Advent of Eternity - Chapter 11 (Patreon)

As Knell had suggested, they got ready early the next morning and headed out of the inn. The sun had yet to rise a cool ocean breeze rustled through the streets. The docks were already active, but the rest of the city still slept.

The Ruler’s mansion rested at the center of town, so it wasn’t particularly hard to navigate to. A large, iron spiked fence ran around its outskirts and two armored guards leaned against the gate.

“What brings you here at this hour?” the guard on the left asked, adjusting his grip on a polished polearm.

“We wish to apply for a job,” Knell replied. “I was born injured and am unable to fight, so my studies took me in the direction of accounting. I’m fair with numbers, and I know that most in possession of power or wealth are in search of an accountant.”

The guards exchanged a glance.

“And the elf?”

“I help him with any of the slightly more physical labor,” Stix said. “You’d be surprised how much a crate of paper weighs.”

“No, I wouldn’t,” the second guard muttered. “Monk Arred has made me lug the damn things around enough. I can’t speak to if we need more accountants, but I’ll bring you to Arred. He’s the one you’ll need to convince.”

The guard pushed the gate open and led them in. They passed a large, flourishing garden full of multicolored flowers and vines, and entered through the mansion’s doors. The halls were well decorated and clean, but not overly so.

A few paintings were scattered throughout it and several glass stands bore weapons and jewelry within them. Stix eyed them with thinly disguised interest as they passed.

The guard continued through the mansion descending several flights of stairs. The surroundings grew plainer and the smell of must and mold rose up around them. Cobblestone gave way to plain brown rock as they reached a large iron door.

Before the guard could even knock, the door swung open to reveal a short bald man wearing ink stained robes.

“Moorley! I didn’t think you were on duty today,” the man said.

“Hello, Ared. I’m not on duty with you today,” the guard replied quickly. “These two are interested in a job for Ruler Augustine. They claim to be accountants.”

“Ah. We are always in the need of those,” Arred mused. “Not many in the field. I suppose we can give your talents a test. I can take things from here, Moorley.”

“Are you sure?” Moorely asked. “There are two of them.”

Moorley cocked an eyebrow. “I appreciate your concern, but look at them. What would accountants want with me?”

“Well, there’s no way to know that they’re actually–”

“Off with you,” Arred said, waving his hand and dismissing the guard. Moorley shrugged and headed off while Knell and Stix followed the monk through the door. The room behind it contained a single large wooden table lit by a dying lantern. Behind it were rows upon rows of shelves full of papers, each labeled meticulously.

“I’m sure you understand that I can’t just hire you on the spot,” Arred said. “I expect a degree of competency, after all.”

“Of course,” Knell replied. “An examination would only be natural.”

“I’m glad you see things the same way,” Arred said with a wry grin. “Now, we can start you with something simple. How about taking a glance at the Ruler’s dining expenses from the past month?”

“Couldn’t those be a bit too recent?” Knell asked, cocking his head. “I wouldn’t want to mistakenly learn something I shouldn’t. That makes people disappear. Maybe I could go over some really old documents instead? Something that’s long forgotten and nobody cares about.”

A grin stretched across Arred’s lips. “A wise thought indeed. We do have a fair number of documents that have been sitting around and gathering dust since before I was here. All in order, of course. There must be order.”

“Naturally,” Knell agreed. “What about charters? I could take a look at some old ones for things that are now defunct.”

“Brilliant,” Arred said. “Anything older than fifty years of age should be more than safe enough for you to work with. Stay here, I’ll go get them.”

He shot off, disappearing into the seemingly endless shelves. Stix shot Knell a baffled look.

“There’s no way it’s that easy.”

“Not everything is complicated,” Knell replied, keeping his tone low. “We’ll find more than enough difficulties to contend with, don’t you worry. Take the freebies when they show up.”

Arred emerged a few minutes later bearing a large crate stuffed full of old parchment. He plopped it down on the desk and stepped back, dusting his hands off with a grimace. “It’s old, all right. And entirely out of order, to my dismay. If you’d like to prove your worth, go ahead and organize everything. If you can do that, we can talk prices and about your other talents.”

He handed Knell a quill, a pot of ink, and several sheets of plain paper to do his work on. Knell thanked him and took a stack of papers from the top of the crate. He plopped half of them down in front of Stix and then got to work reading through them.

It was slow, tedious work. Knell made little effort to actually organize the papers as he went through them – he had no desire to get hired. Luckily, it only took him half an hour to trace down a charter that matched up with the shipments he was looking for.

Knell suppressed a smile. The charter identified his target as Fort Fellwater. It included the basic star chart the vessel had followed to get there and back to Chrisford during its supply run.

He memorized the paper and shuffled it back into the pile. Knell then groaned, scooting back slightly in his chair. “My apologies, Arred. I’m not feeling very well at all. I fear the nerves are getting to me.”

“That’s only natural,” Arred sympathetically. “Why, the same thing happened to me when I was just starting.”

The monk paused, spotting the look on Knell’s face. “Oh no, you’re not going to be sick in here. There’s no flowing air, I’d smell it for the next year. Out with you! Come back when you feel better. Quickly now!”

He snapped his fingers at Stix, who stood and grabbed Knell by the shoulders to guide him. Arred practically chased them back to the front gate.

“We’ll be back soon!” Stix lied, ushering Knell away while the guards sent baffled stares after them.