The following morning, when everyone had gathered in the tavern’s common room and after they’d finished breakfast, Arwin broke the news to Reya.
“I’ve got something that I could really use your help with,” Arwin said to the former thief. She glanced at him, dabbing her mouth with a napkin. They’d had spider for breakfast, which sounded like a horror story in its own, but had actually been quite pleasant. That was no surprise given who had cooked it.
“Yeah?” Reya asked. “What is it? Do you need something stolen?”
Okay, maybe former thief isn’t the right way to think about her. You can’t be former if you’re still doing it.
“No. I’d much rather you not have to steal anything,” Arwin replied. “It’s your other talents I’m hoping for. Last night, a merchant visited us. He’s one of Lillia’s old friends.”
“Seriously?” Reya asked, her eyes going wide. The meaning of Lillia having an old friend wasn’t lost on her. “Can I meet him?”
“More than that,” Arwin said. “I was hoping you might be able to teach him. When I say he’s a merchant, I should probably specify that he wants to be a merchant. He’s managed to make it this far through sheer perseverance, but he’s got absolutely no sales sense. The poor man is worse at it than I am.”
Reya sent Arwin a doubtful look. “Worse than you?”
“I have none. He has negative.”
“Well, that’s the problem,” Jake said. “I can put in a hold order for you… but you aren’t eligible to actually buy the land.”
Arwin blinked. “What? Why not? Do I have to be a proper citizen of Milten or something along those lines?”
“No, nothing like that. It’s just that the city doesn’t sell to unrecognized individuals. There are too many logistical issues that arise from it. They’ll only sell to verified groups.”
“Like guilds?” Lillia asked.
“Yes, precisely. And that was where I was going to lead this,” Jake said with an encouraging nod. “If you’re looking to buy this much land, would I be wrong in presuming that you’re planning to form a guild?”
“We’ve got one in all but name,” Arwin said.
“Then I recommend hastening that process. I can’t help you with it directly, so I’d register yourselves and then get all of that handled. Once you’re an official guild, I’ll be able to put the order in and reserve it for you.”
Arwin chewed his lower lip. “Do you know how much it takes to get officiated as a guild in Milten? And do we need to be a ranked guild, or just a normal one?”
“Just a normal one will be more than enough,” Jake said with a wave of his hand. “It would be ludicrous to expect a newly formed guild to get ranked just to buy land. Milten doesn’t even have any ranked guilds that are based here. The closest ones were the Iron Hounds, but… well, they aren’t much of anything anymore. As for cost, I believe it was around five hundred gold.”
Another hit to the money pouch, but this one is a lot more manageable. The bigger issue is going to be actually getting the guild made, not affording it.
“That’s good to know. Thank you very much for coming to tell us,” Arwin said. He hesitated for a moment. Jake had already gone a fair bit out of his way to help them out in a timely manner, but he had to be greedy. “Is there any way you could try to make sure nobody buys that land while we get registered? I’ll head out to do it immediately, but I don’t know how long it’ll take.”
Jake pursed his lips and tapped a finger against his belt. “That’s not technically legal. There really hasn’t been anyone interested in the land for quite some time. I doubt someone will swoop out of nowhere and buy it from below your nose.”
“But what if they do?” Reya asked. She stepped up beside Arwin, her hands clasped in front of her. She swallowed nervously and looked up at Jake with watery eyes. “I don’t want to lose my home so soon after getting it again. I’d have to go back to a life that I’d really like to never think about again.”
“This street is the only thing we’ve got,” Reya said. “You can’t make money without making enemies. If someone wants to cut us off before we can get started, they’ll buy the rights to the smithy and the tavern that we rebuilt with our own money just to screw us over. Then we’ll have to leave Milten and all our money will go to a different city. We’d have to start over.”
“Okay, okay. I get the picture,” Jake said as he raised his hands in surrender. “I can’t officially do anything, but I can pull the information on the street. It’ll make it much harder for anyone else to look into it. That won’t buy you a lot of time. A week, maybe. But if you can get your guild made by then, it should make sure you get a chance to buy the street before anyone else.”
Reya’s panic shifted to a delighted smile. “Thank you!”
Jake just shook his head. “No problem. And before I forget, as for the cost of your storefront, it’ll be 100 gold a year considering you’re selling weapons and armor. I could go into the list of reasons why if you want, but might take some time.”
Arwin held a hand up to forestall him. He dug the requested gold out of his bag and handed it over without a word.
Jake grinned and accepted it with a nod. “Thank you. If that’s all, I’ll be back on my way. I’ve got more papers to push in the office. Come find me once your guild is officiated.”
He swept out of the tavern. For a second, nobody spoke. Then they all looked to Reya. Her cheeks reddened. “What? I had to learn a lot to survive on the streets. Stealing wasn’t my only skill. Do you know how hard it is to convince merchants to give you scrap? Looking as pathetic and desperate as possible is a fine art.”
“You’re a scarily good actor,” Olive said.
“Who said I was acting?” Reya’s eyes started to water again. “What would I do if I lost this place?”
“Don’t look at me like that,” Olive begged. “I’m going to start feeling bad and I haven’t even done anything.”