The Hunter

How To Write a Contract

Finn held out a glass of water to Gloria and set the jug with more water on the table before she sat on the edge of the table and watched Gloria.

"How can you breathe in there?" Gloria wheezed.

Finn shrugged. "I'm used to it. I breathe shallower than when I'm not in there. The heat is higher where I'm working so the air moves faster maybe?"

"That was a lot of sparks for maintenance." Gloria muttered.

"You'd know? Being a metal worker of some sort?" Finn tilted her head to the side and smiled almost ferally.

Gloria swallowed a large gulp of water before she answered. "No, I suppose I should have asked that rather than just said anything."

Finn's smile became softer. "Fair. Depending on the weapon I'm working on and the specific maintenance there can be a fair bit of sparks. You won't ever see sparks when I'm oiling my bow, you'll almost always see sparks when I'm sharpening a sword."

"My head is weird." Gloria muttered and tried to focus on the wall.

"Yeah, that happens. It'll pass, just don't try standing up until it does." Finn answered. "So, something you haven't asked yet and I maybe should have mentioned is Contracts."

"This can't wait until my head works?"

"Probably not. Most of us take them for granted now, but I thought of it and should mention it now. Even if you don't totally get it, it'll open the door for you to ask more about them later." Gloria nodded and reached for the jug of water. She found that pouring the water was more difficult than she thought it would be and after filling the glass about a third of the way up she sat back to sip at it while Finn explained.

Finn lifted the jug with her left hand and held Gloria's hand where she wanted it to fill the cup up. "Everything we do is contractual. Some of it isn't written down and is more an understanding between you and whatever elements you are working with, but anything between people, regardless of race-" Finn paused here to make sure she had Gloria's attention. "Everything is a written contract."

"I didn't sign anything with you." Gloria pointed out and Finn winced.

"Yeah, that." Finn frowned at the corner of the room a moment. "That's my fault. I'll get one written up today. Things didn't go at all as I had planned, which happens and I shouldn't have left our Contract up in the air like that, and there's no excuse for it." Finn shrugged. "You have my most sincere apologies."

"Are you a lawyer?"

Finn frowned. "I think I mentioned I don't have a 'day job'?"

"Then how can you just write up a contract?"

"Same as anyone else?"

"But it's not binding unless it's written to certain-" Gloria lost the word and circled her hand a moment.

"Oh! No, these aren't legal Contracts. They are binding because we cast a spell to make them such, but we also set the consequences if we break them. They're spells." Finn frowned. "Sort of." Finn and Gloria shared a confused look. "I don't actually know how to explain them to someone that isn't just in the know already." Finn finally admitted.

"Learn by doing?" Gloria suggested and Finn nodded. She stood and left the room, returning a few minutes later with a cup of tea in one hand, and paper and pens in the other. They spent the better part of the next hour writing and re-writing the contract. Gloria stopped them for a meal, and then they were right back into it. 

"I'm surprised you're letting me get into such minute details." Gloria admitted as they both read over the most recent contract.

"If we aren't operating on the same assumptions then the details will break the contract without our intention." Finn glanced at Gloria. "You do know the cloche about details, don't you?"

Gloria smiled and nodded, then frowned. "What if I missed something?"

"What do you mean?"

"What if, after I sign this, I realize I didn't ask something and there's a detail missing." Gloria watched as Finn frowned and re-read the contract again.

"Shit. I can't believe I missed that clause entirely." Finn muttered and then scribbled on the contract. A moment later it appeared on the paper in Gloria's hands and she read it. "Basically if we need to revisit the contract we just do, and if that change makes the contract into something one or both of us won't sign then we take a look at how to end it without triggering the consequences, although in this case those aren't even all that bad."

Gloria nodded. "Okay, where do I sign?"

"You don't." Finn dropped her head onto the table. "Gods this is harder from scratch like this, hang on." She got up and disappeared, returning a moment later with a scroll from the library. "This is the Contract for being the official Chronicler." She held it out to Gloria.

"It's not alterable and it's life long. Some of what we have in our contract is based on you not signing this, we'll have to change ours if you decide to sign this one." Finn waggled her hand at the scroll as Gloria slowly opened it up. "I can put you in touch with a neutral party if you want to go over it with them. Honestly though if the angels are coming when you call then you've already been selected for it." Finn turned her head but not before Gloria saw pain on her face.

"What aren't you telling me about this job?" Gloria asked. "And don't tell me it doesn't matter."

Finn turned her eyes to Gloria, her expression closed off now. "It shouldn't matter. But I can't say that it doesn't." Finn sat down on the couch and opened her mouth as though to speak, only to cut herself off by standing and pacing. Finally she beckoned for Gloria to follow her and she stepped out the front door.

Gloria followed and found herself in a small patch of sunshine with gravestones at her feet. Finn stretched out in the sunshine, laying above whoever had been interred and staring at the canopy of the trees that surrounded the small cemetery.

"The Hunter and the Chronicler have been produced by my family since the beginning." Finn told the sky and the leaves. "And when I die, my family will cease to exist." Gloria found a respectful place to sit and listen.