Argentorum
patreon
The Devil's Foundry Book 3: Chapter 12
🕑 Added 2024-04-04 21:18:44 +0000 UTCA/N: There is a character in this chapter named Verdant. She briefly appeared with the name “Vergrisa” in Book 3 Chapter 10.
I’ve renamed her there and her name is Verdant now and forevermore or at least until I change my mind again. Thank you for your understanding.
Chapter 12: Business Dinner
“You simply must try the imprecia.” Verdant of House Orhlys smiled winningly at me. “None of the northern fish compare.”
“I’ll take your advice.” We weren’t at the type of restaurant that had menus in any case. “And is there a wine that pairs with this imprecia, or…?”
One of the attendants stepped out onto the balcony so seamlessly I almost didn’t notice him appear at all. “We offer a fine brandy, Comptess. From Rookvale.”
“It will do,” Verdant said. The waiter slipped away just as seamlessly, leaving an appetizer I hadn’t seen him carrying.
“Even the staff is high level here.” I put on a sigh. “It makes me despair at the thought of returning home.”
Verdant’s smile grew minutely. “I’m certain I can arrange a visit to our own vineyard, though drinking something so light as a wine with fish is perhaps…”
I shrugged, looking out over the balcony. We were seated atop one of the many hills that rose in the eastern part of Corvandr, offering a sloping view of red tiled rooves leading out to a harbor sparkling with sunset. “In my world, pairing fish with brandy would be even worse.”
“…Quite.” She managed to keep her smile, but to be fair, I was laying it on a bit thick.
I had to keep up the persona I’d worn during my meeting with House Orhlys proper. It had been much faster and easier than my rendezvous with the prince, if only because Verdant and her staff seemed to think I could be bought outright.
It wasn’t even hard to convince them that I was for sale. All I had to do was channel my inner tech bro and start talking about bitcoin.
Through a quick, almost nonchalant talk, I’d managed to figure out what they wanted my mirrors for. No prizes for guessing the right answer, but it was money. More specifically, they were hoping to use the power of instant communication to fix prices and game the rudimentary equivalent of the stock market.
The plan was kind of laughable, in that there was so much more you could do with telephones, and also that it sounded like House Orhlys was targeting their rival trading houses as well as the crown. But, the plan did call for Looking Glass towers to be built several other cities so that the signal could reach. I’m sure Prince Iax would be very happy to preempt their little game, even as he let them foot the bill for expanding the Looking Glass network.
Just like I was using them both to get the true prize. Neither of them, or any of their backers, had even conceived of the notion that normal people, the unwashed masses would be interested in the looking glass.
I wasn’t gonna tell them.
“I’m sure the brandy will be fine.” I gave Verdant a lazy grin. “You haven’t led me astray this far.”
That mollified her at least. Really, I could smell the condescension behind her amicable façade. To be fair, she was a tall, beautiful woman with long flowing hair the color of emerald. I’m sure she was used to her business partners falling over her, and looked down on the short sharp-tongued Latina she now had to work with.
“Of course, it’s what friends are for.” She leaned forward, folding her hands on the table. “So believe me when I tell you this whole enterprise will be much more profitable without the oversight of the crown.”
I waved a hand. “I know how these things work,” I said. “Look, just let me get them to do all the hard work, and then we can swoop in with the rewards. It’ll be like taking candy from a baby.”
She laughed, a hand raised to cover her frown. Really, she was pretty good at this whole game. If she hadn’t underestimated me so much, I might have even been fooled. “I envy your view of the crown. In our world, they are much more powerful, and more dangerous, than they first appear.”
“What do they even do?” I said, exasperated. “You have a Senate that writes the laws and all that shit.”
I relished the briefest tensing of her jaw. In polite company, speaking that way could be taken as a snub, but I was just too stupid to know any better.
“The Senate.” She hummed, looking towards the view. “Suffice it to say that they won’t be a problem for our interests, or the crowns.”
I sat up straighter. “You buy Senators here?”
“Buy?” She laughed, waving away the thought as if it were entirely unconscionable. “I respect the august personages of the Senate, but they know that the greatest prosperity comes from allowing exemplary citizens of the House Orhlys to work unobstructed.”
“It must be nice to have friends in government.” I sighed. “Iax, sorry, Prince Iax was…” I paused. “Do you people still have lese-majesty here?”
She couldn’t stop the frown this time. “We have due respect for the crown here, as should you, as a member of the peerage, no matter how small.”
“Right, of course. Perhaps I shouldn’t say anything.” I nodded. We both ignored how just a few moments earlier she’d been all but maligning the crown between her teeth. “My liege lady, Duchess Ishanti, seemed to think that the Senate had a great deal of control over Vecorvia.”
“The new duchess is young yet.” Verdant wound a strand of green hair around her finger. “It is most difficult to navigate the currents of Vecorvia without friends and allies.”
“I’ll say.” I blew out a breath. “Let me tell you, sourcing labor from you is gonna make this whole thing go so much smoother.”
“Oh I hate talking about business over dinner,” she demurred with a bite of the appetizer, some vegetable thing on a crumbly pastry. “Still, I would love to hear how your efforts…scale up, did you say? My house is most interested in what other ideas you might have.”
I stuffed a whole pastry in my mouth. Ah, bread. Almost as delicious as watching miss ‘my hair is green like money’ try not to pinch her nose. I did swallow before chewing though; even to make a sale I’d only debase myself so much. “I’m telling you,” I said. “Electric lighting is the future, girl. I can get you in on the ground floor and the royal family isn’t even interested!”
“I’ll speak it over with my contacts,” she replied. I smiled internally. Much like the prince, Verdant saw little utility of providing cheaper lighting to the common people.
I remembered a story about James Dyson and the bagless vacuum. When none of the major players were interested in buying his patent, Dyson made his own company and blew open the market, Years later, some exec confessed if they realized just what he was selling, they would have bought the patent and never made a single vacuum with the technology.
They had the market working exactly how they wanted it. I imaged it was the same for House Orhlys, a major provider of both candles and magelight stones.
This was the knife I had aimed at the woman in front of me, all the sharper because I set it out for all to see. I quite imagined I’d enjoy stabbing her with it.
‘Cheap labor’ meant indentured servants, by the way. Indentured children, by the way, because their fingers were just the right size to polish the inside of brass tubes and no one cared if they got crushed.
“I have plenty of other things you might be interested in.” I smiled with every single one of my teeth. “Lovely view of the harbor, by the way, reminds me of the telescopes I saw by the harbor.”
“Telescope?” Verdant asked, amused. “Is that what you call them?”
I shrugged, miming a tube up to my eye. “The other looking glass.”
“What a cute little word for a farsight.” Verdant laughed. “Just like the lights, we already have those.”
“Oh sure, sure. You have some tubes with lenses. I bet with magic you can even get some decent magnification out of them.” I leaned forward. “I can make you one that magnifies up to fifty times, without a single drop of mana.”
She blinked, eyes flickering as she no doubt tried to recall the current strength of telescopes—sorry, ‘farsights’. If those tubes I saw could do more than twenty times zoom, I’d eat my armor.
“That…maybe be of very prurient interest.” She quickly got back into the swing of the conversation. “Have you spoken of this during your meeting with the crown?”
“Not a word.”
“Good.” She started to turn, before pausing, visibly fixing her posture. “Good. Perhaps we should keep that between us.”
It made sense that the house that dealt with all forms of light and communication would see the value of a stronger telescope. Especially a house that dealt with trade over the open ocean.
I leaned back in my chair. “Anything for a friend.”
“Out of curiosity.” Verdant did her very best to look only mildly interested. “What would you need to produce a proof of concept?” She paused for a moment, before adding, “I can see the value in such a device, but to convince my uncle, well.” She shrugged languidly. “You know how men can be.”
“God, do I.” Best part, between the glass makers I was getting from the Royal Family and the raw materials both players were giving me, I already had everything I needed to make a real telescope.
Mirrors and lenses, babe.
Not that I was going to tell Verdant that.
“I’ll get you a list as soon as I can. It has some overlap with making mirrors, obviously, but I need a lot of precision: very fiddly bits I can’t source locally.”
“I see.” She did an excellent job of containing her disappointment. Bet she would have liked to have the plans already, a little feather in her cap without spending a single coin. “Still, I am abundantly pleased that our friendship is already paying dividends for both of us! Oh, and here’s the fish.”
I glanced over just in time to see the waiter appear again, this time with the main course.
“After we eat, I’d love to walk you through the paletine district,” Verdant said. “Oh but listen to me, please, enjoy the imprecia.” She took a bite, putting on an exaggerated moan of enjoyment.
I speared a bit of my own fish on the two-tined fork, admiring the light jade coloring of the scales.
“Oh, believe me.” I showed my teeth to Verdant. “I’ll savor every bite.”
