A Dragon's Curiosity

Playing with the twisted wood of her makeshift throne, Nisha beamed at the Seven Seats, although only five of them attended the meeting. Unseen by everyone the [Thorns of the Night] already formed a new bracelet on the elf’s wrist, their role fulfilled.

To her surprise, the wood radiated fulfilment and pride at being able to feast on the ground and show off its splendour. Musing whether or not the skill had a sentience on its own the dragon approved of the thorns somewhat, their natures both had somewhat of excessive pride, a fault in some cases and a boon in others. Naturally, Nisha would not criticise the black wood for something she did as well.

All the while a certain enraged man trembled as he struggled to keep the rage inside his body instead of finding more things to throw around. Being casually disregarded by a whelp not even half his age did not help with that endeavour.

If it were not for the explicit protection from the Golden Heels, he might have ordered her to be removed and thrown into the sewers already.

“Whatever, then let us get through the contract already and be done with it. The earlier she leaves, the better.”

Maybe the contempt in his voice was not as cleanly disguised as he thought as the elf had a pensive expression on her face, at least the part seen above the scarf, and scrunched her eyebrows together.

“To give everyone a short rundown of the current situation, I have already drafted the deeds for nine different districts, the current slums. Each area will split into a square, with a yet to be promoted governor overseeing the development. Aside from the initial investment and an area I will personally oversee, the eight other districts will receive a stipend of one hundred gold each month as well, which is meant to be loaned out to the residents for new shops, buildings et cetera. Another use is the expansion of roads, sewers, facilities for public use and so on.

Ah, do not misunderstand. This is what will happen regardless of the outcome of this negotiation.”

Imagining the map Alestar drew for her before, Nisha unconsciously smiled as she imagined how to develop and improve her new territory. Even in the current form of an elf, the dragon inside her greatly enjoyed claiming a piece of land and transforming it into a place suitable for her alone.

“My offer was the following: while the [Thieves Guild] gives out an order to keep away from my area, I will in turn not oppose the ongoing ties and bases the guild has in the region and will do nothing to impair your operations. With Ser Alestar being the first governor of a district, he also has the authority to select the seven others based on ability. Naturally, I will not oppose if he, people he is acquainted with or if they come from the same workplace. As long as the areas develop in a positive direction, the Dharnas house only requires regular reports and for the governors to keep activities within their budgets, provided by me. Personally, I think it is quite the fair offer and beneficial for both sides.”

With Nisha’s speech, the old crook Alestar suddenly entered the centre of attention. The present Seats wondered how exactly he might be related to the elf to gain such a grand reward and authority aside from the story contained within the reports they collected.

As the predatory gazes coming from beneath the recognition inhibition spells almost ate up his body, cold sweat appeared on his back as Alestar lamented his fate.

He had not been informed of this arrangement beforehand, especially his free control regarding the governors. Inside his mind, the old crook desperately pleaded for Nisha to spare him from this ordeal, standing between the interests of the Seats, especially several of them, has always been a good way to lose your head.

Thankfully the girl fulfilled his wish and continued to explain the offer.

“Think of the whole project as an opportunity. The present residents, of which a sizeable portion should have connection to your guild, are not going to be forced to move away or pay high rates for rent or to use the facilities built by the governors. Your interests are not going to be touched as long as you can coordinate building projects as well, leaving your ongoing operations mostly untouched. I cannot promise you to overlook the laws and let your people go free when caught in the act or with hard proof for their actions, as I am still a subject of the kingdom. Aside from that, the conditions are quite the benefit if you compare it to the changes a group of interested nobles and creditors might implement if they obtain the deeds to the land instead of me.

And in exchange, I only want to have the guild stay out of one of the nine districts. What do you think?”

From her perspective, Nisha believed she offered a good deal. As she hated to deal with each and every single decision personally, delegating the work to skilled people from the [Thieves Guild] made sense, the development of the housing areas as well as commerce benefitted both sides. And the dragon still ruled over all of it, gaining a place to create the store for the maid sisters as well as a significant amount of capital and valuable real estate which helped the Dharnas house in turn.

“What do you gain from it? Thousands of gold is not a small sum, not even for nobles. I understand you have some kind of directive and obtain equal value in turn. What is your prise?”

As expected, one of the so far silent Seats had a similar line of thought as the elf and voiced his concerns. Unfortunately, another voice superimposed on top of his ending sentence.

“Who cares? Who does the brat think she is. You, girl. Giving the guild benefits is the correct decision, we need you just to alter one of the conditions. From the monthly payouts, arrange for around two gold coins worth of food to be given out for free in each area, then we can agree to let you go ahead. As long as you follow our lead, even giving you some leeway in your region is not a big problem.”

By now the angry man also had seen the benefits of the proposal and commanded her right away to bring the matter to an end. He still hated Nisha to the bone and wished her to be gone as soon as possible, but he would not survive as the Seat of his branch if he based his decisions on whether or not he liked the other party.

“Is this some joke? Is the [Thieves Guild] mocking me?”

Suddenly the temperature in the chamber rapidly dropped as Nisha’s stance turned icy enough to almost let frost appear on the broken stone tiles beneath her. Aside from the adverse consequences in case the [Thieves Guild] perceived her as easy to push around, the slight cut deeper than that and offended her on a personal level. To look down on her because of her appearance or age has been a mistake predators always had to pay for with their lives so far and the dragon did not intend to break with that tradition if the guild pushed her into that direction.

“You know no fear! The guild already considered your proposition and you still fail to show proper respect for us! This is intolerable! To think you go against our orders is a huge crime!”

Releasing his pent-up anger by booming at the young girl, the man glared at her and prepared to call in the guards.

He did not mind getting violent against unruly upstarts.

“This is your source of confidence? Guild rules? I am not even a member of the guild, to begin with! I only made the offer first available to you because Alestar helped me to get the project started, do you think I need you to rule over the slums? Is this how the [Thieves Guild] handles negotiations? I should take my plan right over to the king instead and see if he has more capable assistants. I do not fear you crooks in the slightest.”

While the contents of her words seemed quite heated in their concept, the frosty delivery and deadpan tone of voice froze everyone present, instilling the calm confidence in each person that Nisha meant what she said.

“Do you regard me as desperate and subservient because I came to a negotiation in good faith and let you insult me over and over again without retaliation? Should I start a war and use my networks to crush your businesses first and root out your influence before you start listening? This is not my last resort, and you insult the whole Dharnas house if you think you can command me like a mere underling. Is this the official stance of the [Thieves Guild]?”

Under her freezing accusations, the man who had spoken so far burned with an even greater anger and signalled the guards to come in and resort to violence several times, only to be blocked by other Seats who called the men back as soon as he gave out the signal.

“Doesn’t that present a problem for you as well? If it gets out you have connections to the guild and fell out with us, your reputation will suffer and you might face punishment from the king.”

The other silent man who spoke earlier returned an expressively neutral comment, appraising the girl with different eyes from before. Not many dared to openly declare their opinion in front of the Seats and all of those who had the ability eventually rose to greatness through their efforts.

“Oh please, at least half of you must have noble titles. Alestar got the title of a baron in less than a moon, do you think I am stupid as well? Maybe not duke rank, but I bet there is at least one count among us here.

If there is a rumour regarding my possible acquaintances, I will make sure to use the whole capacity the kingdom has to offer to investigate all nobles that might have connections to the [Thieves Guild] to prove my innocence. Who knows who might be exposed in the crossfire to have much closer associations than me?”

Returning the subtle threat seemed to have more effect than Nisha knew.

“Of course that’s only a hypothetical scenario, no one wants to go down that road all the way to the end, Miss Dharnas. This fellow meant no harm and I apologise on his behalf if his manner of speech offended you. I assure you, he comes from the protection money trade and has a somewhat different view on things since he has to interact differently with his customers.”

“What are you saying…”

“Be quiet for a while, will you? The young miss has a point, and we did invite her, it is unbecoming for the Seats to respond with hostility to kindness.

Therefore, Miss Dharnas, I am quite delighted to say the guild isminusculeinterested to make a deal with you, the terms can be discussed, of course. Do you have any other concerns?”

Thrown off by the subservient attitude one of the other seats suddenly adopted, the angry man quickly allowed him to shut down his up and coming storm of curses and swears, a tirade that Nisha was too young to be allowed to hear.

“Since I have gotten such a competent negotiator so far, I can agree to any condition but one now. The food distribution is off the table.”

Reclining in her throne of magic and wood, the dragon smirked at the blurry figures. Who told them to let their primary objective slip out through the bellowing fool. Her instincts told the girl that she might even be able to bill the edibles to the [Thieves Guild] as long as she demanded it, the requirement seemed to be a central part of the agreement.

“This is a bit … can you not agree to it? I already apologised for my fellow council member.”

Apparently, the elf hit the nail right on the head; even the amicable mediator faltered as Nisha flat out ruled their requirement out.

As anticipated the first speaker completely blew up after their objective failed.

“This is enough! You think a few empty threats are sufficient to make us yield? Even if you are not a member of the guild, you will not continue to disdain the Seven Seats! A whelp without any experience dares to refuse our condition; I cannot believe it.”

The longer he raged, the more his fury burned up and the air stifled inside the chamber as dense aura gathered on his body, possibly ready to take action against their visitor personally.

Nisha did not care about him one bit.

Summoning a glacial edge into her voice, the dragon pitied the fool who thought himself in control when he merely played the role of a pawn in a mock council.

“Do you think I am making empty threats? Wait until each sector is governed by a knight household with unlimited funding and the objective to hang each and every crook on the wall, held by an arm's length of rope. The most miniscule connections, the slightest traces of a guild member operating in my territory will be followed by an investigation staffed by the finest investigators the kingdom has and a permanent order to the [Adventurers Guild] to sell information for a generous amount of money.

Each guard shift at the gate will be tripled and given directives to search every wagon entering the city with an execution order waiting for every corrupt guard caught. Even if I have to spend a mountain of gold, my intention was to stop a conflict from happening instead of resolving the aftermath.

It will be a race between my aides coming up with more sophisticated enchantments, inscriptions and policies to strike every thief dead until they tremble at the thought of entering the Dharnas territory.

Money does not matter to me, you should know that by know.

If you want to wage war against me, go ahead. I will prepare the flames of war to roast you slowly and tear you to pieces.”