Cinnamon Bun-Chapter Five Hundred and Thirty-Six – The Devil’s in the Account Details

Chapter Five Hundred and Thirty-Six - The Devil's in the Account Details

Celiga took a moment to 'be a better host' as he put it. That meant puttering around in the kitchen and refusing any help. While he did that, I tried to do a bit of subtle cleaning. That mostly meant allowing my Cleaning magic to snake along the floor, scooping up and burning away the dust in the crevices of the floor and disappearing small piles of grime from the corners where they would've escaped the reach of a broom, if these floors had felt the sweet caress of a broom within the past couple of months.

Clean was one thing, though, and organized was another. I wanted to start putting Celiga's books back into their places on the bookshelves lining the room, but that wouldn't be very polite. Some people found themselves better when they were surrounded by a bit of organized chaos.

Eventually, Celiga returned. He had a tray with a steaming kettle on it that released a strangely bitter smell. "Ah, here, let me put this down... hmm."

It was interesting that Celiga didn't have the usual grenoil accent when he talked. Then again, he was supposed to be pretty well-travelled, so maybe he'd lost it along the way?

There weren't any cleared spaces large enough for a tray, but Calamity picked up a stack of books and carefully set them on the floor. Fortunately, the floor had coincidentally been cleaned up just moments before.

"Thank you, my boy," Celiga said. He set the tray down, then looked about. "Tea?" he asked.

"Sure," I said. "But just a small cup for me."

A few others replied with affirmatives, and Celiga started to pour. "You know, I may be a historian and professor, for the moment, but that doesn't mean I spend my day locked up in the stacks burning my eyes out on old tomes. I've done a lot of fieldwork in my day. I've visited many places on the continent--Mattergrove, the Snowlands, Walker's Path--I was once shipwrecked in the Moonstruck Sea, you know? Back before everyone had airships."

"We're pretty well-travelled too," I said with a grin.

"I can see that," he said. "What's a Paladin of Sylphfree doing in Deepmarsh?"

Bastion straightened very slightly, which must have been hard seeing how straight he was by default. "I'm on duty," was all he said.

Celiga's eyes flicked over to Caprica, who was still wearing her well-pressed Sylphfree Army uniform. "Hmph. Well then. In my time as historian I have had a few people come and seek me out, most with questions that I never had an answer to, but I've never..." He paused as he settled back down into his big armchair. "Never had a group so diverse pay me a visit."

"We don't want to impose," I said. "We only just found out where you were. If you want, we can come back another time?" I very pointedly didn't look at all of the wine bottles stacked up on the floor. At least my Cleaning magic had whisked away some of the stains on the floor and the smell of old wine was clearing out.

Celiga waved a webbed hand dismissively. "It's fine. What else am I going to do? Keep wallowing? So, where did you first hear of the Black Avatars?"

"When I first heard of them?" I asked. "Or when each of us did? I think it was at different times."

"The latter," he said. "I want to know what brought you to my door, but there's an order to this kind of thing. Sometimes when you start from the start, you have a better idea of why someone wants to know something."

I glanced at my friends, then shrugged. "I only heard about the Black avatars recently. Like, in-the-last-few-days recent."

"And I've known them as childhood stories," Amaryllis said. "I vaguely recall some mentions of them as I grew up as well, mostly in old wive's tales."

"Ah, um, the same," Awen said.

"Barely heard a thing," Calamity said with a shrug. "Don't do much reading myself, ny'a know? I remember the tales of Black Cat the Black Avatar though!"

"That one's a myth," Celiga said. "Made up entirely from scratch some ninety years back."

"What?!" Calamity yelped.

"We're here because a really, really mean guy sent us a book about the Black Avatars. It was called, um, Tales of the Black Avatars?"

"I've read that one," Celiga said. "It's... surprisingly not the worst recounting of the Black Avatars, though it obviously couches everything as myth and legend."

"But they're not, right?" I asked.

Celiga eyed me, and I saw his froggy pupils focus a little strangely. Had he just inspected me?

Before I could think too hard about it, he gave a slow nod. "No ... from all I have seen, all I have deduced and correlated ... all my investigations point to the idea that the Black Avatars were more than mere myths. They walked this earth as surely as you or I." He stared off into space, somewhere over my head. "I started researching the Black Avatars entirely by mistake. I was perusing some old documentation from one of the defunct banks that worked in the Harpy Mountains. Ancient financial records from two, three hundred years ago. Nothing of any great interest to most people, even the noble families that still exist from that time."

"I can imagine some being cross with you nonetheless," Amaryllis said.

He chuckled. "Too bad. The records were pristine. Old magic keeping the pages dry and the ink fresh. There's a lot you can learn about history just from seeing who has the most gold and what they're using it for. I'm not even talking about anything nefarious. Just your ancestors spending gold on clothes and property and festivals, and earning it back from merchant dealings and other revenue."

"What's all that got to do with the Black Avatars?" Calamity asked.

"I suspect that the good historian is coming to that," Desiree said.

"Right, sorry."

"I was," Celiga confirmed. "In those records, I discovered an account that was peculiar. The records indicated it was practically overflowing with gold. But it wasn't associated with any nobles, or merchants, or even the government. I got curious. I started tracing deposits and withdrawals to see if it might've been secretly associated with the crown or a noble house or something. I turned up nothing.That's not the truly bizarre thing, however. The accounts were created in such a way that anyone could demonstrate proof of membership in the group simply by presenting a certain artifact as visual proof. That specific group, in the very earliest record of the account's opening, identified itself as the Black Avatars."

"Is a bank account enough to prove that someone exists?" Amaryllis asked. "I could open one with a false identity."

"Sure," Celiga said. "But would you deposit two hundred kilos of gold ingots in that account?" ƒгeewebnovёl.com

Amaryllis blinked in surprise.

"Is that a lot?" I asked.

"It's what my family will make in a decade," she said. "Maybe more than that. The value of gold... hmm, it's not entirely stable, but over so many years... It's enough to buy a small fleet of ships. The largest merchantman airship we have and a pair of escorts, along with crews and... yes Broccoli, it's a lot."

"The accounts twigged me onto something," Celiga said. "So I did some searching elsewhere and found similar accounts in other banks. Only the old banks, though, which started to feel a little suspicious. Even banks here in Deepmarsh, that are still active, and some elsewhere as well. Then I started digging deeper into the history of the Black Avatars. It wasn't proof that any of the myths were real, but it was proof that there were people claiming to be the Black Avatars who had a lot of gold to toss around."

"Circumstantial," Amaryllis said.

Ceglia sniffed. "If you want to debate that, then I certainly can. I was panned by the academic community for 'believing in myths' but I've yet to find someone able to disprove or discredit all of my sources. Now, if the Black Avatars are really what they say they are, that's up to debate still. But that there was a group that claimed the name some time ago? That's less so. There's too much evidence. For all we know, it's nothing more than a group of pranksters with far, far too much wealth, but that doesn't mean that they never existed."

"Hmph," Amaryllis huffed lightly. "Forgive me. We did come here to seek out your expertise after all."

"That's right. So, you stumbled on an old fairy-tale book, wherever you were, then came all the way here?" he asked. His eyes narrowed. "Tell me, honestly. Are you Black Avatars?"

"Huh?" I asked.

"A group of powerful, rich individuals, across a broad spectrum of species," he said with a gesture over us. "Get some black cloaks on and you fit the bill... though I imagined the Black Avatars would be more serious."

"We're pretty serious," I said.

No one seemed to have heard me, though?

"We're not Black Avatars," Caprica said. "We're looking for information on them because we have a... lead of sorts, for an ongoing ... investigation."

"I see," Celiga said. He leaned back in his seat and nursed his tea. "I see. Well then, what are you willing to pay?"

"Pay?" I asked.

"Money. I had a nice stipend as a professor, and now I find myself a little... underwhelmed by my savings."

Caprica rolled her eyes. "Fine. I'm sure we can arrange for something. as you mentioned, we're... for all intents and purposes, rich enough."

"Good, I do like that about people," Celiga said with a devious smile. "In that case, the Black Avatars... I have a suspicion, something that I never wrote about because it would be far too controversial."

"What is it?" Awen asked.

"Do you know anything about riftwalkers?"

***

A note from RavensDagger

:3

Got a cover for the TTRPG!~

Gonna do a Kickstarter for it... probably next month? And then if that works out, I might consider doing more TTRPGs. I think the world of Cinnamon Bun could use one, and Dead Tired as well? Ivil Antagonist... hmm, there's a power system in place that could be gamed, but how do you turn Flirting and Useless Lesbianism into skills?