Chapter 263 - Dinner and a Party

Nate finished sending off the last invitation, watching as the small piece of paper flew out the window, carried by a bird made of paint. He glanced at Frick curiously.

“Now that they’re all gone, are you going to tell me why you so desperately wanted to do Luc’s invitation?”

“I’ll tell you later, Boss. For now, gotta go!”

Nate watched as the blue goblin spirit zipped off after the painted bird. He had a bad feeling about what the little goblin might have imprinted into the invitation. Then again, he also found he didn’t really care. Whatever it was, it was unlikely to hurt Luc and his old mentor could take a joke. And if not? Well, Nate wasn’t above throwing Frick under the proverbial bus.

With a shrug Nate shifted his Regalia, making his robe white with purple highlights before engaging the rune-locks on his house. The invitations were done, but his guests weren’t going to feed themselves. With that thought in mind Nate walked out the door and into the Merchant’s District, pointedly ignoring the stares at both him and his huge house that had appeared overnight.

*************

Luc sighed dramatically. He wasn’t actually bothered, but the big sighs sometimes earned him a little pity from Hildi. And with Hildi, a little pity often turned into pity sex. So, as far as he was concerned, being a little melodramatic was well worth the effort. Just as Hildi was turning towards him with a raised eyebrow, a bird splattered into the window. Actually splattered.

Luc leaned over to look at what he assumed was some punk on the streets hand-launched handiwork, only to witness the splatter re-form into a shape that could loosely be described as a bird. The splatter-bird then splattered into the window again. Luc had added metal to the window frame and using his Magnetic Control Skill, he opened the window. The splatter-bird reformed before flying over to his desk and depositing a sealed letter in front of him.

By that time Hildi had moved to join him, leaning over his shoulder to get a peek at the letters' contents. Luc was well aware that Hildi did pass on some information about the Artist’s Emporium to Morgane. In fact, he was so well aware of it that he liked to sprinkle in half-truths and outright lies and let the former Assassin and Unseen try and sift through them to figure out what was actually true. He liked to think of it as adding spice to their relationship.

However, no one sent letters like this, and Luc was fairly certain his once-pupil was the source so he grunted at Hildi.

“You mind? I can’t have you being witness to trade secrets.”

“Oh? You sure? I could make it worth your while,” replied Hildi with a sultry smile.

Luc was about to respond when he saw the splatter-bird’s form shifting. Shifting into a mixture of paints that took the form of a man and a woman, joined at the hips. Their positioning kept changing but the frantic nature of their copulating didn’t slow down. In fact, it was getting faster and faster. Then suddenly, Luc’s beautiful and very expensive desk was splattered with paint, with a detailed copy of Luc’s face right in the middle.

“Nate did that?” asked Hildi with a raised eyebrow.

“Probably not. Kid’s a bit of a prude sometimes and his sense of humour isn’t quite so crass. More likely it was Frick,” replied Luc.

“Not Kiri?”

“Nah, her idea of humour when it comes to me is more…violent. The paint would’ve been all over me, rather than my desk. Frick’s a big fan of property destruction.”

Luc finally opened the letter after saying his piece, making sure Hildi couldn’t read it, before tossing it open onto his desk. Hildi didn’t miss her chance, picking up the letter and opening it.

“A dinner party? That’s somewhat boring. Think he invited Minister Morgane?”

“Definitely not,” crowed Luc with a huge smile on his face.

“I’ll need to let her know then. Though, I’m not in a rush…”

“Oh?” asked Luc, feigning confusion.

“Yeah, I could spare… five minutes?”

“Ten,” countered Luc.

“Ten works. I think I saw a position we haven’t tried.”

Luc grinned as Hildi approached. He’d have to thank the little, blue, shit later, and besides, he actually didn’t mind having a portrait of himself plastered across his desk. He’d just have to turn it around so it looked at those he was dealing with rather than at himself. Sure, the drawers would be facing them then, but the confusion that would elicit would be well worth it.

*************

Aisling watched as paint shifted into a storm, lightning bolts in yellow and white sparking off a spear as a miniature version of herself controlled the scene. It was a beautiful piece of art and she couldn’t help but smile.

Evindal clearly felt the same as he watched the scene play out with wide eyes.

“There is an element of Life inside of it. I can clearly sense it. Did you know this was his goal?”

“I knew… a little,” she admitted. “But if you want to ask him about it you can tonight.”

“Tonight? So they’re back. Are they coming to the Guild then?”

Aisling shook her head, “No, he’s invited us to a dinner party. Deverell as well.”

Evindal nodded along, “A dinner party? That sounds nice. I wonder how many people he intends to invite.”

With a sad look Evindal turned to Aisling, putting his delicate hands on the desk between them.

“Will you submit the report then?”

Aisling glanced out the window, the harbour of Etrua clear in the distance from the fourth floor of the Adventurer’s Guild. Even though it had been months since the betrayal by the previous Guild Prefect, Evelynn Allais, the Guild had not fully recovered. Oh certainly the grounds had been fixed and the Guild was once more profitable. But the stockpiles remained far-diminished and so were their numbers. Plenty of Bronze and a few Silvers had signed on with the Guild in the wake of the Battle for Etrua, but replenishing the Gold members was slow going.

Aisling had thought things were going well, then Nate and Kiri had left to do whatever it was they needed to do. Not a day later, they had received a message from Guild Headquarters. They were to report the moment Nate and Kiri returned. Aisling didn’t know what to think about that particular demand and Nate and Kiri weren’t around to ask. So, instead, she would find out tonight.

“They’ll live if they have to wait an extra day or two.”

Evindal raised an eyebrow before smiling, “Still doting on them?”

“Still,” Aisling agreed. “They’ve earned that and more.”

Evindal’s radiant smile was clearly one of agreement.

*************

Nate stood by the door as the waiters of the Pearl of the Sea ferried food into his house. The sun was almost setting and their guests would be arriving soon. Thankfully Nate had managed to throw his weight around a little, and by weight he meant wealth. The Pearl of the Sea was one of the best restaurants in Etrua and with enough mana thrown at the problem he had managed to convince them to cater for his dinner party.

At first Kiri had wanted to cook, which was understandable from Nate’s perspective. His sister wanted to show off to her mother how much her cooking had improved. But after they’d talked about the invite list, Kiri had decided that maybe she didn’t want to cook for twenty-plus people. With that debate put to bed Kiri had instead decided to go spend the day with her parents, leaving the organising of the dinner party to Nate. As far he was concerned that was perfectly fair, since he was the one who wanted to have the party in the first place. A small part was so he could show off the house he’d made for himself and Kiri, but the main reason was that he just wanted to have all his friends in one place. He’d gone back and forth on whether he wanted to invite Britt, and in the end he had decided to do so since he was inviting Null.

Then he’d invited Luc, Aisling, Evindal, and Deverell. Then Jacque and the kids. He’d been forced to decide whether or not he wanted to invite Morgane. In the end, he had decided against inviting the newly named Minister of Etrua. Nate figured Luc would bring Hildi and if he invited Morgane she would likely have wanted to bring a small entourage considering she was the head of state. Having Morgane bring along Baroness Olithia, or whatever her title was now just felt like a bad idea. Having one of his former lovers in the room was enough. Two sounded like a recipe for destruction, or at the very least, exceptional discomfort. His own especially.

Then there was Cutter. Nate had made the invitation open-ended so the cantankerous, old smuggler could bring along some of his family if he wanted. Last, but not least, were Jorge and Rania. They had already been by once today but they’d be back for dinner along with Kiri.

So, with food and beverages sorted, guest invitations handled, all that was left to do was for Nate to wait till the guests started arriving. In the meantime, he would continue to work on merging Divine Energy with mana to create his own processed mana. He was confident he was getting close.

*************

Antoine Golchev paced angrily in his lavish mansion. Gashana was a wealthy country and as one of its Ambassadors, Antoine was used to the best that gold and mana could buy. He was also used to getting his way.

His chin fat wobbled as he continued to spew forth his diatribe.

“Can’t afford? Can’t afford?! Do they know who we are?”

“I believe they do, your Eminence,” answered Binder Nafiri.

Antoine spun on the smaller woman, confident in his dominance over her through the gold chain he wore beneath his silk shirt.

“And what about you? You were supposed to force them to capitulate. What kind of Binder are you if you can’t even shift the views of a couple of children.”

“As I have said, your Eminence, they were adults, and trying to guide their thoughts was impossible. It was as though their minds were girded by steel. I couldn’t find any gap in their defences.”

“Excuses!” he yelled. He’d have her whipped later for her failure, along with her disobedience. He couldn’t kill her. She was the property of Merchant Lord Halal and therefore could not be spent cheaply, but it was within his power to have her punished. Still, punishing her didn’t solve his problem. A problem that should have been easy to solve.

Merchant Lord Halal wanted access to these new portals early. He wanted to be one of the first to gain a foothold with this new mechanism for trade, so that he would retain first movers advantage. Then his already overflowing coffers would spill so much wealth into his city that he could deal with his competitors among the other Merchant Lords. And of course, Antoine would be handsomely rewarded for making it happen. Rewarded with access to those same portals that was. Rewarded with access to new trade routes and the ability to move huge amounts of goods in an instant. The vast improvement in logistics alone would make up for the massive cost in mana. Now, he just needed to get their request with the Artist’s Emporium prioritised.

He could make it happen. He had the funds, both his own and some additional funds to sift the proverbial sands to find the path to an agreeable outcome. But doing so would mean not only spending additional gold and mana that he could be pocketing, but also dipping into his own wealth. Wealth that wouldn’t see a return till the portals were built. Even after they had been built Antoine would still be relying on the generosity of Merchant Lord Halal. There were two things you could rely on in this world. The sandsharks appearing at sunset, and the greed of the Merchant Lords. If there was one thing he’d learned in all his years, it was you didn’t get rich by giving away gold and mana.

“Call for the Nameless,” he grunted.

He hadn’t wanted to use them. This would mean the end of his role as Ambassador to Etrua and might cause some issues, but it was the best choice out of the bad ones before him. Beggar himself and keep his job, or return to Gashana with the means to create their own network of portals to rival the ones to be provided by the Artist’s Emporium.

“Is this wise, your Eminence?” asked Nafiri.

He could see the worry in her eyes and snorted in derision.

“He’s just a child, and a crafter at that. What’s he going to do?”

“The rumours believe otherwise, your Eminence. They say he killed Prince Bordain himself. And we have confirmation from multiple sources that the deceased Prince was in fact a second-evolution Mythic.”

“Just fanciful lies, Binder. He’s a crafter. An excellent one, by all the metrics we have, but just a crafter. It’s more likely that Morgane held him up as a symbol to encourage the people of Etrua to strive harder to excel and advance under their new progressive laws.”

“What about his allies then? We do know for a fact that multiple Adventurer Guild Platinums are close with Nathaniel Weber. They will come for him once they realise he has been taken.”

“That’s why the Nameless better keep it quiet till we’re well and truly over the border and into Gashana. Then those same Platinums can try and deal with the Merchant Lords. Not that we’d ever give him up once we have him. He’s worth too much to us after all.”

Antoine turned away, already imagining how much wealth he could accrue for himself once he had that gifted crafter under his control. He’d need to be bound to a Binder, of course, but if Nafiri couldn’t do it then Antoine would just have to find a Binder who could. His thoughts of the riches coming to him were interrupted as the door opened and four unassuming appearing men filed in. Nameless. Gashana’s perfect, little weapons. Assassins and operatives taken from the many orphans of the desert cities and trained from a young age to fulfil the purposes of the Merchant Lords. They were bound, one and all, connected to a Binder to keep them in line. Perfect killers, or in this case, kidnappers.

“I have a target for you. Capture and retrieve. Nathaniel Weber, owner of the Artist’s Emporium. This is to be a quiet job. No witnesses and no evidence. He has set up a house on Oceanswell Street in the Merchant’s District. Four stories tall. You cannot miss it. Nafiri, show them his face.”

Antoine turned to the window with a smile as the Binder interfaced with the Nameless, mentally sending them the appearance of the target. A few seconds later and the Nameless were gone.

“Tell the servants to start packing Nafiri. We leave tonight.”

With the Binder gone, Antoine smoothed his silken shirt, trying to ignore the sweat on his palms. If he was right, then tonight would mark the final steps in his ascent to becoming a Merchant Lord. As long as the rumours surrounding Nathaniel Weber were just childish fantasy or the work of Morgane. If he was wrong though, tonight might be his last on Galle. He was right, though, wasn’t he?