55 Vhalar, 719
Evening
Evening
Abra crossed through the Untold and into his room in Raelia the previous night. He had slept pretty hard but now he woke up to a very familiar sound. It sounded a lot like raccoons he had dreamt of just the other day. In that dream he had hit the raccoons with a rock, empowered by Governing. Then he had gone and tied them up with a knot. It was like history was repeating itself, except in Idalos instead of Emea. He quickly opened the door and peered outside. Lo and behold there was a raccoon rummaging through his trash. “I know how to deal with you,” Abra said angrily. He threw a snowball at it and missed. It scared the critter away but he felt vengeful. Memories of that dream came back to him, including how to tie that overhand knot.
The sounds of furniture falling over came from Abra’s home while he hurried to put his heavy winter clothes on. He burst out of his home and started chasing the raccoon around. He threw snowball after snowball at it, actually hitting it from time to time. The problem wasn’t hitting it, it was piercing the thick winter fur. The one saving grace Abra had was that the raccoon was pretty fat. It was supposed to be hibernating, “maybe it hasn’t had enough to eat for the season,” Abra thought. He had just enough luck to corner the raccoon and there he blinked on top of it and squashed it under his body weight. The critter bit into his leg but only got a mouth full of tough leather. “You didn’t expect me to come with my armor too did you?”
The raccoon squirmed and squirmed but Abra was the victor. He waited for it to pass out then he drug it back to his house and experimented tying its little limbs. He tried making a half hitch knot. To do this, he would loop the rope around a metal post and pass the end around the first bit. Once he did this, he would push the end of the rope through the loop bit before pulling as hard as he could to tighten it. The design of this knot was such that the raccoons would have to literally pull the rope apart if they tried to run. Or the could just knaw at it until it ripped apart but that was something Abra didn’t even want to think about.
Lastly, he would attempt to tie a noose around the raccoon’s heads so that they would literally choke themselves to death before it would even be able to attempt running away. Applying the noose was very difficult and dangerous to even try because the raccoon kept stirring from its slumber every time he touched its head. So he couldn’t really do a proper noose but he did his best with trying to make a double loop. With any luck his poor rope use skill would be enough to stop these raccoons from causing too much trouble around his neighborhood.
“Abra, is it?” He had just finished tying up the raccoon when someone came up to him. It was a brown eyed merchant that he recognized but his name eluded him.
“Yes,” he said defensively. Strangers usually didn’t come to visit him for no reason.
“I’m in need of a loan. It’s a little more than I heard you usually give but I’m sure to make it your while.” He handed Abra an envelope with an expensive looking seal on it. Abra tore it off and nodded his head while he read. It was a letter that detailed the man’s request. It was a contract which meant Abra had to be extra careful when reading it. He knew how rich slobs liked to screw people over. It was especially a problem in Raelia when politics weren’t at play.
“The loan would be for a new business venture and I’ll happily pay your interest. I couldn’t get a loan at the bank but I’m so sure of my idea that it’ll be easy to make the money back. The contract is just signing away the right to give loans to a similar business.” There it was, the fine print that detailed the point of the contract. He wanted exclusive access to Abra so that nobody else could compete with him. This was all awfully suspicious. It was clear to him that the contract was meant to add clarity to their deal but this was the wrong kind of clarity.
“What business do you have deciding who I loan money to,” Abra said, holding the contract in his hands. His anger bubbled within him, controlled just enough by his spark to prevent from showing on his face. He felt like ripping the contract right in half and he felt the Sombran blessing surging through his hands. He didn’t know what he had just done but he knew he had done something to that piece of paper. He decided against ripping it and held it back to the customer. He begrudgingly accepted it except it ripped while he took it from Abra’s hands.
“I swear I didn’t mean for that to happen,” Abra said just as shocked as the customer. He wasn’t holding it so tightly that it would rip but now it looked like he was an asshole. “Anyways I am duty bound to remain neutral when it comes to trade. If you would like a loan or even help with your business I can be of service. Being prejudiced against other potential customers, however, is something I cannot do.”
“Just as well,” was the up and coming businessman’s response after some internal deliberation, “I’ll take the loan, but if it takes longer to pay that’s on you.” He drew another envelope. It was a backup for this very situation with terms and conditions that Abra favored over the last one. It included a downpayment , guaranteeing that he wouldn't lose that much money in case things went to shit. They both signed the document and then a copy as well, for Abra’s records. The man’s name was Reitn, apparently.
“Pleasure doing business with you, Reitn” Abra said calmly. The paper didn’t break this time.
