Chapter Fifty-seven: Better Call Jevian
Jevian Destroyer’s office looked pretty much like how Tristan thought it would.
He stood at the backmost section of the Novice Ring, facing deeper into the Continent. To his left down the street a bit was a large, manned gate that led out onto a wide, open plain. There were four of these gates total in this part of the Ring, all leading outside, all guarded heavily against any possible monster intrusion.
Every large metropolis had its slums, and Advance was no different. The houses here seemed more slapped together than built. Tilting wooden structures, dirtier streets, tiny pockets of sketchy alleys between the residences.
Tristan looked down at the address on Jevian’s card and looked back up. Yup. This is it. This ramshackle “house,” though realistically it was just an overgrown shed, was his lawyer’s office.
He sighed and put the card away before walking up and knocking on the door.
“I’m busy!” shouted back a familiar voice from inside.
“Uh. It’s Tristan,” he shouted back. “From the Serenity?”
Silence. Then the sound of rapid movement, things knocking over, hurried footsteps—and then the door flung open, revealing a breathless Jevian struggling to put on his suit jacket.
“Oh, hey kid,” Jevian said between breaths. “Good to see you. Come in, come in.”
He stepped aside, and after a slight moment of hesitation, Tristan entered. A short passageway led into what was clearly a very, very dirty living room, but a corner of it had been converted into an office.
There was a desk and two chairs. That was it. But that little corner of the room was tidier than everywhere else at least. Though not by much, Tristan thought, eyeing a suspiciously red stain on the desk’s wooden surface.
“Sorry, kid, you caught me at a bad time.” Jevian stepped over to the corner, cursing as he kicked over a stack of dirty plates. “Kind of in-between cleans right now.”
“No problem,” Tristan lied, stepping over himself. He gingerly sat down in the seat after a furtive inspection to make sure nothing wet was on it, and Jevian plopped down into his chair with a grunt.
“All right,” the lawyer said, smoothing his hair back. “How can I help you? I told you you’d need me soon enough, huh?”
“Yeah, I got handed a contract for this raid I’m joining and I wanted you to help me out with something.” Tristan pulled the [Item Card] from his [Binder] and handed it over to the man, who converted it and started rifling through. “Is this standard?”
“Looks about right to me,” Jevian murmured, licking his thumb and flipping a page. “Pretty basic mercenary contract. The liability section is interesting though. Usually Guilds just take a hands-off approach to any injuries wrought on the battlefield when it comes to mercenaries, but this one is willing to help pay for some of the fees.” Jevian flipped back to the first page and made a grunt. “Ah, I see. This is Unyielding. They’re legit.”
Tristan crossed his arms and frowned. “That loot split distribution is not fine with me, though. Regardless of how well I perform, I just get slapped with the same amount? That just incentivizes me to not try.”
Jevian gave him a look of amusement. “Kid, is this your first time being a merc? That’s the gig. You’re not incentivized to try at all. Just show up, listen to the guild members, and leave with your payment.”
“That’s not going to work for me,” Tristan said stubbornly. “I need to keep my loot.”
“Hmm.” Jevian leaned back in his chair and drummed his fingers on his chest. “I might be able to do something for you here. I know about this Dominion, one of the new ones that spawned after the Apotheosis. I heard Unyielding fought desperately for the bid to clear it, but mercenaries are slow in coming in. They already have a shit job being the guild members’ donkeys, and raiding an unfamiliar Dominion without any information about it is pretty unappealing.” He shrugged. “But typically in these situations, the Guild will just find another mercenary who will sign their contract without getting lawyers involved.”
“I think they’re going to want me,” Tristan said, not a hint of bragging in his voice. He was just being realistic. “I made an impression at the tryout.”
Jevian continued drumming his fingers, seeming lost in thought. Tristan took the opportunity to look around the room more. Clearly, the man lived alone, stray [Item Cards] strewn about everywhere, some legal-looking textbooks stacked atop each other to form a stand on which a half-filled cup of stale water rested.
Some people might view a place like this and think negatively of their host. Strangely, Tristan found himself trusting Jevian more after seeing this. He figured that this was a man who really only cared about one thing: the law. Or beating the law.
“All right,” Jevian said at last, sitting up in his seat and getting animated. “We’ll add a clause to your contract. A stipulation. If you garner more than 50% participation in the raid, you keep all the loot you earned.”
Tristan scratched his head. “More than 50%? There’s going to be 24 people on this raid, Jevian. That’s gonna be difficult.”
Jevian shrugged. “Anything else and they’ll just cut their losses and find another mercenary, no matter how much you wowed them. We have to make the percentage high enough that they think you’re a fool for agreeing to it. Over 50% participation basically just means you gave away the smaller share you would’ve gotten if you just signed the base contract.” He winked. “That is, unless you’re Tristan Ford, the Savior of the Serenity.”
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“Savior of the Serenity?” Tristan repeated with a snort. “Where’d you pull that one from?”
Jevian blinked at him. “It’s all over the newscomms, kid. Haven’t you been hearing?”
“Uh. No. I don’t own one of those.”
“Drop in at a news parlor tonight,” Jevian said with a smile. “I think you’ll enjoy it.”
Tristan filed that away to do tonight with Eila. If she was back at the inn.
“Anyway,” Jevian continued, “that’s the best I can do for you. Over 50% or nothing.”
“Fine,” Tristan said. Once he unlocked Expert and got his Field card, it should be doable. Probably. “Thank you. I just have one more question.”
“Sure thing. What is it?”
Tristan leaned forward. “How do I open my own Guild?”
—🃁—
A few hours later, Tristan exited Jevian’s office/home. He had the initial groundwork set in place for future plans, but that was a while away. For now, Jevian was handling his contract with Unyielding and would contact him when it was done.
To that end, Tristan was now the owner of a new personal shortcomm. It was a smaller model than the ones he used on the Serenity, which he had to return. This shortcomm only had one call option on it and that was Jevian’s. The man said he’d contact him the next night with details, so Tristan had to keep the comm out with him instead of in his [Binder].
He was also one whole light-chip poorer. A fee for having Jevian on retainer. Any future legal matters would come with their own individual costs, but this meant Jevian was officially his lawyer, and he was officially Jevian’s client.
With that all settled, he decided to head back to the inn and see if Eila was there so they could go into one of those news parlors to end the night. Tomorrow, he had another hunting zone trip session, at which point he would advance into Expert and buy a whole new deck, along with better equipment. His helmet, gloves, and boots slots would be occupied by the rental equipment the Guild will give him, so he needed to cover the rest.
I still need to transfer the {Flight} Perk from my [Devourer’s Plate] onto my new jacket, he thought as he walked to the junction. Then I’ll need a new pair of legs, a necklace, and two rings. I’ll buy the helmet, gloves, and boots after the raid. Get them tailored too. I also need a haircut…
He decided to take care of that now before seeing Eila. He wanted to see the look on her face when he showed up with short hair.
He asked around some locals at the junction where he could get a hair cut, and they sent him over to the Apprentice Ring. A short ten minute walk later, he found himself plopped in a barber’s seat with a grizzly old man. The barber wasn’t inclined to speak, which was fine with Tristan.
Twenty minutes and twenty five greens later, Tristan walked out of the shop feeling much lighter than before. He had gotten the bangs cut so they fell just at his brow, and the sides and backs were shortened greatly.
By the time he got it back to the inn, it was fully dark and the moon was out. He entered and looked around but didn’t see Eila there. A little worried, he asked the innkeeper if he’d seen her, to which he just shook his head.
Tristan took the stairs up to their floor two at a time. He rapped on her door with his knuckles and called out, “Eila! Are you there?”
His mind was running wild with anxious thoughts when the door abruptly opened. Eila stood there in a loose shirt and shorts, her brown hair all mussed up, gray eyes wide and alert.
“Hey, what’s the matter?” she breathed. “I got your note. Did the hunting go well?”
“Uh, yeah, it did.” Tristan peered over her shoulder and frowned. “Are you forging in your room?”
“It was getting cold outside. Come in, I just need to finish this quickly.” She pulled the door open all the way and walked in, Tristan trailing behind.
She had pushed the desk that came in the room all the way to the side, leaving her enough space in front of her bed to summon her [Forge]. She’d been in the process of making a card; a quick glance at the [Blueprint] showed Tristan it was a [Tidal Armor] Summon, a Water Adept card.
“Did you upgrade your setup?” Tristan asked, plopping down at the edge of the bed. “It looks different.”
“Yup.” Eila stepped into the center of the [Forge] and wagged a clearly new set of carved brushes. “Used the money in the pirate’s [Binder] I took. New brushes, new inkpot, a [Refined Attuner] and some attuning material.”
“Nice.” Tristan sat back and watched as Eila finished up. It was impressive how focused she got whenever she was forging. Usually she was a little bit clumsy or prone to trips and falls, but when she forged it was like she was a different person.
Her hand made quick, deft movements on the image of the [Blueprint] with a wider brush before putting it down, picking up a smaller, thinner pointed brush and continuing with that. She inspected her work, made a little frown, then grabbed a white cloth glimmering with Water energy and wiped the image.
“You can do that?” Tristan asked.
“Mhm. Normally it’s not recommended, but this [Aqua Cloth] has Water energy in it that fully cleans the image without leaving a mark.”
She continued inking, and Tristan laid back on her bed, flipping through his [Binder] idly. He paused when he saw her move to the attuning station and paid attention again.
Eila pulled out two [Water Sources] and placed the cards on top of the attuner. This one was new; the hollow glass dish was thickly built and had intersecting lines of Water and Dark energy criss-crossing across it. Eila reached into a little cubby built into the stand and pulled out a vial of blue, thick liquid, which she poured into a hole at the top of the glass dish. The vibrant liquid filled the inner part of the hollow dish.
“Is that Water energy?” Tristan said curiously.
“It’s a combination of regular water plus other assorted aquatic materials,” Eila explained. “The exact recipe is a secret kept by the Attuner Guild. It’ll help calm the sources down and make them more pliable.” She frowned down at him .”Now hush. I need to focus.”
Tristan made a zip-my-lips gesture and settled back. Eila converted the sources from the [Item Cards]; two fist-sized orbs of Water energy appeared in her hands, and she brought them closer to the dish while closing her eyes.
A few minutes later, Eila’s eyes snapped open and she quickly went over to the [Blueprint] and fed the sources in. They went happily, which was a marked departure from whenever Tristan had forged and just shoved the damn things in the card.
The [Blueprint] flashed bright and then crumpled away, leaving Eila with a brand new [Tidal Armor] card. She hefted it up, then summoned her [Binder] and put the card away quietly.
“Congratulations!” Tristan exclaimed, smiling.
Eila turned around.
She was crying.