There was a knock at my door. I figured it was one of the prince's royal guards, I had a moment a couple days prior and blew up at the court accusing them of wasting my talents on "Low minded things" and claimed I was done for a couple centuries (which I'm sure sounded funny to them, but at the time I totally meant it). I told them to go away, I wasn't dealing with Royal stuff and they'd have to come back when I felt like being bothered again. The knock persisted and wasn't followed up with the usual threat of being tossed into the dungeon. It was just a polite loud knock, the kind someone knows will be answered if they keep doing it.
Intrigued I opened the door and Toneron Hanlon was waiting on the other side of it. Now it had been about fifty years since I had seen him last, but he looked just like he did then (which is terrifying, I don't age to people, its not supposed to happen the other way around). He was dressed like he had been before, a charcoal suit neatly pressed, no folds or dust from having ridden or walked somewhere (I didn't see a carriage or horse either, it was like he had blinked into existence). No weapon or guards either, for someone who ran a rather profitable weapon manufacturer Toneron never carried one himself. He smiled at me when I opened the door, it was unnerving for a multitude of reasons.
"Trezlan! You are looking, well old." He waited at the door, most people just come inside without being asked, but he specifically never did, never has, in my multitude of meetings with him over these years, he never comes in uninvited. I almost suspect Toneron is not a person at all, some kind of weird supernatural creature I've never heard of, why he sells weapons is beyond me.
"Thanks, its been a rought fifty years."
"May I come in?"
"Sure please do, knock the dust off your shoes." There was not any dust on his shoes, despite it being the summer and the roads all being dusty, again he appeared apparently from nowhere.
"How very nice of you, and no I don't need a drink or a bite to eat, what I need is a favor." And here was where I got afraid, I owed him previously for the explosives and the no questions asked about it, and here it came the "And now I own you" speech.
"What could I a humble public servant offer you the owner of a weapon manufacturer?"
"Don't sell yourself short, you have centuries of experience, I'm sure you could offer more than you'd ever truely disclose, but in this case I do need you as a public servant. I want a war."
"A what? How can I start a war for you?"
"Oh no not start, don't worry thats already happened, or it will happen, things are in motion for a war as we speak." I was held speechless for a moment, I had started to worry I'd hear shelling shortly thereafter and Ronerawth would once again be a battlefield. "No not here Trezlan, in the Red Hand's territory, they are about to go to war once again, magic and man combatting for all the chips. What I need from you is to get Ronerawth to supply the rebellion."
"Can't you just supply them with your guns already?" He had the supply lines or whatever he did to get guns into peoples hands.
"Not without offending the royalty and the last thing I need are those useless bags of flesh sniffing around my factories. No I need you to work a deal, its not an immediate thing and doesn't have to happen right away, but I need you to influence the court to allow our weapon manufacturers to supply the resistance, that way when they win we'll have a new market for our weapons and a new frontier to conquer with them! Its Win/Win."
"I feel like I'm lost here."
"Don't be, this is a lot to take in and I knwo you're on a break with the prince, but watch the papers and I'll be back in a couple days to set you up with a couple of people I know, we are going to do this Trezlan, you and I, because I am and always will be, your biggest fan." Toneron left, I was sitting there in stunned silence wondering what just happened to me. But he was right, a few days later the papers were full of front page articles about how a sitting Red Hand Council member was murdered while giving a speech, and a rebellion was rumored to be underway. I still worry that Toneron was more involved than he claimed to be, but its not like I can do something about it. HE APPEARS OUT OF A NOWHERE AND MAKES GUNS FOR A LIVING!
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