“Vraekae,” Jay greeted the blue-skinned elf. “I wasn’t expecting to see you today. How have you been?”
“Busy,” the magistrate replied without further elaboration. “And cold. May we enter?”
“Yes, of course,” Jay said, moving aside and holding the door open so the elf could enter.
Vraekae quietly stepped inside, the ominous red ball of death floating above her shoulder. She wasn’t wearing her usual sharp military suit and instead had on a thick fur-trimmed coat that had the imperial crest stitched on the breast. As she entered, she removed the white gloves from her hands, a slightly wider smile gracing her lips as Eir came forward to greet her cousin.
“Vraekae!” Eir exclaimed with a bright and welcoming grin. “How are you?”
“Well, little cousin,” Vraekae replied and accepted her red-skinned relation’s hug.
While those two spoke quietly, the rest of the people on the new headquarters’ doorstep followed inside.
Nevan and Orla trundled through the door, their overly fluffy, furry coats not stopping them from holding hands as they walked side by side. Both gave Jadis a look like they weren’t sure if they were in trouble for showing up on the heels of the magistrate, but Jay gave them a reassuring smile as she ushered them into the wide workshop.
Behind them came Hans, the broad man looking unchanged from the last time Jadis had seen him. As he entered, he gave Jay an upward nod of approval before passing her a wicker basket. Taking the proffered package, she peeked inside the lid and was immediately struck by the delicious scent of Hans’ meat pies.
“Thank you, Hans,” Jay grinned at the stoic man. “I’ve missed these.”
Hans simply gave her a stern nod before wandering inside to casually inspect the new building.
Behind everyone else came one last figure, a man that Jadis hadn’t noticed with the others in the fore to distract her. Gunnar, the muscular elf who had joined Jadis on her expedition into the northern reaches of Weigrun’s forests, came through the door. The man looked much the same as the last time Jadis had seen him. Aside from his greenish blue skin, almost white hair, and bright green eyes, Gunnar was noticeable for his bulky frame. He had a body-builder’s physique, though the image was slightly spoiled by his enchanted replacement arm. The prosthetic wasn’t a perfect match for his muscular appearance, but it was close enough to pass a casual inspection. The only real difference Jadis noted was a change in clothing. Gunnar was a military man and Jadis had never seen the soldier outside of uniform. Today, however, he was wearing civilian clothes that took the form of a red coat and brown trousers.
“Hey Gunnar,” Jay greeted the man by warmly shaking his good hand. “What are you doing here? I thought you had stayed in Weigrun.”
“I just arrived a few days ago,” the quiet elf replied with a soft smile. “I’m here to get on the list for limb regeneration. And I’m also here looking for work.”
“Work?” Jay asked with some surprise as she closed the door behind the elf. “You left the military?”
“I did,” he confirmed with a nod. “And since you are opening a new branch of Fortune’s Favored here in Eldingholt, I want to apply.”
The request was unexpected, but not exactly unwelcome. Jadis liked Gunnar; he was a solid, competent man who knew how to be discreet and never slacked on his duties, even after losing an arm to Eike, the Blood Bitch who had almost killed him during the battle of the Dryad Grove. Jadis would happily welcome the man into her company as a brother in arms. However, she couldn’t overlook the obvious connection present in the room.
“Is this your idea?” Syd asked as she crossed her arms and quirked an eyebrow at Vraekae. “Trying to insert a spy into my company?”
“Yes,” Vraekae replied without an ounce of hesitation or shame. “I did suggest to Gunnar that he might wish to spend his time on the wait list here in the capital as a member of Fortune’s Favored rather than a soldier on convalescence. You need someone you can trust to be tight-lipped about your affairs to act as a clerk and quartermaster for your new mercenary company branch. I need someone who can discreetly alert me to any important events that occur within your organization. Gunnar suits both our needs quite well.”
“I don’t see how you need to be notified about any of our organization’s affairs,” Jay commented as she took a few steps closer to join the circle that had formed. “Is what we do really your business?”
“Yes, it is,” Vraekae responded calmly, her expression as icy as ever. “I have invested far too much time and effort into you and your company to simply bid farewell once I return to Weigrun. Gunnar will keep me informed on things I may need to know.”
Vraekae’s eyebrows raised in an expression of slight exasperation as she regarded Jay.
“I am not trying to hide anything from you. I am being completely open about my intentions. Do you deny that having me as an ally has been beneficial to you?”
Jay sighed in resignation, her heart not in the fight.
“Yeah, yeah, fine. As long as Gunnar doesn’t poke his nose into any confidential information then it’s fine. I get it. You’re a control freak and you need to keep tabs on everything. It’s fine.”
Vraekae arched her brow at the “control freak” comment, but otherwise acknowledged Jadis’ acceptance with a gracious nod.
Jadis knew that since her current plans involved expanding Fortune’s Favored, she was basically inviting spies under her roof. She was a high-profile individual and even if the whole quarrel between the two princes wasn’t a thing, she was sure that both of them as well as other powerful noble families would still be trying to get information on her daily dealings. There were always people trying to make power plays among the nobility. Even if Jadis shouted at the top of her lungs to the whole world that she wasn’t interested in politics or making moves against the establishment, there would still be people who assumed that she was lying and had some secret agenda. In a way, Jadis couldn’t even argue with those people. She kind of did have her own agenda, one that wasn’t necessarily compatible with all the people in high places.
If Vraekae wanted to keep tabs on Jadis and her actions, that honestly wasn’t a big deal to her anymore. Vraekae had proven many times over that she was an ally; she was an icy bitch, too, but an ally. Jadis could allow a little espionage in her ranks if it was being done by Vraekae. It was everyone else who wanted to spy on her, however, that she was going to have to be careful to keep out.
Thinking it over, Jadis figured that letting Vraekae have Gunnar keep an eye on things for her might be beneficial towards her goal of keeping other wandering eyes away. Gunnar could help root out any other spies, and Vraekae could help Jadis vet who she hired, potentially.
“Not to be rude, but we’re about to have a company meeting,” Jay told Vraekae. “Other than... requesting we hire Gunnar, was there anything else you came here for?”
Vraekae nodded, her red eyes scanning the room with a brief glance before answering.
“I have some news to discuss with you. Some of it pertains to your upcoming meeting with the emperor. If I need to return, I can make time later this afternoon.”
That was to say, at least some of what Vraekae had to discuss wasn’t for the ears of everyone in the room. Jadis trusted her lovers completely and anything the magistrate had to say to her, she could say to them as well. However, Tegwyn, Nevan, Orla, Hans, and Gunnar were all in the room, too. Since Jadis didn’t know for sure what information Vraekae had to share, it probably would be best to have the conversation in a more private setting.
“Well, if you don’t mind waiting a few minutes,” Jay started slowly as she processed her options, “there are some main points that I need to go over with everyone. Once we do that, you and I can go find somewhere to talk while the rest of us break into groups and go through some more detailed discussions.”
“Very well,” Vraekae nodded. “Please proceed. I will make myself scarce until you are ready.”
With that, the blue elf stepped away from the gathering and began wandering the edges of the large workshop. It was a polite way of giving them room to talk, though with elven hearing, Jadis was under no delusions that Vraekae couldn’t hear every word being said.
Gunnar almost stepped away as well, but Syd stopped him and kept the bulky man in the group. Jadis was serious about hiring him and she didn’t see any reason to exclude him from the meeting.
“So,” Jay began after taking a breath. “Thank you all for being here. Unless there’s anything that any of you need to say in front of the whole group before we get started, then I’m just going to charge right in.”
When no one spoke, Jadis took that as a sign to proceed.
“The purpose of this meeting is to get everyone on the same page,” Jay continued, feeling just a little too much like some kind of business management graduate. “As you can all see, Fortune’s Favored has purchased this property in order to establish a branch of the company here in Eldingholt. Some of you might be wondering why we’ve done that, since I’ve generally been pretty vocal about not wanting to stay in the city for very long.”
“Yeah, what was the point?” Kerr called out, interrupting Jay as she wiggled her fingers at the walls around them. “Seems like a nice place and all, but if we’re getting back on the road again, why do we need all this space?”
“Two words,” Jay said in response to her therion lover’s question. “Rapid Deployment.”
At everyone’s blank stares, Jay forged on.
“While Eldingholt isn’t the most central point in the empire, it is where all the best roads lead to. It’s the main hub of commerce in the whole country, probably the whole continent, which makes it ideal as a point of resupply for our mercenary company. Anything we might need can be purchased here in this city. But like I said before, that doesn’t mean I want us to have to spend a lot of time bogged down in Eldingholt every time we need to resupply.
“That’s why I want to hire a support crew. Men and women who can handle buying supplies and maintaining our company presence and our funds here in the city while we are out in the field. With the Behemoth, we can carry a lot of supplies with us when we go on the road but we can’t bring everything. We might not always bring the right supplies, or our cargo could get ruined during attacks or other unforeseen events. Having a dedicated crew set up here in the capital that can get us what we need and deliver it to us when we need it is the idea.”
While Jay paused to let what she had explained so far settle into people’s minds, she saw that a few of her companions had looks on their faces like they wanted to ask questions. Picking at random, Jay pointed at Sorcha, indicating that she should voice her thoughts.
“How exactly are you planning on getting supplies from the city to wherever we’re going to be?” the goblin asked with a doubtful expression. “I mean, having some people here set up to handle some regular resupply business sounds reasonable, but getting those supplies to us when we’re hundreds of miles away sounds like a pretty big hole in this idea you’re weaving. Wouldn’t it be easier to just buy supplies that we need from whatever town it is that we’re close to?”
“Potentially,” Jay nodded along to Sorcha’s words. “But what if there isn’t a town nearby? We can hunt and scavenge for a lot of foodstuffs, but not everything can be gathered out in the wilderness. Also, what if the town is low on supplies, or doesn’t have what we need? We’re currently at war. Demons are invading the borders. I doubt many towns along those borders are going to have many supplies available, and what is around is probably going towards the soldiers protecting the border. Having our own supply chain will allow us to stay mobile and give us more flexibility and range.
“As to how we’re going to handle getting supplies from here to wherever we might be, that’s where ‘rapid deployment’ comes in. There are going to be details we’ll have to work out, particularly in regards to coordination and communication, but Sabina has been working on some really impressive ideas for new enchantments that will help see my vision come to life.”
Sabina brightened when Jay motioned towards her, the excitable smith bouncing on her toes.
“Yes! It’s going to take some time and materials and some experiments and lots and lots of testing but I have some ideas that are going to be a big help I think!”
Many of those ideas, Jadis knew, had been inspired by things she had told Sabina about Earth and the technology that existed there. Jadis really didn’t have much technical knowledge on how things worked, but she knew some basics. Going over those basics with Sabina, as well as describing a few common ideas of what was possible without magic, had really lit a fire in the smith’s forge. When she hadn’t been working on Syd’s new sword staff or other weapon and armor repairs, she’d been brainstorming all kinds of inventions. Jadis was still a little worried that she might have opened pandora’s box by giving Sabina so much insight into Earth technology, but since nothing she had told her enchanter lover had been a weapon, she was pretty sure she wasn’t going to cause too much damage… Probably.
D had told her to shake things up, hadn’t he?
“We’re going to need more than just a few people buying supplies and coordinating deliveries though,” Jay continued after Sabina had finished speaking. “We’ll need transportation crews and people to guard them.”
“Runners for communication, too,” Aila added thoughtfully.
“True,” Jay agreed, though there was an idea she had to discuss with Sabina that might remove the need for runners. “Also, depending on how we might want to run things, we may expand to have multiple teams coordinating with us. A constant rotation that keeps us and our people supplied and in contact with each other and the city.
“That’s ultimately what we’re here to discuss,” Jay waved her hands in an open gesture to the group. “I want us to go over some of the logistics and details, discuss next steps, and figure out things like how many people we should be hiring to start and our budget for everything.”
“We’ve got this place to figure out first though,” Syd exclaimed with a clap of her hands. “We’re going to have to set up rooms and buy furniture and shit like that just to get it to a usable state, so why don’t we split up, check things out, and then meet back here to go over some ideas, yeah? It’ll give everyone some time to think about my proposed vision for the next stage of our mercenary company.”
With that, the gathering broke up as people moved away in pairs or small groups to talk over the ideas Jadis had for Fortune’s Favored. Jay and Syd kept with two of those groups, but Dys hopped down from her seat on the second-floor balcony and motioned for Vraekae to follow her. Heading for the little office room that Jadis knew the building had on the first floor, she intended to discuss whatever it was that had brought Vraekae out to speak with her. Jadis hoped it would be good news, but considering how well everything had been going for the past week, she was starting to get the feeling that she was overdue for a turn in her fortune.
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