Awakenings
Page 21
Mr Spierling squinted and gave a half grin of sympathy to her. “He never told you any of it, did he?”
Adel shook her head.
“Well, like I said, I can’t say that I knew your father very well, but I know the man I talked to on that boat ride seemed like a devoted father, not a religious zealot as everyone said he was. He had great faith in Halom all right, no one doubted that. But, if I was to guess, I think he wanted to spare you from it all. All the politics, the back-stabbing, the lies. I’m surprised you’re here actually instead of still out in the middle of nowhere.”
“My siphoning.” Adel realised. “I started to lose control. It forced his hand. He said it was a sign from Halom. Said I needed to find Fellow Callahan.”
“Ah yes, that would do it. He couldn’t protect you from that.” Mr Spierling smiled sympathetically. “And now you’re in the middle of it all, aren’t ya?”
“Yes, sir.” Adel nodded sadly.
“Well, I can’t say I know what you’re going through, and I don’t know if I can give you anything resembling good advice about the situation you’re in. But, I can offer you refuge if you ever need it. The Spierlings are good for that at least. You’re always welcome here if you need to get away from it all. It doesn’t matter if my boys are with you or not. Your father saved me half a dozen times once we landed at Istol, it was like fighting beside some terrible angel. But it’s not because I owe him my life, it’s because I know he’d do the same for my boys if they were in trouble. I saw it in him, that day on the boat. He was a father first, and all the other things second. Same as me.”
Adel was crying now. She couldn’t help it.
Mr Spierling got up and put a hand over hers. “It’s all right, girl. No need for tears yet. You haven’t smelled my Matoh after a night of drinking. That’s when you’ll need the tears.”
She laughed.
“Thanks, Dad. Love you too,” Matoh said groggily as he walked through the kitchen and grabbed a plate from the cupboard. His hair was even wilder than usual, half of the tall stripe of hair on his head was flattened to the side, and he only wore a pair of loose trousers. His tanned skin covering his chiselled chest and stomach was on full display, and Adel caught herself staring openly.
Harold Spierling winked at Adel and went over to clap his son on the shoulder. “There is a sponge next to the water barrel outside. Water’s cold, it’ll help with your head.”
Matoh just grunted but had a smile on his face, and his father laughed before walking into the front of his shop.
“We better get Naira up,” Adel said somewhat amazed at the easy, jocular and loving interaction between father and son, the easy way they touched each other, the level of absolute comfort they showed around each other. It was wonderful to watch.
He’s a father first. Adel felt the weight on her shoulders lighten as she thought about Mr Spierling’s words. Yes, she thought. All of the training and religious education had been there to help prepare her for what lay ahead, but he had not forced her hand. It was her choice, just as Fellow Callahan had said. Her father had sent her to the Academy so she could control her siphoning and stay safe, and possibly to learn the truth which he hadn’t been able to bring himself to tell her.
Adel was the Arbiter if she chose to be; she was the daughter of the murdered Bauffish queen if she chose to be; she was the figurehead of a religious coup if she chose to be, or she could be none of those things and walk away.
It was then her bracelet began to glow, and Adel sighed. None of it would matter if she couldn’t master the strange siphoning in her own body first.
She focused on her breathing and imagined the pond in her mind once more. Eventually, the tingling energy subsided to a dull ache in her arms. “I’ll fetch Naira so we can get to morning exercises.”
Adel found she was looking forward to the exertion. She needed to hit something, possibly that giant Asgurdian again, Bastion.
Yes, definitely him.
16 - Banking
Greed was one of our worst vices. For whatever reason, the more a person attained or collected, the more they wanted. Even with long-term goals, a person would devote vast amounts of energy and focus to achieve a personal success or attain something beautiful, yet, at the moment of success, there was a feeling of emptiness, and we looked towards the next thing, the next shiny object we had to have.
Yet, this ‘flaw’ was in all people, right down to the core, and it went hand-in-hand with the ability to overcome obstacles to achieve a goal. It was part of what set our species apart.
- Journal of Robert Mannford, Day 003 Year 00 - Entry 1
Thannis
Bank Street, New Toeron, Bauffin
Thannis waited his turn to be called forward, the waiting a necessary frustration to maintain his illusion of anonymity.
The young clerk smiled politely and ushered him to sit at a very public table.
That would not do.
“We will need a more private room for my requirements,” Thannis leaned closer and whispered.
The clerk recoiled at the loss of personal space and sneered. “I think you’ll find that choice will be at my discretion, now please, sit down so I may determine what services Hollace and Yin may or may not offer you.”
Thannis smiled, noticing the clerk’s less than discrete words had drawn a few eyes. “Of course, shall we?”
The clerk went to sit, and Thannis feigned a stumble and bumped into the man.
“Oh my, don’t worry, I have you,” Thannis said, grasping the man by the shoulder.
The clerk’s eyes went through the entertaining transition from outrage to shock and then to pain as the man finally began to realise that he was suddenly missing part of the smallest finger on his left hand.
Thannis sheathed his knife, inconspicuously wiped the blood from his knife on the inside of the clerk's jacket and pulled out his ring, the one displaying the royal emblem of Nothavre. “You also seem to have hurt yourself. Why don’t you go see to that and send me another clerk? One who knows about discretion and the price of not keeping secrets.”
The clerk was staring at him.
Thannis leaned in again to whisper, this time the clerk stayed put. “Smile at me, turn and walk away quietly, go get one of your superiors who knows how to deal with my family. Anything else will result in your immediate death. Then I will track down and find everyone you care about and cut them up slowly, claiming something easy to believe about the bank trying to undermine the crown.”
The clerk turned and hurried through an oak door without a sound.
Thannis waited for twenty heartbeats.
It had been a few days since he had satiated his hunger. He had cornered a young woman in an alley just outside one of the exits from his new cave system. She had tasted almost bitter, but the potency of that bitterness had been incredible. As he had watched the life leave her, she had almost seemed thankful. What a wondrous thing to feel. Unique. And now, he could taste it any time he wanted, thanks to the brilliant new santsi Professor Attridge had developed.
He was getting closer to understanding something great, Thannis could feel it. With every kill, with every life he felt transition out of this world, he grew a tiny step closer to knowing what lay beyond. It was glorious and terrible all at once, and these santsi would be key to discovering the secret.
An older clerk came back out through the door the other had left through. This one smiling as he bid Thannis to follow. “If you’ll just follow me, sir.”
To the older clerk’s credit, he held himself with absolute poise and calm, as if nothing odd had ever occurred.
Good, Thannis thought to himself, a professional. He enjoyed professionals.
The clerk led him through a tight maze of hallways to a thick oak door which he opened for Thannis and waved deferentially towards a table with two chairs inside a small luxurious room.
The clerk waited for Thannis to be seated and then closed the door with a satisfying click.
“I need to make several very large, but very discrete investments. The money is not to be traced back here, or to my family.” Thannis took off his gloves and put them on the table. “I will be the silent partner in these ventures, and shall be investing all of my holdings, so you will need to draft several notes. I shall require at least eight different front men from very different backgrounds to serve as active partners. There will be risk, but these partners will stand to gain a significant percentage of the profits if they can be proven to be loyal and obedient. There is no flexibility on those last two qualities. Loyalty and obedience or death, make this point very clear.”
“Yes, Your Highness.” The clerk seemed to hesitate.
“Well, what is it?” Thannis asked, irritated.
“Did I hear you correctly, Your Highness? Did you say all of your holdings?”
“Yes, all holdings in all of your banks. Is that perfectly clear for you?”
The clerk nodded.
“Also, I want the Church to be ignorant of as many of these investments as possible. I want to avoid their meddling.” Thannis waved at the air irritatedly thinking of the hassle Singer interference might cause.
The clerk took a deep breath, but again, to his credit, he did not baulk at the task. He simply nodded, and Thannis could see the man cataloguing all the required paperwork for a job of this magnitude. “I shall bring you what you require. Would you like refreshments brought to you, Your Highness?”
“Yes, and a report on your bank’s other investments this year, as well of those of your competitors.”
“A report, Your Highness?”
Too bad, Thannis was almost beginning to like this man. “Yes, a report. I know you keep them, and yes, I know it is my father who usually asks for them, but you will find that I as his heir am also entitled to see those documents. I have just never wanted to look at them before. Understood?”
“Perfectly, your Highness. Right away.” The clerk bowed and left the room slightly more flushed than he entered.
His table was soon filled with writing equipment, tea and several delicacies he was fond of. He contented himself with the rich food he had been away from for quite some time, enjoying the tastes.
The clerk returned and readied himself beside the stack of notes with quill, sand, and inkwell.
“I want a third of all my holdings to be split and invested into research and development into this list of projects at the Artificium here in New Toeron, and another sixth to be invested into growing the Artificium in Orlane. Also, you will corner the market on controlling the movement of covellite sand through Sandton.”
“Pardon, Your Highness, but that might be difficult. Captain Aaron Koslov is known to be difficult to deal with, and he is the premier stake-holder of much the covellite sand industry, not to mention santsi charging operations in the Wastes,” the clerk said somewhat reluctantly.
Thannis knew something of the situation and had anticipated this. “Yes, I want you to make the good captain an offer. I’m sure his fabulous airship could benefit from several of my investments at the Artificium. I also want a sizeable proportion of my remaining holdings to be used to fund an expedition or reward, whichever is more effective, into finding more of those wondrous floating Jendar hulls the good captain has a monopoly over. If Koslov is not receptive to the offer, find Koslov’s competitors and offer them the money. One-third of my holdings shall be devoted to gaining Koslov or buying his competitors and the operations in Sandton. Then there is a small santsi artisan shop, named the Spherical Suns on Juniper Street you need to purchase. The artisan who owns it will now work for me, and again they will have a proportion of the profits made from their store. Leaving the rest of my holdings for …”
Thannis continued to set out in intricate detail how his vast wealth was to be spent. To many others, throwing his money around may look like madness, but no one saw things as clearly as he did. The future was in the Artificium and in Covellite sands. In a few years, when the rest of his plan was underway, his investments would yield profits tenfold of what he put in.
The very world was about to change, and Thannis would help bring it to pass.
His mind was preoccupied with the possibilities of the future as he stepped back out onto the street. People of all sorts were milling about on business, but one day what he had set into motion here today would affect everyone around him, from the lowliest beggar to the very fabric of the monarchies.
Then he noticed the man waiting for him a few steps away. He was dressed very formally, in house Beau’Chant regalia. Nothavran lilies decorated his cuffs and collar. It took Thannis only a moment to realise it was Raoul, his father’s steward.
“Young master,” Raoul’s deep voice intoned, “your father requests your presence.” Raoul handed Thannis a red wax-sealed envelope. “Details are within. Good day, master.”
Without another word, the solemn steward walked away.
Thannis was fuming. If he was being watched by the constabulary, his cover had just been blown, how many eyes would recognise Raoul, or could identify the wax seal? His father could ruin everything with his meddling. Yet the summons could not be ignored, and if he was honest with himself, he knew the summons was imminent sometime soon after soliciting his funds. The bank must have been told to alert his father as soon as he had arrived. A precaution by his father, or anticipation?
He sighed, it was better to get the meeting over with quickly than to delay. He needed to know what plans his father was trying to employ, to know how he was meant to be used. Better to be in the know than out of it, so he found a dark corner and opened the letter to begin planning his strategies on how to attack and defend against his father’s incursions.
17 - A Step From the Nest
Compassion and intuition were also traits humanity could have in abundance. Kali was directed to find the optimal balance of the traits required for our species to rejoin the Tiden Raika and the flow of life.
- Journal of Robert Mannford, Day 003 Year 00 - Entry 2
Kai
The Academy, New Toeron, Bauffin
Kai couldn’t believe it, he was fuming. “They asked you to leave already?”
“Yes,” Jachem said nonchalantly as he sat against the wall letting the morning light fall upon the surface of his prized Jendar tablet.
“Put that damn thing down, Jachem. Tell me about the rest of it,” Kai demanded, louder than he should have, but he was tired, damn it. He had worked the Royal Dockyards all day, and while he was getting paid far more than usual, it was still physically demanding work. He was tired, and all he wanted to do was eat some food and go to practise his music with Echinni later tonight. He didn’t need this. He had somehow lucked them into positions within the Academy, and now Jachem was going to mess it up.
Jachem looked confused and angry as his fingers went through a series of motions upon the ancient relic and the blue writing which had played across the strange surface winked out.
“Why? About the rest of what?”
“About how you got fired! Again!” Kai took in a deep breath. How had Jachem screwed this up? It had seemed something he would have liked. “You always liked doing laundry with Sister Maria! You’ve only been there a few weeks. What happened?!”
“They told me to leave.”
“Why did they tell you to leave?”
“I don’t know. They made me touch the dirty clothes which I didn’t want to do. I didn’t tell them about moving a pile of clothes in the queue.”
“You’re not making any sense, you–” Kai cut off. He was doing it again. He knew how to ask questions with Jachem, and this wasn’t it. He was getting frustrated and wanted Jachem just to be normal for one damn moment of his life. “AH! Why can’t you just be …” No. He stopped himself before he said it.
He went to the door of their room and forced himself to breathe. He doesn’t understand people’s emotions or wh
y people act the way they do. You know this, Kai. Getting angry won’t make anything better. Just breathe.
“Tell me the series of events which occurred at work today, and then maybe I can help us understand what happened.” Kai forced the words from his mouth through a clenched jaw, trying to sound calm and reasonable, but in the back of his mind he screamed, he bloody well enjoys folding clothes! It keeps him calm. He had a job folding clothes and getting paid good money for it! What more can I do?
“They put me at the front desk first thing in the morning ...” Jachem started.
Son of an Onai, Kai dropped his head and laughed. “Of course they did. I told them not to do that. I even explained why!”
“I know you did. That’s what I told them, and then the lady in charge, a woman named Rosa, she said no one was going to come into her dry-house, the best in the whole Nine Nations, and tell her what she can and can’t do with her workers,” Jachem explained.
Kai put his head in his hand and rubbed at his temples, already knowing where this was going. “Ok, tell me the rest.”
“Well, I was trying to be nice to people, because I knew you wanted me to keep this job. Even though they expected me to take their dirty clothes for them. I told them to put it in the basket on the desk rather than have me take if for them and put it in a basket behind the desk. Rosa didn’t seem to like that,” Jachem explained, looking a bit confused as he recalled his morning.
“You know I wanted you to keep this job?” Kai asked.
Jachem paused for a moment. “Of course, I know. You want me to make money for myself, so I can live by myself someday.”
Kai looked at the ceiling, guilt threatening to wash over him. How did he answer this one? “Yes, it is important for you to make a living somehow, and it is important to take care of yourself as well. However, I never said I want you to live by yourself. That is not the goal of all these jobs, Jachem.”
Jachem looked at the floor for a moment in thought. “So you don’t want to get rid of me?”