Magic Made Simple

Chapter 24: Great Disappointment

"What exactly do you want to talk about?" I ask the angry woman who'd approached me. Her less than kind demeanor was definitely off putting, but not a reason to dislike her immediately.

"Come upstairs and find out." She says, turning to walk towards the staircase. She doesn't even look behind to check if I am following. Once she makes it about halfway there, she realizes that I hadn't budged an inch.

"Nope. Not going to go up there until you tell me what it's about. I already trusted one of your people here, and got interrogated in a dark room."

She sighs. "Fine. I want to discuss introducing currency to your outpost the the towns around you."

"Why would you be talking about that with me? I'm not the leader of any of them."

"Because you are the highest leveled person around there. People will listen to you."

"No, people will listen to those they trust. They actually trust the leaders of my outpost, so if you really want to discuss anything like that then bring it up with them."

"I don't think you quite understand your responsibilities towards your people." She says. "You are the strongest amongst them, so you help with the major decision. At the very least I am sure you can put in a good word for us once I convince you of the value of having standard currency."

"Oh I am well aware it would be useful to have." I say. "It's just not my job to deal with that stuff. Besides, I don't like how you just assume I should be in charge just because I am the highest level."

"Perhaps you'd be more inclined to tell them it's a good idea if-"

"Nope. I am not going to endorse this either. If it is good enough to implement, it shouldn't be hard to convince anyone to do so."

She glares at me, taking a moment to think. She pulls out a small pouch from her waistband. "Then how about you just mention the idea of currency to your leaders. You don't have to endorse it."

I think that over for a moment, and have to do my best to keep a smirk off my face after a moment. "Sure, I'll make sure to bring it up next time I see them."

"Great." She says, her glare disappearing as she tosses the bag of coins to me. I look inside, seeing a few gold coins within.

She walks away, seeming at least content with the outcome of the conversation. I just stare into the pouch a bit longer.

"I... have no idea how much this is worth."

Upon exiting the building, Flynn finds me and stops me. "So what'd she want to talk about?"

"She wanted me to implement currency into my outpost. I told her that wasn't my job, and she kept trying to convince me to at least have me endorse it. In the end, we settled on me at least mentioning it. She gave me this in return." I open up the pouch for him to see into.

"Wow." Flynn says, counting the coins. "I never expected you would be the type to accept a bribe, even if it was a pretty good one."

"Oh relax. I'm not actually gonna say anything useful about the currency. I just wanted the money."

"If you say so. Anyways, there was something very important I wanted to talk to you about. I really need your input on what to do with this information, as this could very much effect everybody within the tower."

I suddenly get much more serious, understanding the gravity of what I was about to be told. "What is it?"

"Let's go somewhere a bit less crowded first." Flynn says, leading me elsewhere. After a bit of walking, we arrived at the staircase within the city. "Floor eleven." Flynn says before disappearing.