12. The Buyout

There are four of them in total, two men and two women. I recognize Willard at least, but the other three are complete strangers. In retrospect I should’ve asked for an initial introduction before they all showed up at once, this is a bit disconcerting. One of the two women seems to put in substantial effort to look as unintimidating as possible while she steps forward. “Apologies, I think we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot already. I’m Gwendolyn, I’m sure you remember Willard, but this is Johannes, and Elizabeth. I’ve heard quite a bit about you from Willard, all positive I assure you. We’d heard you had been doing work on his magic items, and a bit about your magic, but I believe Bridget was the one who said you were looking for work.”

Great, so if I’m wrong about them being fine with me having finished up Willard’s stuff they can absolutely keep me from escaping and turn me in for the reward. Then again, if they wanted that they could probably have just attacked me without trying to explain themselves and found the armor themselves. “That sounds about right. She’s mentioned you thought I’d be helpful in some way. Or at least implied something like that.”

Gwendolyn seems to be the one taking the lead, maybe she’s the leader of this group. “Well I’m glad you two have talked about this. Given the circumstances I can more or less guess your magic is illusion magic, and I’d be quite surprised if you weren’t skilled at crafting magical items given everything I’ve heard.” She gives a polite smile at that before continuing. “Though I’d love to know more about your magic from you. I confess I’ve never considered working with an illusionist before, but the possibility is fascinating for the right types of jobs.”

Ok? I’d been calming down a bit, but she really couldn’t have phrased that any more ominously. “Well … illusion magic is pretty easy to explain. If it’s a question of sight, sound, smell, or taste I can decide how people perceive it pretty easily. I’ve never compared with another illusionist, but I like to think I have an above average amount of practice. Despite that, I obviously can’t actually injure somebody with something illusory. I’d say the best tricks I can use are illusions to distract enemies, or conceal allies. Unfortunately …” I pause, normally I’m the only one who can see through my own illusions, but obviously at least Johannes can as well. “Unfortunately, since I’m normally the only one who can see through my illusions turning someone invisible, or silent can be a bit disorienting, that being said I don’t know how it interacts with your magic.” I gesture towards Johannes.

Johannes thinks for a second before responding. “It probably would still be a bit disorienting, my magic is raw force projection, and I can feel when things are fake. It doesn’t mean weird sights aren’t off putting.”

Makes sense. “Ah, well otherwise I don’t exactly have experience in combat. I’ve scared away a few non-magical animals, but otherwise … well I’d be relying on your experience.”

Elizabeth moves in a bit to lean against the wall while Gwendolyn continues. “I see. Assuming there’s no legal issue, do you have an issue being paid to continue making magical items? It would be far more similar to a side job to adventuring work, but I want your opinion on it.”

That’s a loaded question … then again I’ve directly broken the law already, there’s really no reason to draw a line I’ve already gone far beyond crossing. Still, I also probably shouldn’t tell them all of that directly. “If it’s legal … I don’t see why not, that being said, may I ask you something?”

Gwendolyn nods. “Of course. I can’t promise I can answer everything, but I’ll be more than happy to try.”

Great, I feel like there’s one big question I want the answer to. The real issue is how I want to phrase it. There’s not a great way to accuse a group of appropriately armed adventurers of avoiding the church due to past crimes without risking bodily harm. “This might be awkward, but what exactly is the nature of your group? I know you’re not fully official, but beyond knowing you each have your own gripes with the church I don’t know much more. I obviously don’t get along with the church terribly well myself, but it seemed like something I should ask about if I was going to work with you.”

The three of them who aren’t Willard get varying degrees of concern at hearing that. Elizabeth tenses up quite a bit, Johannes snaps his gaze right onto me, and Gwendolyn puts on a very clearly fake smile as she responds. “I see. Well as you can imagine it’s an awkward question to directly answer given our current situation, but I can understand why you’d want to know if you’re working with us.”

Stolen story; please report.

Well indirect didn’t work at getting the question answered or being subtle, so brick to the face it is. “Well, my current assumption is everyone here’s committed some sort of crime, but I don’t have any evidence to back that up nor was I particularly looking. I’m pretty sure you’re not all serial killers or anything, so I somewhat doubt the crimes are actually going to matter.”

Gwendolyn turns to glare at Willard who just holds up his hands. She shakes her head about to continue before Johannes interrupts her. “This is horrible to watch, yes we’ve committed minor crimes, you’ve committed minor crimes. Can we please just move on?”

Gwendolyn switches to glaring at him. “There’s supposed to be a process John.” Her gaze softens a bit as it switches back to me, although she’s still clearly annoyed. “Yes, fine. Please tell me you finished Will’s equipment, and would be willing to make more things. The point I was GETTING TO, was that we’d be able to provide a cover story for why you need the supplies if somebody asks.”

Alright, at least we’re getting somewhere, even if that somewhere is almost unrelated to the question I actually asked. “Yes, I finished his armor.” I walk a few feet over to the table it’s on and pick it and his dagger up. “I’d sort of assumed you’d already seen it. As for making more … It depends on the conditions. I don’t want to end up helping Dark …” Another weird line to cross, I’m technically already helping a Dark Mage just by existing. “I don’t want to help if you’re going to hurt innocent people, or my guild somehow, but other than that I don’t have high standards.” I hand over the armor and weapon over to Willard who takes it before quickly stepping back behind Gwendolyn

Gwendolyn actually seems to smile a bit at something. “I see. Then I think we’ll be fine. I can very much guarantee we have no intent of harming innocents or your guild. I can certainly say that we’ve never intentionally done either before, and I also don’t think we’ve accidentally done so either … although I’ll acknowledge the theoretical possibility.”

I can work with that, assuming it’s the truth. “Then I’d be willing to help so long as you have an idea to keep people from tracing it back to me. I’m really not sure how you plan to do that of course.”

Willard shrugs. “It doesn’t seem that hard. We’d be hiring you into our group normally and bringing you on missions. Filing the paperwork is our job, so it’s not your problem if a few things get falsified. Then if you’re going on normal missions a lot more than nobody will bat an eye if you start making stuff for yourself.”

Gwendolyn rolls her eyes at that. “It’s a bit more complicated, but that’s the basic idea. You’d need to help us on some of our normal missions, and we’d pay extra to get magic items under the table. That’s the basic idea. Since you’d be coming on missions you’d be able to judge the morality on your own.”

I nod. That’s probably the best deal I’m going to get given the situation. “So … I guess it’s a deal?” How does this sort of backroom deal actually work?

Gwendolyn smiles at that. “Great, we have a building nearby if you want to come by tomorrow to discuss a first mission. I’m sure you want to get some sleep before covering the fine details.”

I shrug. “No worries, I’m fine with dealing with that now.”

Willard starts laughing at that for some reason. “I told you.”

Gwendolyn raises an eyebrow at me. “Well either way it’ll be easier to explain with a map and other equipment, and I think we should get some sleep anyway. Here’s the address to meet up at.” She pulls out a folded piece of paper and hands it to me. “No reason to rush and all.”

Alright I guess. I figured they’d just slept before coming, but maybe they still need more or something. “Ok then … Should I just show up there tomorrow morning?”

She nods. “Just knock on the door, you can even be invisible if you want. Actually I’d recommend it. Feel free to come by around noon, and we can hammer out the details. It’s nothing too surprising, just dealing with a few magical beasts. It’s something we could handle with a three person group so it should be a good introductory mission.” She turns to leave. “It’s been a good meeting, I appreciate your time. I look forward to getting to know you better as we work together.”

I give the group a half hearted wave as they go. Once they’re gone I shut the door and give a long exhale. I hate feeling this closely examined, hopefully the mission briefing will have focus on somebody else. At least Gwendolyn seems good at being the center of attention. I grab a chair to sit at, this better not actually lead to a life of crime like the Guild Master said, although if it did … looking around the room I mess with a few dark magic illusions. It’s probably too late to pretend I’m above crimes, especially after I just had a meeting about future illegal work. There’s probably some sort of existential crisis I should be having but … eh. Despite everything I’m kind of fine with how it’s turning out. Of course I’d rather it have stayed how it was, but there’s nothing I can control about that, so the important thing is to make the best out of the situation, even if that means breaking a few laws. That being said, for now … decorating! I have a lot more I can do around here before I need to go meet with the criminals … the other criminals.