Wish upon the Stars chapter 525

"Are you sure this is the place?" I asked Callie as we stood outside a  rather large house. "Because I'll be honest, it's not what I was  expecting." We'd left the others back at the inn for a while and decided  to take some time to ourselves to walk around. Inevitably our constant  need to be doing something pushed us to check out Tolbert's manor, where  we'd be signing up for our stint as mercenaries.

The  house WAS huge and imposing, as one would expect of a noble, but that  was where the image fell apart. The huge wrought iron gates were wide  open, as were the doors to the manor, and we were able to walk right in  without issue. Not that there weren't any people there, in fact, there  were far TOO many people. Random men and women walked in and out around  us, chattering and measuring and doing any number of other things.

The  house itself was empty, no furniture or anything, and a large man with  long dark hair and a goatee was standing in the middle of everything,  fielding questions and barking orders as people bustled about. I did see  a pair of men carrying a couch up the stairs, so I guessed they were  moving in.

Callie looked as confused as I did. "I thought  he'd been here for a while, since so many people have apparently showed  up to sign on, but this looks like he's barely broken ground."

I just shrugged. "We're getting in on the ground floor. Maybe we'll get better terms that way."

"You  won't." Chimed in a voice from behind us. I turned to see a whip think  blonde man with a hawklike nose and an honest to gods monocle staring at  us. "The terms are fairly awful. Camden put most of his personal wealth  into securing this estate and establishing his claim on the local  territory. This is such an unusual event that even if he was expecting  people to fight for free they'd sign up for the chance to possibly  become part of a noble coterie."

Grimacing at the news, I held out a hand. "Solomon. And this is Nightstrike."

He  chuckled. "Conglomerate, I assume." He took me hand and gave it a firm  shake, offering the same to Callie. "Alister Morgan, Camden's seneschal.  Apologies for the chaos. As you surmised, we've only just arrived. I  must say, it's a shock to see any possible hirees from such a distant  place. We have the occasional fae signing up, but the Conglomerate is a  ways off. How did you hear about us?"

Deciding to play it  safe, I shrugged. "I have a friend in the Empire." I said evasively. "He  hears things. From your earlier comment I assume the pay here isn't  great?"

"Sadly not." He said ruefully. "Most of the  volunteers are hoping to be offered a permanent position among the  Baron's forces once he manages to establish his foothold. Camden's  family isn't...thrilled, by his decision to set up his operation in such  an out of the way area."

"Then why do it?" Asked Callie.  "It seems like a lot of risk for not much reward. Not that I'm an expert  on imperial politics, but this isn't exactly prime real estate, is it?"

Alister  frowned. "It's complicated. The Tolbert succession isn't exactly neat  and tidy. Camden wants no part of the family squabbles, and is hoping  distancing himself will prevent any...accidents. Seven of Camden's  cousins have been poisoned in the last year alone. His grandfather is  ill, you see, and when he dies, Camden's uncle Vallis will take over as  family head. Someone from the next generation will be chosen as heir and  the position comes with quite a few perks."

That I could  understand. It wounded even more obnoxious than my family drama. "Ah, so  he's striking out on his own, and hoping that starting his own little  sub branch will make him an unattractive target for the assassins?"

"Even  so." Nodded the seneschal. "So I'm afraid if you came expecting a  generous payday you've been misinformed. The contracts for employment  are heavily weighted towards eventual payout rather than immediate  gratification. We do accept short term employees, but their compensation  is far reduced. Though if you're here for a long term assignment we'd  be happy to put you through the necessary assessments."

Despite  not being here for money, that wasn't really ideal. Still, a job was a  job, and Camden seemed like the kind of person I could work with. "Sadly  no. We're here for something a bit more short term. Maybe a year tops.  Little less. We're not against taking a pay cut for a good fit though,  and we're hard workers. We came with quite a few friends, since we heard  you need all the help you can get."

I noticed something  that made me feel a bit better about being here as I watched everyone  bustling around. Despite him barking at a few of them for different  things, none of these people seemed afraid of Camden Tolbert. The big  noble was gruff, but everyone seemed more focused on keeping busy than  flinching when he made any demands.

It said a lot about  him that his employees were comfortable enough with him to ignore his  temper like that, and it made me more willing to work for him by the  second. "Alright, well, can we talk to Baron Tolbert? We'd love to hear  more about his operation. You understand we can't commit to anything  before we take the terms back to our companions, but hearing him out  sounds like a good start."

Given we were joining an army,  establishing myself as an authority figure seemed like it might cause  problems. Best to take a more collective approach, since Tolbert's  people would probably want to establish their own heirarchy rather than  use ours.

Alister's face lit up. "Why, of course. As  mentioned assessments will be forthcoming, but we're happy to discuss  collaboration pending those results."

He led us over to  where Camden was standing, glaring at a defiant looking woman with red  hair in pigtails and soot stains on her face. "I'm telling you upfront."  She said bluntly. "I can't turn your chandelier into a defensive  emplacement with those specs. I understand your basic request here, but  the power requirements are prohibitive."

"I told you to  use Might gems for the crystal spikes." He growled. "I even budgeted for  it. So what the hell do you need these energy storage runes for? Not to  mention the extra hardware."

She pointed up at the  ceiling. "Because the Might gems provide the power for attacks, but they  don't launch themselves." She paused. "Well, they could, but I can't  fit that kind of runework on the frame you commissioned. We need a  secondary rune sequence for setup and launch, and it's going to require  Perception. I can't do it with your current supplies. Get as pissed as  you want, but that's not changing."

He pinched the bridge  of his nose. "How much for the Perception gems? And what kind of changes  will we need to make to the frame? I'm not made of money."

"Ten  E-rank chits for the whole upgrade." She said sympathetically. "We're  going to have to rework the whole frame, melt it down and reforge it. OR  we can just go with the original design and nix the launch sequence.  Have it shoot straight down when they walk under it."

Sighing  heavily, he rubbed his eyes. "Fine. But I want delivery for the frame  included. That's transport to the enchanter and back." She agreed  instantly and he turned to us with a wry smile. "Sorry. Certain  conventions need to be upheld for a noble establishing a manor, but I'm  trying to get as much utility as possible out of the useless detritus  I'm filling my home with. Now, I take it you're here about the army?"

I  nodded. "Got it in one. There's fourteen of us pretty much. Varying  levels of combat experience, most of us halfway to E-rank or higher. We  have a healer with us who comes as part of a package deal if we decide  to sign on, and her power can also wipe away fatigue."

Jessie's  lifeweaving was even more valuable here because of the Impact pressure.  Doing things here as an F-ranker was exhausting, and having access to a  pick me up was bound to be helpful.

Sure enough, Camden  looked interested. "A healer? Those are expensive and hard to find. My  forces weren't a draw for many since they have so many other options. No  one turns away a good healer. As for the fighting experience..." He  shrugged. "It doesn't mean much. Fighting in a formation is quite  different than single combat. In fact we prefer amateurs for the rank  and file because they have fewer bad habits to train out. That said my  drill instructor is damned good, so we can work with anything you bring  us. Provided you're all up to standard physically and you can bring me  the healer you're in."

"What  about pay?" I said, mostly to make it clear I wasn't an easy mark. We  were offering him a vital service, especially with Jessie coming along.

He  looked us over, spotting the hole in my armor easily. "Tell you what.  Every member of my forces gets a stipend and a set of gear. Forgo the  stipend and I'll let you design the gear yourself. If your healer is  willing to give up payment I'll even shell out for E-ranked materials.  It'll end up being cheaper than paying by the injury in any case."

That...would  be a huge win for us. It also made me wonder how much healers made,  because it was an absurd amount of money he was talking about. "I'll  talk to her about it." I said firmly. "I can't commit to that big of a  move without her input. Is the offer time sensitive?"

"Not  unless I magically get another high level healer knocking on my door."  He chuckled. "But basic starts in three days, so I suppose I'd prefer your  response by then." He held out his hand. "On the off chance you accept,  I'd like to welcome you both and your group to the Tolbert Military."

I  shook, as did Callie, and we left, both of us feeling a bit unsure of  what just happened. "So..." I said slowly. "We need to do a ton of  research on local materials and healing costs right? I mean we'll bring  it to Jessie, but he seemed way too excited to be paying that much  money. I feel like he's dramatically undercutting us costwise. How rare  are healers in the Empire?"

"It's  not the Empire." She said, shaking her head as she slipped into stealth  speech. "I think it's just here. Didn't you hear him? Healers can write  their own meal ticket. Chances are most of them move up to more  lucrative positions and more financially flourishing planets. We can  look into it, but as for leverage..."

Grimacing,  I did the same, isolating our conversation from prying ears. "Yeah.  we're stuck here for the moment. Camden is the only game in town if we  all want to stay together. Of course, he doesn't know that, but it's  still true. At least we might get new costumes out of it. E-ranked gear  for everyone is pretty enticing."

I  really needed new armor, and everyone else getting their own was a  stroke of luck. I was sure Jessie would be interested, though I hadn't  been lying about not being willing to push her into it. We also hadn't  mentioned Randall. I wondered if we could get HIM an E-ranked gear set.  The idea of a giant bear in powerful armor amused me and seemed like it  would be useful.

Walking  back to the inn, I considered everything I'd learned and how this would  probably work, and I couldn't help but get excited. Something about  being back at a human level and being about to go through real training  to work with a team from people who knew how to actually train others  had me excited to start. Before that though, I had to fill everyone in  about our conversation with Camden. We had some choices to make.