Jason turned his attention back to his meal as the others stared at him in silence.
“What?” he asked them.
“We kind of thought you’d have a bigger reaction,” Farrah said.
“Making a noise in the face of authority is kind of a thing for you,” Gary said.
“Yes, but I’m coming to realise it doesn’t get me anywhere. The snake slithering across the lawn gets shot. The one waiting for the toddler to wander near the tall grass gets fed.”
“That’s a horrifying analogy but a welcomed, measured response,” Rufus said. “We might make a decent adventurer out of you yet.”
Jason frowned.
“Sometimes I wonder about that,” he said, his voice heavy. “I need your advice on how to handle something.”
“Of course,” Rufus said.
They waited for Jason to speak. His uncharacteristic hesitation was concerning.
“I killed five adventurers today,” Jason said.
“What?” Gary asked immediately.
“Let him get it out,” Farrah told Gary.
“Yes,” Rufus said. “Start at the beginning.”
Jason nodded, absently.
“It started with this contract I took at the jobs hall…”
Unlike the Geller family, whose seat of power was a sprawling estate in the delta, the Mercers had built their main residence as a manor on the Island. A feat of magical engineering, it was a series of five towers set out in a ring. Built from a combination of the finest grade of green stone available and magic-wrought glass, each tower was five storeys tall, interconnected by a network of glass walkways. One set of the walkways were curved, linking the towers in a circle. Another set of walkways were straight, connecting every second tower in such a way that, seen from above, it would form the shape of a pentagram.
Each of the walkways had a clear glass ceiling and colour-tinted glass floor, with a different colour for each walkway. The sides were open, but with invisible, magic barriers in place. The barriers let in fresh air while shielding from inclement weather, as rare as that was. It also prevented the Mercer children and pets from running off the sides.
In the space between the towers was a park, with trees and lawns showered with colour as sunlight passed through the walkways above. In the centre of the park was a pond where waterfowl swam happily about. Children were playing as parents or family servants watched on. They ran around, climbed trees and tossed torn-up pieces of bread into the water to be gobbled up by ducks.
Thalia Mercer was passing through one of the walkways when she felt a familiar aura from the park below. She moved to the side of the walkway to look down and then vanished, reappearing on the ground. She arrived next to a bench in the park where a man was eating a large sandwich.
“Jason,” she said, sitting down next to him. “Your ability to restrain your aura is quite developed for someone of your rank.”
“Thank you,” he said. “I’ve been working quite hard at it.”
“It shows.”
Jason placed his sandwich in his inventory, dabbed at his face with a napkin, then put it away as well.
“Lady Mercer,” he said, once he was done.
“I’ve told you, please call me Thalia. I’m afraid you’ve missed Cassandra; she’s out preparing for the big expedition.”
“Sadly, this isn’t a social visit,” Jason said. “I’m here about a contract.”
“I wasn’t informed of your arrival,” Thalia said. “Have you been using my household guard to practice your stealth techniques?”
“Your household guard only has a few bronze-rankers,” Jason said, “and they all seem to project their auras as imposingly as possible. Not that hard to avoid. I wouldn't be able to get into the buildings unnoticed, though. Too many high-ranking Mercers in residence.”
“That's the problem with having essence users as guards,” Thalia said. “Anyone with the skill to excel is unlikely to work as a guard, while anyone without essences can't be an effective one.”
“I imagine you have a few quality staff nestled away. I’ve recently been learning about the Mercer name’s ability to attract people into service.”
“Oh?”
“I assume you have a recording crystal projector we can use?”
“Of course,” she said. “Please follow me.”
“Looks like I have to put both of you down,” Jerrick’s voice came out of the projection. Jason reached out and tapped the projector, bringing the playback to a stop. They were seated in Thalia’s personal study, a recording crystal projector on the table between them.
“After that is something of a mess,” he said. “A fight from my perspective makes for a disorienting recording. Lots of darkness and teleporting about. Suffice to say, I took the man into custody.”
“He’s alive?”
“Yes.”
“And this witness of yours?”
“Also fine,” Jason said. “I didn’t want him mixing with his old crowd, so I sent him to stay with his family. They seemed quite happy to see him.”
“It can be that way, with the lower-end adventurers,” Thalia said. “A family can work for years, generations even, just to get an adventurer in the family. Adventuring is a dangerous life, though, and not everyone has the training, temperament or talent. Add on the family pressure and it’s hardly a surprise when many fall short. Some end up in the household guard of families like mine. Others end up working for criminals in Old City.”
“Or a bit of both, when they end up in your son’s employ.”
Thalia frowned.
“It seems we have been a little too loose with the reins when it comes to my son. His father wants to give him the room to come into himself, while I prefer a more guided approach. We raised Cassandra my way, and Thadwick his. Marriage is a matter of compromise, after all. This recording of yours lays my boy’s follies out on a slab.”
“I have another recording,” Jason said. “Has word got around about the dead adventurers in Old City yet?”
“From this morning? Not widely, but yes. That was you?”
“Your son sent his lackeys to keep me from revealing everything. I have it all recorded. They don’t mention Thadwick at all, which I imagine was a point quite specifically made to them. If someone were to go round up the survivors, though, I doubt getting them to talk would be tricky. Especially with my corroborating witness from the recording you just saw.”
“Is he safe, this witness?”
“Safe enough. So long as your son is prevented from taking revenge.”
Thalia sighed.
“That boy,” she muttered. “I think his father and I need to have a very long talk. What are your intentions?”
“For your son? Nothing. Regardless of what he’s done, I know you’ll protect him from anything within my power to do. I could kill him but I’d I know I’d quickly follow him to the grave.”
“Then you’re willing to forgive?”
“That’s asking a bit much. I’m willing to be patient. My desire to stay in your daughter’s good graces is a better shield than he could hope for. The most I can hurt him is to collect more than enough evidence to give your family a headache for which he is directly responsible. In addition to the recording you saw, I have copies of all the relevant documents and another recording of finding them all. In case something mysteriously happens to the originals.”
“What inspired you to look into the hall of civic records?”
“Where I come from, we don't investigate with magic,” Jason said. “When it comes to business fraud, you follow a paper trail. Once I heard about a monster known for death and destruction that keeps turning up without either, plus the highly regulated and valuable nature of the lumber territories, it seemed obvious what was going on. All I had to do was figure out who stood to profit, then prove their involvement.”