Chapter 32: Natures treasures

Alex completed his remaining chores pretty quickly, the tannery was a quick stop, he didn't even enter the store before Kelar's outstretched hand was in front of him, expectantly waiting for the cash, and as for the information board, he would look at it in the morning.

Alex groggily made his way back to the, his eyes blurring from tiredness.

"Oi, laddie, you alright?" Coal asked Alex as he stumbled into the tavern.

"Just, tired" Alex muttered struggling to keep his eyes open, the lethargy trait of his race was really becoming a problem.

Alex tripped up the stairs and landed face first on the first floor, tempted to just close his eyes there.

However, he clawed his way to his room, and flopped onto the bed, falling asleep as soon as he closed his eyes.

In the gentle morning sun that filled the small room, Alex awoke with a yawn and a stretch, ready to start the day of right.

An hour later, he was upside down, leaning up against the smashed remains of his table and the tavern wall, the contents of his half finished breakfast smearing his once pristine skull and armour, and a dull pain emanating from his back.

Two young men where at each others throats over some petty dispute Alex had no interest in learning.

Rising to his feet, Alex patted himself down and tried to get rid of the worst of the stains.

The two men stopped momentarily in their quarrel as shadow loomed over them, Alex stood up at his full height, towering over the two men.

"Listen," Alex said in the friendliest tone he could muster, "this is probably not the best place to have your quarrel, could you please take this elsewhere"

"We already told you," one of the men yelled aggressively, "fuck off"

Alex was quickly losing patience, they had been at this for ten minutes and showed no signs of slowing down.

If they had just been loud, it would have been fine, but in their heated row, they had managed to not only damage the bar, injured most of the patrons in the process. Not major injuries thankfully, but enough to be an inconvenience.

Alex looked over at coal in desperation, looking for some kind of help. However, coal could provide none.

Before Alex could do anything else, Nicolas rushed down the stairs, swept both of the men off of their feet and swiftly chucked them out the door.

"Problem solved" Nicolas said casually, dusting off of his hands, "what is for breakfast?"

Alex picked up the table, wincing as edges began to splinter and crumble.

"Its on the wall over there," Alex stated as casually as he could, slightly relived that he no longer had to deal with the situation, "you could try to salvage that if you want"

Nicolas slid up a chair and leaned back, balancing on the back to legs.

"Can we get two of whatever those two wrecked," Nicolas called out to coal inn a cheerful tone before turning back to Alex, "feels good to help out every so often, right"

"Not really sure that was the best response though", Alex commented thoughtfully, "you sure you couldn't have sorted that out some other way?"

"Probably, but it is better than simply observing, or flopping around like a fish out of water trying to find the best solution"

"Hmm"

"Besides, they caused a disturbance, I just did the right thing"

"I don't think its that black and white"

"Maybe, but I don't think it is that grey either, they did something wrong, so I simply removed them from the situation, better for all parties involved right"

Alex stared at the table which was barely still standing, the legs creaking in protest simply trying to keep itself up. Maybe it was for the best.

"So, what you got planned for today?" Nicolas suddenly asked, stirring Alex from his thoughts.

"A bit of this, a bit of that," Alex mumbled distractedly, before perking up slightly at a sudden thought, "I am planning to set up the shop today, have a short meeting to attend first though"

"Congrats" Nicolas cheered, "Knock on wood, it all goes well"

As he said this, he rapped his knuckles on the table a few times, causing the poor table to finally give out. As the pile of splinters and sawdust collapsed around both their legs, Alex could see coal at the bar, guffawing merrily.

...

Alex reached the trade centre early in the morning, so there was only a small crowd of early risers there simply for purchases.

Alex quickly made his way through the crowd, trying to locate MIII as quickly as possible.

He quickly saw the cheery blonde waving him over to her desk.

"Glad you could make it" MIII said cheerfully as Alex sat down at her booth, "sorry to disappoint, but we won't be having the meeting right here, not that private, right"

"I guess" Alex replied, but it was a bit of a shame, while he didn't like crowds, he still preferred there to be a few people around when shopping, this would have been the perfect time to get in some light shopping.

Alex followed MIII into the inner sanctums of the trade centre, multiple glowing pipes carrying god knows what lined the walls of a dimly lit hallway, every few seconds, a pulse of light would pass through the pipes, illuminating the halls for brief flashes, revealing the intricate patterning on the walls.

Alex never actually had enough time to make out what the markings where, as they where moving to quick.

Eventually, they reached an immaculate office completely coloured in white, it pristine, and for some odd reason, despite the fact that they had not moved upwards at any point during their trip, the office overlooked the entire city.

Lavish furniture decorated the office, priceless looking artifacts covering the walls, and an ornate desk, made with an form of golden wood Alex had never seen before, sat proudly as the centrepiece of the entire office.

Behind the desk sat a stunning woman with waist length black hair and a stare worth a storm of daggers.

"I thought you said you had an important matter for me," the woman said with a voice filled with venom and vitriol, "instead you bring a fucking forest dweller and ruin my carpet"

"Madam CIV," MIII responded calmly, "this is important, we may have found someone who can produce ego weapons at a constant rate, and he is willing to affiliate himself with our group"

"And what proof do you have of this?" CIV asked condescendingly, "it's not like it's easy to find such talent, especially in this cesspool of a town"

"If you bothered to take a look, you would see that this man is covered in ego weapons" MIII explained in an exasperated tone, "at the very least, he has a large supply of ego cores"

Upon hearing this, CIV stretched out her expectantly. When Alex only stood their awkwardly CIV became impatient.

"Is your brain as rotten as the rest of you" she shouted impatiently, "the goods, show me the weapons, do you understand"

Alex quickly made his way over and placed his dagger in CIV's outstretched.

CIV snatched the dagger away from Alex, she fiddled around with the dagger for a few minutes, testing every aspect she could think of, when finally satisfied, she placed the dagger on the desk.

"MIII," she said in an authoritative tone, "go put this blade up for auction and get a contract, the money will be split fifty fifty"

"Uhm," Alex stuttered slightly, "I'm sorry but that weapon is not for sale"

CIV just ignored him and continued to bark orders at MIII.

"Hey" Alex said in a slightly more forceful tone, "I told you that it's not for sale, could you please give it back"

CIV gave Alex a stiff ignoring, so Alex just made his way over to the desk to pick the blade back up.

As Alex reached out his hand to retrieve the dagger, a vice like pressure wrapped its way around his hand. Alex felt like his wrist was going to shatter.

With a wince of pain, he snapped around to look at CIV.

"Is this how you treat your business partners?" Alex asked with spite.

"Let's get one thing strait," CIV said in a low menacing tone, "I am doing you a service, the fact that I have to consider work with a dawn sickens me, you will do what I say, when I say, and you will be happy"

As Alex was struggling to break free from CIV's grip, he saw MIII in the corner, seemingly mentally resigning herself to something difficult.

"Madam CIV" MIII suddenly said, breaking the staring match between CIV and Alex momentarily, "this is exactly why you where sent here"

CIV's looked at MIII with a look of shock, her hand loosening on Alex, giving him enough time to snatch the dagger back and retract his hand.

Though CIV didn't seem to notice, or more likely, she didn't care, her face was contorted in a terrifying grimace of rage.

"What did you say?" CIV asked in a menacing whisper, before exploding into a vicious roar, "HOW DARE AN M TALK BACK TO ME, KNOW YOUR FUCKING PLACE"

"I know where I stand" MIII responded with an shaky air of faux confidence, "but do you, tell me, can you really deal with another HR complaint?"

CIV froze, a conflicted look of rage and caution plastered on her face.

"Fine" she said after a painstakingly long minute of deliberation, "get the contract, we'll sort out a 'fair' contract"

Alex turned around, not looking directly CIV, making his way towards the door.

"You have lost my trust" Alex said in a low vicious growl while leaving the office, "and while this may not mean much, I will be ceasing all trade with the trade centre"

"Have a nice day" he added, before slipping into the corridor.

"I will make sure the higher-ups are informed of todays incidents" MIII said in a professional tone before following quickly behind Alex, leading him out, leaving CIV alone in the office.

As the two retraced their steps back through the dimly lit halls, MIII gave a little celebratory dance involving a lot of fist pumps and kicking the air.

As if remembering Alex was present, she froze mid celebration, neatening herself up before continuing forward down the hall as if nothing had happened.

"Thanks" MIII suddenly said, surprising Alex slightly, "everyone's been looking for an excuse to get rid of her, and you might just be the perfect reason"

"I'll take that as a compliment" Alex muttered, slightly conflicted about being a simple excuse to oust the boss.

"However," MIII continued, "this will only happen if your business succeeds, so how about I become your sponsor instead of the trading company"

"What do you get out of this?" Alex asked with scepticism, he would trust many people, but capitalists weren't the most trustworthy when profit is involved.

"Oh, I just want to get CIV out of here, I ain't gonna get many promotions if she stays in charge, this place is basically a branch where carers come to die, and that ain't changing with CIV in charge. And just maybe, when she's gone, maybe we could make a more formal deal"

"So," MIII said outstretching her hand, "up for a secret alliance?"

"Sure" Alex said, grasping MIII's hand in a firm handshake.

"You don't seem that excited"

"I'm plenty excited, I just have my own way of showing it"

"So," MIII said quickly veering back to business matters, "what's your shop name, or are you planning to sell ego weapons on the street"

"Doesn't have a name yet, but don't worry, I do have a plan for accommodation"

MIII pondered for a minute, snapping her fingers and tapping her feet impatiently.

"Natures treasures," she exclaimed suddenly, snapping her fingers once in satisfaction, "that can be your store name"

"Why?" Alex asked quizzically.

"I heard wendigos are all tree huggers, so I thought the name kind of fit"

Alex considered the name for a minute, may be better than what he came up with.

"Oh and one last thing," MIII said in a friendly tone as they began to reach the end of the hallway, "I am putting quite a bit on the line for the, so if you have been leading us on, if you really can't make ego weapons in bulk like you say, I will hunt you down to the ends of the earth, and I will tear the very flesh from your bones and use your pained screams as compensation, k"

Alex felt a small shiver run down his spine, good thing he could actually follow through on his claims.

"Well then," MIII said, clapping her hands together, "I have a job to get back to, I assume you can find the exit on your own, don't go slacking off now"

As Alex left the building, he found a small crowded just outside the trade centre. When he went to investigate, he found an ornate desk, made of a golden wood, lying in a splintered heap on the ground, surrounded by a ring of shattered glass.