Monster Party Novella Nosos: But what happens when the gears, get sick of the machine?
Chapter Four: Which side are you on?
"So there it is, one lump sum in exchange for all my business assets and this house." Edward Resten was sitting up at a table with Alexander seated opposite him. He'd insisted that they both be seated, it just wouldn't do for him to conduct a business deal while laying down.
"You do have a plan for what you're going to do with the money? Like buy someplace new to live?" Alexander reminded the black haired man. Edward was being kind enough to him that Alexander didn't want Edward to wind up half mad wandering the streets of Nosos trying to literally build a home out of golden coins.
"I've already got a second smaller place out in the southern part of the city, bought it off of a nobleman who was been smart enough to realized there was no place for decadent aristocrats in the future of Nosos. I even have a few friends who already live out there. I haven't seen in far too long, not since they got the Fever themselves..." Edward admitted a strange mix of melancholy and hope in his voice.
"I'm glad to hear it, I don't want to end up kicking you out of your own house but..." Alexander began.
Edward dashed off a quick scrawl on the piece of paper before him and slid it across the table to Alexander.
"Pish tosh, it's not my house anymore, at least not once you sign. Besides, I imagine it won't be long before you'll be conducting all sorts of business deals and parties here. There's no way your guessed could properly enjoy themselves if they were worried about catching my condition." Edward insisted.
Alexander dipped his quill pen into the bottle of ink that had been set out before him and signed.
"I'll visit you every week and tell you how the business is doing." The silver haired man promised.
"If your head is as soft as your heart you'll be bankrupt inside a month." Edward predicted.
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Thus it was that Alexander Diamondclaw, Florence Bastien, Cal Wright, Devi Skye, Mirri Catwarrior and James Firecat moved from being simply "renters" to "owners" in the parlance of Nosos.
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"This is most unorthodox you know..." Grumbled Alrek Deep-Minded the dwarfish "foreman" (foredwarf?)of the mine that Alexander Diamondclaw had recently purchased.
For a response the silver haired man simply waved a piece of paper in his direction.
"I mean, if you were doing this before you bought the mine and wanted to know what you were getting into and Mr. Resten was okay with letting you look that'd be all well and good. Right now though, if you got sold you a bill of goods, which you didn't, it'd be too late to do anything about it." Protested the demi-human whose head came up not much past Alexander's belly button.
For a second time that piece of paper was waved in the dwarf's face.
"If there are things you wanted to know about the mine or the workers you could just ask me..." Alrek added, needing to break into a light jog in order to keep up with the taller man's much longer strides.
"I own the mine, that means I can inspect it personally for any reason, or even no reason at all. That's part and parcel of the whole 'owning' process as I understand it." Alexander explained, a copy of his and Edward's agreement gripped tightly in his right hand.
"I'm just saying, the mine is no place for a man of your stature." The dwarf warned him.
"If you haven't heard it from someone else first, let me tell it to you directly; I got the money I bought this mine with from adventuring. So, this won't be the first time I've gone underground.
As for my clothing, don't worry, my lady love knows a few magical spells for keeping an outfit looking pristine. Normally I have her employ them because blood stains are quite tenacious, but they should defend equally well against more mundane sources of defilement." The silver haired man insisted.
"All right, but whatever you do, don't talk to anyone else, and don't touch anything without asking me first. You may own the mine and have come here to get better acquainted with it, but if you're not careful..." The dwarf warned.
"I'll become so well acquainted that I'll never want to leave." Alexander finished for him.
"More like never be able to leave, but you're close enough to the mark." Alrek admitted in a tone of voice that suggested he almost resented Alexander being aware of the danger.
He took some flint and steel that was hanging by the mine's entrance, used them to ignite a similarly placed lamp and headed in.
Alexander followed after him and abruptly bumped his head on the ceiling, nearly having his hat knocked off in the process.
"Told you a mine was no place for a man of your stature." The dwarf noted a touch smugly.
"It is all right... I've had some experience going on all fours." Alexander replied and indeed soon settled into a quadrupedal stance.
The mine wasn't quite so small that it was necessary, it was more than small enough to make standing up straight impossible for Alexander Diamondclaw.
"Profits are going to be down for today by the way, and we may have to double back a bit every so often to make room for carts and people who are trying to actually work." Alexander's guide further warned him.
"Sounds reasonable enough." The silver haired man replied as the pair further pressed on into the mine.
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"What is that?" Alexander said gesturing towards one of the walls.
"What is what?" Mr. Deep-Minded replied with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders.
"Walk forward another ten paces. Then do I have your permission to touch the wall?" Alexander requested politely.
"Do it soft like. If you start banging your fists against it I'll kill you myself before the rocks have a chance." The dwarf warned.
"Duly noted." The mine's owner reflected.
They advanced the required number of paces and then Alexander shifted to balancing on only three limbs so that he could gently run a hand against the wall.
He brushed aside some loose stones and dust, revealing that someone had evidently chipped a "U" into the wall.
"What's that?" Alexander repeated gesturing at the letter.
"Nothing." The dwarf insisted refusing to meet Alexander's gaze.
"If it is 'nothing' then someone wouldn't have bothered to try and hide it. What is it?" Alexander wanted to know.
"Nothing you need to worry about. It is just a bit of mine sign. People need to leave each other notes and there isn't exactly a lot of paper down here. So we use mine sign instead to inform one another about where the best veins are, or which spots you have to be especially careful around. Once they're no longer valid they get filled in, like that one was." The dark haired dwarf explained.
"So what does that particular bit of 'mine sine' stand for?" Alexander inquired calmly.
There was an awkward pause. The kind of awkward pause which is produced by someone who is not especially adept a the art of dissembling trying to think up a convincing lie on the spot.
"Mr. Deep-Minded, right now it seems that either you're not telling me the truth, or you don't know what's going on down here. Let me warn you, I'm perfectly content to fire you for either way."
"Duly noted." The dwarf reflected.
"Look it is a bit complicated and it really isn't your concern, I've got it taken care of. Still, if you really must know, this isn't the place to discuss it. Let's get back to the surface and leave the boys to their work all right?" He practically pleaded.
In all honesty Alexander hadn't been quite sure what he expected to find when he'd decided to embark on this particular expedition, he'd simply felt that it was his duty to go. Now that he'd found something that disturbed the locals though, well it must mean that he was doing something right...
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"So what exactly does that shape represent? The site of a ritual sacrifice that needs to be carried out to appease an evil spirit which haunts the mine? A location where a horrible monster sleeps ready to break free at a moment's notice? An area that's under the affect of some sort of bizarre spell where people start thinking up is down and down is up till they wander through the darkness for what remains of their sad lives? A section of the mine where the ground stands ready to erupt in boiling magma?" Alexander guessed, figuring that simply by listing off the all most likely possibilities he was bound to come somewhat close to the truth.
He had acquiesced to Alrek Deep-Minded's suggestion about leaving the mine (it was nice to be able to stand up straight, you needed a different kind of spine to be truly comfortable on all fours) and instead the pair was continuing the conversation inside a small shed where the worker's tools were stored.
The dwarf just stood there completely silently for a few moments.
"I don't know if I should laugh or cry, I really don't." He eventually admitted.
"What, I was right?" The silver haired man drove the point home.
"Look, you're obviously rich or else you wouldn't have been able to buy this place from Mr. Resten. You've obviously weren't lying about being an adventurer, since you came up with all of that in the time it took us to get back here. That said, it is equally obvious you don't know Nosos, at all. The 'U' is mine sign for 'union' if you absolutely have to know." The dwarf told him.
"What, do you have vampires that are consummating their unnatural affection for one another in the mine? Honestly that one didn't even occur to me, the cloud cover you folks get seems to be so thick that a vampire wouldn't care if it was midnight or noon." Alexander pondered.
"Not that kind of union!" Alrek growled in the sort of exasperated tones a school teacher might use to an especially dim pupil.
"Look, I keep a few toughs on the payroll for exact this kind of thing along with guarding jewelery shipments. They'll take care of it, it doesn't need to concern you." He promised Alexander.
"Which of us owns this mine?" Alexander asked point blank.
"You do." Mr. Deep-Minded eventually admitted, after needing to take a moment to ponder the question in full.
"That's right. So if something is happening in that mine, and I say it's my business, then it is my business. If I hear there's been a cave in, and I want to try to dig out with my bare hands you should stand back and let me do it. Now, since clearly 'union' means something different in Nosos than I'm used to it meaning, explain it to me." Alexander ordered.
The dwarf did.
Alexander listened.
Then he stood there pondering for a minute or so before he came to a decisive conclusion.
"You do... whatever it is exactly you're getting paid to do for a bit. I'm going back to my new mansion to get my translator. When I come back with him you can tell all that to him, and hopefully he can make sense of it." He decided.
"Your translator? We're both speaking Balok!" Alrek blustered.
Alexander didn't care, he had a plan and he was carrying it out.
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"Okay lets try that again from the top." Alexander suggested.
"Before I get started... is he always this hardheaded?" The dwarf couldn't help but ask.
"I've seen him dent platemail with it. On the other hand, he walked away upright and the guy in the platemail didn't, so at least he has that going for him." Cal Wright replied in commiseration.
"If we even run into a vein of diamonds we can't dislodge I'll suggest he goes down and deals with it himself then. Now... first off, he understands the fact that he's got a lot of people working for him, right?" The dwarf began again.
"You don't have to conduct this conversation like I'm not in the room you know." Alexander pointed out.
"I'm pretty sure he follows you that far." Cal answered blatantly disregarding Alexander's suggestion.
"Well all those people, he has an individual relationship with each one of them." Alrek continued.
"I followed that part, it was just the stuff that came after I had trouble with." Alexander insisted.
"So what the workers want to do by forming a union is to insist that they all receive exactly equal treatment and payment under the terms of their employment." The blue eyed dwarf continued.
Alexander shot cal Cal a questioning glance.
"They all want to be betas." The alchemist "translated" after contemplating the matter for a moment.
"Well that would never work. A pack without an omega functions no better than one without an alpha." Alexander replied.
Now it was Alrek Deep-Minded's turn to shoot Cal a a questioning glance.
"He grasps that you can't possibly have everyone be equal, you need people on the top to give orders and those on the bottom to follow them." He "translated" in the "opposite direction" this time.
"If they get their foot in the door then they're going to demand that instead of having a relationship with each individual worker, you have to deal with the union as a whole!" Alrek continued on, glad that he was making progress, though given how bizarre this process was becoming he was starting to feel like it might be time to start searching for another source of employment all the same.
"You know what Boss this isn't that difficult a concept. Every time he says 'union' just think 'pack' instead. The workers want to form a 'pack' and instead of you talking or dealing with any individual member, you deal with the 'pack' as a whole." Cal suggested.
"Well that aspect at least sounds sensible, wouldn't it save time?" Alexander questioned.
Cal turned back to the dwarf and threw in a shrug for effect.
"He's got you there, if you establish a simple system of who gets paid what for what job and never stray from it then it probably would save time." The alchemist suggested.
"Well look, even leaving aside all the problems they would create it's important to remember that unions are illegal." The dwarf protested.
"Why?" Alexander inquired.
"Because it runs afoul of the city's strict laws against workers colluding with one another outside of the official capacity that they've been hired for!" The dwarf exclaimed.
Cal pondered that for a moment, was about to say something but Alexander silenced him with a hand motion.
"So you're saying, these people I hire, so that they can all work for me... there's a law in place to keep them from working with each other?" Alexander asked, clearly having trouble grasping this concept, in so far as he didn't believe he could possibly be correct.
"That's right." Alrek confirmed.
"That idiotic." Alexander replied.
"I'm with Boss on this one." Cal noted as he was clearly not going to try and alter Alexander's opinion.
"It's the law." Was the only reply the dwarf could give.
"Still, it's only illegal so long as they're meeting for reasons that don't deal with their employment, correct?" Alexander inquired, his expression starting to become more confident and unsurprisingly more predatory.
"Right." Was all that Alrek said, not wanting to give the silver haired man any more ideas.
"Then tomorrow morning they're all ordered to come to my mansion instead of the mine. I'll expect them there by nine, and they'll be 'working' there for the morning, I'll even make sure we have plenty of food on hand for lunch." Alexander declared jovially.
"You're going to throw away an entire morning shift's worth of work?" The foreman gasped in shock.
"Don't worry I'll make sure everyone still gets paid normally. Oh, and spread the word around to the people who run the jewelery shop and the gem craters, they should come also." Alexander declared before standing up to leave.
"You're serious?" Alrek Gasped.
"No, I just like giving out orders and then watching my subordinates ignore them. See you tomorrow at nine or your fired!" Alexander concluded with a jaunty tip of his hat before leaving the shack.
"He's crazy." The dwarf all but whimpered.
"He's eccentric, crazy is something that happens to poor people. Besides, he may be eccentric like a wolf, but believe me, he knows how to get results." The alchemist insisted.
"Cal, come!" Alexander barked form outside and the blond haired man followed.
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"Devi we're going to have a lot of guests tomorrow. Look up exactly how many employees we have, then get in touch with all those servants who we picked up when we bough this place and tell them that they're going to have to make an appropriately sized meal, no make that a feast tomorrow!" Alexander insisted.
"Anything else you need to have me take care of for you?" She replied in a rather exasperated voice.
"Yes, we need to purchase some textile goods, a flag, as many silver armbands as you can find." Alexander confirmed.
End Chapter.
AN: See if nothing else the advantage of telling a story in Nosos is that I get to tell a different kind of story than I would normally would, and our main characters are flexible enough (a lifetime of being shuffled around by the Mists will teach you to to roll with the punches) to handle it.
Just like Book Three was a mystery rather than any approaching a traditional D&D adventure this book... well if you can't tell what some of its main themes are going to be by this point I wouldn't want to ruin your surprise.