Chapter 7: Punitive Remuneration (Patreon)

Jeb scanned the room.

As far as ambushes went, it was a pretty decent one. Jeb was curious how Garland had brought an imperial enforcer into the office, but the how didn’t matter a whole lot right now.

The enforcer was the major hurdle here. Zlesk was…agreeable, to an extent. The biggest problem was that Jeb had already spilled the beans about being in the Impossible tutorial, which wasn’t something he wanted to make known to the government just yet.

And yet, there was a government fixer with the authority to execute punishment on site without a trial or any kind of due process. In all likelihood, the story had already been spread to her.

Can’t change what’s already done, Jeb thought, gaze flicking to the smug Melas bodyguard. The man didn’t seem nearly as intimidated by Jeb as he had been last time. Probably because they had a high level bruiser here to hold their hands.

“Jeb, Mr. Grenore says you tried to extort him?” Zlesk asked.

Jeb reoriented on Zlesk.

“Extortion is defined as obtaining something through force or threat of force. There was no mention of using force, nor do I have any intention of doing so.” Jeb said, slipping Svek’s earring out of his pocket and holding it up where they could see it.

“If you like, we could use a few Truthseekers to mediate this dispute?” Jeb said. “If mine won’t do, I believe Mr. Grenore has one in his desk.”

It really didn’t matter if Garland said yes or not. It was already clear he didn’t intend to pay Jeb. Now it was a fun little dance before Jeb got his Myst.

“An excellent suggestion. I think a healthy dose of the truth should clear things up.” Garland said, fishing through his desk and coming out with a similar earring.

Sure will.

“Use mine please, Ms. Tekalis. There’s no telling what kind of alterations that knave may have done to his.”

The enforcer glanced at the earring a moment, pursing her lips as she frowned.

“You understand that if I put this on, I will be acting in an official capacity as an Imperial Enforcer and will immediately arbitrate a settlement to the best of my ability and the two of you will be required by law to abide by my decision.”

“Understood,” Jeb said.

“I understand.” Mr. Grenore said.

“Alright then, let’s get this over with.”  Vresh said with a sigh, clipping the earring on and addressing the two of them.

“Unless otherwise prompted, you will answer my questions with short, yes or no answers. First. Mr. Trapper, did you extort Mr. Grenore?”

“No.”

“Mr. Grenore. Did you agree to pay Mr. Trapper two hundred and fifty Marks in exchange for the return of your daughter?”

“Yes.”

Vresh raised a brow. “Unless I miss my guess, the matter is clear. Is there anything either of you would like to add to this?”

Jeb stayed silent, allowing Garland to keep digging.

“This man claimed the five bulbs held in escrow for the rescue of my daughter at the Hunter’s association.” Garland said. “Only minutes before he met me to offer to return her for fifty times the original reward. He attempted to defraud me by charging again for a bounty that had already been completed and claimed.”

“Mr. Trapper, is that true?”

“Which part?” Jeb asked.

“All of it.”

“No.”

“Truth.”

“What? You said you would kill all the pirates and return her! That was already done! What else could it be other than fraud!?”

Vresh glanced at Jeb and nodded. “Make your case.”

“If you recall correctly I said that after your daughter was returned, the pirates would no longer be drawing breath, not that I would kill them. In this way, I was not defrauding you by charging multiple times for the same rescue, I was charging you two hundred and fifty bulbs to walk her back to your office. The fact the pirates wouldn’t draw breath afterwards was simply a statement that was true.”

“Truth.”

“That’s kidnapping!” Garland shouted, earning a miffed glare from the Enforcer. “He held my daughter for ransom!”

“Mr. Trapper, did you have any intention to retain Ms. Grenore, should her father refuse to pay?”

“No.”

“Truth.”

Jeb found the way the tycoon ground his teeth amusing.

“It’s not illegal for a street vendor to charge two hundred and fifty bulbs for their product, is it?” Jeb asked. “I don’t see any reason why I could not charge that for the armed escort of a young girl.”

“The disputed payment is two hundred and fifty bulbs? Fifty times the original reward?” Vresh asked.

“Yes.”

“Mr. Grenore. The original reward for the rescue of Ms. Grenore was five bulbs?” Vresh asked, her expression souring as she glanced at the keegan.

“Yes. What of it?” He asked, missing the frown blooming on his daughter’s face as she sat right next to him.

“Nothing actionable,” Vresh said, glancing back at Jeb. “Am I correct in assuming the agreement you had with Mr. Grenore was entirely verbal?”

“Yes. And a handshake.”

Vresh massaged her temples for a moment.

“From what I have observed, Jebediah Trapper committed no actionable offenses against Mr. Grenore beyond being staggeringly misleading, which isn’t a crime.”

“But –“

“By that same token, Imperial law does not enforce verbal contracts below the value of two silver. By Mr. Trapper’s admission, the service provided was a two block escort to Mr. Garland’s place of business. The fair value of such a service falls well below small claims. Without a written contract, there is no legal impetus to enforce the outrageously inflated price.”

“Hah!” Garland said, clenching a fist.

“So let me get this straight,” Jeb said. “You have no intention of paying me?”

“You should have gotten it in writing.” The keegan said, radiating smug superiority.

“You should’ve thought twice about fucking me over,” Jeb said. “I won’t be accepting apologies, Mr. Grenore.”

“Fine by me. Now that our business is settled, get out of my office.”

Now to get my payment through other means.

In order to raise his Myst, Jeb needed to take something from the businessman that packed a lot of emotional energy and intangible value. Something painful, that would diminish his Impact over the course of his lifetime.

Jeb had just the thing in mind.

“Just a moment. Zlesk, I’m still working on picking up your written language, do you think you could read this aloud for me?” Jeb asked, offering Zlesk the first letter.

“Now? Can’t it wa-“

Jeb shoved it into the sheriff’s hand. “Just read it.”

He turned to Garland. “I find a lot of people don’t consider the value of trust as much as they should. It’s a valuable currency, you know. Hard to earn, easy to lose.”

“Is this real?” Zlesk asked, glancing at Jeb.

“Oh yeah,” Jeb grinned.

Zlesk cleared his throat.

“Grenore. I do not care about your mewling protestations. The situation favors us. The Stitch has dropped a veritable fortress in the form of the Split mountains between you and your beloved mines. A fortress I own.”

“BLACKMAIL!” Garland shouted at the top of his lungs, leaping to his feet.

“Blackmail is the threat of exposing damaging information In exchange for money. I never threatened to release this information.” Jeb said. “Not blackmail. Punishment.”

“YOU!”

“Sit your ass down,” Vresh said, shoving the keegan back into his seat. “I want to see where this goes.”

Zlesk glanced nervously at the Imperial enforcer and kept going.

“I know how far you’ve overreached with your new mine. I heard it straight from your foreman’s mouth before I broke his jaw. I have you by the balls, and you can do nothing to change it short of paying us our due. If you want your shiny new lenses back, you will give us no less than two thousand bulbs in imperial Marks…

“However, I’m nothing if not understanding and generous. If you can convince me to accept collateral of equal value, we will allow your workers to return to the mines, such that you can gather the money needed to appease us.”

“That’s stolen! He stole that from me!” the Keegan shouted, growing desperate. “He made it up! It means nothing!”

Jeb caught it when Vresh’s ear twitched.

Jeb adopted a playful voice. “You know, I’m pretty sure I saw your men hauling lenses into the warehouse under the office a week ago the day I returned your daughter…what’s the round trip to and from your land? Three, five days?” Jeb gasped.  “That must mean that a couple days before, they got past Svek’s men somehow! Did they already have the collateral? Hmm…”

“Don’t! I’ll pay! I’ll pay you, just stop!” Grenore said, struggling to reach Jeb as the Imperial enforcer held him in place with an iron grip. Beside him, Seraine Grenore’s eyes were slowly growing wider, and Jeb could see the connections slowly forming in her mind.

Jeb felt a deep pang of guilt for pulling the rug out from under a nice girl, but she wanted control over her fate, not blissful ignorance. So, painful or not, Jeb was going to deliver.

“Oh, look at this other letter I found in Svek Pederson’s personal effects!” Jeb said, pulling out the second letter.

He handed it to Zlesk.

Zlesk read over it once, and glanced at Seraine.

“Do you think perhaps we should read this some-“

“Read it.” Seraine said. The keegan girl was standing now, trembling like a leaf, but her voice was resolute.

Vresh nodded.

“No! don’t re-“ the enforcer clapped a hand over Grenore’s mouth, silencing him.

“Read it.” She said.

“Okay then,” Zlesk cleared his throat.

“The collateral will be visiting the Ironseed property on the edge of town on the fourteenth. I’ll make sure her guard is otherwise occupied. If I find any harm has come to her, I will rain down such destruction upon you that your ancestors will feel it.”

“You realize they were probably gonna harm her, then blackmail you with this letter, right?” Jeb asked.

Vresh removed her hand from the guy’s face.

“It wasn’t me!” He said, jiggling the Truthseeker in Vresh’s ear. “Someone else could have done it!”

Jeb and the imperial enforcer shared a glance, the same thought going through their heads. This guy’s lost it.

Jeb spotted a stack of papers on Grenore’s desk, and sent out a thin thread of Myst, snathing one up and bringing it to his hands. Vresh tensed up for a moment, watching the strand of Myst.

She can see Myst. Good to know.

“It kinda looks like your handwriting.” Jeb said, scanning the paper “I mean, I can’t read but… Zlesk, does this look like the same handwriting?”

“I think you’ve made your point.” Zlesk said, folding the two letters and putting them in his pocket.

“Nah, I got one more thing,” Jeb said, glancing at the bodyguard trying to remain inconspicuous in the corner.

“Hey Mr. Bodyguard. Were you the one supposed to watch Seraine that day? If so, what exactly happened that separated you from her?”

The hulking melas turned a lighter shade of orange and glanced at Vresh before pressing himself further back into the corner, seemingly unwilling to say anything at all.

“Enough.” Vresh said, drawing the attention of everyone.

“I am the law here, not you,” she said. “I will sort this out, and you will leave. Your role here is over.”

“Sure,” Jeb shrugged. “I got what I needed.” He glanced over at Seraine. “Ms. Grenore, you chose a painful truth, but I believe you’ll come out stronger for it. I wish you luck in taking the reigns of your destiny, and if you ever need help, visit me. I will hear you out.”

Jeb nodded before spinning on his peg and heading out the door. A moment later, Zlesk caught up with him as Jeb exited the doors of the first floor and burst into the dry air of the desert city.

“What in the Roil was that?” Zlesk demanded. The sheriff’s jaw dropped as they passed a poster glued to the nearest wall.

It had Garland Grenore’s name and likeness on it. Underneath it was a short and sweet blurb, reading: ‘I gave my only daughter to pirates. Imagine what I’ll do to you.’

Every ten feet or so there was another poster. Same picture, same message.

Jeb nodded in satisfaction as the ice pick headache began to build between his temples, scanning the poster-studded streets. Fifty bulbs well spent.

“Eck-ban,” Zlesk muttered, stopping in his tracks. “You really went for it.”

“Had to make sure it stuck,” Jeb said as he clomped along.

“But this is just…overkill.”

“Fucker shouldn’t have stolen my silver coin.” Jeb muttered.

“Is that why you did this?” Zlesk asked, “Ruined that man and his daughter?”

“The vast majority of it is because he gave his daughter to pirates,” Jeb said. “I’m not that petty. But I have to admit there’s a certain satisfaction that wouldn’t be there if he hadn’t stolen my silver coin.”

The headache kept growing until Jeb felt like someone was stomping on the back of his eyeball with cleated shoes.

Just gotta get back to the Inn, then I can suffer through the Myst sickness in peace, he thought to himself. Before he realized it, Jeb was toppling forward, the only thing stopping his descent was the sheriff’s palm. He could barely hear the Keegan’s words through the throbbing in his brain.

“Uuugh,” Jeb said in response, hoping it was the right answer. His eyes were both crossed and unfocused, making it extremely difficult to see.

The sheriff responded with some more words lost in the pounding of Jeb’s skull, then began to haul him away.

When Jeb’s senses began to return to normal, he found himself sitting in a booth at the local bar, fingers clenched in a death-grip around an iron beer stein.

“Why?”

“Because you stood me up last week.” Zlesk said, glaring at him from the booth.

“I told you it would be different.” Jeb said with a half-hearted smile. Zlesk gave him a flat stare.

“You’re lucky you got away with that stunt you pulled with Grenore,” Zlesk said, shaking his head. “You were in front of an Imperial Enforcer. There were so many ways that could have ended with you dead. If you hadn’t baited her with Garland…”

“Pfft. At no point in there did I tell a lie.”

“Yeah, and you admitted to some very borderline criminal activities.”

“They’ll never stick.”

“You know I could have you executed for forgery any time I want?” the lawman asked, raising a brow. “I’ve still got you dead to rights on that one, you slippery bastard.”

“Why are so many things punishable by death?” Jeb demanded.

“Because it’s difficult and expensive to imprison people with Classes.”

“Wow, didn’t expect a straight answer,” Jeb said. “Anyway, I’m sorry. That day ran long, the stab wound made me sleepier than I thought, and I forgot the beer.”

Zlesk grunted. “Don’t worry, I’m saving arresting you for something more egregious than forgery. I want you to get famous first so I can get promoted.”

“Don’t call it forgery,” Jeb said, opening a tab with the barmaid with a silver. “Call it ‘correcting your embarrassing underestimation of what Jeb Trapper is capable of.’”

“You were right, and I was wrong, alright?” Zlesk said with a scowl. “That’s the only reason I’m not stuffing you in a cell right now.”

Jeb shifted in his seat to grab his pitcher, his pegleg bumping against the leg of the table as he did.

That gives me an idea.

“Change of subject,” Jeb said, filling his first mug. “How much would a fancy prosthetic run me?”

“You could get a nice one with a false foot and a couple heavy duty springs to smooth out your gait for a bulb or so. If you wanted something better than that, with magical support, tricks and some kind of spell imbued into it, it could run you as much as, oh…fifty to a hundred bulbs.”

“You couldn’t get that one made in Kalfath, though,” Zlesk said. “A little city like this one isn’t gonna cut it.”

“What if I wanted someone to regrow it?” Jeb asked.

“Good luck.” Zlesk said with a chuckle. “That’s a matter of having a powerful healer owe you a big favor. They’re in extremely high demand, and getting access to one is more a factor of being a powerful aristocrat than simply having enough money to throw at the problem.”

Bzzt.

Jeb blinked as the table in front of him flickered and resolved into a video feed.

“Still getting used to those,” Jeb muttered, moving his beer out of the way. The way the empire could push video to everyone inside their borders whether they wanted it or not felt very dystopian.

“Hi there!” Jeb blinked as Amanda’s cheery face showed up in front of the camera, followed by Brett’s chiseled good looks. “I’m Amanda Courvar!”

“And I’m Brett Courvar.” Brett said, smiling at Jeb with his stupid perfect teeth.

“Speak of the devil,” Jeb muttered, taking a sip of his beer.

The camera zoomed out to show the fitness model couple standing in front of a stack of paperwork.

“We’re here today to kick off a series about how to get along in this wild new world! Welcome to the first episode! I hope it helps as many people as possible!” Amanda said.

“Today’s episode is about how you can register a homestead and apply for a three year tax exemption.” Brett said.

“Three years?” Amanda asked, eyes widening in surprise. “That’s a long time!”

“Long enough to get on your feet, anyway.” Brett said, nodding.

“The registration is free for humans! All you have to do is-”

With a wave of his hand, Zlesk dismissed the screen in front of Jeb.

“…How?”

“I’m a Citizen.” Zlesk said with a shrug.

“Fucking traitors,” Jeb heard a human mutter across the room, where the scruffy man was watching the Courvars trying to give him vital information.

Sure, they were slutty sellouts, but they weren’t bad people. Jeb didn’t really expect anything less from them than whoring themselves out for massive success. There were certainly more insidious things they could be doing than Public Service Announcements.

“That man owes me a night with his wife,” Jeb grumbled, turning his attention back to Zlesk. The sheriff was watching him with a cocked brow. Smartass was looking at Jeb with a similar disapproving look from atop the keegan’s hat.

“What? It’s the truth.”

“And when did you meet two of the humans who survived the Impossible tutorial?”

“Where do you think?” Jeb asked.

“You know, lying on your census information is –“

“Punishable by death?” Jeb asked.

“A serious offence.” The Keegan said, eyes narrowed to slits.

“I didn’t lie, you just came to the wrong assumptions.”

“You’re gonna have to visit me and sort out that paperwork.”

“I don’t wanna.”

“Jeb…”

“Look. I’m safer if I’m a nobody on paper,” Jeb said. “Due to reasons I don’t really wanna get into, I came out of the Impossible tutorial actually weaker than I went in. I don’t want the government knowing about me just yet.”

Zlesk flickered in front of him, and the table jumped in place a bit, making their beer slosh around in their mugs.

Jeb blinked.

“I guess you’re telling the truth,” Zlesk said, taking a sip of his beer.

“Did you just reflex test me?” Jeb demanded as he felt a sting on his cheek, a drop of blood rolling down his face.

“Maybe.”

“Fucker.”

“Murder Hobo.”

Zlesk eyed him for a solid minute before speaking again. “Alright. I’m willing to leave your census as is if you tell me how you beat Svek Pederson and his crew.”

“Do you know what a cleansing wand is?” Jeb said, leaning forward.

At the end of Jeb’s description of the Beautiful Revenge, Zlesk waved off Jeb’s explanation of how it had turned the pirates into burger, saying he got the idea.

“That magic item hasn’t been added to the list of prohibited weapons yet, but I’m gonna make an executive decision as the sheriff of Kalfath and say this: I don’t want to see it inside city limits, understood?”

“Yessir.” Jeb saluted.

The two of them drank in companionable silence for a couple minutes, mulling over the events of the day.

“I think you should leave.” Zlesk finally said.

“Eh?”

“You might have bloodied his nose pretty good, but even like this, Garland Grenore’s got more money and influence than you do. The only reason you pulled that off is because he didn’t see it coming. You can bet your ass he’s paying more attention to you now. If I were you…I’d probably lay low for a couple years. Avoid dark alleys.”

Jeb sat there and thought it through. If a bulb was roughly approximate to a thousand dollars, then an assassination would probably cost anywhere between ten and a couple hundred bulbs. If the keegan expected he could pay two thousand for the return of his daughter, then there was no reason to think he wouldn’t be able to afford to sic people on Jeb’s ass.

Becoming scarce was starting to sound like a good idea.

“What’s the enforcer gonna do to him?” Jeb asked, faintly hoping that would solve his pissed-off rich guy problems.

“Slap on the wrist. He’s a Citizen. The laws are far more lenient for us.”

Jeb frowned, glancing at Zlesk. “You’re a Citizen too, right? How do you go about becoming one?”

“A hundred bulbs and a Class, or reach officer rank in the military.”

“So what, you buy your way in?”

“My parents bought my Citizenship when I hit level twenty and got my Class,”  Zlesk said, nodding.

“Rich boy.”

“Philistine.”

“Well,” Jeb said, standing and dropping a few coins on the table as a tip. “Thanks for the advice. I think I’ll get started on it. I liked your town and I hope to see you again.”

Zlesk waved dismissively as Jeb left the bar.

***

Jeb was in his room at the inn, packing up his shit while Smartass gushed. She’d been hiding in his collar the entire time, unable to speak for fear of someone – especially the Enforcer – noticing her existence.

“That was so awesome! You pulled that off like a true fae! I mean, taking his daughter’s trust as payment? That was…I mean…

Smartass gripped her skull before making explosion noises and spreading her hands outward. “B’CHEW!”

“A stroke of brilliance. It was like watching one of the ancients at work,” She babbled while Jeb stuffed a backpack with all his goodies. Lenses, a change of clothes, a box of .44 ammo, and some dried food.

“I see you liked it,” Jeb said.

“Liked it? Liked it!? Do you have any idea how long it takes for typical mortal wizards to get the hang of procuring Myst through Bargains? And the sheer amount!” She said, holding out her arms and wiggling her fingers.

“I can feel the power flowing through my veins! Kneel before me!”

Smartass cackled and zoomed around the ceiling, insect wings humming as she did.

Jeb glanced down at the ring. He hadn’t bothered to check the profit from the Grenore job yet, but Smartass seemed pretty pleased with it, which made him curious.

If the headache was any indication, it had been pretty decent.

He took off the ring and used it to appraise himself.

Jebediah Trapper

Mystic Trapsmith, Level 39

Accolades: Krusker’s Brawn, Siren’s Cunning, R-R-RubU’s Mysteries, Gresh’s Subtlety, Innovator, Lagross’s Power.

Body 21 (9)

Myst 71 (16)

Nerve 26 (10)

Abilities: Mystic Trigger

Accolade Pending: Lagross’s Power suspended due to multiple instances. Awaiting resolution.

Attention, this User has been flagged for exclusion from the System by executive order.

Nine points in Myst and a single point in Nerve. The equivalent of ten levels.

Not a bad start.

Give Jeb a couple months to grow his Myst core to the new limits, and he’d be moving a few hundred pounds, easy.

That, in turn, would make it easier to engage in more high-stakes deals, and raise his survivability.

Hold on, Jeb thought, slipping the ring back onto his finger. He had to consider why he was doing what he did. Power for the sake of power never ended well.

He had to find a niche for himself.

Maybe open a business where I rescue children for exorbitant prices. Jeb chuckled at the thought.

Another thought: Jeb didn’t have to follow the same path as before.

He glanced at the immaterial insects wading through the Myst settling near the floor of the inn. One of them was about the size of a large rat with a gaping maw that seemed to strain the Myst like a whale’s filter feeder. It passed through Jeb’s foot without a care, leaving a wake of slightly off-color, blue-tinted Myst behind it.

Can’t say I missed the hallucinations.

Jeb had chosen to raise his Myst exclusively during the tutorial because he felt that magic would be the way to break the game, and that had been the right instinct.

Now his instincts were telling him…

Don’t overspecialize.

When he had no clue what kind of trials would be heading his way, a more well-rounded approach would likely offer more ways to survive.

Well, payment is typically material in nature, anyway. I don’t think I’ll have any problem getting Body, as long as I continue making Deals.

That settled, Jeb got back to work packing to skip town, idly itching his scalp as he did.

There was a lump on his head.

The fuck? Jeb thought, standing straight and searching for the lump with his fingers.

Nothing? He probed, poked and prodded his scalp with his fingers, not finding anything.

That was weird. Jeb sighed, running his whole hand over his head to dispel the heebie jeebies.

There was a lump.

Ice settling in his stomach, Jeb reviewed his short term memory, prodding exactly where he had felt the strange thing. Nothing. He pulled his hand down and looked at it.

The appraiser sat there on his right ring finger, looking innocent.

Oh you son of a bitch, Jeb thought, folding back his index and middle finger, using only his ring finger to prod his skull.

There it is. To his ring finger, it felt like something was attached to his skull. Some kind of zipper like object just above the skin, seemingly welded in… Needless to say, his other fingers couldn’t feel a thing.

Jeb switched the ring onto another finger and probed with that one.

Still there. Definitely the ring’s doing, then.

What the ever-loving hell is going on here? Jeb thought, poking the lump some more.

It twitched.

The lump on his head twitched.

Okay. There’s something alive in or on my skull that only exists when touched through the appraiser. I only have one question. Is this the appropriate time to panic!?

Knock knock.

Jeb’s gaze darted to the door.

“Not a great time,” Jeb said, his voice a little higher than he might’ve liked.

“Jebediah Trapper?” The enforcer’s voice came through the wood. “I’d like to speak to you about kidnapping and capital punishment.”