LeetlePublishingCompany
patreon
Nero Walker, Book 2 Ch.16 (48)
🕑 Added 2023-12-11 23:17:19 +0000 UTCThe king had expected this meeting, but that didn’t mean he would enjoy it. He leaned back in his chair, sipping his wine, listening to the events unfold as expected.
His leadership council was using their private meeting hall. Although the general shape was the same, it was much smaller than the public Hall of Nobles. The king sat at the head of a semi circle, with his council surrounding him. They only met here when they needed to address conflicts and events that shouldn’t be discussed in view of the public. Which was a fancy way of saying, this was the room they used when someone screwed up.
In the petitioner's circle, both Arch-Mage Mathers and Lord Hobbs were currently shouting at each other. Mathers was representing the Tower of Magic, and Lord Hobbs was the current director of the Hennings Tower of Law. Swirling the wine in his glass, King Oliver Oglivarch let the argument play out. Everything was proceeding as expected, and it wasn’t his turn yet.
Glancing over at Lord Hastings, the king waited for the man to snap. Seconds later, as expected, Lord Hastings slammed his hand on the table and shouted, “Enough!”
All of the eyes in the room snapped to Lord Hastings. Both Mathers and Hobbs exchanged angry glares, but kept silent.
Lord Hastings said, “I haven’t been able to follow what you two are talking about. But Arch-Mage Mathers asked for this meeting, and so he shall be the first to speak. Start at the beginning, as a request for sanctions is a serious matter.”
Mathers took a deep breath and said, “A new noble in Dorchester has been targeted for assassination by Great House Cranston. They used a confluence of loopholes that allowed them to force the new noble into an arena challenge. I ask for sanctions because the law's intention is clear, but Lord Hobbs here says that the loopholes are valid until they have been closed. I ask that the council enforce the intention of the law, and to not allow spurious details to could the issue. Like any SANE person, I believe that a technicality does not trump a logical argument.”
From the other side of the room, Lord Silverbrook spoke up, “Lord Hobbs, I’m assuming that you stand in opposition to the proposed sanctions?”
Lord Hobbs nodded enthusiastically, and said, “Yes, of course I do. It is against the law to sanction a House that has broken no law. That is a cornerstone of the noble house system. They found a loophole. They used it. It’s up to this council to change it. You cannot punish them for following the letter of the law. I’ve already submitted a report listing the required changes to the applicable laws so that these loopholes are closed. In a way, Great House Cranston should be rewarded for their ingenuity. While it doesn’t technically qualify as an exploit, it comes close. This was a brilliant move.”
Mathers snorted loudly and crossed him arms.
Lord Hastings said, “Arch-Mage Mathers, if the law has been followed, sanctions aren’t the answer. Find another way to vent your frustration. Follow the law, but you are not without recourse. Every member of this council recognizes the slight to the royal house. But as it stands, the law is on House Cranston’s side.”
Mathers started arguing again, and Lord Hobbs took every opportunity to reiterate the importance of following the letter of the law. The king knew that Hobbs was an ardent supporter of House Cranston, and the man had probably integral to their abuse of the system. All of this was a stupid attempt at making the mage council look foolish. Yet another example of proud nobles playing their stupid games of honor and retaliation.
King Oliver didn’t allow himself to smile as he mentally observed Nero’s conversation with Nick while on their way to the arena. He had nudged things so that this meeting would happen at the same time as Nero’s fight. His first pillar was observation, and there were very few events that he didn’t notice in his kingdom. For him, scrying was as easy as breathing. He just hoped he had timed it correctly.
Mathers finally had enough of this farce, and turned to face the king. “Sire, what’s your opinion on the subject. Do you plan to let this insult stand?” he asked with venom.
The king finally allowed himself his smile. With a wave of his hand, a scrying portal appeared behind the petitioner's circle. Mathers and Hobbs turned around, and the council all looked at portal.
Lord Hastings said, “Sire, what are we looking at?”
The king spoke in a quiet voice, “That is the arena in Dorchester. The young man with white hair is the new noble in question, his opponent is an apprentice loosely associated with the Assassin’s Guild. As we speak, the new noble of House Walker meets the blood challenge in the arena.”
The council chambers were silent as they watched the fight begin. Mathers started chuckling when Nero cast his spell, then burst out in laughter when Nero asked for a sandwich. The king waited a moment, then closed the scrying portal.
Both Mathers and Hobbs turned back around to face the king. Lord Hobbs was pale, and his hands were shaking. The council was in stunned shock. Several of them were using their links to look up more information on the new noble. A level 7 shouldn’t have been able to do that.
Into the silence, the king spoke with a voice of steel, “Lord Hobbs, the challenge was legal. Consider the loopholes now closed. I expect in the future, loopholes of this nature will be closed before they are exploited. House Oglivarch does not enjoy having its backing ignored. The new nobles are to be protected from actions like these. But it seems in this case, the noble in question handled it well enough on his own. I’ll be holding you personally responsible for following the law you so vehemently defended. If I am reading this right, Great House Cranston owes Lord Walker a great deal of money. I expect you to make sure he gets it. Please let Lord Cranston know that I’ll be checking to see that the law is enforced with the same zeal that it was abused. Am I Understood?”
Lord Hobbs was nodding along, his eyes wide with fear. “Yes Sire. I understand completely. I’ll personally ensure that House Cranston pays what they owe. The Tower of Law will close the loopholes and this won’t happen again. Thank you for your trust,” he said.
With cold eyes, the king turned his head slightly to look at Arch-Mage Mathers and asked, “Does this result satisfy the Tower of Magic?”
Mathers was smirking. “Yes, the mage council is satisfied. Thank you for your time, my king,” he said with a bow.
After Mathers and Hobbs left, the council sat in silence. Usually the king would dismiss them, but as he hadn’t, they waited patiently.
The king said to the chamber, “All right everyone. Let’s discuss the recent game House Cranston played. Who’d like to start? I’ll correct you along the way. There is much to be learned from House Cranston’s recent gambit.”
-----
Nero was being led back to a conference room by Bill the guard. He no longer had a posse, and Nick had apparently run off to meet with Vera. The man hadn’t even taken the time to speak with him after the fight, and Nero wasn't sure how to feel about that.
Bill the guard was grumbling to himself about how much money Nero had lost him. Nero just kept smiling while pretending he couldn’t hear him. It seemed that Bill had a buddy of his place a bet against Nero for him. Now Bill owed his friend 50 valens.
When they got to the conference room, Bill said stiffly, “It’s that one there. It was nice meeting you Lord Walker.”
As Bill was walking away, Nero spoke up, “It was nice meeting you too. Too bad you aren’t allowed to bet on things like this. You could have made a lot of money. Anyway, I'm sure I’ll see you around.”
Seeing Bill’s shoulders slump, Nero’s smile was ear to ear as he went into the conference room.
He was surprised to see Nick there, arguing with Jennings.
“Hey guys. Nick, why’d you run off?” he asked
Nick turned to Nero with an annoyed look on his face and said, “I didn’t think you’d actually win!?! I had to get to Vera and find out what was going on with the arena bank. I had convinced her not to use any of our funds to bet on you. After the fight, if you could call it that, she wasn’t answering her pings. So I had to go find her to find out what the hell was going on.”
Jennings was chuckling at Nick’s outburst. “Luckily my boy, I was able to get to the betting stands in time. You just made me a great deal of money. The odds against you winning were 15 to 1. That spell you developed is brilliant, but useless. I still think you need to learn to seize the essence in a fight, as a spell of concentrated light wouldn’t penetrate a more powerful essence field.”
Nero shook his head at Jennings naivete. The concept of a laser was just too foreign to him. The man didn’t understand the power that coherent light could output. A large enough laser could destroy a planet. Nero had seen it happen many times.... in movies.
Nick was wringing his hands. “Nero. I’m sorry I didn’t believe in you. I just… It’s just… How the hell did you win? You shouldn’t have been able to win. It’s not that I didn’t want you to win. It’s just that it doesn’t make any sense,” he said while looking completely defeated and confused.
Nero felt bad for the guy. Nick had given a great goodbye speech, and he had been so worried for Nero. He had really expected Nero to die. “I don’t know what to tell you Nick. I’m really hard to kill I guess. Try not to feel too bad, some people just lack imagination. We’ll work on it,” Nero said while patting Nick’s shoulder reassuringly.
All three of them turned as the door to the conference room opened, and then watched as Vera entered with a mischievous grin on her face. Instead of greeting the trio, she completely ignored them, walking right past them to take a seat at the conference room table. She pulled out a bottle and some glasses from her personal space and started pouring drinks.
As Nick, Jennings, and Nero joined her at the table, Nick said, “That much huh?”
Vera replied as she poured, “As you didn’t want me to place a bet for us, I used my family money. Nicholas my love, your wife was a rich woman. Now she is a VERY rich woman.”
Nero took the wine glass he was offered, and leaned back in his chair to get comfortable. “That’s great that my death match worked out for you, but let's have my proxy tell me about my life savings,” he said with a wry smile.
Vera snorted and said, “Life savings? You’re not even a week old. The arena bank agreed to accept your assets and projected awards as collateral for a loan. As instructed, I placed it all on you to win. After your victory, the loan was dissolved. However, not everything went according to plan. The problem is that the arena bank doesn’t currently have the funds to cover your winnings, as having that amount of liquid capital would be ridiculous. They’ll have to pay you in installments, or find another way to cover the debt. I have a meeting scheduled with them.”
Nero nodded, “What kind of interest rate are you hitting them with? If they can’t cover the bet, then they’re essentially borrowing what they haven’t paid me.”
Vera’s eyebrows shot up. “That is a very good point. I’ll have to see how that has been handled in the past, and if there is any precedent for you to receive interest. Perhaps you can acquire partial ownership of the arena? I’ll look into it. Either way, you are now a very rich young man. I was planning to go over your finances and upcoming trials over lunch. Of course, that was before all of this happened.”
Jennings spoke up, “He’ll need to get the pledge out of the way. I’m sure the Cosgraves ran back to the keep the moment Nero won. I was watching the assassin team leader trying to hide his trail. It was hilarious. I’m guessing that without a win, he had no way out of the city. Do you want me to take care of him along with his other former apprentice?”
Nero looked at Jennings, who was casually offering to murder people for him. “Uh… Weren’t they just doing their jobs? I’m more interested in the assholes that started all of this. That Castle House or whatever. I understand they had some issue with me, but I didn’t understand what Lord Bennings was talking about. I don’t remember killing any nobles,” he said.
Jennings coughed into his hand. “That’s actually my fault. I killed one of Lord Cranston’s sons. He refused an order from the mage council and I executed him for it. Lord Cranston knew that I had wanted to kill his son for years, and I just used the refusal as a legal screen. In order to get back at me, and the mage council, he used that subject of that refused order as a legal screen to validate his blood grievance. Since he had a grievance against a commoner, he took advantage of the brief window that you were not a new noble to outsource the challenge. It only worked because Derek Cosgrave allowed it. He painted his mother into a corner. Since he sided with House Cranston, if she had overruled him, then she would be insulting House Cranston. Are you following any of this?” he asked Nero who was now picking at his nails.
Nero looked up and replied, “Kind of, it’s weird. I seem to be able to pay attention to a lot more. It’s almost like my normal 'half-listening' is what my full listening used to be. I got the gist of it. You pissed someone off, and they struck at you through me. The Cosgrave kid is afraid of me, so he ignored his mother and she was stuck going along with it. The two people I have to retaliate against are Derek Cosgrave and that Lord Cranston guy. Right?”
Vera, Nick, and Jennings were all looking at Nero in shock.
Vera said, “Well, they are the primary candidates for your revenge. But you aren’t in a position to do anything to them for the moment. You’ll have to bide your time.”
Jennings nodded, “You already got your revenge on House Cranston. I’ve heard from the mage tower in Hennings. They’ve heard that the loophole House Cranston used annoyed the king enough that he charged the director of the Tower of Law to personally make Lord Cranston pay what you’re owed from winning the challenge. The assets of Lord Cranston’s son at the time of his death were not insignificant,” he said to Nero with a smile.
Nero just shrugged and said, “Great.”
Looking at Vera, Nero asked, “Do I have a bank account? More importantly, do I actually have any money? Or am I just waiting for all these things to be awarded?”
Vera smiled and said, “You still don’t have any money. It will be a week or two before anything is actually in your name and available for your use.”
Nero nodded and said, “Alright, then lunch is on you. I’m starving and people keep refusing to bring me a sandwich. Can we go now?”
