"Are you sure this is the place?" I asked Callie as we stood outside a rather large house. "Because I'll be honest, it's not what I was expecting." We'd left the others back at the inn for a while and decided to take some time to ourselves to walk around. Inevitably our constant need to be doing something pushed us to check out Tolbert's manor, where we'd be signing up for our stint as mercenaries.

The house WAS huge and imposing, as one would expect of a noble, but that was where the image fell apart. The huge wrought iron gates were wide open, as were the doors to the manor, and we were able to walk right in without issue. Not that there weren't any people there, in fact, there were far TOO many people. Random men and women walked in and out around us, chattering and measuring and doing any number of other things.

The house itself was empty, no furniture or anything, and a large man with long dark hair and a goatee was standing in the middle of everything, fielding questions and barking orders as people bustled about. I did see a pair of men carrying a couch up the stairs, so I guessed they were moving in.

Callie looked as confused as I did. "I thought he'd been here for a while, since so many people have apparently showed up to sign on, but this looks like he's barely broken ground."

I just shrugged. "We're getting in on the ground floor. Maybe we'll get better terms that way."

"You won't." Chimed in a voice from behind us. I turned to see a whip thin blonde man with a hawklike nose and an honest to gods monocle staring at us. "The terms are fairly awful. Camden put most of his personal wealth into securing this estate and establishing his claim on the local territory. This is such an unusual event that even if he was expecting people to fight for free they'd sign up for the chance to possibly become part of a noble coterie."

Grimacing at the news, I held out a hand. "Solomon. And this is Nightstrike."

He chuckled. "Conglomerate, I assume." He took my hand and gave it a firm shake, offering the same to Callie. "Alister Morgan, Camden's seneschal. Apologies for the chaos. As you surmised, we've only just arrived. I must say, it's a shock to see any possible hirees from such a distant place. We have the occasional fae signing up, but the Conglomerate is a ways off. How did you hear about us?"

Deciding to play it safe, I shrugged. "I have a friend in the Empire." I said evasively. "He hears things. From your earlier comment I assume the pay here isn't great?"

"Sadly not." He said ruefully. "Most of the volunteers are hoping to be offered a permanent position among the Baron's forces once he manages to establish his foothold. Camden's family isn't...thrilled, by his decision to set up his operation in such an out of the way area."

"Then why do it?" Asked Callie. "It seems like a lot of risk for not much reward. Not that I'm an expert on imperial politics, but this isn't exactly prime real estate, is it?"

Alister frowned. "It's complicated. The Tolbert succession isn't exactly neat and tidy. Camden wants no part of the family squabbles, and is hoping distancing himself will prevent any...accidents. Seven of Camden's cousins have been poisoned in the last year alone. His grandfather is ill, you see, and when he dies, Camden's uncle Vallis will take over as family head. Someone from the next generation will be chosen as heir and the position comes with quite a few perks."

That I could understand. It sounded even more obnoxious than my family drama. "Ah, so he's striking out on his own, and hoping that starting his own little sub branch will make him an unattractive target for the assassins?"

"Even so." Nodded the seneschal. "So I'm afraid if you came expecting a generous payday you've been misinformed. The contracts for employment are heavily weighted towards eventual payout rather than immediate gratification. We do accept short term employees, but their compensation is far reduced. Though if you're here for a long term assignment we'd be happy to put you through the necessary assessments."

Despite not being here for money, that wasn't really ideal. Still, a job was a job, and Camden seemed like the kind of person I could work with. "Sadly no. We're here for something a bit more short term. Maybe a year tops. Little less. We're not against taking a pay cut for a good fit though, and we're hard workers. We came with quite a few friends, since we heard you need all the help you can get."

I noticed something that made me feel a bit better about being here as I watched everyone bustling around. Despite him barking at a few of them for different things, none of these people seemed afraid of Camden Tolbert. The big noble was gruff, but everyone seemed more focused on keeping busy than flinching when he made any demands.

It said a lot about him that his employees were comfortable enough with him to ignore his temper like that, and it made me more willing to work for him by the second. "Alright, well, can we talk to Baron Tolbert? We'd love to hear more about his operation. You understand we can't commit to anything before we take the terms back to our companions, but hearing him out sounds like a good start."

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Given we were joining an army, establishing myself as an authority figure seemed like it might cause problems. Best to take a more collective approach, since Tolbert's people would probably want to establish their own heirarchy rather than use ours.

Alister's face lit up. "Why, of course. As mentioned assessments will be forthcoming, but we're happy to discuss collaboration pending those results."

He led us over to where Camden was standing, glaring at a defiant looking woman with red hair in pigtails and soot stains on her face. "I'm telling you upfront." She said bluntly. "I can't turn your chandelier into a defensive emplacement with those specs. I understand your basic request here, but the power requirements are prohibitive."

"I told you to use Might gems for the crystal spikes." He growled. "I even budgeted for it. So what the hell do you need these energy storage runes for? Not to mention the extra hardware."

She pointed up at the ceiling. "Because the Might gems provide the power for attacks, but they don't launch themselves." She paused. "Well, they could, but I can't fit that kind of runework on the frame you commissioned. We need a secondary rune sequence for setup and launch, and it's going to require Perception. I can't do it with your current supplies. Get as pissed as you want, but that's not changing."

He pinched the bridge of his nose. "How much for the Perception gems? And what kind of changes will we need to make to the frame? I'm not made of money."

"Ten E-rank chits for the whole upgrade." She said sympathetically. "We're going to have to rework the whole frame, melt it down and reforge it. OR we can just go with the original design and nix the launch sequence. Have it shoot straight down when they walk under it."

Sighing heavily, he rubbed his eyes. "Fine. But I want delivery for the frame included. That's transport to the enchanter and back." She agreed instantly and he turned to us with a wry smile. "Sorry. Certain conventions need to be upheld for a noble establishing a manor, but I'm trying to get as much utility as possible out of the useless detritus I'm filling my home with. Now, I take it you're here about the army?"

I nodded. "Got it in one. There's fourteen of us pretty much. Varying levels of combat experience, most of us halfway to E-rank or higher. We have a healer with us who comes as part of a package deal if we decide to sign on, and her power can also wipe away fatigue."

Jessie's lifeweaving was even more valuable here because of the Impact pressure. Doing things here as an F-ranker was exhausting, and having access to a pick me up was bound to be helpful.

Sure enough, Camden looked interested. "A healer? Those are expensive and hard to find. My forces weren't a draw for many since they have so many other options. No one turns away a good healer. As for the fighting experience..." He shrugged. "It doesn't mean much. Fighting in a formation is quite different than single combat. In fact we prefer amateurs for the rank and file because they have fewer bad habits to train out. That said my drill instructor is damned good, so we can work with anything you bring us. Provided you're all up to standard physically and you can bring me the healer you're in."

"What about pay?" I said, mostly to make it clear I wasn't an easy mark. We were offering him a vital service, especially with Jessie coming along.

He looked us over, spotting the hole in my armor easily. "Tell you what. Every member of my forces gets a stipend and a set of gear. Forgo the stipend and I'll let you design the gear yourself. If your healer is willing to give up payment I'll even shell out for E-ranked materials. It'll end up being cheaper than paying by the injury in any case."

That...would be a huge win for us. It also made me wonder how much healers made, because it was an absurd amount of money he was talking about. "I'll talk to her about it." I said firmly. "I can't commit to that big of a move without her input. Is the offer time sensitive?"

"Not unless I magically get another high level healer knocking on my door." He chuckled. "But basic starts in three days, so I suppose I'd prefer your response by then." He held out his hand. "On the off chance you accept, I'd like to welcome you both and your group to the Tolbert Military."

I shook, as did Callie, and we left, both of us feeling a bit unsure of what just happened. "So..." I said slowly. "We need to do a ton of research on local materials and healing costs right? I mean we'll bring it to Jessie, but he seemed way too excited to be paying that much money. I feel like he's dramatically undercutting us costwise. How rare are healers in the Empire?"

"It's not the Empire." She said, shaking her head as she slipped into stealth speech. "I think it's just here. Didn't you hear him? Healers can write their own meal ticket. Chances are most of them move up to more lucrative positions and more financially flourishing planets. We can look into it, but as for leverage..."

Grimacing, I did the same, isolating our conversation from prying ears. "Yeah. we're stuck here for the moment. Camden is the only game in town if we all want to stay together. Of course, he doesn't know that, but it's still true. At least we might get new costumes out of it. E-ranked gear for everyone is pretty enticing."

I really needed new armor, and everyone else getting their own was a stroke of luck. I was sure Jessie would be interested, though I hadn't been lying about not being willing to push her into it. We also hadn't mentioned Randall. I wondered if we could get HIM an E-ranked gear set. The idea of a giant bear in powerful armor amused me and seemed like it would be useful.

Walking back to the inn, I considered everything I'd learned and how this would probably work, and I couldn't help but get excited. Something about being back at a human level and being about to go through real training to work with a team from people who knew how to actually train others had me excited to start. Before that though, I had to fill everyone in about our conversation with Camden. We had some choices to make.