Book 3 Chapter 58: Gold Forgives All Mistakes
Dantes sat across from Stone on the Mountaintop in his VIP booth at the Vixen. He’d never met Stone, but knew him by reputation. He was the head of the Adventurer’s Guild, a noble, and a member of the council. In the council he represented all of the guilds within the city. He was short and squat, even for a dwarf, with dark gray hair, and a face covered in scars including one that tore clear across his scalp. He wore a simple leather outfit with a warpick belted at his waist and chewed a fat cigar that he somehow managed to smoke even in the middle of sips of ale. He wore a necklace with an engraving of a dragon, to show that before he’d become its leader he’d achieved the highest possible rank an adventurer can reach.
“Alright. You invited me here, gave me ale, and offered me a whore. I’d say the pleasantries are over. Go ahead and start spewing whatever it is you want to get to. I’m getting no younger.”
“Are you sure? I think your hair has darkened a bit since you sat down. I’d bet you’ve gotten back a year or two since you got here.”
Stone snorted. “Get on with it.”
“I have two reasons I wanted to meet with you. The first is that I wanted to ask you to tell me about Gavain, and the second is that I want your support for a shift in how changelings are shifted.”
Stone shook his head. “Gavain? Gods that boy… he used to be such a perfect little tool. Now he’s just a black mark on us all.”
Dantes sipped his own wine, letting Stone choose to keep talking.
“He was the greatest adventurer we’d ever had. Came from a family of shepherds. He was everything people wanted from the Guild. He’s strong beyond strength, fast beyond speed, and had a smile that told people everything would be okay. When he first started taking jobs, he’d take three or four in a region at a time. He worked all of them alone, not because he wasn’t able to get along with other adventurers, but rather because other people slowed him down and he wanted to end whatever trouble he could as soon as possible. He slayed his first dragon at seventeen, and he did it alone.” He ran a thick finger along the scar on the top of his head. “I got this fighting a dragon with ten other men, and he’d killed one himself without getting a scratch on him.”
“What makes him so different? Is it some kind of magic? A blessing from a god? Some item?”