"Talking"
'Thinking'
Casting/Skills/Words of Great Power or Meaning
The Ancestor Speaks
The Others
Previously
A carriage is pulling up as I focus on the massive opulent church next to an extensive campus towering over the city putting a good portion of it in shadow. Tomorrow, I will meet with the ArchBishop and High Chancellor. These forsaken souls will not be enough, but including the zealous and curious…I might make it.
Ch 2: An Accord
"Presenting Heir Lenore Adamos." A priest, in very nice clothing despite the vows of poverty, announces my presence. My smile is soft, kind, and very practiced. Walking inside the room, that dripped in gold, gems, and furs, staring an old obese man garbed in religious trinkets and silks. Who happens to sit behind a gilded desk laden with a feast fit for a king. 'He eats better than the local kings at least.' Courtesying to my host, "I greet his most honored Archbishop Willem of the Greater Empire." Then offering the same etiquette to the gaunt man beside him, no lesser dressed for it, hunched over his notes and not paying me any heed. "I greet his most wise High Chancellor Laurence Von Victom of the Byrgenwerth Harvest University."
"Yes, yes," His Honored waves at me to take a seat across the desk and further than an easy reach from the food. Making it clear that he's in control, that I'm not welcome, and that I'm the beggar here coming before him to ask a favor. Only my acknowledged noble status gives the grace of seat, as opposed to standing or Light forbid kneeling before the old fucker. All true but Dark damned if it doesn't sting.
"Now you have until the end of my lunch to convince me of your folly-"
"-Both of us."
"Of course, Chancellor Laurence, yes both of us are very busy men. Only the memory of your namesake allowed you through my door after all. Ah, ~ Elenore was such a lovely woman. You look quite a bit like her." He stares into whatever daydream the memory of my grandmother inspired. 'Considering you were her consort when she was widowed, please don't elaborate.'
'Both men have Authority and greater Power than me besides. I can't cow them, so let's appeal to their pride and greed.' "Let me be blunt then, so as to not waste your time. The seal on the Adamos Estate has been broken, the Heir is beckoned, and I have been chosen for the honor. I need men, men I can make into Heroes to beat back the Darkness that plagues the land. To restore the Light to the land, lest the sickness spread beyond the borders."
Nodding towards His Honored, "I need the Church of Light to send me warriors and priests to fight the darkness and reignite the Light in the land. A Crusade against the Accursed Creatures that the land harbors. To return the Church to its former glory in my land." He yawns and continues stuffing his face. His eyes staring at me and beyond me.
'Well, little to no help there.' I turn towards His Most Wise, "I need scientists and explorers devoted to unraveling the secrets and hidden wonders that the Estate hides. A treasure trove of knowledge ready to be unlocked. Already we have a devoted Sanitatruim to explore the myriad of diseases that lurk within. It has been established that there should be relics of ages past and ruins that hold secrets both great and terrible. If I'm mistaken, there is a wing in your Great Library named the Scarlet Earth Wing. Named after my family and its contributions to your grand establishment."
His Most Wise nods a point in my favor, looking interested with barely hidden greed peering out. 'Just another push, and where one falls I may gain both.'
"Promises, promises. What can we expect from you? You speak of grandeur but should you fail there is nothing for our efforts. Why should we help your destitute house?" His Honored speaks up, prompting His Most Wise to shore up his defenses.
'And here we go.'
"The men sent to me are coming to fight and die. This is a perilous journey, one that will water my estate with blood, and enrich it with the fallen. You are presented with a very easy, very clean opportunity to get rid of the undesirables."
I look at His Honored, "A way to clean house if you will. A virtuous and noble endeavor for your disgraced, for your dissidents, and for those who will not fall in line. Hard to turn down the offer of redemption and champion the renewal of the Light in a Dark infested land. Succeed and bring glory to the Church of Light with your victory…their redemption. Fail and clearly, they were lacking in faith in the first place. Either way, for the low price of throwing me your undeserving, your Honored, you win." This got the pig to stop eating and rub his chin in thought.
I then address His Most Wise who is drifting back to his notes at the talk of faith, "And this offer, of course, extends you, Most Wise. The fact that you're sending the unwanted to my estate to die does not make false of my earlier promises. Rather it enriches the opportunities."
He chuckles at me, attention back towards me. "Well, go on, this should be amusing at least." The greedy gleam is only slightly hidden.
"Not only knowledge, the loss of bothersome opposition and nay-sayers, but opportunity. Opportunity to expand and make your mark, your legacy on the annals of time, and in the estimation of your own ledgers. My estate has many things in abundance, an infestation of monsters, and cultists, with both relics and jewels they bring. It is common knowledge that some Lords allow a portion of their land to remain Dark Infested to produce such bounty. It will be wise to have an intermediary to help funnel such wealth. Your University will have first rights to purchase and study the gems that come from my estate and then resell them at your discretion."
"Are you trying to not only steal away some of my researchers, teachers, and students but also force me to pay for the service?"
"Would you not be the primary beneficiary? That the very investment you provide brings about the opportunity you can seize. We provide as you can pay. A fixed cost per gem and relic type. To be fair to both parties and act in good faith."
He hums and stands. Revealing a skeletal lanky man, with deep shadows etched into his face, and a ghoulish complexion. I stand in turn, and just in time. He unleashes his Power to try to intimidate me. A Heavy Gripping Gravity trying to prick and prod and unravel everything around him. For He was the only person that was worth being a person.
I respond in kind, my Power flaring holding him at bay with an unbending, unyielding, defiant red light that is Determined. The light radiates from my person while casting shadows that writhe, waiting, around His Most Wise. Hungry, Greedy, and Patient all the same.
A third Power joins us. A Sparking Pillar filled with Yellow Flame, Blinded by Itself. Clawing desperately at the Stars, for more, more, MoRe, MOre, MORE! His Honored will never be Outshone!
None of us want a Lord's Challenge. So His Most Wise and I half turn and nod in acknowledgment, not submission, at his Honored. His Honored's Power preens and settles around himself, satisfied at being honored as it should. His Most Wise hums, the gravity lessening but no less present, only less pressing. The test has been conducted successively.
"1/4 of the gems worth. As an example 100 coins for a citrine, 500 for a sapphire."
"Highway robbery. 4/5 of the wholesale value. It will be the heroes imbued with my power and traversing my land who are harvesting those gems."
"3/5 it will be my scholars and seekers sent. A greater cut will be needed to compensate."
"1/2 with the settled benefits. You have the right of the first sale of the gems and relics, but should you refuse we can use and dispose of them as we fit. Should my people, want to reclaim anything they have scavenged, they pay the same price as your university. Not more, not less. The Adamos Estate has the right to study any relic or related object before forwarding it to your university. Should you refuse, we have all rights to use them as we see fit. We have the first right to any trinket found or bought, but should they be sold, you would again have the right of the first sale. That both parties will act in good faith."
"1/2 for the gems, 4/5 for the relics, 1/4 for the trinkets with the settled benefits. The University has the right of the first sale on gems, relics, and trinkets, but should we deny the purchase, the Adamos Estate and the corresponding steward or Heir may use or dispose of them as they see fit. If one of your bonded heroes decides that they want to keep something that they've scavenged they will have to pay us the price we would have paid your estate."
"Including that, along with the Adamos Estate retain the first right to any trinket scavenged or purchased and that both parties will act in good faith. It hasn't escaped my notice that this was left out. With your esteemed intellect, I'm sure you would not have forgotten those selfsame conditions."
"Yes, yes. including the Adamos Estate having first rights to any trinket found and that both the Adamos Estate and the Byrgenwerth Harvest University will act in good faith towards one another. There will be a time limit of 5 years upon the end of which the Head of the Adamos Family and High Chancellor of the Byrgenwerth Harvest University will agree to negotiate the terms, renew the previous contract, or annul with no penalties to either party. A Pact then?"
He reveals a mouth full of crooked and yellow teeth, raised to a ghastly grin as he offers his hand. I take his hand and our Powers rise once more and begin testing each other. Playing a demented game of tug-a-war and grappling while causing a wind to swirl and whip around us. Sun's Light opens past the ceiling to shine down on us, and the floor splits to show an Abyssal Dark with black shadows lunging upwards towards our hands. A mix of starlight and black ribbons bind our hands while settling our Powers into an Accord, bound and watch over by the Powers of Origin.
'Good, it was a gamble that Good Faith would bring the Light into this. The Dark was certain, so eager for penalties and deceit, it is easy to invoke, but with the Light…it will help protect me against such an experienced opponent and ensure that crossing the pact will be far more costly than he is willing to endure.' My smile grows sharp, as his own dips at the Light not only bearing Witness to the Pact but also willing to Enforce it. 'No way out once an accord has been reached. You might be a master in the Dark Arts, but I have studied what you have dismissed as weak and useless. In the words of commoners', gotcha bitch!'
All Power in the room is stilled and withdrawn into their owners. The ribbons luminous and stark black fade beyond our sight. Yanking his hand away from mine, he smoothes out his robes, trying to regain composure as his cohort chuckles at his expense.
"Hahaha. Yes, well played my dear student. Did I not tell you, good-brother, that she would be worth the bother? Oh, my dear, you do not disappoint. It is a shame the church lost such a promising Vestal. You were a most favorable candidate for the Grand Holy Mother, but I'm sure you'll do great things as a Proper Lord. Provided you live, of course. Now I'll give you the backing of Church, and I even have a gift for you right now."