Chapter Four: Legitimate Business Owners

It had been nearly a month now since Anakin and Vader had been brought to this new world, presumably by the Force. The city of Orario was busy as always, people hustling, adventures bustling and shops packed with customers. The streets were populated and the area was noisy.

Anakin and Vader are now in the town square near the entrance of the dungeon amd Tower of Babel, sitting in a wooden makeshift booth with a huge sign saying "Now Recruiting Warriors! Join the Penumbra Familia!" but with no luck.

"I don't get it, why is nobody joining?" Anakin grumbled. "It may have something to do with the name of our familia. And my presence." Vader replied.

"What? It's a cool name! You represent the dark and I represent the light, it's like an eclipse, a penumbra! I mean, it is quite better than the name "Vader and Anakin" familia. Anakin quipped.

"Naming their familia after their own. That just sounds pretentious. Ridiculous! Where's the creativity? You don't see Emperor Palpatine naming his empire the "Palpatine Empire" or the "Order of Sidious" or something of the like." Anakin added to which Vader simply replied with "I suppose."

~~~*~~~

It had been an hour, on the same day since Vader and Anakin borrowed the necessary funds from Plutus with Hermes' help. They are now inside the Hermes Familia's base, the Travelers Inn. They were led there by Hermes to teach them how to use and bestow a Falna.

They were inside a room where only Anakin, Vader, Hermes and a two teenage boys in rags are currently at. All of them were sitting in a couch.

"Ok boys, today I'm going to teach you about Falna. Now, as you may know and as I have said earlier, a Falna is the grace or a blessing bestowed by a god or goddess to an adventurer, this essentially helps them grow strong, and when they level up, they get a boost in power." Hermes explained.

'So it's a crutch to help them.' Anakin mused, Vader on the other hand thought the same 'Such feeble attempts to gather strength is pathetic.'

"Now, in order to properly bestow a Falna, one must provide at least a single drop of blood to a mortal's back. Once that is done, attach a piece of enchanted parchment on top of it and draw your Familia's symbol on the paper with magic! And to do so, you just focus your mana in your fingertips and draw as if it were a pen, that only works for making a falna for the first time, the next time you try to update or check their falna all you guys have to do is make a circle instead of drawing the entire falna.." Hermes continued.

"Now, I'm gonna lend you two of my workers for this exercise. I should also mention that you can't remove a Falna, but you can replace it with the assistance of the god of the holder of the previous falna. You can also lock it away if you so wish. Now, remove your shirts and lie on your backs you two." Said Hermes and ordered the two boys.

"These boys have yet to receive any Falna, I thought I'd lend them to you for this exercise, and then replacing your falna with mine afterwards."

"This is it, the moment of truth. If this fails, we might have to run for it, or fight them all head on. Either way we get charged with fraud." Whispered Anakin to Vader. The two of them were hesitant to try it out, fearing the result, after all they were not real gods, hence unable to bestow this so called Falna. But a part of them was ushered to try it out. As if the force was urging them to do so. And so they followed their instinct.

Anakin was the first to step up near one of the boys and pricked his finger tip, trickling a small drop of blood, and proceeded as Hermes had taught. But there was nothing. No result.

Vader had done the same to the other boy but instead pricked his upper forearm and used the force to control the direction where the blood was supposed to drop, having the same outcome. At this point Anakin had a small bead of sweat drop from his forehead, to his cheek and finally falling down his chin.

"Well that's odd. And you guys didn't seem to have botched it either." Hermes mumbled, crossing his fingers and narrowing his eyes, staring at the backs of the two boys.

Vader had reached for his hips, holding his saber, but was stopped by Anakin. "Don't be so hasty. We might still be able to salvage the situation, let's think of something else." Anakin whispered to Vader.

"Damn it Vader, stop always thinking that killing others is a good solution!" Anakin whispered more. "It worked...most of the time." Vader replied subtly. And Vader was right, as twisted as it was. "Most problems were orchestrated by man. No man, no problem." Vader added.

"I know, but still. I thought we were over that."

"We were. But dire situations call for absolute measure."

"Only the sith deal in the absolute!"

"I am a Sith. And technically, you once were."

"Well, you're also technically a Jedi! So try to be more prudent in your decisions."

...

...

...

At that moment, the two were stuck arguing via whispers, with the help of the force they were able to keep the audio down significantly, masking it. Hermes on the other hand was pretty darn confused.

'How? We followed the procedures. Unless I taught them something wrong? No that can't be it. I do it the same way they did and nothing has ever gone wrong before. Unless they aren't gods, then that would explain it. But they are undoubtedly divine beings, their aura and divine armaments suggest this!' Hermes argued internally. The two boys there was just dumbfounded as to what is going on.

'What's up with them?'

'How the hell should'a know, Lord Hermes said he'd pay us if we help em out with something, he don't pay us to think nothin.'

At this point a gust of wind blew across Anakin's face, tussling his hair a bit and the back of Vader's neck tingled. The force just provided them with a revelation.

Anakin and Vader switched partners and did the same thing all over again, but with the other's partner instead. And then it happened. The parchment glowed white and shone brightly as if it were a flashlight, surprising Hermes with what they did and the outcome of their actions.

Hermes walked over and removed the parchment and saw his Falna being replaced with a peculiar looking Falna.



"What the f*ck is going on? How is this possible? Two falna's in one!?" Hermes questioned as he whipped his head towards the Sith and Jedi.

"Don't look at me, I'm just as clueless as you are." Anakin said "As am I." Vader said next. Though for the entirely different reason.

Their main concern was HOW were they able to grant a falna? As far as they know, this ability is not within the power of the Jedi nor Sith, or any of the light and dark side. Anakin and Vader knew and studied the books of the Jedi at the Coruscant library when they were both a Jedi, and both did so when they were Sith through Darth Sidious' holocron collection.

But most of all, what surprised them the most was after they bestowed the falna to the two boys, they seem to have become force sensitive. Or have shown to be mildly capable in wielding the force, based on what the two can sense.

"I-I d-don't know what to make of this. This has never occurred before. Two gods with one falna. Additionally, that means that the two of you would have to share a single familia!" Hermes said.

Anakin and Vader glanced at each other and simply said: "And so, we will/shall."

"*Sigh* I suppose we can only move on to the next lesson. We will practice om how to replace a falna..." Hermes said, but deep inside, his thoughts were: 'I have to tell this to Ouranos, only he can make sense of this. God I need a drink.'

~~~*~~~

"We're going to have to rethink our strategy in recruiting people. Now I know why the Republic didn't even bother to recruit manpower for the Clone Wars." Anakin mumbled.

"Imperial-style recruitment does not seem to suit our narrative on why we want to recruit individuals either." Vader said as he held up a sign saying "recruiting warriors, we offer free training!"

"Maybe instead of searching people to work for us, why don't we do the opposite and make them search for us instead!?" Anakin offered.

"And what do you propose?"

"Well, we have one million Valis, considering we now share the funds for what was supposed to be two familias. If we show our wealth and prestige by buying a house and showing what we have to offer, they might want to apply to become familia members."

"That indeed does sound a good plan. And how do we proceed?"

...

...

...

The two stood in front of a "house" they had recently purchased, with the help of Hermes, who in turn directed them through some real estate properties currently offered by the Guild. Courtesy of a certain half elf with glasses who served as their adviser at the reception.

"It isn't much, but it's home. And it is a bit spacious" Anakin said

(based on Star Wars architecture, this is highly underdeveloped and outdated.)

"The appearance matters not, the utility however, is of utmost importance." Vader said.

"We can always renovate this ourselves if we ever find alloys and other materials in the future." Anakin reasoned, to which Vader replied with "Indeed."

"The house truly does resemble Nabooian infrastructure a bit." Anakin mumbled stating the main reason they bought the house based on the description given by the guild receptionist, gaining a slight nod from Vader.

The two then head inside the front door, after entering the front gate and walking a few meters from it. The interior does not seem half bad, the two of them thought.

The two then explore the entire house, and found out that the mansion, or "house" as the two of them would refer, actually offered a lot.

The house was four stories high and a lower underground basement to it's name. It had rooms that approximately two dozen people can occupy, plus a spacious dining room in proportion to the amount of people who can live in, as well as a kitchen. It also had a courtyard both at the front and back of the "house" as well as a mini library, and two bathrooms separating the men and women's in the left and right side of the house respectively. The living room was also quite massive with a large fireplace.

The furnitures all came with the house when they bought it. It was now night, basking the entire planet with it's beautiful moonlight and stary skies.

Vader and Anakin are now sitting in the living room, fireplace lit. Anakin was sitting in a sofa, reclining it while Vader sat on his own, but maintaining a straight body posture. The two were now discussing what their familia's symbol should be.

"Might I suggest we take inspiration from our Falna?" Vader proposed.

"Hm, that is a good idea." Anakin replied as he used a paintbrush dipped in ink on a parchment, drawing their symbol. Using some colored dye, they colored their symbol and came up with this.

"I think I did a good job, don't you think so Vader?" Anakin asked, to which Vader nodded and replied "I find it appropriate that you combined the Jedi and Sith symbol into one simplistic design."

The two of them hoped that tomorrow, the rumours of them acquiring a massive asset from the guild would circulate, gaining more applicants for their new Penumbra Familia.

To Be Continued

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I would also like to thank my readers who continue to read this story and support it. It makes me happy that my hobby of writing entertains others. I also might write a novel next time if I gain an interest.