Mana Mirror: Chapter Thirty Eight (Patreon)

“Do you think the terragon presents a threat to my business?” he asked as soon as we sat down, sounding more concerned than he’d been for his own safety.

I reminded myself that now that my supposed fight with Ivy was done, I needed to act nicer. The carrot, and the stick.

“Do you have any advice on dealing with the foul creature?” Davies asked.

“It’s not a foul creature,” I said, allowing some irritation to leak in.

Oops.

“Regardless, terragon are an endangered species,” I said. “Their territory is protected by law. I’ve got a dragon friend whose mother is excellent with this sort of law, and has a vested interest in terragons. I’m sure she’d be willing to handle the watches. I’ve also spoken with the local group of dryads, and they’re willing to cooperate with you. Here, let’s draft out a contract, and I’ll call the dragon I know?”

“I… Suppose,” Jacobs said.

I plucked a stone off the broach and crushed it into powder, flowing spatial mana through it, whispering a message into the dust, and then blowing it. It was just another trick, of course, but Jacobs didn’t need to know that.

I did feel bad that the talcum dust would have to be cleaned up by the poor maid, however. It wasn’t like she’d asked to be drawn into all of this.

“Ivy or his mother should be here before too long,” I said. “I’m not powerful enough to teleport them right here yet, but…”

“Not to worry,” he said with a weak smile, and we set to work drafting the contract.

The basis for it was rather simple. He legally needed to move his logging away from the forest anyways, and I was providing him with a contact with local dryads. Ivy was the one who’d actually worked out most of the deal, but it would be too conspicuous for him to appear without a human to act as an intermediary.

The druids would begin helping him grow a grove of black cherry trees, and provide training to any of his employees with relevant mana types on how to do the same. In addition, they’d help him set up a large barley field, which could be sold as food, or made into drink. They would also assist in the moving of the manor house – though the house itself wouldn’t be able to move, there was still plenty of stuff in there that could be.

The house itself, Ivy had other plans for.

Naturally, the rest of the terms were horrendous. If anyone in the town did anything other than low-level foraging from the terragon’s forest, not only would they suffer the legal penalties for harvesting on protected land, but the harvester’s entire property would be forfeit, sold to a conservation group. If there was ever proof of the terragon’s death by human intervention, the business would pass ownership over to me.

Even if proof didn’t turn up, I would take a fifty five percent stake in the business, as well as other large fees which would go to various conservation groups.

Jacobs had just begun to draft a counteroffer when Ivy knocked on the door. He’d switched out his forest-nymph look for much more sensible looking button-down shirt and slacks, and he had a sheaf of papers tucked under his arm.

“Sorry I’m late,” he said, huffing slightly. “As soon as I got the signal, I flew straight out. Your message mentioned a baby forest terragon?”

Jacobs frowned and studied Ivy, his eyes lingering on the antlers, which unfortunately were the same in both of his forms. I lifted the broach, and let the light spill out.

“Javobs Davies, this is Ivy, the enchanter who made this for me. He’s also a law student at Mossford University. You’re really in luck he happens to be a friend of mine. I only have magical artifacts from forest and cavern dragons, so if the terragon had happened to be any other breed, I’d have had… Much more trouble.”

“I see,” he said, squinting. “Do all forest dragons have horns like that?”

“Oh, it isn’t just forest dragons,” Ivy said. “Many types of dragon do, and it isn’t really all about or magic. It’s a bit like asking why so many humans have brown hair. That being said, it is especially common among forest or river dragons. But it’s by no means a hard rule. Why do you ask?”

“The terragon’s horns were quite similar to your antlers,” I said. “Though theirs were a little pointier at the tips.”

Ah, manipulation. The further apart I could drive Ivy and the supposed terragon, the better.

“Yes,” Jacobs said.

“So, you both saw the terragon?” Ivy asked as he was ushered towards the library.

“I’d say that,” I said, trying to add some wry humor to my tone. “It did try to burn me to death. Several times.”

“That’s quite unusual behavior for a terragon, especially a newborn one.”

“Ah, mister Davies here was unknowingly harvesting lumber from his land. It’s no harm, no foul, we’re just working on a way to get things sorted out so he can continue his business.”

“Oh really?” Ivy asked, his eyes sparkling with sudden interest. “I happen to have worked as a paralegal for several years. Mister Davies, could I perhaps offer my assistance?”

“Certainly, certainly,” he said.

“Now, before we go into that…”

Ivy withdrew several sheets of paper, then began arranging them.

“Here are some papers to indicate that you witnessed a terragon. Malachi, you fought it, so you’ll need to sign some of these… Alright, and then, if I could get you to sign these papers and deliver them to the Wyldwatch…”

It took us nearly two hours to get through the paperwork that would allow us to officially register over three hundred acres as protected wilderness, register that a terragon was living there, and that I’d fought it, but hadn’t dealt serious injuries, instead scaring it off with some binding spells, an enchantment, and temporal illusions.

It shouldn’t ding my record, since this would all go on it as self defense from a dangerous animal, but it would definitely remain on my record. I was okay with that, though. At the end of the day, it meant saving a baby animal from poachers… Even if that animal still likely wouldn’t hatch for another year.

We left filing the damage claim to Davies – his insurance would have to figure out what exactly a terragon attack was.

After that, we turned back to the contract. The terms I’d offered were intentionally awful, and now Ivy got to play the kind, generous, and helpful assistant, and I got to show I did have a reasonable side by folding.

This took up another several hours, and at least three pots of tea, but in the end, it was determined that Davies’ Lumber Co. would now be refiling as Davies’ Lumber and More as they expanded to include sustenance farming for the town.

Given time, Davies’ company could essentially turn the small hamlet into an actual village, not unlike Kene’s own, with him acting as a mass job creator and mayor.

I couldn’t say that I was… happy. I didn’t love the idea that Jacobs Davies was going to have a lot more power, considering he’d already shown himself to be untrustworthy with the little he did.

But the clauses were solid, and the punishments for getting out of line were high, with the company, any subsidiaries, or separate companies started by Jacobs would be funneled into different conservation groups if he slipped up. The dryads would be regularly speaking to Ivy about the place, as well as checking on the tarragon, so nothing too terrible should come of it.

In truth, I thought the punishments hurting Jacobs’ profits were going to do more to deter him than any laws would, so I was glad that Ivy had kept them pretty stringent.

But the part that really excited me was the rewards. Admittedly, they weren’t framed as rewards, but that’s what they were.

Since Ivy was going to be handling most of this, he got much better rewards than I did, but I was still presented with a few options. I’d be walking out of here with three thousand silver, regardless, but these were some pretty excellent bonuses.

The first was a pair of potions that Ivy had actually provided. The first one, brewed by his father, was made using draconic magic. That meant it was substantially different from human, but if there was one thing that forest dragon magic was good at, it was plants. The potion would soak into my mana-garden over the course of three days, and provide a steady, nourishing power to my more plant based spellcraft.

The second potion was actually one Ivy had been planning to use himself. It was designed for second gate magic, but it should still work on third gate, and it was meant to assist with sensory spells. Ivy, apparently, had been struggling to ingrain the Forest Dragon’s Senses spell, but he was willing to hand it over as a part of my reward, given everything he was getting from Davies.

Given that if I wanted to collect Orykson’s reward, I only had two weeks remaining to master Internal Pocketwatch, Analyze Space, Enhance Plant Life, Harvest Plant Life, and Fungal Lock spells, as well as ingrain the Analyze Life and Death spells, this was a tempting offer.

I didn’t want to ruin myself with elixirs and other training aides the way that Orykson had referred to, but none of these were anywhere near the power of the Fundament Pill, and I was confident my resistance to mana toxicity was enough to make use of them. Probing around my mana garden felt stable and solid, nowhere near worrying levels.

The second option was simpler, but much more tempting than I’d expected. Four percent of the net profit that Davies’ new company would produce each month.

I had no idea how much he’d make. Our bakery was successful, and catered to some wealthy clients, but we still only took home about thirty thousand silver in a year. When starting most businesses, the net profit could be zero for a few years.

But, if he successfully managed to grow the company ethically, and turn his tiny hamlet into a real village around the business, it could eventually make a decent amount. With the business being the center point of industrialization for an entire village, even four percent could bring in as much as the entire bakery did.

But there was no guarantee he’d grow successfully, and even if it did, it would take years, maybe a decade or more.

The final option was just as appealing, but of an entirely different sort. Eleven thousand, five hundred silver. When I took that and combined it with the reward placed for the mission, I’d have made fifteen thousand silver in a single weekend.

I doubted I’d ever see a windfall like that again, not until I was a spellbinder at least, and even then, it’d definitely be politically or business entangled, and I’d probably not have a powerful dragon standing next to me to help out.