Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Tristan grunted before setting down the letter. “He’s certainly new to the post. That letter is too ass-kissy for a cairn leader of Withor’s stature, but it seems genuine. He’s going about this the right way, and not just because Jessie will respond well to his touching sentiments. I wonder if he knew that, or if his personality will match up well with hers…”
Patty held up what looked like documents with an I told you so expression. Tristan took them without a word.
“What is that?” I asked, leaning over his arm to look. He didn’t move away, which meant he was thinking like a gargoyle right now, not a shifter.
“He’s rescinded all the grievances that Withor filed against you.” Tristan put the documents on top of the letter and leaned back. “That’s his way of saying he wants to start fresh.”
“He surely knows all he can about Jessie,” Patty said, busying herself with cleaning up the box and packaging. “And he might’ve gone with the touching angle, as you said, because of that. But his letter was genuine, you can tell. He wants to thank her, he wants to meet her, and he’ll have an open mind about her and the things she has to say.”
“I agree,” Tristan said. “His newness will work for us. He won’t be as inclined to dig in his heels. He also has a grace period within his new post. His status and that of the cairn will be frozen for a time so that he can make adjustments and settle in. It would be best to meet him within that window—that way, he won’t feel so much pressure. He could ally with us on a temporary basis to see how it benefits him without fear that it’ll tank his status.”
“How much time do we have?” I asked.
“A couple months. It’ll make things tough because of the shifter situation, but getting another big cairn to ally with us would be a huge boost to your status. He must know that Khaavalor has joined with us, and that they participated in a battle that the whole community is intrigued about. We are a battle species, after all, and gargoyles want blood and victory. We thrive on it. They all want a piece of the action, but the politics involved are scaring away most of the midsized and smaller cairns. Gimerel is obviously still against us. Solgid has gone silent about it, but they haven’t pulled their grievances against you. That’s them saying they’ll side with Gimerel…for now. If we can get Nikken, and get Gimerel out of the way, then we could turn the tide.”
“And if we can turn the tide, we can open up trading with all of them.” I tapped my knee.
Our production cairns were producing at incredible rates, thanks to the money Austin and Ivy House jointly put into them, working out of warehouses and anywhere else we could put them. Their occupants were living all over the place while we bought land and started on plans and permits to build more housing, but it didn’t stop their hard work. We had storage facilities filled with top-quality products and storefronts going up within the territory and online. Once sales from that came in, we would expand.
Setting up trade with the other cairns wasn’t our top priority. We were eager to tap into the Dick and Jane markets, which encompassed mages and shifters and anyone with a foot in the mundane world, but eventually, we wanted to bring the cairns into the twenty-first century with us. We’d first establish trade with them, and either they would sell to Dicks and Janes, or we’d treat them as wholesalers and resell their items accordingly. We’d all profit, and everyone would benefit.
When Austin did something, he didn’t do it by halves. The sky was the limit. Fuck I loved that man. The alpha network were idiots if they didn’t see his incredible value.
Good status within the gargoyle community would accomplish so much. We did need to meet that new leader.
We also had a bunch of other stuff going on and not enough time to do it all.
“Okay.” I stood, ready for the next thing. Tristan checked his watch as he stood with me. “Let’s send a thank-you note for the gift. Let’s not call it a connection request. Is that possible?”
Tristan and Patty both looked at me in confusion.
“We don’t have time to wait for them to come here, and we certainly don’t have time to entertain them. We need to get on the road. I don’t want to advertise the fact that we’ll be gone, though, or they might send someone to attack us, or the mages might, or who knows anymore. So, let’s thank them and send a connection request of our own. Something…” I paused. “No, I shouldn’t be the one picking it out. Damn it, I really need Sebastian. He’s perfect at picking out gifts.” I looked around for the encrypted phone, as though it followed me from room to room. “Tristan,” I said, “make a note…in the diary, I guess, to send Sebastian a message. We’ll ask them to look into this new dude and come up with something he’ll love. Something that will fit his new post within the cairn. Something thoughtful but, like…chic. I don’t know. I’m not good at this stuff.”