make a show of the last payday and the Ebony Hyenas were no exception. A small stage had been set up in the middle of the parade grounds upon which was placed a small table containing a small wooden chest full of various small cloth bags full of money and a small ledger listing what everyone was owed. There was also a single chair upon which the company’s purser sat, with the Captain and the lieutenants myself included standing nearby.
All the other members of the Company were lined up awaiting their payment arranged first by rank from lowest to highest and then by seniority or should I say length of service from the shortest to longest serving ones and finally if more than one had joined at the same time in reverse alphabetical order. This meant that the first nine individuals to be paid were all members of my former scout squad. Since Private Boyd Walsh had died fighting the Mibritum that meant Private Charles Piedmont was the first up to receive his payment.
As Charles was walking up to the stage I quietly informed Captain Walker of his name, since he was new to the company I was not expecting him to know it but was pleasantly surprised to find out that was not the case. When he arrived in front of the stage the captain said a few words to him before handing over one of the small bags of money passed to him by the purser who put a small tick next to his name on the ledger.
“Charles thank you for your service, I’m sure you’ll continue to be a great addition to the team for many years to come, here you’ve more than earned it.
The bag didn’t of course hold all of the money owed to him by the company, instead it like the others contained only a single gold coin and ten silver ones, the rest of his pay had been transferred to his account at the Mercenary Guild.
Next up was Private Eric Pen and again the captain was aware of his name and informed me he knew the names of almost everyone in the company and if he needed reminding or simply wasn’t aware he would signal this fact to me and the other lieutenants by winking at us so we rectify the situation.
It took a good while for all the Privates and then the Corporals and finally the Sergeants to be handed their bags of money by the captain and in all that time he only winked twice. The first time was rather early in the proceedings when he couldn’t identify the last of the Privates from my scouts, Bo Abate. The second time came when we were halfway or so through the Privates and Adagio Lindle from third Platoon was the next to step towards the stage. This wasn’t so much a case of not knowing his name but rather not knowing the correct way to pronounce it, by the way, it’s Uh-da-jee-oh Lin-dul.
Once the last soldier in the company was given his bag of money and thanked by the captain he gave a short speech and then dismissed the men.
“Alright everyone I’ll make this short and sweet, you’ve all done me and the company proud this year and I’m sure the next one will be no different. To thank you all in a few short hours I will be throwing the party to end all parties and you’re all invited, until then good day and may the blessing of Telondian fall upon you all.”
Now you may be wondering about the Captain and my fellow lieutenants, what about us what do we get paid well if you really want to know then I’ll tell you.
Most companies you would think would be owed by their Captains, with perhaps the Lieutenants and even other members of the company owing a small share. But this is rarely the case, most Captains starting a new company are unable to finance it all by themselves and thus have to bring in shareholders. While most then try to buy out those shareholders over time this even if the company proves successful is a slow process and usually by the time they retire or are killed the company they only own a small percentage of the company they founded.
If the captain's family doesn’t have someone willing and able to take over the captaincy of the company or he hasn’t left his shares in the company to one of his lieutenants or someone else the remaining shareholders, his family hopefully included need to seek out a new captain. This new captain will either be given some shares in the company to run it and or buy as many of the other shares in the company as they can afford.
As you can imagine the ownership of a company after a few generations can evolve into a rather complex affair and if you add to that the possibility that one of the companies captains advances into D Rank and forms a D-ranked company or even higher ranked ones that he doesn’t separate from his original E Ranked one.
Thankfully that doesn’t apply to the Ebony Hyenas which was founded by Captain Walker's Uncle with several relatives of his as shareholders. He retired as a level 23 Mercenary Commander seventeen years ago and is still alive. It didn’t even apply to the Brothers n Arms Mercenary Company as the D Ranked one just shared a name, a former captain from a few generations ago and some former members over the years with the E Ranked one.
Captain Walker's uncle owns twenty percent of the company, his father fourteen percent, other members of his family thirty-one and he has thirty. Of the remaining five percent two were owed by the late Lieutenant Yeaton, two by Lieutenant Morton and the remaining one by Lieutenant Berger.
Besides their shares in the company and the annual dividends they generate, they are also paid as I am by the company. I won’t go into how much the others earned but from the single contract, I had already undertaken as part of the Ebony Hyenas as both a sergeant and then later a Lieutenant I had been paid ten gold and thirty silver plus a three percent bonus which added up to a grand total of ten gold and sixty silver.