52 - Bank

It was the perfect day for disaster to strike.
A cacophony of drums filled the air, the cadence rising like a quickening heartbeat as the procession of dancers headed toward the statue of the Black Knight. They were surrounded by the other entertainers, the jugglers with knives flashing in the falling sunlight, bards strumming their lutes, pipers piping, a motley crew of clowns and mimes making faces at those watching the event.
The torch bearers followed them, along with priests with solemn expressions, murmuring hymns of praise for their respective temples.Their gentle music could hardly be heard over the noise of the merry, drunken crowd that was shouting and laughing and calling to each other.
Behind the priests were the masked celebrants, chanting along, raising their black and red banners that snapped with the wind. Distantly thunder rumbled warning of rain, but no one in the crowd cared. Rain would only add more ambience to the celebration of the man who was victorious against the rifts and the trolls.
Surrounding the crowd, and intermeshed with them, some vendors carried their wares in baskets wrapped around their necks.
“Fresh pies! Get fresh pies here! Warm and ready for only two copper pieces!”
“I have blowers! Celebrate the evening in style with colorful blowers! Only five copper!”
The smell of fresh meat being roasted over the fire mixed with mead and moisture, and no one knew that in an unassuming corner of the event, chaos was brewing.
It was almost time.
Jahus was a small man, so he chose to observe the procession from the side rather than being a part of it himself, to avoid enduring the elbows to the face and knees to his chest.
He’d been teased about his dwarven lineage for most of his life, so much that it no longer bothered him. Mostly.
But his mind was on something else today. His heart was racing along with the drums, his palms sweaty. His pupils shifted quickly through the crowd, watching, waiting, to see what would happen.
They were not here yet, but they would be soon. A small delegation from the demonic sect was going to be visiting the island today to pay their respects for the festival.
The demonic sect, unlike what their name would suggest, did not actually consort with demons. Rather, their role was to suppress the evil beings and prevent them from entering the human realm.
The Order of the Divine Judges was mostly made up of splinter families from the Draco clan, and they were one of the few historically Vacu-dominant sects left in the world. As such, they were riddled with lots of problems, including a tragically short lifespan for most of their members, and a high incidence of disease, madness, and criminality. But they were also gifted with a bloodline trait that enabled them to communicate in demon tongue, gain insight into the demonic realm, and investigate souls for signs of demonic possession.
The sect was given impetus to punish those accused of consorting with demons, pulling them into our world.
Of course, they were not the final judges of that. The accused were supposed to be brought for a trial before the celestial council, but there were ways of ensuring that they never made it that far, or that when accused, they perished before their trial date.
After all, the sect members were also experts at poisons and curses, and though they often overextended their reach, it was harder to punish them thanks to their special relationship with the High Ascendant.
There would be no justice for those who stood against the sect.
So justice will have to be taken into our own hands.
“Jahus.”
His heart jerked as a hand slammed on his shoulder from nowhere, a drunken man leaning into him, his breath stinking of ale.
“There you are, my friend,” he said. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere! Come with me. I have someone you must meet.”
“No.” He tried to shrug off the arm with difficulty. “I’m busy.”
“Come on, don’t be like that. Listen, you remember Polly, right? The barmaid with a lazy eye? Well, my sources tell me that she’s been looking to ask you on a picnic.”
“I said I’m busy.” He couldn’t move from his spot, or he might miss it. He needed to see it play out, needed to know that justice was finally served.
“No, you’re not busy. You’re just standing there. I bet you’re just shy, but don’t worry. Your friend, Gaston, has done all the hard work for you.” He pointed at himself with the hand that wasn’t holding a tankard of ale. Then he swayed in step as he took Jahus’ hand, dragging him away. “Let’s go.”
“Stop!” Jahus said. “I said stop!”
Gaston was paying him no mind, still talking about the barmaid with the lazy eye. Jahus fought his grip with everything he had, but he was much smaller and much weaker than the man, and he hated that fact so much.
Then he saw them in the distance.
A black carriage lined with silver metal.
His heartbeat drowned out the noise, the moment punctuated by a single thought.
They’re here.

---

Alexander Mursili was preparing for the meeting of his life.
As the manager of Khor City Bank, there were a few problems he faced in his role.
The first and foremost was attracting enough wealthy clients to sustain the bank’s investments.
This was hard because Khor hardly had any wealthy people in the first place. The Island was made up of average and below-average-wage traders, and at least some of them mistrusted banks and chose instead to keep their gold in trenches they dug up in their backyards. Silly, but a lot of the Islanders were old-fashioned in that way.
It didn’t matter because they didn’t make the bulk of the bank’s business anyway.
The VIP’s did.
Alexander had proposed an idea to the bank owners to offer lower rates to travelling adventurers, as a way of gaining these VIP clients. It was simple. Their bank wasn’t a multinational one and was not in a major city, so they needed to give people like that a reason to use them. And that reason was, lower rates and a robust investment portfolio in which the bank assumed the risk of making the investments for a smaller percentage of the profit.
It took some time to convince the owners of this deal, but he eventually did. Then he visited the Adventurer’s guild and left posters up, explaining their offers in simple language.
It had been quiet for some time, but recently Alexander received word that a very wealthy adventurer was interested in opening an account at their branch. They said he would be arriving soon.

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Alexander had been preparing since then, having an entire folder of bullet points and arguments all to convince the VIP to entrust them with his gold. He reworked it daily in preparation, and he had a feeling that any time now, the man might visit their branch and dump a whole lot of gold in their laps.
He was not in the mood to be interrupted.
So when the knock came on the door, it was all he could do not to snarl. Nevertheless, he maintained his composure and said, “What?”
A teller opened the door and said, “Sorry, sir. We have a guest who wants to open a business account, with a sizeable deposit.”
“How much?”
“Two thousand.”
That gave him pause. “Two thousand pieces of gold?”
“Yes.”
“Where did they get it from?”
“I didn’t ask. I simply came to get you, as I know you like to handle our larger deposits personally.”
“Yes, that’s good.” His heart quickened as he got to his feet, getting his folder ready. Could this be the famed adventurer he’d been waiting for?
“Tell me more about them. What do they look like?”
“It’s a girl, quite young from the looks of it.”
He paused, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. “How old is she?’
“It’s hard to tell. She’s wearing a festival mask, but she sounds quite young, and she reads as an apprentice mage.”
An apprentice? She couldn’t be the adventurer then.
While some adventurers weren’t mages and relied on physical strength and battle prowess, those who were mages usually were at least adepts, especially if they were A-Rank. He didn’t know who this girl was or how she’d gotten her gold, but she was likely not the one he was looking for.
He sighed. He didn’t have time to deal with this.
He put down his folder and walked through the door, with the teller following him.

---

Arielle observed the bank tellers as she waited.
There were five stalls, three of which were busy processing their client’s request. They did it quickly, too, their hands moving in a practiced flurry.
Perhaps they wanted to go enjoy the festival themselves. Arielle was in a hurry, too, but it was to get back to campus before the festival truly reached its peak. It appeared to be ramping up to something and getting more crowded as the day wore on. Expectation lit the air.
She didn’t want to be here when whatever was going to happen, happened.
She saw the teller returning and felt some relief. The teller was accompanied by a man, tall and lean with hair down to his back and ears that were suspiciously pointy.
He scanned her when he reached her, his expression giving nothing away.
“Come with me, please,” he said as he spun on his heel.
She followed him to what she assumed was his office, at the very side of the hallway.
It was neat, devoid of clutter. Arielle was pleased.
“Please, have a seat,” he said, and though the words were polite, he had a very curt manner as he straightened the vest of his suit and sat in the hard-backed seat opposite her.
Arielle sat and stared at him.
“The teller tells me that you would like to open a business account,” he said.
“Yes.”
“What sort of business do you conduct, young lady?”
“I’m a mercenary,” she said, preparing herself to deliver the rest of her lies. “I have received advanced payment for a very difficult job, to the tune of two thousand gold.”
His expression didn’t change. “That is quite unbelievable.”
“Really? I thought it was very believable.”
He cocked his head. “We typically don’t like to handle mercenary accounts, given the risk associated with them. Often, when the mercenary encounters legal troubles, the bank has some liability, so we might have to charge you higher fees in case of scenarios like that.”
“Alright.”
“You don’t seem bothered by the concept of being charged higher fees.”
“I expected it,” she said.
“Now, tell me what’s your name?”
“The name associated with the account will be Tamsy Lous.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Is that your name?”
“No, but I would rather not disclose my true name.”
“Is there a reason why?
“For the same reason, I’m opening a business account rather than a personal one. I would like to keep my identity separate from my work. I was told I could do that with a business account.”
“Yes, technically you can…but it is at the discretion of the bank officer handling the account, and unfortunately, all of this feels very suspicious.”
Shoot. Arielle straightened in her seat and tried to look as innocent as possible, widening her eyes. “What’s suspicious about a legitimate business woman opening a business account?”
“Most legitimate business women don’t walk into the bank with a raven mask on their faces, and two thousand gold in what I’m assuming is a magically reinforced sack. They also do not claim to be mercenaries as Level 51 apprentice mages, and they do not refuse to give their legal, system-recognized name. It would be one thing if you had not yet been incorporated into the system, but you have been.”
“You can be a mercenary at any level.”
“Yes, but for you to have a job willing to pay you at that level, you must have something to prove why you were given that amount. Some hidden skill that would warrant you being worth the trouble. Do you have something like that?”
Arielle thought about it, then shook her head. “Perhaps, the level you are seeing is only an illusion. It’s a trick to deceive my enemies.”
“Is it now? And why would I believe someone who would go through all that trouble to hide their identity? How do I trust that you are who you say you are, and not a front for a criminal organization? As a bank, we must make sure that you got the money legitimately.”
Her shoulders sagged. “I don’t understand. That’s not what I was told. I was told that I could open a business account without worrying about my identity.”
He must have felt a little sorry for her because his tone gentled. “There are legitimate reasons for one to hold such an account. For example, to protect the bank from retaliation from rival agencies. But a lot of criminals also use such an account to store their ill-gotten funds, and if found, we would be reported to the BOC and lose our licenses. We can’t let that happen. At the very least, you will need to give us something legitimate we can work with.”
She shook her head. “All I have is what I’ve given you.”
He sighed. “Well then, I suppose I can’t–”
An explosion rocked the earth from outside, robbing him of the last words and his breath.
He shot to his feet, charging out of the office as Arielle looked after him.
It looked like she wouldn’t be opening an account today. How sad. She would now have to take the gold back to her dorms, and if she was questioned about it, she would have to admit…
No, she couldn’t do that.
She needed to find a way to stash it first.
Unless she could somehow convince the bank agent that she was a legitimate mercenary worth the trouble.
He’d been about to say something else before the explosion happened. She wondered what it was.
The sound of screaming dragged her attention once more, and she got to her feet.
She walked out calmly with the sack on her shoulder as she observed the tellers and clients with their noses pressed to the windows.
“What’s happening?” she wondered aloud, but they ignored her.
“Everyone, stay calm!” the bank agent said. “It seems there’s been a dimensional rift and some kind of creature has escaped, but I’m sure the ministry will send someone here soon to take care of it. So we should all–”
A roar rocked the atmosphere, shaking some of the quills and scrolls of their surfaces.
Screams accompanied it as people dropped to the ground, including the teller, who clutched his chest in fear.
Everyone except Ari cowed and trembled.
She went to the window and saw in the distance what looked to be….a giant troll.
It was her first time seeing one.
It was bigger than she’d thought it would be. About twelve feet tall with a hulking body and green skin that oozed with pus.
It was roaring and swinging its mallet through the streets as it stormed toward them, getting closer and closer.
She had an idea.
Of course, normally, she wouldn’t do something like this in the open. Elric had told her to keep a low profile, and she’d said she would. However, with a troll on the loose and people in danger, staying still would be against her moral code, especially given that she was in disguise. Not to mention, intervening might help her case.
She turned back to the agent on the floor. “You said I would need to prove why I was worth that much gold, right?”
“What?
She repeated herself.
His eyebrows furrowed. “Yes, but this isn’t the time to discuss it. Now get down before–what on earth are you doing?!”
She ignored him and unbolted the front doors, walking out before anyone could catch her and drag her back in.