We were halfway up the path to the biggest farmhouse on the road when I heard a gruff voice shout out to us. “About time you arrived.”

  I knew that shout, an employer who didn’t like to be kept waiting. My gaze swept the area until I found the source of the voice. On a large wrap-around porch stood a middle-aged man in farmer’s clothes. A simple shirt and long pants, designed to be easy to wash. Next to him stood Hester, though he was wearing a shirt this time.

  Side by side like they were, the family resemblance was uncanny, though Hester’s father was broader in the shoulder and with a slight paunch. They both had the same dusty brown hair and pale blue eyes. Their expressions, however, couldn’t be more different. Hester was beaming, while his father wore a slight scowl.

  When I met his eyes, I could see the disdain in them. It was the same look that Abel, Myrtle’s husband, had shot me. I wasn’t his type of person. A city slicker who worked behind a desk. His gaze made it clear that my fancy clothes and background were not going to help me here. A pity, though it wasn’t the first time I walked into a negotiation on the back foot.

  It didn’t happen often, but sometimes even bribes and threats didn’t get you what you needed. In that case, you had to rely on charm, a good strategy, and a touch of luck. Rita, on my left, stopped, followed seconds later by Penny on my right. I did the same, and I could hear Sasha, who was skulking in the back pause. Hester hadn’t let his gaze wander from her since she walked up.

  “We apologize for keeping you waiting, sir,” I said, with a small bow. “There were some administration matters that needed attending to.”

  A snort met my words, and he eyed me disdainfully. “Sir? Please, some of us work for a living. Call me Ted. And what administration matters? You know they’re not a real company.”

  Rita’s stiffened, and interestingly I saw Hester do the same. Penny remained relaxed, but that didn’t shock me. From the corner of my eye, I spotted Sasha fidget. She seemed nervous, a far cry from the confident alchemist in her workshop. I wondered how bad her relationship with Ted really was.

  “That is why I’m here, Ted. My name is Chad Burling, and I’m a Fixer. My job is to help them organize contracts and an assortment of other duties. I’ve been told you are a regular customer. Is that correct?”

  “I suppose. Been giving this one work ever since her father passed.” Ted puffed out his chest, and he looked almost proud. “Never had her fail a job on me. Not one.”

  “She is quite remarkable,” I agreed, which earned me a snicker from Penny and an unamused glance from Rita.

  Ted nodded as though it were an indisputable fact. “I didn’t think she would come home with a city boy as a husband, though. Is that how she got you working for her?”

  “Not at all,” I said. “As stated, I’m here to do the contracts. I thought it would be a pleasant change of pace, and that it would get me out of the confines of the walls. They were becoming a touch stuffy.”

  “Now you’re speaking sense. Never understood why you’d want to be surrounded by stone.”

  He came down off the porch and shook my hand. Poker Face kept the wince off my face as he squeezed my fingers tight enough I swore I could feel the bones shifting. Over his shoulder, I spotted Hester slipping away and gesturing for Sasha to follow him. I spoke to keep Ted’s attention on me.

  “Monsters, I would think,” I said, with a laugh that he gladly joined in on.

  It took an effort not to shake my hand when he finally released it, though I joined in as he nodded. Mimicry was a tactic I had found that endeared you to people. If they thought you moved like them, and spoke their truths, they were far more relaxed, which made them primed for a deal.

  As he spoke, he shifted his attention towards Rita. “True enough. That’s why I wanted you all here. We had a theft recently, something got into the livestock. You can track it, can’t you?”

  “Of course I can,” she said, tone confident.

  “For a price,” I cut in. “Little more than a few silver for a repeat customer.”

  When he responded, I watched any comradery that I had built quickly die. “What?”

  “The price for the contract. A few silvers, because I know you have a long relationship with her and she’s always said you’ve been generous in helping her with work.”

  “No.” His tone brooked no arguments, but I knew I had to try, anyway.

  “Ted, you must—”

  “No.” He spat the word. “I don’t know how you do things back where you come from, but here? That’s not how things work.”

  I flashed him a smile that he didn’t reciprocate. “Would paying in bronze be easier? That’s fine. I just need to know so I can work up the contract.”

  “Our contract,” he said the word with venom. “Is not anything to do with money. She does the hunts, and I make sure she gets a cut of the meat and some of my crop. It’s the same deal I had with her father. It’s the same deal I had with her.”

  “Ahh, I see.”

  “Good.” He gave a curt nod. “Now, Rita—”

  “That will have to change,” I said calmly.

  He looked like I had struck him a physical blow. “What did you just say to me?”

  “That will have to change.” I repeated the words. “Part of my agreement with Rita here was that the business would be financially successful. As lovely as I’m sure the meat and vegetables are, they don’t go into an income report particularly well.”

  “And why should I care about that?” He growled.

  “Taxes I would think.”

  Ted laughed, and I watched him. “You think the taxman comes out here? Even if he did, our agreement is between old friends.”

  “So you have no contract to enforce what you pay her?” I pressed. “Which means we’re ripe for a new agreement.”

  “Look city boy. You and your friends might consider metal a precious commodity. But out here? We work for our supper. Proper work. That was how my grandfather did it, and that’s how I do it. She hunts, and I give her a share of my crops.”

  My grin turned predatory. “Crops that you’re selling to Yuliosa, yes?”

  “What we don’t use, yes.” He watched me. “Why?”

  “So you have an income coming in, and thus you could afford to pay them in gold?” I pressed.

  “That’s not our arrangement.”

  His eyes bore a hole into me, and I matched his glare. This negotiation was mine. “So why not pay them in coins and let them buy crops from you? What, in essence, is the difference?”

  “Because that’s not how things are done around here,” he said through gritted teeth.

  “Isn’t it?” I asked. “Or do you just want to keep them dependent on you? If—”

  A lot of things had happened to me during negotiations. People had yelled, made threats, and even stormed out of the room. One particularly emotional man had cried out and given a monologue worthy of the greatest bards about how I was stealing the food out of the mouths of his children. It was a moving performance. Though it didn’t have nearly the same impact as Ted’s fist smashing into my face.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  My nose crunched, and I hit the dirt again in so many days. Hester was right, I would have to get clothes more suited for this type of thing. Nearby, Ted was shouting, and Rita was shouting back. Thanks to my watering eyes, it was impossible to see, though I felt it when someone put some sort of cloth into my hands.

  A hand helped me sit up, and I wiped my eyes. Penny’s grinning face was the first thing I saw, and then she backed up to let me spot the argument behind her. A short distance away, Ted and Rita were screaming at each other. When I focused on something other than the pain, the words made more sense.

  “How dare he imply anything of the sort!” Ted shouted, and he gestured towards me in a way that made me sure he’d have punched me again if he could. “After all, we’ve done for you!”

  Rita jumped in the moment Ted took a breath for longer than a second. “You didn’t have to punch him!”

  “You’re not great at this, money man. Though Sasha will be happy,” Penny whispered as she helped me to my feet.

  “Good for her,” I mumbled, and though I felt unsteady, standing up felt weirdly better. “Seriously, I didn’t think he was going to punch me.”

  Penny laughed, and she ruffled my hair in a way I found I loathed. “Obviously, come on. We should get you out of here before either of them check on you.”

  “What about Rita?” I asked.

  “Aww, that’s cute.” Penny grinned as she helped me away from the house. “Rita can handle herself. Once Ted calms down, they’ll just do what they normally do. His wife cooks a mean pie, and they make sure everyone in Leyloon has enough.”

  “Doesn’t that tie you down, though?” I asked as we pushed through the gate and onto the road.

  Penny shrugged. “Sure! But that’s just how they work. That’s why I want to travel more.”

  “So you can make money elsewhere…” I trailed off, and dabbed at my nose. “This won’t be the place to make cash based contracts, is it?”

  “Aww, you do learn!”

  I mulled that over as we continued to walk. The idea of not making money around our base of operations felt wrong, but also if the jobs were simple, perhaps I could justify it as a reduction in overhead costs? After all, food and the like added up when it came to expenses. Not that Rita would actually care what the books said, but I did. Middle of nowhere or not, it was no excuse not to do my job properly. But without an influx of coins, it would make travelling harder. After all, no inns I knew accepted carrots in exchange for a room and a glass of wine.

  There was the lumber camp job that would earn us something. But after that? We didn’t really have anything else lined up. At least, nothing that would earn the way we needed it to. Penny interrupted my thoughts when she asked a question, her tone bursting with curiosity.

  “What was your plan, anyway?”

  “Huh?” I asked, and then cursed myself for my ineloquence, though she giggled.

  She bumped me with her hip. “You call Ted out for trapping us, and then what?”

  “Well, I figured we would argue, and then settle on a paltry sum of bronze coins. Enough to get something in the coffers that we could trade to him. Get everyone on board with paying you actual money instead of this… barter nonsense.” My nose ached, but as I touched it, I was grateful to find it didn’t feel broken.

  “And you think that’ll happen now?” She asked. “Now that he hates you almost as much as Sasha? Good job on keeping him focused on you, by the way. Her and Hester are definitely having a date in the micro-orchard.”

  I shook my head and instantly regretted it. “Not a chance. We need to get back to Yuliosa or somewhere else as fast as possible. At least if we want to make money. Though keeping a good relationship with our neighbors will matter.”

  “Good thing that’s where I’m taking you, then! Look!”

  She stopped us at another gate, and dirt road. The fields before this farm house were barren, and peeking up behind it, I could see signs of the Old Mill. Its rotten wheel remained sitting in a river bed that would never be deep enough to make it spin again. I wondered how the local lord had taken it, or if they had simply built another somewhere further up or down stream.

  More importantly, at least for me, was the sight of what appeared to be an empty stable. One in good repair. I wondered who owned it, and if they would be willing to lease it to the company. The last thing I wanted was to leave Reed’s horses out in the street forever.

  Before we reached the halfway point of the small road to the house, Penny stopped me. Her tail was rigid, and her ears flicked. I paused, too, her sudden demeanor change worrying me. With a hand on my shoulder, she pressed me down into a crouch. Then she slowly raised her hands.

  “Jenkins, it’s me!” She called out. “It’s Penny!”

  “Are you?” A creaking voice called out, and I scanned our surroundings until I spotted him.

  On the roof of the farmhouse sat an old man in a sturdy-looking chair. In his arms, he gripped a crossbow, and while he was far enough away, I couldn’t see his eyes. I got a definite chill. This was not a situation I was prepared for, and I glanced at Penny. Her face was blank, and she didn’t appear to be breathing.

  I took a risk and whispered to her. “What do we do?”

  “Follow my lead. He’s harmless. Probably.”

  “What do you mean, probably?” I hissed back.

  Instead of answering, she raised three fingers in a wave. “It is! Why the precautions this time, Jenkins?”

  “Something stole one of Ted’s cows!” he shouted back. “Got to make sure it’s not a Shifter!”

  My brow furrowed. Shifters were something my grandfather had talked about seeing during The Invasion Wars. After the beastkin had appeared, people reported seeing humans who could transform into furred beastman and back again. It wasn’t true propaganda for the war. Still, it was effective.

  “Those don’t exist Jenkins, we’ve talked about this!”

  “No, I saw it!” he called back, and I could hear the panic in his voice. “They had a full animal face! Their entire body was covered by strange robes to hide the fur! That’s what took the cow, I know it.”

  He was getting jittery, and I glanced towards Penny again. She seemed troubled, her usual smile nowhere in sight. As my attention turned back to Jenkins, I could see his grip on the crossbow shift. It reminded me of the way my would be assassin had moved before he shot me. Without thinking, I grabbed her arm and rolled to the side.

  Penny yelped, and there was a loud twang of a crossbow going off. I glanced up from my spot on the ground. On the roof, Jenkins was reloading his crossbow and seeming to shake. When I glanced to check on Penny, she was staring at me with a mix of confusion and pride.

  “How did you know he was going to shoot?” She asked.

  “Someone did it to me before.”

  That got me a grin. “Maybe you’re not as good at negotiations as you convinced Rita you are.”

  “Let’s find out.”

  Without thinking, I stood up and held out my hands. Penny stayed crouched as I walked a few more steps towards the house. Jenkins stopped fiddling with the crossbow, but I saw that, unfortunately, he had loaded it again. He watched me, and I tried to do what I could to stop my legs shaking.

  “You’re Jenkins, right?” I called up at him. “My name is Chad Burling. Fixer. Rita hired me recently, and I work for The Blackrock Mercenary Company. She’s currently talking to Ted, and we came to talk to you.”

  “You did?” He called down.

  I gave an exaggerated nod to make sure he could see it. “That’s right. Can we come closer? I’m not sure you want us to be shouting about this, right?”

  “No, I suppose not. Come on, then.”

  With slow steps, I moved closer until I could better make him out. He was old, maybe a touch older than Reeds. He wore what appeared to be ill fighting leather armor, and a pair of thick glasses. His grey hair was cut short in a military style, and though his body was lean, it was clear he had been fit at one point.

  A glance over my shoulder showed Penny laying in the dirt. Her rifle was pointed at the old man, and her tail was wagging slowly. It took me a minute to realise it was being shifted by the breeze, and I wondered what skill she was using to achieve that. Then Jenkins spoke again and drew my attention back to him.

  “When did Rita hire you then? How do I know you’re not a Shifter?”

  I tried to remember the stories, and then I lifted my hands away from my nose. There was blood there, and I hoped he could see it. “Because I don’t bleed orange.”

  “What else?” He demanded and waved the crossbow at me.

  “I have gold on me!” I pulled a coin out of my pocket. “You know they won’t touch it.”

  “Aye, they’re scared of that. I remember. What about Penny? How can you be sure it’s her?”

  “Because I spent the day with her. Besides, we don’t get Bodysnatchers this far south. They’re a northern shifter,” I called out.

  He appeared to take a moment to mull that over, before I watched him give a curt nod. “True enough. Alright. I’ll meet you at the door. Don’t move.”

  My gaze didn’t leave the roof until he vanished from it, and when it did, I turned to find Penny standing beside me. The front of her clothes were dirt streaked, but she was smiling again. With a laugh, she pulled me into a quick, but tight, hug before she let me go.

  “You did it!”

  “I told you, negotiations are my reason for being here.” I smiled, a genuine one fueled by relief at not being shot at again. “Is he always this paranoid?”

  Her grin faded, and she glanced towards the door after she shook her head. “No. Whatever happened at Ted’s must have properly spooked him. Though that’s not a surprise. If something got through the shed, it must have been powerful or desperate.”

  “Joy…” I trailed off as the door opened.

  Jenkins looked smaller now that he wasn’t on the roof and holding a weapon. His back was hunched, but the green eyes behind the glasses were sharp enough. With a quick flicking glance between the two of us, he crooked a finger.

  “Come in, come in. No point standing around outside without knowing what’s pierced the barrier.”

  He didn’t wait for us to answer, and instead shuffled his way back inside.