Last Words chapter 55 (Patreon)

I headed back through the door immediately after making it back to camp. Slipping off campus was easy enough from the reading room, and from there I called a cab and made my way over to the club to meet with Alistair.

Paul met me at the door as usual, sending me up to speak to the boss directly. When I arrived, Alistair was at his desk, flipping through a stack of documents. “Ah, Gus, nice to see you. What can I do for you today? Did you happen to find a few more of those useful mushrooms? My friends could use a top up.”

Stepping forward, I reached into my coat and withdrew a familiar purple fruit, setting it on the desk as I took my seat across from him.

I’d thought long and hard about how to do this. Alistair seemed nice enough, but he didn’t NEED me. My ability to make technology usable in wordworlds was a huge advantage, but Alistair was a speaker with an equally busted word. I needed something to offer him beyond guns in a fantasy world.

My only real idea was this. I pushed it toward him. “This,” I told him bluntly. “Is a mana fruit.”

“Is that supposed to mean something to me?” he asked with amusement. “Does this make extra delicious juice or something?”

“No, it tastes like shit,” I dismissed. “But that’s not important. What’s important is that it can give the user a mana body.” I explained the whole thing, in detail. My own experience, Alice’s (I wasn’t specific about her), the details of how the fruits worked in levels. I laid it all out except for one thing. I didn’t tell him where to get them. Not yet.

When I finished talking, his eyes had pinned me like daggers. “Alright,” he said slowly. “So clearly you’ve been holding back. Not entirely unexpected. Allied or not, you owe me nothing. What’s changed?”

“The Ten Thousand Doors Society,” I told him with a sigh. “They’ve become a problem for me. They came after a speaker friend of mine, and I ran into one of their advance parties on the other side of the door I’ve been exploring. They didn’t find it, mind, but they found another one that led to the same wordworld. I didn’t know that was a thing.”

“More than one door?” he said contemplatively. “I haven’t heard of it. But that doesn’t mean it’s not possible. Then again, we’re assuming it’s a direct route. Speakers exist on many planets, some may exist in wordworlds. Maybe they have a door to a world that has a door to yours. Or maybe they have a world connected to another speaker world entirely and THAT world has a door to yours.”

I blinked. “I…hadn’t considered that. You think it works that way? That we’re connected to other worlds connected to other worlds? And we can just…what, wander in?” Did that mean the scifi world that the rayguns came from was another speaker world? Was there even a difference? “What about the defenses? Will they prevent other world speakers from coming into our world?” I was starting to worry about the doors now.

He shrugged. “Who knows. I’m operating on a similar timetable to you. I became a speaker a bit earlier, and I have the benefit of a mentor, but I’m not exactly an expert on this life.”

“Well, the point is, I’m running into a bit of a limitation working on expanding into this world on my own,” I admitted. “I have access to certain sources for mana fruits, and even ways to bring technology through the doors, at least in a limited capacity. What I DON’T have is manpower, specifically speaker manpower. With the Tennies active on the other side, I’m not confident going it alone over there.”

“An alliance in truth, then,” he said after a moment, leaning back in his chair to steeple his fingers. “You want to enlist the Red Feather Knights as an advance force for this other world. You mentioned you have limited access to technology. I’m guessing based on the dagger you brought us that cold weapons are less restricted?”

I shrugged, not bothering to hide my smile. “It may have occurred to me that your more physical abilities could be useful in a restricted environment.”

“They would,” he said slowly. “But how useful depends entirely on you. You know my word, and I respect the need for privacy, but you’re here to ask for my help, and to put my men in danger. I don’t mind taking risks for a partner, but partners have to trust each other. You don’t have to tell me anything, but if you don’t I’m not willing to move forward with this alliance.”

I grimaced. That felt…restrictive. I almost rejected it out of hand, I didn’t like ultimatums. But after thinking about it for a minute, it wasn’t really that. He wasn’t holding me hostage. If I refused I would be in the same situation I was in now. The only thing being withheld was his help. This was on me, and having already shared as much as he had, it was reasonable to ask me to put a little skin in the game. If he wanted to kill me for my word he could have easily done so before now, and I knew Irons had to be exponentially more selective with new ones so they didn’t screw up their future progress.

So I considered it. He didn’t rush or pressure me, he just sat quietly and waited as I thought things over. Finally, I took a deep breath and nodded. “Alright,” I told him after thinking it over. “But I need assurances. Nothing too crazy, just something like…this.” I sketched out a quick contract, passing it to him.“It’s nothing excessive, just an agreement that you won’t share my secrets or use them against me for a year and a day.” I added that extra day just to make it more thematic, I’d always loved the old stories. 

He studied it for a moment or two, then, after some deliberation, signed it and passed it back to me. I read over it one more time to make sure I hadn’t missed anything obvious, then tucked it away in my pocket. I gave him a serious look. “Transaction. My word is transaction.”

I gestured to the fruit. “I can buy and sell objects that I’ve come into contact with before. I need to have the money, and I need to have some form of ownership over something to sell it. Buying is more complicated. I’m kind of stalled on that, honestly, but I’m working it out.” My Purchase skill was stuck at level nine, and had been for a while. I suspected my lack of understanding of how it worked was holding it back from taking that final step, but I was grinding away at the rules over time.

“So when you said you have a method of acquiring these fruits…” he began.

“I buy them,” I told him with a nod. “And can continue to do so. Of course, I’m going to need a bit of a subsidy if you want me buying them for your whole order, and after level ten they stop being usable in their original form and require a more expensive version. Especially since I’m pretty sure using them at a lower level will kill you without a complementary mushroom used every time.”

The indigo mana fruits were only seventy five hundred, but the mushrooms were forty two fifty as well. The combination was almost twelve grand, nearly as expensive as an empty Barkskin pattern. And based on my experience with the other fruits, the more I used them the less effective they would be. My trait would help, but only so much.

That was part of my reason for coming here. Paying for every member of my team to get through Beginner was going to be nightmarishly expensive, and that wasn’t even taking into account patterns.

Now that I was being up front with him, I decided to share that information. I laid out the expenses, the possibilities, the useful tools I could provide, and then told him what I needed. It was a lot, but he was rich as hell, so I figured I should swing for the fences. He’d benefit just as much from this as I would.

He raised a brow. “I can see how that would be helpful,” he said after a moment. “And I’m not against working with you. Your ability is quite favorable, and I can see many uses for it. I would, of course, pay a premium for its uses, much as I apparently have been for quite some time,” he said the last bit a little sarcastically. “But I will not be extending you full access to my finances, just to be clear.”

“I figured,” I admitted. “You’re looking for something more defined and transactional? Pun intended.”

“I am,” he confirmed. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t be of assistance. There are quite a few useful items I might introduce you to, and I’d be willing to spend money establishing a premises on the other side.”

That surprised me. “You want to buy a house there?” I had actually considered that a few times, but I had requirements a normal suburban two story couldn’t meet, even if it would be comfortable.

He shook his head. “That would most likely be a poor choice. We’ll need to survey the area. But if the plantlife there is as impressive as you’ve said, I’m guessing their wood is equally mystical. The better application of your talents would be to use to acquire tools and equipment used in construction on the other side, and use the native materials to construct our base of operations. I have several skilled carpenters and joiners on staff.”

I looked at him for a moment. “You’ve got operations going on beyond a door already,” I said bluntly. “This isn’t academic to you. You’ve got…what, protocols for this?”

“The Red Feather Knights are not my sole property,” he clarified. “This branch belongs to me, but Constance is not my only sibling. But that isn’t important at the moment. What IS important is the fact that we have an opportunity here. If the Tennies haven’t reached the surface of this labyrinth, we can establish a firm presence before they emerge. Better yet, we can send teams of our own into the depths to seize THEIR door.”

I hadn’t considered that either. He clearly had a better idea what he was doing than I did. But that brought up an important factor. “I’m willing to work with you,” I said immediately. “But if we do that, we need to draw lines. You made the point that your money isn’t mine, well my power isn’t yours. We’re ALLIES, but my people work for me. We help each other expand, but I’m not joining up.”

“Agreed,” he said without hesitation. “I already planned to make such a stipulation. I have a feeling you’re going to be too much trouble to easily control. It’ll be safer for me to keep this strictly business,” he smirked a bit at that, and I couldn’t really argue.

There was one other thing I had forgotten to mention, actually, and I turned my attention back to Cutler and the mercenaries I’d seen. “I think the Tennies might have patronage from the military,” I said slowly. “Or A military. I take it you were aware that might be a possibility, given your warning from before?”

“I was,” he admitted. “Though I was hoping I was wrong. Most speaker factions are backed by individuals or families. Governments have too many competing interests to be trusted. I’ll have my people look into it.” He reached down to pick up the fruit. “Now, before we go any further, I’ll have Constance examine this object. After that…well, I’ll gather the men. I think I’d like a tour of our new potential kingdom.” He grinned at that, reminding me what his word was and why this might have been a mistake. Well, the cat was out of the bag now. Only time would tell.