Fantasy Cursed Island

[Fangs9090]

Much of the group looked around as they were lifted up. On the next floor up, Emilia looked at Sinach and bopped his nose. "Hey, calm down. I don't want ink on my dress."

 

[Darkling0096]

Sinach sneezed when Emilia bopped him, "Ow!", A bit of ink sprayed out of his spit, anyway, although it wound up directed at her hair more than her dress. He groaned and ruffled his wings, "I'm hungry!", he complained, "You guys keep dangling food in front of me!"

"You are the only one that thinks paper is food," Jalin said, standing very close to Katsuo as they moved.

"Do you have an account at this banking firm?", Naela asked as she sat down on the opposite side of a desk in her small office.

 

[Fangs9090]

Emilia narrowed her eyes briefly before opting to ignore that sneeze, for now. "Well, fold yourself up and go to sleep for now."

Roy shook his head, taking a seat himself as he expected this to take a while. "No, we do not."

 

[Darkling0096]

Sinach groaned and grumbled, but after prodding he folded into a book and was stuffed into a bag, separate from other books so he wouldn't eat them.

"Well," Naela reached under the desk and went through some papers, "What country is your currency from?"

"Eldora," Jalin answered.

"Well, there's a twenty-percent fee for exchanging currency without being a member," Naela said, "But if you decide to join the family of customers, it's only three percent. For Eldora sovereign coins, it's thirty silver to open an account, would you like to open an account?"

 

[Fangs9090]

“Hm...” Roy considered for a moment. “I don’t think we’ll be doing this often. Though we will need to come back to exchange Nidia’s money when she rejoins us.... Would an account be worthwhile?”

 

[Darkling0096]

"Well, an account at our firm means your money's insured," Naela said, "If something happens to the money you store at our vault, we'll back it. There's no vault more secure than the one in this facility on this continent, and it's connected to all our other firms. We offer a four-percent quarterly interest on all funds stored in our vault, and we offer a semi-universal form of currency on this continent," she smiled and tapped her nails on the desk, "Magic makes things like that very easy."

 

[Fangs9090]

“Hm...” Roy considered it further before looking at the party. “Opinions?”

Emilia shrugged. “I didn’t understand most of that.”

Katsuo nodded. “This is beyond my understanding as well.”

 

[Darkling0096]

"She is saying that we cannot lose money we store here, they will pay us a small amount every three months for storing our funds here, and they offer a universal currency," Jalin explained Naela's words to the others a bit simpler. "What kind of universal currency?"

Naela tapped a ring on her hand, "Instead of managing coins or bills, we offer a service that trades in volumes of precious metals. These rings, or as the case may be, bracelets, amulets, or for the odd fairy, belts, are quite common on this continent. They're synced to your mana signature, so the only way to access your funds is if you are the one wearing the ring, and you're not suffering from mana-exhaustion." She pulled out a blank ring, which was completely black, even the stone in the center, "They come in various styles and metals, it's up to you, but if you want to make a transaction with them, what you do is you turn these bands," she showed the party how the ring calculated values of precious metals. "Then, whoever is giving funds clicks their stone, and it will glow to show it's in Giving Mode, and touch it to the stone of the receiving ring, and the value will be exchanged." She smiled, "There's an automatic ten-percent fee for exchanging values greater than ten pounds of gold or the equivalent in other materials." She smiled that big businesswoman smile and put the ring away, "Because you are trading in precious metals and not coins, it is a near universal form of currency among civilized nations. But it is advised that you carry normal currency, as well, as we have not been successful in convincing certain... primitives into accepting modern achievements." As much as she was spouting off about benefits, it was setting off alarms in everyone's heads. That seemed way too easy.

 

[Fangs9090]

Roy tilted his head. “I see... Well, it...sounds good. But it can’t really be that simple?”

 

[Darkling0096]

"It is," Naela smiled again. Under his blindfold, Jalin scowled, he felt her heartrate change through the floor, those heels were good conductors of sound directly into the ground. "Any stone, any transfer accessory, as long as you touch it, the enchantment will recognize your signature and operate through your account."

"Can we take a moment to discuss this in private?", Jalin asked.

"Of course," Naela smiled, getting up to give them that privacy, "Would you like anything to drink?"

 

[Fangs9090]

Roy shook his head. “No, thank you.”

 

[Darkling0096]

"Alright, then," Naela stood adn left the cubicle. A purplish field appeared, surrounding the cubical like a Cage of Force. If anyone tried to lean on it, they got a mild shock and the sense they probably shouldn't try to leave. A simple trap, that both granted their request and also prevented them from leaving. At the same time, a small desk bell like one might ring in a shop to request service appeared on Naela's desk.

"Okay, there's definitely something up with this bank," Jalin said, "She was lying, somewhere. i don't know where, but I detected it when you started questioning."

 

[Fangs9090]

Emilia nodded. “This agreement sounds weighted in our favor, and that’s a bad sign with contracts.”

Roy looked at them. “So we turn it down then?”

 

[Darkling0096]

"I don't think so, at least not yet," jalin shook his head, "We should ask more questions. She's taken a great deal of effort into convincing us of this bank's benefits, and clearly, if we are to access our coin, we will need those rings, and she has spent considerable effort convincing us of those." He nodded at Emilia, "We should ask more questions. Pretend we are interested, but ask about drawbacks. It sounds too good to be true, why has Eldora not adopted this currency? What makes it superior to legal tender, other than convenience? And of course, don't sign anything you have not read all the way through."

 

[Fangs9090]

Roy nodded. "Right. And how can we access our money without the rings? Like if we were to lose them."

 

[Darkling0096]

"She did say that we could access from any ring, it was synced to our mana." Jalin shrugged, "But that is another question we should ask."

"What's this bell do?", Siege hadn't heard anything, a la Nidia's spell not wearing off yet, but her attention, and being a cat, was drawn to the bell on the table. She didn't seem to realize she was broadcasting her thoughts out loud as she reached to hit it, the bell ringing through the office as Naela reappeared very shortly, the force cage vanishing with her appearance.

"Have you made your decision?", Naela asked.

 

[Fangs9090]

Roy looked over at Siege and sighed before turning his attention to Naela. "Almost. We have some more questions though. It does sound like an interesting arrangement, but I'm curious why we've never heard of such a setup before. Why is it only over here that it's done?"

 

[Darkling0096]

"It's a very recent invention," Naela replied quickly prepared for that question from foreigners. "We've only started offering this service in the last ten years."

"That does not explain why countries across the sea have yet to adopt this currency?", Jalin asked.

"It's difficult to set up waystations in open water," Naela explained, "We're currently undergoing efforts to map out routes that pass by close enough islands that can relay the signals. And the kingdoms on the continent of Caedo fear we will be absorbing their taxes."

 

[Fangs9090]

"I see. And aside from convenience, how is this better than just using coins?"

 

[Darkling0096]

"You don't have to change currency between countries," Naela's smile never left her face. Evidently, this was a question she had canned responses for.

"Yes, but what does your bank gain from this?"

"Oh, that is simply paid by those who take out financial loans," Naela reached under her desk and pulled out a stylus, Etching in the air a diagram. "If someone takes a loan out, that loan is backed against the combined value of all the precious metals and valuable materials in the bank, with a high interest rate. In turn, we pay each account a small percentage for allowing us to lend out their money. Your currency value doesn't change when a loan is taken out by someone else, but if they don't pay their loan off within a year, then we start deducting from their account, and if their account cannot cover the balance within another year, then the interest rate grows." They made money from people that borrowed money from them. "If they do not pay within four years, then we force them to file bankruptcy and liquidate their assets to pay off their debt."

She smiled and looked at the party, "Any other questions?"

"The value of gold and silver is not universal," Jalin shook his head, "What of that?"

"Then the value is determined by the value set by the closest waypoint," Naela replied, "A pound of gold here in Sunset Port is the standard, but in the small countries to the north with few resources, that pound is more valuable, so loans and transactions take more value. Whereas in nations where precious materials are plentiful, the value is less. Do you have any more questions?"

 

[Fangs9090]

Roy nodded. "How else can we access the money we've stored here? If we were to misplace our ring and were unable to get or use another, how do we get our money back?"

 

[Darkling0096]

"If you were to lose your ring and have no access to another, you would just have to come to one of our local branches and pay a replacement fee."

"And that is how much?", Jalin asked.

"I believe the comparable value in Eldora's Sovereigns is twenty gold."

 

[Fangs9090]

"Mm. And if we simply wanted to have our money and stop using these services?"

 

[Darkling0096]

"Then there would be a cancellation fee, and your total value of precious materials would be delivered to you in the lobby," Naela replied, "It is up to you how you transport it. We also offer storage of similar principles that can be accessed from any of our facilities or waypoints, it all comes back to the vault."

"Hmm," Jalin nodded. There seemed to be a lot of fees, but for longterm convenience... "What is the paperwork to make all this happen?" Naela opened a drawer in her desk and pulled out a stack of papers three inches thick.

"Will you be opening one joint account between all of you, or your own individual accounts?"

"Which is more expensive?"

"Each account comes with a ring, but additional rings are purchased. The opening fee is forty silver, with a minimum starting balance of the equivalent ten ounces of pure gold. Each additional ring, or whatever form of accessory you wish your access to be, is an additional eight ounces of gold, or twenty gold sovereigns." If the group checked their finances, that would definitely be making a dent in their respective pouches, but didn't seem so significant as to render them momentarily impoverished.

 

[Fangs9090]

Roy rubbed the back of his head. "That would curb our spending for a bit..."

Emilia spoke up. "Can we read through the paperwork before making a decision?"