B3 C40: A Short-term Contract

With the Artisan District being the inner-city counterpart to the Common District, it was theoretically one of the easiest and fastest parts of the city for me to visit. Despite that, however, I’d made scant few trips there. The obscene prices I’d spotted last time around, coupled with my general preference towards sticking to the outer city, kept me away.

Still, when I passed through the grand gate leading into the inner city, I had to admit it was a pleasant district to walk through. The shining steel-paved roads paired with the buildings constructed from their glossy, glass-like bricks made for a memorable and striking aesthetic.

Then again, that was to be expected. It wasn’t like the artisans would make any money if no one wanted to walk by their shops.

Today I was on a mission, but it wasn’t one I expected to take too long. Given how rarely I was here, I figured I couldn’t go amiss with some preliminary shopping.

Or, window shopping, at least. Do I actually need anything? Suds was generally pretty good at getting me something if he really thought I needed it, which meant the only potential purchases that came to mind would be enchanted gear.

That, unfortunately, would be a no-go. I got a bit of an allowance, and I was making some cash from the mining class I was taking, but thinking back to the prices I’d seen for some of the better jewelry, I didn’t think I’d be going on a grand shopping spree while I was here.

Still, can’t hurt to look around. I’d barely explored even a fraction of the shops so far.

And so for a while, I did just that.

Jewelers, armorers, tailors, weaponsmiths. All were present and in good numbers too, matching exactly what I pictured when I imagined “artisans.”

It took me off guard, then, when I finally came upon an entirely different sort of store: A grand sign hung above a plain, blocky building, Cookware, Cutlery, and Culinary Contraptions.

It’s just, like, a kitchenware store? Counting myself amongst the culinarily curious after last semester’s cooking class, I figured I’d take a look.

As it turned out, the interior wouldn’t have been that out of place back on Earth, easily mistakable for a standard shop at first glance.

Of course, that was only true until mana came into play.

Rows and rows of enchanted cookware lined the display tables, and I eyed one at random, interested to see the purpose of the magic.

Silver Spoon of Simple Stirring

This spoon has been enchanted with a stirring spell. Activating the enchantment will cause the spoon to move about in a circle until deactivated. Perfect for reducing sauces, promoting even cooking, and tending to multiple dishes at once.

Huh. Kind of like a much tinier version of an electric mixer. I like it! Not enough to consider buying it, but it was cute!

I went around the room and took in all the other merchandise, declining any help when a store clerk checked in on me. Whisks enhanced with air magic. Pans that were truly non-stick, made with skills to guarantee it. A ridiculous hoard of all sorts of knives.

After doing a once-over through all the sections, my favorite was probably a set of enchanted measuring cups. Not only were they capable of filling themselves, but also, they responded to verbal measuring commands. You could just say “measure out a half cup of flour,” and then bam, they would do it!

Some of the items were actually within my price range, and I considered grabbing one if for no other reason than to incentivize myself to finally push my Cooking up to the Initiate rank. In the end, though, it didn’t feel that worth it. Suds’ kitchen was hardly poorly stocked, even if he seemed to prefer using non-enchanted cookware. In fact, it was possibly some political statement now that I thought about it. His current cookware was likely made by his own chamber rather than the artisans.

Once I wrapped up my perusal and continued along, I rapidly discovered a number of similar stores, but for other professions. It was sort of meta-artisanry, in a way, with artisans preparing tools to use for being an artisan.

I hopped into a few more stores to see if there was anything I’d want for my own professions. By and large, the answer was no, but I did end up buying a new carving knife along with a few wood gouges. They were considerably nicer than what I’d been working with so far and even had some stability enchantments to help with steady hands.

Going a bit further into the district, I discovered a good amount of art, too. Unlike was true in the Noble District and Divinity District, it wasn’t displayed in a museum, though. Scattered throughout the steely streets were a number of art galleries, some with mundane art, others selling mana-enhanced varieties.

It struck me then that my room at home was, if well-furnished, fully devoid of any personal touches. In fact, with Suds’ presence passively cleaning the entire house, I imagined that most of the time, it would appear as if no one even lived in my room.

The thought left me slightly sad, and I set out to rectify that at once.

Without meaning to, I ended up settling on a sort of aquatic theme, first purchasing a mundane sculpture of a school of fish. It would work nicely on my dresser, I thought. For a bit more of a splurge, I bought a painting of a starry night sky hanging over a dimly lit beach. It came with an enchantment that could be turned on, causing the waves to gently move while the sounds of the ocean played in the background. It might not have been super cost effective, but I’d managed to score a very pretty white noise machine.

My own shopping complete, I then set out to grab myself some contracts for my settlement. Or, at least learn more about them -- I figured I’d run anything by Verin during our next oath-enforced meetup before fully committing myself to anything. Still, some pre-work never hurt anyone.

I’d already made some inquiries about selling darkwood and the chunks of Slippy’s mana-infused body, which meant I knew exactly where to go to grab a contract. Retracing my steps from an earlier visit, I found myself back in front of the jewelry store, the sign above it reading Gemma’s for all to see, framing the jewelry-filled display window.

On walking in, the store was luckily empty, save for the same woman who’d greeted me last time -- Gemma herself.

“Hello, welc- Oh! You were the one who was interested in selling some of that obsidian, weren’t you? Welcome. Here to shop, or did you decide to sell?”

I’d say she had a good memory, but with how much I stuck out in Sylum, it probably wasn’t too hard to recognize me. “Selling!” Reaching into my spatial pouch, I procured one of the said obsidian chunks, passing it over so she could take a better look.

“Ahh, yes. A lovely specimen, even if the quality suffered from a low Mining skill. Just to get a better sense of what we’re working with, do you know how much you were hoping to sell?”

In truth, I actually didn’t. Maybe Carpin had an inventory of how much the various adventurer parties had managed to mine, but even then, I couldn’t be sure how much they’d want to sell.

“I think a good amount, but I’m less here to get a one-time bulk deal and more here to set up something recurring. The settlement this comes from just got a spatial trading post. I’m not 100% sure how this all works, but would you want to set up a contract?”

As soon as the words “spatial trading post” left my mouth, I realized I’d said something wrong as Gemma’s face scrunched up in distaste. “You’re not some sort of inspector, are you? Here.” She pushed the obsidian back into my hands.

“N- No? Am I not supposed to ask you to make a contract like this?” I half expected Warram to break down the door and cart me away for breaking some obscure trade law. Instead of broken down doors and shouting, my words instead engendered a beleaguered sigh.

“Settlement contracts go through the Merchant’s Guild. If it’s a resource produced in a settlement with a vassal post, I can’t directly buy it. There are a few ways to give me precedence once you work something out with them, but you’ll have to go through the Chamber of Wealth first.”

Well. Crap.

With that, negotiations broke down before they could even begin, and -- not looking to buy any expensive jewelry right now -- I soon departed from the store.

Not before I’d troubled Gemma for directions to the Merchant’s Guild (and apologized a few times) though.

Unfortunately, the guild in question was predictably in the Wealth District rather than the Artisans’, but after leaving the inner city and hopping on the loop, I was there in short order.

The guild building proved to be relatively easy to find. As was only befitting for the main building of a merchant’s guild, it was large and it was gaudy. Unlike a good portion of buildings in Sylum which used unfamiliar materials or designs, the guild building was all dark brown wood and gold. It looked like the sort of building you’d find people smoking cigars inside.

Much to the delight of my superhuman nose, the interior did not smell of cigar smoke, though with the interior fairly similar to the exterior, I still felt out of place. The vestibule felt like a strange mix between the lobby of a swanky hotel and a rich hunting lodge, complete with velvet chairs and a leather couch. A single man stood behind a counter as I walked in.

A quick chat with him ended with me settling into one of the aforementioned velvet chairs as he went to relay my request to someone higher up. Apparently one didn’t usually just waltz into the guild with no appointment and a new vassal settlement in hand, which made me wonder if I should have postponed all of this until I could come with Verin.

My fears of getting turned away were soon proved to be unfounded, however, as a smiling woman with a sharp, hawk-like gaze swept into the room.

“Hah! Tell me, kid, did you throw any points into Luck? Don’t actually answer that, I’m not trying to pry. But hells! You just stroll in right as my meeting gets canceled. That never happens. Come on over, let’s chat!” She made a beckoning gesture which felt like it was almost physically pulling me out of my seat. Seeing as she hadn’t introduced herself yet, I hit her with a quick God’s Eye to see for myself.

Guildmaster Elmyra: Level 26* Monetary Meister, 1621 Prestige

*This target is obfuscated. To those who fail to break through their obfuscation, they will appear as level 22.

I blanched slightly as I read through the info, the woman far more important and high-leveled than I’d been expecting for a simple inquiry, even if she seemed to be trying to hide it from her status.

Plus, what’s with me always talking with guildmasters? I feel like a pretty simple bureaucrat would do. Is it actually my Luck like she said, or just a weird coincidence?

Elmyra didn’t give me much time to dwell on the question as she pulled me into a massive office which made me feel very, very small. If the lobby had been swanky, then this room was on a different tier entirely, gem-encrusted swords hanging on the wall, with chairs that looked like thrones and blood-red carpeting that somehow felt soft even through my shoes. I was offered a seat in one of the smaller of said thrones on the opposite side from Elmyra over a table similarly inlaid with gems and precious metals.

“Good! Name’s Elmyra, kid. Afraid I have another meeting in twenty, so we’ll have to make this brief. Vassal contracts! You a noble I’ve never heard of, or how’d you get your hands on- Actually, doesn’t really matter, we’ll skip the small talk. Name of the settlement? And are you looking for something standard, or what sort of resources are you trying to sell?”

The whirlwind of words left me feeling off-kilter, but not so much that I couldn’t answer. In response, I pulled out a sample of darkwood and obsidian, both feeling lackluster in comparison to the table I placed them on.

“Uh, Emer’Thalis. And I think we’d mostly be selling darkwood and mana-infused obsidian like this.”

Elmyra let out a long hum as she took in the two items, only sparing them a quick glance.

“Resources! Good. Might be a bit hard to export wood and rocks to a mining city with forests nearby, but I’m sure we can set something up considering they have some mana in them. All right, how about…”

In a frighteningly fast motion, Elmyra opened up a drawer and fetched a few thick pieces of parchment, setting them out before her. A pen appeared as if from nowhere, and her hand blazed across each page, filling them out with a speed that would have shamed an industrial printer.

“Eh-muhr-thal-iss. Wonderful, done! Here.” She shoved the completed documents my way, launching into an explanation before I could read a single word. “I’d say 99% of that’s boring legalese and standard business clauses. The other 1% is the juicy bit with the prices on it. We’d expect slightly lower prices if you’re selling in bulk, but it comes with some tax perks, so it all balances out. Why don’t you look that over, and then I can start getting you set up with all the other buying contracts you’d need?”

I felt a sort of whiplash I hadn’t been expecting from such a simple meeting. Did she want to get everything handled in the next twenty minutes? I was hardly some business guru, but that seemed a little fast, didn’t it?

“Do you mind if I just take this home with me? I should probably have a friend look over it before I rush into anything, you know?” Were there such things as contract lawyers here? Between Verin and Suds, one of them would know.

“Take your time! I’m afraid the contract would have to stay here -- our exact terms for vassal settlements are business confidential -- but you’re welcome to come back with whomever you’d want to look it over.”

Well, that made things a bit lower stress, at least. “Thanks. I think I’ll come back later then. Should I set up an appointment or something?”

Elmyra lightly banged down on the table with her fists while beaming at me. “Perfect! I should have something free on my calendar in a good six months if that works for you. Or I could hand you off to someone else, although I’m afraid I’d need to stamp anything related to vassal contracts, so it’d probably sit on my desk for even longer. You wouldn’t believe how much paperwork there is to go through each day. That sound okay to you?”

Six months? I mean, it wasn’t impossible, but was that really the best we could do? I’d been hoping to get everything ironed out pretty quickly. After all, that would be a full six months that no one in Emer’Thalis had access to a real market and six months where the shadows would have to continue feeding everyone. I was sure they could manage, but…

“Not that I don’t appreciate it, but is there no way to meet sooner?”

The guildmaster grimaced before waving her head from side to side. “Ehhhh. I’m sorry, but I doubt it. Unless you can pull off showing up right as one of my meetings get canceled again… It’s just, well, I’m sure you know how it is. Lots of meetings and lots of red tape to keep goods running through a city. Why, do you need something set up faster?”

I hesitated to say yes considering I had no firm deadline I needed to get things done by, but before I was forced to answer one way or the other, Elmyra jumped back in.

“You know what? How about this? If you’re eager just to get things set up, instead of a long-term binding contract, why don’t we just make it a short-term deal? I’ll add a clause so that we can renegotiate any of the terms next time we meet, and you can bring whoever you want to that meeting. Here.” She snatched the documents back, her hand once again moving in a blur as she amended the contract. Just as quickly, she offered the parchments back to me, and I scanned over the new clause.

I mean. It looks right. Just like she said, the contract would only be binding for six months, at which point I’d be fully released from its terms and open to renegotiate. The prices listed out didn’t seem too far from the quotes I’d gotten from the jewelers I’d visited last semester.

And honestly, the most important thing is to give everyone some time to get Sylum’s currency. The trading post was effectively useless for everyone until then, so even if we just got some selling contracts set up, it would help us out immensely.

And let’s be honest. What’s really the worst that could happen. We lose a few coins because she slightly lowballed me without me knowing? I’d much rather give everyone access to Sylum’s market at the cost of not getting the optimal deal for six months instead of forcing them to go another half a year without it just so I could nickel and dime the guild.

“I guess… I guess that works? If you’re sure nothing in here is binding for more than six months, that is.”

Elmyra hit me with a toothy grin that shone brighter than the various gems in the room. “You have my word. Now! We still have a good ten minutes. Why don’t you just give that the good ol’ signature and I can process this all before my next meeting.”

Well, here goes nothing. I accepted a pen from the guildmaster as she showed me exactly where I needed to sign.

My pen descended under the watchful and expectant gaze of the guildmaster. Closer and closer it came to the signature line, until I was only a split second away from finally signing.

It came as something of a shock, then, when the door burst open.

Stunned by the interruption, I dropped the pen as I took in the newcomer. He was a well-built and broad-shouldered man who looked to be somewhere in his fifties. While his hair had already reached the gray stage, angular features coupled with what I assumed was a healthy dose of Charisma had him looking less like a kindly grandpa and more like a silver fox. Despite not seeming to favor one side over the other, he held an elaborate cane in one hand.

Equally notably, the poor clerk from the lobby stood behind him, exasperated without even attempting to hide it. He appeared to have tried and failed to prevent the mystery man from barging in.

Unsure who we were dealing with, I hit him with God’s Eye on instinct.

Chamberlain Thompson: Level 29 Consummate Chamberlain, 2324 Prestige

Hell, he’s almost as high as Suds, and he doesn’t even have a combat class. What sort of administrative monster had just walked through the door?

Bringing his hands together, the chamberlain tapped his cane against the floor twice in succession, the sound dragging everyone’s attention to him as if that hadn’t already been the case.

“Why, hello there!”

He locked eyes with Elmyra, baring his teeth in a saccharine smile.

“Now, I do hate to be a bother, but would you mind if I took a look at what you’re having my client sign?”