The Start of an Enterprise

“Salvar, Raiaera, the Aleran dead lands... nothing close enough for me to make it back to claim the reward for finishing by the end of the month,” Glacies muttered under his breath as he tucked a loose strand of hair behind his ear while reading the ledgers. “Plenty of unpaid accounts, but I'm not here to be a basher and force people to pay up or get bloodied. I want to go out there somewhere and come back with riches... or artifacts... or something to show for the effort I put into the job.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose and looked up as the light of his reading lamp began to die. He sighed and rubbed his right temple with two fingers. He closed the hard leather bound book and slid it under his arm as he stood up and turned around. He reached down in the dimming light and grabbed the handle of his travel pack, the old burlap holding up surprisingly well for how much weight it had carried over the years. He brought the book back to the ledger keeper of the headquarters and laid it carefully down on the table.

“Still nothing you think you can go after?” the book keeper asked.

“Nothing I can afford the start up money on,” Glacies admitted with a grimace. He needed some kind of capital or free supplies to get him to a site from which he could glean the kind of riches he sought.

“If only more of us had made it out of Concordia, but those spiders have probably eaten all of the horses and scattered the tools throughout the forests... Hell, all of the iron bits are probably rusted, as humid as that damned forest is.”

The book keeper tapped the feathered end of his quill against his chin and nodded, saying, “You're probably right on that note. There really isn't much that you can do to recover those goods. However, there is something that might interest you.”

“And what's that? I kind of doubt there are any active expeditions into Concordia again anytime soon looking for ancient ruins or anything,” Glacies said with a bitter laugh. The book keeper shook his head and slid a piece of paper across the rough wooden desk.

“No, but I did keep this one off the books in case you needed something like this. You're new, and I like that you've been keeping notes on unfinished and uncollected accounts for me while you've been searching for your precious first expedition. Consider it payment for your services.”

“Um... thanks, but you know I was only doing that as a favor in order to look through the books and find something unfinished I could do for myself to claim ownership of whatever's out there, right?”

“So? You still helped me out and got nothing out of your search. This isn't an old expedition, though. Someone requires the services of guards, experienced or otherwise. Should be easy enough, and the coin might give you the resources you need to mount an expedition even if it's outside of Scara Brae or even beyond Corone. What do you say?”

“Guard services? Does this guy at least have some idea of what he's actually going to be doing? I don't want another Concordia situation.”

“You should be fine. He's a former member of the Guild. He knows very well what he's doing. It's just a quick jaunt to an excavation site recently discovered in the hills south of here. The payment is pretty good for a short trip, all things considered.”

Glacies scraped his fingernail across the rough oaken surface and looked around. The hall was empty and darkened. The middle of the night was the best time for research and book keeping after all. There were so few who entered the record hall at this time of night.

“Fine, I'll check it out in the morning,” he said with a nod and walked off, waving as his footfalls slowly disappeared into the night's gloom.

The gem moon glistened high in the night sky over the township of Stonevale bathing it in a cool glow. It was strange but the longer he spend in the mining town the more he found himself to really enjoy it. Despite that Hayate had just experienced some of the worst few days of his Brotherhood career but luckily for the young Akashiman things were starting to look up for him. Rumors spread around the mining town that there was an expedition about to embark in desperate need of a few extra men. Mostly for guard duty and such, but there were a number of other jobs the caravan was looking to fill.

“So,” Hayate spoke out as he and two others continued to walk out of Stonevale and towards the Caravan in the hills to the south. They set up shop in a relatively small excavation site searching for something, but what he didn’t know. “Why such a need for guards? Isn’t Stonevale and the surrounding areas patrolled by the Assembly and their militia?”

“You don’t actually expect any of those aristocrats to help out the people round here do you?” The man on Hayate’s right spoke up in a growling town. His name was John ‘Goodfella’ Mcree and was a bit larger than Hayate. “You have a better shot of calling the Rangers and even then we haven’t seen hide or hair of them in months. So our employer wanted to get some help he can count on and the only way to do that is by forking over the cash directly.”

“Yeah,” The other man on Hayate’s left “besides that Son whatever they are looking for can’t be allowed to be confiscated by anyone.” This man was Stuart Cross, an adept marksmen from appearances.

“Confiscated, what do you mean by that?” Hayate responded as the trio of soldiers turned a corner and continued down a dirt path. They weren’t far from the Caravan and their walk back from town would take too long but from here it was all dirt trails through the rolling hills.

“Well typically when the Assembly or the Rangers get involved they tend to take whatever they can as payment.” Stuart Cross answered back as he pulled his arm over his head stretching his muscles.

“Damn richy richy types always want more and more. Never anything left for us working folks to get ahead with.” Replied John as the three of them kicked up small tuffs of dust walking this worn road.. “And I’d much rather work for a man who knows how to run a smooth operation instead of hearing a politician bark orders from his lavish tent.” He spat on the ground.

Hayate wasn’t sure what he was going to be doing really, and didn’t care much either. His mission was to help the people of Corone until the time he and Shinsou could enact their plans. And Shinsou was very clear that in any opportunity if there is a chance to diminish the Assembly’s appeal to the people that the young Akashiman should do so. This was just another good deed to put under his belt.

Glacies finished securing the rope over the third cart in the caravan line and reached out to smooth the oiled cloth covering the goods. He smiled and nodded before giving the ropes one final tug to make sure they were tight enough. Satisfied, he turned toward the fourth cart to see if the other mercs needed any kind of help. He saw that they were perfectly fine and didn't need him, so he turned to the first card and the leader of this ragtag group of mercenaries.

As he walked up, he could hear the man arguing with one of the cartwrights over something. As he strode closer he heard, “Yes, I'm sure, for the last bloody time. I need at least four extra cart wheels. Six would be better. If you had one of those fancy Aleran cart jacks, that'd be useful to, but I kinda doubt it.”

“Yes, fine fine... That'll cost you an extra twenty, though. That's all the wheels and axles I got left. I'll have to order supplies from the next trader through, and that won't be cheap.”

The caravan leader fished a small sack of gold out of his pocket and pulled out ten gold pieces.

“Not a copper more,” he said simply.

“That's highway robbery! I might be able to drop down to 18, but any less and you'll be getting them for less than cost.

The leader again pulled a few more coppers out of his pocket. “Thirteen,” he said simply.

“Fifteen and that's the best I'll do, you thief,” the cart wright said in an almost comedic melodramatic tone. The leader nodded and fished two more pieces out.

“Fair price. I'll bring you back a trinket from the dig if you want. Might sell in town for a few extra silver,” he said. Glacies was impressed. The man had not only thought ahead to get replacement parts for his carts in case of trouble, but had managed to argue the cart wright down to a fair price. This is what he expected from someone who would run an operation like this one.

He went to the caravan leader and tapped him on the shoulder as he said, “Cart three is secured. Anything else you need me to do, sir?”

The man laughed and clapped Glacies on the back in a friendly manner as the cart wright walked away counting his coins and said, “Nah, and call me Micah. We'll be heading out within the hour. If you need to do anything before leaving, I suggest you do it now. This isn't a long expedition, but better prepared than not.”

Glacies nodded and started back toward the third card to double check the rope. Satisfied it wasn't going anywhere, he walked out toward town with his hands in his pockets.

“If we get attacked, I will know how well Micah handles himself as a leader in battle as well as during an expedition,” he said to himself before he shrugged. He then shrugged as he continued to walk.

The lone Akashiman made himself comfortable on the back of the rear most cart watching as the trail disappeared behind the caravan. There was a strange wind that blew in from the north caring dark thunder clouds down from the icy northern seas. The tail of his silk black cloak flapped vigorously with each passing gust of wind, if nothing else the weather alone would make this a less than fun excursion. Hayate tried to shrug it off and with his good hand reached for the loaf of bread he had stuck away for later and took a hearty bite.

It had been a few days since he and his accomplice Beth split up and he sent her back Whitevale with a message for Shinsou Vann Osiris. Hayate hadn’t heard word back from the Brotherhood so he though it only fitting he played the part and killed a bit of time while he waited for the day to march of Radasanth. In truth it was calming, not having to be the strategic mind behind a coup d'état and becoming an enemy to the state. Hayate soaked in as much freedom as he could and freelancing was always a wonderful way to hone his skills in the process.

“A foul wind blows through,” a soft female voice broke the Amatsukami’s thousand yard stare. It was from another of the mercenaries guarding the rear of the caravan. She was short, and hid herself behind a dark cloak the same as he did. “I wonder how long before the sky opens up on us?”

“It sure looks that way,” he answered as he lifted his hood away from his face revealing his battle worn mug, “Amatsukami Hayate, freelance merc out of Whitevale.”

“Illia Morningshire, second daughter of the Morningshire estate.”

‘The pleasure is mine.”

“Have you been told what we are going to do?”

“Not in the slightest.”

“Strange they would hire so many people and not give us any direction other than to protect the caravan. Maybe things are going to get rough.” She said as she lifted her vail and revealed a thick head of dark brown hair. Her hair curled all the way down to her shoulders and complimented her green eyes and glowing skin. “Either way I’m sure we can handle anything that might happen.”

Hayate kept his attention of the trail behind them as the two continued to speak for a while. She was concerned about what may or may not even happen while Hayate was purely enjoying the human interaction. It wasn’t often he met any particularly attractive females in his line of work so seeing a beauty was a treat. They both watched as dark clouds rolled in over them and the sky began to swell up and let loose a few tears. Regardless of how things may play out he was sure that it would make fore a good pay day in the end.

“Ah, geeze,” Glacies muttered under his breath as he pulled a pair of white leather gloves out of his pockets and slipped his hood up over his head. “Rain, now?” He kicked up a tuft of moist sod and looked up toward the sky. He looked back down and scowled at the droplets of water now rolling down his glasses. He brought a hand up and pulled the water droplets away from the surface of the glass and solidified it into a small cube. He dropped it to the ground and pulled his hood up further over his glasses.

“Well, seems kind of pointless to head to town right now,” he said as he turned with a flourish of his knee length coat. He sighed and held out a hand to his right. Slowly a small shaft of ice began to form out of his fist and grew up over his head in the shape of an ornate umbrella. With a shake of his body, he froze the water covering his clothing and forced it to fall off of him. It tinkled on the rocks below as they bounced off and began to melt into the surrounding water.

“Such an annoyance,” he said as he continued his walk back up to the caravan. “However, if this keeps up I'll have no end of material for my magic... I suppose that's all well and good.”

He hadn't quite convinced himself that he was happy with the slowly increasing intensity of the rain surrounding him, but he could at least take comfort in the fact that he could draw upon the moisture in the air to keep his powers at their peak. He patted the shortsword on his side and checked the small buckler on his left arm. It didn't offer as much as protection as a shield, but considering it was much lighter, it didn't hamper his ability to move his hands as much.

“Of course, I need my hands to direct my spells. However, in case there's some kind of attack...” he muttered, unaware of anyone nearby. “If there's an attack of some sort, I won't be immediately pegged as a mage. Thayne, don't let me be marked immediately. I really don't want to be targeted because of my abilities.”

He looked up and saw that there were two others on the trail, a bit ahead of him. Instead of bothering them during their conversation, he merely followed behind them. He wasn't particularly interested in their conversation, but he didn't feel like concealing his presence from them.

He looked off into the sky through his frozen umbrella and smiled halfheartedly.

“We're due to leave in less than an hour and this is the weather we'll be facing, huh?” he asked to no one in particular. “I really hope the wheels don't get stuck in the mud. I really don't want to get my coat dirty.”

“Looks like we have a friend,” the Akashiman said to Illia gesturing behind them to the blue haired boy trailing them. Presumably he was another of the mercenaries hired to guard this exertion like Hayate and Illia were. “Think he may know what’s going on?”

“It couldn’t hurt to ask em’.” she said turning around to see Glacies trailing them, minding his own business though.

“Right, watch this…” he said as a wicked idea popped into his head. Hayate wasn’t typically a trickster but never shied away from trying to get a smile or laugh out of a pretty lady. And Illia Morningstar was one of the fairest lady soldiers he had seen in a long while. It was worth it whatever happened.

The Akashiman stopped dead in his tracks with his gaze set on Glacies. He made sure that he waited long enough for the boy to notice him, before he leapt into action. He just wanted to test the boy, or more so, the strength of the crew he had been thrown into. Hayate was a powerful figure head within the ranks of the Brotherhood of Castigars, if he was worth more than these other mercs be would make sure to show it.

Hayate was quick, a trained shinobi, and made his way across the earth like a shadow. His footfalls were as soft as a fox leaving the dust on the trail undisturbed as he closed the gap between him the blue haired boy. With a swift flick of his right hand he unclasped two shuriken from within his cloak and as the sky opened up and unleashed its first crack of lightning Hayate threw his weapons at the boy. He did this in such a way that before they would strike the boy and potentially hurt his ally, the two ninja stars would bend and arc safely to the either side intentionally missing their target.

“Head up!” Hayate yelled to Glacies, warning him.

Seconds before it looked as if the boy was to be struck the shuriken on the right clipped the other one in mid flight causing them to ricochet violently in opposite directions clipping two tree to either side of the their tag along.

“Ahhhhh!” Illia screamed not knowing what was going on.

“Oh he’s fine!” Hayate called out. As a second lightning flash illuminated the scene revealing all was well. “Besides, he would have handled that no problem or else they wouldn’t have hired him.” He added on nonchalantly.

“Amatsukami Hayate, Whitevale, hope I didn’t make you piss yourself.” He said coming to a stop just a few feet in front of Glacies and offering him both a smile and a handshake. Illia was soon beside them as well checking to make sure their friend and ally to be was okay.

“Sorry about that,” she said to the boy. “I hope he didnt detour you from hopefully filling us in on why there needs to be so much security for the outfit. They haven’t told us shit.”

Glacies looked up as he saw the man in front of him stop. He raised his brow momentarily before the man began to rush him. As the lightning flashed, he could hear the other man yell at him. With a sigh he brought his umbrella down in between him and the other man. The umbrella between himself and the other man began to wrap around his outstretched arm and the hood of the umbrella thickened slightly, transforming from a mere thin umbrella into a half inch thick shield.

His eyes locked with his opponent as the two throwing weapons clashed with one another and bounced off to either side, lodging into two nearby trees. He frowned as he felt the water begin to seep back into his hair and clothing. With a flick of his wrist he thinned the shield back out, unwrapped it from his arm and put it back over his head.

“Great, I'm wet again,” he muttered under his breath as he released just the slightest bit of his magic on his body and caused the water to freeze. He shook the frozen droplets off and brushed down his coat. “Seriously, how annoying.” He looked up at the man who had accosted him with a quizzical look.

As the man introduced himself and began asking his question, Glacies pointedly ignored him for the time being. At the moment, he was slightly on the annoyed side.

“Was that supposed to be some kind of test?” he said, just loud enough to be heard in the rain. As the rain slowly poured off of his umbrella, he flashed a halfhearted smile. “Seriously, kind of a dick move when the two of us are supposed to be on the same side. You could at least warn someone.” He held out a hand and called upon the power of his magic once more.

The water around him formed into small needles of ice, roughly five centimeters long and five millimeters thick. He moved his hand around and the points of the needles followed his motion. Finally, he stopped the tip of his finger, pointing at the other man.

“Also, no, it would take far more than a couple of small weapons to put me down. I imagine it would be the same for him,” he said with a smirk. He dropped his hand and allowed the icy weapons to dissipate into the thin air.

“The security level of the outfit?” Rehtul thought as he fished inside his jacket. He pulled out the small book he kept on his person, in which he kept notes on missions of varying importance. “If I'm not entirely mistaken, this outfit is loaded to the brim with new equipment for the mines. If this gets knocked over the entire mining operation gets put back a few years. The equipment is old and useless, and this new stuff was shipped in from Alerar, if I'm not mistaken.”

“Suffice to say, my new friend, this is an important shipment. I'm probably not even supposed to know about what I do. I'm just friends with the record keeper for the mercenary guild that took the job on,” he said with a shrug. He placed the notebook back into his breast pocket with a slight nod of his head.

“We... should probably get a move on, however. The caravan shouldn't be too much longer until we leave.” He turned toward the caravan with a flourish of his knee length coat and waved. Suddenly, however, he stopped and turned back toward Hayate and caused the water at his feet to curl up around his body and freeze, ending in two ice blades poised to strike like vipers.

“Glacies Frost, Radasanth, ice mage.” With that, he let the ice drop and melt and continued on his way.