Chương 129: Chapter 126 - Procurement

The Adventurers' Guild had a way of making everything look accidental and an event at the same time. At first glance, it was noise. Adventurers moved through the hall in uneven flows, some arriving with mud on their boots and others leaving with the expression of people who had just agreed to do something slightly regrettable for money. Weapons clinked. Leather creaked. Someone was arguing with a clerk over whether a missing boot counted as equipment loss. Alric paused just inside the entrance.

It smelled of leather, sweat, oil, old wood, and beer. Not enough beer to make it a tavern, but enough to remind him that the Adventurers' Guild had been one of his better customers for some time now. Branick walked beside him, looking entirely at ease. Two other adventurers trailed a few paces behind. They were not crowding him, exactly, but they were near enough that anyone wanting to stab Alric would have to make it a group activity.

A young clerk with a scar on his cheek and split ear looked up and straightened.

"Mister Alric?" he asked in alarm.

"That's me."

"Guild Master Pavise is expecting you." That still felt strange. Being expected. Having appointments, arriving with documents. It was suspiciously close to being respectable. He followed the clerk through the hall and up the stairs. The stairs did not creak, which Alric noticed immediately. In this city, silence from wood usually meant expense, maintenance, or someone with a strong interest in surprising armed men from below. Pavise's office overlooked the main hall.

The guild master sat behind his desk with a collection of papers arranged into piles that looked disorderly only until one examined them. Then they became worse, because they were clearly organised according to a system known only to him. Pavise looked up and grinned.

"Alric."

"Pavise," Alric said, returning the grin and taking a seat. His eyes dropped to the documents under Alric's arm.

"Those the papers?" Pavise eyed them warily. Alric set them on the desk with a wide grin.

"Atelier documents." Pavise did not take them immediately. He leaned back first, creating distance from the documents. He studied Alric with the expression of a man who had learned that paper could be more dangerous than knives if given enough witnesses. Then he picked up the first sheet. For a while there was only the sound of pages moving. Alric waited. Branick acting as Alric's guard took up a position near the door and performed a very convincing impression of a man not listening. Pavise read slowly.

His grin returned by degrees. The look of a man watching someone build a bridge over a river that had not yet admitted it was in the way.

"Well," Pavise said at last. Alric waited. Pavise tapped the documents once.

"Are you trying to become a military power?"

"Eh? No." Alric said raising a hand and shaking his head. Pavise's grin widened.

"You understand why I ask."

"I can guess." Alric said with a shrug. A recognised atelier. Legal authority, workers, students, guards, mages.

"The temple watching you. The palace watching you. The magery likely pretending not to watch you while also watching you." He lifted the papers slightly.

"This is a lot for a brewer."

"The main point for me is bypassing the magery," Alric said leaning forward, he scanned the documents looking for a specific passage. That changed Pavise's expression.

"Ah." Pavise set the papers down.

"What do you need from us?"

"Do you have something like a… I don't know the word here, I guess a catalog?" Alric gave up on finding the passage, instead sitting back and watching Pavise with his head tilted. Pavise waited. Alric waited back.

"A what?" Pavise asked.

"I guess something like a book or a list of everything you sell… you acquire. Everything the guild can provide." Alric explained, his gaze moving from the documents to Pavise. Pavise tapped his chin for a moment, looking at the ceiling. Alric pressed on before the silence could take hold.

"Monster stones, magical materials, herbs, monster bits that do something I guess? Things adventurers bring in, sell, store, or can be paid to collect." Pavise looked at him, his finger hanging awkwardly away from his chin.

"You want a list of everything?"

"Yes."

"We have records but I don't think it's the same thing." Pavise replied shifting backwards slightly.

"They could be." Alric said with a grin. Pavise looked at the desk, chewing his bottom lip for a moment.

"This will cause a lot of clerk suffering." Alric nodded.

"I'll pay for the suffering." he wanted to add that is what clerks were for but thought better of it. That got a laugh. Below them, someone shouted something about boots again. A second voice shouted back that if he wanted to keep both boots, he should not have stepped where the map said swamp. Pavise ignored it.

"Most clients know what they want before they come here," he said looking at Alric searchingly.

"That's the problem. I don't know what might be useful until I know it exists." Alric answered, lifting both hands in a universal 'dunno' gesture that worked across worlds. Pavise's humour faded slightly. Alric leaned forward, tapping the documents.

"If I only ask for things everyone already uses, I get things everyone already understands."

"And you want things people do not understand?" Pavise asked, tilting his head backward slightly in alarm.

"I want things people have decided are useless because they were asking the wrong questions." Alric explained after considering how his last sentence came out. Pavise studied him for a moment.

"Give me an example." Alric looked toward the wall.

"I don't know. A magic stone that spins or something." Alric attempted a good spinning motion with his hand. Pavise stared. Then he chuckled. Then he laughed.

"A stone that spins?" Pavise said putting a hand flat on the table for support.

"It was an example." Alric replied with something close to a pout.

"I know of no such thing. If something like that existed, every wagon in the kingdom would have a bunch of them." Pavise explained between chuckles. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. The laughter slowed. Alric shrugged, his expression returning to a grin.

"Or would someone have found one, decided it was a strange stone that turned itself around on a table, and sold it to a noble child?" Pavise's mouth closed.

"That's my point," Alric said lifting a finger.

"I don't need it to look useful to the person who found it. I need to know it exists." The room became quiet in a different way. Pavise tapped his chin again.

"You think there are valuable things sitting in guild stores because no one knows what to do with them?"

"Well, the heating stones for one." Alric explained tilting his head forward.

"They were already useful." Pavise said glancing and frowning.

"They were expensive bath warmers. Now they make most of the city's beer." Alric tapped his finger on the documents again. Pavise conceded that with a tilt of his head.

"You did find a use for them," Pavise said with his hand away from his face.

"A loud, steamy one that has made half the city dependent on not upsetting you." he added with a grin. Alric shrugged at that comment, "And the city has better beer now. Speaking of heating stones, I need thirty more." Pavise somehow became very still. Branick, by the door, looked very carefully at the ceiling.

"Thirty?" Pavise said said slowly.

"Heating stones?"

"Yes."

"They are still twenty silver each." Pavise said watching Alric's expression. Alric winced. He had known the number. It still hurt when spoken aloud.

"That's fine."

"That is six gold." Pavise stared at him. Alric shrugged, each boiler was earning roughly a gold coin a week. They were running five of them.

"The damn magery charges a gold coin each," Alric said. Pavise winced too. There were prices one expected from the magery, and there were prices that made experienced men briefly consider arson as an economic model.

"That," Pavise said looking uncomfortable, "I knew it was bad, but…"

"I consider it robbery but I also don't have the words." Alric said staring at the wall with the near pout again. Pavise just nodded slowly, considering it.

"I need them for the new project. Some for the atelier, some for experiments, and some spares." Alric explained with a shrug, his gaze returning to Pavise.

"Spares?"

"If one breaks, I don't want everything stopping." Alric explained with a half shrug and vague hand gesture.

"That is not how most people buy things."

"I am buying what I will need when something goes wrong. Don't you have a spare weapon?" Alric asked wondering if it was such a foreign concept. Pavise rubbed his jaw. The guild master glanced toward a shelf of ledgers behind a small locked grate.

"I do have a spare but we don't have thirty here." Pavise explained, his toungue ran across his top teeth as was his habit when thinking.

"How many?" Alric asked leaning forward again.

"Six not already assigned. Maybe eight if I upset people."

"Am I not worth upsetting people for?" Alric said attempting to look cute at the same time. Pavise laughed before it turned into a sigh.

"I can send ravens. Mountain branches may have some. If I send messages today, replies in a few days. Stones in two weeks if the roads behave."

"Do it." Alric said with a nod and smile. Pavise nodded before pulling paper toward him. He read the words out loud as he wrote them.

"Thirty heating stones. Buyer understands price and has chosen suffering."

"I don't think that last part needs to be official." Alric said with his brows knitting.

"It's for me." Pavise said with a grin of his own. Alric sat back.

"Do you have anything for cooling?" Pavise's hand paused.

"Cooling? Like ice or something?" His expression slipped to perplexed.

"Like making things cold. Or moving heat away. Or moving air. Anything." Alric said making the circle gesture with his hands again, looking predatory. Pavise looked at him with the expression of a man being asked if the guild kept spare winters in storage.

"Never heard of anything that makes things cold, I understand that is impossible." Pavise explained slowly. Alric nodded, sitting back and thinking. Pavise watched him carefully.

"There is one thing," Pavise said slowly. Alric looked up.

"I do not like that expression."

"What expression?" Alric said trying to wipe off the predatory look again.

"The one where you spend money before I tell you what the thing is." Pavise tilted his head down slightly.

"What is it?" Alric asked trying to sound reasonable.

"A sea monster. Nasty thing. Attacks boats from below. Blasts them somehow, makes a lot splashing. From what I've been told, it can crack hulls." Pavise added still watching carefully.

"It has a stone? Like the heating stones?" Alric asked trying to keep the delight out of his expression and failing.

"Yes. In water, its stone moves water. Violently. In air, it moves air." Pavise explained, a tone of regret at mentioning this had slipped into his voice. Alric went still considering it for a moment before shuddering. It sounded like a monster that attacked with water pressure. Something like that could rupture organs directly. He sneered slightly before he glanced back at Pavise.

"I want two." Alric said holding up two fingers and nodding. The previous thought forgotten.

"I didn't say we can get them." Pavise said skeptically.

"I want two to test." Alric said and failed to keep the cheer out of his voice.

"Of course you do." Pavise said sitting back and staring at the wall with a huff.

"Initially." Alric added helpfully. Pavise closed his eyes for a moment and rubbed his temples. His head thrown back facing the ceiling.

"Initially," Pavise repeated, his pose not changing.

"If it moves air, it could be useful." Alric explained unhelpfully.

"For what?" Pavise said still in the same pose but glancing at Alric down his nose.

"Loads of things, Pavise. Bellows, for one. Cellars, grain drying. Do you know how much trouble air is?" Alric explained trying to be both vague and helpful. Pavise stared at him before shaking his head.

"No," Pavise said.

"I cannot say I have ever thought of air as trouble." Branick made a small choking sound near the door. Pavise did not look at him.

"Don't." Branick became professionally silent.

"We do not have any here," Pavise said with a sigh.

"Coastal guilds might. They may not sell. Those stones can be dangerous."

"Well, try, I'd like just the two to experiment with." Alric said with what he hoped was a disarming smile. Pavise noted the smile before he leaned forward to add another note, with the care of a man trying not to become involved in his own handwriting.

"Two hull cracker stones. Testing purpose." Pavise said out loud as he wrote, in case it helped. It did not.

"Air movement purpose." Alric corrected cheerfully holding up a finger.

"I am not writing that." Pavise said with a flat expression, glancing from the note to Alric.

"Why?" Alric asked innocently.

"Because a clerk will ask questions, and those questions will end with me explaining you." Pavise explained with a long stare. Alric sat back and accepted that. It seemed fair. Pavise set the page down and regarded him properly now.

"I don't know what to make of you, Alric. You have an atelier, guards, heating stones in bulk, sea monster stones, and a request for every strange thing the guild has ever ignored." Putting his hands together. Alric nodded and smiled. Pavise waited. Alric frowned, his smile slipping.

"Was there a question?" Pavise laughed once.

"No. That's what worries me." Pavise said sitll chuckling.

"I'm just trying things." Alric explained with an exaggerated pout. Pavise's expression shifted at that. It sounded harmless until Alric said it. Below, the boot argument had apparently evolved into a debate over whether swamps should be marked more aggressively on maps. Pavise ignored that too.

"You aren't saying goodbye. What else?" Pavise asked nervously.

"Do you have books on herbs?" Alric asked. Pavise began rubbing his temples again.

"Herbs?"

"Field guides, local plants, uses, that sort of thing. Anything adventuring herbalists use." Alric added helpfully.

"We have some. Herbalists keep their own notes mostly. They charge for knowledge the way smiths charge for steel." Pavise said not looking at him.

"I am interested in magical herbs." Alric clarified. Pavise did not answer immediately. That pause was different.

"Magical herbs?" he asked, he got serious and glanced between Alric and Brannick.

"Yes." Alric clarified with a nod.

"What for?" Pavise asked now shifting uncomfortably.

"I'm not sure yet. I want to find out."

"That is not an answer." Pavise said, his shoulders slumping.

"It is. I want to learn what they do. How they behave. How they are stored. What happens when you dry them, heat them, soak them, ferment them, distil them, grind them, burn them, grow them near other plants, grow them away from other plants." Alric explained in what he hoped was an innocent tone. Pavise's face had gone still.

"Are you making potions?" Pavise asked, his face serious now. All mirth had left.

"No." Alric said shaking his head.

"Working with someone who makes potions?" Pavise probed tilting his head sideways.

"No." Alric clarified again still shaking his head.

"Planning to start?" Pavise asked leaning further forward.

"No." Alric said sitll shaking his head and lifting both hands. Pavise studied him.

"I have been warned," Alric said.

"Alchemists guard potion production. Kings back them. Nobles buy from them. I understand that pond has teeth."

"That may be the most sensible thing you have said today." Pavise said his pose unchanging.

"I have no intention of making potions." Alric said shaking his head slightly and looking down at the documents.

"Then why magical herbs?" Pavise asked, his head tilting the other way.

"Because if something has an effect, that effect might be useful outside medicine." Alric said with a shrug considering the point reasonable. Pavise sat back and rubbed his face with both hands. It was the gesture of a man watching a simple answer escape through a window.

"Give me an example." Pavise said removing his hands but keeping them nearby.

"A plant that keeps insects away. One that slows rot. One that speeds growth. One that changes colour in bad air. One that preserves meat. One that makes water safer. One that absorbs moisture. I don't know." Alric said counting points on his fingers.

"You think like an alchemist." Pavise said with a sigh, still leaning backwards.

"No. I think like someone who wants fewer headaches." Alric said with a hint of smugness. Pavise stared at him.

"Then why are you giving them to me? No, wait, don't answer." Pavise stood and moved to the shelves. He unlocked the grate, removed a dark leather ledger, and brought it back.

"Herbalist commissions," he said.

"Two years of them. Common things mostly. Antidote moss. Feverleaf. Bloodroot. Silvercap fungus. Marsh lanterns. Some magical, some not." He began getting documents out and finally got out a ledger. Alric leaned forward trying to keep his expression neutral. Pavise turned the ledger slightly away.

"Not yours yet." Pavise said moving the ledger to protect it with his body.

"I was looking." Alric said leaning back and looking away.

"You were looking like a man who forgets ledgers belong to other people." Pavise said unconvinced. They sat in silence for a while assessing each other.

"I can have harmless sections copied," Pavise said.

"The rest will require permission. Some names have agreements attached. Some have warnings."

"And adventuring herbalists?"

"Three in the city. One expensive. One mad. One expensive and mad, which usually means competent."

"I'll speak to the competent one."

"You'll speak to the one who agrees." Pavise wrote again. The page was becoming crowded.

"I also want the directory to include strange storage items," Alric said. Pavise raised his gaze slowly.

"You understand discretion costs extra and I am guessing you want a lot of it?" Alric nodded. Behind him, Branick scoffed.