A/n- This story is set near the end of the 20 year time skip between FE7 and FE6. Why you may ask? Because I wanted to connect it to a Rutger story I'm going to write later, pretty much it. Other than that this is a nice friendship piece between Mark, Lyn, and Anna. Not the Badon Anna though, a sister of hers. Enjoy!
The Commission Files- File #a1270 What a Deal!
Characters: Mark, Lyn, Anna (Elibe)
Based on: a commission by Axell_Wolf_ on Twitter/X
Anna was riding one of her many horses across the plains of Sacae, enjoying the gentle breeze through her hair. She had grown to find the feeling comforting over the many times she visited over the last 20 or so years and this was no different. She was out here getting ready to visit a pair of her best customers, Mark and Lyn, at their invitation. Anna could already feel her satchel getting filled with how much gold she would be making, but it was more than just that feeling getting her excited. Mark and Lyn always treated her right, made her dinner, let her spend the night, and not to mention what they could do in bed. She was hoping it would be just the same as usual and that she could enjoy herself once again with people she truly considered friends.
"Now where is that ger of theirs?" Anna pondered to herself as she scanned the plains from on top of a hill she stopped on to rest. "Ah! There it is! Payday!" And with that she rode down the hill and quickly came up to the ger where Lyn was outside waiting for her.
"Anna! So glad to see you!" Lyn said coming up to greet her. "Sorry about the last second change of location, Mark and I had to move the ger because of a mole colony that had dug itself under our last spot.
"Oh, it's no worries Lyn! I've always got a sharp eye for things." Anna replied as she dismounted her horse. Lyn led her around to the back of the ger so she could tie it up. "Is Mark home too, I hate to only show you what I have to sell."
"He's inside getting things ready for dinner." Lyn confirmed. "He wanted to try and make something special since you were visiting. Rutger isn't here though, he's off in Pherae at the moment."
"That's so sweet of him, I'll have to give him an extra kiss later." Anna noted with a chuckle. "Shame about Rutger though, he usually enjoys when I visit. And you're pretty sweet too Lyn, letting me stay over once again."
"Of course, you're a good friend, and a great guest to boot, something fun always happens when you come over." Lyn assured her. "So, any news from your sister in Badon? Is she still with Jake?"
"Yeah, though Jake finally had to retire from being a pirate, one too many injuries." Anna answered as the two made their way to the entrance of the ger. "But she's a bit happy about the situation, hoping that they can finally start a family now that he'll be around more."
"Send them our regards when you see them next then." Lyn told Anna and she nodded in agreement. As they walked into the ger Anna got a whiff of what Mark was cooking up and it smelled wonderful.
"Elimine, what are you making Mark?" Anna wondered with a hint of excitement.
"A recipe I've been trying to perfect over the years, pork sandwiches with my own special sauce." Mark explained as he came out from the cooking area of the ger. "I've gotten pretty good at it, but I've never really made the perfect batch. The last thing I need to tinker with is the sauce though, so I'm hoping you could give me your input."
"Of course, if you went through all this trouble to get my opinion, the least I could do is give it a try!" Anna replied with a thumbs up.
"Great! The bread is still baking and the meat still needs to be cooked a bit longer, so we probably have some time to see some of the cool things you have to sell." Mark noted.
"Sounds good to me, let's go sit in the living area and I'll show you what I've brought." Anna said. So the trio all sat around the table in the living area and Anna began to take items out of her satchel.
"A tome, those always seem to pique my interest." Mark commented when she pulled one out.
"You've really made a lot of tomes that come in handy around the house." Lyn agreed.
"I really think you'll love this one Mark." Anna replied with a smile before she opened the tome onto the table. "As you can see, the tome is completely blank. But once I say the chant..." After that Anna rattled off a short magic chant that was different than any the other two had heard in the past. When she was done she didn't say another word though. Eventually the tension was getting to be too much and Mark spoke up.
"What is it supposed to be doing?" Mark wondered. Anna gave him a smirk and then held the tome up to his face to show him that the words he spoke had been magically written inside. "Ooooh, the tome can write down what you say! That's awesome! You know how many times I've wanted to write something down but I didn't have a pen or didn't feel like sitting down to do so? This would be perfect for me." The tome continued to write down what Mark was saying as he spoke.
"I wonder though, can it differentiate from different speakers?" Lyn wondered. Anna then moved the tome so she could see it, and in fact it could tell the difference, showing Lyn's words in a different handwriting style. "That's pretty neat."
"Are the words permanent though?" Mark asked.
"They can be, but you can also cast a spell to erase them as well if you want." Anna explained before doing just that and making it so the tome stopped recording the conversation.
"Once again Anna, you've made a modern wonder!" Lyn commented with a big smile.
"So, how much are you selling it for?" Mark wondered.
"Well, I'm thinking 10,000 gold to start out with, but since I haven't tested it fully yet and it's still a prototype, I'd be willing to give you one for 5,000 if you'd be willing to share any results you have with it with me at a later date." Anna explained.
"Hey, we've been test subjects for worse products." Lyn joked. "I think that's very reasonable."
"For sure, we'll take three, one for each of us." Mark stated. "I'm sure Rutger would enjoy one as well."
"It's a deal then!" After that Anna showed them a few more items like a magic sundial that told time accurately no matter how you faced the sun, a sword that could fold into itself for ease of transport, and a tool that could attract most metallic objects to itself. "And that's about it for now, I'm glad you two enjoyed what I brought like always!"
"Of course, it's always nice to get to see how things are shaping up, and you always seem to have the newest technology first." Mark noted with a smile.
"There is one thing though we were hoping to talk to you about, business-wise." Lyn added, piquing Anna's interest.
"Oh, and what would that be?" Anna wondered.
"Well, Rutger's 18th birthday is coming up in a few months and we wanted to get him something special." Lyn explained. "But something a bit out of the box, something he'd really enjoy and remember for a while."
"Something more in line with the things we like to do." Mark added with a smirk.
"So, we were wondering if you had any sisters or relatives a little bit closer to his age that were willing to get paid to show him a good time." Lyn continued. "We figured it would be better if they were closer in age since you're closer to our age and we aren't getting younger any time soon."
"Yeah, you're telling me." Anna replied with a chuckle. "But you are in luck, I have a cousin Anna who lives in Jugdral who has been wanting to get into that kind of business for a bit now, but she wanted to get a few good customers first before she really puts herself out there. I can let her know you're interested in hiring her and even put in a good word since you're such good customers and friends."
"That's great news Anna!" Mark commented happily. "Just so you know his birthday is on the 6th three months from now, is that enough time?"
"Should be perfect." Anna said with a nod. "We can nail down all the small details once I hear back from her."
"Sounds good to us, just don't let Rutger find out, we kind of want it to be a surprise." Lyn noted.
"Of course, that's the best part isn't it?" Anna asked rhetorically with a wink.
"I think it is." Mark replied. "Now, with all that done, I think it's time to check on the food and see if it's ready." So Mark walked back over to the kitchen area and as he suspected everything was just about ready.
"It certainly smells good!" Anna commented as she and Lyn made her way over to the dining table next to where the food was cooking.
"Thank you, I've never been as good as Lyn at making food, but I've always wanted to be really good at one dish in case I needed to impress someone." Mark noted as he took the bread and meat out of the clay oven. He slowly moved them over to the table before going to get the sauce for it from the counter.
"I have to say, this sauce that Mark makes tastes a bit different than most." Lyn told Anna. "Not bad, just different than most Elibian cuisine."
"What exactly is in this 'secret sauce' of yours Mark?" Anna wondered curiously.
"Well, as you might know, Lyn is a big fan of spicy food while I'm more of a sweet type of guy." Mark started. "So I've been trying to make a mixture of both that we'll both like. The base is mainly a tomato sauce, and I put in some vinegar, sugar, mustard, and few various spices that I change up each time to try and find the right mix."
"Sounds interesting." Anna commented. "Well, far be it from me to not try something new, lay it on me!" So Mark whipped up a sandwich for each of them, but he and Lyn didn't dig in until Anna got a chance to get the first taste. She took a moderately sized bite, if Lyn said it was okay she could trust that, and at first it wasn't anything too special. But then the sweetness and the spice hit her at the same time and her eyes grew wide.
"I know that look, either she loves it or she's about to hurl." Lyn teased.
"I'll get the bucket." Mark replied but Anna waved her hands to stop him.
"No, no, it's really good!" She told him. "I mean really good. I've never tasted anything like this before."
"Whew, what a relief." Mark sighed. "Well, I won't stop you, keep eating!" So the three of them finally dug in. And Anna was right, this was the best batch of sauce that Mark had ever made. Even Mark himself thought so and he was usually pretty hard on himself. It was so good that there was barely any talking until most of the meat and bread had been eaten.
"Father Sky, that has to be the best meal you've ever cooked." Lyn commented with contentment once she was full.
"Well, it only took 20 years." Mark chuckled as he sat back and rubbed his stomach. "Rutger will have to try this once he get's back from Pherae, hopefully it'll keep for that long."
"Mark, I'm being honest here, you could make a gold mine with this sauce." Anna commented. "Like I've tasted food from all different types of realms and this is up there with the best. I would go out of my way to eat this again, even if I had to pay a good amount for it."
"I made extra, you can take some home." Mark noted.
"Thank you, but my point is, I could sell this for you if you were interested." Anna continued. "I know you two are well off with your mapmaking and pelts, but this could be a great opportunity."
"We are pretty well off, I don't really think we need too much more money." Mark mused as he thought about something.
"Well, what if we just sell Anna the recipe?" Lyn wondered.
"I was thinking the same thing." Mark noted. "I could just sell you that, you could find someone to produce it, and then all parties would be happy."
"Sounds like a deal to me. How much do you want for it?" Anna asked.
"How about we just get all the stuff you showed us today for free, I think that's fair." Mark replied.
"That seems like not enough, at least not for my plans." Anna commented. "How about that and then you also get a discount for whenever I come here in the future? Say 10%?"
"That sounds fair to me." Lyn noted as she looked to Mark.
"Yeah, if that's what you want to do that sounds like a deal to me." Mark agreed. "Let me write it down real quick and that will be that." So he got up from the table to get his pen, but he couldn't find one. But then he remembered the tome Anna just gave him so he opened it up and recited the recipe before tearing the page out and handing it to her. "There you go, a pleasure doing business with you as always Anna."
"I could say the same." Anna said looking over the list. "Hmm, nothing too exotic, I could sell bottles of this for cheap and still make profit. Because you know what I say, more customers are better than no customers."
"Make sure to ask people what they think of it too." Mark suggested.
"Oh, for sure!" Anna agreed. "Written reviews are the new fad lately. If a prince or noble writes that your product is good, your sales skyrocket!"
"As always, you seem to have your business in order Anna, and I really respect that." Lyn told her.
"Aww, thank you Lyn, that means a lot coming from you." Anna smiled. "Well, it seems that we're all done with dinner, are you guys ready for dessert? Or maybe you're not in the mood at your old age?" She teased the couple.
"Us, not in the mood?" Mark chuckled. "Hardly. I may be a novice in the kitchen, but you know my skill in bed."
"So, we're calling it dessert now?" Lyn teased. "Well, you better be ready to eat up then." With that the trio moved the action to Mark and Lyn's bedroom and in a flash they were all naked and getting intimate. They had done this many times over the years so they all knew what they liked and what they wanted out of this session. Lyn made sure to keep Anna to her word on dessert though, at one point having her deepthroat and swallow all of Mark's cum and at another spreading her legs so Anna could eat her out as Mark pounded her from behind. As experienced as they were though, they were all in their late 30's so they couldn't go for quite as long as they could when they were younger, but they were satisfied nonetheless.
"I love coming out here, you two always treat me so well." Anna breathed as she was being cuddled from both sides by Mark and Lyn.
"And we love having you Anna, you're always up for anything and you have some fun ideas as well." Lyn replied, snuggling a bit closer.
"Speaking of, I say we just sleep in the nude like this so we can keep going when we get up in the morning." Anna suggested.
"I like that idea." Mark commented and Lyn nodded. "Oh, but before I fall asleep and forget, I need you warn you about something Anna."
"What's up Mark?" Anna wondered as she turned to him.
"You may have heard or you may not have, but I've got it on good word that Bern's military is starting to act strangely." Mark noted. "I don't know what path you're going to take to get home, but I would suggest staying a safe distance away from the border, just in case."
"Yeah, we wouldn't want anything to happen to you." Lyn added.
"Hmm, I've heard rumblings about that as well." Anna mused. "That's why it took a couple extra days for me to show up, I made sure to give the border a wide berth. So I'll keep that in mind, thank you for warning me. But you two should be careful as well, Bulgar is right near the border and you two are there more often now, just be safe alright?"
"We'll try our best." Lyn assured her.
"We have an agreement with Lord Eliwood of Pherae to move there if we feel it's no longer safe in Sacae, so we should be safe, but I appreciate the concern Anna." Mark added.
"Good, I'd hate to lose such good friends to something like a war." Anna commented.
"Don't you mean customers?" Lyn teased, trying to lighten the mood a bit.
"No, I mean friends." Anna replied seriously. "I care about you two, you're special to me. A lot of people just see me as an 'Anna' but you see me for the Anna that I actually am, and I really love that feeling."
"Well, of course we see you as yourself, who else could you be?" Mark teased her with a little kiss and that got Anna to laugh lightly.
"And you two are both great kissers as well, that's a big plus." Anna said with a smile creeping back on her face.
"That's the Anna we know." Lyn commented at seeing that smile.
"That's the Anna we love."