Inter-Branch Banking [18 Lage 4385]

[sythyry]

Mirrored from Sythyry.

Conversations

A fretful night was spent on Strayway, with variations on the following conversation:

Someone: “Zascalle cleaned out the lockbox?”

Someone else: “The way she was throwing money around, probably more than that.”

Someone: “She did have control of Sythyry’s money. Perhaps she helped herself to a great deal of it?”

Someone else: “My very concern!”

Someone: “Why does Sythyry not go to the bank and put an end to this?”

Someone: “The banks are not open at this hour.”

Sythyry: “And I am preparing other things which I expect that I will need.”

Banking at the Bank of Teleporting Hexagons

Bank Minister: “I am surprised that you dare to show your blue-feathered head around here.” He was rather more polite about it, but I knew what he meant, so I have written it.

Me: “I am concerned that my accountant, Zascalle, may have done something improper with my accounts here.”

Bank Minister: “You have no accounts here!”

Me: “I don’t? How did this come about?”

Bank Minister: “Zascalle, armed with a letter giving her full authority, told us of your extreme displeasure with our bank — everything from the tenor of our tellers to the decor of our offices, and, of course, the integrity and diligence with which we perform our duties. Points which I humbly beg to differ with you about … but no matter.”

Me: “Points which I humbly beg to differ with myself about! I have been banking with you for thirteen decades, and been wholly pleased with you for the last eight or nine of them! In any case, today is the first time I have seen your tellers or offices, though of course I know those of Vheshrame better.”

Bank Minister: “Nonetheless you cancelled your accounts — in extenso!”

Me: “Zascalle somewhat exceeded her instructions. She was to transfer a sum of money from Vheshrame to here, to cover some surprisingly large expenses we had incurred in our travels.”

Bank Minister: “Is that so?”

Me: “I might have been slightly unclear to her, but not that unclear.”

Bank Minister: “But — the instructions to do this have been in place for years!”

Me: “They have?”

Bank Minister: “Observe this letter!” He showed me a leaf, upon which were a few sentences written in a tidy hand and silver ink about how I had advised the bank that the transfer was pending any month now as of two years ago, and the details were on file in Vheshrame. “We were simply following your instructions!”

Me: “I cannot fault you for that. But what were those instructions?”

Bank Minister: “She transferred all of your accounts to the Bank of Steel and Iron.”

Me: “Not precisely my instructions. Wait, all of them?”

Bank Minister: “All of them.”

Me: “Not just my personal ones?”

Bank Minister: “All of them.”

Me: “Now I am worried. One of those accounts is used to support my estate in Vheshrame. They may have a vast bowl of trouble if that account is now vanished.”

Bank Minister: “I suppose it is not within the realm of possibility that the Bank of Steel and Iron will support your estate in Vheshrame?”

Me: “I have no reason to doubt the integrity of the Bank of Steel and Iron. But I do have reason to doubt that they were informed of the details of the matter.”

Bank Minister: “Such oversights have been known to occur in situations such as this.”

Me: “Can you reverse the process?”

Bank Minister: “I give a long and very technical lecture on how it might be done, but only with the extensive cooperation of the Bank of Steel and Iron.”

Me: “Well. I have nothing per se against the Bank of Steel and Iron, but I would prefer that my millions of lozens remain in the Bank of Teleporting Hexagons.”

Bank Minister: “I would as well, m’lord.”

Me: “Then, perhaps you could accompany me to the Bank of Steel and Iron, to help with the technical matters? I daresay there will be bonuses forthcoming for helpful attention to such a tricky situation from your superiors in the bank, and gifts from myself.”

Bank Minister: “I should be glad to oblige.”

Banking in the Bank of Steel and Iron

Bank Minister of Teleporting Hexagons: “I explain a situation in great detail!”

Bank Minister of Steel and Iron: “Well, I would be delighted to help, having heard the situation. And having received letters from our superior banks in Daukrhame and Vheshrame which, although their dictatorial content was quite clear, left somewhat to be desired in the matter of alleviating my worries of the honesty of the transaction. Though, admittedly, only so much can be written on a leaf.”

Me: “Wonderful. Let us arrange the reversal instantly.”

Bank Minister of Steel and Iron: “Unfortunately, the most extraordinary thing has occurred.”

Me: “How, extraordinary?”

Bank Minister of Steel and Iron: “The account is not with Steel and Iron! We were an means of conveyance only, not the destination of the money, saving for certain modest fees not to exceed two per centum.”

Me: “Zascalle is a clever creature, isn’t she? Where did it the account go?”

Bank Minister of Steel and Iron: “The Bank of the Trunk’s Amber!”

B.M.T.Hex.: “Please accompany us.”

B.M.S.Iron: “Oh, dear. I shall.”

Banking in the Bank of the Trunk’s Amber

Previous Ministers: “We explain a situation in detail and in a two-part harmony which serves to accentuate the urgency, but not help the clarity of the details.”

B.M.T.Amber: “The Bank of the Trunk’s Amber was only involved as an agent. You see, we have offices up and down the main trunk, and a superior system of communication to yours, if I do say so myself. Where you send leaves back and forth by the ordinary post, we have our own private trees with unique enchantments, and our messages take minutes where yours take hours. We coordinated the movement of this money to several smaller banks in Ketheria and branches below, to accounts bearing the names Zascalle, Thiane, Feralan, and Ochirion.”

Me: “And not Sythyry. How awkward. I imagine there was a modest fee, not to exceed two per centum?”

B.M.T. Amber: “Three and five-twelfths per centum. It is all fully specified in the contract that we worked out with Zascalle, one of the owners of the source account, nearly a month ago.”

Me: “A contract that I never saw nor heard of!”

B.M.T. Amber: “This is a matter between yourself and your … if the matter were far more decent, I would call her a wife. Your personal life is clearly inferior in practical ways as well as moral ways to ours. I have little advice to give on the matter.”

Me: “She does not resemble a wife to me at all; she is simply my accountant. Rather, she was my accountant; stealing all of my money may be interpreted, obliquely, as a resignation … and, I daresay, an expressed desire to retire in luxury. Bank Ministers, you must attempt to sort the matter out as best you can. I shall reward you if you succeed.”

B.M.T.Hex: “Success is likely to be partial and slow. Only so much can be done by letters to Ketheria, especially in such a confounded and deliberately confusing situation as this. And I do not wholly expect the full assistance of the Trunk’s Amber”

B.M.T. Amber: “You may, at least, see the agreements that this Zascalle made with us.”

B.M.T. Hex: “By which it is meant that the Trunk’s Amber will probably cooperate in the matter, but will charge their extraordinary three and five-twelfths per centum again to play their part in recovering the money, and Steel and Iron their two per centum, and of course Teleporting Hexagons will require our fees. I daresay the other banks will charge as well, even assuming we can get them to cooperate at all. The total charges will be substantial. Still, if all goes well, we should be able to recover nearly three-quarters of your property in a matter of months, unless further surprises occur.”

Me: “La!”

B.M.T. Amber: “I beg your pardon … but … ‘La!’?”

Me: “I mean, ‘La!’ It’s merely money to me. Money is a convenience, to be sure, since cley does not come in such small denominations as lozens.” They looked somewhat distressed to see me fleer at the fundamental stuff of their lives. “But I am not a financier, whose power is wholly based in money. I am a wizard, and the full nature of my power is elsewhere. As you shall see.”

B.M.T. Amber: “O Zi Ri! We are citizens of Eigrach, in which you are foreign! Any assault upon us shall be treated most harshly!”

Me: “Your culpability is minor, though I would guess not utterly ignorable, and it is unlikely to be worth my time to punish you at this point. I am going to fly up to Ketheria and chat with Zascalle in person.”

B.M.T.Hex: “Oh, my.”

Travel Plans

I am not Vae, and I do not wish to bring Vae along on a trip like this. For one thing, she is likely to be helpful, and that would be an utter disaster in some unpredictable way. For another, I am not bringing Strayway, for I need to travel quickly. I would like to leave her here to guard it.

I am not Vae, and do not have her endless, free, transcendent powers of Locador. But I am an enchanter and a deep-mage, and have tricks and devices. I could — unaccompanied, or with a single companion — reach Ketheria in a matter of hours. Assuming no disasters or interesting occurrences.

Then I have to find them. I can locate Ochirion if I get within a hundred and twenty miles … but even measured in units of a hundred and twenty miles, the World Tree is a big place.

Comments

[rowyn]

Hmmm.

He showed me a leaf, upon which were a few sentences written in a tidy hand and silver ink about how I had advised the bank that the transfer was pending any month now as of two years ago, and the details were on file in Vheshrame.

Was this document written before you began planning a trip to Eigrach? Did it specify "I am closing all my accounts and moving them to another bank"? Or was it vaguer, and could be interpreted as "at some point I'll want to transfer a large sum from Vheshrame to Eigrach, be advised that this is not alarming". I am wondering if this letter demonstrates that Zascalle being prepared for the possibility that you might need funds on short notice while you were in Eigrach, or if it was Zascalle being prepared to defraud you two years ago.

"Nearly a month ago", when she worked out the deal with B.M.T. Amber, would have been approximate when Feralan and Ochiron were kidnapped, I note.

And ... be careful, O Zi Ri. Zascalle has been planning this thoroughly for quite a long time. I imagine that she knows your capabilities well, and Vae's also. Whereever she's gone, I expect that she is prepared for the possibility that you might find her. And with millions of lozens at her disposal, she may have been able to purchase some formidable defenses against you. /o.o\

[kensaro.livejournal.com]

Perhaps that vast amounts of Silver were used in the construction of Stayway can alleviate certain immediate financial problems?

If the shipwrights haven't made off with that.

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

If I understand correctly, does the "the transfer was pending any month now as of two years ago" mean that Zascalle has been preparing for this for two years now? If so, it would mean that what happened to Ferelan isn't the source of the betrayal, just possibly its exact timing.

It also appears you're going to have to deal with Zascalle quite harshly, Feralan or no Feralan. Just think of all the other children Zascalle had no problem rendering homeless and destitute at a time when there protector was remot and unlikely to be able to help them.

Also... Perhaps it is time to consider abandoning the Strayaway and returning your household (both people and belongings) home by some other method? Cleaning up this mess is going to be hard enough without being far away from Veshrame.

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

...It would seem, indeed, that Zascalle has been preparing for this for some time. This is worrying.

And at this point, cleaning out the lockbox is starting to seem more and more like a gesture of spite.

Things have gone well beyond the point where simply taking the money back could be sufficient punishment... although, with how much she's already spent and cost you in fees, indebting/indenturing her for the rest would not be out of the question, I should hope.

It seems to me, though, that any of the banks on branches below Ketheria might be as likely a place for them to be as the obvious(i.e. Ketheria itself), and Trunk's Amber's arrangements could be useful in tracking those down... though quite possibly with further levels of indirection, which could be headache-inducing. Is there something in what the bankers told you that makes Ketheria still the most likely? I missed it in this transcript, if so... If it may be the best place to seek treatment for Feralan, it's also certainly the most obvious way to bolt. And might she not be there yet even if it is where she's going? She's only had eight days to travel a vast distance. Chasing skyboats from port to port might catch her en route... well, not in mid-air, but at least has the possibility of getting to one port before her skyboat does.

Augh. What happened to the boys may seem like the trigger, but the more elaborate this gets, the more unlikely it seems that it's really what started this all in motion.

Now I'm somewhat wondering if she's been making plans for this from the first moment she was pretty sure you weren't looking too closely over her shoulder, whenever that was - the first moment it seemed she was truly trusted, without direct supervision and oversight. This whole plan seems far too intricate to have been cooked up here and now, while distressed over her sons. Clever she may be, but could she truly have thought through this many steps to avoid pursuit in the space of two weeks, from nothing? Going by Rowyn's math, that about a month ago was the time of Vae kidnapping Windigar and the children, and she's already been gone for a week - she hasn't had that much time to put this in motion.

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

Such a short-term solution could have long-term problems. As I recall, part of the reason Sythyry was permitted to make so much silver in the first place was because it wouldn't be sold anytime soon. Even if the selling happens away from Vheshrame, it would be violating the spirit of that agreement.

And zie might well be able to get more by selling or mortgaging enchantments, or even more if zie finds a commission for same(or someone who happens to dearly need an item zie has already made - like the one that was initially going to be sold to, I think, Daukrhame).

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

I'd be inclined at this point to hand Zascalle over to Vae to be part of Vae's collection. This is above and beyond "I'm pissed because you're not helping my son" and gone into "I have this knife and I will plunge it repeatedly into your tiny back, and add a few twists, for I am a Rassimel and have been criminally obsessed with owning your wealth for quite some time."

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

It's not that much silver. Strayway is made of wood plated with a very thin layer of silver, not entirely out of silver. I could arrange to make a skyboat out of silver, but I would rather stay in the good graces of the Smith's guild (which does not want anyone to make unlimited amounts of metal) and the Skywright's (which doesn't want non-members making airships -- and I doubt any skyboat-maker is good enough with Durudor to do that job).

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

I concur that it is vanishingly unlikely that this is all about Feralan. She has to have been carefully wording instructions for quite a while before Vae's watch-hunt - quite likely two years if not longer.

Specifics may vary. Finding her and dragging her back to Vheshrame to be chewed up by Vheshrame law may be severe(with this much money involved, would at least one execution be entirely out of the question? Healing afterward, perhaps, but still), while somewhat dissociating yourself from the actual punishment - you're not the one who killed Feralan's mother(from which she will get better, even if she's miserable for a while), the law did.

Whatever she does to work off that money which is unrecoverable... well, that's a long-term question that deserves a bit more thought. When Zascalle has been safely caught.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Is there something in what the bankers told you that makes Ketheria still the most likely?

No -- something else happened today that made it likely, actually, but I didn't know that at the time. I was simply trying to sound impressive, since Ketheria is, in some way, at the other end of the World Tree from here. Or maybe I just said "up-trunk" and remembered it as "Ketheria". My memory for conversations is excellent, but sometimes imperfect.

This whole plan seems far too intricate to have been cooked up here and now,

Given that note about arrangements made at least two years ago, I must agree.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

They'd better not be homeless! I hope the people at Castle Wrong can figure out something good to do ... have done, since they probably found out about the vanished accounts a few days ago. At any rate, I own Castle Wrong, so it's more a matter of figuring out food and such, in the short term.

But yes. I should take a side trip there if I have the chance. Pity I can't bring Kantele along to help with it.

[cowboy-r.livejournal.com]

Mmm'kay, that's it... someone dies.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Vheshrame law may be helpful, but I'd rather not. There's a stock character in puppet shows and vulgar plays of a noble who can't keep zir attendants in line. I'm already a different stock character -- the flamboyantly traff sorcerer -- and that's enough public mockery already.

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

Another thought occurs: is it not likely that one of the banks (particularly Teleporting Hexagons) is going to take steps to deal with this on its own? Even if they're legally in the clear, a business that depends on people trusting it with huge sums of money is not likely to want to risk earning a reputation for being made a fool.

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

Does the world tree have an equivalent of property taxes? Even if you own Castle Wrong clear, with no money it may not remain that way for long.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

We do, and that is somewhat of a concern. Probably Hezimikkainen would make sure it didn't go away, but I do not want to make zir do that.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Exactly! The local bank minister, when he realized what the situation was, became instantly extremely helpful!

I suspect he was deliberately diminishing my hopes. If, say, I expect to lose a million lozens, and instead only lose a quarter of a million (gleeep! Losing a quarter of a million lozens! [= about three million dollars -bb]) due to the actions and fee-waivings of Teleporting Hexagons, he may reasonably hope that I would be pleased.

Which I might be. Especially if I don't get killed trying to do it myself.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I suspect that Trunk's Amber is not going to be so helpful. I have the sense that they are catering, to some extent, to people who need to move vast sums of money around without legal repercussions.

[sianmink.livejournal.com]

I have to admit I took some amusement at how little you were concerned about the, at this point significant fees involved with transferring all your monies hither and yon, and how befuddled the bankers were with this lack of concern, being as all those fiddly details are the large part of their chosen profession.

Though I suppose they don't get powerful hundreds-years old enchanters through there every day.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

More than half a show, I'm afraid -- for their sake, and for mine. It was either feign lack of concern (and hopefully persuade myself), or curl up in a ball at the thought of losing a million lozens [some ten million dollars -bb] if all went as well as possible.

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

Headless Night Walker and The Doctor Dances.... . I think the escape plan will have had exceptionally poor timing...

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

Well...

I suspect that Zascalle is going to face some World Tree Justice of some kind... but I am wondering what your intentions for Feralan are now? It's not much his fault that his mother is a thief, and assuming they haven't fed the Elemental too much, Feralan is still very much in need of rescue, and I know you *like* to rescue people, because you don't get to do that very often. (Once an Adventurer, always an Adventurer...)

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I rescue people constantly! What is Castle Wrong about, after all? I even rescued Dorze and Treacle-Eyes, though rather grumpily. And spent a lot of time in sickbay rescuing Windigar and the kids.

Anyways, Feralan needs lots of rescuing. I hope I can arrange matters in ways that leave me able to do it -- or to find someone else I can trust to do it. This is going to be hard.

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

Seen on its own, that might have looked like "Zascalle is making preparations in case something should go unexpectedly wrong, as any good accountant might". Certainly looks more sinister now, it's true - the details of those arrangements might be... interesting.

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

Huh. I suppose I can understand that... My thoughts didn't see it as being ineffectual because the premise involved you yourself(or, possibly, one of your clients/employees/hirelings-for-the-occasion) dragging her back to Vheshrame's courts, rather than prevailing on some other agency/diplomatic pressure to do so.

It's almost a pity Grinwipey A) made himself unwelcome in Vheshrame and B) rather made himself untrustworthy. Leaving the details up to someKhtsoyis(or maybe someSleeth, though that may be even more likely to traumatize the children more than is necessary) is starting to seem like a suitable option for Zascalle's fate(I'm being optimistic and assuming she will be apprehended, barring doomful further developments to the contrary).

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

Bravado may not have been a bad idea. People who don't expect to be punished in nasty ways for not doing a good enough job may, ironically, be more inclined to give it their all - if they were worried that whatever they might do wouldn't be good enough, they might not try all that hard...