Nightmare Realm Summoner

It was only a few minutes before Edward returned. Alex and the others had all just started to eat the food on the table when a knock echoed through the room once more.

“That was fast,” Aaron said. “I would have expected it take them a lot more time to identify items from every single family here.”

“Come in,” Alex called, then lowered his voice. “Maybe they’ve got a bunch of different people hired to make the whole process go smoothly? These guys seem like they know what they’re doing. Experts and all that. Probably don’t want delays.”

“That’s my guess as well,” Wess said. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and leaned back in his chair. “It looks like they’re very serious about this whole thing. You’d have to be if you were in there position. Working with groups as powerful as the Great Families isn’t the kind of thing you can take half measures with. One slip up, one awkward delay, and some dickhead mid-level manager that thinks he’s hot shit is going to try to take advantage of it. Then you’ve got to waste a few hours cleaning him off the walls.”

“I think you’re conflating your old job with this one,” Alex drawled.

“Meh. They ain’t that different,” Wess replied.

They all turned as Edward stepped into the room and closed the door behind himself. There was a strange look on the butler’s face. It almost seemed like he’d swallowed a rock. He approached their table, then gingerly inclined his head.

“We have completed your appraisal.” Edward hesitated. Then he swallowed. “Might I be so bold as to inquire as to something? You are free to refuse to answer this question, of course. And please know that we are now and forever a neutral party. Bleak Night will never take sides in any manner of conflict or share your information.”

What’s this about?

Alex glanced over to Claire. This was her domain far more than it was his.

“Feel free to speak,” Claire said. “But we may not answer.”

“How is it that I should refer to your… family?” Edward asked hesitantly. “We have no records of your attendance with us on any planets. But… is this truly your first time with us? Of course, you do not have to confirm or deny anything. I simply do not want to bother you with unimportant information if you do not desire it.”

“We do not have a comment on that,” Claire said evenly. “But you may continue to inform us as if this is our first time. It is not a bother. We do not have a family name that we wish to share at the moment.”

Edward inclined his head deeply. “I understand. Then how is it that I should refer to you? And, if I may be so bold, who should I address direct communication to?”

“You can speak with any of us,” Claire replied. “And for now, you may consider our group named Mirrorwane. This is not our official faction name, but I am certain it will be sufficient for your purposes.”

“It will be. Thank you,” Edward said. He raised his head once more. Even though he was every bit as measured as he had been when they’d first met a few minutes ago, there was no mistaking it. Something had changed in his eyes. The butler had been polite before. Now he was practically reverent. There was respect in his gaze. A lot of it. “We have completed the appraisal of your items to the best of our abilities. However, I regret to inform you that we were unable to determine an exact value.”

“What?” Alex asked. “You said that you’d be able to estimate a minimum reserve value.”

“And I apologize deeply for the mistake,” Edward said, bowing. “But we were not expecting the quality of some of the items you provided us with. Class Shards are exceedingly rare. One such as the one you brought is something that only makes an appearance every several dozen years. And even then, this one appears to be unique. It is impossible to accurately appraise.”

Alex’s heart started to beat faster in his chest. He didn’t even bother hiding his smile. He had his bone mask to block it from Edward’s sight. That had been a lot of words to say they were sitting on an absolute shit-ton of Credits.

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“I see,” Alex said. “How will we continue?”

“We will assign you an estimated reserve price of fifteen thousand Credits for the Class Shard,” Edward said. “It is below what we believe its value to be. But Class Shards are a very specific item. As powerful as they are, they can go unsold if they are not suitable to anyone. We cannot offer more as a reserve for this item. That said, our appraiser strongly believes this will be sold. Is fifteen thousand Credits sufficient?”

It took a very considerable amount of effort for Alex to keep his eyes from popping out of his head. Fifteen thousand credits as a reserve price. And that was the value that the auction house thought to be the absolute minimum possible sale value. It was probably a fraction of what the item was actually worth.

Holy shit. What can we do with that much money? Way back at the Outworlder Assembly, someone offered to buy a Town Token for ten thousand credits. Does that mean I could literally just… buy a town with this? The Class Shard is worth that much?

And then he remembered what the Class Shard actually did. He nearly burst out laughing.

This was just too good.

A literal fortune for a Class that will literally turn whoever gets it into a crystal zombie.

“I think we can accept that,” Alex said, fighting to keep his words steady.

“But we are not particularly pleased that you’re cutting so close to the bottom of what you believe it to be worth,” Claire added. “I think we both know how valuable this Shard is.”

“Thank you for your understanding,” Edward said. “We deeply appreciate it. As for the other items you delivered to us… our analysis has placed the total estimated value of their reserve at around five thousand credits. That gives you a total of twenty thousand reserve credits.”

Alex nodded slowly, as if that news was barely worth even responding to.

Just twenty thousand, eh? Well, if that’s the case, I might have to limit myself to two towns instead of three. How disappointing. How am I going to ensure the continued dominance of my bloodline long after I’ve passed with such a tiny fortune?

“Acceptable,” Alex said.

Edward nodded one more time. “Splendid. Then the appraisal is complete. You have twenty thousand reserve Credits to work with until your items go up for auction. Of course, you can also spend any Credits that you brought with you. The next portion of the auction will begin shortly. Please be patient for a little while longer.”

“One moment,” Claire said as she raised a finger. “A quick question. Would it be possible for you to tell us roughly when you think our Class Shard will be put up for viewing?”

Edward hesitated for a second before replying. “It will not be soon. I suspect it will be toward the end of the event.”

“That’s sufficient,” Claire said. “Thank you. That will be all.”

The butler didn’t say another word. He simply slipped back, vanishing through the door and closing it behind him with a final click. Nobody said a word for several seconds. Then Alex broke the silence as he let out a disbelieving laugh.

“Holy shit,” he said. “We’re rich.”

“And in position to go up against the Great Families,” Claire said.

“Shit. That’s why you asked when it goes up,” Aaron muttered. He turned to Claire. “It wasn’t that you cared at all about how long we’d have to wait to get the money. You wanted to figure out how expensive the other items will be.”

Claire just shrugged one shoulder. “Never ask the question you want answered. Ask the one that uses the information you want as its basis.”

“That’s clever,” Mite said. “I’m remembering that. But I also noticed that Edward seemed to think there’s still going to be some stuff that’s even more expensive than the Class Shard. That means we aren’t going to leave here the richest group unless the Shard goes for even more than they expect it to.”

“Right,” Claire said. “Either way, we should expect that there’s at least one family here that has more capital than we do. The question is really how much.”

“They definitely have more that isn’t in reserve,” Wess said. “But don’t forget that the reserve amount is a low minimum. We’ll likely have even more to work with than what we think. And we don’t know if the expensive items in the auction are from other families or from the Bleak Night Auction House themselves.”

“That’s true,” Alex said. “But we should assume that it’s the families that have the money. Better to be pleasantly surprised than disappointed.”

“Agreed,” Claire said with a nod. “But we’re still in a good position. We’re definitely going to be able to throw our weight around. To what extent is going to depend on how well we play this.”

“It’s an auction,” Mite said with a frown. “What do you mean by that? There’s no playing anything. It’s just bidding on stuff we want, isn’t it?”

Claire let out a snort of laughter. “No. Not at all. This is a game. Every time someone else spends Credits on one thing, that’s less they’ll be able to spend on something else. It doesn’t matter how much money you start the auction with if you use it all on the wrong stuff.”

“But that’s not really something we can control, is it?” Aaron asked. “You can’t make somebody bid on something they don’t want.”

Claire looked over to him.

Then she smiled.

“I wouldn’t be so sure.”