* VIII *

"So," Arden began, taking a seat at Gustovan's conference table, "we cleared out the Old Mine for you. About twenty five Kobolds along with the Ogres."
"Erm…" Gustovan began, flummoxed. "We only negotiated a bounty for Ogres, did we not?"
"We did," Arden confirmed. "We'll let you have the Kobolds for nothing. Consider it part of the service!"
"That's err… very generous of you," Gustovan replied. "Thank you," he added, almost reluctantly. There was an awkward pause. Arden was deliberately leaving space for Gustovan to feel more-and-more uncomfortable. She was manipulating the situation brilliantly, just as when she'd originally negotiated their terms, but Elantar couldn't help but feel sorry for the Mayor now. He was down, and Arden was continuing to put the boot in.

"I, uh… may need some time to, uh… get together the bounty." Gustovan continued after a while.
"We're not in an immediate hurry to leave," Gravak responded. It looked as if he too had read the Mayor's discomfort and was trying to help. Arden glared at him, pleading for silence and for him to let her handle it.
"No," the Bard chipped in trying to regain control of the negotiations. "We can give you a few days to get the three hundred gold together."
"Three hundred?!" Gustovan responded despairingly.
"Yes, six Ogres, at fifty gold each. Three hundred gold!" Boshley interrupted.
"We, uh… we were only expecting five. I'll need to see what I can get together," he answered hesitantly.
"Rest assured Mr. Mayor; there are no more Ogres around," Arden assured him. "Once we get paid for our services, you and your people can get back on your feet without any problem."

"I'm going to go see to the horses," Elantar announced, rising to her feet and making her way to the door.
"I'll join you," Taldir offered.
"Arden?" Gravak ventured, "Can we talk?"
"Sure…" she answered hesitantly. "If we leave it for now Mr Mayor? I'll call in tomorrow to see how you're getting on. We're going to take rooms at The Goat."
"Fine…" the Mayor answered as they left.

"What was that in there?" Arden demanded. Her, Taldir, Elantar and Gravak had all stepped aside when they were back outside. "You were cramping my style a bit, you know?"
"Do you have no mercy?" Gravak responded. "They clearly can't afford this; the town has been ruined."
"He should have thought of that before entering into our deal," Arden responded. "We did a tough job for them, and pulled it off well."
"It's three hundred gold Arden," Elantar observed. "We bought back thousands from the mine. We don't need it."
"You're welcome to give up your share," Arden answered angrily, turning to leave "but I'm taking what we negotiated, and nothing less!"

"We should give her a couple of hours to think it over," Gravak declared once she'd left. "She'll come around."
The three of them re-joined the party; there was no sign of Arden anywhere. Coralyn said that she'd seen her stomping off in the direction of the Pig's Britches with her flute. The conversation turned to the haul of coins.

"I don't know if I can face counting them all this afternoon," Elantar said. "How about seeing if there's a money changer here who'll do it for us?"
"Sounds like a good idea to me," Boshley answered. "More time for drinking!"
"I don't know about giving it all over to some stranger…" Taldir wondered aloud.
"I don't trust anyone here to do it," Gravak echoed.
"Well, you two can count it all then," Boshley decided. "I'm going to the inn, just keep my cut safe!" The Gnome turned on his heels and was gone. Coralyn chuckled and then made her apologies. She looked very much in need of a rest and followed closely behind Boshley.

"I'll 'elp," Buttercup offered, and opened up the nearest sack, dropping to a crouch. "Wun, too, for, sum, lowdz…"
"And how many is that?" Taldir asked in disgust.
"Coynz!" she bellowed back at him.
"Err…" Elantar offered.
"Buttercup…" Gravak said gently. "Would you mind keeping an eye on Boshley? It'd be just like him to cause trouble here. If he does, he might need your help."
"Yer, ahright," she answered, dropping the rest of the coins from her fist and taking up her pack before following Boshley and Coralyn to The Goat.

"So… are you in Elantar?" Taldir asked. "It'll only take a couple of hours for the three of us."
"I already made it quite clear that I wasn't up for that," she replied irritably.
"What else are you going to do?" the Wizard snapped. "Go and make some friends"?
She glared at him bitterly.
"OK…" she reluctantly agreed. "Let's find a room to set up in."

"I've had a great idea!" Arden declared at breakfast the next morning.

She was the last to reach the table, having gone to bed latest after entertaining the crowds at several of Torlynn's taverns. Elantar, Gravak and Taldir had all retired soon after counting up the loot, and had apparently missed quite a show. Boshley had been speaking enthusiastically about the previous evening; he looked like he'd had quite a night, but showed no signs of a sore head.

"How about," she continued, "we let Gustovan off of the payment?"
Gravak turned to face her, but made no sound. Elantar speared another sausage on her dagger and continued eating. Taldir made to begin speaking, but somehow couldn't find the words.

"I thought you said it was a great idea?" Boshley responded incredulously. "Giving up our payment? That's madness! He was in here last night, the Mayor. Looked like he was calling in favours, collecting cash off of the landlord."
"Hear me out," she said, taking a seat. "Elantar, how much coin did we bring back from the mine?"
Elantar fixed her with a steely gaze, wondering why it had taken her so long to come to this conclusion. "Just over two thousand gold pieces worth," she announced after a few seconds.
"See?" Arden declared before dropping her voice, "Gustovan owes us three hundred. Two thousand between us…"
"No," Elantar firmly interrupted. Everybody looked at her. Taldir grinned. "Just over two thousand gold. Each," she responded, punctuating the last word and letting it hang in the air.

Arden let out a whistle. "So… that underlines the point even more!"
"Some of us came to this conclusion yesterday half-breed," Taldir declared, finally addressing the elephant in the room. Arden shook it off, and continued regardless.
"My point is," she continued, "that we don't really need the fee. It's pocket change to us now. Let's get the whole town together again…" She was interrupted by several groans around the table.
"Let's not, eh?" Boshley suggested.
"He's right," Elantar added supportively, "we don't need another exhibition, let's just go and tell Gustovan that we're letting them keep it."
"Why? I mean, why waste the opportunity?" the Bard asked them all. "We could live like Kings here for as long as we wanted!"
"I don't know what you're used to," Gravak said, "but as far as I'm concerned, we have it pretty good here already."
"And Gustovan's alright," Elantar added.
"Yeah…" Boshley agreed.
"He's in a desperate position," Coralyn added, joining the conversation. "Letting him off would be a beautiful gesture; he'd let the town know how generous we've been. I think…" she added hopefully.
"In any case…" Gravak said decisively, "it may not be wise to be so crass about it. Generosity is far more valuable when it is given in secret, and others boast of it for you."
"Alright," Arden responded reluctantly. "We'll do it your way. This time."

The town outside seemed to have changed a little overnight. Where the previous day, they had been welcomed as heroes, today saw glares of either bitterness or, at best, indifference from most of those that they met. Marcos, the Goat's landlord had not been present at breakfast, but he was less than warm towards them as they passed him on the way to Gustovan's Manse.

"Did he have a cow here yesterday?" Boshley asked as they reached his door. The aged brown animal stood tethered on his front lawn, chewing away at whatever greenery it could reach.
"No, I don't think so…" Arden answered.

The Mayor himself looked tired and harassed. Sigmund had confided on their way in that he'd only managed to snatch a couple of hours sleep early this morning, and asked them all to excuse his appearance.
"Good morning, brave adventurers!" he managed to say in greeting. He was pretty convincing too.
"Good morning, Mr Mayor," Arden responded as they all took seats.

"Now, please let me explain our situation," he continued.
"Tha…" Arden began, but she was cut off by a swift gesture from the Mayor.
"We have had some difficulty gathering your payment, but I believe we can offer coin and goods equivalent to the fee."
"Mr M…" Arden tried again, but he continued.
"I'm afraid that a lot of it is in rather small change," he said, hefting a considerable sack of coins onto the table, "but this totals two-hundred and seventy gold exactly."
"Sir, ple…"
"Please allow me to finish Miss Arden!" he interrupted again. "Now… the remaining thirty gold, I would like to offer to you in the form of your fees for your upkeep here, and also the fine creature that is currently enjoying my front lawn. Are these terms acceptable?"

They looked on in uncomfortable silence for a few seconds. Beads of sweat began to flow rapidly down Gustovan's forehead.
"Well?" The Mayor asked, beginning to look a little panicked. "You couldn't wait to speak before… Are these terms acceptable?!"
"Mr Mayor…" Arden rose to address him. "We have returned from the perilous Mine north of here, having completed a very difficult task for which we are due…"

"We're waiving our fee," Gravak interrupted, also taking to his feet. Gustovan had almost begun to cry before this interruption. Clearly, the Cleric was in no mood to toy with him any longer.
"Really?" Arden asked. "You wouldn't even let me do that?"
"Let's go, Arden," Coralyn said, taking her by the arm and leading her towards the door.
"Wait!" Gustovan commanded. "I really cannot begin to thank you enough…"
"Really," Elantar responded. "It's fine."
"The part about your bill at The Goat," he added, "I want to uphold that. The town will pay for your upkeep here, as long as you need to say."
"Thank you Gustovan," Gravak offered. "I don't think we'll be here more than a few days longer. We'll check in with Eldrann and Taran, and we'll be on our way as soon as they're ready to leave.

Torlynn, the following day.

Elantar returned from her hunt while it was still dark. Being an Elf, she needed only about half the sleep that the others needed each night. She'd gotten an early night and then risen around midnight and headed out into the forest alone. Taldir had similar sleep requirements, but he preferred to spend the other half of each night pouring over scrolls and reading and meditating upon spells.

Taran and Eldrann were yet to turn up any news on her family history; they'd only had a couple of days so far, and there were thousands of scrolls to sift through. They had needed to begin packing the parchment into crates for the journey south to Dennovar, but had promised to continue to search once they had set up back in the capital.

The town was deserted; it was still about an hour until sunrise, and she didn't expect to see any of her companions for a couple of hours yet, which gave her plenty of time to clean and shape the new fur for her cloak. She smiled while she worked, as she began to imagine the look on Boshley's face when he saw her new Badger skin garment.

She was almost finished when she suddenly stopped. She spent a good few minutes considering her actions, and her situation. Experiences from the past few days were replaying in her mind, certain words echoing to her. This was a strange collection of people she'd become involved with, but she felt somehow part of them now. There had been some cutting words exchanged, but they worked well as a team. Eldarion's disappearance had seemed to unite the rest of them too, forming stronger bonds between them. Added to the debt that she owed Gravak, she now had Coralyn to thank in a similar way. Each of her companions may have some unlikeable characteristics, but she knew that they were reliable, and would be willing to help her when needed; Eldrann and Taran's search being an obvious example. Elantar had never really experienced that before.

"This is no way to win friends…" she suddenly heard herself saying out loud. She cleaned off her dagger, re-sheathed it and sat wondering what to do for around ten minutes before a shutter opened on a building across from her. Derrian, the only Tailor in Torlynn, was opening up for the day. Reaching a sudden decision, she took up the new pelt and approached him.

"Derrian?"
"Y-yes?" he answered nervously.
"Do you think you could use this?" she asked, holding the fur out to him. He took it gingerly and seemed to relax a little. "I have no need for it anymore. I'm afraid I may have ruined the edges a little… but I'm sure you can save enough of it."