Perfect Nights in Ullyse

Dale Algot - Almen

Raynor was not having the best day. With Benedikt gone and his own brother being unreliable, he truly was at a loss sometimes even though the den, his home was filled with people. The boss can’t be seen as someone reliant and he truly thought he wasn’t reliant on anyone till they lost Ben. Earlier he didn’t have to watch his back, now he does. The Lost Island is his Kingdom, his empire as his father puts it, the people here his to protect.

They are a mob, yes and they do not function in the way the Lordship functions in Mergamo, the country they will have to join sooner or later. His father can’t see it yet, his brother can’t see it, but maybe with time he can convince them that they will have to leave the isles sooner or later. He hopes that day won’t prove too costly for them.

Raynor saw his babbo first as he stormed in. Well, seeing babbo means he can’t even be angry now.  Out of all four of them, him, Sven, Baba and Babbo, he is the only sane one and the one person none of them can be angry at.
“What happened?”

“It’s Sven. He provided weapons to the kids going on ships to Mergamo. We cannot afford to have a confrontation with Mergamo,” said Raynor. 

“Says who? My brother the pacifist? They have an omega as their emperor. We can over power them in any field,” said Sven who walked in shooting him a glare. 

“I think you forget the man single handedly set Mergamo on track after the civil war. You also seem to forget the Aldereons and VIlhelm Aldereon in particular. Another fact, our nephew Isak won’t thank us for destroying his home,” said Raynor. 

“Whatever,” snapped Sven as he stormed away.

“You should tone down your irritation at your brother. You know him, he probably gave them for self- protection,” said Igor, his babbu. He is Babbo to everyone in this den and Raynor and Sven were lucky to be birthed by him.

“Don’t deny your son is an extremist and a feudal conservative,” said Raynor. 
“Igor”

“Shoot, the old man is calling, go lest he spontaneously combust,” said Raynor.

“You- Babbo reached to swat him, but he evaded it successfully and walked away.
Sven’s door was open when he walked past.
“Did the Lowakis get in touch with you?” asked Raynor.

“Yes Boss, they did. Consider  it done. It’s just a case of blackmail for funding and we owe them. Can’t back off,” said Sven.

“You mean, you owe them. Because you sent our boys to the upper islands and they got lost in the the region they have control over. Whatever get it over with,” said Raynor and walked away. He is not fond of kidnapping and blackmailing but sometimes they have to. They mostly sell minerals and rare metals in black market to human weapon manufacturers- directly to governments including the Americas, European Union countries and some in Asia.

They also smuggle gold in large amounts since gold is the major wealth they have. The cover is the massive tech industry they have under Almen name along with the Export and Import business. 

Lowakis are their allies but they are literally the scum on earth. They must be getting a large sum for blackmailing someone high profile as all the secrecy seemed to suggest. Raynor prefers to not know and his brother sometimes call him a cat for that. Just because he closes his eyes doesn’t mean everyone around is in darkness. Everyone knows what they do. 

Even though he and his brother don’t get along all that much, they never dare fight much before their Baba. Elov Almen is not someone who responds to feud inside family kindly. Everyone expected his Baba to choose the oldest- Sven as the successor but he chose Raynor and till this day no one knows why such a decision was made. Probably Babbo knows. It has been thirteen years since that decision was made and he nor his brother has ever discussed the selection. They have never spoken of what they thought of the decision personally either. Their fights are mostly about how liberal Raynor is.