Another Stupid Spell

Chapter 13

I just had to clarify, "So Toby, you're saying that I can send my share back on the caravan with The Magic Shop's return shipment."

"Yes."

"And they'll take it to Joel at The Deviated Course in Limt."

"Indeed."

"Who will give it to his orc ship captain friend..."

"Correct."

"And within a month it will end up in the hands of Shaman, without anyone else in the tribe knowing?"

"Yup!"

"And this costs me..."

"Twenty percent of whatever you're sending, minimum of fifty gold sent."

I considered. "My share right now is around 83 gold, but we _expect_ that the bounties will be fairly lucrative. If I just keep three gold worth of copper and silver, and send 80 back, 64 will get into Shaman's hands. All within a month."

Toby nodded. "That's about the size of it. So?"

The numbers worked. That much gold could make real improvements back home, as long as Shaman was careful and kept the Chief out of the loop.

"Done."

Toby made the arrangements, and I silently bid goodbye to my profits. I was gambling on the generosity of the Arcane University now. The necromantic bounties that they were offering were supposedly quite lucrative. But if they turned the bounty down, the legitimate market for necromantic items was rather small. It could be a while before we saw any profit. I was alright with that.

We had gone our separate ways for the last two days, only regrouping to have dinner and share progress reports.

Will was working on finding out who, if anyone, owned the mine. He said that in the worst case scenario, we would get nothing more from our efforts. In the best case scenario, the government would ask us to make a salvage claim on the mines, and we could potentially own them. Not that any of us knew what to do with a mine, but it was an interesting concept.

Rick was being boring. He finished up The Magic Shop's business and arranged for the return shipment of the orders that he had placed in Ice House. He also packed up and shipped the expedition's remaining treasures. The minor magical items would stock the shop's shelves, which is how the humans turned a profit after absorbing all of the up front costs.

Toby had spent time with his fellow Paladins within the Order of the Snow, made his tithe, and started to go over plans for the upcoming 100th anniversary celebration of the opening of the Arcane University. There would be parades and magical demonstrations in every major city in the world. There was a lot of work to be done, but Toby was happy to help.

In addition to ordering stock for the Vole, Ames had debts to pay. Some of those were not repayments of money, but rather... physical favors. It was a busy and exhausting two days for the feline. I made myself scarce so as to avoid any potentially awkward or jealous moments.

But I did get to see the were-cat pose for Hierophant Petrinoth's painting. It was beautiful, tasteful. And the feline looked spectacular in those orange ceremonial robes.

The rest of the time, I availed myself of the small public library that Ice House had built a couple of decades ago. It kept me out of Ames' hair. The first night, the Temple of Aro-Remset was nice enough to offer me a bed, at Toby's request. The second night, I snuck in to Ames' room after midnight. The feline was bedraggled and exhausted from all of the... debt repayment. The cat didn't even stir as I slipped into bed and fell asleep.