by Edward Brody
The man blinked and smiled. “I’m just the bank, but behind every loan I underwrite is a guarantor. If you miss your payback date, you and your guild are automatically flagged as criminals, and a bounty is issued for your capture until the money is returned. At that point, the interest will be compounding, and rest assured, the guarantor will have enough assets to send very powerful men to find you. It’s the reason why we only issue loans to registered guilds. Easier to find and collect in the event of a default.”
I thought back to the story Liam told me about his mother. “So the guarantors are basically loan sharks?”
The banker jerked his head back and seemed offended. “You can go find a loan shark if you wish, but I’m sure you’ll find worse terms and even worse repercussions. We issue only reputable loans to registered guilds here.”
“Hmm,” I said. Though the idea of taking the maximum loan that was offered to help our village seemed interesting, I would need to discuss it with our guild members. We’d have to all be on board to do some serious grinding to pay back the loan, and I didn’t want to put them under that kind of pressure if they weren’t ready for it. “Can I take out a smaller loan?”
The man shrugged. “As small as you like—a minimum of 15,000.”
“So that’s 100 gold per day or 3,000 gold in interest after thirty days?”
The man perked up. “Oh! You can do math!”
“Alright,” I agreed. “I’ll take the 15,000.”
The man nodded, scribbled in his book, then lifted it up on the counter. Written in the book was the loan amount, the loan terms, the guild name, my name, and a line for my signature. I wasn’t sure how he already knew my name, but I coughed it up to his book being linked to the magistrate’s again. I was, however, surprised when I saw the loan amounts for other guilds. Some were for under a hundred thousand, but one was issued for a whopping 500,000 gold. I wasn’t sure if they were all NPC guilds, but it made me feel a bit more confident that we could work the loan system if other guilds were.
I signed my name, and after the man checked it, he sat a bag full of gold on the counter. “One month,” the man said. “Don’t be late.”
I grabbed the gold, smiled at my good fortune, and started to walk away.
I almost headed for the door, anxious to pay Darion back the money I owed, but I noticed the registrar window again. I had lost the deeds that the crazy man from Dragon’s Crest had given me, but I thought I might stop by there for more information. I wanted to make sure it was where I needed to go if I were ever to retrieve Bartholomew’s deeds.
There was an old, grey-haired woman in a black dress behind the window, and she was leaning over with her head lying on a table below the counter. It seemed that she was sleeping. Behind her were rows and rows of bookshelves, all filled with thick books.
“Excuse me,” I said.
The woman shuddered a little at my voice, but it wasn’t until I said, “Excuse me,” a second time and cleared my throat that she finally jerked up from her chair.
Her eyes went wide, and she looked around as she began to remember where she was and what she was doing. “Oh, I’m sorry!” She gently slapped her forehead. “I must have dozed off. How can I help you?”
“This is where you handle deeds?”
“Yes,” the woman said. “What about them?”
“So, if I wanted to check the status of deeds, I would come here?”
The woman eyes narrowed. “What do you mean, ‘the status’? If you own the deed, it’s yours. Have you taken a loan on your property? You should check with the banking window if that’s the case.”
I squirmed a little, unsure of exactly how to word things without sharing the story of the crazy old man. “I mean like… tax status. If someone didn’t pay their taxes, how do I see if the deed is still valid?”
The woman opened one of her eyes cautiously. “You mean, you didn’t pay your taxes? Give me the deed, and I’ll check the amount owed.”
“I don’t have the deed with me. I’ll come back later,” I said. At least I hoped I would come back later. There was a chance someone else would make it up to Dragon’s Crest and take everything I had lost before I was ever at an appropriate level to go back.
“Your name? I can look you up that way.”
“Umm…” I scratched the side of my head. “The deeds wouldn’t be under my name.”
She tapped her fingers on the counter. “So you’re looking to cause trouble for a competitor, I presume? I know how you merchants work.”
I raised an eyebrow and fished for information. “I can do that?”
“If you haven’t paid your tax on a Highcastle property, it’ll become public record. You’re talking about a Highcastle property, aren’t you?”
I nodded. “Three of them.”
“Okay,” the woman said, standing up. “What are the addresses?”
“Addresses?” I shook my head. “I have no idea. But I can tell you the name of the deed holder.”
The woman frowned. “Okay, what’s the name?”
“Bartholomew.”
“Bartholomew…” she raised an eyebrow as If waiting for more information.
“That’s all I know, unfortunately.”
The woman chuckled and wrinkled her brow. “You don’t know the last name?”
“Sorry,” I said, shaking my head. “I know it’s silly.” I smiled and started to walk away.
“Wait a minute,” the old lady said. “There’s only so many properties available in Highcastle, and there can’t be many owners with such a strange name. If you can give me about fifteen minutes, I’ll let you know if I can find something under a Bartholomew.”
“Oh really? Great!” It seemed I may have found an opportunity to complete the deed quest without physically having the deeds. I looked around the empty room and shrugged my shoulders. “Yeah, I’ll wait.”
I had been lying on the benches, looking up at the ceiling for what felt like a lot longer than fifteen minutes. I did my best to keep my mind off Adeelee, but no matter how hard I tried, my thoughts kept switching to her.
I hoped she was okay. I hoped the Magi would contact the High Elves. I hoped the elves could free her somehow.
The Guild Hall didn’t seem to get much activity other than the occasional visitor who entered, walked up to the Banking window, and either deposited or withdrew funds. It seemed like a particularly useful feature for solo players, and if our guild ever acquired a substantial amount of money, I’d have to look into depositing it into a bank.
No one entered to report a crime to the magistrate, which was probably a testament to the Highcastle guards’ control over the city. Or perhaps it was just a testament to criminals’ ability to get away with crimes unnoticed.
“I’ve got your information!” the lady shouted from the booth in the wall, and I jolted up off the bench. When I ambled up to the window, she smiled cockily and bobbed her head from side to side as she shuffled some papers in her hands. “Just as you said, I found three properties under someone name Bartholomew Hailweaver. Only Bartholomew I found.”
“Great,” I said. “So, then his deeds are good?”
“I’m afraid not,” the lady said. “Two of the properties were repossessed by the crown for failure to pay the accumulated taxes over many, many years.” She shuffled the papers, licked her finger, and picked up another on the table. “One of them is still good, though. Seems someone was paying the taxes up until a half a year ago. The doors were ordered closed until the balance is paid, and it’ll be repossessed by the crown soon.”
“So, it’s good so long as the taxes are paid off?”
“If he pays in the next month or so, sure.” She shook her head. “But they could seize the property anytime now, so he better act soon.”
“How much?” I asked.
“After fees, 155,000 gold.”
You have completed all requirements for the quest: Bartholomew’s Deeds! Return to Bartholomew to collect your reward.
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I chuckled at the number and could see why Bartholomew had run from taxes. 155,000 was even more than the maximum amount of loan I could take out on behalf of my entire guild. For one guy alone, that was a massive sum to try to round up. “Alright. Thanks for your help. I’ll let him know.”
“Don’t you want to know the address?” she asked.
“Umm… sure,” I said.
“21B Honors Lane,” the woman said.
I repeated the addressed under my breath a few times to memorize it, thanked the lady again, and pulled my hood over my head as I started for the door.
Walking back towards the Mage’s Hall, I paid close attention to the street signs—something I normally never did—and didn’t immediately find the address of the shop. I veered a bit, my mission suddenly switching from paying Darion immediately to finding the address of the building. As I started walking towards the gate leading to Outer Highcastle, I eventually found a small alley labeled “Honor’s Lane.”
It wasn’t the main route between the Arena and the Inner Highcastle market, but it was possible, with a little extra effort, to travel between the two places using the smaller path.
Everything in the alley seemed to be tall neutral-colored residential buildings, smushed so close to each other that their walls were literally touching.
The building in question was in the middle of them all and looked identical to the houses, aside from the white outer walls being a little dirtier and having a long iron bar above the door, where a shop sign must have once hung. The door itself was covered in two crossing, thick chains, and a board had been nailed over its bottom window.
I took a step back, admiring the building and its craftsmanship, which was a huge step above our cabin style homes in Edgewood. I imagined at some point it being a bustling shop with crazy Bartholomew inside. I wonder if he only became crazy after going to hide out in Dragon’s Crest or if he had always been that way.
As I was standing back, I noticed one of the nearby residential buildings also had a sign, but this one was pasted on its door.
For Sale: 400,000 gold.
“Shit,” I muttered as I realized the value of Bartholomew’s home must have been roughly the same. So, he was essentially losing a 400,000 building if he didn’t pay his 155,000 in taxes. That was an incredibly crazy loss, especially when you considered he had already lost two of his other buildings.
I needed to collect my quest bounty at some point, but I wasn’t sure how he would take it when he found out I had lost the deeds.
I backed away from the building and headed to the Mages Guild to return Darion’s gold.
Chapter Forty-Six
2/12/0001
I walked into the study room where I had last saw Darion, but he was no longer there. Liam was still in the desk, leaning over a book, and on the slat in front of the desk were drawings of flames, water waves, and various lines and scribbles.
“Where’s Darion?” I asked.
Liam looked up from his book and shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you. He finished his lecture and recalled away.”
I groaned. It wasn’t really a big deal that he was gone—I would be back to the Mages Guild the next day, for certain—but I didn’t like carrying around large sums of gold. “Alright.” I turned and was about to leave before I got curious about the slat. “What’s all this?” I asked, pointing towards the drawings.
Liam leaned back in his chair. “Oh, I was debating with Darion about the next spell that I want to acquire. Since I use water magic, I was thinking about getting a spell that uses water specifically, rather than ice. It was actually dueling you and fighting the gnoll mage that got me thinking about it.”
“What did our duel have to do with it?”
“Well, take my ice elemental, for example,” he explained. “Even your weak Fireblasts would be pretty strong against it—the heat melts it away. But if I had a water elemental, you’d need considerably stronger fire to turn it into steam. It’d be more likely to put your fire out.”
“Right,” I said. “The way every branch of magic is able to counter each other depending on the spell. Darion explained it all to me.”
“But,” he continued, “I was also thinking about going for a spell such as Winter’s Breath.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Another water spell that uses ice… or cold rather. You take a deep breath and—“ He literally took a deep breath and placed the side of his hand up to his mouth. When he exhaled, he opened his hand as if it exploded. “—blow cold air and ice at your enemies, like a winter’s storm. It’s both an area-of-effect slow and damage spell in one.” He pressed his lips together hard and looked up in thought. “It’s a hard choice.”
“I’m sure you’ll do fine with whatever you choose,” I said.
I turned and started to walk away, but as I passed the drawing on the slat, I noticed that some of the scribbles on the slat weren’t really scribbles, but representations of the water waves in the drawing evaporating and turning to steam that was floating above.
“Winter’s exhale,” I muttered under my breath. “Steam…” My mind got lost in thought. The riddle lies. Heed the obvious and fail.
The talk of a Winter’s Breath spell, and the effects of fire and ice magic made me have a realization about the puzzle I had encountered in the strange room that the random runestone was connected to.
The entire riddle was a complete lie, or rather it was completely true as it told me in the riddle that it was a lie and not to pay attention to the obvious. The buttons on the wall, the handwheel, the hanging piece of pipe, and the water faucet were all nothing but distractions to prevent me from trying to figure out how to activate the button on my own. If I had just ignored all the things that the buttons on the wall could do, I would’ve figured it out much sooner.
Steam! I closed my eyes and visualized the strange puzzle in my head, and it was so obvious to me now. I needed fire to create steam, but the water from the faucet wouldn’t work either. In order to create steam, I would need ice, as it wouldn’t spill through the holes. And I just so happened to be standing in front of the one person I know who could help me with that.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t my favorite guy and I didn’t look forward to asking for help.
“What’s gotten into you?” Liam questioned as he noticed I was still standing around.
I turned around and swallowed, before saying, “I need your help with something.”
Liam grinned, bit his bottom lip, and placed his hands behind his head as he leaned back in the chair. He scanned me up and down and curled his tongue around in his mouth. “You need my help, huh? How exactly can I assist you?”
“I have a quest to…” I paused and shook my head. “Not a quest, but I have a rune that leads to a puzzle. I think it needs ice magic to be solved, so it would be great if you could help me with it.”
“I can’t recall, remember?”
I gritted my teeth and slumped my shoulders.
“But… I can get a couple imbued Recall scrolls under the right conditions.”
“You can?” I asked excitedly.
Liam shrugged and pooched his lips. “What’s my incentive to do so?”
“To help a fellow mage?” I asked.
“Call me selfish,” Liam said. “Unless the outing will pay me, I see little reason to waste my valuable time.”
I sighed. Though Liam seemed like the key to the puzzle, I didn’t want to stoop to paying him to come with me, and come to think of it, he would probably try to horde all the loot if there was any to be had. “Alright, never mind.”
As I started to walk away, Liam called out, “Wait.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Yeah?”
“I can scratch your back if you scratch mine.”
“How?” I asked.
Liam waited to reply and took a long moment to look me up and down. “Let me have a sampling of your… goods.”
My eyes lowered, and I smirked. He was real
ly showing his true colors, and I didn’t even know how to reply to him. What the hell kind of NPC had Dr. Winston programmed into the game?
Suddenly, he started chuckling. “I’m just teasing you, Gunnar. Like I said before, you have no pizazz. But your buttons are just so easy to push.”
I relaxed and almost laughed with him. I always found it funny when NPCs made jokes on their own.
Liam dropped his hands on the table. “Tell Darion that you’re ready for a yellow belt, and I’ll accompany you. I don’t want to wait any longer for a trial.”
“A yellow belt? I just barely became a green belt.”
“You may be on the lower end of ready, but I’ve seen you fight. And if we’re trialing together, you’ll be fine. Getting to yellow is easy. It’s the master’s belt that’s hard.”
I looked down and considered the proposition. It seemed like a good deal, since were no stipulations that Darion had to say ‘yes’ after I told him I was ready. I could use that against Liam if push came to shove. “Fine,” I finally said. “I’ll tell Darion that I’m ready for a yellow belt.”
“And 5,000 gold,” Liam said.
I scowled. “No way. That’s not fair.”
“Just for the imbued recall scrolls,” Liam said. “I can get them for 2500 each. One to get there and one to get back.”
I took a long, deep breath as I eyed Liam staring at me cockily from behind the desk. 5,000 gold was a ton of money to be wasting on a puzzle that may have nothing of value. For the trip to be worthwhile, I needed to make the cost of the scrolls back, and then some. It was a gamble. But… I was also entering a stage where gold was beginning to scale. I was just discussing a loan for more than 100,000 in the Guild Hall. How relevant was another 5,000 gold?
“Fine,” I said. “I’ll pay for the scrolls, but I have dibs on any and all loot that we find.”
Liam gritted his teeth as if he didn’t like the idea, but his face softened thought more about the deal. He stood up from his chair and leaned over the desk with a snarky grin on his face. “Alright, Gunnar. You’ve got yourself a deal.”
