B6 Chapter 650: An Accounting of Dues, Finale.

Kaius’s eyes roved over the description of the artefact, his heart quickening. He blinked the words away, staring down thoughtfully at the scroll case of carved silver that lay between a candelabra and a battle of wine.

The Voidvault sounded fantastic — especially the enhanced stasis of the container. While most spatial containers preserved their contents in some fashion, it was rarely perfect. More annoying, intrinsically potent magical items disrupted the enchantments. It was why improperly stored alchemical reagents would lose potency and even rot.

As far as bribes went, it was a damn good one, and it had come at the perfect time. Only the gods knew what sort of riches waited for them within the Shardworld, and with this they would be able to plunder them without care for shortening an expedition to keep them fresh.

He did note its size. Larger spatial containers were supposed to have a commensurately larger volume for any given rarity and tier. Amulets and rings like they currently had were amongst the most inefficient; primarily valued for the ease they could be concealed, and the fact they could store items with a touch. But his current ring had a diameter of three longstrides — the Voidvault had just over double that, despite being larger and a full tier higher.

Thankfully, part of the lessons on runework Father had taught him included geometry. It was pretty worksmanlike — but he still remembered the cubic relationship. A quick burst of mental arithmetic later, and Kaius realised the Voidvault was over ten times larger than their current rings.

He swallowed. That was quite a bit larger than even the storage rings that Kel and Julian had used to store the partially dissected dragon carcass. Scratch storing alchemicals — they’d be able to bring a wagon train's worth of goods with them. That was a lot of preparation they could make

Kaius couldn’t help but glance up at the duke. He was grinning like a hunter whose snare had sprung, the edges of his smile vanishing into his bushy muttonchops.

“You’re sure you want to sell this to us?” he asked.

“Quite sure,” Cedric replied. “It lacks the volume of a larger container, while keeping many of the annoyances. It’s only left our vault as a ball-room display piece for the last few hundred years. For you, however, it will be quite invaluable. Mundane logistics will be guaranteed, and you will be able to pillage this Shardworld to your heart’s content.”

So the man had offered it knowing how useful it would be in their current circumstances. Cedric was certainly talented at finding the right level.

“Alright then,” Kaius said, sharing a glance with his team. Kenva glared at him for missing enough sense to question the duke's offer.

Across the table, Julian groaned and snatched an open bottle of red. He refilled his glass, pouring until he’d gone far past halfway.

“I wanted to wear it on my fortieth,” the man grunted into his drink.

“Maybe if you’re nice they’ll lend it for the night,” Cedric said, rolling his eyes.

The duke snatched up the Voidvault, flicking open the latch as the top section fell open to reveal a pitch black barrier within its mouth. Long-necked tonic bottled wrapped in silver wire appeared in his hand, vanishing one after the other as they touched the black.

“I figured you would want it, so I already took the liberty of putting a small fraction of what you are owed within so you didn’t have to wait for the full sum to clear if you are cashflow poor. It’s about five thousand platinum worth in mythril coinage, which you can deposit immediately at the guild.”

They were cashflow poor — something he was sure they had never mentioned to Julian.

“There’s a notarised letter naming you as friends of the House as well, just in case you need it.”

Duke Cedric snapped the Voidvault shut and passed it back over. It was heavier than Kaius had expected, like it was a solid block of metal rather than a hollow cylinder.

He could feel a slight pull from the artefact tugging at his aura. All it would have taken was a slight bit of will to saturate it, a process he assumed would key it to him. Kaius held back, instead flipping the artefact in his hand to pass it over to Kenva.

“You take it. There’s no way me or Porkchop would get the opportunity to make use of it in a battle — but you might.”

It didn’t really matter which of them held it for basic storage and logistics, after all. Plus, his belt was already pretty crowded between his sword and the hanging orb of their landyacht.

Kenva nodded, taking the artefact without comment. Her aura flooded it, locking it until they could key the rest of them later.

“Splendid!” the duke said. “Let us celebrate with some nice vintage.”

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A dust-caked bottle of wine appeared in the man’s hand. Uncorking it in a single fluid motion, he leaned over to fill their now empty glasses, something Kaius was damn sure was a flagrant violation of proper etiquette.

Before long, Kaius was halfway through his glass. Tannins sat heavy on his tongue, a stronger bitter astringency than he expected for something that no doubt cost a mountain of gold.

“I have a final request,” the duke said, swirling his glass as he looked over the sea of overgrown rooftops and shading boughs that was Baanswell..

There it was! Kaius had known there had to be something more to this lunch. Now that they were nice and buttered up with a fat purse and an even fatter storage artefact, the duke was going to pound.

“What can we do for you?” Kaius asked cautiously.

“It goes without saying that you will be voyaging to this Shardworld the second a nearby gate is found?”

“Of course,” Ianmus answered, savouring his wine.

“Then, in all likelihood, you will be travelling through foreign lands, and will be surrounded by an entire collection of foreign powers and dignitaries at the gate itself. That is an opportunity that is hard for me to ignore.”

Kaius glanced at Julian. Unlike his surprise at the sale of the Voidvault, the lord looked utterly at ease as he watched them with interest. He’d known this was coming. Kaius didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad one.

“Within the Vault, you’ll find a stack of ten letters,” the duke continued. “Burn one, and a copy of whatever text you have written will appear on a matching copy in my possession.”

That was not where Kaius had thought this was going.

“You’re worried about Franlen?” Ianmus guessed. “Julian mentioned he was suspicious of Brokenlight’s involvement and distinctive name.”

“We are,” Julian confirmed.

“Them, and others,” the duke added with a nod. “I don’t expect you to act as my personal agents, but young, talented, and largely unaffiliated teams such as yourselves historically have a tendency to run straight into all sorts of curious conflicts. If you find anything…interesting, consider letting me know. Of course, a knife cuts both ways — if you find yourselves in a spot of political discomfort, I am only ever a letter away.”

Kaius took another sip of his wine and pretended to enjoy it — still too bitter. Meeting the duke had not gone how he expected it to go, but neither had it gone how he feared.

….

“The Vault! I can’t believe it!” Julian said, throwing up his hands.

The lord was leading them through the palace, his feet falling softly on the handwoven runner of coiled green bramble and bright yellow flowers. He looked over his shoulder, shaking his head in mock outrage.

“I hope you enjoy it, because pieces like that don’t just fall into your lap. Or, they shouldn’t.”

Kenva grinned, patting the engraved cylinder belted on her hip with gleeful satisfaction. “Believe me, I know. My clan would burn an ocean of favours and debts to collect something like this. Even with our long history, we haven’t accumulated very many of its size or larger.”

“Right. Hiwiann. I wouldn’t be surprised if your clan has a few third tier pieces — even we have one, and they’re much less useful to a stationary power.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Kenva replied. “Strategic resources like that aren’t exactly bandied about in front of unclassed, even if my mother does have a fair bit of standing.”

They kept moving. A few minutes later, they approached a staircase down. Three staff who were walking up it paused to bow politely at Julian. He dismissed them absentmindedly, barely breaking stride.

“These letters,” Kaius said as they walked down yet more of the maze-like passages of the palace. “I take it they mean you will not be making the journey to the Shardworld yourself?”

“No,” Julian replied. “It’s far too much of a risk. Both the realm itself, and the number of people who might see my presence as the perfect opportunity to strike my Father a rather serious blow.”

“What will you do instead?”

“Our recent expedition has left us in rather dire need of manpower. Kel, Adrian, and I must select new retainers, and find a new teammate. Then, we must train on team cohesion. After that there will still be more to do. By the time we are ready, and the danger of the Shardworld has been better assessed, the Proving might well be upon us.”

“Isn’t that frustrating?” Kaius asked. “Missing out?”

Julian shook his head. “Not particularly. I doubt something as grand as an entire realm will be a temporary affair — there will be opportunity in the future. More importantly, it was you who stressed that visiting a Crucible should be my highest priority.”

So that’s what he meant by having more to occupy his attention. The man should have a far easier time of finding one with the latest phase of the Integration. Depths portals themselves would reveal if one was located within when analysed.

“They’ve been found nearby?” he guessed.

“Three within a few days of the city,” Julian replied. “Though only one will admit those in the second tier. One of my men journeyed to analyse the gate and confirmed it is on the twenty-eighth layer. I will learn whatever tantalising secret it holds soon enough.”

Three?! That was far beyond what Kaius had expected. He knew that the system had seeded new crucibles, but it had sounded like those were simply for the third step of the Path — the Reliquary.

Or maybe they were just more common than he had thought. There were a lot of depths portals, and very few were anything close to mapped. It was entirely possible they had simply been missed, with how infrequently the various portals out in the wild might get delved.

…

The palace gates slammed shut, clanging loudly. Kaius gave the guards a polite wave as they left. They ignored him entirely.

As soon as they were out of sight, Porkchop let out a rolling groan.

“That was insane! Who lives like that! I lost count of the number of rooms we passed by the second floor!”

Ianmus slapped him on the shoulder. “That, my friend, is the life of the aristocracy.”