by Eric Ugland
“I get it.”
“And while I chose to rebel against my father and anything he stood for, you decided you’d take the path of a thief, run the same game your father did, because if you were good enough, he’d pay attention to you and finally give you all the love you missed out on. But either you sucked at it and got caught, or he didn’t love you no matter what you did, which made you overreach and get caught.”
Her eyes glistened. Immediately, I knew that I’d gone a little too far.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “Too far.”
She nodded at me.
“Too far,” she said. “But more true than I would like. I guess it is what happened. In a way.”
“You went for a big score and you got caught?”
“I did and, yet, I did not. I got as exactly caught as I needed to be—”
“You needed to be caught?”
“Yes. I needed to be caught. If I was not, if I had made it out cleanly, I would have been hunted in perpetuity.”
“I feel like I might be missing something here. What exactly did you do?”
A smile spread across her face, wry and almost flirty. “I take it you know little of Osterstadt.”
“I mean, if you listen to Nikolai, he’ll tell you I know little, period.”
“That is only because he is trying to push you to learn more, faster. Similar to the Empire, I believe, magic has never been loved here. I cannot say I have any affection for it either. But I can see its uses. Somewhere in the history of Osterstadt, all magic usage was relegated to a single guild, The Magic Circle. They control all magic in the city, both the learning and casting of spells. Nothing can happen in the city without gaining their permission. Which is nearly impossible. What that means, however, is that there is rarely any healing magic done on the regular people. It does not benefit the guilds or the burghers to have the population overly healthy—”
“Burgers?”
“Yes.”
“Like, meat sandwiches?”
“What? No, burghers, like men or women who have money and power but no titles.”
“Like the guys in the Explorer’s club.”
“Yes. That club is full of burghers. In order to keep everything operating to the benefit of the burghers, they need healing to be rare and expensive.”
“I’m not sure I see how that helps.”
“Obviously, the primary resource for this city is the Emerald Sea. The great and magical trees. The rights to harvest the trees are owned by a number of individuals, and those people are at the top of the of the pile. If you want to make money in this city, best for you to get into one of the various trades around the Emerald Sea. Say, milling the wood. Or hauling the wood. In order to do so, you need to sign a contract. This gives you company housing, company food, and a paycheck. You must pay for that company housing, however. As well as the company meals. It is deducted from your paycheck. At first glance, you earn more money than you are paying for your own upkeep, but it is very likely you will incur additional expenses. After a few months, you find yourself in debt to the company. Or, rather, to the owner of the company. Working the Emerald Sea is dangerous, and it is very common to be injured working there. If healing magic was pervasive, the workers would be able to get back to work quickly. They would not accrue interest on their debt and they would be able to earn more money. So in effect, Osterstadt is run on a type of legalized slavery. I hate it. So I stole something from the Circle of Magic.”
“Something?”
“A number of somethings.”
“Such as?”
“Every spell book they had. I took them all. And then I took a few precious magical objects, and I ran for it. I let them catch me with a few of the little things I took,” she said with a big smile, “right after I hid the library they used to have.”
“How did you hide a library?”
“Using a bag of holding I stole from them.”
I raised an eyebrow and nodded at her. “Impressive.”
“So I was not headed back into the city to speak to my father, it was to get the library.”
“And speak with your father.”
“It was, maybe, something I was considering.”
“Will you tell me where this library is?” I asked. “I can get it for you.”
“You mean you can get it for you.”
“No, I meant what I said. You want it, I will get it for you. But I can’t let you go back into Osterstadt.”
She looked at me, then at the city’s walls. Then out at the wilderness to the east, then at me. Then back to the city.
“Tell you what,” I said. “I have a favor from Philomon. If you want, I can give you the favor, you can use that to talk to him.”
“And what is it you want from me? The library?”
“Nothing.”
I reached into the unfillable knapsack and pulled out my Philomon favor. I knew I’d be getting another one as soon as the Emeline quest completed, so I wasn’t overly concerned about giving this one away. I held the coin out to her.
She raised an eyebrow. “You know the value of this?”
“Roughly nothing to me,” I said. “And a whole lot for you.”
“For you to say that tells me you do not understand who my father really is.”
“Perhaps, but I believe he has little to offer me that I might actually take.”
She took the coin from my hand. “This might anger my father.”
“From my limited experience with Philomon, I think it is more likely it will amuse him.”
“If you go to the oldest graveyard in the city—”
“Can we not do this with all sorts of vague terms and whatnot? I might have limited time to work in the city.”
She gave me a knowing smile.
You have been offered a quest from Emeline Rogers:
Liberate the Library
The magical tomes collected by the Magic Circle were hidden in a tomb somewhere in Osterstadt. Retrieve them, and bring them back, intact to Emeline Rogers.
Reward for success: Emeline Rogers becomes your follower until you release her.
Penalty for failure (or refusal): Emeline Rogers returns to Osterstadt, failure of quest (Rescue the Maiden).
Yes/No
“So it’s like that,” I said, not hiding my smile. “Yes, I accept your quest. But in return, you have to agree to stay out of Osterstadt.”
“Forever?”
“Until I say.”
She took a big breath and let out an even bigger sigh.
“Deal.”
Congratulations! You’ve completed a QUEST!
Rescue the Maiden
You rescued the girl, Emeline Rogers, from the Osterstadt Prison, and she has agreed to accompany you until you release her.
Reward: A Favor from Philomon.
A favor coin seemed to come out of nowhere, spinning up into the air as if someone had just flipped it. I snatched it and gave it a quick look.
“Huh,” I said, a Philomon favor coin. I quickly pocketed it. “Now, the library.”
“Graveyard. Where did you get the library? Matters not, in Osterstadt’s oldest cemetery, you will find a mausoleum for the family Sheek. The sixth Sheek had a fondness for animals, and his reliquaries are decorated with them, predominantly sheep. But, as he was a dastardly man, some of those sheep are sick. You must find the sixth sick sheep. Pull upon the sick sheep’s horn, and it will open a hatch. Inside the hatch is a bag, inside the bag are all the books. And everything else I stole.”
“Everything?”
“It was my hidey-hole. Everything I ever took and did not sell is there. Or should be there.”
“Okay. Great. So I need to find the sixth Sheek’s sixth sheep that’s sick, and pull the horn.”
“Exactly.”
“Done.”
Chapter Six
Once we were back at camp, I was informed that my new friend Fritz was hunting to the north and would be back. Later.
; No one said a thing to me about Emeline, and I didn’t choose to make a big deal of it. Instead, I sat down and ate a breakfast of nuts and berries as provided by Ragnar, a punishment handed down by Skeld for failing to keep track of Emeline.
While munching on succulent strawberries, I saw a lone figure tromping up the road towards our tree. Even from this distance, I could tell it was Lee. And not just that it was Lee; it was Angry Lee.
I got up and tried to head him off.
“What the hell?” Lee yelled out as soon as I was in range. “You—”
“Good morning, Lee,” I said.
“Good morning, yes. Now what the hell?”
“What the hell what?”
“Why is everyone out of the city?”
“Beyond the fact that three of us are technically wanted?”
“That’s three of you. Nathalie? Skeld? Ragnar? You left me alone in the city with a huge chest of gold. Beyond needing protection for that literal fortune, how about the logistical question of how the hell am I supposed to get that out of the city? And—”
“Oh man, you’re right. I didn’t think about any of that. I made a mistake, Lee.”
He stopped what he was saying, and looked at me.
“A mistake?”
“Yeah. I messed up. I shouldn’t have left you in the city alone, and definitely not with a bunch of gold. I’m sorry, and I’ll definitely do my best to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
“Oh,” he said, looking down at his feet. “Okay.”
He seemed a little confused now that I’d apologized. I think he was being buoyed by his anger, prepared for a fight. But he was in the right, I was in the wrong, and I had every reason to apologize to him.
“How did things go when I was, you know—”
“Otherwise indisposed?”
“Sure.”
“Well,” Lee stalled, “I suppose that depends on how you feel about things.”
“What happened?”
“You gave me enough gold to cover what I could get.”
“That seems like a pretty good start—”
“The problem is what I could get.”
“Which is?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing. I’m assuming you’re going to tell me why?”
“It’s the way Osterstadt is. I don’t know the whole history behind it, but after what I’ve gone through, I suppose I at the least understand the logic of how it came to what it is.”
“I’m still not getting it.”
“Everything in the city is controlled either through a guild or contracts. And everything revolves around the damn Emerald Sea.”
“Emeline was mentioning something about that, that a lot of the workers are bonded or, like, almost, company property?”
“Emeline?”
“Someone new to our party but who grew up here.”
“Native?”
“Yeah. She shed a little light on things, might be able to do more for us, except, uh—”
“What?”
“She’s not exactly allowed back in the city.”
“Great. Super helpful. But yeah, I haven’t hired a single worker because no one is willing or able to come with us.”
“That’s a pretty big city. I find it a bit hard to believe—”
“I’m excluding some people who might want to come but won’t be able to offer anything. There are some vagrants and beggars who would probably be willing to go anywhere as long as you offer them food or booze. Or both. But I don’t see that as going well for anyone.”
“Maybe. But maybe some of those cats just need a chance.”
“Maybe. And speaking of cats, there are those of the non-human variety who aren’t allowed to join guilds, but they also aren’t super fond of talking to anyone who looks human.”
“You look like an elf.”
“They didn’t want to talk to Nathalie.”
“You didn’t talk to them?”
“I was busy. Did you think I was flouncing about or eating bonbons in a hot bath?”
“Is that something we can do?”
“A bath is something you should definitely do.”
“The last experience didn’t go so hot, but let’s get back on track. I’m hearing that there are some non-humans to talk to, see if I can convince them to go.”
“Yeah, but again, don’t get your hopes up because you look pretty damn human.”
“What about building materials?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing there either? Fuck me.”
“It’s guilds. They control everything. And we’re not a thing. We are a non-entity. They don’t want to sell to us. And, even if they did, it’s not clear there’s a ton they’d be able to sell to us. The city is focused on the Emerald Sea and the industry it allows. There’s nothing excess because no one else needs it and no one else wants it. The things we want, their industry doesn’t need and doesn’t produce it—”
“What about the farmers outside the city?”
“Food might be the one place we don’t have a problem. The farmers seem to exist slightly outside the guild system. More or less. Bring goods into the city, sell for coin, take that coin back to the small crossroads and whatnot further out from here, and that’s where things like plow blades and draft horses can be found. But inside Osterstadt, there’s just nothing. No one really rides horses in and around Osterstadt, so there’s a single group that sells mounts. But mostly they deal in either show ponies for the rich or the draft animals who pull the lumber. Want metal? All controlled by a guild, and they use the metal to make saw blades and axe heads. The slight excess is used by the weapons and armor guild to outfit the city guard, rangers for the Sea, and the like. There’s nothing left over for outfitting a whole new city guard. Or even to sell us raw materials—”
“Okay, I’m getting the picture.”
“I could go on—”
“I’m sure you could,” I said, holding a hand up. “But it’s clear we have some work to do.”
“Yes. Quite a bit in fact.”
“Want a shitty breakfast before heading back into the city?”
“No. The inn serves amazing food. And I already ate.”
“Bonbons in the bath?”
Chapter Seven
I assumed Nikolai had zero desire to get any closer to the Osterstadt prison than he’d already been, so we left him and Emeline at our little camp under the big tree. Emeline watched over the still sleeping Nikolai, and I told her to warn Nikolai that a manticore might be visiting, but that he was a friend. Or, you know, at least not likely to eat anyone.
I can’t say I was particularly keen to go back into Osterstadt, but work had to be done, and no one else seemed to be able to do it.
The guards at the gate gave me a bit of a once over, but Lee had obviously done a little palm greasing when he left, because as soon as the guards saw him, they waved our whole group inside.
Walking back to the inn, I started a mental checklist of all the things I needed to do to make the holding happen. Obviously, the most important element out of everything had to be people. We could hunt and forage for food, at least to start. And we could gather all sorts of materials. We could even forge some tools. Or, well, acquire them through less-than-savory means. I just preferred not to engage in outright larceny. Grave robbing? Maybe. Dungeon looting? Definitely. But just stealing felt, well, antithetical to the whole good-guy persona I was working on. Back to the main point, I needed bodies. Preferably some skilled bodies. At least a blacksmith and a cook. Give people tools and a full belly, and they’ll do an awful lot for you. At least, that had been my experience in the past. Bonus points would be a few masons and carpenters. People who knew how to do some real construction. And beyond that, well, everyone else who was willing to work hard and risk their very lives. The key would be getting a few good people. But if everyone belonged to rich dudes, more or less, I had to talk to some rich dudes and convince them to do me a favor.
The group waited for me downstairs, and once I emerged onto the street, I was met with three inquisitive faces.
“Where to, boss?” Ragnar asked.
“Next stop,” I said, “the Explorer’s club.”
Everything looked basically the same as the last time Cleeve and I visited the place. While the guards outside were different, they were nearly identical in appearance to the ones guarding the front the first time. I wondered if the Explorer’s Club hired more for an aesthetic than anything else. I took the favor token Cleeve received from the wealthy merchant Theun Bottes, and handed it to the front door guard.
He looked at the coin, reached back over his shoulder and pulled a ribbon that hung down from the overhang. A moment later, a hand holding a silver tray extended from the hole. The doorman put the coin onto the tray, and almost instantaneously the tray and hand disappeared back into the building.
Lee stood right next to me, looking around.
“Is this place—”
“Private club,” I said. “Rich dicks inside.”
“Ah. And I’m assuming—”
“Otters aren’t invited.”
“Rather cruel.”
“I’m guessing your elf ass ain’t allowed through their hallowed halls either. That’s their thing here.”
“Bigotry?”
“Yeah.”
Lee shook his head.
“Go wait with them,” I said, pointing to my hirðmen. “No reason for you to have to fight with these assholes. We just need to keep them happy until we get what we want from them and then—”
“You think I’ll lose my cool in there.”
“No, I think they’ll lose their cool in there.”
“Probably right.” Lee nodded, and walked over to the lutra.
Just left me, Nathalie, and the doorman.
“Long night?” I asked the doorman.