Notes: In this chapter, Crow and Badger briefly discuss when they'd first met. This is a reference to Spectrumv's Black Raven comic, which you can find at her accounts on both deviantART and tumblr. If you haven't checked it out already, then I'd definitely recommend doing so, because it's a fantastic comic that shows the Black Ravens a similar vein to this fanfic.
Badger didn't get much sleep in the few hours that followed the abandoned auction. He lay awake, thinking about everything and wondering if the others were all doing the same. Certainly it was already starting to get light outside by the time Crow returned and crawled into bed. When that happened, Badger pretended to be asleep. He didn't feel like either of them were ready to talk right now.
Even later on in the day it was unclear what Crow intended to do. He'd briefly mentioned that they all needed time to rest and that he'd arrange a meeting later on in the week, once they all got it sorted in their heads what they wanted to do.
In that time, Badgr found himself worrying a lot about the Barde siblings, who didn't turn up at the market again following the unsuccessful night. He knew that Marilyn and Gus had both gone up to talk to them though, leaving the grumbling Roddy looking after Marilyn's stall while they did. Even if he didn't know what had been said between them, Badger was certain that two people as sensitive as Marilyn and Gus are would be the best ones amongst the group for them to talk to right now. And when they returned, Marilyn informed Crow that both Arianna and Tony would attend the next meeting.
As the week went on they came closer to their staple auction for the rich buyers without any word. Because of this, Badger began to wonder if even their traditional auction would be cancelled. Which would see them without any profits for that week. In the end though, Crow did arrange for them to meet as a group the day before when it would usually be held.
They all arrived in the auction hall at their own pace, with Tony and Arianna coming in last. The two of them had much further to walk after all. Once they were seated, Crow regarded them both seriously.
"Before we get onto anythin' else, I wanna know 'ow ya feel about this," he stated, "There's no point in me sayin' my plans if ya ain't comfortable bein' 'ere any more."
"Then I'm sorry that I don't have a more definite answer for you," replied Arianna, "Because Tony and myself have been unable to come to an agreement on the matter. We've talked about it seriously, but regardless of how many times we go over it we reach the same conclusion – I want to continue and Tony does not."
"Wot... really?" gaped Crow, looking at Tony in surprise.
If anything, they'd expected it to be the other way around. Arianna was the one who had the run-in with the angry punter after all and, by contrast, Tony had always been eager to join in with the Black Ravens.
Right now he wasn't meeting Crow's gaze, staring angrily at the floor. Though when he spoke his voice was clear and certain.
"I didn't know what we were getting ourselves into," Tony explained, "You all knew that long before I did. That's why you stopped inviting me over time and only called us both back when you really needed our help. Don't think I'm stupid enough not to realise that. But I so wanted to be part of this... It seemed magical to me. Enough so that I never stopped to think about how risky everything that you do is... I-I don't want Arianna to be put in a place where she can be hurt so easily..."
"While on my part, I don't think the danger is as bad as Tony's making it out to be," Arianna continued, "It was a shock to all of us, but even with what happened we managed to keep it under control. I've never felt as alive as I have done these past few weeks and I don't want that to be snatched away so soon."
Crow nodded; "Ya both 'ave good reasons to feel the ways ya do. I ain't gonna argue with either o' ya about that. But I will say this – we weren't prepared for wot 'appened. Gettin' away as lightly as we did was a fluke an' we were lucky that Rod was as quick on the draw as 'e was. But that won't be the case from now on. If we continue the auctions, there'll be more attention paid to makin' sure that the 'all is secure durin' each one. There'll be Black Ravens a stone's throw away from each part o' the room."
"That's not good enough for me," Tony insisted, "It's not that I don't trust you all, but I feel that I've not been doing my part. If Arianna wants to stay with you then I won't stop her, but I will sit in with her at the auctions instead of being behind the curtain with the others."
"Tony, there's no need..." mumbled Arianna.
"This sounds like somethin' ya need to talk about amongst yaselves. No matter wot choice ya make, I'll stand by it an' make allowances," Crow assured, "But this does bring us onto the mattah of Arianna's role in the auctions. We've bin too obvious. So much so that even that fella picked up on it. We can't carry on lettin' Arianna bid first in every auction."
"In which case, we need to be smarter about it. But I'm not allowing myself to be muscled out when I know that what I do has been helping you," insisted Arianna.
"Do ya 'ave any suggestions then?" Crow prompted.
"I do," she confirmed, "And what I feel is that you don't flaunt my presence enough. Hear me out on this, Crow. You go into these experimental auctions accepting that you might make a loss. That's why you don't sell the better items there. Instead, you sell what you feel wouldn't work with the rich crowds. It doesn't matter if you make less money, because you never expected to make a lot from those goods anyway. And actually, it usually works out that the new crowd gets excited enough to bid higher anyway, so you don't need me there as much. It's no wonder that people have started to get suspicious of my bidding. I'm Arianna Barde – people know me both in Misthallery and out of it, thanks to the newspaper coverage of the Golden Garden. So because people know me, I might be more use to you in the other auctions, where you do get customers who are bidding more in my league. Why don't you use that? You can make a big deal of my being there and drive up the prices at a time when it matters. Accept that it's not the new auctions that need my help, but the old auctions that need to stop being stale."
It felt as if she'd practised this speech in her head before coming here and Badger watched as Arianna stared at Crow with determination. In turn, he seemed to take in what she was offering with serious consideration, before he nodded his head again in agreement.
"That sounds like a good idea," he complimented, "But if ya do wanna stay just as involved in the Black Ravens, then restrictin' ya only to the one auction a week seems unfair."
Arianna shook her head and pressed on; "We- ...um, I can help in other ways during the times you don't have auctions. I've seen that when the back stock gets full, you barely have enough space in that little room through there to contain it. And I've been told that before the Turners left, you used Wren and Socket's garage as a workshop to repair damaged wares. Which you haven't been able to do since they moved away. Well, Tony and I have a mansion with more space than we know what to do with. You have my permission to use it, both for storage and for any repair work you may want to do. If you can find someone to fix them, then you now have the space to do it in."
"That's very kind o' ya," replied Crow, "An' we're lucky that ya still wanna be part o' us. Tony, I only 'ope we can make this up to ya as time goes on."
"Just make sure Arianna is safe," Tony retorted. It seemed to be taking all of the kindly boy's efforts to put across exactly how angry he was.
"I will," promised Crow, "But now I need to talk to everyone else 'ere as well. I'm sorry that ya've all spent the last few days worryin' an' not knowin' wot's gonna 'appen. In truth, I dunno for sure either. But I'm gonna tell ya now wot I think we should do, so then ya can all let me know wot ya think about it an' if ya 'ave any other ideas."
"Go on then," Roddy prompted.
His eyes had never left Crow the whole time they'd been talking and Badger could only wonder what might be going on in Roddy's head. After the last auction had been cancelled, Roddy claimed that he trusted Crow to make the right decision. Now it was time to discover if he'd been right to place that kind of trust in the leader.
"All right, let's start with our upmarket auction," began Crow, "I want these to carry on as they 'ave bin, takin' Arianna's suggestions into account. We can cancel this week's if some o' ya don't feel up to it, but when we get to the next one I wanna shake it up, like Arianna said."
"W-we've been talking among ourselves since that night," Gus chipped in, "I, um, th-think I speak for us all when I say that we want to carry on as soon as possible. We were actually more worried that you'd cancel this week's final auction, given how close you've cut telling us about it."
There was a general murmur of approval from the others. Badger was glad to hear that they seemed to share his sentiments on the matter.
"Then I'm glad ya do wanna get back to this soon. In which case, I apologise for leavin' it this long to bet back to all o' ya," Crow replied.
"Even with such short notice, we can be ready in time," vowed Scraps, "I haven't stopped collecting trinkets just because you didn't know what we were doing next."
"I'm glad to 'ear. Thanks, Scraps," Crow said, "But overall I don't think that carryin' on with those auctions is a big surprise to anyone. They've been runnin' steady for us without causin' too many problems for a while now. Closin' them would be the end o' the Black Ravens as an auction group, I can imagine. So while we might be gonna polish 'em up, they're not the biggest matter 'ere. No, wot we really need to talk about is the new auctions."
Badger felt himself start to shiver in nervous anticipation. This was the part of the meeting he'd been waiting for. Because no matter what he tried to tell himself on the subject, he just didn't know what Crow would think was best to do about these auctions. Somehow, because Badger had come up with the idea, it felt as if whatever happened to it was a reflection upon him. If Crow deemed these auctions too risky to carry on with, then part of Badger would feel that he had let the group down by suggesting them at all. Even if Marilyn had said the Black Ravens might not have lasted much longer without the new energy these auctions had brought.
"I feel that if we cancel those auctions now then we'll end up back where we were before. An' we can probably all agree that this wouldn't be for the best," Crow went on. When he said this, Badger let go of the breath he'd been holding. So Crow wasn't going to cancel them after all. He listened eagerly as Crow continued; "But we can't keep 'em goin' as they are. We should let more people in than we 'ad done in the past, yeah, but that don't mean that we can let our guard down entirely. So I go back to wot I said to Arianna before – we keep a bettah watch ovah everyone at every auction. We trust each othah to invite the right people, but part o' that trust means that we can also pull each othah up if we do think that a wrong customah 'as bin invited. Sayin' that someone's made a mistake doesn't mean ya don't trust that person, it just 'elps us become strongah as a group. Heck, we wouldn't be 'ere if all o' ya 'adn't constantly bin pointin' out the mistakes that I've made. An' I want ya to always do that. Always tell me when I'm wrong."
"Oh, you don't need to worry about that. We will," chuckled Roddy.
"Good. That's good," assured Crow, "Now, that covahs wot I wanted to say on this. Does anyone else 'ave anythin' they wanna add?"
Scraps pulled himself up to his feet; "I do, yeah. All this you've been saying about the tightened watch over the auctions is fine, but that's not the only problem I have with them. You said at the start that you always wanted to go ahead with auctions, even with the risk of low stock. At the time I kept my mouth shut, but I'm telling you now that it isn't possible. I've been worked ragged trying to keep up with you and even at my pace I can't manage. So my position is this – consult me before arranging any auction. I'll be the one to tell you if we can do it or not."
"That seems fair," Crow agreed, "All right then, are there any more suggestions or should we get ready for tomorrah's auction?"
No one seemed to have any further objections. So after that the group moved on to prepare for the next day. There'd been a lot to think about and Badger found himself distracted enough by it that he didn't pay as much attention to what came next as he should have done. Fortunately, most of the changes to tomorrow's auction were focused on Arianna, so Badger's mind was freed up to wander onto other things. He felt glad that Crow still wanted to carry on with the other auctions, even if Scraps's terms would probably mean there'd be less of them. This might well be for the best, however. The whole idea of having auctions where they risk making a loss was to keep them all motivated. If those auctions ended up running them into the ground, then it defeated the purpose that they were there for.
All the same, this making them safer did get Badger thinking back to what Marilyn had said about Crow that other night. Eventually, this would become usual, too. And then Crow would once again grow restless. He had to force himself not to think about what he could do to help Crow when that day came. Because Marilyn had been right in saying that he was only prolonging the inevitable. It was Crow's choice to live his life and find the challenges he wanted.
What Badger needed to do was prepare himself for when that happened.
So in the run-up to the next auction, he kept his head down and carried on. There was enough work to be done to prepare for it anyway. Meaning his only distraction came when Crow talked to him seriously later that night, as they both sat awake up in his room.
"'Avin' more Black Ravens on show watchin' ovah the auctions is a big move," Crow confirmed, "An' there might not be as much need to do it tomorrah, given that it's mostly our usual crowd. But I wanna start us off light, so that we know wot we're doin' when it 'appens for real. All the same, I know 'ow nervous ya get with crowds. If ya don't wanna do this, then no one's gonna make ya."
"Nah, I'll do it," assured Badger, surprising even himself. Though he knew that if he wanted to make himself a stronger person, then he had to start somewhere. "I'm fast, so you want me t' be around out there fer if summit goes t' pot."
"Yeah, an' ya strong, too," Crow agreed, "If that knock ya gave me back when we first met is anythin' to go on."
"C-can we not talk about that...?" mumbled Badger.
He still felt embarrassed remembering that his first encounter with the Black Raven had found him so scared that he'd punched Crow in the face. Not that he'd known who Crow was at the time, but all the same, looking back on it now made Badger feel a bit queasy.
"All right, I won't," Crow promised. He didn't seem nearly as bothered at recollecting this event as Badger did, however; "Let's just focus on the next auction for now."
Badger could agree on that. And after a bit more talking, the two of them eventually bid each other good night and turned to get some sleep. Crow's 'bed' was currently a spare mattress that had been dumped haphazardly in the middle of the floor in his room. Badger had been given the actual bed for the whole time he'd been staying there, as much as he'd insisted there was no need. Sleep was never something that Badger had been good at anyway, so the comfy bed meant very little to him. But both Crow and Maureen had insisted, so Badger saw no room to argue. All the same, the last few years had seen Badger go through a growth-spurt that Crow hadn't come close to matching, which meant that his skinny feet poked out over the end of the little bed. It wasn't ideal, but this was a small price to pay in comparison to what he'd come from. An awkward bed was nothing when the alternate had been staying back home, looking after his dad...
There were still many thoughts running through Badger's mind as he let sleep take him, however the next day he found that whatever had been on his mind now escaped him. Not that it mattered, given that he had much more work to throw himself into today.
As was becoming the norm, the Black Ravens gave everything they'd got to getting ready for the night's auctions.
Their wealthy customers had no idea of the changes that were coming. But by the time they arrived, they could tell that something was different about tonight. The air was filled with intrigue as the crowd walked in. They glanced from side to side, taking in that there were now several Black Ravens stationed around the room, as opposed to just the usual one up on the stage.
And while Crow did stand at his place next to the podium, today the spotlight was not on him, but on two empty seats at the front of the room. They were clearly marked as being reserved and by the time their guests had sat down there wasn't one person who hadn't regarded these seats with interest.
They waited until there was silence in the room. And although there was no signal as such, in themselves they knew when it was time for the Bardes to make their entrance. The doors were opened once again by two Black Ravens and as Arianna walked through, followed closely by Tony, the spotlight swivelled from the seat onto them. Badger knew that Scraps was the one operating it. He must have been enjoying doing something different to their routine.
All eyes were on their two planned guests, as they made their way to the seats at the front. While she walked, Arianna held her head up high, as if she was looking down on even these wealthy patrons. In contrast, Tony seemed more nervous at being the centre of such attention, but he stuck by Arianna's side like he'd vowed that he would.
Once the two of them were safely seated, the spotlight moved onto Crow, where it would stay for the rest of the evening.
"Welcome to all our 'onoured guests," he boomed. It had been a while since Badger had seen the full force of the Black Raven out here, instead of safely admiring it from the back room. The intensity of it almost made him want to recoil, but he pulled himself together as Crow continued, "Ya might all notice there are some changes from our previous auctions tonight. First an' foremost, the Black Raven welcomes our esteemed local celebrities, Arianna an' Tony Barde. We are proud to say that they'll be biddin' with us this evenin'."
Arianna merely nodded at the the mention, her gaze as steely as ever. It was clear that her presence had the desired effect of making the others nervous. Badger could only hope that would mean they'd bid higher when the time came.
"Next, I'm sure ya can't ignore the increased security around the room," Crow continued, after he'd given the crowd enough time to acknowledge the two Bardes, "I'm afraid to say that there was... an incident earliah in the week, with one o' our lessah auctions. This was always a risk to be taken in dealin' with riff-raff."
Even from down here, Badger could almost feel Scraps seething at such a comment. They all knew that Crow was merely trying to butter up their wealthy guests, but despite this, Scraps did not like anyone talking lowly of the working-classes. Especially given that they were the Black Ravens' own kind, for the most part.
"...All the same, we feel that it is not our place to condemn the many for the actions o' the few, so we 'ave decided to carry on our auctions undah a closah watch. Tonight there is no need for this extra guard, not amongst our trusted friends. Howevah, I would like to prepare my beloved Black Ravens for wot is to come. Because o' this, they are 'ere tonight as a trial run to ready themselves. They will not interrupt ya usual auction in any way an' I 'ope that ya undahstand their reason for bein' 'ere," explained Crow, to the general murmur of the room. There were enough compliments laced into the speech that the general reaction seemed to be a positive one.
"With that outta the way, let us begin..."
The atmosphere in these auctions was much calmer than that of the last one, which Badger was thankful for. Even if they were here to prepare themselves for what was to come, Badger didn't know if he'd be ready for next week. All the same, right now he was quietly glad to have this chance to watch Crow work his auctioneer magic from out the front, in the same way that most other people saw it.
Crow was alive on the stage. He was captivating. Clearly these moments were what he lived for and this was why the auctions meant so much to him. The way he worked the crowd was effortless, as they were just as drawn in by him as Badger was. ...Actually, probably not quite as much so as Badger was. Right here and now he felt as if he was falling for Crow all over again.
If this was Crow not even at his full potential, then Badger truly wanted to see what Crow could become if he did leave Misthallery one day. Thinking about that made butterflies battle in his stomach. He couldn't say right now whether he'd really want Crow to leave or not, but this did seem as if it was what Marilyn had been talking about.
And although his attention was almost entirely upon their charismatic leader, Badger also saw what a difference Arianna made that evening. She didn't rush in to bid on the first lot as she would have done before, but instead she would wait until the punters were sucked into their bidding and draw them out further. None of them could be sure when she would bid and that made the other guests more nervous of her. She received almost as many glances as Crow did himself.
The extra guards thankfully found that not much attention was being paid to them. There was little for them to do in truth, but being there did show them what they were to expect when it came to the real thing. Knowing where to stand, where to watch and how to bid their guests farewell felt like just the preparation that was needed.
By the time the night was over, Badger could feel a strange sort of calm thrill throughout the room. These people were not as outwardly excitable as their other crowd, but they certainly had felt the changes tonight. And they were hungry for more.
Arianna and Tony were the first to leave, everyone watching as they gracefully disappeared up the centre and out into the tunnel. Unfortunately it would be a while before they could come back, lest they raise suspicion, but this had all been arranged beforehand regardless.
After them, the other customers filed out, until it was only the remaining members of the original Black Ravens left. As the doors shut heavily, there were mixed sighs of relief from different corners of the room.
"That was intense..." gasped Gus, as he took off his mask.
"You handled it very well though," Marilyn assured him, "We all did."
"I'm proud o' ya," agreed Crow, "We've overcome the first obstacle in our new routine an' I know we'll just keep goin' strong from 'ere. I 'ope each person in this room goes 'ome tonight an' feels good about themselves."
"We haven't done anything tonight though," Roddy debated, "Just wait until next week."
"Bring it on!" called Scraps, from up in the rafters, "And if you mess up, Roddy, I'll be sure to swing this spotlight in your direction."
"Thanks, Scraps. Always glad to know who my friends are," Roddy sighed.
"No one's gonna mess up though, we're gonna do great," Crow pressed, "We're the Black Ravens, we only know 'ow to do great!"
Despite all the evidence to the contrary, Crow's confidence was infectious and Badger couldn't help but feel good about himself after hearing that. While next week would indeed bring new challenges, he knew they'd all get through it with their wonderful leader at the helm.
