LTSV - Harbingers of Change - 39 (Patreon)

Two days before the Pearl Forest gate was scheduled to open, SunBlade filed a court injunction to try and prevent LivingShadow from entering it. Mira didn't get all the details because the lawsuit was such an obviously bogus harassment tactic, but Soneares told her that the judge refused it due to lack of irreparable harm and a low likelihood of success at trial.

"I'm told this is his way of doing business; driving his rivals out of the market," she sniffed as she concluded her report.

A small office for Mira had manifested on one of the floors reserved for the demons, located on a corner with a nice view of the coastline. This was Syrith's solution for the fact that Mira's penthouse had become more of a clubhouse than a private space where she could take a call without two of the others overhearing it. Adra hadn't asked for help with running the guild, but Mira knew from experience that he was never going to and so allowed Syrith to pass minor annoyances off to her; Heron's bullshit non-starter lawsuit being one of them.

Eventually, a small council of Wise Ones would be appointed to serve on this planet and they'd be able to take these problems off Mira and Adra's plates and Mira could not wait.

"There isn't much guidance on who is allowed to exploit the dungeons," Mira grimaced and rubbed her temples. They were getting away with doing whatever they liked for now, but she could see that changing soon. "Right now, it's decided by whoever secured it last and has been maintaining the fortifications. By that logic, we've secured all three of the closest gates and have a monopoly on access, thanks to Adra."

Soneares thought about that. "The gate cycles are staggered so there's a minimal risk of overlap, but that won't leave a lot of downtime between gate excursions. Right now, it's manageable, but you and the others will get tired quickly. Based on what I know, there probably won't be another wave of awakenings on this planet for another six months to a year."

Fortunately, Mira had an easy answer for that one. The second most annoying thing about a Gate Hunter Fantasy, after the gates themselves, was the people fighting over access to them. They'd probably have to surrender one eventually, but she planned to make Heron bleed until then. His startup fund had to start getting low soon.

"Lease them the next opening of the Ruined Borough. Andre Vale has run it before so he can walk the other hunters through it. We take payment in advance and 10% of the proceeds. The System will do the accounting and settle the division, correct?"

Soneares nodded. "He'll have thirty days to pay it himself, or more if we agree to it, and then the System enforces the contract. He might get less, since he's already broken a System contract."

"I've been meaning to ask, how does that happen?" Mira asked, leaning forward on her desk. "If the System is willing to unilaterally enforce agreements, then how is it even possible to break a System-backed contract?"

Soneares crossed her arms and leaned back with her hip braced against a small ornamental console table that sat below a large painting that the demons had brought with them from their home dimension. It was a painting of a sacred caldera on their home world and a particularly good one, at that. Apparently two groups had been fighting over the right to display it in their area and got so annoying about it that Syrith's eventual decision was to stash it in Mira's new office so nobody was happy.

Looking at it made her a little wistful. She'd never actually visited the demon realm, despite being Adra's consort. They'd had plans to go there in her first life as a part of a wedding procession, but then the war started and all their plans fell by the wayside. Then, in her previous life, her health was too delicate to risk the transition between dimensions. Maybe she'd get a chance this time?

"The System has its limitations," Soneares explained. "It can easily enforce financial agreements through its integration with CUBE, but it has fewer options against other forms of broken faith. For example, our Lord made certain promises when he requested a guild permit from the System; certain labor rights for the hunters who join the guild, to do everything in his power to contain the dungeon creatures who escape the gates, and other promises in that vein. If he breaks any of those promises, he can be penalized. The System can visually flag him as an oathbreaker to anyone with the appropriate skill. That's not much of a consequence now, but as more people awaken he'll find himself being shut out of more and more of the industry. If he breaks too many promises, his leadership of the guild could be rescinded. There's a few things he could do that would cause the System to attack him directly or issue a worldwide bounty on his head, but those are edge cases."

"So, you think Heron broke one of the agreements he made when he accepted the guild permit?" Mira guessed. "Based on that specific example."

"It's my working theory. Someone always tries that when the guilds are new. I'd bet money that the contracts he prepared for the hunters who signed with him are exploitative. I spoke with Mr. Crowe recently and he had some things to say about employment practices on this planet, especially in the entertainment industry."

"Bertram talked to you? When?" Mira asked, curious.

"The System flagged several of his recent movie deals for non-payment of royalties and he had questions about retroactive System enforcement. We had a sit-down together. He let his agent and lawyer join over the phone—although he may regret that. The agent seemed very curious about where he currently is."

Mira had thought it was weird that Bertram had been able to drop everything and change careers on a whim.

"Well, have the others help him hide if he needs it," she sighed. "I want to respect his career as an artist, but we need a man who can solo a B-level Dungeon too much to lose him to months of filming at a time right now."

"Understood."

Soneares went into her folio and brought out a sheaf of papers. "Speaking of exploitation, I have the results of that background investigation you requested on your host."

Mira gauged her lawyer's expression. "How bad is it?" she asked.

"Your suspicions were correct, but not entirely. Virgil Bellamy has children by three separate women. Miss Vesper is the result of his marriage and they have been estranged since she turned eighteen and went to live with her mother permanently. His second wife, a Miss Salma Darwish, is the mother of Samira Bellamy."

"Is?" Mira echoed that crucial word while blinking. If Helena wasn't her biological mother, then she'd been expecting Samira's real mother to have died in childbirth or something.

Soneares nodded. "She married him at a very young age and against the wishes of her family. I'm given to understand that they met while she was attending college at a nearby university as an international student from Qasira. Her family supported her during the divorce and did fight for custody of you, but lost when her residency was terminated. Our private investigator was able to reach your grandfather, who is sorry to missed your childhood. He says your mother has remarried and is happy. He promises to find a good time to break the news to her that you have been in touch and did not know about her. According to him, they have tried to keep in touch, but all the discussions between the two families have had to go through lawyers for years now."

"Discussions?" Mira narrowed her eyes. "What kind of discussions."

"There were agreements in place regarding child support paid to the Bellamy family and a university fund for you. Virgil has been trying to access the trust with your education money, but the trustees have not yet received credible proof that you've been enrolled in or completed higher education. He has promised that the family can help with any student loans you've had to take out if the trust is no longer sufficient and he worries for your safety in the dungeons. He recognized your name from the global alerts and had been praying it wasn't you."

Mira sat back in her chair and closed her eyes. Oh, of course Virgil Bellamy had been receiving child support. Now she even had a reason for his strange decision to railroad Samira out of higher education. He'd thought he could seize her college fund.

"How much was in the trust?" Mira asked, eyes still closed.

"2.5 million dollars," Soneares reported. "It was meant to cover all your living expenses in addition to tuition with part of the trust earmarked for the purchase of a condo near your eventual school."

That got Mira to open her eyes. "Two and a half million dollars? Just for school?"

"The investigator believes that Virgil Bellamy targeted Miss Darwish for her family's money. It's probably not a coincidence that she fell pregnant so soon after marriage. Your grandfather says she was planning to wait until she finished her surgical residency to start thinking about family planning."

"She's a doctor?"

That probably wasn't the most important thing about that statement, but Mira's pulse was starting to race and she was getting that feeling again. Her eyes felt hot and she had to concentrate on her breathing for a while until Samira's feelings subsided a little.

"She's an Otologist and specializes in treating hearing loss. She is married to a concert pianist and they have two children together; a boy and a girl who are twelve and fifteen, respectively."

Mira felt her pulse finally start to slow as relief swept over her. Virgil hadn't managed to ruin Samira's mother. She'd been prepared to hear just about anything; that Salma was in a mental hospital, that she also had drug problems, or any other terrible soap opera twist.

Actually, finding out that she had a mother who was living happily elsewhere with a beautiful replacement family probably wouldn't have been the balm to Samira that it was to Mira.

"I'd like to see pictures, if possible," she said softly. "What about this maternal grandmother of mine?"

"Your grandfather could answer that as well. His wife is still alive. The woman in question was Miss Darwish's grandmother, so she was your great grandmother. She had a vast estate and bequeathed several of her international holdings in this area to you."

"Do these international holdings include several warehouses at the port?" Mira guessed.

"Correct. She owned several industrial buildings in San Aurelio, some undeveloped land along the coast, and a small shipping company that was headquartered here. The shipping company went to your mother and she hired a CEO to run it. You also own one of the older apartment buildings along Pacific Promenade. It's the building your parents live in. The apartments are all rentals and not condominiums, as we'd previously thought."

The income generated by all that had to be astounding. No wonder Helena and Virgil dressed in designer everything and their mutual child, Viola, had the best schools and parties that money could buy.

"Does my grandfather know about the conservatorship?" Mira asked. Her voice sounded dull even to her.

Soneares shook her head. "No, he has contacted his lawyers in this country regarding the matter and they'll be collaborating with me to challenge your order of protection."

Mira closed her eyes again. "I was going to direct you to be reasonable and try to force him into mediation, but I've changed my mind," she said after she'd coasted on the ghost of Samira's feelings, a horrible stew of grief and rage, for a while. "I want to come at him with everything we've got. Once we're done here, I want to be able to have the System strip him of everything he has ever owned in his entire life. Then, once he's destitute, we'll discuss further steps."

Soneares smiled in such a way that made it clear that she understood what 'further steps' meant.

There was no getting Samira's lost years back, but Mira would settle for everything else Virgil Bellamy had to offer.  

How funny, not even yesterday she'd stood on Dmitri Volkov's deck and told him that bodies created more trouble than they were worth, but in this case she decided she was willing to deal with it.

 Note:

Qasira - Qatar

Otologist - a highly specialized ear, nose, and throat (ENT) physician who focuses exclusively on the medical and surgical treatment of diseases and disorders related to the ear, hearing, and balance.