Chương 113: Chapter 110: A Steward's Steward.

We stepped in, and the first thing I noticed was that the man behind the desk was barely taller than Sere. The man behind the desk was very short, and very bald, and wore a pair of round glasses so large they hid most of his face. The lenses caught the light when he tilted his head, turning his eyes into two flat circles. He looked like a man who had been interrupted in the middle of a nap. His gaze went to Randell first.

Then it moved over the rest of us in a single sweep, one that went over Anias, Damian, the hood that hid my face, and finally Violet. It lingered on the warhammer slung across her back. There was one chair in the room. It sat before the desk, and Randell took it. The rest of us were left to stand behind him. I doubted the single chair was an accident. It wasn't like this place had a lack of furniture. At least the office was normal. I had expected marble and some absurd fountain in the corner.

Instead it looked a great deal like my own study. There were papers stacked in towers and ledgers left half open as far as the eye could see. Anias stepped forward and made the introduction.

"I present Lord Randell Stella." She gave a deep bow as she gestured to him sitting in the chair. Looking at it from the outside…it did feel faintly ridiculous to have someone of Anias' stature bow for anyone. It must have looked even more ridiculous for me. The man nodded slowly.

"Lord Randell of the famed House Stella," he said.

"House Stella of…" He paused, glanced down at a paper on his desk, and looked back up.

"Aelheim." It wasn't the most subtle of insults. I felt Violet twitch beside me. I tapped the side of her foot with mine lightly, and she went still.

"I am Joeffrey," the man said. He leaned back in his chair and folded his hands across his stomach.

"Now. Why do I have the pleasure, Lord Randell?" Randell rose to his full height in the chair, which thankfully, was a great deal of height, and delivered his line cleanly. He had practiced it enough.

"I come on behalf of Lady Esra Veyne. I am sent here by My Lady herself. I wish to propose a trade agreement between House Veyne and House Solaire." He paused, chewed his lip. I almost thought he'd forgotten the next part.

"We require a steady supply of grain. For the next ten years. Of course, we will pay fair market rates." The man named Joeffrey nodded.

"Coin," he said, "for grain. We can certainly do that. You come here on behalf of Esra Veyne. The Kingdom's second Hero." He looked around at all of us, not just Randell.

"And?" Randell faltered.

"We would also require…other foodstuffs. Of course." I winced behind my hood. This steward's steward was obviously fishing for something. Whatever it was, other foodstuffs was not it. Joeffrey shook his head, and with that small motion he set aside the pretense of taking Randell seriously.

"Let us be frank, so as to not waste each others' time," he said. He unfolded his hands and laid them flat on the desk.

"A request for grain is not why the third son of a minor barony from Aelheim is permitted to cut a line that stretches half a mile. You are here because you knew one of our codes."

"Those codes are not handed out," Joeffrey went on.

"They are given to personal friends of House Solair. And as far as I am aware-" he glanced at his papers again. I suspected there was nothing relevant written on them.

"-we hold no positive dealings with anyone in Aelheim. So I find myself wondering how the third son of a barony in name only came to possess such a thing. That is why you are here. Because we are curious." The code was a phrase. The sun always rises and never sets. Anias knew the code, and she had been confident that it would get us far. How she even knew something like this, she had not said. I had asked, but I had not pressed. I would, someday, when she was ready to tell me. Randell shifted in the chair.

For a moment I was certain he would fold. As it happened, there was a scripted answer to this. Randell didn't choose it.

"That is a question beyond the both of us, I think. I may be only a third son. But you are only a steward's steward." I blinked beneath my hood. That was, I could admit, rather good. The scripted answer was something like: only the Duke himself would know. Perhaps you should take us to him. This would do. Joeffrey's mouth tightened at the corner. He leaned back.

"Very well," he said.

"Let us suppose it does not matter. Truly." He spread his hands.

"House Solair can supply enough grain to fill Aelheim's walls to bursting. If it were so inclined. That grain will have its price. So tell me…how does this Esra Veyne intend to pay for it?" I gave the signal. It was the smallest tilt of two fingers against my sleeve. Randell's script had run dry, and from here the floor was hers. Anias stepped forward.

"I am the personal maid of Lady Esra Veyne," she said.

"I am here to oversee these proceedings, and to report them to my Lady." From beneath her cloak, she produced a large brown box. She set it on the desk and opened it. Inside sat the Merchant's Balance. The brass scales gleamed, even in the dim light. Click. Click I watched. Joffrey was staring at the scales with something that might have been boredom. Might have been, if I couldn't see his hands shake, just slightly. I took that as a good sign.

"That is clearly some kind of Artifact," he said, "if you are presenting it as you are." He looked up at Anias.

"What is it?"

"Place any object upon one side," Anias said, "and the other sinks to indicate its market value." The logic of it was simple enough that I was almost embarrassed it had taken me as long as it had to see it. House Solair's entire existence was built on trade. An Artifact that could assess the value of anything would be rather precious to them. If I had sold it on the open market, House Solair would have bought it from whoever purchased it anyway. So why not sell it to them directly and set my own price?

As far as I knew, this Artifact had no known copies or derivatives. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Joeffrey reached out and poked the scale with one finger.

"If what you say is true," he said, "then this would be a very valuable Artifact indeed. Very valuable." He drew the word out.

"If it is true."

"It is true," Anias said.

"On the honor of House Veyne." Joeffrey regarded her for a moment, then reached beneath his desk. I heard a faint click. The door behind us opened, and the same woman who had led us to this room stepped inside. She had clearly been waiting just outside. Joeffrey gestured at the scales. He explained the Artifact's supposed function in a few clipped sentences.

"Test the scales, Shian. See if it can do what they say it does."

"Of course," The woman nodded, stepped forward, and reached for the Balance. Violet moved before I could stop her. She stepped forward, her hand halfway to the warhammer on her back.

"Hey! You think you can just take that? Who knows if you'll even give it back!" Joeffrey looked at her over the top of his enormous glasses.

"Child," he said, "this may be an Artifact. But you are standing on the premises of House Solair. We have no need to steal." Violet opened her mouth again. I pinched her back and she shut it.

"You will have the scale returned," Joeffrey added, "the moment we are satisfied it works." The woman took it and left. I had expected them to test it, but I had also expected it to be a bit more dignified. Joeffrey folded his hands once more. This time his gaze was focused only on Randell.

"It is clear to me," he said, "that either you have been handed a task well beyond your means-" his glance flicked to Anias "-or you are here as a puppet, and the strings are held elsewhere. Either way, I find I must ask. Why did this Esra Veyne not come herself?" I gave the signal again. Anias drew a letter from inside her cloak and set it on the desk.

"This is from Lady Esra Veyne," she said.

"She could not attend in person, as she is indisposed. She has set down her will in this letter." Joeffrey reached for it. Anias drew it back before his fingers reached the paper.

"Alas," she said, "this letter is for the eyes of Duke Solair, and no one else." Joeffrey looked at her for a long moment before he reached for it, and this time Anias let him.

"So," he said.

"She does not come herself. And now there is a letter that only the Duke may read." He sighed through his nose.

"One wonders whether her recent reputation has gifted the girl an ego somewhat larger than her city." Violet stepped forward, mouth already opening. I caught the back of her coat and held it. Damian stepped forward instead.

"Is that any way to speak of a lady?" I tried very hard not to sigh. Wonderful. How many hands was I expected to have for this? Maybe I should have Sere handle Damian why I handle Vio- Wait, where was Sere? She had been standing just next to me a few seconds ago. I scanned the room without moving my head and did not find her. I had a very bad feeling about this. One of Joeffrey's paper towers slid off the edge of his desk and scattered across the floor. Joeffrey looked down at the mess.

He cursed and bent to gather the papers. Anias could have gathered up all of those pages in an instant. She did not. I took that as her own quiet rebellion. This time I did sigh, though thankfully the man was too preoccupied to notice. Probably. Joeffrey straightened. His face was just slightly red. I could understand why. The man had been making a bit of a performance this entire meeting. A performance that didn't quite look as good with him scrambling to pick up no doubt important documents.

"You may return tomorrow," he said finally.

"Tomorrow?" Anias said. Joeffrey nodded.

"Testing the Artifact will take a little time. No more than a day." He waved a hand toward the door.

"Wait a day. See the sights. The gods know there is precious little to do back in Aelheim. We will find you when you are needed." Anias glanced back at me. I gave the faintest nod. Well, it wasn't like I had expected it to go any different. Outside, the absurd line had not gotten any smaller in our meeting. We stood a ways away from the line, in a quiet space between two buildings. In Aelheim, this alley would have been an entire road.

"I'm sorry," Randell said quickly. I almost expected him to drop to his knees.

"It's because I didn't do my part right. And after My Lady went to the trouble of-""You did as well as anyone could have, especially on short notice," I told him, and meant it. Besides, I had rather liked his little ad-lib. Violet growled.

"That bastard treated us like we were nobody."

"He did. That's not a bad thing," I said. Though I was annoyed too.

"He wouldn't say a damn word if you pulled Vaelin out," Violet muttered.

"No," I agreed.

"He wouldn't. But I don't want a deal between a Hero and House Solair. I want a deal between House Veyne and House Solair."

"Doesn't sound that different to me," Violet grumbled.

"It's a pretty big difference," Damian said quietly, from my other side.

"This is why you're-" He almost caught himself. Violet's head snapped toward him.

"This is why I'm what, rockboy?"

"Nothing."

"You wanna repeat that?"

"I said nothing." I was already walking. Sere fell into step at my side, now very visible. She grabbed my left hand.

"That was mean, you know. You dropped the tallest stack on purpose, didn't you?" Sere beamed. Well…it was hard to be mad at her when she looked at me like that. It was fine. Probably. I turned.

"Will they really only need a day?" I asked Anias. I had no doubt they'd hand the Artifact back, but it would be annoying to have to wait again.

"It is likely, My Lady," she said.

"And they truly won't read the letter?" That I was a little less sure about. Curiosity was a powerful thing, after all.

"It will be on the Duke's desk within the hour, I expect. Though I doubt he'll read it." I nodded, thinking. The letter was Cordelia's idea. She had drafted the key phrases and I had written them in my own hand. It contained information. All of the information on House Bulwark that Cordelia had been able to gather. It framed House Bulwark's alliance with House Greenward as a grave threat to House Solair. It outlined what House Bulwark might gain from their new alliance.

It outlined House Bulwark's plans to expand into the Ashen Wastes and claim them now that there was hope of reclaiming them. That part was, naturally, a lie. Though, perhaps it wouldn't be soon, when people went to the Everfrost and saw it thaw. The letter proposed that House Veyne serve a similar function for House Solair. Well, besides the marriage. It was a reasonable enough proposal. There were a few exaggerations, but the whole thing did make sense.

Whether this Duke Solair was a man who saw sense was anyone's guess. There was a crowd ahead of us. A large one, funneling toward a great circular building that rose above the rooftops. The shape of it tugged at something far back in my mind. Why was that? I was certain I had never- Wait. Was that a coliseum? Vaelin stirred in my mind. He had been rather quiet for a while now. Great, now you wake up? A crier stood at the building's mouth.

"Come one, come all, for the great Myrrheim showmatch! Today's bout features the famed Northern Lion Magnus Canres against the up-and-coming Whispering Blade Leonhardt! Come one, come all. You don't wanna miss this one!" I was already turning away when Violet seized my right arm and began towing me toward it. Her grip was very strong. Not that I tried to fight it. Not that Sere did either, still holding my other hand.

"Hey- where are you going?" I said.

"Come on." She did not slow down.

"I stood through your whole boring meeting. Didn't even break nothing. Now we're going to take a look." I sighed. I did not point out that I was likely the reason why she hadn't broken anything. Well…there was nothing better to do while House Solair weighed our scales. Literally.

"Fine," I said. I let her drag me in. Everyone else followed.