Chapter 9

"Couldn't you, you know, pay out of pocket?" Theodore interjects. "Archwizards are supposed to be filthy rich, no?"

"You'd be right, if I hadn't spent the majority of my assets in order to build a priceless artifact!" Vedas points at his Halo.

"Oh." 

"Yes, oh. Richard, where is the communication crystal, I need to speak with the representative of the local Onyx Bank."

"This way, sir." If Richard was in any way distressed, he didn't show it.

A few minutes later, Vedas sat in front a round crystal ball that glowed intermittently, waiting for someone to answer.

Communication crystals are one of the few commonalities sold by the Mage's guild; they create a network between others like them, maintained by the Mage's guild. It is also considered their intellectual property, so most people don't even attempt to learn the methods of making them, and those who know -Vedas being among them- opt not to do so.

Nobles usually use them sparingly, since there are only so many uses before they fall into disrepair, but Vedas faces no such issues, because while he wouldn't make new ones, he could readily fix a broken one.

It wasn't long before someone answered; it was an old, green skinned goblin with thin eyeglasses.

"Of course." Vedas lightly whispered. "It's a goddamn goblin."

"I am Tel'kero'toth, the representative of Irearith's Onyx branch, you may call me Toth, how may I help you?" The diminutive man's voice was rough and scratchy, as is the usual from Goblins.

 "This is Vedas Agis, Archwizard of Stars and current marquis of the House of Agis." He responded. "I want to discuss our current debt. And hope to change our current arrangement."

If the old banker was surprised by his title, he didn't show it. "I'd presume that the Madras were defeated?"

"You presume correctly." 

A gleam of victory lit up the goblin's eye, before it swiftly disappeared in favor of scathing disinterest.

Of course he'd be happy, with the Madras house destroyed; all the accounts made in their name would fall in the bank's hand. The Onyx Bank does not recognize any laws aside from their own, as is dictated by Onichius, the Greedy Dragon King. So they do not recognize Agis' right of conquest, now all the gold they embezzled was out of Vedas' hands.

"We not break our contracts, Lord Agis. You may not have participated in their making, but your family gave the Madras authority to act in their name in most financial manners. The Onyx Bank will not pay for your negligence."

Vedas' face twitched in chagrin, he always opposed that decision, but his father was adamant in keeping to tradition, never imagining the prospect of betrayal. Plus he was too young then in his eyes, and his complaints were seen only as the playfulness of a child.

"I understand, mister Toth." He answered. "But I am not here to render those debts null, but to renegotiate their terms. It is a permanent clause in all Onyx Bank contracts that they may be modified as long as the two parties involved are in agreement."

A bushy eyebrow raised in interest. "And what do you propose?"

"I want to waive the debt for three years; the amount of credit accrued during those years will be paid as a lump sum, giving you a nice profit margin."

"No. I have no assurance that there will be even a House Agis to pay, the Irearith Kingdom is in chaos and the Onyx Bank would be unwilling to overtake such a big risk." 

"Let me be frank with you, Toth. Neither I nor my House has the current amount of currency necessary to pay for our own matters, let alone to keep up with our payments." Toth began to speak, but he was interrupted by a raised hand. "And! I could totally just ignore it all, you will try to seize my House's properties as payment, and I'll just refuse, and then what?! You'd send a Dragon after me? I already killed an undead one, how harder would it be to slay a live one?"

Unless Onichius comes himself, of course. But he'd find such a paltry sum unworthy of his attention.

The banker's disinterested façade finally broke in favor for anger. "The Onyx Bank has many other ways to make your life difficult, Lord Agis. We are not an enemy you can afford to make." He spoke with grit teeth.

"And I agree! That's why I'm calling, to negotiate." Said Vedas. "The reasons the Onyx Bank can't directly act against me are the same reasons that make this deal viable. Sure, the House of Agis may have fell once, but do you think, do you really think, that I'd be dead in three years? I am not trying to make a deal as the Marquis Vedas Agis, but as the Archwizard Vedas."

Toth let out a sigh. "Alright, Archwizard Vedas. I may be willing to waive your payments for six months, provided an interest rate of 8 percent for the duration." 

"Two years, same interest rate of 3%"

"Eight months 7.5%"

"One year, 4%"

Toth paused at the offer, thinking.

"Make it 5%, that's the bank's final offer." 

"Deal. It is a pleasure to do business with the Onyx Bank."

The goblin just rolled his eyes at the screen while he ended the communication.

Vedas looked at the incredulous expressions of his bodyguard, and stoic one of his butler.

"You killed a dragon?!" Theodore exclaimed.

Vedas ignored him, slumping in his chair out of relief. He gave himself some time, now to fix this mess.

________________________________________________________________________________

Count Jevius Keston, or King Jevius now, was a giant of a man, he stood at the height of two men with the muscles to match.

He had a wild mane of red hair, the left side of his face marked by a giant scar, and majestic facial hair.

He looked very intimidating, and was renowned as one of the few Grandmaster aura users of the Irearith region, the scar was one of his most prized trophies of war, a testament to his famed endurance, and the consequence of a mighty blow from Kazko the Hideous' club. 

He squashed the memories of a dark skinned troll the size of a giant standing over his prone body, the pain of a crushed skull tinted with the fear of his eventual demise. His only saving grace was the blinding speed of a golden eyed man saving him from that monster's blow.

'I guess this is karma for my betrayal.' He mused.

There was a messenger standing before him, his garments were stained with mud and dust, while the man himself was barely standing still.

He was one of the many mercenaries who were at the Avis Castle's doors, at least that's what the Madras thought, and in reality he was one of the many men sent there disguised as sellswords in order to spy on the treacherous house.

'A traitor once, is a traitor for life.' That was Jevius' thought at the time.

"Repeat what you said, please." His voice rough and intimidating, but the spy was used to speaking with his lord, so he hadn't paid it any mind.

"Yes sir. It is hard to believe, but the Order of the Shining Beacon assaulted the castle and took it in but a few hours."

"That was the expected strategy, yes. Not that we expected them to succeed." Drawled the aging court mage from Jevius' side.

Jevius was one of the few Lords who could claim truly having their court mage's loyalty, that was because he wasn't hired from the mage's guild, but was actually a dear friend that he traveled with in his younger days. He did get annoyed sometimes though by his unfriendly personality.

"Uh…" The envoy was bemused for a moment at the comment, but he nevertheless told the rest of his tale. "They bypassed the mercenary camps and went straight for the castle, and managed to avoid detection until they destroyed the gate and alarmed every one of the attack."

"We were prepared for such an eventuality, the plan was to have the mercenaries entering the castle in droves to drown them in numbers from the outside, and to have the knights hold the line at the castle, but there were a couple of inconsistencies."

"First, Erling Havenlight was a Grandmaster, he managed to cut through our men much quicker than we predicted, so by the time we came inside the castle, their men had already began besieging the main hall."

Jevius nodded, that was a concern of theirs, but with two experienced masters and their number advantage, he predicted that they would have been able to exhaust the man and kill him once for all.

"The uh… I assure you that this sounds as outrageous to me, my Lord." The man prefaced. "The Order was accompanied by the late Lord Agis' last born son, and he called himself the uh… The Archwizard of stars uh… my lord."

His eyebrows almost touched his scalp, an Archwizard? Wasn't the boy in his twenties? Jevius turned to his friend for elaboration, only to find his uncharacterisly agape in chock.

Jevius wasn't well versed on magic, but he knew the general knowledge.

The 'Arch' prefix denotes the highest denomination of magic users, Archmage, Archwizard, Archdruid etc… It is the equivalent of an Aura Transcendent, there is no way to test for that level, and the Mage Guild just grants the title to any Grandmaster level magic user who had significant achievements.

Moreover, unlike mages who rely heavily on their natural affinity to more easily control their chosen element, wizards take the hard way, they use primal, neutral, mana in their spells, giving them unparalleled variety in exchange of rigidity.

Sure, they all mostly specialize in one field, and their titles, like this one's Archmage of the Stars hint at what it is (He'd wager that it's some sort of light magic in this case.). But to climb the ranks as a wizard is incredibly difficult, and an Archwizard in his twenties? That's a scary prospect.

'He'd be able to defeat me, easily.' Jevius thought.

"Cassius, if you were to explain?" He asked his court mage.

"I uh… Yes, I know of the Archwizard of stars, he is somewhat of a legend in our circles. He certainly matches the description, a young man in his twenties. But I thought he was a professor in the academy, and there was no mention of a connection with Irearith."

The court mage turned to his friend. "This is incredibly bad news, Jevius. Unlike other wizards, the Archwizard was famed for his experience in combat; he is very much used to warfare." His eyes were grave. "We have to be cautious, attempt diplomacy before we try anything, and maybe we should give up on integrating Agis into our territory, there are other ways to reach the capital."

Jevius dismissed the messenger with a wave. He thought that Cassius' words made some sense, the advantage of Grandmaster and higher powers was that they are usually unassailable by lower level enemies. Agis' forces were definitely depleted so he won't be able to afford to wage war against other people.

But he won't be able to conquer their lands, attacking a wizard at his home field would be suicide, let alone an Archwizard.

Plus, he's pretty sure the Madras has left a financial mess at his door, he should be pretty busy trying to keep them in order.

The issue here is alliances; Both Keston and Agis lands share a border with that Griffon ponce, if they team up against him…

"You'd think the knowledge that we were actually forced into this alliance by the Madras' would help?"

Chrismund Madras was a tight cunt; he knew that out of courtesy, Jevius would only ally with him after he succeeded with his coup. But the man convinced Agis' vassals to side with him against Oxius citing that he had his support even if he did not, and then got rid of them before they could have realized the truth. 

The Late Marquis Agis had saved his life at the recent campaign, he would have never actively allied against his son, but he wouldn't have actively helped him either.

By the time the news reached Jevius, the Madras have already succeeded in their coup, and seeing a chance to destroy his opposition, he opted to ally with the buffoon.

"Maybe, the only thing I knew about the new Lord Agis was his treatise on the correlation between light and heat." Cassius shrugged. "I have no idea about his temperament, although he does have a reputation as a benevolent hero, so there is that."

'Fuck you, Madras, you sanctimonious fuck.' Jevius thought. 'I hope you rot in hell.'

He rubbed his forehead. "Among our people, who'd be suicidal enough to go and entreat them?"

"You won't like my answer, Jevius." Said Cassius.

Horrifying realization dawned on his face. 'Seriously, fuck you to hell and back, Chrismund.' He cursed.