Chapter 144 – The Ennecus Problem

Calisto talked nearly nonstop on the train to Cairnmouth, then somehow had more to say on the train to Second Cairn.

“…the real gold-printing machine would let you control Labyrinth econode releases, but barring that, what’s preventing us from constructing our own econodes on the surface? Again, there’s basic economic principles these old fools refuse to put into practice. It’s so simple. Reduce the cost of maintaining the myrvites, and increase the number of myrvites produced!”

Mirian thought if it really was simple, someone would have done it, but she nodded along. “So what’s your dad think of all this?”

“Oh, he’ll be easy to convince, especially with that detector of yours. And I’m sure once we can increase the range on it, he’ll finally change his mind on the Elder titan search too.”

Mirian looked out the window. The track mostly paralleled the Cairn River, and the floodplain was full of large farms using spell engines to move water for irrigation. They were more active in the growing season; now, the land was bleak with the onset of winter. There were too many browns for her liking. When they saw the river, there were always barges, either drifting with the current or using spell engines to go against it.

“Did your grandpa have a plan for taking on an Elder titan?” she asked.

Calisto laughed. “Yeah. Bring the whole guild! Probably hire some mercenaries, too.”

Mirian wondered if even that would be enough.

***

As soon as they got off the train, they went straight to the Ennecus Guildhall.

“Hey Bern!” Calisto said to the guard. “Can you get the gate for us?”

The guard, Bern, apparently, gave Calisto a wary look. “You’re supposed to be attending classes. And the hall is for guild members only, not…” He turned his skeptical gaze to Mirian.

“As my father would say, the use of time should be maximized. Micael here is going to help us do a lot more good than a few classes will. I’m hardly learning anything in them anyways, I could give the lectures in Viridian’s class, you know.”

Bern opened his mouth to say something else, then apparently changed his mind and sighed, looking defeated. “Just don’t come crying to me later,” he said.

Calisto rolled her eyes. “I’m not twelve anymore.” As they made their way through the gardens, she said, loud enough Bern certainly could hear her, “Sorry about him. He never did learn how to be polite to guests.” She opened the door. “Hey Silvera,” she said to the secretary. “Is my dad in his office?”

“Calisto! Are you skipping classes? He’s going to be furious with you.”

“Oh, he’s always furious with me. If he ever wasn’t snarling, I’d assume he’d been switched with a doppelganger and run away screaming. So he’s in his office.”

“In a meeting,” Silvera hissed. “And sound carries in this hall.”

“Meeting with who?” Calisto said, not lowering her voice in the slightest. “The Thanviles again? Are they offering an even worse deal?”

“Do not go into that meeting,” Silvera warned. She raised an eyebrow, and said very quietly, “Unless…?”

“No, not that. Honestly, something better, Nicolus can go—well you know where he can go. His loss, really. Come on, Micael, let’s go.”

“Calisto.”

Calisto gestured for Mirian to follow her and they started heading for a set of double doors down a large hall. Several statues of myrvites, done in the traditional style, watched them as they passed. Mirian was feeling a sort of wry amusement at it all. If anything like this had happened before the loops, she’d have been absolutely mortified. Now, it was sort of funny. This explains so much, she thought. Mirian looked at Silvera and gave her a shrug and mouthed, ‘sorry.’

“Calisto!”

Calisto ignored the secretary and slammed open the double-doors, startling two older looking men who were sitting around a large table that was carved with a map of Baracuel. Thanvile merchants, Mirian assumed.

Cain Ennecus, who was sitting at the head of the table, went from a false smile to a deep frown in an instant.

“What are they offering this time? Your own balls leased back to you?” Calisto asked, which was somehow even less diplomatic than Mirian had expected.

“What is the meaning of this?” one of the merchants exclaimed, at the same time the other one said, “How dare you—!” in a tone too exaggerated to really be taken seriously.

“I have a better offer. Something that will completely reshape the myrvite harvesting business. You two might want to hear it, because the more capital we have invested, the faster we can get it off the ground.”

“Business partnership requires mutual respect,” the first merchant said.

“No it doesn’t, it requires money and signed contracts. Turns out, father, that I stumbled upon the man who’s going to make the next innovation in artifice. And you, gentlemen, have the opportunity to invest.”

“Calisto—”

“You know this rude woman?” the second merchant asked.

“I apologize for my daughter’s inexcusable behavior,” Cain hissed through grind teeth. “However, if you’ll give me a moment—”

“Problems can’t be swept away, dear father. Only hidden. Are they offering ten percent? Fifteen?”

Mirian glanced at one of the papers on the table. “Sixteen percent,” she murmured to Calisto.

“Sixteen! The interest payments alone would kill us, you might as well just hand them the keys and let them ransack the place.”

Then everyone started talking at once.

“Our rates conform to the best loan practices of the Crown Bank of—”