The merchant, blushing by this point, stepped back and left the topic for the moment. Lady Sayeh was indeed in charge and the merchant was only there to assist.
The saucer on the table, the food that was covered, once opened revealed a stuffed bird drenched in an brown sauce. The attending servant looked around the room and gathered whatever jugs were empty then left the room presumably to fill them.
Raven removed his hand from the table and observed Lady Sayeh and the merchant.
"If I may, I won't be an unreasonable man, but as far as I am aware we never received a letter or a word about our job was done, more so, the letter from Sir Dagger says that the area in question should be the property of the Iron Daggers. It doesn't mention the word 'reside' anywhere. Give us a fair offer and let's talk it over, I am sure we can come to an agreement that leaves all parties happy"
He then reached for some water.
Siarah had kept silent this far and stod a little behind Diob: She now moved towards him and whispered something in his ear.
Torkilds expression had soured as the talks seemed to get nowhere.
After Raven had spoken Torkild said with an angry voice "And before you answer, make note of this; i am leaving this place with my payment. Either you give it to me, or I take what is owed."
As he was speaking, Torkild moved closer to the table, picked up his dagger and sheathed it.
Marvelling at the sight of the bird underneath the metal cover, Magnus started to gently rip a drumstick of the creature. Making sure to get the meat coated with sauce he put a hand underneath as to make sure not to loose any sauce while it travelled to his mouth.
Though he stopped midway at the sound of Torkilds raised voice. It pulled Magnus out of his encounter with the bird and he stood up and grinned at the notion of violence. Magnus raised the drumstick and pointed it at the woman at the end of the table.
"The rooster always crows, and the sun always rise" he said as the sauce dripped to the ground
Skip looked tired, yawned and spoke up, this is taking to long time you can find me everywhere else than here.. I will be out and looking for heroic deeds, or a gaming table.. he turned toward raven, btw raven can I borrow some coin
Raven sighed...
"Settle down please, we are negotiating, no reason to make a fuss..."
He looked over to Skip, seeing that it was pointless arguing this with him.
"Skip I already gave you coin, you gambled away, we will have to take it off your farm if you continue." He then flipped a silver coin to him.
Skip replied back: I feel lucky today, or bored and there is no damsel in distress nearby so nexts best must be high stakes. Skip looked around and said " See you all around guys"
Then he left.
Alyssa who plays Sayeh lives in the US and is still working. Sorry for the slow progress. Once the negotiations are complete we do have a mission which I will run after if you are interested. I am able to be quicker due to the type of job I have.
The merchant looked around the room at the mercenaries present. He was going to ask Lady Sayeh if he should get the guard for "safety reasons" but when he saw the lady's lack of concern he calmed himself and smiled at Sir Raven and the rest.
The servant returned with saucers full of jugs of wine, spirits, ale and mead.
The Lady watches at the scene unfolds before her, a mix of threats, and watches as the confusion leads to the separation of the group and most of them leave.
Finally, Lady Sayeh takes a seat slowly, and sits down looking at the meal before her. “Your form of negotiations lack charm, Diob. The property belongs to Lord Victor and it is not at the right of The East Blackwood Company to sell it or gift it, and for that matter, it’s value could be all but worth that of a single copper. Your report doesn’t match up, it’s rather inflated, and there are tasks that were not asked of you that were done and now you demand more money.”
The charm Sayeh had before melted away quickly as she cut some food off her plate. “Your negotiation sounds more like the demand of a gypsy trying to get away with a con. Strange thing about that, is you don’t try to con someone who knows how con artists work. And now here we are twisting words in contracts written by an amateur scribe in my company. And I am sure the Ambassador will blame me for this as well,” she picks up her cutlery ready to start cutting up her food.
“Make a deal, and your buyer backs out, and the scribe made an error, and sit in room listening to LIES IN THIS HELL HOLE OF A DISTRICT!”
Lady Sayeh takes her whole plate of food and throws it against the wall and rises to her feet.
“How much more poison will I listen to coming from your smiling mocking faces? I’ll say again, your negotiation sounds more like a demand, a threat, and scheme thats was pocketed and hushed until the most opportune moment to try and find a way into pull at the purse strings.”
Her teeth grit together, “If you think, your threats will have any impact on me, there are powers that I have worked far harder to earn the respect of than the likes of you. I highly suggest you whip your dogs into order, and teach them new tricks.”
She leans forward on the table, and the wind rattles the shutters in the room making it hum through the cracks while her temper flares.
She looks to Diob and glares coldly at him.
“The Squire of Dark Isle was not present at your negotiations, and they would not drink during the terms of negotiations. So, with the likes of men who like to think they can take meek and seemingly simple minded woman, and insult them. And this has been a true and disgusting insult, since the Squire of the Dark Isle is me.”
She turns back to Raven, “Do all your negotiations start with an insult to a noble woman’s intelligence and to make demands? Negotiations have a far different mood, and I have faced Lord Faust who’s terms of negotiations are his terms or no terms.” Her voice lowers to almost a growl.
“The terms are you can get your standard amount of negotiated pay, judging by the stocks of food and wine in house, I would say you’ve also racked up quite a bill for yourselves which seems like more than your share of this price you believe should be paid, and if you want future employment and compensation then those can be discussed at that time. Also, seeing as your reputations in my circles are getting an ill approval, I don’t believe they will enjoy what I have to say. Oh and threats of death, well, the largest army in the Western Seal will not take kindly to that, nor I am sure within a few circles of the Rosen. Also, there are connections in the Ambassador’s hands.”
Raven remained until Lady Sayeh was done.
He then took a sip of water and calmly placed the cup on the table.
"Peculiar thing, Lady Sayeh, in my experience, the only one that knows a con artist is another con artist. Don't try to weasel yourself out of this, we have supplied security and for that, there was the promise of payment."
He paused for a second and crossed his arms.
"Since this meeting started I have experienced nothing but evasion regarding fair payment, and that is why some of the Iron Daggers are acting up, they see it too... You might see us as some cutpurses that are trying to rob you, but this is not the case, we took this job as a token of goodwill and friendship and I was even ready to show a huge degree of leniency since there was no formal contract... And speaking of contract, that reminds me, we were not under contract so the area we have expanded is legally ours. As far as I am aware that area circles all the way around yours. Funny huh. We would have handed it over to you as part of our job and service, let you 'buy' it so to speak... But in the light of this turn of events, we might reconsider."
He looked at the rattling shutters. His so far calm voice harshened a bit.
"I think your sin is pride Lady Sayeh and believe me I demand no respect from you I earn that respect and you know nothing about me. I was knighted on the field of battle by the banner lord of Explore, first of Porto Leonis, I took a dagger to the shoulder saving his life. I have worked for a fine number of good lords, among them Lord Protector of Lunort and Count Vincent of the Realm of Roses. No one has threatened you, no one has disrespected you, we are not nobles, we don't play by those rules, don't expect us to and your threats of armies have no grip on me."
He loosened up a bit.
"I don't know what circles you wander and frankly, I don't care, I still consider East Blackwood a good business partner, let's not destroy that. So if we are done showing off, can we please settle this and move on."
The merchant at Sayeh's side nervously looked around the room while the servant sprung to clean up the mess. The merchant looked at both Sayeh and then Sir Raven. He was unsure exactly what he should do but then thought of something that could perhaps be of assistance.
"I believe it was the original intention of Sir Dagger to gain the Iron Daggers as a more permanent resource. In such that previous offer of the expanded district was made. The original offer was in coin for the task of securing the district which you did and well I think we can all agree. While your services have not been needed much after that job, we enjoyed having you here and were no in a hurry to ask you to leave. So for any further efforts on your part to secure the area you were, at least temporarily, residing in we thank you."
"I believe Lady Sayeh has agreed to pay the standard rates of your soldiers for their time in our service. You have so kindly listed those for us here." The merchant pulls out the last letter from Diob or at least a copy of it. "I am sure the East Blackwood Company can come to an agreement that fits both parties. Of course," the merchant turned to the Lady of Sapphire Ilse and Squire of the Dark Ilse, "at your pleasure of course my lady."
Diob clearly angry at the merchant after the word "soldier" had been mentioned he replied.
"First of all we are not.... Soldiers... we are mercenaries... we take up tasks based on contracts.... no matter the task, we fulfill them... and when it comes to the good Sir Dagger, no matter good or bad intent, he has not paid us or ever finished the promised paperwork of a contract. So to be clear the district surrounding your area is the property of the Iron Daggers, and that is no longer discussable.
That is simply a fact, in relation to our standard pay it has correctly been sent to you. We are willing to accept other materials of equal value.
And we might reconsider the claim to our district at a later point. but not today or tomorrow.
Siarah had given Thorkild a harsh look as he interupted the things said. However the look on her face ever since that comment had been cold as stone, not showing any sorts of emotions and just stared out in the thin air. Until food came flying and a plate hit the wall.. at this point she seemed to focus the conversation with a rather dark look in her eyes.. Until Sir Ravens calm voice seemingly brought her back to her senses, however she remained silent.
As the merchant spoke she was ready to take steps to tell him a thing or two but then Diob started talking and there were no need.
The merchant looked through the documents once more and pulled out the copy of the original letter from Diob. He steeled himself to speak with renewed confidence. "It says here that you expanded the district by 25% but later you told us 300%. Regardless of this you said you hoped that we would see this as a gift. We did... You also pointed out that the work you did secured us for a month which then meant that our own guards were back in the city after that time. So by your own report we owe the esteemed Iron Daggers payment for... two months plus a bonus for work well done. Let me think a moment... that is 992 silver for the individual mercenaries and we could add 300 silver for the overall job plus 200 silver for the bonus. So in total about 1492 silver or, with a ratio of 8 to 1, 186 and a half gold."
The merchant turned to Lady Sayeh, "if your ladyship would allow, I would advise that any matters of further payment beyond this go to Sir Dagger directly. I believe, however, that he is currently on a mission with the Castellan Stordan von Zackenberg and the Malaka're in the Realm of Roses so that could take some time."
Raven ignored the first couple of remarks from the merchant and Diob, his eyes observed Lady Sayeh.
But when the merchant came with his offer Raven replied in a harsh tone without releasing his gaze.
"As I said, we would gift that area to you, but you never accepted it and with no written contract, that means it's ours... You can take that up with the governor or Lord Protector if you like, it won't change anything."
Raven then released his gaze and look over to the merchant, his tone calmed as he controlled his temper.
"My patience is running thin... It's this simple, we were given a job and we were never released from said job. But as I said, I don't want to be an unreasonable man. Pay os for 12 months, food and wine included. Heavens know we served you a lot longer than that, but because of this misunderstanding, I won't press for more."
The merchant seemed confused, "there is documentation to the contrary and ongoing negotiations for payment that have happened since. You are asking us to pay you for work we did not ask you to do. Myself or even Lady Sayeh cannot do that. Only the Master Merchant Djako or Sir Dagger himself can release more funds. I urge you to accept as the offer is generous. As a merchant myself if I baked bread for an order of 20 loafs and then added 30 more expecting to be paid for that as well, I should not be surprised when the buyer has issue with it. But again, I think this is a mater for the heads of the company."
The man sighed, "we have a shipment of horses that may be going south soon. If that deal is completed you could accompany that to speak with Sir Dagger. This is not a verbal contract negotiation just an offer as a means to discuss further payment beyond what was offered just now or what has been offered, and declined, in the past."
"As far as the district goes, this is a matter we will also pass on to Sir Dagger and Master Djako. I believe they will have to discuss how to go forward from here... Speaking of Master Djako, he will be here tomorrow."
Diob still standing behind Raven
"So then merchant, please lay forth this document that where Sir Dagger have answered to my first letter sent to him.
Because we have never received any, even though we later have talked.
And at the meeting with Sir Dagger last spring, we were still helping you out, and negotiating further plans.
What I see is that you and the lady are both trying to talk on behalf of Sir Dagger, without being fully informed.
And will not discuss it any further. Either a year's pay is put on the table or I am leaving. "
"As I said, we are not authorized to put any more on the table than offered. Any further discussion should be done with Master Djako when he gets here or Sir Dagger himself at a later date. Having contract negotiations with no actual agreement is not a binding contract which I believe your esteemed leader, Sir Raven, eluded to. In total we have three written documents between both parties and I have copies here. All of them are payment negotiations for the first job done. So, as I mentioned just now, if this is not acceptable to you, please wait for Master Djako or speak to Sir Dagger directly. Sir Dagger is currently somewhere on mission in the Realm of Roses and in the near future, deal permitting, a convey will head down that way to make a delivery. You could accompany it to him if it pleases you." The merchant looked tired.
As the merchant finished his sentence Diob turned around and left the roome.
Before exiting he gave Raven a small paper note.
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