Completed The Opening of The New Research Location (Val, Ino, Abs)

[Valerius Nitrozian]

„Ladies first“, Valerius said as Maria unlocked the door and opened it. Today at least he would act the part of a gentleman and treat Amolina like a lady, although he sometimes doubted that she really was one. He wanted to make a good impression. Once Amolina and Maria were inside the building, he entered it and took a look around. He didn’t smile – although the new look of the building found his approval – but just inclined his head. „It is acceptable“, he remarked and turned to face Amolina.

Apparently he would play the part of the rich and talented doctor from now on. So be it. „The walls are just the right color, and the furniture seems to be in decent condition from what I can see.“ He let his fingers glide across a desk to see if it was clean and if there was any dust on it. From what he knew, they had not ordered all the things Inoadar was talking about now – at least not in detail – but he let the poisoner talk. If they ended up having to pay less or received additional equipment, he would overlook that slight rudeness – for now.

„Are we done here, Miss Halyca?“ he asked the administrator. He was of course calm and very polite. „Or is there anything that you want to show us in this room? Is there anything that you think we should be especially aware of?“

[Abstract]

After letting the three in, Maria slipped in behind, taking a place by the wall where she could look professional. When Inoadar began listing items, she kept one eye on her clipboard, and another on the man. Her lips twitched down when he said Greater Alembics, though. "I believe we have everything on your list. Though... it was one Greater Alembic, not two. And I'm pretty sure the rolling trays weren't on there either. You may check over the list here... I assure you, everything is inside. However, if you believe you ordered something and it is not here... we can arrange for its delivery and adjust the price." She was very firm on the 'price' matter. She held out the board to Inoadar, the page with lists and prices obvious at the top.

Her smile was sweet, but didn't exactly reach her eyes. This was business, just business... that was it. She didn't care if Inoadar took the clipboard or not, but if he did, she would wait patiently for its return. Once it was back in her arms, she would tuck it in the crook of one elbow, deciding that price arguments were complete.

When the group finally began speaking about finalizing the deal, she straightened a little and nodded. "If you are content with everything, then you can feel free to inspect the rest of the rooms. If you have any trouble, please contact us. Now... for the payments?" She eyed all of them, waiting calmly and patiently. She wasn't going to leave without the money. of course.

[Amolina]

“I had no idea it would be this terribly expensive” Amolina said instead of inspecting the location. “I’m not up for buying a share any more. The whole thing is starting to feel like one big risk bomb to me.”

There were risks the others didn’t know about. And she could hardly tell them. She thought of the events of the previous evening. This place and this project was under observation and a man named Xavier (perhaps a stryfer, but perhaps not) had blackmailed her into an agreement to leak information to him. She was also wearing his cloak right now, because she hadn't been able to refuse the luxury of it…this was somewhat embarrassing, but it was true.

And after all, nobody knew.

The previous day she had still wanted to buy a bigger share and felt this was her chance to do something great and start a new career in science. And this morning she had still wanted to believe it would be possible, although the risk had been increased a lot for her. Perhaps she had felt that because it had seemed like her only option was to go on. But now she didn't feel that way anymore, not after having been told the final price. Now she just wanted to quit.

Things can change in unexpected ways, and they can change quickly.

As a consequence of hers and Parnell’s escape from the Ebonstryfe in fall, she had been investigated and somebody new had turned up in her life - somebody that seemed to want totally other things of her than the project she and her associates had been planning.

Even if she would strive to tell as little as possible, she would need to give at least some interesting pieces of information to the blackmailer if she stayed in the project. Or else he could start to find her worthless, which would be dangerous. What this would entail was hard to know, but the risk for her, if her associates discovered it, was easy to understand. The only right thing was to quit. The high price - in her opinion - gave her the reason she needed for bowing out. She would take the opportunity to make it seem like she said no for purely financial reasons.

It was pretty cold in the location and the cloak was open - it had been pushed back in order to show the white nurse dress. Amolina pulled the garment around her and covered herself in it’s dark and devious warmth. The white of her dress disappeared out of sight. She sat down on one of the new chairs.

“I can only agree to 82 gold mizas” she said in a final tone. “And that would only be on condition it would be my part of one season’s rent, if we can rent instead of buying. I’m not going to put in a single miza more.”

This said, she waited for the others to make up their minds. She hoped they would understand that it was far better to just rent the place for one season. But she could hardly say more in front of Maria Halyca, and it might also turn out it wasn't possible to rent the place. If the others would want to increase their investments in order to take over her share of the project and buy this location, so be it.

[Inoadar]

INOADAR

Inoadar was stunned. 'What the petch is she doing?' his mind roiled. He had even brought more than he thought his share was, but not THAT much more. 'Is this some scheme she cooked up with Valerius?'

He stifled his indecision, trying to look as though this was something he'd known might happen. He was not about to settle for renting the facility. This was their idea. In fact, it was less his idea than either Amolina or Valerius. How could she suddenly want her own idea to be a public interest that they themselves had to rent? It was inconceivable. Renting it to others had been one of the main notions of support revenue. He was no financial expert. If there was some way to manipulate the cost this way, he wished he would have been told what his role would be in this bit of theater.

It may have been his imagination, but it looked as though Valerius was equally uncertain. He ventured carefully, "I thought we had discussed this already, Miss Moletta. If there is some new aspect of the...uh..." he looked over at administrator as if his comment touched on classified information. He stepped close to Amolina and spoke in a whisper just loud enough for Valerius and the administrator to hear. "...you know what I mean, I think we need to deal with a higher authority than Miss Halyca here."

He was completely at sea here, hoping his uncertain bluff was helping.

x

[Valerius Nitrozian]

As Amolina informed them that she was not up for buying a share anymore and talked about their business being a risk bomb, Valerius abruptly looked at her and narrowed his eyes. Of course he himself thought that there was a considerable risk to their idea, but he would never say it out loud, not in front of a stranger. This was the wrong time to be indecisive.

He turned around and cast a questioning look at Inoadar. Did he know something that he, Valerius, wasn’t aware of? Was this part of some elaborate plan to get Miss Halyca to lower the price? No, the man seemed just as confused and angry as he was. What was wrong with her?

He was inclined to just throw her out. Her behaviour was inacceptable, and she was the leas necessary member of their research project. She didn’t have any money or useful skills.

„Miss Moletta“, he said. „I thought that we had discussed this matter and that you really wanted us to open this business. Is there anything that we should be aware, anything that we don’t know yet??“

He gave her a moment to reply before he informed her, „Keep those 87 golden mizas. They won’t make a real difference. And answer Mister Parnell’s and my questions.“

He didn’t say „please“, and he allowed some of his frustration to leak into his voice, even though that would quite possibly make him look bad in front of Miss Halyca. But he needed to know what Amolina’s problem was!

[Abstract]

OOCSorry... not much for me to say here... but WHOA! Plot twist!

Maria's delicate eyebrows raised in surprise at Amolina's statements, but she refrained from saying anything. Instead, she gave them room to debate the problem on their own. She was here for the money - she didn't care who it came from, and how much each portion was. That was their own problem.

At Inoadar's whisper, she glanced over, lips twitching into a frown. "I don't see why. The payment arrangement is your own problem. If someone decides to step out... well... you'll have to work it out on your own." She gave a polite smile, but it didn't meet her incredibly neutral eyes. Her opinion was blatant, and obvious.

[Amolina]

Amolina pulled the dark cloak closer around herself. Here she was, with her two business partners looking at her like they didn’t understand a thing. And they didn’t. Valerius had asked her if there was something she thought they should know but Amolina didn’t think so. She wasn’t keen on telling them…the less they knew, the better.

She was going to keep to the financial explanation. Valerius had been very much against letting her buy a bigger share and now she would use his need of power and control against him. “It’s more expensive than I could have imagined in my wildest dreams!” she said.

“At least it’s far too much to pay for me, all those gold mizas and still only a minor share! Firstly, the total cost must be lowered. We just can’t buy…alembics, whatever that is. I’m sure there must be lots of unessecary things on the item list for this location ! And secondly, even if the cost is lowered, I have come to realize I want equal shares, or else I won’t buy into this, no matter the price. I’m so not going to pay for a business I don’t have a say in !”

She glanced at Maria Halyca. It was obvious that the woman wasn’t planning to negotiate. The only way to lower the price would be to part from some of the items in the location. Amolina wasn’t going to start suggesting things to throw out though.

“Equal shares and a third to me” she said in a stubborn voice. She was convinced Valerius would refuse. So far he had mostly ignored her tries to bring the topic up. Fortunately, as new things had happened now. Good thing Valerius was so set on keeping her share down. In combination with the high price for little influence it would be an excellent excuse for leaving the project. It would make sense and seem logical to any business minded person, she thought.

The strategy seemed waterproof. Valerius would never ever agree to relinquish power ! She could safely make it seem like her departure fom the project was his own fault and nobody else could be blamed. “I would have payed if you had let me own a fair share “.

[Inoadar]

Inoadar

Inoadar relaxed his stare, but kept his gaze fixed on Amolina. Something was not right here. Her points would have been valid enough if they weren't all details that had long since been worked out between them and agreed upon. '...more expensive than...in my wildest dreams?' he replayed in his mind, 'What is this nonsense? We all knew exactly what it was going to cost...that's why I brought my eight hundred mizas...well, a thousand actually. But that was only if there was additional deal offered...or necessary bribe.'

He thought about laying this detail out to her, but there was some insight to hold back as he considered other things. Among them, her claim to be limited to only eighty some mizas totaled. And then this stubborn facade of being exploited for her fair share. 'She had four hundred, and knew exactly what her position was. And now she wants to settle for renting? Her own brainchild? She's all hung up about her fair share, and now she's willing to be just a renter? Of her own facility?' It made no sense.

His gaze narrowed as he tried to fit the facts with his own experiences. She was going directly against everything she had treated as important as far as this enterprise went. She had regretted not having more to contribute toward an equal share in the first place. But now she's holding back most of her holding and trying to buck for renting. 'Is she trying to get Val and I to give her a full share without paying for it? She has to know that's not going to happen...Is she trying to get us to back out? Why would she do that?'

If she wanted out, he reasoned, she would not have come dressed in her nurse's garb. So she still wants it seen through, yet she wants to...distance herself...from it. 'Is there some downside that she's become aware of that Val and I have missed?' He considered the possibilities of blackmail or extortion and instinctively looked around for signs of surveillance. But that didn't make sense either. If she was under that kind of pressure, she'd be instructed to make things seem as normal as possible. He wondered if she'd heard that someone was going to make some kind of move against the facility? That fit better, but who? Who would even know besides Miss Halyca?

He dwelt on that thought for only a moment before dismissing it. The administrator wouldn't need any such deceit. She would simply inform them that the city authorities were taking the facility over. The it hit him...'Barton! My old nemesis...He's been trying to silence me for a year now at least. Amolina must have let my name slip when she arranged for the furniture.'

Mr. Barton was a furniture manufacturer that Inoadar had aided with a timely set-up and betrayal of a rival. Instead of gratitude, the industrialist had decided to eliminate the one loose end to his success. Inoadar had eluded several attempts, but not had any difficulties from the man lately. He'd entertained the thought that Barton must have finally given up. Finally realized Inoadar was no hazard to his ill-gotten position in the industrial quarter.

Inoadar turned back to Amolina, with a look of genuine understanding on his face. He actually felt real sympathy for the woman. "He's back, isn't he?" he said. For a moment, the look on Amolina's face convinced him he'd hit it right on the head. But when he followed up with "It's a guy named Barton, a maker of furniture. Don't worry, I won't let him get away with this shyke!" her expression changed from shocked surprise to genuine confusion.
OOCI thought you might get a kick out of Ino coming SO CLOSE to guessing the truth, but ending up completely wrong

x

[Valerius Nitrozian]

„If you cannot even imagine a few thousand mizas in your wildest dreams, they must be rather boring“, Valerius remarked. „We need to talk.“ He grabbed Amolina and pulled her aside, whether she wanted to or not. He needed to have a word with her, and he didn’t want Miss Halyca to hear every little detail. The woman likely already had a bad enough impression of them. „What is wrong with you, Miss Moletta?“ he hissed. „The whole thing was your idea first. You knew exactly what were you getting into, and don’t you dare to deny it.“

„Why the change of mind? Did you get cold feet? Don’t you believe in your project anymore?“ As she suddenly started demanding a third of the business, his eyes widened. „A third or nothing, Miss Moletta? You are very clever. For a moment I had thought that you had gone completely mad. Of course I could just refuse to give you anything, and then you would have to go back to cleaning Kelvic cages again. How would you like that?“

He considered his options. Amolina’s demand of a third of the business wasn’t entirely unwelcome even though he hated relinquishing control. The project had turned out to be more expensive than he had thought. He had used up nearly all his savings. If she paid a third, he would still have some money left. It would be easier to maintain his current lifestyle then. He wouldn’t have to starve his slaves or wear the same clothes twice in a row.

„I will not let you take the easy way out. You may have an equal share of the business as long as you work hard and don’t make a scene in front of somebody like Miss Halyca again. The reputation of our project is just as important as our actual work.“

[Inoadar]

Inoadar

Confident that he was as least partly on the right track, Inoadar had no problem reapplying a look of satisfaction to his expression. He went back to Miss Halyca, asking to see the clipboard. He saw Valerius taking Amolina aside and wanted to put a bit more distance between the administrator and them.

There was no great in-depth maneuvering. He just went over the list of equipment and furnishings, along with the actual floorplan, item by item with her, asking mundane questions. He knew the answers before he asked, but still acted as though he needed her to spell it out for him. He had his doubts that they were going to be able to swindle this woman.

But that was no longer the point. It was all Amolina's sudden reversal that perplexed him. He asked Maria if she knew from whom the furniture had been purchased. He knew by Amolina's expression that he hadn't guessed entirely correctly. But he was certain someone was putting some kind of pressure on her. Maybe Valerius could get to the heart of this. He'd certainly proven an able interrogator against Alice Lark.

OOCI know I'm out of turn. I just wanted clear myself out and set the stage for Amo and Val to talk

x