The Mitchells left Arngo three days later. They looked back on their time with mixed feelings. They had been truly safe which was something they had not felt since they had left Greenstone, doubly so since they found out the Confederacy was after the weapon for whatever reason. But the blemishes on their time had been what occurred at the ritual room and the inevitable visible corruption in the big city. But negative points aside they had enjoyed their time. Frequenting the temple of Hero and the clergy within, making firm friends and good connections. The ‘surprise’ that James and Lucy had arranged was for a romantic meal for two for Kyra and Teddy in the central spire, on a floor that slowly revolved giving a three hundred and sixty degree view of the city from near the peak.
They had taken advice from the local adventure society and borrowed three high rank mana condensers. They were built on a much bigger scale than what Lucy had seen used for ritual magic. They fitted the buggies on the sides of the Serenity as outriggers again and a mana condenser sat in each with the third in the main ship. They had sailed north from the city under escort of three silver rank adventurers to the edge of reasonable radius from the city where they bid them goodbye. The continued sailing until they reached the last recently known patrolled area when they opened the taps on all the mana condensers. Teddy lifted the Serenity out of the water and they soared through the air.
There was a palpable tension, the team were solid but they knew they were back in the wilds again and had to be on their game. From personal experience James was all over watching the skies, he had been attacked by an over-ranked predator before and had only just made it out alive. Ragnar was staring over the bow down at the water, they were high enough that no gold rank monster would burst from the water below and drag them down to the depths but there was no consoling the big man.
Lucy was down below working on a project in the workshop and Kyra sat next to Teddy. They were discussing something that had happened in Arngo and discovering the anxiety that came with being shareholders.
………
Kyra had set everything up. It was the day before they were due to leave Arngo and she got everyone around the table for breakfast to make her proposal.
“Thanks everyone I just wanted to put an idea past you.”
“Am I finally going to find out what you’ve been writing in that little notebook?”
“You are! Top points for observation! I’ve been making a note of everywhere good to expand our business.”
“The business of killing things? That’s mostly what we do.” James asked confused
Everyone else turned to look at him. He had put a confused look on all their faces.
“No… The multi gold-coin coffee business we started in Greenstone with Gerald?” Lucy kindly prompted.
“Oooohh, that. Sure. I hadn’t completely forgotten about that.”
“Ha! What fortuitous company that rains gold coins with scant regard and pays no mind to the fruits born off their investment!”
“Some of us, Ragnar, you can be rest assured that others are paying attention. I have a call booked with Gerald this afternoon and I have some thoughts. From when we last spoke to Gerald the business was doing well, incredibly well. I have a plan to massively increase our footprint. Greenstone sits on the southern side of this continent, Arngo is arguably the northernmost before we cross the sea. If we can establish a foothold in both then we have the start of a plan. If we can connect the two then filling the gaps will make us a lot of money.” She paused for a moment, letting the magnitude of the plan sink in. “I’m not talking cheap convenience like a motorway services. Actual cafes and the consistent quality Gerald is already producing, we’ve seen the produce that can be sourced locally along the way and we can make it work.”
“How much are you thinking of investing in this Ky?” James asked.
“That’s up to you guys. There’s a few options, we’ll certainly need manufacturing in the area. I was checking the zoning laws and buying property in the city for business isn’t an easy prospect, not nearly as easy as it was in Greenstone where it’s just a matter of money. There needs to either be precedent or reputation for a shop to be opened.”
“Greenstone is backwater as hell compared to Arngo, I doubt our reputation from there will count?” Teddy said.
“No it probably won’t, but I made an observation on the way up here, I spoke to Caleb about it quickly but the rental for a few of those fishing boats wouldn’t be too much.”
“You’re thinking of running coffee carts like in Greenstone city centre?” Lucy worked out.
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“Exactly! They go up and down the river selling coffee at first. Then the traffic going into the city carries good word of this wonderful new product. I can’t imagine it will take long for word to get around from barge captains to guard captains to city guards to city officials.”
“…that wouldn’t be too much initial investment either just to test the water, excuse the pun.” James smirked.
“See, it all comes together. A warehouse with manufacturing downriver where it’s not so expensive, start with a few good boats going up and down, see where it leads.”
“Not wanting to poke problems babe but it’s only Gerald that makes the coffee and he’s pretty defensive about the recipe.” Teddy pointed out.
“That’s a sticking point. I was thinking we ask Gerald what he thinks about asking Clarissa to come and run it. She’s young but he already puts a lot of trust in her.”
“I think there’s a lot of risk there, we know Gerald. If I may make a suggestion?” Lucy asked. Kyra happily nodded at her. “Why don’t we make her a shareholder? We can’t always be the bank, if the buck stops with us then we’re the only ones liable, Gerald takes a share for running it and it has been mostly his idea. But if we have equal investment in this new venture then it’s incumbent on her to make it work?”
“That’s brilliant!” Kyra said. “I was a little uncomfortable it’s all coming from us. Ragnar, fancy some portfolio diversity?”
The big man put his dimensional bag on the counter and started pulling out fistfuls of silver coins. Considering the size of his hands there was a considerable amount of coin coming out.
“Woah big guy! Hold you horses, heidels, whatever. We’ve not spoken it over with the others yet.” Kyra said, trying to stop him.
“Mine action is truth no matter what their answer. I am confident that people so competent and driven but honest will always be worth my time, money and affections.”
Kyra put her hands on his to stop home pulling more money out, he’d already shown enough that most people would be happy to think of retiring on for a fair few years.
“Ragnar that’s so sweet. You’re family now, we just want your company not your coin but you’re welcome to invest if you would like.”
Later that day they were in a speaking chamber. They were expecting just Gerald and were surprised to find he had brought two others with him. Clarissa was stood next to him, she was a very serious young lady who looked like she was doing her best to impress the Mitchells. Gerald also introduced David, a house servant of the noble house Davone. With the three of them on one side and five on the other the meeting got started. Gerald didn’t disappoint, as soon as he was told the meeting was being arranged he hadn’t waited around to see what it was about but put together a briefing pack. He started with the revenue for the last few months, transparent in all dealings. He then went through projection with them including dropping some very favourable news.
“Aye an I’m glad tae mention tae yeh, I wen an got in touch with the Schooner. We got a contract for sandwiches and our lunchtime demand has doubled. We’re thinking of buying oot the shop next tae us in the city and getting another two carts.”
“That’s wonderful Gerald, really wonderful. And leads us onto our next topic of discussion…”
At that moment a young girl ran into the room and wrapped herself around the leg of Clarissa, the young woman looked mortified. “Annabelle! I told you to wait outside!”
“But mum! You took so long. I’m huungry!”
The Mitchells laughed, the cute scene was a breath of fresh air after all the grown up adventures they’d had. Clarissa ushered her out and apologised profusely.
“Not to worry, it makes my next question more interesting. Gerald, we can talk about this privately if you prefer but what do you think about…”
They outlined the plan, talking about the journey they had been on and the set up they imagined. Gerald looked uncomfortable about sharing the secret recipe for the coffee but at the mention of investment from Clarissa he started to bend.
“We don’t want to seem like the bad guys, and I’m sure one day it will get out and we’ll have a competitor, we just cant have that being you. We need to make it in your interest to stay loyal to us and not branch out.” Teddy explained to Clarissa. “We recognise it would mean asking you to move your family which might be a dealbreaker.”
“Oh it’s just me and my daughter, I think she would love the idea of going on an adventure like this!”
The meeting went on, both ends of the call had to disappear briefly to arrange extra time. They agreed to one final call the next day before the Mitchells moved out of the city to going over a legal framework that had been drafted then the Greenstone end could go all out on developing the plan.
………
It took them the better part of a day and a night to cross the ocean. Air travel wasn’t uncommon in these higher magical density areas and Teddy had picked up an air chart that showed where to find the favourable winds, he also fully opened the taps on the mana condensers draining them for speed. They were almost out when they saw land ahead with the rising sun coming over the horizon on one side.
As the shore came into view they saw on the far horizon behind it that start of the peaks which was their final destination. They had crossed a continent and an ocean and they were tantalisingly close.
Teddy decided to stay airborne for a while longer once they reached the shore, draining the last drop out of the three mana condensers they had been given. They were a loan from the adventure society that they had to pass on to the branch in Honshuraskil.
Eventually they did run out and Teddy brought the Serenity gliding down. He checked the ambient magic levels and engaged as much of the active camouflage and aura hiding tricks the Serenity had as he could. This was silver country. The majority of manifestations would be mid silver with packs of lower and rare but frequent enough gold manifestations. This was the part of the contract that Vincent had warned them of so long ago that they would need to be especially careful, previous contracts at this point would normally be escorted from Arngo onwards but the Adventure society had been strapped for manpower due to other concerns. After looking at the Mitchells team file records of job completion, their offers from various notable guilds and the presence of Ragnar from the church they decided they would be able to complete.
It would only take two days to reach the base of the mountain, the magical storm that stopped anyone from getting to the city would be over by then and they would be able to almost go straight up without stopping.
The Serenity travelled on in silence, all on board at high alert, so close to the end now.