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Hadrian Spiro didn’t bother to come meet us; he sent the town guard.

“Senior, if you will surrender the cultural items you stole from inventory, there will be no formal charges.” Their sergeant said.

“This,” I said, “is clearly a misunderstanding. Gamilla, let’s gather the artifacts and go discuss with our benefactor.”

“There are a few people from the crew I’d like with us.” Gamilla said.

“Please send the crew to make sure that he’s not attempting to steal our ship.”

“The others are in classes. If the crew finds his men, there might be an incident.”

“If Hadrian is trying to steal our property, there should be an incident.”

“He has more pull with the governor than we do.” She reminded me, “Who, if you remember, thinks of all non-humans as beasts.”

.....

“How many champions are in this port?” I asked, hefting the backpack containing my share of our take.

“Ambassador, you’re thinking along dangerous lines.”

I nodded toward the town guard. “We find ourselves in dangerous times.”

Perhaps I should explain; when we took all the Makura artifacts as our share, we knew it would infuriate Hadrian, forcing him to confront the issue that those items hadn’t been covered in our original contract. That “discovered value” clause in the Spiro family contracts nowadays? Yeah, sorry, that was us.

So, we marched through the streets of Neo Esteban, our escorts drawing eyes. We might as well have been convicted, based on the expressions on some of those faces.

The Spiro house guard was six people; each of them had been paired with a mercenary. I recognized two of them as applicants for obnoxiously high-paid “Marine Sergeant” position that we hadn’t advertised for, and that our crew wasn’t large enough to require. Hadrian was welcome to them.

Other than a bump where the town guard thought they were getting into the house with us, we were escorted without delay to the meeting room. Hadrian wasn’t in the chair at the head of the table.

“That is our first bit of good fortune in this matter.” I said, looking at Alexis Spiro’s sharp features.

“My husband tells me that you are trying to steal from our family.”

“Would anything good come from accusing your husband?”

She squinted at me.

“You know who you married; you know why we’ve been going about town to have these items appraised rather than entrusting them to him.”

“Because you are pirates and thieves!” he roared.

“What have we stolen,” I asked, “if it is all here?”

“Why ask for prices,” he demanded, “if you weren’t going to sell them?”

Gamilla took that one. “As we are entitled to one of four coins of value, we wanted to be sure what that value was. Hadrian Spiro is known for the cheating of Sancho Velasquez, and we chose not to be the more recent victims.”

He slammed the table. “How dare you imply...”

“HADRIAN!” she said, when he ignored her raised hand. “This is business. Stop embarrassing the family.”

He ground his teeth, but also reclined backward in his seat.

“Show me,” Alexis said, “these treasures that you have been having evaluated.”

Gamilla and I brought forth the contested treasures, explaining the value of each one, and answering questions about whom in port had provided each estimate. Neither of us argued as the Spiro’s servants began removing them to make room for other well-packed artifacts.

“We shall, of course, be providing you standard ten percent finder’s fee for these.” Hadrian said, when the showing was done.”

Gamilla thrust her chin forward. “One coin in four, or twenty five percent. That is what is in our contract.”

This time, Hadrian was more attentive to his wife’s hands.

“That is a substantial price.” Alexis said.

“Of which your family still profits by three times.” I said. “Plus, in addition to the formal estimates, these are the first such artifacts ever to be traded by the Makura of the Isles, to any land-dwelling species. The historical value... my pardon.”

Hadrian wasn’t the only one who had to be mindful of cues from his female companion.

“As the first objects of their kind into the market,” Gamilla said, “each of these is a unique craftwork. The values listed are estimates for right here, and not for what people will pay to have something they can brag on. For example, the Explorer’s Guild of Boadicea’s Girdle.”

“I can see this is a matter for us women to discuss.” Alexis said. “Hadrian, treat our other guest to lunch.”

“They DARED try to... of course, dear.”

Gods. She hadn’t shown any anger, she just SMILED at him. Not even a strained smile, it reached all the way to her eyes. There was only one thing to do. I put my fist to my chest, bowed, and said “As this matter is in your field, Chief Trader and Finance Officer.”

“I’ll make you proud, ambassador.”

We got only one in ten coins that day, with the remainder of our contractually owned balance applied to principal and interest of our loan. If you’ve never heard of interest on loans, go ask one of your financial friends. Now that I know what that is...

But I wasn’t the one to decide the fate of the coins that day, and I had my own challenge to look forward to.

“You don’t seem to trust us.” I said.

“Should I? I’ve grown up with people trying to cheat me my entire life. Why should I expect better from you? You aren’t even close to the same species.”

I shrugged. “True. Both our veins carry red blood, but there’s no chance... There isn’t much chance our lineages are mingled.”

Wait. There was a chance? Millenia of shapeshifters, some of them in the forms of humans... I suppose it was possible.

“There is none.” He insisted. “You are just a beast, mistakenly told that you have rights because you can mimic human speech.”

“I do well enough at feeling human-like emotions as well.” I said, “Although I do notice that they are sometimes different than those a human man might feel in my position.”

“Exactly! You aren’t human, and thus cannot be trusted.”

I spread my hands. “I find entrusting humans to be increasingly difficult, each time one of them deals with me in the manner they treat inhuman things.”

“Oh, and how would you rather be treated?”

“Hadrian, you’re known for trying to take advantage of your business partners; it’s among the reasons why people come to your wife rather than to you. So, I don’t blame you for trying to cheat us; I blame you for thinking it would be easy.”

“It IS easy.” He said. “I have to out-think humans. You... you don’t even think. You just mimic human behavior better than my spaniel does.”

“What is a spaniel?” I asked.

“My dog! How do you pretend you can understand contracts without such basic knowledge? And if you can’t understand them, how long is it, really, before you violate them? Be glad you and that half-human woman are getting anything out of this deal, after trying to steal the bulk of the wealth.”

“IF we had been attempting to steal from you, we wouldn’t have been so blatant about it. Thief is a stealth class for a reason.”

“And you think you’re so clever, the way you’ve turned this around to make it look like I was trying to cheat you.”

“Weren’t you? If we had turned over the artworks, the tools, would you have appraised them, or merely given us the weight value of the raw goods, as you did with Sancho Velasquez?”

“No businessman stays in business by giving up coins he could otherwise keep.”

“Ah, but when we do the same, we are cheating?”

“Of course, you were cheating. It’s the only way non-humans know.”

“By weight and materials, the worked goods were less than our fair share. If we were as stupid as you claim, it could be just a natural mistake, instead of...”

“It wasn’t a mistake.”

“I’ve already said it’s not a mistake.”

“Then you’ve deliberately tried to defraud us! I knew it!”

I had a profound sense of deja vu. When had I had this discussion before? “We’ve deliberately taken measures to keep you from cheating US. To make certain you hold to YOUR end of the contract.”

“Just stop. You’re not going to flip this on me. The first dishonest action was yours.”

“Our lack of trust in you, Mister Hadrian...”

“Spiro! I am Mister Spiro, except to those of noble birth, which you are not.”

“I am clearly not born of Neonen nobility, I can concede that point.” I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of trying to say my blood was more noble than his. Not if I was wrong.

“Good. Then we are agreed you are commoners and thieves.”

We had agreed to no such thing.

“Would it be better of me to leave?”

“I think it would, yes.”

And so I left, before any food arrived. That will be important later, but I get ahead of myself.

Titans don’t have the same concept of blood as mortal creatures do. It means both more and less than it does to humans, but I’m not writing a book on Titan culture; go elsewhere to learn that, if it is truly of interest to you.