World Sphere - 225 - Wheeling And Dealing

Chapter 225: Wheeling And Dealing

In the morning, Remy and I went to an honest information broker he had heard about while selling our goods. I was sure the broker’s information would still be jaded, but if they didn’t provide good information, they would just hurt their reputation. The broker had an office at street level, and a short walk from our inn. The sign was in seventeen different languages, advertising everything from city maps to tours to anything about the Sapphire Passage you could possibly want to know.

It was not entirely comforting to see no one waiting in the reception room besides the receptionist. She was an elf with a twice-long neck, and I recalled she was a subspecies from the Outer Sphere whom I had seen pictures of but didn’t recall the name. Gravity was less on the outer surface of the Sphere, and it accounted for some physiological changes over the millennia.

“We have an appointment,” Remy said excitedly. The elf’s garments were slightly transparent and didn’t leave anything to the imagination, which might have accounted for Remy’s excitement.

“Remy of Shiny Platinum Trading?” She asked in a high-pitched but not unpleasant voice. When Remy nodded emphatically, she stood and went to the back. We both couldn’t help but watch her go. The hips on her lithe body swayed hypnotically. When she came back, she waved us to the back room.

Behind the desk stood an orc with midnight skin. His eyes were a soft violet, and once again, I thought this race was a surface from the Outer Sphere, but I couldn’t be sure. He rose with a tusky grin. His suit had a metallic sheen, likely made from a particular dungeon spider silk. The office walls were lined with thin manuals that looked to be reference books, and his desk contained numerous colored crystals arranged neatly.

We shook hands, and I was surprised his nails were manicured and painted a color to match his eyes. “Welcome, Remy. I am Renfroe. Sit and we can discuss your needs.”

“This is Storme Hardlight, the owner of Shiny Platinum Trading.” Remy introduced me.

“Ah, the man responsible for ruffling House Day’s feathers!” He said with a chuckle.

“You are remarkably well informed. There are tens of millions of people in the Passage, and yet you know about my dealings that happened just a day ago,” I said.

“Information Broker.” He pointed both thumbs at himself in self-congratulations. “I would be remiss if I didn’t research my clients.”

I nodded slowly, getting a better impression of the orc. “We are looking aethertech to use in our skyships. We want to know the best place to purchase for our needs and to get the best price.”

“You came to the right place! I can even broker the sales for a modest 3% fee. Let me know what you need and the quality,” the orc leaned back in his chair, his arms open wide.

“If you are working off commission, doesn’t that mean you are more inclined to buy aetheraech at a higher price to get a larger commission?” I asked skeptically.

He smiled broadly. “If you find a better deal than I get for you, not only will I refund my commission, but I will pay you a matching fee.

“For all transactions? Of just individual ones?” I countered.

“A shrewd thinker! I like it!” He slapped the table lightly. “But just the individual lot contracts, not all our business. Once you see how much money my services save you, you will not be disappointed. I am sure you are here because I came highly recommended. I may not be a member of any House in the Passage, but I know just as much as any House-employed broker.” He sat back and waited for us to respond.

I looked at Remy, letting him decide whether to deal with this broker. Remy nodded and went through his wishlist. “We are looking for standard radar arrays, with a range of five hundred miles. We need fifty altimeters. We want to price communication crystals.” I winced at that as I had artificed hundreds of echo stones over the last few months. “I read about reactive directional aetheric shielding, magnetic cannons, map projectors, data storage crystals, recording crystals, and remote viewing crystals.”

“Whoa! Not a small list! We can handle things one at a time!” Renfroe said with a face-splitting smile. “I know you in the inner Sphere are not as accustomed to aethertech, so we can go slowly.” It was not said with derision, and I was hopeful he was good at his job.

I stepped in to test him. “Can you appraise this?” I said, placing the aethertech hand pistol on the desk. His dark brows furrowed as he picked it up.

“Normally, I charge a large gold, but since we are doing other business today, let’s start on a good note.” He turned the pistol over in his hand, never pointing it at himself or us. “This is the marker's mark here. This pistol was made on the Outer Sphere in one of House Pacifier's workshops. They make some of the best small arms in this region of the Sphere. It is an excellent weapon, with good penetration and accuracy.” He studied, likely using an ability on it. “Seventeen to twenty thousand gold,” he said, handing it back to me. “It is in immaculate condition and has only been fired sparingly. Twenty thousand if you give me a month to sell it, seventeen if you are in a rush.”

Remy’s mouth hung open, but I just nodded and put it away. I knew just the metal in the weapon was worth ten thousand, mostly because of the adamantine protecting the aethertech circuits. I wasn't planning to sell it, but given its value, I decided not to carry it openly for now. Satisfied with his competency, I decided to get down to business. “Let’s talk radar arrays.”

The orc smiled again, showing his perfect white teeth. “One hundred gold consultation fee for each system and a 3% commission for brokering sales,” Renfroe offered. I nodded. “Very good! Radars are divided into three classes. The “basic” navigation systems are straightforward and only highlight objects in your path. The “trader” radars are mid-tier, and they not only highlight objects, but also denote the distance those objects are away and their speed and vector. Then there are “military” radars, which can color-code objects on the display for utilization in combat. Most militaries use red for enemies and green for allies. They use other colors to denote natural elements, creatures, unknowns, etc., and they are highly customizable.

“What is the cost for a military radar with a range of five hundred miles?” I asked as Remy was still recovering from his shock.

“Twenty thousand gold, but the standard military unit has a range of fifty thousand miles, and costs over one hundred thousand, but then you also need data storage crystals for the radar, which add to the cost,” Renfroe said, smiling. I suddenly didn’t think our gold was going to get us too far.

“Five military radars without crystal storage and just a five-hundred-mile range. How about maintenance? We are going to need aether tech engineers,” I said, deciding to spend a third of the return from the trade goods. Five hundred miles was an excellent distance for skyships in the Sphere, and gave plenty of warning time. If all of them could be linked on the various ships, they could create a larger sight bubble.

“I can put you in touch with the House Guilds, but I cannot broker engineers’ services, unfortunately,” Renfroe said sadly as he took notes on the radars I requested.

“Are there any independent aethertech engineers?” I asked.

“Not many good ones who are not employed,” Renfroe said knowingly.

I sighed. “Altimeters?”

“Most altimeters are dual-purpose and are called trackers. They also display speed and acceleration. There is a vast array in quality and reliability, but generally, they are much more affordable than radars. You need to order ones with the correct numerical display for your language as well…” Renfroe went into depth on characteristics of the displays. They were much more accurate than my artificed speedometers, which were only accurate to about 10 mph. In the end, I planned to order one hundred trackers, which should cover my skyships, the taxi skiffs, and the thirty-nine Skyholme Navy ships.

When Renfroe started discussing communication crystals with frequencies, ranges, and syncing, my head began to spin. These were the most common type of aethertech, but they also required constant calibration. An aethertech engineer also needed properly calibrated tools to fix them when they got out of synch. Remy seemed able to follow the technical conversation, while I was left behind. All I understood was that, although my efforts with echo communication stones were much more reliable, they couldn’t compare to the range and ease of use of aethertech crystals.

“We are going to pass on the communication devices until we have enough engineers to service them,” I decided to Remy’s disappointment. “Tell us about directional aether shielding.”

Renfroe smiled broadly. “Excellent choice. It is connected to a military radar array and requires a crystal processing hub. It responds to threats as they approach, activating additional shielding in that direction. It will help you conserve power and enable you to multiply your defensive strength many times over. Now, the cost…” That discussion didn’t last long because the system costs more than an entire skyship. Once again, Remy was disappointed.

“Magnetic cannons?” Remy asked hopefully.

“They are called railguns on spaceships. The good news is they are very cheap!” The orc said, grinning. “Just ten thousand credits for the fifty-pounders. But that is because the cost is in the shells. They are artificed to be near weightless when fired through a cannon, making it easy to accelerate them through the magnetic field. When they impact, the weightlessness runes are canceled. The better the cannon, the higher the velocity of the shells! A single shell can tear through an aether shield and hull like paper! You can get shells that are artificed to track targets, explode on impact, create force waves…the possibilities are endless, but the cost goes up quickly after the first runic enchantment.”

“How much are the shells?” I asked warily.

“The cannons will determine the exit velocity of the shell and require some aethertech to control the sequencing. The shells themselves are almost entirely artificed, with no aethertech, but the runs are very complex. A simple shell is about five hundred gold for a fifty-pounder. The targeting of the cannon is usually tied to your radar array. As you can guess, it can get expensive, so you want to miss as little as possible,” Renfroe said with a grin.

“Or you just get close enough that you cannot miss,” I replied.

He pointed at me and smiled. “That is true, too! You need to have an amazingly agile ship and a great pilot!” I decided to hold off for now.

“We have artificers. Can you obtain the runic schematics for the shells?” I asked.

“The patterns are more complex than you artificers are used to. The complexity is similar to your Pacifier Aether Pistol,” he explained.

“Still, can you get us the books?” I asked, not dissuaded.

The orc sighed and wrote out a note. He was probably disappointed that his commission would be much less for books than for a number of shells and cannons.

The orc snapped his fingers as he remembered something. “There are some rules about using railguns inside the Sphere. Shells are limited to two hundred pounds, and it is frowned upon to use them on cities…” He made sure I acknowledged that I understood. “Maybe ten thousand gold for a complete basic set of schema? It is not something I deal with frequently.”

“What about the storage crystals?” Remy asked about the last item on our list. We had seen recording crystals in Skyholme before, and we were both interested in them.

“The storage crystals are relatively inexpensive, but the devices to access their memory…” We listened to Renfroe explain the different types of storage crystals and the devices used to access their information.

In the end, I decided to increase the number of radars from five to ten. Between those ten devices and the one hundred altimeters/speedometers, that was four hundred thousand gold, not including the orc’s twelve thousand gold commission. As Renfroe finished taking, Remy whispered. “Why ten radars?”

“You are going to sell five to the Navy at a profit,” I said seriously. Remy nodded, and Renfroe grinned at me.

“And the aethertech maintenance engineers?” Remy asked.

“They will be our next stop. I am sure the broker can direct us to the best place to inquire,” I said, tired from spending so much gold.

“Certainly. Your bill from our session is just for the runic books and consultation. Twelve thousand, fifty gold. Payable in platinum or mithril, please. When I have purchase contracts for the radars and trackers, I will send them to you.” The dark orc smiled amiably at me. I counted out the platinum, gave him our room number, and we returned to our room to check on the others.

Freya was bouncing around in the room, eager to get out and explore. “Storme, I saw three dragons fly right by our window!”

“It was one dragon. A small one. The other two were men riding drakes,” Bleiz said, shaking his head. Kiara confirmed by sending me images in my head.

“We are done purchasing aether tech for skyships. Our gold did not get us far, but what we did purchase will help us and the Skyholme Navy. After lunch, we are planning to look for aethertech engineers. Without them, the devices will become useless in time. We are going to House Cindralock and House Zephyerholt to see about contracts. After that, we can explore Elespolis as a group,” I said to an excited Freya. We were in the center of the trade district, but for once, I was unlikely to have an extra coin.

I ordered our lunch for delivery from a nearby restaurant because I wasn't going to pay the exorbitant rates at the hotel again. I left the hotel with Remy and Bleiz, leaving the cats and the Skyguard to watch Freya. The walk was much farther than I had expected, almost eleven miles according to the map Renfroe had given us. The distance scale was in a different measurement than I was accustomed to. We would definitely need to pay for transportation back.

House Cindralock was a bust. After speaking with one of the foremen, they didn’t contract their engineers more than five thousand miles away from the Sapphire Passage. At least their rates were reasonable, with the exception of the death clause. If one of the House engineers died in your service, you had to pay the remaining term and five thousand gold per tier of the engineer. The aethertech engineers had tiered ranks from one to seven, based on their competency. At least we learned we would need tier one engineers for trackers and tier three to service the military grade radars.

House Zephyerbolt was only slightly more accommodating. They had numerous colleges in the Passage and generated a lot of low-tier engineers. These aether technicians usually sought passage on larger ships servicing aethertech systems.

The human woman with metallic-shaded hair finished her explanation of House Zephyerbolt. “From what you described, it is unlikely our graduates will be interested in traveling to somewhere so—remote.” She was insinuating that Skyholme was the backwoods of the Sphere.

“But if they were interested, all we would have to do is pay off their loans and contract with them individually?” I inquired.

“Yes, plus an early repayment penalty. We are not a charity after all. We are more of an educational institution than a service provider. Many of the students cannot afford our education, so we front them the fees at a modest interest rate,” she explained.

“How much is your education, and how long is your curriculum?” I asked.

“Each tier program is a one-Sphere year intensive course. But the competency exams are extremely difficult; it sometimes takes our students two or three cycles to pass a tier exam. The fee is just five hundred gold and includes housing on our campus,” she smiled patiently.

“Maybe one day I could enroll,” Remy said wistfully.

The woman sneered a little, her light brown eyes showing her doubt. “There are entrance exams that you need to score sufficiently high on to be admitted. We just don’t let anyone attend.”

“What is covered in the entrance exams?” I asked for Remy.

“Mostly advanced mathematics. Some logical reasoning and a test of manual dexterity,” she said more patiently. “Everything you need to be successful in the course modules.”

“Do you want to go, Remy?” I asked, seeing his face. He had tier four proficiency in both mathematics and mechanical engineering. I had no doubt he would make a brilliant aethertech engineer.

“What?” Remy said, slack-jawed.

“I think the only way we are going to get enough aether-tech engineers in Skyholme is to send them here to be trained,” I said. “You could pave the way and take the first class.”

“Engineers need an awakened core and must be able to manipulate aether at a minimal level for admission as well,” the representative said, slightly annoyed that we thought it was that easy. “Entry exams are in five months, and classes start the following week.”

“Not a problem,” I said dismissively. We had the Goblin Vault Dungeon generating essences to awaken cores if needed. Having the mind to do the math was more important.

I turned to Remy. “We can get some textbooks from House Zephyerbolt, and you can find, say, a dozen men and women in Skyholme who can study at your level. Then I would send you and them back to the college for a year.”

“Would you be coming then?” Remy asked, seriously considering it.

“No, and you would not be taking the Maelstrom either.” His face fell as the Maelstrom was the only rapid transportation we had. “Instead, we will build you a small transport just as fast as the Maelstrom. Are you interested?”

“Perhaps,” Remy said, still uncertain about the change. It was I who was going to suffer without him for a year. But if I got some aether tech engineers trained, then we could have them train more in Skyholme. I paid to register fifteen people to take the entrance exams, and we left House Zephyerbolt.

I was actually feeling good about not hiring people from the Passage, as I thought their loyalty could be questionable. We had other Houses that Renfroe had given us as secondary options to find aethertech engineers, but I was done with recruiting.

The runic schema for the cannon shells had been delivered by the time we returned, and Renfroe was correct in the complexity. It would be like artificing a dozen rings for me, and the script was small. Still, I could do it and maybe make a half-dozen of the shells a day if I needed to.

I also had a contract to sign for the radar tables. The description had me pause. They were six-by-six tables and designed to be monitored by a dedicated navigator. It would be a tight fit on the bridge of the Maelstrom. They would have numerous controls that the navigator would need to be trained in as well. I hoped they came with an instruction manual.

The specifications on the radar looked good, but I didn’t have a lot to compare them to. The tested range was 600 miles, and the “refresh rate” was twice a second. Aether crystals still powered the device, and none were included in the lot. The crystal would be significant, but I could tie the device to the ship’s crystal, and the Maelstrom had a large surplus of power.

I signed the contract for 192,000 gold, and I owed 5,850 gold to Renfroe on top. Still, he got the radars cheaper than the quote, even with his commission, and the range was superior as well. There was no contract yet for the 100 altimeters/trackers, but we had time.

“Okay, we can all go explore for a bit. I just need to stop by a merchant house to pay this before dinner,” I said, getting everyone’s attention. Even though we had a great view, they wanted to see the sights.

When we reached the ground-floor lobby, a large ground transport was waiting for us outside. We knew it was here for us as a half-giant in a suit addressed us. “Shiny Platinum Trading, you are requested to dine with the scion of House Shadowbloom.”

He held the door open, and inside was a middle-aged man. He leaned out slightly to address us. “There is no danger to you or your companions, Storme Hardlight. I just wish to discuss a few things over a meal.” He offered a smile. “It will be a very beneficial meal.”

“What is the conversation about?” I asked.

“The stirrings in your part of Sphere,” he said simply. He gestured again for us to enter the vehicle.

Everyone looked to me, but I didn’t know anything about House Shadowbloom. I decided to trust my instincts. “Everyone, get in.”

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