Nero Walker, Book 2 Ch.18 (50) (Patreon)

Lord Cosgrave was standing at the window in her office. The view overlooked the courtyard and the afternoon light caused shadows to dance in the gardens. She watched one of the keep’s gardeners run his hands over some flowers. The soft green glow from his ability spread out like a fog. Taking a sip of her wine, she thought about what trials the man had faced in his life. How long had it taken him to master his craft? How many disappointments had he overcome?

Her daughter’s voice brought her out of her reverie.

“Was there really no other choice?” Deidre asked quietly.

Lord Cosgrave turned to look at her daughter. She was sitting in her usual chair in front of the desk. The other chair, the one Derek usually used, was empty.

“No. Derek could not stay in Dorchester. Not after what he did,” Lord Cosgrave said with ice in her voice.

“He didn’t really do anything though. All he did was not stand in the way of another house’s game. Could he really be blamed for that?” Deidre asked.

With a snort, Lord Cosgrave sat down in her high-backed chair. “He waved our house's protection of a new noble. Whether it was legal or not, he took a side. He left me with no options. Putting aside that he forced policy that I had to follow, if he stayed here, his life would be in danger,” she said.

“Nero Walker can’t do anything to Derek. It will be years before he finishes the trials and is formalized as a Lord. Right now, he is a Lord in name only. He can’t offer challenges, or declare a Noble War. We have nothing to fear from him,” Deidre said with venom.

Lord Cosgrave’s eyebrows rose as she saw her daughter’s anger. “Daughter, don’t repeat your brother’s mistakes. Learn from them instead. Your anger at Lord Walker is irrational. Why make him your enemy?” she asked.

To her credit, Deidre took a moment to think. Unfortunately, she didn’t seem to grasp what Lord Cosgrave was trying to tell her.

“Walker is already set against us. Derek’s actions have put us at odds. All we can do now is to play the game that is in motion. We are in the more powerful position, letting him grow without opposition is a poor plan. There is much we can do to stunt his rise. Economic warfare against his new interests, limiting his training options, assigning busy work to his house in order to eat into his time. All of these options are legal, and can be subtly used to limit him,” Deidre said.

Shaking her head in exasperation, Lord Cosgrave leaned forward and folded her hands on the desk as if she were praying for strength.

“Listen closely. Nero Walker isn’t my concern right now. The people around him are. The head of the mage council is currently in Dorchester playing at being our court mage. The man is only here because he finds Walker interesting. The last thing I want to do is give that man a reason to stand against us. We’re going to have enough trouble with Vera Salvatore. That woman is smart, and worse yet, capable. I’ve looked into her since finding out that she had ties to the Pendletons. She will be a thorn in our foot if we stand against House Walker.

Derek had to be sent away because he was a lightning rod. With him here, conflict would be inevitable. Conflict we won’t win. Every time that boy speaks, he invites disaster. Instead of a powerful ally, we now have a house with an uncertain future growing right next to us. A house that has the backing of the royals, the mage council, and even has local backing from House Salvatore. Do you understand what I’m telling you?” she asked.

Deidre frowned in thought. Finally breaking she hissed, “But we have to do something! We have to respond in kind.”

Lord Cosgrave had enough, essence swirled as she stood up to loom over her desk. The room rattled as she roared, “You are not listening! House Walker didn’t do anything but survive an idiotic assassination attempt made by your idiotic brother. If you choose to follow his example and do something equally idiotic, I won’t just send you away. I will kill you myself. I am the head of House Cosgrave, and I won’t have my house’s path guided by children who refuse to listen. If you want to act, it will not be under my banner. You can join your brother in starting a new house. Am I understood?”

Deidre had paled and was holding her armrests with white knuckles. “Yes mother, I understand. I will not do anything stupid. I swear,” she gasped out.

“Now go, I have been putting off a ping with the arena masters. They say the matter is urgent and I’ve put it off long enough. Getting your brother to understand why he’s leaving and trying to organize a caravan for him to join has taken enough of my day. Try to not cause any more problems for me to deal with,” Lord Cosgrave said as she returned to her seat and gestured for her daughter to get out.

As she watched her daughter scurry out of the office, Lord Cosgrave leaned back in her chair and took a sip of wine. Closing her eyes, she tried to put the entire matter out of her mind. She needed to focus. Nero Walker and the repercussions of today’s events were for tomorrow. Now she had to address the concerns of her city.

Using her link, she looked up the urgent message and sent out a connection request. The arena master accepted the connection quickly, and Lord Cosgrave could feel their concern over the link.

“My apologies for the delay in getting back to you. What seems to be the problem?” she asked while trying to project calm.

“We were trying to reach you because our bank is overdrawn. There was an upset today in the arena, I’m sure you’ve heard about it. Our bank accepted a bet that it probably shouldn’t have. The manager said they were offered a collateral loan, but the person bet it all on a 15 to 1 long shot. There were several other large bets that were placed on the same match. The total lost by the arena is more than our bank has. Typically we’d just take a loan ourselves to cover it, but the amounts are staggering. We’re not sure what to do, and as the arenas are city property, we decided to call you personally. We don’t want this getting out, we’re hoping you have some ideas,” the arena master said nervously.

Sighing in annoyance, she said, ‘How much do you owe, and to whom do you owe it?’

The arena master promptly replied, ‘We covered all the bets but the major one. We owe House Walker approximately 560 million common valens.’

Lord Cosgrave felt like she had just been hit in the gut with a hammer. ‘What the hell did he use as collateral to place the bet?’ she shouted.

‘His proxy used the statement of award from Lord Walker’s victory in the Noble War. It was notarized by the Tower of Law. His proxy accepted 50% of it’s value as the loan. They used the loan to make the bet. The manager thought it was easy money. But, it paid out at 15 to 1, so they are owed 558,434,867 common valens,’ the arena master said with fear palpable in his psyche.

With a scowl on her face, Lord Cosgrave growled, “Vera. Fucking. Salvatore.”

-----

Nero walked into Vera Salvatore’s office and took a seat in front of her desk. He assumed that she was on a ping, because her temple was lit up. Not wanting to interrupt her, he looked around. Seeing the wet bar, he went to get a coffee. Not seeing any, he settled on a glass of water.

Returning to his seat, Nero couldn’t help but feel a little uncomfortable. Normally, when someone is on the phone, you could at least hear their half of the conversation. But, since pings were all mental, Nero had to just sit there and watch Mrs. Salvatore look through some papers then occasionally stare off in the distance. The silence was just freaky.

Tapping his fingers on his chair, Nero debated whether or not to pull out a book.

“Thank you for being on time Nero,” she said out of nowhere.

Nero was a little startled, but recovered quickly. “No problem. I’m ready to talk about all the stuff I’ve been avoiding. I’m sure you have a list, so let’s go,” he said as he rubbed his hands together.

With a smile, Vera shuffled some papers and got her desk in order.

“Alright Nero. Let’s start with matters pertaining to your nobility. I’ve scheduled your pledge for tomorrow morning at 8, do you remember how to get to the keep?” she asked.

Nero nodded, “Yup, and the link can give directions. But I can’t pay for the teleport. I don’t have a bank account, at least not one I know about.”

Vera nodded, and shuffled some papers. “I opened several accounts for House Walker. I was going to get to those later, but we can address that now. As you might remember, you acquired a shipping concern from your victory in the Noble War. I have already incorporated that interest into my company ‘Precision Shipping’. You told me to take care of it, and this is how I’m doing it. House Walker essentially bought into my company. House Walker now has a 40% ownership stake. Dividends will be awarded monthly. As they are calculated based on our monthly profits, you won’t see a payout until the end of the month. You have an account with Dorchester’s city bank for when that happens,” she said.

Flipping a page on her desk, she continued, “The monetary winnings from your noble war should be calculated and deposited within 2 weeks. You have a separate account for that.”

Another page was flipped. “I set up a household account to pay your servants and people who will work for you at your estate. That account will be filled temporarily with money you borrowed from Nicholas and me. Don’t touch that account. When your payouts come in, I’ll repay the loan, and set up automatic deposits from your income,” she said with a stern tone.

Flipping another page, she said, “Finally I set up a personal account for your daily expenditures. I’ll send you the information through the link. You can sign in using your soul signature. Now, do you have any questions?”

Nero was focused, and made sure to follow everything she was saying. “How much interest are you charging me? What’s my projected income, and will it cover my household costs? How much am I expected to receive from the Tower of Law for my noble war victory? And finally, you didn’t mention my arena winnings. Exactly how many valens do I have coming to me?” he asked with an intense stare.

Vera’s smile was glowing with pride. “All good questions. Well done. I’m not charging interest for the loan. The money will only be borrowed for a couple of weeks. Your projected income will be roughly 85,0000 valens monthly from ‘Precision Shipping’. The company is managed well, and has many contracts constantly being handled both inside Dorchester, and between cities. The management doesn’t foresee any issues with absorbing Dorchen’s concerns. Dorchen’s management team understood their position and didn’t hinder the acquisition. They were visited by the Populators several days ago, as they had an illegal division participating in smuggling. That division was eliminated, and the remaining employees are very keen on not making waves,” she said.

Nero interrupted and said, “85 grand a month? I don’t know the buying power of a valen, but that seems like a lot.”

Vera nodded, “It is a lot. Over the past 30 years, I’ve built a large network across all of Dorchester. With the acquisition of ‘Dorchen Shipping’, we’ll control around 65% of all Dorchester’s domestic and foreign trade,” she said with pride.

Nero couldn’t help but ask, “I thought you ran Center Intake?”

Vera looked confused, “I do. I don’t really run the company, I just own it and set policy. Occasionally I participate in deals and I check to see if my management team is doing well. Intake is my passion, but I knew I wasn’t going to stay there forever. I just liked having a place near Nicholas’ work. Research is his passion, and Intake lets me help people in my own way.”

Nero nodded. Rich people with hobby jobs in community service. He shouldn’t have been surprised.

He asked, “And you’re OK with me owning part of your company?”

She replied, “Of course. You have no say, so you can’t screw anything up. You allowed me to almost double my control of Dorchester’s shipping. It’s a win for both of us. Plus, once your nobility is confirmed, profits will soar with our tax breaks. But enough of that, let’s get back to it.”

Nero refocused and said, “Right. So I’m guessing that will cover the household, I can’t imagine it costing that much to pay a few gardeners and a maid. What about the arena winnings?”

Vera gave Nero an amused smile, and said, “I’m afraid the estate you won is a bit larger than your imagining. It has a live-in staff of 40, 100 guards, and 50 miscellaneous employees. Your income won’t cover your expenses if you plan to keep them all.”

Nero shouted, “What? How big is the place, and how the hell am I going to pay them? Do I have any other sources of income?”

Vera smiled, “You will be getting 18 million valens from the Tower of Law in a few weeks. That is 20% of what the Dorchen’s kept liquid. The estate auction should account for another 10 million, but I wouldn’t count on that. As for other sources of income, you’ll just have to get a job. Or cut expenditures to fit your income.”

Nero rubbed his chin in thought. This was a lot of money. 20% of the Dorchen fortune was apparently a lot of money. Nero paled as he realized that he had bet it all on his winning in the arena. Looking up at Mrs. Salvatore, he noticed her smirk. She was waiting for him to come to this realization.

“How much did I win in the arena?” he asked softly. If he was able to bet it all on winning, and he got good odds, he must be looking at a serious payout.

“Almost 560 million. After paying out Arch-mage Jennings and myself, they can’t cover the bet. I’m having a meeting with them tomorrow. Don’t worry, I’ll get you every valen, and charge them through the nose with interest if they decide to take their time,” she said with an evil smile.

Nero was shocked, but quickly got himself under control. “That’s amazing. But I still can’t afford to get to the keep tomorrow,” he said with a grin.