[Celebrate, Exterior]
Shortly after Harvey had left a well dressed older couple arrived at the store. I hoped they were one of the cartel members.
“Hi, can I help you?”
“Hello dear, we’re looking for Rose Ryding, I’m Pearl and this is my husband James Davies.”
“It’s nice to meet you Pearl, James. I’m Rose, what can I do for you.”
“Harvey told us you might be interested in buying our land.”
“Yes I would very much, did you bring your paperwork and will Harvey be acting on your behalf.”
“No Harvey can't, he is the attorney for the cartel and as such can’t represent us individually. But he also told us that we could trust you and you wouldn’t cheat us.”
“Let’s portal to my attorney's. You can tell me what you want for your land and he can write up a contract.”
They were quite impressed by the portal. The trip to the gnome colony was their first portal travel.
The ever lounging gnome guards straightened up a little and showed us into the meeting room and went in search of Alvyn. We sat down and minutes later Alvyn arrived. I introduced Pearl and James and we got down to business. James handed Alvyn his paperwork. After about twenty minutes of reading he looked up and sighed.
“Mr and Mrs Davies, do you understand how much you owe the Harris’s?”
“Yes I’m afraid that we do. But we need to sell, the Harris’s told us that they had a plan to make the farm profitable again and loaned us money to keep us afloat but the opposite happened. Not only are we not making more money, we aren’t actually making any money at all; it's all just expenditures. Harvey said that Rose would treat us more fairly than the Harris’s.”
“Let me guess the Harris’s told you you didn’t need an attorney when they drew up the loan documents?”
“Yes, that’s correct, but how did you know?”
“Because they did the same thing to Sophie Evans. Rose bought fifty one percent of the Evans estate and Rose and Sophie are now suing Harris for fraud and various other financial crimes.”
Pearl began to tear up, James gave her a side hug.
“I just wanted to finish my life in the house that I was brought up in, but the greedy Harris’s have made that impossible. Even if we could somehow afford to keep the house we couldn't take care of it, we had to let all our staff go.”
“What if I buy ninety percent of your land, I am going to be building affordable homes there. You can join our lawsuit and maybe recoup some of your money. You stay in your home and live out your lives, then the home becomes town property. Instead of me giving you cash now, I’ll agree to pay a yearly amount for you to have some staff. I’ll also install a portal from the front of your house to the town gate. You can come into town everyday and eat for free.”
“Why would you do that for us?”
“Honestly I was dead set to destroy your cartel after it tried to force the town to close the portal network and make it illegal to give away food. But I think now that I’m starting to understand that it wasn’t the cartel at all but rather the Harris’s.”
Alvyn drew up the paperwork, explained to both of us our responsibilities to each other and the town. We all shook hands and I told them I’d be out in a few days to install the portal, as soon as I felt safe. Then we portaled back to the store and they went upstairs to visit with Sophie.
“Rose, while you were out some guy came in looking for you. I asked him what it was about but he wouldn’t say. I told him you should be back soon but he stormed out. I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault Mossbeard, I am willing to bet it was an entitled cartel member who came to sell his land. It looks like they aren’t all as nice as the Davies and Sophie.”
A little while later the door banged open and a middle aged man strode in.
“Are you Rose?”
“Yes I am, how can I help you?”
“I’m here to sell my land, I want a thousand gold.”
“Do you have an attorney?”
“No, I’m not wasting money on lawyers.”
“I understand, then my attorney can write up the paperwork after he looks over your paperwork. Did you bring it?”
“No, I didn’t know I needed it.”
“Yeah, I’m afraid we do, the Harris’s were cheating the Davies and Miss Evans so we can’t do anything without the paperwork.”
“What do you mean cheating?”
“It has to do with loans between the Harris’s and Davies and Miss Evans.”
“Son of a.. I’ll go get my paperwork, don’t go anywhere.”
He banged out the front door. A little while later a young couple with a baby and a little girl came in.
“Hi can I help you”
“Hello we’re looking for Rose, We’re the Ferraro’s.”
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“Hi it’s nice to meet you, I’m Rose”
“We brought our paperwork, we were hoping you’d buy our land.”
“Certainly, do you have an attorney?”
“No, but Harvey said you wouldn’t cheat us.”
“He’s right I won’t, let’s go see my attorney he can look over your paperwork and draw up the contract.” I asked the little girl, “Have you ever ridden a portal before?” She shook her head no. "It's fun.”
The gnome guards were standing for a change, I guess even lounging must get tiring after a while. They showed us into the meeting room. The little girl watched the gnomes solemnly.
A minute or so later Alvyn came in, I introduced him to the Ferraro’s. They handed over the paperwork. It took Alvyn less time, but the story was the same. The Harris’s had defrauded them, plus they had no idea that the cartel had demanded free food be stopped and the portal network shut down. Their land was worth less than their debt. I offered them the same deal. I had Sophie five hundred gold, for fifty one percent.
They wanted to stay on the land, they’d moved from the mansion to one of the farmhouses as it was cheaper to operate. I agreed as long as they agreed, I could build affordable housing on the rest and once we had enough people we’d petition the town to expand their borders. We would pay taxes, but we’d have a town road and the security of being within the jurisdiction of the town guard.
I gave them their gold and we portaled back to the store. Where the very impatient middle aged man waited. He looked like he wanted to say something about having to wait, but decided against it in front of the Ferraro’s.
After they left he started immediately.
“I have the paperwork, I want one thousand gold.”
“Let’s go see my attorney. He can look over your paperwork, and write a contract if everything is in order.”
“It’s in order, any fool can see that. I’m not paying your lawyer anything.”
“No, I'll be paying him.”
We portaled to the gnome colony. The guards were standing at attention, I was flabbergasted. It was enough that they were standing the last time I was here, this standing at attention, I was beginning to worry. But they promptly showed us to the meeting room.
“You didn’t tell me your attorney was a communist.”
“Yes he is, but he’s a very clean communist, you’ll see for yourself.”
Alvyn came in and I couldn’t introduce them because this jerk had never given me his name.
“I’m sorry but you never told me your name, this is my attorney, Mr Glimmerdus, if you just give him your paperwork.”
He all but threw it at Alvyn, Alvyn took his time reading it over then he turned to me.
“Rose I’d advise against you purchasing the land, he owes the Harris’s twice what the land is worth. They defrauded him just like the others, but his debt is much higher.”
“Now just you wait, little man, that land is priceless, just because I owe a little on it doesn’t make it any less valuable.”
“As farm land it doesn’t even come close to Rose’s farm development, she has year round farming, magical fields. Your sharecropper houses haven’t been remodeled and are over fifty years old. If you tore everything down, you could build houses but as Rose already has three other estates to develop and an ongoing lawsuit against the Harris’s I advise against taking on your debt sir.”
“What if I buy ten percent of it and let him in on our lawsuit against the Harris’s.”
“For you to take ten percent of his land at this time he’d owe you seventy three gold and he’d need to sign a contract that you are the lead on the lawsuit.”
“You want me to pay to give away part of my land, are you crazy?”
“No sir, I am not. If your land is worth five hundred that would be a very generous evaluation, the fact that you owe twelve hundred and fifty gold means your land is worth minus seven hundred and fifty dollars, for Rose to take ten percent you owe her seventy five gold. For which she is paying to sue the Harris’s on the behalf of the entirety of the cartel. As I say Rose I advise against it.”
“Okay Alvyn, I understand. Thanks, I'm sorry I wasted your time.”
“You, didn’t I’m billing you by the hour.”
I laughed. And started to stand up.
“Wait just wait a minute I don’t have seventy five gold, what if I gave her more land.”
“No you’d just owe her more, if you gave her twenty percent you’d owe her one hundred and fifty gold.”
“Alright what if we went the other way, I sell her five percent and pay her forty gold, and I get in on the lawsuit.”
“No you sell me one percent and give me four gold, sign a contract that I’m lead on the lawsuit and after we win the lawsuit I get your land for five hundred gold or no deal.”
He got up, pulled out his coins and gave me his last four gold coins. Alvyn went and drew up the paperwork. I didn’t learn the jerk’s name until I signed the contract next to Michael Brown. Alvyn gave him his copy and he fled.
“Alvyn it is better to have all of us suing isn’t it?”
“Yes definitely Rose, we can now show that the Harris’s cheated all four of their fellow cartel members. Then by moving against the town they expected to be able to take over all of the cartel farms when the town refused to their outrageous demands. If they hadn’t been up against a person who had more liquidity than they did they would have pulled it off.”
“So they were never against the portal network or the free food, I have been fighting for. They just wanted to cheat their neighbors out of their land and they were willing to let people starve to get it.”
“Yep, Rose, I’m afraid so.”
“Well I’m glad they didn’t succeed. Now we just have to beat them in court. Harvey told me that they are suing me for harassment.”
“Once the judge reads my brief on our lawsuit, he’ll throw theirs out as retaliatory.”
I left and walked over to the farm site, I wondered if Draco and Opal had a chance to cast the silence spell. But it was still whining really loud, although I had to admit after listening to that noise that Maz had created to annoy the Harris’s. The saw mill didn’t sound so bad.
I was about to portal away when I saw Woody and a whole grove of the sentient trees rushing toward me. He was shouting something and waving his branches but I couldn’t make out what he was saying, over the whining saw blade, until he was much closer.
“ITS WAR ROSE.”
