Chapter 38 37. Business with Family

The doors swung closed on the dining hall, sealing Tifse in with her father and sisters, alone, while her dragon attended to business in the hall without her. It was never a good sign when her father demanded her presence like this.

“I had no idea that you were capable of harming my reputation so elegantly and brutally.” The older man spoke up, reclining back into his cushion and swishing his goblet.

“F-father, I- I was only-”

“Silence. I am not finished speaking.” He slammed the goblet down and rose to his feet to tower over her. “The sheer audacity to not only steal from another chieftain, but to declare your relation to me beforehand! The cold truly has tainted your mind if you think such blatant disregard for property and diplomacy can occur without consequence. What do you have to say for yourself?”

“I- I wasn’t the one who stole it. It wasn’t my idea.” She bowed until her head rested on the table. She wasn’t aware how much she was shaking until her forehead touched the solid stationary wood.

“Oh, and whose was it then?” He demanded of her, beginning to pace in circles around the table as she continued to count the tiles on the floor.

“It was-” She faltered. She couldn’t just out Safraxi as being the thief. That would cause far more problems. “-another student from the academy that we ran into while we were hunting the eel. No dragon chose her, so she instead chose to return to her home in a village near Saris Fal. She offered to help. I didn’t realize she was so morally bankrupt.”

“And why did you not return the vessel when your hunt was concluded?” He stopped behind her. She couldn’t see his expression with her forehead resting on the table, still stuck in her bow, but it was never good when he stood behind her like this.

“The other student took the boat after the hunt was complete without our knowledge, while we rested.” She lied. Hopefully she was getting better from being around Safraxi and Magli.

“What is her name? I can have my men look into her.” He came into the periphery of her view again and spread a scroll out on the table.

“Her name- her name was Audirei Sylftie.” She had no love lost for the fox. Maybe whatever story she would spin up would sound like a lie compared to hers. “She… saying she wasn’t selected is technically correct, but not the whole story. She was expelled for breach of academy protocols.”

“You solicited the aid of a known delinquent. Are you mad?” Sel’Ifis cut in. “What protocol did she breach?”

“Discrimination against cold marks.” Tifse finally stood to glare her down. “Tiamat has declared-”

“What Tiamat has declared is immaterial to this discussion, child!” The older man barked. “Sit down and remember your place. Have you so quickly forgotten how to speak to your eldest sister? Now, I am going to tell you what the situation is, and you will make your decision. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, father.” Tifse ducked her head again. What was she thinking, speaking out of turn like that?

“Because of your rash behavior in the northern reaches I am being forced to sweeten the pot on this trade dispute. We require access to their rivers in order to ship our steel to Fell Lake.” He sat again to continue over his wine. “Even if The Northern Reaches are sparsely populated, they control the waterways. And now, they are demanding a ten percent reduction in the price of all steel sold to them from The Shaded Oases, a two percent tax on all steel shipped through their waters, and a lump sum of one ton of steel up front.”

Tifse gulped. The sales of steel were her father’s largest profit point. He had worked tirelessly to keep his special formula for steel forging a secret. Only one facility in the entire realm produced it, and each smith within was sworn to secrecy on threat of death. No one else in the world knew how to make steel as pure and durable as that of the Shaded Oases. Her father had discovered it in one of his expeditions into ancient pre-freeze ruins as a young man. It was said that pre-freeze civilizations had many such lost technologies the world had yet to re-discover.

“Now.” He made eye contact with her from across the table. “It is clear to me that your behavior is far too out of control to allow you to gallivant around Ti’Aval bearing the Bontifur name. So, either you will stay here in Salifir, as our long term resident rider, so that I may oversee you and choose what missions you do or do not take, or, you will be disowned, and stripped of your title and all privileges that accompany it. What say you?”

A cacophonous scream rang from the hall, louder than any normal child should be. Everyone jumped to stare at the doors. Tifse hadn’t even realized she was crying until this point. She quickly wiped her sleeves off on her face and used a spell to dry them. She had no idea how Safraxi might react to this kind of news. This discussion would need to happen later. “Please. Allow me to confer with my dragon, Father.”

“And that’s what you both missed while you were both in the hall.” Tifse sighed. “I… I should have known he’d give me an ultimatum one of these days. I just never thought…”

“Nah, seems normal to me.” Safraxi had moved her rider to her lap, and begun rubbing her cheeks and ears as the fox recounted the events of her discussion in the dining hall to her and Emren. “Guy’s a prick. A bastard. Got an ego the size of his stupid palace.”

“I get it, I get it.” Tifse groaned and leaned into the touch. “I don’t know how we’re supposed to fuck him over, though. Just robbing him seems… pointless and petty, even if I do know you like your gold and gems. And I don’t want him dead.”

“I know exactly how.” Emren grinned as she leaned against a pillar to the right of the two of them. “And keep in mind this is coming from me as your mom, not as a ministry representative.”

Safraxi rolled her eyes but nodded to continue. So what if she was feeling a bit fonder of Emren and Amjazel after some distance? Emren calling herself ‘your mom’ still felt weird.

“Mess with his steel. You said the recipe is some kind of secret? Why not leak it to this rival of his in the north?”

Safraxi, Tifse, and Emren returned to the dinner after taking a few minutes to make sure the rider and dragon were both calm and collected again. Both Idami and Magli seemed immensely relieved to have everyone back in the room. Safraxi could only guess at what had transpired in her absence.

“I need a word with you after this is over.” Safraxi bent down to whisper to Magli as she sank down into a seat between the moose and Tifse.

“Same to you, kid.” The moose whispered back. “Whiskers interrupted us before we were done.”

“Excellent, Safraxi, isn’t it?” Tifse’s father bowed his head to her slightly. “I hope your… business is concluded, whatever it was that drew you away from us. I only hope the food hasn’t gone cold in your absence.”

“I overheard your conversation with my rider, and took a minute to speak with the priests on it, as well as the current dragon residing in the temple,” She lied. “I wanted to know what their opinions of you were, as someone I may need to work with on the regular.” Safraxi poured a goblet of wine, since there was no other booze to match her taste. Whiskers had just been drinking some kind of unfamiliar juice before. “In the future I expect you to include me in conversations of that importance, if you expect me to agree to your terms.”

“I beg your pardon?” The older desert fox placed his goblet down with a scowl. “It was a family matter.”

“Ah, easy mistake. You’re mixing business with family, and ownership of Tifse’s services are a matter of business. The choice to stay was never hers. She is my rider first, and your daughter second. Are we understood?” She glared across the table at the man with a smirk.

Silence reigned in the hall for a few moments until the old man began to chuckle. “Oh, I never knew what to expect when she left for the City at the Center of the World, but her coming back with a dragon who speaks my language was not something I anticipated. Very well, how do I shape up in the eyes of the priests? What do you propose?”

“They had no shining words to describe you, and no cutting criticisms. It sounds to me like you aren’t anything special.” Safraxi sipped from the goblet imperiously, leaning back and taking long, drawn out sips before continuing. “I’m sorry, you never made a proper introduction.”

His eyes narrowed but complied. “Of course, of course, I am Alstif, chief of the Shaded Oases.” He bowed his head graciously, playing the game Tifse had suggested he would. The man only respected people with egos as large as his. All Safraxi had to do was act like a self important asshole to get his attention. She was pretty good at that too.

“Well, Alstif, the hot springs are nice, but I need something more than that to convince me to stay.” She swished her goblet and gave it another sniff. She had no clue how to identify the difference between fine wine or gutter wine. It just smelled like sour grapes to her, even with her draconic senses, but she thought it made her look cool. “See, I’m a dragon of fineries. I enjoy gold and jewels,” She held up her sapphire and gold necklace to the light. “Luxurious fabrics even.” She brushed a hand over her dress robe she had worn to her transformation ceremony. She had taken a minute to change, as Tifse’s dress was far too tight on her like this. “Do you understand?”

“You expect to be paid?” The man scoffed. “I thought the ministry-”

“See,” She interrupted, “I’m not affiliated with the ministry. I’m what you call a free dragon. Tiamat’s my grandmother, but that doesn’t mean I work for her. So, if you’re going to try to keep me here, and expect me to help out, I’ll need to be paid. No need to get things all squared away now, by the way. I’m simply informing you so that you can check what kind of room you have in your budget, before actually initiating negotiations another day. For now, I can stay in the city until you have your affairs properly in order for me.”

“And why should I not simply keep the resident dragon that the ministry has sent prior? I only have to grant the temple tax exempt status and donate a small portion of the tax I collect each month.” The fox squinted at the dragon before him. “What makes you special?”

“I already did you one favor by killing the eel. Was your current resident dragon capable of that? Did they do it themselves even when they were already stationed here? You can consider it a freebie, or you can reward me. I did hear there was a bounty.” The rat rapped her fingers on the table. She and Tifse weren’t sure when they’d appeared, but her rat form had claws now too. “I’m a young dragon, I have my whole life ahead of me. I’m only going to grow stronger every year, and you’ve already seen that I’m more competent than whoever you’ve got now. Aside from all of that, I know for a fact that, for decades, your city has struggled to keep a resident dragon for more than three years. It’s time you tried a different strategy, isn’t it?”

Alstif glowered at the rider and dragon across the table. Tifse still looked like a wet sack of sadness, and Safraxi was oozing confidence. For once in her accursed wretched life, Safraxi had won the argument. She could see it. It was delicious. She wanted to do it all over again for the fun of it.

After a long moment he sighed through his nose and averted his eyes before opening his mouth again. “Very well. I will check what’s in the budget. Sel’Ifis, see that the bounty is paid out. I believe the other lakeside chiefs and I agreed to pool together five gold for it in total?”

“Yes, father.” Tifse’s eldest sister bowed her head. “I will bring the coin, and write the others for reimbursement on the bounty.” She stood and left the room without further ado.

“Allow me to conclude the negotiations I have with the Northern Reaches, and we will speak again afterward. Their dignitary will be arriving in eight days, and our deliberations should last for a few more. For now, make yourself comfortable. Help yourself to the amenities in my palace. Explore the city. See that my daughter doesn’t get in trouble again.” He wiped his chin and stood. “Dinner is concluded.” And with that he left the room.

“Alright, kid. You wanted to talk? Let’s talk.” Magli and Safraxi sat across from one another at a seedy bar on the edge of the city. Idami’s head was poking through one of the windows, and Tifse was asleep with her head on the table.

After the meal concluded Emren had to leave for home again. She couldn’t let herself get caught up in or accused of aiding in Safraxi’s plan, but the lynx made sure to take time to congratulate Safraxi on the new name, and her shapeshifting again. Like Amjazel, she also made time to comfort Safraxi that Rubis was safe and not upset with her. Safraxi did her best to completely no-sell it, but was still relieved.

After Emren’s sendoff, Safraxi had told everyone they needed to find somewhere to talk where they wouldn’t have to worry about any of the chieftain’s men listening in. They couldn’t really lay low exactly, especially not with Idami here, but Safraxi knew how to spot the areas of town where no one was fond of the law. She was confident that if someone did overhear, they’d offer her a drink instead of turning her in.

“Yeah. I don’t remember much between the cell and dinner, but I do know one thing. You haven’t given me the whole story. So spill.” Safraxi leaned back and gulped down her entire cup of beer in one shot She was wondering if she needed to buy a whole keg again. The use of small clay cups here instead of a larger tankard or flagon was annoying.

The shapeshifted dragon was back to being her pointy toothed self, without the green eyes. She knew she was past the point of denying that it happened at this point, but still didn’t know what to make of the changes. Whiskers giving the different versions of herself names was an important first step. She could confidently say that she was pretty sure that she might be Raxi right now, but don’t quote her on that.

“The whole story. Right. You’ve earned that at least, kid.” Magli stared down at her own cup. Safraxi could detect a mix of apprehension and regret swimming in the moose’s eyes as she considered her wording. “I didn’t know you were a noble, once upon a time, ‘til you mentioned in the cell earlier.”

“Yeah, yeah. Are you gonna keep calling me kid forever? Do I need to start calling you old lady?” Raxi tried to flag someone down for a refill on her cup. “Who hired you?”

“I was getting to it.” Magli sighed before glancing up and resting her cheek on her hand. “After you left, and I was left alone with one hand, I managed to actually put together a respectable career. I’m a private investigator. You taught me to read, and I knew how to sneak, pick locks, and get places I wasn’t supposed to be. Rich pricks paid me to dig up dirt on people, find secrets, see if their spouses were cheating on them. Usually boring shit. One day, I got approached by another investigator, from up north in Tiskin. He says he’s searching for you, and he ran into some other kid from The Circle back in the day who pointed him to me. He’s offering to pay for any information at all.”

“From Tiskin?” Safraxi scoffed. “I haven’t been there since I was… twelve? I got out of there and into Utsnari quick.”

“Yeah, well, someone there wants to know about you.” Magli sent a warning glare across the table to let her finish her story. “I also wanted to track you down, and have a word with you, and could tell that the investigator who approached me was an amateur. Tracking you down was something out of his league, because I taught you. So I tracked down his client myself. Figured I’d go straight to the source to get a paycheck for information on you. Wasn’t easy with there being a war on between Utsnari and Tiskin.”

“There’s a war now? Since when?” Safraxi leaned forward in interest.

“Since a year or so ago. Let me finish, kid!” Magli slammed her open palms on the table with a snort. “I got into Tiskin, tracked down the client. I got a better rate for the information he wanted going directly to him. Told him that you were alive eight years ago, that you were living on the streets last I saw, and that you were still the wanted ringleader of The Circle. He could see I was also qualified to continue the search, so he cut a check for me, too. Of course, I was curious about his intentions with you, so I looked into him too. Apparently he wasn’t the one who wanted you, it was his client that did. He worked for some baroness of Nilimir, she hired him as a middle man. I couldn’t manage a meeting with her, but I did negotiate for a better price after. I’ve been tracking you down ever since, even sending letters back with updates as I found them.”

“Am I allowed to talk now?” Safraxi leaned back with a quirked brow.

Magli leaned back and let the moment stretch as long as possible, staring the rat across the table down as she did, really stretching the moment, before responding “Fine.”

“Since when are you such a sarcastic bitch? Is that new-new or old-new?” Safraxi downed another cup of the beer as soon as it arrived and informed the staff: “Keep ‘em coming. I’m good for it.” Once the server was gone she turned her attention back to Magli and reached across the table to grab her by the coat and yank her across, before hissing in her face. “You’re working for my FUCKING birth mom you dense motherfucker!”

Magli shoved Safraxi off of her, and they both nearly fell back out of their stools and onto the floor. “Like I was supposed to know that! To me it’s just a payday and a retainer to hunt you down! I thought you’d pissed someone off!”

“Oh I’ve pissed plenty of people off! But you’re pissing me off!” She growled in the moose’s face. “You seriously didn’t have any questions about why she was searching for me? Did you find out?”

“No! I told you I couldn’t get a meeting! I just- I don’t know. I figured you pissed someone off there before you left as a kid.” Magli jabbed her in the shoulder. “If she’s your mom then shouldn’t you be happy?”

“Oh! Oh of course! I’ll just be over the moon that the woman who let her husband toss me to the curb like a rotten bit of fruit, and then personally kicked me out of the city with the help of her armed guards is looking for me!” Safraxi shot up from her chair and put her hands up. “Look at me! I’m so fucking happy! I’m truly the most blessed I could be! Even Tiamat must be jealous! Never call that traitor my mom again!”

“Safraxi, have you considered that she’s looking for you because she cares?” Idami spoke up. “I mean, you said her husband was the one who threw you out. Maybe… he forced her to make you leave too?”

“Why should I care that she cares? She’s eleven years too late! I’d march back to Fellrock and move in with Amjazel and Rubis again before I let that woman call herself my mother!” She slammed back down into her seat to toss back another entire beer as if it were a shot.

“Well, what are you going to do about it?” Idami tilted her head forward as if to challenge her niece.

“I’m gonna- I’m gonna finish whatever plot I have here to fuck over this sleepy little pipsqueak’s dad.” She placed a hand on Tifse’s shoulder but took care not to wake her, “And then I’m gonna fly up to Tiskin, and I’m gonna tell her what I think about her ‘caring’!”