Stronger Together chapter 128 (Patreon)

I only brought out the minimum hundred thousand to start. I didn't  know any of these people or how good they were, so I decided to play  short stacked to begin so I wouldn't lose it all if I hit a bad beat.  The game was no limit texas hold em' of course and Dalton had the  button. Vikram was up first on his left. He set the blind at a hundred  and Dalton dealt out everyone's hand. Being the first hand everyone just  paid the blind to see the flop. I was sitting on pocket jacks (clubs  and spades) but I decided not to bet into them until I saw how everyone  else acted, which I assume is what everyone was thinking.

Sergei  and Nadia both folded after the flop which was a jack of hearts a seven  of clubs and an eight of diamonds, Han raised to two hundred, Die Su,  Hana, Kaya, and Carlos all decided to call. Valentina and Ranier both  folded after Han's raise, and Han's sister Sera raised again to three  hundred. When it got to me I called her raise because I had flopped a  third jack and Dalton called as well, but when the turn came it was a  six of spades. We all took a moment to sip our brandy and think before  the next round of bets. Dalton gave a luxurious sigh at the taste of the  brandy. "So, while we play, I wonder if anyone has any business to  discuss."

The  mood at the table changed immediately and I came to the sudden  realization that this poker game, despite the hundreds of millions in  potential revenue, was very much not about money. This was a gathering  of very powerful people who could be useful to both Dalton and each  other. Sera smiled shyly before clearing her throat, raising slightly  just after we all glanced at her. "Well. I was interested in a potential  acquisition. I've heard rumors of a vial of luck dragon blood appearing  in the black markets of shanghai. It disappeared soon after it surfaced  but I wonder if Madame Su might be able to inquire as to it's current  whereabouts."

Die  Su returned the smile with a solemn nod "My father's sources when it  comes to such objects are second to none, we may be able to procure the  vial, however, such a treasure is rare and valuable, mere currency is  far from compensation enough for an item of such scarcity. I wonder if  your Song family has heard any news of the claw of Ao Guang surfacing  near Seoul. My father has long been interested in finding a memento of  his old friend." She took a slow sip of brandy, closing her eyes to  savor it as she called the bet that had just reached her.

I  was blown away, mostly because I knew who fucking Ao Guang was and if a  vial of luck dragon blood was as valuable as one of his claws I was  definitely out of my depth here. However these people clearly had  massive resources and methods of distribution that I could only dream  of, and getting in good with them would be the best move my upcoming  company could make. As the two of them made cryptic comments to hash out  the details I smiled and raised five hundred into my jacks, partly  because trip jacks was a solid bet and partly to demonstrate my  seriousness.

I  cleared my own throat as the two of them finalized a trade. "I've  recently had some success on a new form of technology resistant to  magical interference, I'd been looking for someone to help with  distribution and production, I'm not averse to a partnership if anyone  is interested." I tried to be both open and very vague to prevent over  committing or tipping my hand so to speak. The aura tech was valuable  and pretty much impossible to recreate without the factors leading to  it's development but their inability to steal it wouldn't bring me back  from the dead if someone killed me in the attempt.

Ranier  smiled widely, his blazing white teeth standing out against his  extremely dark skin. "I have been seeking a new project in the  technological sector mon ami, perhaps we might do business together. Do  you have a price per unit estimate? Assuming this wondrous technology is  in a fixed form and cannot simply be applied universally?" He raised to  eight hundred, being the last one in. The river hit and I saw my last  Jack laid down, completing my quads. I pretended to hesitate before  raising ten thousand.

Kara  had actually given me some projections on that. We had been planning to  ask Lara about it but Kara felt like asking her for a favor after we  killed her dad, abusive sociopath though he may have been, was gauche.  Her words. Kara had looked over the godsteel sample I had given her and  managed to identify the energy retention factor and set up a passive  recharge that pulled magic from the air with Barb's help, even a pin  head's worth of the stuff alloyed into say...steel, would be a perfect  battery, in addition to being faerie proof. All told per scroll we were  looking at five thousand per unit for production, not counting the  batteries which were both mostly free and technically priceless.

I  erred on the side of caution though and rounded up "The technology  comes in tablet form and is self recharging, though the batteries are  proprietary technology. All told we're looking at about six thousand per  unit with an extra two thousand per battery, but the shelf life on the  things is impressive and if they break the battery can be swapped out,  massively reducing the cost of replacement." We'd actually had to talk  Kara out of making them too tough because it would undercut our future  earnings, she had not been pleased, but making the battery swappable and  long lasting had somewhat appeased her since the medical equipment  could be made to a much higher standard and be sturdier and still use  the same battery.

Ranier  seemed intrigued and called, barely even registering dropping as much  money as some people would spend on a car in a game he wasn't paying  attention to. Which I could understand, there was business to be done.  "If you're producing the batteries yourself mon ami this is a reasonable  price. I suggest we sell at ten thousand, this will be a premium device  and should sell exceptionally well among the more well informed.  Supernatural beings tend to be financially well off, and having a way to  avoid the issue of mortal magic will be quite popular." He wasn't  wrong, and once I could make more godsteel we could begin producing a  more affordable model.

Long  term having magic proof tech in the hands of everyone would be a net  gain, mortal magic made technology unfeasible but magic from non humans  didn't fixing this would make humanity better able to act cohesively.  Barb had been working on a network for long range usage like a cell  phone network since we'd solved the power problem. With the extra  magical boost that godsteel gave broadcasting and receiving over a  longer distance was more than possible now. We continued hashing out the  deal, with Dalton offering to handle some of the distribution for a  cut, which we accepted because he was a smuggler and he knew  distribution.

We  went through several more hands as we talked, and the business deal  seemed to cement my place as one of them because everyone opened up,  talking more freely about themselves and their business and origins.  Vikram it turned out was a child of Indra, the hindu storm god, he'd  been the one to invite Die Su her first game here. Her father Ren Su was  a Qilin, and a very old one, he knew a ton of the older gods and  monsters and Indra was a friend of his. Knowing I was sitting with a  demi god and someone who was half chinese dragon unicorn was kind of a  mind fuck but adjusted pretty quickly.

Han  and Sera were both just mortal magic users, but their family was older  than dirt and produced insanely powerful wizards. They were a separate  entity from the council and pretty much ran the mortal practitioners in  Korea like a magical mob family. I had thought Ancient Mai represented  the asian magic users but when I mentioned her Han just sneered. Their  grandfather and Mai had something of a stormy past and she was a  somewhat taboo subject in their family. Valentina was a Madremonte, some  kind of Columbian Banshee equivalent that lived in the forest but she  didn't go into too much detail about it.

Sergei  and Nadia were actually council members, though they tended to avoid  the big meetings and mostly skirted the edge of the laws. They had known  Harry's mother fairly well and asked me to pass along their regards.  Kaya was a weretiger, which apparently was incredibly rare and always  hereditary, though not via curse like the Loup-Garou. She wasn't nearly  as strong as the uber werewolf either though so I was relieved by that  at least. Carlos was a vampire, red court, and I was really unhappy to  be at a table with him, but I controlled my expressions with my godsteel  reflexes and played at being friendly.

Finally Ranier was some kind of guardian spirit from Canada called  moksgm'ol or "White bear" He was apparently a peer of the forest people  and in a similar weight class to River Shoulders, though her was  somewhat less benevolent. Still getting to know everyone was fun,  Valentina was a huge flirt, which I didn't mind, though Barb apparently  did because she walked over and plopped down in my lap mid game. The  gorgeous columbian spirit just winked at her and licked her lips  suggestively. We finished the brandy, enjoying the night and each others  company.

I  ended up breaking out substantially more of my chips, but I also won a  pretty decent amount. My godsteel enhanced body let me prevent tells and  read other people incredibly well, though it only worked on about half  of the other players due to their various magical provenances. As the  night wound down we finally decided to play one last hand and pick the  game up tomorrow. I hit a pair of sixes, paid for the flop just to see  if I had anything, and was about to raise when another six hit, when a  cold wind blew through the library, putting out every single candle.

The  room was awash in darkness, I didn't care too much about it, but  Dalton's voice snapped like a whip. "No one move, be on your guard." We  all froze, Dalton's voice was severe as he explained. "The candles in  here are spelled. They cant be doused by anything except sunlight. I  have my whole place outfitted with them. Brynn! Check the spells." He  called to his girl friday who scurried over to the nearest candle,  muttering a few words to assess them as the rest of us did our best to  extend our senses into the suddenly oppressive darkness.

Brynn's  voice sounded worried. "Something drained the magic from them. I can  light them normally but I'll need to enchant new ones tomorrow." There  were no windows in here so no moonlight illuminated the place. A few  muttered words and the candles lit, the lights came back on and I  breathed a sigh of relief until I noticed a red stain by my chips. I  followed it to it's source and my eyes widened.

 Carlos was dead, his  heart torn out leaving his flesh mask intact. He'd been murdered  brutally right here in the room with us and judging by the shocked looks  not a single one of us had noticed it happening. I glanced over to  Raven to see her looking suspiciously around at everyone, clearly unable  to sense anything. This had just gotten complicated.