Mark of the Fool

“I mean…” Alex stammered. “But…I don’t have a bank account.”

“Really?” Toraka Shale frowned. “You’ve been in the city for how long and you never opened a bank account?”

“Um…” His mind refused to cooperate, unable to string even two coherent thoughts together. “I mean…um I…”

“You’ve been here long enough to have a bank account. Where have you been keeping your money?” She asked him.

“In…in my apartment,” Alex murmured, too stunned to even consider hiding the location of his…comparatively meagre fortune.

“Really? Well, you’re going to open an account, then,” she said sternly. “If we’re going to be business partners, here's a lesson for you. You’re not going to stuff a hundred and ten thousand gold coins—because I am subtracting the twenty thousand that you owe me, by the way—under your apartment floorboards like some common adventurer.”

Alex was trembling. “I…wha…”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong,” she chuckled. “A locked chest is good enough for a few thousand gold coins from any Games of Roal winnings. But, we don’t call that real wealth in the circles I run in. Circles you’ll have to learn to run in soon enough. If the golem’s complete, and it’s as incredible as you claim—even half as incredible as Claygon—then you’ll get the other one hundred and thirty thousand I owe you.”

The Thameish wizard—a young man who’d spent years slogging away in a bakery for a few silvers a shift—nearly fainted right there in the chair.

“I…” he shuddered. “That’s…for that level of profit…you’re charging a lot more than anything I would have suggested.”

She shrugged. “Your second lesson: learn proper mark-ups. You’re creating an exclusive product that kings would stab their brothers for. We’ll charge accordingly.”

“I…” His knees trembled, tears welling up in his eyes. “But…that…”

“Third lesson.” She patted him on the shoulder. “Never show how happy you are with how much money you’re about to get. Makes people feel they could have gotten you for less. Anyway, you’re about to be very, very rich, and if you keep negotiating and innovating like you are, I suspect that the Roth name will soon be a very important one here in Generasi. I do believe you’re about to make the kind of money that dynasties are built on, Alex.”

“I…alright…thank you…Mrs. Shale,” he choked out.

She smiled at him. “We’re about to become business partners, Alex. Call me Toraka. Oh, and by the way. I’m making you head of sales for this entire project. You negotiate like a devil. It’d be a waste to let those skills rust away in the shop.”

“A-alright,” he murmured.

She cocked her head at him. “Well? Aren’t you going to get up? Or do you plan on having Claygon carry you to the lawyer’s office?”

“No! I can walk!” Alex yelped, leaping up and following Toraka out the door with Claygon right behind.

And so, in the final step of the financial component of Operation Grand Summoning Ascension, the Roth-Shale Super Golem Crafting Project came to be.

It was a name that would be workshopped in the coming days.

Heavily.

Alex Roth stumbled home from the bank, leaning against Claygon.

His pouch was heavy with gold coins: a fraction of the fortune now sitting in his newly acquired bank account in the Generasi Central Bank. And that fortune was only a small fraction of the wealth he stood to make with Toraka over the next couple of years.

Alex’s hands trembled at the thought.

“I did it…” he murmured to himself as he and his golem made their way to the insula. “I bloody did it…by the Traveller, I’m rich.”

His mind raced, remembering the sums he’d heard tossed around at the bank; the sort of coin that could buy entire towns back in Thameland.

‘I don’t know what a lot of what was said means…but congratulations, father,’ Claygon said.

‘Thanks, Claygon,’ Alex thought. ‘It’s…it’s life-changing, what just happened is absolutely life-changing.’

‘In…a good way?’

‘Oh yes, in a very good way,’ Alex thought. ‘Oh, and don’t you worry. These golems I’m crafting aren’t going to be copies of you. You’ll always be unique, my friend. Very unique.’

‘It does not matter to me if there are others like me,’ came Claygon’s thought. ‘There are other humans like you, father. But there is only one you.’

Alex nearly choked up at his golem’s words.

Today was getting to be a bit much for his heart.

But, in a good way.

As he and Claygon stepped into the courtyard, he couldn’t wait to tell Theresa and Selina the amazing news.

The arrow slipped from the huntress’ fingers, clattering to the floor as she stared at Alex in open mouthed shock. There was a thud as Selina dropped a textbook on the table, looking at Alex as though her brother had gone mad.

“Have you gone completely mad?” Selina asked. “This…this has to be a joke, right?”

“Y-you said…one hundred and ten thousand gold coins, right?” Theresa stammered. “There was a thousand after that ten, right? I didn’t just hallucinate that? Or dream it?”

Alex sank into a chair by the table like his body had turned to jelly. “No…you heard it right,” he said. “That’s…yeah, we’re…uh…We’re rich beyond our wildest dreams, guys. That’s…it’s true.”

Tears welled up in Selina’s eyes. “When you bought that building you said you had a lot of debt because of it…”

He made a cutting gesture with the edge of his hand. “Gone,” he said. “All of the debt’s gone. And it’ll stay gone so long as I make a good golem.” Alex smiled up at Claygon. “And Roth golems are the best golems.”

“Oh by the Traveller, Alex!” Theresa leapt out of her chair, sprang across the room and wrapped her arms around him. “You did it! You can build your staff now!”

“I-uh, can do a bit more than make a staff now, Theresa. This is life-changing…we could buy—”

“What matters to me is that you can make something that’ll keep you and the rest of us safe.” She hugged him tighter. “That’s what counts.”

Right then and there, Alex Roth promised himself that Theresa Lu would live like an empress for the rest of her life if that was something she ever wished for.

“I don’t…” Selina murmured, sliding out of her chair, walking lightly over to her brother and squeezing his arm. “...thank you, Alex. I think…I think mother and father would be proud of you. I know I am.”

Right then and there, Alex Roth promised himself that Selina Roth would live like an empress for the rest of her life if that's what she ever wished for.

As he basked in the embrace of his family—with a foundation of wealth finally firmly beneath their feet—he thanked the Traveller for their good fortune. At long last, their future in Generasi was secure. With his new venture, Alex would be able to completely fix up their new bakery, transforming it into a thriving business and a wonderful home.

He’d be able to fund all of Selina’s schooling, even beyond undergraduate studies. He could buy the supplies for Claygon’s speaker box without a second thought; soon his golem would be talking and singing to the aeld tree whenever he pleased.

For his friends, he could build magic items to protect them in battle, and make their lives easier in peace.

And as for Theresa’s parents? With so much coin coming in, he could fund their retirement whenever they wanted to take it. If they wanted to move to Generasi? He’d be able to snap his fingers and buy them a townhouse in the city, or even a villa in the countryside.

A major change had come to Alex Roth and his family’s life again. A wonderful change.

A frown took his features.

A fragilechange.

‘All of this…good fortune…it’s all dependent on me getting more dungeon core essence. I can’t keep putting Khalik, Theresa and my other friends at risk helping me keep my supply of dungeon cores flowing. I have to come up with a way to get them myself…which isn’t going to be easy. There’s a reason why dungeon raids are usually led by a team of magically empowered super-fighters blessed by a powerful god. Dungeon cores won’t do us any good if I get killed trying to get my hands on them. And if…no, when the Ravener’s defeated…it could also mean no more dungeon cores.’

He chewed his lip, fighting his own worries. ‘You’ll need to diversify, just like you would a spell list: make sure you have multiple paths for earning coin. More than one way to build your wealth. But, that’s a later problem. Right now, you need to focus on building your staff and getting the bakery fixed u—’

“Alex? You look like you swallowed a jug of vinegar.” Selina frowned at him.

“Hm? Oh, sorry, I was just thinking about things,” he said as Theresa finally released him from her death grip of a hug. “The bakery, for one. I’ve got to get it cleaned out sooner or later.”

“Ooo! Can we go see it again?” Selina asked. “You hardly let me see much of it last time, and I really want to see where my room’s going to be.”

“The place is not fit for human habitation yet,” he reminded her. “It’s not really fit for any habitation that doesn’t involve cockroaches, rats, mice and other various varieties of vermin.”

“Please?” She begged. “I mean, we’re…rich, now right? We should go to the city and celebrate! Like maybe go to that nice restaurant we went to for your birthday! And on the way there…we could take a look at the bakery.”

“Hmmmm,” he thought the idea over. “I don’t know. Last thing you want is to catch some bakery-inflicted plague.”

“You said you used Orb of Air and Flight Potions when you looked at it with…Troy was his name, right? We could do the same thing, and I’m forcing you to let me take you out for a nice meal, Alex.” Theresa said. “We could see the place on the way, like Selina suggested. C’mon, I’d love to go.”

“...alright, but don’t complain to me if you both get flesh-eating disease,” Alex said. “Or if you’re eaten by some giant, flying cockroach.”

“Look out!” Alex cried, recoiling in horror.

The young Thameish wizard flew through the air, his feet hovering above the bakery’s cluttered floorboards before his back collided with a wall. Stammering, he pointed ahead with a shaking hand. “A giant, flying cockroach! Theresa, flee! We must flee for our lives!”

Floating in the air ahead of him was the giant, flying cockroach: Selina. His younger sister put her hands on her hips, glaring at her brother. “Alex, why do you have to be so silly sometimes?”

“Look out, Theresa!” Alex screamed in mock terror. “The flying giant cockroach can talk!”

“This giant flying cockroach is going to push a giant flying rat down the stairs if he doesn’t stop!” Selina yelled, floating high in the air, curling her fingers like claws.

“Theresa, help!” He cried. “The cockroach is going to kill me—”

“Sure I’ll help... I’ll help Selina,” Theresa laughed, floating through the apartment, examining the rooms carefully.

“Thanks,” he said sourly. “Some thanks I get.”

“You got thanks earlier, but then you started being weird,” Selina pointed out, flying to another room. “Also, this place isn’t so bad. I mean…it’s got a lot of stuff in it…”

She eyed the junk gathered in piles on the apartment floor. Alex’s clean up operation had begun by his own efforts—he hadn’t had time to hire labourers yet— but that effort had only seen the apartment go from ‘horrifyingly unlivable,’ to ‘slightly less horrifyingly unlivable’.

“And maybe having so much stuff all over the place isn’t very nice…but the rooms are nice, and there’s a lot of them. Our new home is gonna be really pretty once it’s all cleaned and fixed up,” Selina said, brimming with optimism. “We’ll wake up to the smell of fresh bread every morning! And I’ll have a place to build things and study magic!”

“Oh yes,” Alex said. “Oncethe clean up’s all finished, and the basement’s done, I’m going to set up my workshop down there. You can have your own space too for studying and building whatever you’d like. We might want somewhere bigger down the road, but for now, this place will really serve us well.”

“I can see us spending a lot of time on that rooftop garden.” Theresa wiped grime from a window. “It’s too bad there’s nowhere close by for Brutus to run, though.”

A floor below, Brutus barked as though he was answering to his name being called.

“No, Brutus!” The huntress called down to the main floor. “I don’t want you up here eating anything buried in all of this trash, boy. You don’t need old rotting rat in your belly!”

She paused, frowning at Alex. “Um, how are we going to get rid of the vermin anyway? If there’s half as many roaches as you say you saw when we were here last time, then it’s going to be a nightmare and take a miracle to get rid of them all. My uncle once had a really bad cockroach infestation at his cottage, and father said it took him the better part of a year, and a whole lot of homemade poison to get rid of them.”

“Well,” Alex cracked his knuckles. “You let me worry about that. I’ve got a few…plans, shall we say. Tomorrow, I’m going on a bit of a shopping spree to get everything I need for my staff. Then Claygon and I’ll be cleaning and sanitising the kitchen, and I’ll bring my alchemy kit with me to do a little staff-building.”

He smiled wickedly. “At the same time, I have some…plans for our…uninvited vermin guests. I don’t think there’ll be a single roach or rat left in the building in a few days. No living ones, in any case.”

His smile grew wider as he rubbed his hands together and planned his next task; the perfect combination of staff-building, and vermin extermination.