The crab and the mayor had stepped outside the main hall through the back door, which led to a courtyard surrounded by tall walls made of wooden logs. Bergen’s training yard smelled faintly of wood smoke and the metallic tang of fresh snow. Balthazar stood by the threshold, his eyestalks fixed on the hulking silhouette of the mayor as the man hefted his enormous axe with the complacent ease of someone who had been convincing townsfolk of his prowess for decades.

There was no Madeleine by the merchant’s side anymore—she had gone off with Abernathy to look at the winter garden—and the sudden absence of the familiar warmth of his friend made the courtyard feel just a little larger and considerably less comfortable to the crustacean.

The mayor waved with an enthusiasm that bordered on theatrical.

“Come, join me!” Bergen boomed, setting the axe onto his shoulder. “No time to be shy!”

Balthazar skittered a couple of steps forward, hesitantly, eyes still trying to measure how far that huge battleaxe could reach, just in case.

“Nothing like a crisp morning to sharpen the spirit and the muscles, right?” the mayor said with a grin that showed all of his pearly whites.

“I… couldn’t help but notice a distinct lack of… people around your town hall,” the apprehensive crab said, choosing to keep a safe distance from the burly man until he could figure out his intentions. “Is it just you and Mr. Abernathy running everything in Ardville, heh?”

“Ah, no, no, of course not,” Mayor Bergen said, stepping in front of a practice dummy set up near one of the log walls. “I gave everyone the morning off. I didn’t want any guards or staff in these halls. I didn’t want anyone… hearing us.”

The merchant gulped quietly as he watched the bear-like figure in front of him carefully adjusting the position of the wooden dummy covered in a burlap sack filled with straw.

“Right… And what is it exactly that you wanted to… uhm… discuss with me?”

Bergen turned to face the crab, his bushy brow slightly furrowed. Silence stretched for a beat while the two measured one another—the mayor with the easy confidence of a man used to commanding rooms, and the crab with all the diplomatic presence of someone who wasn’t sure if he still had crumbs stuck to the corners of his mouth.

“You know exactly what this is about,” Ardville’s leader said in a voice that sounded like a quiet rumble.

“Uhh… I really don’t,” Balthazar said, his concern battling his curiosity within.

The mayor turned back to his practice dummy, his thick beard twitching around his mouth as he wet his curling lips.

Without warning, and with a speed that did not befit a man of his age and size, Bergen raised his enormous orcish battleaxe over the hapless straw man and, with a yell that made the snow hanging from the edge of the nearby roof fall, brought the blade down on it.

The strike cleaved through the burlap, the straw, and the wooden cross holding the figure together, the blade only stopping on the ground beneath, the veteran warrior still grasping its handle firmly with both hands as he let out a guttural growl.

“Marquessa.”

Balthazar stared at the mayor with eyes that, if they could, would be blinking in confusion. “What?”

“You thought I wouldn’t catch wind of it?” the man said, standing back straight. “Yes, I know about Marquessa.”

“Heh. You mean the city, or the baroness?” the merchant said nervously, trying to unsuccessfully lighten the mood while his gaze was still fixed on the sharp edge of the blade the mayor was bringing back up to his shoulder.

“Don’t try to play me for a fool, crab!” the booming strongman exclaimed. “She put you up to this, did she not?”

“W-who?”

“Octavia! Who else?!” Bergen shouted, one hand closing into a raised, trembling fist, while the other continued firmly grasping his weapon. “You and her, this deal between you and her city, this is all her way to get under my skin, is it not?”

Balthazar gazed up at the mountain of a man, feeling genuinely dumbfounded.

“I’m not sure that I follow what you’re talking about.”

The mayor grabbed the handle of his battleaxe with both hands again, and the crab could swear he was this close from breaking it in two.

“She must have told you all about me! Our… fling all those decades ago. How she stood me up after becoming the mayor of her city. Left me waiting for her by the side of a road, the minx!”

The befuddled crab opened his mouth to speak, but the mayor kept going before he could.

“We were going to run away together, you know? But that snow fox tricked me good, I will admit. And now she must be looking to play with me again. For years—years! Ardville has tried to establish a trading deal with Marquessa. And every time it falls through, and I know it’s because of her. She punishes me. And now, her ultimate slap to my face—a trade deal with the merchant crab right under my nose!”

Bergen turned to Balthazar, the small portion of his face that was visible between all the hair looking flustered—whether it was because of the exertion or some other reason, the crab could not tell.

“So, crab… My question to you is simple—are you in on her plot against me?”

The crustacean looked up at the man’s tiny, beady dark eyes peering into his from behind the mane of black hair surrounding them.

“Mr. Mayor, I have no idea what you’re even talking about,” the crab said with honesty on the plot part, despite now having a pretty decent idea of what the whole ordeal was about.

[The Gift of the Crab: Success]

“Ahhh, I believe you!” Bergen exclaimed suddenly, planting a firm slap on the back of the crab’s shell that nearly sent him careening forward. “You’re not her type anyway. Not enough meat on ya! Haha!”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Heh, right… thanks?” the confused crustacean said, still regaining his composure.

“That’s Octavia for you,” the man continued, now leaning on his upright weapon as he stared off toward the horizon. “A cold beauty, that will captivate you, wrap you around her finger, and then she will use you for her own devices without you even realizing.” He sighed. “Do not feel bad, crab. You are not the first, and you will likely not be the last.”

“I wasn’t feeling bad. At least not about that, but alright,” Balthazar muttered under his breath.

“She knew that making this deal with you, the caravans from her city passing right outside my town gates, all of it would tick me off. That’s what she’s after!”

“Uhh…” the merchant started hesitantly. “Not to correct you or anything, but I’m pretty sure it was the merchants of her city who pushed for the deal to—”

“Ever since that summer all those years ago!” Bergen exclaimed, paying no attention to what the crab said. “She is obsessed with disturbing me! It’s like an addiction to her. I’m sure she told you all about me while you were there, and our forbidden romance!”

“I don’t really remember her saying—”

“Ooooh, that woman!” the booming man continued. “She just does not know how to let it go! But no, not this time, Tavi! I am not the young and dumb buck you used to ride on those wheat fields all those years ago anymore.”

“Oh, lord. That’s way too much infor—”

“Oh, how she loved it when I carried her on my shoulders, running through the tall grass as we laughed. Gods, I was strong back then!”

“Back then?!” the befuddled crustacean muttered while eyeing the destroyed practice dummy.

“But I will not fall for it!” the mayor declared loudly, before turning his gaze back to Balthazar. “I will play that same game right back at her!”

The merchant pulled his shell back slightly as the strongman grinned down at him. “Great, but maybe I should get going now and—”

“And you’re going to help me teach that baroness a lesson!”

Balthazar sighed. “Oh boy, here we go…”

“Marquessa,” the mayor started, assuming a more composed tone. “The city, that is. They produce many materials our town has limited access to. Certain raw resources like silver are an example. Then there are the fruits, chief among them being their famous mangoes, of course. In sum, we would benefit greatly from gaining access to things their hold has easy access to over there. Octavia wants to be a thorn in my side and block our towns from mutually helping each other? Fine, I will go around her. Through you, merchant crab. If she wants to flaunt her trade deal with you right outside my walls, I will just deal with you directly and get what I want anyway. Teach her that old Bergen over here has both the muscles and the brains!”

As his apprehension faded, Balthazar’s business instincts started perking up.

“Oh, I see,” the merchant said with one eyestalk raised higher.

“So, name your price—within reason, of course—and we will pay you for access to some choice Marquessa goods. You get what you love, coin, our town gets materials it needs, and I get revenge on that vixen. Everybody wins!”

“Hmm, interesting offer,” the crab said, rubbing his chin in thought, despite already knowing he was definitely going to take that deal. “You could provide me with a list of the things you guys want, and then I pass it along to Marquessa’s traders for their people to send them over on their next shipment. The deal is that once I get their goods, I am free to resell them as I see fit, so if I sell them to Ardville, that’s none of their business. But of course, that’s still a lot of work, and as the middlecrab managing the ‘exchange’ of goods, I deserve a percentage for making this whole thing possible.”

“Right,” Bergen said, inhaling deeply. “As I said, name your price.”

“I think we could settle on a 15% finder’s fee over the original price I pay for every item I get from Marquessa and trade down to Ardville,” said the crustacean.

“Preposterous!” the mayor boomed, striking the ground with the butt of his battleaxe’s handle. “That is a ridiculous price! I would never hear the end of it from Abernathy if I agreed to that! 5% is more than fine for a deal like this!”

A slightly smug grin appeared on Balthazar’s face.

“Maybe it would be, for a simple trade deal. But what’s the price of revenge?” the merchant said. “10%, and that’s me being neighborly.”

Bergen’s grasp on the axe tightened, his knuckles turning white as the wood creaked in protest.

“Why, you little crabby…” he muttered. “Bigger creatures than you tried to squeeze me before, and I—”

“Did said creatures hold the only trade deal with Marquessa on this side of the continent?” Balthazar said, his eyes narrowing. “Were any of those creatures you presumably crushed with your big axe beloved by the adventurer’s guild? This is a negotiation, Mr. Mayor, not an arm wrestling contest. Use those brains you just claimed you have, instead of thinking with your gut.”

Bergen exhaled sharply with a grunt, a steamy cloud bursting out of his nostrils into the crisp morning air.

And then the mayor stood back straight and let out a booming laugh that startled the crab.

[The Gift of the Crab: Success]

“I like your guts, crab!” the strongman roared. “Few men have the backbone to stand up to me like that. And you’re not even a man. Or have a backbone!”

“Heh, right,” the crustacean muttered. “So, does that mean…”

“We have a deal, merchant!” Bergen declared. “A 10% fee on every good you procure for our town from Marquessa. But my people will get first choice when the shipments arrive, and that’s not up for discussion. I will have no second-rate goods for my beloved Ardville!”

“Fair enough,” Balthazar said with a nod. “That’s a deal, then.”

“Good!” Mayor Bergen boomed, extending a meaty hand forward. “Let’s shake on it, crab!”

The crab glanced down at the man’s open palm. “Heh, like I keep telling you humans, let’s maybe not do the whole handshake thing. You know, for your own goo—”

“Ah, don’t be silly!” the strongman exclaimed.

Reaching forward, Bergen wrapped his bear claw around Balthazar’s pincer and squeezed while shaking it vigorously.

Oooww! The crustacean cried internally, his appendage throbbing painfully as tears formed in his eyes.

[Trade deal made. Experience gained.]

[You have reached level 34]

Between the looming presence of his current company, and the flaring pain in his arm, Balthazar decided it would be best to leave the level upgrades for later.

“You are going to help me get back at that tricky baroness, and that’s something I won’t forget,” the mayor said, smiling and wagging a thick finger in front of his face. “Now come! Let us find your baker and my bean counter while we discuss other matters.”

Balthazar rubbed his sore pincer with his other claw while glancing up at the man with a cocked eyestalk. “You have more to discuss with me?”

“Of course! Let’s go this way.”

Bergen swung his huge battleaxe over his shoulder like it was a toy, resting it there without a hint of effort or strain. The crab kept eyeing the sharp blade nervously as they left the training grounds, despite the apparent friendliness of the mayor.

“You like it?” the robust man said, following the merchant’s gaze. “Fine weapon, this beauty!”

“Yes…” Balthazar started. “I couldn’t help but notice it’s an orcish weapon. Odd choice for the mayor of a town of humans… who also happens to be a human.”

Bergen let out a booming laugh.

“This here is a trophy!” he said. “I am sure you have heard the tales of how my men and I beat an orc siege back in the day, before I became the mayor. Well, after all was said and done, Ardville and its people were safe again, and I gained a new axe. A good day all around. Oh, the tales I could tell you from the trenches that night!”

“Right, right, but let’s not lose focus here,” the crustacean quickly said, worrying that the mayor would go down memory lane and take the crab with him. “What were these other matters you had to discuss with me?”

“Why, isn’t it obvious?” said the bear-like figure walking beside the crab as they made their way to the gardens. “Your partner, Tristan, has aspirations of becoming our next guildmaster, and the gathering of the merchants will happen soon to decide that.”

“Alright,” said the intrigued crab. “And what’s that got to do with me?”

“Hah!” chuckled the mayor. “I was led to believe you were more clever than that, crab! The merchant’s guild wants you to come to the meeting so they can get to know you!”