Chapter 1690 A Matter of Methods

--- Kat ---

Meg decided that her attempts hadn’t been clear enough. The subtle shift from delaying to working things out had been too subtle. "Alright let’s cut to the chase. We want the drake crystal. You want us to not have the drake crystal. I know you have it, you know you have it. I know that you know that, and all sorts of other confusing continuations. I’m done with the delaying tactics now. What solution can we come to?"

Pebbles frowned, "I’m not sure what you’re talking about,"

Meg raised a hand and summoned a large fireball, the heat rolling off the orb in ways and starting to cook Pebbles slightly even though he was a good distance away. "I’m being rather serious at the moment,"

Pebbles glanced around at everyone else nearby. "Leave this to me! Please feel free to rest up and return to your homes. If combat starts again, do not feel compelled to help! I will be fine!" Kat didn’t necessarily believe that, but once Meg dropped the fireball Pebble’s subordinates seemed to.

Kat glanced at Meg, who gave a nod in response. With that settled Kat just… let everyone walk away. She didn’t bother stopping them. Nobody was moving too fast nor did they get too close to anyone nearby. Lily dismissed her shadowy chair and flew over into Kat’s arms, curling up into a little ball and resting. Though no sleeping, not yet.

Once the extras had cleared out Pebbles stomped on the ground. The broken bits of rock and debris from the fighting melded into the road. Once everything was cleaned up for almost the entire street the road in between Meg and Pebbles rippled before growing upwards into an intricate table that was technically not a triangle but looked like one.

The table had a long flat edge where chairs rose up for Meg and the rest of the group. Even one particularly tiny one for Lily, and a spare chair for Strdl. Though for obvious reasons Hunter’s chair was missing. Pebbles did know about her after all. Pebbles’ side of things was much smaller, hence the trangle-ish shape. With a small flat surface and his own chair, that notably wasn’t any fancier then the rest. It was a show of both competence and humility.

Once everyone found their seats, Meg asked, "So Pebbles, what’s the plan?"

Pebbles’ eye twitched slightly but before long he let out a sigh. "Is that really what you’ve been calling me in your head?"

Meg shrugged, "Well it’s not like we have anything better to call you. The Mountain Shaker is much too wordy a name. Plus, it’s how the old man introduced you,"

"Old man…" Pebbles whispered. Kat was sort of surprised how well he was taking the nickname thing. "It wouldn’t happen to have been a man called Drl would it?"

"I might be willing to divulge such information…" admitted Meg.

Pebbles sighed, "I don’t need it confirmed but I suppose I’ll tell you this in exchange. Decide for yourself if it’s worth it. Drl used to give me food, back when I was younger and trying to help out my parents… well one parent in particular anyway. There wasn’t always food on the table, and I skipped quite a few lunch breaks… and many more had ’someone’ mysteriously dropping food off. I’m certain you can work out who it was,"

Strdl was looking uncomfortably back and forth between the two. Unsure what to do about the fact that she was having a polite conversation with a criminal. "In that case, yes it was Drl," admitted Meg. "Now that we’ve got that out of the way… the crystal. We will be taking it,"

Pebbles’ winced. "Look, I’m not unwilling to part with it. If it was up to me I’d be willing to give it away for basically nothing. Even Ronldo would be willing to give it up… but they’re leaning on us HARD about this. I don’t know why they’ve gotten obsessed in just a few days but our backers want it studied…n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"And I’m sorry but we still need them. As good as I am with earth magic one area I struggle with is preparing the ground for growing food. Theoretically there are earth magic spells for it but I’ve never managed to cast a single one. Even the more basic tier one versions I was able to get copies of. So… if my backers cause a fuss about this and stop with the food deliveries…

"Well there’s a good chance the town will starve if things continue as they are. I’ve made sure we only attack the few caravans that we’re specifically directed to attack and I always ask for the excuse. Sure they’re probably lying half the time. I know that… but we need the food, and the arms and armour are nice as well. I do want to get away from the mining companies… and I feel like I’m choosing the lesser of two evils a lot of the time…

"But look, the fact of the matter is that the tunnels just aren’t done yet. Not up to the specifications necessary for merchant work. The town can’t survive by itself and as such I can’t just give you the crystal. Though… I am willing to perhaps work something out. Maybe if you explain to them you’re from the church things won’t blow back on the town… it would still be a risk but I think I could accept it,"

Kat was nodding along to her this seemed… reasonable enough. She wasn’t sure what the play would have to be but she could understand the need to keep yourself and the rest of the town fed. If food was ever scarce she could see herself doing some potentially sketchy things… "I don’t see how that’s my problem though?" asked Meg. Kat’s thoughts froze as she glanced over at the greed demon.

"Pardon?" intoned Pebbles.

"I. Do. Not. See. How. It. Is. My. Problem. I mean, I guess I can respect the time and effort it’s taken you to get to this point but I don’t have any plans to get caught up in a political shitstorm. I’m perfectly happy to walk through you, any guards you have, and attempt to smash the enchantments holding the crystal where it is, and then just leaving. Maybe help Strdl as well, I don’t really care," stated Meg.

"But… but how do you know about the enchantments? And what do you mean you don’t care?" asked Pebbles slowly, trying not to sound accusatory.

"The how is NOT your concern… but as for the other part? I really truly, do not care. If I had to slaughter you all for the crystal I would. I’d sleep just fine. I am here on a job, and no part on the road to completion requires me to help you out. I might, if it’s not too hard… but this is getting too big,"

Pebbles glared at Meg uncertain when Kat decided to step in. She’d heard enough, "I don’t think just letting a town starve is acceptable,"

Meg lazily turned her gaze to Kat and let it harden. Kat glared back. To her this was a step too far. It was one thing to risk killing a bunch of bandits, it was another thing entirely to doom them all to a long slow starvation. Especially when many of them were innocent people who’d moved here.

Seeing Kat wasn’t going to be cowed by a glare alone Meg did gain a touch of respect for Kat. Just a touch though. "Look Kat. The problem here? It’s politics. If we wait for the church to sort things out, not only will they simply move the crystal and claim it was never here, but they’ll drag the whole thing out. We’re not able to just sit around here forever Kat. We have a deadline. The hub will come calling if we’re stalling.

"And besides, what even is the right play? You say it’s wrong to let these guys starve? Well they could move back to the original town, or move to one of the others. Heck they could leave the mountain range entirely. Still, I get that takes time and effort… so consider something for me.

"Let’s say we stick around. We do all of the odd jobs the nobles will con us into doing in exchange for the crystal, and then let’s say they actually give it to us at the end. This could be months later… and I’m quite sure that they will use our time and effort to finish their little project here. Choking the life from several other towns in the area. Under the mining companies influence? Sure… but they’re just as if not more innocent then the people here. So are you really doing a good thing?" asked Meg.

"Perhaps not… but surely there’s a better way?" returned Kat.

Meg shook her head, "See this is one of the reasons I stay out of this stuff. There is no clear better way. So… I go in… I do the job, and I leave. No morals come into it,"

"That’s not the main reason and you know it," bit back Kat.

"Does it matter?" asked Meg lazily. "There’s no clean solution here… I just want to choose the fast one. Unless… you have a better idea?"

Kat swallowed hard. She… she really didn’t.