“You must have needed help to find all that. I’m surprised that records official didn’t come to us. It’s widely known that we’ll double any bribe.”
“I didn’t offer a bribe,” Jason said. “I told her a story.”
“It must have been some story. You’re thorough, I’ll give you that. The question is, what will you do with all this information? Frankly, I’m surprised to find you here. I’ve had you looked into quite thoroughly, and everything I’ve heard suggests you would start shouting this information from the rooftops. You seem to have a dislike for aristocratic power structures.”
“I’m just some iron-ranker,” Jason said. “If I lay out an exploitative land-grab by your family, then all that does is demonstrate your power when you face no real repercussions. All you would suffer is the reputation hit of bumbling the affair to the point it went public. A headache, but one easily endured.”
“You may be underestimating the damage to our reputation,” Thalia said. “Greenstone is a productive city, with decent work for those who want it. If our reputation suffers too much, then we have to start paying more or people will move into the service of other families. We may have power, but there’s always a balance.”
“Yes, but the scales are rigged.” Jason said. “Be that as it may, this won't start some populist revolution. I need to go up a few ranks before I can start changing the world. In the meantime, all I can do is go for the best outcome I can see.”
“Oh?”
“If I make a big fuss, then your family pushes back. I’ll suffer; the lumber mill owner, Lindover will suffer. Poor Dean, who I promised to shield from all this will definitely suffer. And when everything is said and done, you’d probably end up with the land, anyway.”
“You’re not exactly painting my family is a positive light.”
“You have power,” Jason said. “That’s the nature of power. So, for now, the best way to go is to see this quietly brushed under the rug.”
“And what do you want in return?”
“Here’s how I see it going,” Jason said. “I make a discreet report to the Adventure Society to close out the contract. Straight to the office of the director to help keep a lid on the details. Your family compensates Lindover for the months of stalled production, and all the preparations Clementson made in preparation for a takeover get rolled back. Dean doesn’t suffer any blowback for having come clean and Jerrick is quietly struck off the Adventure Society roll.”
“You don’t want him punished for trying to kill you?”
“If he were put on trial for trying to kill me, the reason why would be an inevitable question. Also, I’m not the kind of person that kills the minion when he can’t kill the master. Losing his society membership is enough.”
“What about the men you killed this morning?”
“The ones I killed already had their chance,” Jason said with flint in his voice. “I let most of them go.”
“Most of them? You killed five; how many people did you fight?”
“Elspeth Arella will have the recording. I imagine she’ll show you when she’s leveraging your family.”
Thalia gave a wry smile. “I daresay you’re right. So, you’re willing to leave Thadwick to my family?”
“We both know he’s out of my reach,” Jason said. “But regardless of how powerful your family is, and my affection for your daughter, there is only so far I’m willing to be pushed. I’m running out of mercy for your son.”
“You know, my husband won’t be happy about this outcome. He’s been waiting to see some initiative from Thadwick.”
“Then he should wait to see some morals,” Jason said, his expression turning hard.
“He won’t like compensating the mill owner, either.”
“He doesn’t have to like it,” Jason said. “He just has to do it.”
“I thought the whole point of you taking this approach was to avoid provoking us?”
“And you need to recognise that I’m not a doormat you can just walk over. I have my bottom line, Lady Mercer. You would do well not to cross it.”
“Is that a threat?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yes.”
She smiled.
“Mr Asano, you have some backing, but you are ultimately an iron-ranker lost in a world he does not know.”
Thalia’s silver-rank aura pressed down on Jason.
“You pose no threat whatsoever to me or my family,” she told him.
“I imagine a thought very much like that was the last to pass through Cressida Vane’s head before it was smashed open.”
Thalia laughed, breaking the tension.
“You really don’t flinch, do you? My daughter certainly knows how to pick them. Alright, Jason. Lindover will be duly compensated and Thadwick will be suitably chastised. I’ll see to it my husband doesn’t kick up too much of a fuss. He dotes on Cassie, and her approval of you will go a long way.”
“In my world, fathers often don’t care for their daughters’ gentlemen friends.”
“The gods know my husband has his failings,” Thalia said, “but a failure to trust his daughter’s judgement isn’t one of them.”
They stood up.
“Very well,” Jason said. “I imagine you’ll be pushing all this onto Clementson? Making out that he was behind everything as a way to ingratiate himself with his aristocratic backers?”
“Are you alright with that?”
“The man was clearly complicit, and fetched one of your son’s lackeys to kill me, so yes. Don’t be too harsh on him, though. Not many can say no when the Mercers tell them what to do.”
“You make us sound like tyrants,” Thalia said.
“That’s the thing,” Jason said. “You are if you want to be.”
Jason was sitting on a bench in the park district, speaking into a recording crystal floating in front of him.
“…it was sort of a business fraud kind of deal. There was a lot of waiting around, but it gave me a chance to catch up on my reading. I was stuck at this abandoned lumber mill for three days with a guy named Kyle. Nice enough bloke, but really only likes to talk about wood. I suspect he’s very good at his job, but not much of a conversationalist. My friends Farrah and Clive, I’m sure you’ve seen them on some of these recordings, they’ve been foisting a lot of magical theory texts on me, so I was able to get stuck into those. It’s pretty fascinating, but I can’t tell them that. They’re rabid enough as it is.”
“Hello, handsome,” a sultry voice came from behind.
Jason grinned as Cassandra sidled onto the bench, leaning into him.
“Is this one of the recordings you're making for your family back home?” she asked, looking at the crystal.
“It is,” Jason said. “Family, this is Cassandra. We’ve been seeing each other socially.”
“Is that how you describe it?” Cassandra asked cheekily.
“That’s how I describe it to my mum,” Jason said, taking down the recording crystal.
“Well, you impressed my mother,” Cassandra said. “Dad, not so much. And I’d watch my back around Thadwick.”
“One of his henchmen tried to kill me, so yeah, I’ll be watching out. What about you?”
“Mother said you barely mentioned me,” she said with a pout.
“I can’t go around making decisions based on dark, gorgeous eyes,” he said. “Besides, integrity is sexy.”
He reached out for her hand as they sat side-by-side, intertwining their fingers.
“You’ll be away for a little while,” he said.
“I don’t like that you’re not coming,” she said. “We could have had a fun little trip away.”
“We can do that when you come back,” Jason said. “I assume your family owns an obnoxiously large boat. We could have a little sailing trip. A picnic basket, some wine… a small army of nautically adept servants.”
She laughed, resting a head on his shoulder. “Something to look forwards to.”