Chapter 53 Headquarters

We followed behind Bylura. The wolf girl's ears constantly moved, making her look cute from behind. When Callem spoke, her ears stilled as she tried to focus on our conversation, "Storme, are you sure you want your building in the skyship docking area? Your restaurant may not get a lot of traffic from locals. The upper city with the road to the mountain dungeon or east city where the other dungeon is located would be better."

Callem was offering his advice, but my choice was not based on making coins. It was based on the closeness to the skyship docks and one of the highest security zones in the city. The naval docks were adjacent, and both the navy and city guard had barracks within this mostly warehouse district. "No, Callem, I plan just to have a small restaurant. I also don't actually plan actually to work in the restaurant." I was being careful with what I was saying since Bylura was listening.

As we walked, I studied all the buildings and people we passed. The city was clean, and the people were well dressed but still had an edge to them from the Sadian attack. Only a few signs of the attack remained, and I could see workers fixing buildings and a few mages assisting with spells. In another few weeks, it would look like nothing had happened. The Triumvirate was trying to erase the memory of the attack as rapidly as possible. The Annuals had been a great distraction in the capital, but here it looked like the people were still healing.

Bylura stopped at a small tavern off the main thoroughfare just after leaving the warehouse district. We walked inside, and it smelled bad and looked worse. Bylura stated, "This is the cheapest building Loriel's contact found for you. 1200 gold with an annual tax of 31 gold and 22 silver." I walked through, and the smell of urine and vomit in the bathroom made me gag. I spammed my cleanliness, doing the owner a favor. The upstairs had just three large rooms, and all were stuffed with crates.

"It's too small for my needs, and I was hoping for something on the main road from the docks to the east city," I said after my thorough inspection. Bylura scrunched her canine nose. I think she was agitated but didn't want to show it.

"The next offering is quite a bit more coin," she led the way back to the main street.

I asked Callem, "So do you think she was illegally trained to fight, or is she an actual Wolfsguard?" I asked of Bylura. Bylura missed a step, and her ears perked, straining to hear. Callem grinned at me.

"Definitely not a Wolfsguard," was all Callem said as we walked.

A much less haughty wolf girl showed the next building. "This inn is called The Puzzled Goose. One of the co-owners was killed in the recent attack, and the other owner is selling. 4500 gold, and tax is 35 gold," she said smugly. I think Bylura thought I couldn't afford it. I had my winnings from my bet on Gareth, sixteen platinum, plus another ten platinum from my deal with Loriel. So that would put my fortune at 2600 gold if Loriel had checked.

The inn looked well run, had a nice common room that could seat 10 at a bar, and had four tables with six chairs each. Not very large. The inn had a second and third floor, with five rooms on each floor. It would not be a bad option if I hadn't walked into the kitchen. The kitchen was tiny, and there was a hidden suite on the first floor for the owner. He had bastardized his kitchen to create a low-cost bedroom for himself. "Not bad," I said, turning to Bylura. "You have one more property? I assumed you saved the best for last?" I could always rip out the bedroom and restore the kitchen to its former glory, but The Puzzled Goose didn't feel like the right choice.

The white wolf girl didn't say anything, and she just walked ahead. I turned to Callem, "Maybe you can give her some tips on hiding her training when she walks?" He looked at me, and the girl's ears looked to be straining toward us. Callem took the hint.

Speaking loudly, he stated, "If I wanted to alter my gait so that an observer wouldn't be aware that I trained in the Falcon's Strike style of the sword, I would…." Callem went on to detail four different things he would do to obfuscate his walking. That was a problem with trying so hard to train muscle memory for sword forms. It bled into your everyday movements. I sometimes found myself cooking using various motions from sword forms. I would try to resist doing this in the future as I wanted to appear as unassuming as possible.

Currently, for me… not a big deal, but if they found out Bylura was training in combat, I assumed she would either be killed or count towards the Miaden's house count of 200 Wolfsguard. Watching the girl try to incorporate Callem's suggestions in real-time was funny, and I didn't fail to notice that she had looped us around to give herself more time to listen to Callem and practice.

When we got to the final building, it was huge. It was a full-fledged restaurant, seating for 120, a large kitchen, a large cellar, and a second floor with seven staff rooms. It was fully functional, and I couldn't understand why anyone would want to sell it. It was on the main road and right on the border of the dock and trade districts.

"So, Bylura, how much is this one?" I asked after the tour.

"It is not for sale," she started. "It is owned by the Miaden family, but my mistress would allow you to invest 2,000 gold for a 20% share in the profits of the building." I scoffed.

"20% of the profits? You could just narrow your margins enough to minimize profits and pay me nothing!" Where did that come from? It must have been some tidbit of information from my past life. Bylura seemed a little taken aback, and Callem's eyes widened at my insight. "I am not looking to invest," I stated firmly. "Now, let's look at two properties I noticed on our entertaining tour today."

Callem seemed amused as I now led the way to the exasperated wolf girl. I was in front, so the two walked side by side, and Callem started whispering to her and helping her with hiding her martial ability. The first building I came to was a four-story bakery. The upper three floors were apartments, and the bakery didn't appear to be doing too well.

The location was perfect, but he couldn't sell the building after the building's owner was summoned. The apartments housed a fair number of naval personnel and made good profits even though the bakery was doing terribly. So that killed my first choice. My other choice was a literal warehouse by the trade docks. It was on the corner of skyship docks and the main thoroughfare. It was solid aged stone and had one side facing the docks that was three hundred feet long and another section along the road that was a hundred feet. The building was just over forty feet in height was a flat roof—a fairly massive structure.

What drew my interest was that the center half of the building had collapsed, and no effort had been made to haul away debris from the interior. Bylura looked seriously confused when I asked about the building. She didn't have a clue, so she was going to have to go and talk with her Miaden contact in the city. I noticed a food vendor cart with seating set up across the street and told her that Callem and I would wait there for her to return. She hurried off.

As we sat with a hot drink and some sweet pastry rolls, Callem asked, "I don't know, Storme. This Loriel seems to be trying to tie you to her. That offer for 20% was extremely generous even if it was a ploy, as you pointed out." He sipped, and I could tell he was intently people-watching in this high-traffic area. "And this building," he pointed across the street, "I don't see what you do in it. Are you just yanking the wolf girl around?"

I gave Callem a devilish smile, "Potential. That building has potential. The location is perfect, and with some major renovations, the back half could be made into a nice little hanger while the front half could serve as a restaurant and still have enough space for a second and third floor to add housing for the adventuring team." My excitement didn't translate over to the skeptical Callem.

It was twenty minutes longer before Bylura brought back a middle-aged man in finery with the Miaden house crest pinned on his robes. "Good morn, Storme," the man sat wheezing a bit to face Callem. "I apologize for not giving you the tour personally today. The wolf kid insisted that she bring you herself." Bylura rolled her eyes at his comment.

"Magistrate Nassir, this is Storme," Bylura indicated to me instead of Callem, and he flushed in embarrassment. "And I only said I would give him a tour of the buildings because I didn't know when he was arriving!" she added, irritated.

An embarrassed Nassir turned to me, "Storme! I can see why Loriel Miaden is interested in such a fine young…." Bylura elbowed him, and he got the point. "So yeah…you are interested in the warehouse across the street. Um, let me see." He pulled some papers out of the satchel under his robes and sat at our table.

While he fumbled with the papers, I slid the tray of pastries to Bylura, who had some drool on her mouth. She reluctantly took one and then another. Secreting both into clothes for later.

The magistrate continued, "So the building is owned by Dunnar Miaden…who died in the assault when the building collapsed from an attack. No beneficiaries. It has been emptied…." He paged through some more documents.

Callem studied me and the magistrate while sipping on the aromatic tea in his hand. He was curious about what I was going to do. He had been treating me like an adult for some time now. It was almost as if he guessed I was older than I appeared…

"So here…yes, the chain of custody. The warehouse belongs to the Miaden central family now…so I guess we can sell it to you." He paged through some more documents, "A warehouse this size…fair price should be 12,000 gold." He looked at me, and I just gestured to the half-destroyed structure. "Ah yeah…it does have some problems."

"And as you have already mentioned, Loriel wants to do me a favor. And I will need the property rezoned for restaurants and housing." I said while being patient as he got a little more flustered.

"7,800 gold with the rezoning…." He offered tentatively. He was looking for approval at the offer.

"6,000," I countered, "or 7,000 if you clean the debris and supply the material to fix the collapsed section." I finished. I wasn't aware of the building costs or codes, but I figured getting a head start on the rebuilding would be easier. Nassir was doing the math in his head. Would it cost the Miaden more or less than 1,000 gold to meet my demands on the warehouse?

"7,000 gold. Yes, 7000 gold for the property is doable. We can clear the building in maybe 20 days and get you the replacement stone in less time. Most of it will be your own recycled stone by the Miaden construction mages, though. The crews are mostly finished in the rest of the city. Should I start the paperwork?" He asked hopefully.

I looked at the building. It was on the corner with the long side facing the plaza on one side, and the other side had a narrow alley shared with a similar warehouse. My warehouse had open space in the rear, about 200' of rough ground, before reaching the city wall. I guessed there might have been an old warehouse standing there in the past. "The land behind the warehouse to the wall. How much for that land as well? I don't plan to build anything, but I don't want any surprises popping up." I planned to have my hanger entrance on that side and didn't want a spiteful lord building a structure there in the future.

Nassir pulled out some maps and cross-checked some things, "The city owns it. We can do 1500 gold without any building permits. I can not negotiate on the price. It is fixed," he added worriedly, perhaps thinking the sale was in jeopardy.

So 8,500 gold before construction. I looked at Callem, who seemed amused. "Callem, did you bring twenty-five platinum with you?" He gave me a guilty look.

"Thirty-nine Storme," he said slowly. Callem had my winnings from Gareth and then some. I wasn't sure why he had brought so much additional coin. I reached into my bag and pulled out the ten platinum I had gotten from Loriel and another bundle of fifty platinum coins. I placed them on the table, two pouches.

"Callem, you need to add twenty-five so our new friend here can start the transaction and begin to clear the warehouse." Bylura and Nassir's eyes popped at the bags of coins on the table. Callem just added his own pouch to the two I had already placed without changing his facial expression like it was the most natural thing to drop a fortune on the table.

Nassir slowly took all three coin pouches. "I will get on this." He stood like he might be stopped suddenly.

Bylura said with some exasperation, "You are just going to trust him with your coin without any guarantee notes?"

I said, "Yes," to her, and I got the exasperated look from her that I wanted. My indifferent spending made the wolf girl turn and leave in a huff, her job done. I addressed Callem, "Callem, we should head into the trade district for your shopping trip." I yelled to the leaving wolf girl, "Bylura, if you could do me a favor and send an architect to Hen's Hollow for a week to work with me on my new building. I am sure Loriel knows a good one." She held up a fist without turning around. That was a gesture that was similar to the middle finger in Skyholme. I wasn't sure why she was upset with me but I thought it was funny.

As we walked away, Callem asked, "That was a lot of coin. They will assume it was my coin, but even that may start to raise questions. What is your plan, Storme?"

"I am thinking long term. Half of the building is going to be a hangar. I am going to build my own skyship. The other half will be the restaurant and have residences on the upper two floors. The dungeon delving team will help gather resources to build the skyship and live on the upper floors. I will be attending the academy here in Aegis City next year. The dungeon academy. I will make use of their combat mage track." I spelled out my plan to Callem.

"And where does Gareth fall into your plan?" Callem asked, interested.

"That is why I decided on the dungeon academy to continue learning my magic. I don't plan to delve into dungeons, but the capital academies are too dangerous with their politics. We have talked about this before, and Cilia's experience reinforced my reluctance." I said.

After a pause, "And Aelyn?" Callem finally asked.

"With the skyship, we can get to the lowlands and remove her indentured tattoo," I said without hesitation.

"I was looking forward to interviewing your prospective dungeoneers. Since we are not doing that today, when do you think you will need my help with that aspect of your grand plan?" Callem said while making eye contact. His golden eyes seemed to look right through to my soul.

"So you are on board?" I asked Callem.

"On board your future skyship?" he chuckled. "I am too old for such an adventure. But kidding aside, Wynna and myself will move to the city while you two are in the academy here."

I reached a little, "I would be happy to include an apartment for you two in the new headquarters."

"Headquarters? I guess that fancy term could describe your building. Yes, that would be most thoughtful of you and lend credence that Wynna and I were both somehow involved in financing this project," Callem said. He grinned, "Would we be able to eat for free at your restaurant?"

I started laughing, "Fine! But then you two will have to pose as the building owners for real! Your names are going on the deed together. So plan to marry Wynna."

Callem stopped laughing and looked at me with a serious stare, "Agreed. But if you are putting her name on the deed, she will want input into its design. You opened that can of butterflies!"

We entered a weapons shop. The weapons didn't match the ones I created with my skill, but they were quality. I wandered around while Callem started talking with the old smith and adding various weapons to the counter. Callem was using the coin I created to get the students at our academy better weapons to practice and train with. This smith did not use the folding steel method. His weapons were still all high-quality steel with no defects I could find as I touched them and used my ability.

I got some ideas with shapes and ways to reinforce my own work. During the two hours we were in the shop, Callem bought four bundles of weapons that were carefully wrapped together. He knew the old smith personally, and they were lively in talking about old times and discussing the weapons Callem was selecting.

Callem slung the packs of weapons on his back as we returned to the skydocks. We had over two hours to wait. The cool thing was I could clearly see my new building while we waited on the platform. I could add a nice garden on top of the building, and we could watch the skyships come and go from there.

Eventually, our skyship back to Hen's Hollow called for boarding. I focused my thought on the trip back home, putting together the perfect headquarters in my head.