Silver in Eillen 10: Sweet Adversity
“Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.”
- Shakespeare’s As You Like It
<- 9) Thou Winter Wind ~0~ 11) A Great City
"You are absolutely certain."
Given that Vespasian had said this three times already, the other two in the room merely nodded their affirmatives.
“Raising a storm against a fellow citizen is a serious offense,” Rynar put in, “a capital offense for the Windkeeper involved, if anyone can prove it. Throwing an accusation like that around isn’t going to do us any favors.”
“But the mere fact that the rumor is going around suggests that there is active animosity between house Argentus and house Isidrus,” Vespasian replied, “We need not make the accusation. In fact, it would be counterproductive for us to do so - as foreigners, we would be more easily suspected than the new third house.”
“Not to mention that if this Windkeeper bears a grudge, he might be inventing this for his own purposes,” Rynar put in, “Maybe he wants to topple house Isidrus himself, maybe he just didn’t like Venturos and wants to see him get in trouble…”
“If he were lying, I would have known,” Venturos stated flatly. “The man believes that the storm was under the control of another Windkeeper. He strongly suspects that it was actually raised against the fleet under his protection, but wouldn’t say so outright.”
“But he’ll swear in court that the storm was not natural?” Vespasian cut in.
“Yes. Though he claims he can’t truthfully be certain of any more than that.”
“We need more evidence than the word of a washed-up magician before we can go to court,” Rynar interrupted, “All this talk of magic only tells me two things. The first is that whatever’s been going on, we can’t track it like we could an army. The second is that anything we do find could mean nearly anything. It’s all very well for Venturos to talk about magic as if it were something the rest of us could see and touch, but we have to be practical now.”
“Then what would you suggest?”
“We stop looking and concentrate on finding a way to gather some support for you,” Rynar replied immediately, “visit your father’s old contacts among the houses minor. Enough of them might be able to sway the decision of one of the greater houses. We leave the Eillenian conspiracies in the hands of the Eillenians, prepare to cut a leaner deal than we were hoping for, and get out of the way once we’ve made it. All of this will blow over in a season or so, and we can push for a better deal then.”
Vespasian rose from his chair and headed for the long, narrow window that was painting the plaster with the golden light of late afternoon. There were discolored patches along that wall where paintings had once hung. The noises of passerby in the street below drifted upwards.
“I will not give up without achieving what I came here for.”
The sentence dropped flatly into the middle of the room.
“It wouldn’t be giving up,” Rynar replied, “It would still be a deal brokered with the Eillenians, and we’d still profit from the silver. So maybe the Duke will have to think twice about buying up new fripperies with the profits - it’s a business deal, they don’t all go as well as you might hope.”
Vespasian was silent for a moment.
“My father would not have given up.”
No, not his father. His father would have had a plan by now, and not one which relied on hearsay and vague rumors. But his father would have hedged his bets, and had more than one plan in the works, just in case. That was how he had survived in the world of political intrigue for so long. But all the same, his father would have made this work, no matter what happened.
There wasn’t much that Rynar could say, so he said nothing. Venturos, as always, kept his own council.
If Vespasian’s father had been in charge of this expedition, they would have had several advantages in negotiating with the Major Houses. Of course, that had been years ago - there was no way to be certain how things would have turned out if…
Vespasian shook his head a little to clear the cobwebs from it. Wondering what if wouldn’t do any of them any good. The only way forward was to act on what they did have and what they knew now. And to leave no option unexplored.
All the same, it would be best to act discreetly.
“I don’t believe that we will have to make such steep concessions - at least, not yet,” he said, turning back to the guard captain and the magician, bracing his hands behind him on the windowsill. “However, every avenue must be explored. We cannot let the opportunity to gather more evidence slip past us.”
He paused for a second. “Therefore, I want both of you to continue to look into this - discreetly, of course - and to find out everything you can about House Argentus’ downfall, this windkeeper and the storm that he says sunk the ships he was hired to protect, and the magician of house Isidrus. Meanwhile, I will rally the houses minor to our cause.”