Digging into Opportunities

Nadiya had to hold herself from breaking into an excited skip as she left the coffee shop, along with pulling out her phone and reporting her unexpected success to Mother. Prancing away like a cat after a successful hunt would not have painted her in a good light and could give her away. And blurting out her victory would be a bit dumb after she criticized them over talking about sensitive things in public.

‘I can’t believe my luck!’ she mentally cheered as she closed in on the exit. ‘I was only here looking for a few bits of tasty info and a whole gift basket fell into my lap!’

The only thing that dampened her mood somewhat was the fact she couldn’t even try to collect a sample of any of their aura. They were too attentive and she didn’t know if any of the ones she wasn’t familiar with had any means to detect her magic.

‘Still,’ she thought, swinging her arms joyously back and forth, ‘got a lot more details and I really think they are the ones we’re looking for. Mother’s going to be so happy we have a lead.’

Nadiya pulled out her sunglasses as she exited the barrier, the midday sun far too bright for her liking. Fighting off the slight wave of lethargy that settled upon her, she trudged her way to her car. Once inside the vehicle, her energy returned and she shook her head as she fiddled with some of the knobs on the dashboard. To a mundane, it would look like she was tuning the radio or adjusting the volume instead of priming various anti-invasive magics.

“A bit early for a call,” Gwyneth’s voice sounded over the car’s speakers as Nadiya began to drive away. “What happened?”

“Why do you think something happened?” Nadiya couldn’t help but tease the white haired assistant. “Can’t I be calling just to say hello?”

“Yes,” Gwy replied tersely. “But I would expect that closer to when we’re about to retire for the day. Calling now means you have something meaningful to say. The only thing to wonder is whether what you have to report is good news or bad. And from your tone, I’m leaning towards ‘good’ now.”

“It’s no fun when you take out the guessing,” Nadiya pouted before she let out a sigh. “I’m guessing Mother’s busy?”

“Extremely,” Gwyneth answered, the faint sound of shuffling papers coming through the speakers. “The usual court politics and such. No consideration for our private plans.”

“Quite rude indeed,” Nadiya remarked in a haughty voice before giggling. “Guess I can spill the tea since it’s not as much fun without Mother around.”

“How mature of you, my lady,” Gwyneth remarked. “Now, what has you in such a good mood?”

“Well, remember that guy I was talking about the last time I video called you? Well, turns out I’m super lucky cus I ran into him and his not so little harem. And we might have an in with them,” Nadiya revealed.

“Oh, that is a good turn of fortune,” Gwyneth said, actually sounding a bit impressed. “And the ‘in’?”

“Well, they say they’ve come into a forest barrier and are looking for people to make use of it,” Nadiya said. “And they weren’t too concerned with keeping their voices down so I slid over and offered them the services of one of our contractors.”

“I hope you maintained your cover,” Gwy remarked. “If our thoughts about them being on the Order’s radar are true, giving away too much would be bad for our aims.”

“I kept things simple,” Nadiya scoffed and pouted. “Only said that we have some lumber businesses in our contacts and we could act as intermediaries.”

“Good, keep the degrees of separation as high as possible,” Gwy said. “Hmm, if they’re wanting a dedicated lumber company, this barrier they have must be rather expansive and stable.”

“From what I overheard, it seems like it,” Nadiya said. “They reached out to the coffee girl about moving her growing operations there and they have another plant focused person in consideration. Didn’t seem like they minded the overlap so I’m guessing there’s more than enough room for two plant projects.”

“That might explain why the Order may be keeping an eye on them,” Gwy mused. “Still raises the question on why they haven’t taken claim over this barrier though. Your initial evaluation of them gave the impression that they aren’t heavy hitters.”

“They could already be under their thumb,” Nadiya muttered. “The Order hanging around John’s house neighborhood could mean they were a light protection detail. Which would mean whatever they have is probably a big deal.”

“And likely directly connected to the shift we detected,” Gwyneth added. “Which is a somewhat worrying notion.”

“What do you mean?” Nadiya asked, genuinely confused.

“We assumed what the seers saw was someone using the power in some way that aligned with our understanding of what they could do in antiquity,” Gwy said, her voice gravely serious. “But, this doesn’t line up with anything we’re aware of. Which means we need more information, so you getting a foot in the door is a great boon. But we’ll have to be careful. I doubt the Order will let just anyone aid them. They will be going over whoever we put forward with a fine tooth comb, if they are involved.”

“Which we have, right?” Nadiya asked. “I’d hate to build up some of our boys only for them to fail the background check.”

“We have several guilds that will come out clean, don’t worry,” Gwy assured. “But they might have to run without much input from us.”

Nadiya sighed. She had been afraid of that. She wanted to get a better taste of John and sample some of his companions. They certainly were an interesting bunch and she hadn’t had quite the variety of options like that in a long time. But she’d rather not end up on the wrong end of a sword.

“I’ll curate a list of our guilds that fit the criteria,” Gwyneth continued, the faint sound of fingers tapping away at a keyboard indicating she already was on that task. “I would advise you to lay low, my lady. Just in case. No need to risk getting caught right before we achieve a victory.”

“I know,” Nadiya whined. “But that’s so not fun! And I met them like, an hour away from where they live.”

“Better safe than sorry,” Gwyneth said matter of factly. “If the Order is keeping an eye on them, do you think they would just let them roam freely? I would bet one of the finer vintages that they have someone tailing them. One doesn’t remain a functioning faction for over a thousand years by being careless.”

Nadiya let out a sigh but couldn’t refute Gwyneth’s point.

“I’ll keep an eye out for anyone following me,” she said, eyes flashing up to her rearview mirror to look at the cars behind her, committing their looks to memory. “Might take a longer route back to the hotel just to see if I have a tail.”

Gwyneth hummed. “Be safe, my lady.”

“I’ll try.” Nadiya smiled and ended the call. With one more glance back at the cars behind her, she sped up on the highway. If she was being followed, it was time to play a bit. Just enough to throw them off a bit.

“Do we need to look for anyone else?” Beth asked as the group left the coffee shop. “We’ve already got three lined up.”

“One, we don’t even have a reply from Estelle’s friend yet, so we really can’t count her,” Vivian said. “Two, there’s no guarantee that those we have approached will agree to whatever terms we come up with. If we want to hit that minimum requirement, we need to overshoot and get as many parties as possible to ensure we can get at least three of them to sign on.”

“Don’t know where we’re going to find anyone else here that we could snag,” John sighed. “Getting Jeri was basically a freebie since the quest marked her as an option. And that Nadiya thing was sheer luck.”

John caught Anita tugging at the hem of her shirt, a thoughtful expression on her face.

“Um, clothes are made from plants, right?” the mushroom girl asked.

“Some are,” Brenda answered. “Cotton mostly. But silk, wool and leather are harvested from animals. I suppose going all in with the farm idea is an idea. Get some sheep for relative ease and sustainability and turn their wool into clothing.”

Anita looked happy that her idea had merit and continued, “Maybe Melody could help?”

“She could know manufacturers,” Senka mused. “Or the suppliers of the raw materials. I think the idea has merit to it.”

The spirit leaned over and affectionately ruffled Antia’s hair, which Anita leaned into. John smiled at the scene before he started thinking about what else they could hope to find here. The only thing that came to mind based on what they had already seen was that jewelery store he saw those dwarves go into.

“I saw a jewelry store when we were looking for Jeri’s,” John said. “They might be interested in things like raw metals and gems. Or know someone who would be.”

“So we’ve got two immediate options,” Estelle summed up. “Should we split up and hit both at once?”

“That would save some time,” Vivian muttered, hand on her chin. “And with the size of our group, all of us going to one store would be a bit inconvenient.”

“Plus, taking two different routes means we might stumble onto an unexpected option,” Aeolia brought up. “It’s worked so far.”

“I don’t think our luck is going to be so endless,” Vivian sighed.

“We did likely burn it all with Nadiya and Jeri,” Teri said with an amused grin.

“Can’t hurt to try for more.” John smiled down at Teri. “So, how do we want to split up?”

“Well,” Brenda spoke up, placing a hand on Anita’s shoulder, “I think Anita should be the one to ask Melody since it was her idea.”

Anita blushed and nervously shifted in place as Brenda continued, “I’ll go with her. Don’t have a lot of experience in procurement but I’m sure I’ve heard enough around work to make sure we don’t make any unintended promises.”

“Don’t mind checking out the clothes again now that I can go around at full size,” Aeolia said.

“I’ll go too,” Teri offered.

“Um, me too,” Kiera said quickly after the goblin.

Vivian hummed. “If the rest of us go with John to that jewelry store, we’ll have an even split. Five to each should be fine.”

“It’s not like we’re trying to shake them down,” Beth joked before adopting a stereotypical New York accent. “Just seeing if they want in on an opportunity. Make them an offer they can’t refuse.”

“Talking like a 1920s gangster won’t help, you know,” Vivian sighed.

Beth grinned at the redhead. “What cha’ talkin’ ‘bout, toots?”

“Please don’t do that to whoever we end up talking to,” Vivian implored. “We want them to take us seriously.”

“Alright, I’m done,” Beth said. “But now I want pizza.”

John snorted as Vivian sighed again. With nothing more needed to be said, the two groups split up and John led his towards the jewelry store.

“How hard do you think this'll be?” he asked Vivian.

“Depends on how closely the proprietor works with whoever supplies their wares,” the redhead answered. “If they’re just grabbing whatever jewelry they can and sell it at a markup, then they won’t be helpful.”

“I did see a group of dwarves go in there before,” John said. “Could just be me drawing inferences from mundane fiction but they didn’t seem like the type to be shopping.”

“Might want to keep those stereotypes out of your head for the most part,” Estelle warned. “Not saying that there aren’t some things that slipped through from Abyssals telling ‘tall tales’, but most cultures are a lot more complex.”

“I know,” John remarked. “It just stuck out to me. I’m not expecting to just walk in and have a deal just drop into our laps.”

“Would make things easy if it did,” Beth said with a grin.

“But where’s the fun in that?” Senka retorted. “Sometimes a bit of struggle is good. We’ve already had two opportunities basically come to us. Let’s see how we fair when there needs to be a bit of a chase.”

“We’re already doing that, aren’t we?” Estelle asked. “If none of us saw or remembered this store, we wouldn’t be going there.”

“We still could have just taken a circuit around and scouted for any businesses to recruit,” Vivian pointed out. “But having a target scoped out from before certainly helps a bit. If this is a bust, we can look at the directory to see if any others might work.”

“Might be a few stores here that occupy the same niche,” John mused. “If this place or Melody’s doesn't give us anything, another from the same category might.”

“Fair point, but I don’t think we want to keep running around all day,” Vivian said. “If we don’t get a bite with either store, we can try another, but if that doesn’t pan out, I say we call it a wash and try another avenue.”

“Maybe the Order has contacts we could employ,” Senka suggested. “I’m sure they need some supplier for their food and arms.”

“I’d like to not get too dependent on them,” Vivian said. “Though, if we are able to independently become able to supply them with their military equipment at competitive prices, I wouldn’t turn them down.”

“Yeah, just using the Order’s people will give them more leverage over us, even if it’s indirect,” John added before glancing over to Vivian. “They likely would try to enforce the Order’s dogma on how we run things, right?”

“Very likely, if they’re groups the Order were insistent upon,” she mused. “And in that way, it would be an excellent application of soft power, and a way to not look like they’re infringing on our ability to conduct our own affairs.”

“So more politics, great,” Beth groaned.

“Truly the unavoidable plague,” Senka remarked in an overly dramatic tone. “Let’s hope we can be the masters of our own fates.”

“One way to find out,” John said as the store came into view. “We’re here. Any last minute ideas about how to do this?”

Vivian shook her head. “Nothing more than what we’ve already discussed. We see if they’re interested in a direct line to raw materials or know anyone that would be. After that, we exchange numbers as needed and get back to them once we have a plan established.”

John nodded. “Alright then, let’s strike a deal.”