Chapter 48 Wisdom

  “So, these two… prisoners, are here because why, again?” Sir George asked with weariness now permanently ingrained into his features. Isaac could have sworn he saw at least five gray hairs where there weren’t any the day before.

  “I need a full interrogation of the addict about the Civil Servant Corporation. I have reason to believe that their dragon heraldry is because they are actually being led by an indigo eyed dragon. I want to check and see for myself.” Isaac explained, properly this time, to the magistrate. Isaac’s first attempt had been along the lines of ‘I need to know what this idiot knows.’ and ‘make sure this chick didn’t do anything disgusting.’

  Sir George nodded. “I can arrange that.” He replied. “And the girl?”

  “She claimed that the only reason she worked for the bank was because it was the best paying job, I want to make sure she didn’t do anything unsavory to get there, or while she was working her way into that position.” Isaac stated. “Depending on her answers, I would like her to be added to the list of confirmed dead during the raid.”

  Sir George nodded again but much slower this time. “I see.” He said. “I do not execute prisoners unless the law demands.”

  Isaac shook his head. “No, you don’t. But, have you ever heard of ‘Spontaneous Mass Cellular Death’? It’s this thing going around that restarted in Safeharbor, apparently some people are carriers, I’m afraid I might be one of those people.”

  Sir George sighed and rubbed his temples. “Understood, Lord Wexler. I will keep you informed.” He shook his head again. “But only as a thank you for all of the help you have given us, as well as the second chance to right our wrongs.”

  Isaac nodded. “That’s good enough for me.” He replied. “If I am not mistaken, that is the first light of dawn, is it not?” He said while eyeing the horizon.

  “I believe it is, yes.” Sir George agreed.

  “Well, that means it’s time for us to go back to just being another pair of double platinum ranked adventurers, don’t you think?” Isaac asked Lenna with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

  “I think you’re right.” She concurred with a nod.

  “Magistrate, a good hot cup of mushroom tea might do you some good, the day has just begun.” Isaac told the older man with a wink and turned to leave while offering Lenna his arm. “We still need things from you so don’t go dying from exhaustion.”

  —

  “I-I, sir, uh, my Lord, I do not know how to even begin quantifying all of this.” An unfortunate clerk stuttered at Isaac. She had volunteered to help them make a deposit in the Sapphirestone bank that would then be transferred to the Safeharbor one. The transfer fee was a number of gold coins equal to the amount of pounds of wealth to be transferred. All coinage would be converted into platinum coins and bars for the sake of easier transport and weight efficiency. Unfortunately for her, there was now a pile of gold jewelry and coins, platinum bars and loose coins, as well as more gems than she had ever seen in one place. It appeared that Topaz had amassed quite the dragon’s hoard. Most of it was no doubt due to her twenty percent interest rate on loans and the predatory practice of compound interest.

  “Well, I would start by getting three carts and separating it all onto platinum bars and coins, gold bars and coins, and things that will need to be appraised.” Isaac told her calmly. “You might want to enlist the help of another one or two of your colleagues.”

  She nodded absently as she stared at the mass of wealth. “Yes, you are right, I will do that.” She said after she snapped herself out of her stupor.

  Isaac and Lenna were brought tea and cookies by the head banker while they waited for everything to be sorted, cataloged, and appraised. A jeweler had been brought in to assist them and had offered to buy some of the pieces of jewelry immediately. The jeweler had been reminded that, as an appraiser, she could not purchase any of what she appraised to prevent an under evaluation of the goods, and that she simply needed to be content with her fee for the hour.

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  All in all, Isaac and Lenna had struck it rich, again. Isaac couldn’t help but chuckle to himself upon a specific realization. “What?” Lenna asked him upon noticing his chuckle.

  “I just realized something.” He replied.

  “What?” Lenna said again.

  “We have a drider silk business that has net us zero profit so far.” He began to which Lenna just nodded along. “We have taken quite a few bounties of all difficulty ranks given to us both from the guild as well as from two dukes.” He continued. “Yet somehow, all of our riches seem to be from looting as if we were just common raiders and bandits.” He chuckled again. “The only difference is that we only plunder those deemed evil by common morality and law. A morality and law that we have bent and even broken on occasion, though not to the same extreme as our foes.”

  Lenna leaned back in her chair. “Might makes right I suppose.” She replied after a moment of thought.

  “To an extent, yes.” Isaac said and sipped from his tea, it was a pleasant citrus flavor from one of the naturally growing fruits from the surrounding area. “Common people have both more and less power than they realize. The common folk have decent sway over those in power because those in power need their cooperation to stay in power. Those in power often have powerful people under them either by loyalty or pay. Those powerful people are often powerful enough, combined, to counter or suppress other powerful individuals that are individually more powerful than them. Those more powerful people must then choose between two options. The first being to keep public opinion of them from becoming too horrible. The second being to resolve to remove all of public opinion at the source. This economy of sway and power is what really keeps the truly powerful in line. The ones we end up going after just happen to find themselves on the wrong side of the tide. If they had kept public opinion from getting too bad, or they had kept from breaking too heinous of laws, they would still be alive. Well, except for Shamsha. He came at us.”

  “You think too much.” Lenna replied after letting Isaac finish. “These cookies are quite tasty.”

  Isaac just blinked at her. “Are you messing with me?” He asked her incredulously. “I honestly can’t tell.”

  “Good.” Lenna replied and took a cookie off of his plate. “We need to stop at the bakery that these came from and purchase the recipe for Margaret.” She added and then took a satisfied bite of the stolen cookie.

  —

  An hour before dinnertime, Isaac and Lenna had received an invitation from the duke to join him for dinner. Not going to say no to free ducal food, the pair obviously took him up on the offer. “Thank you for joining me, please, sit.” Arthur Von Sasston greeted them with a gesture towards the pair of open seats to his left.

  “Of course.” Isaac replied with a nod.

  “Thank you for inviting us.” Lenna said with a slight bow. The two joined the duke at the table and immediately noticed the empty seat to his right.

  Noticing the pair’s glances the duke spoke up: “The duchess will not be joining us, I’m afraid. Her… attachment, to our new ‘adopted’ child is quite strong. I hope you will forgive her absence.”

  “Of course.” Isaac replied once more. “This has been, and still is, quite the trying time for you.” Their words back and forth were both a confirmation of the story that Arthur was going with, as well as a message to the servants in the room. Everyone in the citadel knew that the child was actually the ‘former’ captain of the guard’s, but they also knew that going against the official story from the duke was likely to end in either the termination of their contract or a new contract being forced upon them. The new contract being one of one hundred years of service scrubbing barnacles off of naval ships for a copper piece a day.

  “In other news, I have some information you might like.” Arthur said to change the topic as steaming plates of fish baked over seaweed and seasoned to perfection were brought in. The fish was already entirely deboned, skinned, and cut into bite sized chunks for them. There were sides of fruit of every color from the nearby orchards. There were also white, red, blue, and orange wines but noticeably none of them were positioned within arms reach of the duke.

  “Oh?” Isaac asked as Lenna nodded in thanks to the staff. Both of the pair were in their armor but it had been entirely cleaned by Shamesh before they arrived. The reason was that Lenna would need to wear her helmet regardless because of how bright the inside of the Sasston Citadel was. With only a few exceptions, most of the rooms and hallways in the building were lined with windows and glow stones capable of turning even the darkest of corners bright. Lenna faceplate had found its temporary resting place within the Bottomless Bag for safekeeping.

  “The slaves that Lady V’Nova liberated have all been given temporary housing in one of the bunkhouses at the guard compound. After the purge, the entirety of the guard now fit in one of their two buildings. The former slaves will not be able to stay there for long but for the next month at least they will have nothing to worry about.” Arthur informed them. “Also, all of the prisoners that were taken are being tried and punished to the fullest extent of the law by Sir George as we speak. In the end, I believe this whole mess will wrap up acceptably.”

  Isaac nodded. “What of the traitor?” He questioned with a raised eyebrow. “And her brother.”

  “Both are being kept in the citadel’s dungeon for now. I have yet to make a decision.” Arthur replied. “Would you have any recommendations?”

  Isaac hummed in thought and took a moment to savor the food. He took the extended time to get his thoughts in order. “She, by all accounts, should get the death penalty.” Isaac said. “But, in leu of her extensive cooperation, a life sentence would probably be acceptable.” Isaac took a sip of the orange wine because it was something he had never seen before. Its color was so vibrant that he had no idea what to expect. It was rich and tangy yet sweet and crisp. The layers of the wine perfectly complemented the layers of flavor from the main dish in a way that nothing from Safeharbor had managed. “If she has managed to be even more helpful, maybe some other form of punishment could be arranged. Something along the lines of, say, twenty years of military service perhaps. It would be a shame to waste such a powerful and talented sorceress.”

  Arthur nodded along. “I can see the wisdom in that, yes. I will consult Sir George once he has had time to rest. Our prisoners may stay in the dark for a few days, it won’t kill them.” He added.

  “Is that all you wished to speak about?” Isaac asked as he was ready to change topics once more.

  “I believe so, yes.” Arthur replied.

  Isaac leaned in almost conspiratorially. “So, how can we get all of your chef’s recipes, and at least a barrel of this wine, sent to our manor in Safeharbor?”