All 05.1 - Terms of Employment

“I’d like to speak to Mr. Webber; is he in?”
“No, sir. Do you have an appointment?” the secretary replied politely.
“No, not per say, though I’m certain he’d like to hear from me. Do you have anyway of contacting him?”
“Not without an appointment, I’m afraid not. You can make one for…” she looked at a paper in front of her, “Four days from now.”
“But you’d have some way of contacting him if I did have an appointment.”
“Sir…”
“I’d rather not wait four days, and I’m certain he’d like to hear from me sooner rather than later.”
“Sir…”
“Do you have a way to contact him?”
“Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to leave if you aren’t going to make an appointment.”
“Does that usually work?” The secretary blinked at his question blandly. “Honestly, I can’t imagine you have many compliant people in this organization.”
The secretary sighed. “Look, he doesn’t appreciate being disturbed. He has a strict schedule, and he keeps to it. Even if I call him, he’s not going to change his schedule for you.”
“Hmm...I think he will.”
The secretary raised her eyebrow. “No offense, sir, but a lot of people think that, and a lot of people are wrong.”
“If you call him and I’m wrong, are you going to be punished?”
“Doubtful. You’re not the first to come in demanding his time. You’re an employee of his?”
“Yes.”
“Then it’s your job on the line, not mine.”
“Then call him.”
There was a long pause, followed by a sigh. The secretary took out a key, unlocked a desk drawer and pulled out a slender wand. “Who shall I tell him is demanding his attention?”
“Victor Erzebet.”
She stared at him for a minute with a skeptical look, sighed again, then gave the wand a swish. “I am sorry to interrupt, Mr. Webber,” she said clearly to the air, “but a Victor Erzebet is demanding to speak to you at the Kalleandar office.” There was a pause as she waited to hear the reply. She got a look of shock on her face and said, with no small amount of confusion, “He...says that he’ll meet you here shortly.”
“Then I’ll wait. Thank you for your assistance.” He bowed his head, then took a nearby seat.
----
“So!” Mr. Webber said brightly as he sat down. He had arrived quickly, brushed Victor into the office room and closed the door. “You made it back! You weren’t gone for very long. What did you find?” He sat down opposite Victor as he talked, materializing a pen and notebook at the ready. Victor kept his calm demeanor.
“You seem awfully excited.”
“Why wouldn’t I be? You’re about to prove my theory, yes? What did you find, did you solve the crime? Find the Riptide base that has eluded police for years? Find one of the leaders, Cherise perhaps? Implications of a plot, other members? The possibilities are boundless, so please, do tell me what you magical people wandered into.”
“What if I told you we found nothing but empty tunnel?”
“I’d laugh at your absolutely awful ability to lie. You’re the weakest link in the three by far; the bard is smoother than you and the druid doesn’t remember detail. No, you’re the one I want reporting in, you’ll tell me everything. That’s why you’re here, you didn’t come to tell me you found some rocks.”
“I came to return this,” Victor pulled out of his pocket the violet activation gem and put it on the desk.
Pierce waved it away, “No no, you can keep it. I’m borrowing my cousin’s, and now that you’re back, and tell me what you found,” he stressed the words pointedly, “Narcissus will have another one for me in a few days.”
“I’m sorry, I have to ask,” Victor interrupted as he replaced the crystal into his jacket pocket, “Are you also a member of the elf mob?”
“What...oh! No no, nothing like that. And neither is Narcissus, to that end. I might as well tell you; you’ll probably find out anyway, especially since Cress seems taken with the lot of you. The Syndicate is run by Ginger Rivale, an elf. She has four children; you’ve met two, Cress and Narcissus. Cress is the only one who has anything to do with the Syndicate though. Narcissus and his two sisters, they have their own lives, nothing shady. Narcissus just wants to keep his head down, keep the wizard council off his back, so your discretion regarding his identity would be appreciated.”
“Of course. And you…”
“Right, yes. My family has been friends with the Rivales for generations. For us, less so for them. Apparently my ancestors eight generations back were friends with Ginger’s father, and we’ve always been close since. My grandfather is great friends with Narcissus, I stop in regularly, he’s a good fellow. And this is all well and good, and look at that, there’s your interesting secret for the day. Now,” his tone was becoming much less friendly as he continued, “if you would be so kind to as inform me of what secret you learned in the Underdark...”
Victor sighed, “We didn’t find any direct evidence of the Riptides, other than the oddly-located portal. It just leads into a shallow river running through a cavern with several exits.”
“Yes, we knew that. Narcissus popped in quickly, that’s how we knew it was the Underdark. He didn’t want to explore though, don’t particularly blame him for it. You went down the tunnels, what did you find?”
“Water, rocks, spider webs and an inconvenient waterfall.”
“...” Pierce waited for Victor to continue, impatiently tapping his pen tip and staring at him pointedly.
After a pause, Victor sighed, “Will you keep a secret?”
“If I have to.”
“You have to.”
“I’ll be the judge of that.”
Victor’s gaze narrowed, “Fine. Then in your judgement, make certain you properly weigh our trust. I’m sure that will be an asset if you’d like us to continue under your employ.”
Pierce tapped the pen twice. “Noted.”
“Hmmn,” Victor said, then continued, “We found no direct evidence...though we found someone who said she had seen people moving about the Underdark. She claims that an acquaintance of hers may have seen Cherise, or at least a human wearing red.”
Pierce looked confused and intrigued, “...Who is living down there? There aren’t any records of people living in the Underdark.”
“People...probably isn’t the correct word.”
“Ooh?” Pierce’s hungry smile hinted at a full return.
Victor blinked a few times, then sighed and rubbed his temples. “We discovered a race of talking rabbits.”
Pierce stopped tapping. “...Nooooo,” he dragged out the word, like someone who had just heard a choice bit of gossip. “Really? Like, in children’s stories?”
“Yes. We only spoke to the one, seems like she’s a fair bit more adventurous than her brethren, but there’s apparently a village and tribes and all sorts of them down there.” He sighed again, “3-foot tall talking rabbit people.”
“....Ha! Would not have guessed that! Would not have guessed that. You do know I’m going to need some evidence of that.”
“Yes, I assumed as such,” Victor said wearily. “This would be where the secret part comes in.”
“Oh come now, you can’t say you found a whole race and NOT give me evidence of it! Think of all we can learn! They can learn!”
“Yes, yes. And think of how badly the wizard council could ruin their lives, making them into familiars or something, and how much ruin touring adventurers could bring.”
"Not everyone can get into the Underdark,” he retorted. 
“No, only the people who could do the most damage.”
“...” he tapped madly for a minute, “...Ugh. What are your terms?”
“You publish nothing that overtly claims that there’s a civilization underground. Leave them be.”
“In exchange?”
“You can talk to one.”
“Just one?”
“The one that we convinced to come visit the surface and is currently in Arlington.”
“...Oooh! Well! Yes, I can agree to that. Let me interview the visitor, and I promise not to publish anything that could harm the village.”
“And if you do, none of us will work for you again.” Victor gave a cruel half-grin, “I’m sure we could find another contact for our discoveries. And I’m sure I would find Yeto a lovely place to live.”
Pierce’s expression turned serious, “I will do nothing to interfere with the Underdark peoples, or any other artifacts, peoples or sites you find. I want to know, and I want to write. I want to be at the forefront of events. If it is something I think people should know, I will tell the people. If it is something that would be ruined if people knew, or should remain secret, then I will keep that secret.” He gave a sly grin, “And if something you do just happens to make a nice bit of fiction, well, fantasy sells as well as news articles.”
“...Fine.” Victor said. “Don’t poke unduly into our business, and we’ll report everything we find to you.”
“I wouldn’t dream of disturbing a team so skilled as the lot of you,” he raised his hands defensively, “If you’re happy, I’m happy. Do what you like, I won’t pry, though...” he drew out the word into a segue, “I do have a lot of information. A large network, a wide library. I know...a few interesting places that I would very much like to send a group of interesting people to.”
“To what end?”
“You don’t know by now? To fix problems, to find truths, to discover! The same as what you’re already doing just...on a larger scale. Why should I squander your talents on run-of-the-mill jobs when you could be out proving legends, stopping wars and discovering lost knowledge?”
“This is about the promotion, isn’t it?”
“Just be prepared for missions of a very different sort of calibre from now on.”
Victor sat nonplussed for a few moments, before finally saying, “Well, if you want to meet Cheko…”
“Oh yes, very much. Arlington you say? Let’s go.” Pierce got up and walked to the door. Opening it up, he said, “Beverly, would you cancel my appointments for the afternoon, something urgent has come up.”
“But, sir, you…” the woman’s voice could be heard from around the corner.
“Just reschedule them, please. You’re wonderful, thank you.” Mr. Webber strode out just as fast as he had entered, with Victor trailing behind him, leaving the secretary to wonder just what had happened.
Category:Advent of the All