Fairy Opera Chapter 26: Medicine

 

Medicine

Our end goal was to, somehow or another, end the tyranny of the Empire and the God Emperor. If we could do that through outright rebellion, then we would do it. However, at the moment, it seemed like there was a small chance something else could happen.

About two days after our meeting with the Contracts Guild, we bought a large factory space in the upper city of Billerstrang. We hired a large number of workers, including a few that were capable of magic and knew a bit of Scode. I created all the spells that would be necessary for the medicine-creating process. Jastle agreed to run the workshop and distribute the medicines, as our acting director. That meant that he wouldn’t be able to travel with us any longer, but he came on the journey in the first place to gain a laboratory for his projects, so he appeared happy.

About two weeks later I got a letter. It was marked with a seal that I did not recognize. I opened it; it was from Duke Andrew.

“Rock. I’m planning something big. Come to Gagna as soon as you can.”

I took the letter to Jak and Tae. We agreed that we would go and see what Andrew wanted.

We returned to the open sky in the Grand Mahogany, heading towards the Duke’s castle. A week and a half later we arrived.

One of Andrew’s soldiers met us at the docks. He bowed as we disembarked.

“Andrew wishes to see you as soon as possible.”

We followed him to the castle and entered, heading to the main office. When we entered we saw a number of distinguished-looking individuals sitting around a table. Andrew was sitting among them.

The door closed. Andrew motioned to an empty seat next to him. I sat down. Jak and Tae stood behind me, arms crossed.

Andrew cleared his throat. “This is my friend Rock. He’s the one who helped me kick my uncle out.”

The other nobles looked at each other and murmured. Andrew held up his hands. “Rock. I know you were looking for the Rebellion so that you can bring down the Empire and the God Emperor.”

“They were destroyed, I thought.” I raised an eyebrow.

“Most of them were, yes.” Andrew motioned to the people sitting around the table. “These are the surviving members of their council.”

I blinked a few times. “So the leaders are still alive? And they’re right here?”

One of the rebel leaders, a man with orange hair and a mustache, bowed. “I appreciate your assistance with our friend the Duke of Gagna. My name is Recophis. We were sent into hiding by the Empire’s undead legions, but we have come out now, as we believe the time to strike is soon.”

“How are you going to defeat the Empire’s zombie hordes without an army?” I folded my hands. “Can you raise an army quickly enough?”

“We know you have a bit of wealth that you were planning to leverage for this exact purpose.”

“Yes. It’s not nearly enough to feed and train and army, though.”

“But you are a technomage.” Recophis held up his palms. “And you can use that magic of yours to generate a large amount of money.”

“So you need funds. And that’s why you’re asking for my help.”

“You want to bring the Empire down as much as we do, right?”

“I do.” I crossed my arms. “How much money do you need?”

“Three hundred million gold.”

“And how do you expect me to make that much money?” I pursed my lips.

“We have, at our disposal, a large trading fleet and manufacturing base. We are not landless nobles. But to accumulate the amount of wealth required to support a real rebellion, we’re going to need your specific expertise.”

“You’re talking about the medicines I made.”

“Right. Those medicines have the potential to change everything.” Recophis shrugged. “It’s your choice. We would really appreciate your help, but you do not have to work for us if you do not find it profitable.”

“I’ll help you.” I put my fist on the table. “I’ll do what it takes to bring down the Empire. What’s my timescale?”

“We have a year. The Empire’s conquest of Illum is projected to take at least that long.”

“What are you planning to do about the Ultimar?” I opened my arms.

“You let us handle that. Gather the money within a year and we’ll provide the manpower.” Recophis looked to his comrades. “Do we agree on this?”

“Agreed.” The council all nodded.

Andrew held out his hands. “Then it is decided! I will volunteer my own island as a base of operations. We will spread our products far and wide, changing the world in the process.”

I sighed. “Okay then. We’re going to have to set up a few labs just like I describe. We already have a lab functioning at Billerstrang. All we need are ships.”

“I have the ships.” One of the council members, a tall man with blonde hair and blue eyes, raised his hand.

Andrew pointed to him. “This is Nalko. He’s the captain of the Western Alliance Trading Guild.”

I rubbed my hands together. “If you want me to work with you, as well, we’re going to have to put together something I’ll call the special economic zone.”

“And what’s that?”

“A zone where regulations on business operation are relaxed to allow greater innovation and profit making.” I stood up. “Here’s how our business will work.” I outlined the idea I had in mind. A business-friendly law zone where it will be incredibly easy to start a new business and perform trade without the ordinary problems associated with guilds and restrictive red tape. The council appeared to agree with me, at the very least willing to test out this idea to see if it worked.

When the meeting was over we had discussed everything that we needed to. Jak, Tae, Ruby, and myself left the castle and walked through town. Muco approached us.

“Muco. What’s going on?”

“Me and my colleague have decided to return to Baphomet for the moment. It’s not that we don’t want to see what you’re doing. But we’ve got to report to him. The Empire has been stealing his souls and that’s the problem we signed on to fix. Since you aren’t working directly on that problem, we’ve got to get our master’s opinion on the matter.”

I shoo Muco’s hand. “Do you need any help returning to your master?”

Muco shook his head. “We’ve chartered a ship. We might be back, and if we do return, we’ll do it as warriors for your cause. The Empire needs to fall for spurning the lord of the dead and we’ll be his fist if that needs doing.” He bowed. “Thank you for your assistance. We’ll contact you later about the delivery of the goods.” He turned around and left.

Tae, Jak, and I walked through the market. We turned down an alleyway as a shortcut to return to our inn. Just as we passed by a doorway, the door opened and a gruff old man threw a body wrapped in cloth out into the street. The man looked at us, grimaced, and then spat. “Mind your own business, folks. He rubbed his fists together. “She’s meant to be picked up by the gardener. Look away and I’ll spare you the trouble.”

I knelt beside the body. It was a badly-beaten, still-breathing girl. I stood up. “I’ll buy her off of you.”

The man spat again. “Eh? What use for her would you have? She’s sick and nearly dead.” He rubbed his fists together. “The gardener already bought her anyways.”

“Two silver.”

The man raised his eyebrows. “Eh? For her? She isn’t worth a copper.”

“I’ll do it.” I handed the man three silver. “Now she’s mine.”

“Well if you say so.” The man looked around him. “The gardener, a random citizen, I don’t care where she goes.” The man backed away and closed the door.

I picked the girl up. She was incredibly light. Her eyes opened when I lifted her. She coughed.

“What’s your name?” I carried her out of the alleyway.

“Sarah.” She closed her eyes. Bruises were clear on her skin. Her lips were chapped and she had some sort of infection.

We brought her back to the Green Dagon inn. One of our sailors had gone ahead and purchased us lodging there while we were in our meeting.

I laid her on the bed. She coughed. I pulled out a scroll and a potion. The scroll was a diagnostic tool that I had thrown together a while back. I cast the spell and read out the results. She had several rampant diseases and a lot of internal trauma. It would take a while for her to heal, though I could cure her diseases.

About half an hour later I had done everything I could. Sarah lay on the mattress with a peaceful expression on her face.

Tae pulled me aside. “What do you think happened to her?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know.”

There was a commotion down below. I looked at Tae and we both nodded. We went downstairs to the main room, where two big muscled thugs had burst through the door.

The thugs locked onto me. “You’re the twat that stole our meat.” He cracked his knuckles. “We’re going to teach you a lesson.”

I pulled out a scroll. “Null Canus. Bring me strength. Null Canus. Bring me speed.” My body flashed with magic. I cracked my knuckles. “You want to mess?”

The thugs grunted and pulled out knives. I waited until they attacked.

The thug on the right rushed towards me with his dagger. I sidestepped, hit his knuckle, and sent his knife flying. He careened through a table. I backhanded him and jabbed my elbow into his neck. He collapsed to the ground.

The second thug circled me. Tae tossed a knife at him. He caught it with his palm, the knife going straight through his hand. He looked at his wound in surprise.

I rushed up to him and knocked him out with a spinning kick. His body crumpled to the floor.

The bartender rose up from behind the bar. “By the God Emperor.” He put down his blunderbuss. “You really know how to fight.” He shook his head. “But you shouldn’t have. Those were thugs from the Syndicate. Now that their eyes are on you, you won’t be going far.”

“Tell me more about this Syndicate.” I knelt over one of the thug’s bodies. He was out cold, but still breathing.

“They’re the people who run this town, and many others, in the shadows. You really don’t want to cross them.” He shuddered. “By the way, was that magic that you used?”

“It was.” I stood up. “Where should I dump these thugs?”

“Not near here.” The bartender shook his head. “They’ve probably got our names in their book.”

“I’ll protect this establishment. I can guarantee that.” I lifted up the unconscious thug by the elbows, dragging him out of the room and into the street. I tossed him into a nearby cart, along with the second thug, and dragged the cart to the common square, where I dumped them unceremoniously in the street.

Whoever this Syndicate was, I was going to protect myself from them and bring them down. I probably needed the help of the law, so we returned to Andrew’s castle and knocked on the door.

Andrew opened the door himself. “You idiot. Look what you’ve done.” He pulled us in and locked the door behind us. “You screwed with the Syndicate. No one screws with the Syndicate.”

“We were attacked! They came after us!” I swept my hand through the air. “What would they want with the girl we saved from the collector?”

Andrew put his palm to his head. “You took a body from the collector.”

“She was still alive.”

Andrew sighed. “They’re going to want payment for that.”

“Can you set us up a meeting with their leadership?”

Andrew rubbed his hands together. “I’ll see what I can do. You were bound to come across them anyways during your quest.”

I bowed. “Thank you.”

 

 

27

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