Blood Shaper

Book 3: Chapter 10

As the three people from the Adventurer’s Guild left, after hours and hours of talking and discussion, Kay could feel two very intense stares on him.

The door closed, and Ahthia slammed her hands into the table. Before Ahthia finished inhaling to yell or shout, Eleniah smacked her hand over Ahthia’s mouth.

With an intense expression on her face, Eleniah held up her other hand with one finger raised. Everyone paused as Eleniah tilted her head and listened to something. A few moments later, she nodded, mostly to herself. “Alright, they’re outside.” She looked over to Amanda. “Amanda, please go downstairs and send anyone that’s still here home for the night. And walk slowly,” She added as Amanda nodded and walked towards the door.

They waited a bit more, with Eleniah’s hand still over the now incredibly annoyed-looking Ahthia’s mouth, until Amanda returned and closed the door gently behind her. Amanda leaned on the door as she nodded once. “Everyone’s gone now.”

Eleniah removed her hand.

“You’re a Class Line Progenitor!?” Ahthia bellowed with enough force that the high-tier guests they’d had until just a moment ago would have heard it from outside the building, let alone any lower-tier workers downstairs.

“Yes, I am,” Kay replied calmly in the face of the shouting. “And as I said earlier, I was planning on talking with these two and then telling more people.”

“Why do they know!?”

“Eleniah’s known basically the whole time because I didn’t really have anyone else to trust, and Meten guessed.”

The oni shrugged in response to Athia’s glare. “I am not the kind of person to spill the secrets of others.”

She grimaced while she took a deep breath to calm down. “Okay. I understand not talking about it at the beginning or even a little later on. But why haven’t you told us after more than a year of working together!?” She was shouting again by the end of the sentence.

“There’s a saying from back home,” Kay replied after a pause, “Two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead.” He paused to let that idea sink in. “It’s not that I don’t or didn’t trust you; the fact is that people make mistakes. Things slip out. You cant accidentally tell anyone the secret if you don’t know the secret.” He laughed coldly, “Hell, you can’t have the secret tortured out of you if you don’t know it! Or have mind control used on you, or be seduced with some Skill I’ve never heard of or something. I didn’t tell anyone until it reached a point where it was worth more to talk about my title than to hide it.” He pointed at the door, where the Adventurer’s Guild Representatives had left a short time ago. “More and more people outside our direct control are going to flock to Avalon now, and it will probably speed up before it slows down. With that many people coming, keeping it a secret is too much of a hassle when we’re in a position where we can fight back against anyone trying to take me away or some shit.” He shrugged. “At this point, telling people and using it is better, so now I’m telling you about it.”

Ahthia and Amanda stared at him while Eleniah watched the two of them, and Meten just looked like he was zoning out.

Eventually, Kay lost some of his patience. “Amanda, come sit down. You’re acting as my aide, but we all know you’re going to have some important position later. Probably as my spymaster,” He muttered.

“Please, no.” She answered seriously as she took a seat, “I’m dealing with what little intelligence we have right now because we don’t have anyone else, but I’d rather not do it permanently.”

“Then something else,” Kay responded with a waved hand, “Specifics aren’t important right now.” He looked over to Ahthia. “Still mad?”

She stared at him with a blank expression. Eventually, she sighed. “No, you’re right about why you didn’t tell us. I’m just frustrated, not that there’s a good reason.” She turned her head and gazed off to the side. “I think I just don’t… I don’t feel like I’m contributing. And then hearing that I didn’t know a big important secret…”

“Why do you feel like you are not contributing?” Meten asked.

“Eleniah’s a teacher and a badass. You’re also a badass, and you’re either going to end up the leader of Kay’s personal troops or the head of whatever we name our national adventurer organization. Amanda is going to be something, but we know it’s going to be leadership of some kind. Me…” She shook her head, “What am I going to do? I’m a Historian. How am I going to be useful to a government of a brand new country?”

“What’s your favorite part of being a Historian?” Kay asked.

“Uh… Well, figuring things out, I guess. Taking what we know about history and combining it with other things we know that seem unrelated and combining them to discover a new picture of what was, or is.”

“Perfect. Ahthia, I unofficially, since I don’t actually have a spot like that open, name you Avalon’s chief researcher or some such.” He pointed a finger at her as he lounged in his chair, “You’re now in charge of figuring out things historically or based on other sources to get us more information about things we need to know.”

“I… I-I’m sorry? …What?”

Kay restrained an eye roll, then felt a bit like an asshole. It’d been a long day, but that wasn’t a reason to be a dick. “You like figuring things out; you just said that. There are things we need to know and don’t know. You’re now in charge of finding sources of information and learning from them, so we learn new things and also specific information we’re looking for. For example, what’s up with Nelam? Why do they have slavery even though everyone else seems to think it’s stupid and or evil? What’s up with their leadership? Who’s the Noble they have that fucked with Murunel?” Kay counted the three topics on his fingers, “And that’s just the first three things I thought of about one country; there are loads more we need to know.”

“That sounds a lot like a spymaster’s job,” Ahthia said slowly.

Kay waved a hand dismissively, “Sure, some of those answers can probably be found through spying, but what about the ones that can’t? There are answers in books, treatises, and other kinds of sources that can’t be found through espionage. That’s where you come in. And whatever subordinates you get overtime.” He titled his head and looked at Amanda, “Speaking of, we need a budget for that now. What place on the list we gave Gemglass was a treasurer?”

“First. Second was a military leader, and third was a spymaster.”

“That’s right, thanks.” He turned to Ahthia again, then paused and looked back. “Where was a diplomat?”

“Sixth, after a judge and someone to be our lead healer. Chitel has been taking care of that for us, but she wants to get back to adventuring.”

“Awesome.” He finally turned his attention back to the flustered dwarf woman. “Thoughts, concerns, questions?”

She blinked a few times. “I… no, I accept.”

“Fantastic! I don’t know if it’s a good idea, but see if there’s a Researcher Class you can go for; it seems like it might help.”

“Sure, I’ll look into that.”

“Good. Alright. Moving to other topics, let’s talk about that meeting we just had.”

“What about telling everyone else about your title?” Ahthia wondered, still looking a little shocked at the sudden shift in her position. Kay commiserated a little bit, knowing what it was like to not know what you were doing with your life. But it wasn’t like he hadn’t been planning this job for her for multiple months. They needed someone, and she fit the bill.

“That can be next. I want everyone’s feelings about the Guild people.”

Amanda cleared her throat. “I was ambivalent about letting an organization with as much power as the Adventurer’s Guild into our territory before we learned that they are actually backed by a nation. Or controlled by one. Now… I’m… unhappy.”

Eleniah shook her head. “There’s nothing to be done about it. Just like trying to keep Kay’s title secret would be too much of a hassle at this point, so would trying to keep the Guild out.”

“Why?”

“Because of their use and their power. Power in multiple avenues. First, the Adventurer’s Guild is just too damn useful to be rid of. They gather competent people to handle problems that most nations can’t handle or don’t have the resources to spare. Most regular monsters with a tier two or three level of power are too little of a threat to dispatch national adventurers or the military for, but having them dealt with by adventurers from the Guild helps commerce flow and keeps people safe. That’s not to mention the money to be made on taxes or the fact that they gather and monitor the actions of outsiders that we might not be able to totally trust. A random person with a Combat Class who thinks we’re some podunk town won’t care about pissing Mister Mayor here off, but they’ll think twice and three times about breaking Guild rules.”

“Alright,” Amanda acknowledged, “What’s the second part? Their multiple avenues of power.”

“We can ignore their combat power since we probably aren’t going to actually fight them, but that’s just one of the three that I think are important. The second is their political power. Nations will bend to try and appease the Guild because they’re scared of them, but also because they have the connections to get things done. Need a special ingredient or item from somewhere but don’t have anyone that can get them, or harvest it properly, or survive the climate, or any other problem with getting a special thing you want or need? You can ask the Adventurer’s Guild. But if you’ve annoyed them…” She trailed off suggestively. “Well, they might just charge you more for the services of one of their people than if you hadn’t done something they didn’t like. Or it could be that they just can’t find that person right now; maybe you can try back later.” She hesitated a moment, then admitted, “It’s mostly the first one, but I’ve heard the second one has happened a few times.”

Eleniah waited for everyone to signal they understood, then continued, “The third of their important powers is their social power.” She saw a few confused looks and nodded, “Exactly. The Adventurer’s Guild is everywhere. Or at least close enough that people find it weird for the Guild to not be somewhere.” She saw understanding dawn in Kay’s eyes and nodded at him, then continued for the rest of the audience. “What kinds of places are the Guild not in? Well, to name a few, Nelam, which doesn’t have any branches because their king supposedly personally hates them, but also because they practice slavery. A few other smaller places that have slaves or allow or actively practice other institutions or…” She waved a hand, “Actions that the Adventurer’s Guild actively is against. And then there are the nations like Izmun on Kementa. No one knows why the Guild doesn’t have any locations there, and it freaks people out. The Banker’s Guild does have representation there, which means that lots of merchants will still travel there, but huge swathes of adventurers avoid the place. We don’t want to end up like them.”

“Benefits outweigh the risks.” Kay asserted.

“Exactly.”

Kay looked around at everyone. “Anyone with arguments against at this point?” No one answered. “Great.”

“Speaking of the Banker’s Guild actually,” Eleniah took the floor again, “We’re letting them in. They’ll destroy us economically if we don’t, and they won’t even do anything.”

“What?” That had Kay taken aback.

“Literally,” She replied seriously, “They won’t do anything, but merchants of every walk of life trust the Bankers Guild, and an insane number of them won’t deal with places that don’t have at least one official Bank. I’ve heard of Skaniel completely cutting off access to the west to countries that don’t have a Bank.”

“That’s the country that controls the only pass through the mountains to the west, right?”

Right, they border up against the Concord, but they control all the trade to the west. The Concord both hates them and loves them.”

“Okay, not really relevant to the conversation, but good to know. So the final answer is, we can’t afford to kick the Adventurer’s Guild out or the Banker’s Guild when they eventually show up.” Kay added when Eleniah glared at him.

“We don’t have a Bank now; why aren’t we still getting people showing up to sell or buy things?” Ahthia asked.

“We’re too small to warrant one. Once we’re big enough for real caravans and big merchants to show up, we’ll get an offer.”

“That’s for later, though,” Kay took control of the topic again. “For now-” A solid knock on his door interrupted him.

Kay gave Eleniah a questioning look.

“What?”

“Who is it?”

“How should I know? I don’t memorize the sound of people’s footsteps or anything crazy like that.”

“Well, why didn’t you say anyone was coming?”

“You were talking; I didn’t want to interrupt.”

Kay growled at her, then another knock came. He sighed. “Come in!”

The door opened, and Avalon’s Head Guard stepped in, with Cindy on her heels.

“Head Guard, Cindy. What can I do for you?”

Susan stopped a few feet from the table and came to a loose approximation of a position of attention. “Sir, I came to update you about what’s been going on with those slavers and the freed slaves.” She glanced behind her at the door, “No one was downstairs, so I came up. Is that alright?”

“It’s fine. Cindy, what’s up with you?”

She pointed at Susan, “She should go first; my thing is related.”

“Alright, Head Guard, fill me in.”

She opened her mouth, then froze. It took her a second to find the words. “I haven’t actually briefed a Noble like this.”

Kay snorted, “And I haven’t been a Noble who’s been briefed by a guard about criminals. We’re learning as we go.”

“Right.” She visibly relaxed. “The slaver’s been traveling between a group of the independent city-states and small countries in between the Western Mountains and the Tumbling Rapids areas for awhile. He and his main guard are business partners, and they’ve been together for a long time working for others; they only started their own… business…” She sneered, “A few years ago. The other guards are people they’ve picked up from the same area. Eventually, he ran out of ‘stock’ last year and came up this direction to resupply.”

“How is he supposed to have resupplied himself up here in the wilderness?”

“There’s a pirate port to the north-north-east of us, apparently.” She said, sending the whole room into shock.

Kay grabbed some blood from his canteen and spread it across the table. With a flexing of his will, he shaped it into a map of the continent. “Where?”

Susan took a moment to adjust to a completely red map, then pointed at a spot near the coast, where the land formed what looked like a bay. “Here. Apparently, they get a lot of money and captives hitting ships going to and from Kementa. Also…” She grimaced, “Apparently, they act as privateers for the Nelamians when the pay is good enough.”

Kay stared at the point on his map. “How big is it?”

“Big. We don’t have a great idea; the person who told us is one of the lower-level guards. He claims he didn’t know that he was joining up with a slave merchant until after they got to the port, and then he felt he was in too deep to get away. Either way, the slaver didn’t trust him enough to let him roam around, and he said he wouldn’t have felt safe doing it anyway. He does say that on the way in, he saw at least a dozen ships at anchor, so it has to be big enough to support that many people.”

“How are they doing it? They can’t have much trade, and there’s no way of predicting how their raids go.”

“Most likely more slaves.” Ahthia answered, “On a large scale, slavery is an economic nightmare, but they can probably get by without too many issues if they aren’t bigger than your average village.”

“Why is slavery such a bad idea?” Cindy asked. She held her hands up in front of her as everyone turned to look at her. “I completely understand the moral issues and agree that it’s horrible, but why is it stupid economically? It only stopped being worth it money-wise during the Industrial Revolution back home, so why is it stupid here, where there’s less industrialization?”

“Because it costs more money to keep slaves working than it does to just have regular people working.” Eleniah replied, shifting back into teaching mode, “The only way you can keep people captive is to block them off from mana, so they don’t level Skills or tier up classes because anyone that has more than one tier can usually just physically rip off anything you put on them to keep them from doing that. This means you have to block them from using Skills and getting more powerful. Anyone who’s a slave is almost always a tier zero who got a slave collar put on them before they hit puberty, or a weak tier one. The materials you need to keep people of higher tiers from just pulling them off themselves get stupidly expensive.”

“And it’s a poor return on investment,” Ahthia took up the explanation. “One tier-two worker with a manual labor class is worth at least a dozen of slaves doing the same job. A tier three is probably worth hundreds. But you only have to spend money on feeding and housing one tier three, and you have to feed, clothe, and shelter hundreds of slaves. Even if it’s in terrible conditions and awful food, it still costs money over time.”

“So it’s pretty much the exact same reason as back home, just with Classes and Skills instead of machines.”

“Exactly,” Kay told her, having had the exact same discussion with Eleniah back in Tumbling Rapids. He paused and looked at Cindy closely. “Why did you come up here?”

She hooked a thumb at Susan. “Her discovery of the pirate port means that you’re going to send someone to scout it.”

He glanced around at everyone, “I mean, that was what I was thinking.”

“You should. And you should go.”

Everyone looked at Cindy again.

“I had a dream. If you don’t go, things have a chance of being worse than if you do go. Like, a big chance, and a lot worse.”

Kay stared at her, then looked at the map. “It’s a good opportunity.”

“What?”

He looked over and saw Ahthia giving him a look. “I haven’t had a chance to use my combat Classes for most of the last year. We can’t afford for me or anyone else to stagnate. And it’s even worse since my two tier four classes are leveling so slowly.” Over the last year, he’d gained one level in Shape Blood and four in Meld Blood, even though he’d been using them both almost every day. He was pretty sure it was the price for the help from the System that had boosted him so much.

Ahthia opened and closed her mouth a few times, then slowly nodded. “You have a point.”

Everyone else nodded or voiced agreement, and Kay went back to staring at the point on the map. “What’s the port called?”

“They call it ‘Darkport’.” Susan answered.

Kay snorted a laugh, “Seriously? That’s incredibly cliche.”

She shrugged, “They’re pirates and slavers, not bards.”

Kay shook his head in disgust. “That’s still a terrible name.” He sighed, “Whatever. Let’s start planning out an expedition to Darkport.”

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