Chapter 35: Employment

"Here" Kellar said flatly, shoving a pile of tanned leather pelts into Alex's hands, "I threw in a few freebies, as thanks for letting me work with such an interesting material, you must show me the finished product"

"First stop once it's done" Alex said in a confident, "will be to let you set eyes on the masterpiece"

"I'll hold you to that" Kellar said with a chuckle, "now piss of, I have work to do"

Alex was hurriedly shoved out to find Nicholas waiting patiently for him.

"Well, now that that's sorted out, lets head back to the tavern, we got to plan how to prepare for your death match"

"How so?"

"Well I was thinking some promotional flyers, 'Boy vs Bear, Man vs Nature', has a nice ring to it, and then we have to get a proper venue"

"Who's going to come watch a low level scrap between a oversized bear and me? Besides, I have weapons to make"

Nicholas stared at Alex for a minute, not saying a thing.

"Doesn't it get boring?" Nicholas suddenly asked.

"Pardon?" Alex said, slightly surprised.

"Every day, your hammering away at some new prototype, some new creation, you haven't been in a good fight since we got to this shit hole, Don't you find it dull?"

"No," Alex said without a moments hesitation.

Nicholas looked a little taken aback, but he let out a soft chuckle quickly to mask his surprise.

"To each their own I guess, well then, get going, those weapons won't make themselves"

"Lets at least grab a bite to eat, my treat, after all, it's our first profit"

...

In her office, CIV was pacing up and down with a concerned look on her face, that dawn bastard had made his first sale, and if it was an ego weapon, she was done.

There would be investigations, and they would find she had allied with the church of the bright day, breaking the trade centres rule of complete neutrality. Everything she had worked for would crumble down around her.

Block as much trade to the dawn faction was all she had to do, who cared about them anyway, there where so few of them, what's one or two customer among hundreds, a production type bastard just had to show up, in her city of all places.

It was all this cities fault, if she had been posted else where, she wouldn't have to resort to breaking the rules. That's right, it was this cities fault, if it had just been more developed, if they didn't spend there whole time in a never ending civil war, her career would have progressed.

That's right, it's the town's fault not hers, she Just had to get rid of any evidence of her colluding with the church, then she would immediately apply for a transfer, she just needed to erase any evidence.

As CIV began to rustle hurriedly through her draws, a knock came from the door.

MIII leaned casually against the doorway, a bronze key clasped tightly between her her fingers.

"Looking for this?"

"Give that back" CIV roared, "give that back right now, or I swear on the gods I use you as a fresh coat of paint for my office"

"Very scary," MIII chuckled, "but are you sure you can afford to do that, we just got a call from management, they're requesting for your presence"

CIV's stomach dropped, with a defeated air, she shuffled past MIII, no more rage or aggression on her face, only despair, not even noticing the small flash of pity across MII's face.

...

Alex began to sharpen his latest creation, after much consideration, he had decided to take a little break from ego weapons and try and make some machine prototypes, currently, he had been inspired be a retro game he used to play.

The main character used a concealed blade that could be flipped out from under the wrist, so he was trying to make a streamlined replica.

currently he was on his seventh attempt, and it was overall taking a shorter time to make than he thought, maybe he could entice Felicity into another purchase, they seemed high levelled, and they could never have too many ego weapons, right.

Alex looked at the pile of failures, only one had passed the threshold of good, two reaching the lofty height of acceptable, three squatting at bad, and one the should be left unmentioned, graded as trash.

He could tell that it would take a while, but he could feel a spark of invigoration from within, it would be a fun experiment.

...

CIV stood in a suffocating silence, not daring to make a sound. A small projection of the symbol of the trade centre, two identical hands in the top left and bottom right with a small circle in between them.

"So," a distorted voice suddenly came from the symbol, causing it to flare with life, "do you know why you where called here?"

CIV shuffled her feet nervously, "I-I, uh, well I" she muttered under her breath.

"Save it" the voice stated in an authoritative tone, "it is clear you will try to dodge responsibilities till the end, so I will tell you something, we've known about this from the beginning"

"Then why...?"

"You made us profit, I'll let you in on a little secret if you promise not to tell, all transactions made with your personal account still goes through us, so we took a small cut of the profit, just twenty percent, and looked the other way, after all, we weren't losing much, in fact, we were profiting, but you just killed a potential golden goose, and have made us a net loss"

CIV stood in silence, her eyes not leaving the floor, she had no response.

"As such, you are now ex-communicated, you may do as you please but all of your assets will be seized to make up for the potential loss, as we speak, your assets are already liquidised"

"Hold on" CIV blurted out of desperation, "I made those without aid of the trade union, as stated in the contact, any profits made without aid from the trade centre can't be seized by the company when the asset holder is excommunicated"

"True" the voice replied flippantly, "but on all of those trades, the other party put their trust in you due to the reputation of the trade centre, so in a way, all of the assets you made where due to the trade centre"

"That's not fair, how can you prove that?"

"You did very selective reading CIV, the very next clause is that the asset holder must provide evidence that you made those funds without the trade centre, and I don't think you have time to meet with every one of your business contacts"

"But..."

"What are you still doing here? Only employees may enter this area without staff guidance"

And with that, the projection vanished, leaving CIV in the dark room alone, she was too proud to cry, but it was still an effort for her to hold back her tears.

She had given everything for the company, and how did they repay her, send her to some back water town with no hope of transfer, and get rid of her quietly.

She stumbled out of the room, it was all a bad dream right, she would wake up soon, and it would all be over.

But alas, it would not be, this was a nightmare she was not waking up from.

MIII was standing outside, waiting for her, but instead of the smug look of triumph, there was only concern and pity on her face.

"What do you want?"

MIII handed CIV a purse filled with coins of stunning gold and platinum.

"What?" CIV said in a horse whisper.

"Half my savings, go make a life for yourself away from this company"

"You think I need your pity" CIV roared, casting the purse to the floor, "I never needed your half hearted assistance, and I don't need it now"

"I always looked up to you," MIII muttered while bending down to pick up the coins scattered on the ground, "I didn't want you to continue on the path your on, and the only way to do that was to get you out of the company"

MIII continued to pick up the coins as CIV stood in stunned silence.

"So you acted on your own" CIV whispered with venom, "you ruined my life, ruined all I had worked for, if I had just been patient, we would have been transferred"

MIII remained silent in her task.

"At least look me in the eye, look me in the eye and tell me I waisted my time, tell me all of my patience was for nothing"

"We both know you wouldn't get transferred, you where sent her for a career execution, we both know it"

MIII finished her task quickly and got up to leave, still not looking at CIV.

"I know I was wrong," MIII said suddenly, stopping in her tracks, "but I couldn't see another any other way of getting you out of the company, I know it was selfish of me to help when you didn't ask, and it cost us are old friendship, but there was no other way, and I'm sorry it had to happen this way"

"Do you think this is worth it? Do you think it will all magically get better now that you stepped in and fucked it all up?"

"Who do you think saved you last week?" MIII asked quietly.

CIV flinched, rubbing her neck, revealing a small red line around her neck, a cruel reminder of her failure.

"I'll hate you" CIV said, letting the tears flow freely, "every waking hour"

"As long as that keeps you alive" MIII whispered, taking her leave, leaving CIV alone in the empty hallway, an infrequent soft blue pulse of light her only source of light.

With a soft jingle of coin, she picked up MIII's last gift, and made her way out of the hallway, to the outside world, wiping the tears from her eyes.

She had no more excuses, no more scapegoats, no more lies to tell herself it was not her fault, only conviction, she would pay them back, the ones who sent her here through unjust means due to spite and jealousy, she would make sure all they had built would crumble around them, this would be her reason to live.

...

Alex was taking a break from crafting, his hands where going numb from the repeated hammering, two trash, five bad, seven acceptable, three good, and one great. All in all, the endeavour was a success.

Currently he was 'running' the store, and business was slow, no one was interested in his shoddy products, they just had very little appeal without being ego weapons.

Alex was about to return to the forge, when the chime of a bell alerted him of an approaching customer, and never one to turn down business, he turned to greet his new customer, only to freeze.

"You hiring?" CIV asked in a nonchalant tone.

Alex let out a sigh, "so what's the story?"

"Pardon?"

"A high ranking, well, as high ranking as you can get round here, official of the trade centre just strolled through my door looking for work, this is either a very convoluted conspiracy to discover my production methods, or you where fired, or maybe here to apologise, I don't know"

"The last two," CIV replied with a hint of embarrassment.

"Karma's a bitch" Alex replied apathetically.

"Just so you know, I was paid to stop your transactions, I have no personal grudge against you or the dawn faction"

"Oh really, who by?"

"It's not in my policies to let confidential info about my previous transactions, however, if I was an employee here, I might just let it slip on accident"

"Well," Alex said resolutely, standing up from behind the counter, "I guess I can spare the time for an interview, since you took the time to come see me"