Final Fantasy XIV: The Winter Calamity

"The Daemon Company."

"Do I get paid?"

"Of course not."

"..."

Thancred and I were talking over the creation of my shadow company just outside the Drowning Wench. 

The Daemon Corporation. 

I had to use the word company at the end though, since corporations didn't exist on Eorzea.

"Then why would I join?"

"Because it's a free ride! You already believe me to be clairvoyant, do you not? Then hop on! Be a founding member!"

"Pray tell, why does this feel like a ruse?"

"It's not... Err. Well, it's not a ruse to trick you! Just everyone else."

Thancred stared at me with an exhausted expression. But I didn't give a damn. This bastard couldn't even steal wine! Now he wants to turn down a free ride to rich-ville? Fuck off! Sit in the seat I built for you!

"I will put you on the board list regardless of your answer y'know?"

"Then WHY DID YOU ASK ME?!"

"Courtesy."

Believe it or not, companies that weren't tied to any particular nation didn't need any kind of paperwork. I supposed it made sense. I would only need to file things to work with entities like Rowena. Her signature was kept in a ledger that I had already moved to Gridania. I just needed to file it all away. 

The Daemon Company was responsible for controlling the Suns of Yda, the media, Rowena's House of Splendors, and one more thing that I planned to get ahold of after the Calamity. 

"Okay okay don't make that face. I don't have immediate funds either, but I know how to make some."

I didn't actually. Every single plan I had in place was for long term growth. Prices only increased after the Calamity. 

"You wouldn't sell your Hearthstone, would you?"

"Hells no."

That wasn't a bad idea, but I didn't need these stones ruining Eorzea's story because the baddies got their hands on one. 

Thancred and I already had our own Hearthstone. Then I made 1 for each member of the circle except Louisoix. Not for a lack of trying of course. I didn't fear him using it when the time came to seal Bahamut. 

"Hoho, I have no need for such a thing, young Winter."

Every tried to move an elder family member off Windows 98? It felt like that. I wasn't interested in begging him and he truly did not need it. Strongest mage in the world right there. 

"sigh Forget I asked then."

"Did you ask me something just now?"

He threw a fry at me, but I caught the bastard's projectile with my teeth. My Observation Haki had suddenly awakened before a quarter way into the story!

"Who else are you roping into this?"

"Munch Probably no one else. chew I just needed something to certify our future actions on paper. The company- Throw me another? nom The company is set to receive funds and leave no trace. Munch"

"The look in your eye tells me there's more." 

"I suppose. Hey-" 

"Just order your own."

"It's no good if it's not yours."

"GET YOUR OWN"

"Tch. I suppose it could have a bigger purpose, but not now. Anyways-" 

"Anyroad." 

"Anyways, do you know who runs the Harbor Herald?"

Thancred stopped eating to ponder for a moment. He shouldn't do it while holding something. He looked like he fell asleep suddenly. A victim of narcolepsy, you hate to see it.

"Hm, I do not believe I do."

Unexpected, Thancred's information network probably ran deeper than even the Horn and Hand. 

"Then that'll be my second job."

"Second?"

"Yep."

"Yours?"

"Mhm."

"So I have no need to earn my keep?"

"You have responsibilities to the Circle. But I have plenty of time to poke around. But don't worry, I have plans for you yet."

"Oh joy."

It was a fact that every member of the Circle was going to be busy in these coming years. I assumed that this was the catalyst for all the Grand Companies to be formed. The threat of the Garlean Empire combined with the Primal crisis made the already severe situation facing Eorzea, even more dire. I didn't hear any talk of Ascians, but I assumed that their heads would poke out as well with time.

If there was anyone I had to fear ahead of time, it was them. The Ascians could turn invisible, teleport, possess, manifest, and even resurrect. I needed to find a method to fight against those cloaked bastards and win or at least evade their detection for a while.

I couldn't skulk around in the shadows against people who could skulk around through the Aether. Perhaps I was capable of seeing them with my domain, but considering that every powerful figure I've met was able to see through it, the idea that the Ascians could see it too somewhat scared me.

I was still too weak to fight even one of them. They could almost kill the Warrior of Light. On multiple occasions. My domain was likely to be a massive beacon, marking me as special and worth killing right away. A part of the reason why I didn't want Thancred moving around the Daemon Company too much was that I didn't know just when they marked him for possession.

This Company would be part of Eorzea's salvation. The Ascians could not know of it unless I wanted them to. And it wasn't as if I could stop them from targeting Thancred right? His strong willpower was a big reason as to how the Scions found the weakness of the Ascians.

Another plan was set in my mind. A tangled web of interests and dynamics that I would have to play properly. The results of my grand performance would send Eorzea down the path of Rebirth, or perhaps doom it to an unfortunate and tragic end.

As the CEO of the Daemon Company, I had to at least be capable of doing this much. 

---

I still had too much to do before I left Limsa Lominsa. I took a trip back to Wineport and stood around outside the gate using a small knife to carve a stone. In Chinese novels, they used these things called Formations. It changed depending on the novel and its translation, but as I understood it, the most common interpretation was an array of runes, placed in a specific pattern that could create an effect.

Sometimes the effect was an attack, a defense field, an area of illusions, or even a summoning circle. Sometimes they put these formations onto disks and threw them around like frisbees and other times they carved these formations into their bodies. Wuxia was the direct inspiration behind how I interpreted much of how Runic Magicks could work, though plenty of things were so different that I had to create my own solutions. A task that was not unfamiliar to me and my career.

What I was about to do was another Wuxia inspired trick, but I didn't know if it would work yet. I found it somewhat funny how much I was drawing from the genre of fiction considering that I didn't really enjoy it that much. After the first 900 chapter novel, you could more or less tell where all of them went.

A sky above the sky. Another 80 year training montage. Another young master from another heavenly clan whose ancestor was actually still alive all this time and was just waiting to kill anyone who looked at his 10 generations of descendants funny. Another jade beauty who was somehow the beloved grand daughter of the most powerful man in the universe, but she was also weak enough that she had to be protected by some random arrogant MC.

I was thankful for knowing more about them, as those stories were helping me out plenty now, but I did wish they didn't so often end up like that.

[Transpose]

hwwooooommm

The rock, carved with 8 small runes blinked out of existence and moved from my right to my left. It was simple enough. The noise was a problem though. I'd need to silence the vibrations.

The concept behind the spell Transpose was that of swapping. It moved Aether from one aspect to another. As if a hand grabbed a pebble from one river and threw it into another. That was the swap. With Dynamis, it didn't work like that, but now that I had seen it working outside of my body, unfortunately, that's how I'd have to use it from then on. That was the weakness of my belief. When my imagination was disproven, it wouldn't work unless I adapted to the new truth.

There was a reason why I wasn't making a warehouse full of Runic stones. I had to be careful not to ruin my power. Or nerf my ability.

[Transpose]

crack

The rock didn't move and directly broke in half. I needed to tune the formation and test it on the wood they used for the wine casks. Yes, that's right, my first duty as the CEO of the Daemon Company was to rob these motherfuckers blind. Every casket of Bacchus wine was destined for my brand new wine cellar. Or perhaps on the bottles? It was a small error I made, but I didn't recall rich tycoons keeping barrels in their storage cellars. It was always bottles. I needed to ask around, after all, I didn't drink.

The manor was still on track for construction, but digging a few levels of basement was far faster than one could imagine thanks to the efforts of my Minfilia's expert direction. I should've guessed that she'd have strong opinions about how big the basement could be and how its walls could be constructed. With the aid of my Kan-E's blasphemous talk with the spirits, we had made a rather sizable and temperature controlled room deep within the bowels of the plot's pillar.

While we were at it, we had constructed multiple different rooms down under, all traversed with a maddening spiral staircase. Something something structural integrity, something something thin walls, something something insulation, I DIDN'T CARE! I HATED THOSE STAIRS!

"Excuse me, sorry to interrupt. I'm not all too familiar with wine, but I wanted to give a gift to my beloved, and felt somewhat ashamed that my knowledge was so shallow. Pray tell, how does the aging process work? Does it happen in barrels or bottles?"

"Aye, both. Tis true they age in a barrel first, but after a few moons, they move to bottles."

"Why do they not stay in the barrels to age? Do the bottles do anything to help the flavor?"

"Nay, the barrels are the "body" of wine. Bottles preserve. A cask of wine that stayed 'ere long would go foul."

I didn't fully understand what I was hearing, but it was obvious that I'd need to steal glass bottles rather than wooden casks. Which added a distinct issue with my plan. I couldn't carve into glass. And I certainly couldn't do it to every single bottle. There had to be hundreds of those fucking things.

We chatted back and forth about the process a bit but I didn't let the Hyur stay long. He had a busy day ahead and I empathized with the horror of a random customer dropping by to ask you incessant questions about your job WHILE you were working it.

Another wrinkle was that Transpose was a bit rough. I couldn't see myself controlling the movement of glass without it cracking or breaking entirely. Not just from the force of Aetheric transfer and the already weakened glass from being carved, but also because I didn't control precisely in what orientation something ended up on the other side of Transpose. It was a swap, not a teleport. I swapped the "fabric" of an object's being with air. Telent's teachings rang truthfully indeed, however this was not exactly the most delicate process.

'Fuck. This isn't going to work.'

I started to think that Transpose might've been the wrong way to go about it, but I was unwilling to give up so easily. I wanted that wine. And the grapes. AND the seeds. I wanted a Baccus wine empire under the Daemon Company's wing and I wanted full control and ownership. I would lease out the rights to produce the wine and use the grapes, but I would need to sterilize the ones I sell, else farmers would just regrow the extinct crop!

I would not leave Limsa Lominsa until it was done! This was my first job as the CEO of the Daemon Company! Failure was not an option!