Ch 30 Foundations & Flames, Part 7—Foundations Complete
86
0
0
12th Rotation of the Vore Cycle, 3448 A.E.
The world was warm, heavy, and still.
Kael stirred, face pressed against rough fabric, the fresh scent of new cushions and the sweet and salty scents of breakfast foods comingled under his nose. His back ached. One leg was dangling off the couch, the other was trapped beneath something soft and small.
He blinked slowly.
Sera. She was curled up beside him like a cat, one of her hands fisted in the front of his shirt, as if she'd fallen asleep mid-concern and never let go. Her hair was messy, her breathing slow. A blanket half-draped over them both, probably their mom’s doing.
He shifted gently so she wouldn’t wake, and looked around.
Their apartment was... normal. Familiar. Natural light filled the room from the numerous windows. The scent of fried roots and hot pan bread drifted from the kitchen. Someone was humming.
Clang. A pan slapped down on a counter.
“Praises to Elandor,” Elira muttered. “You’re finally awake.”
Kael sat up with a grunt, his spine cracking. “What... happened?”
She hurried over right away to check on her child.
“You didn't take psyche dust again, did you?” she asked.
“What? No!”
“Then what happened to you?” She turned now, brow arched. Her skin was pale but no longer waxy. Her eyes were alert, the way they used to be when she ran her workshop. “Last night was like a replay of a half moon ago, when Malik and Lira dragged your almost unresponsive body into our hut. Just, this time it was a strange man knocked who on the door past midnight. It scared the life out of me. He was your cab driver and said you wouldn’t wake up. It took the three of us carried you in.”
Kael blinked. “That actually happened?”
“It wasn’t a dream,” she said, picking up and stirring the pan she had dropped before. “I even tipped the driver. Fortunately, he was a good man.”
Kael rubbed his face, trying to force the pieces together. Dinner with Lira… her smile, her enchanting scent, her soft lips… and then—
“Oh no.”
His stomach dropped. He yanked open his system display with a flick of thought. Notifications fluttered past. There it was.
Transaction Complete. Verdant Grove | Total: ₥103,805
Kael choked. “Hundred. Thousand. Marks.”
Sera stirred beside him. “Mmmf... hundred what?”
He didn’t answer. Just stared at the number like it might catch fire and vanish. That was everything he’d had left after paying everyone and buying everything. All of his progress. Gone.
“I spent almost everything on dinner,” he said, voice hollow.
Now both of them were staring.
Sera sat up, blankets around her shoulders like a cloak. “You’re kidding.”
Elira finally turned off the stove. “You’re not kidding.”
Kael buried his face in his hands.
“Well,” Elira said gently, voice losing its bite, “now you see how fast it goes. When you have it, it feels like it’ll last forever. When I was not much older than you, I thought I’d never run out. An award-winning herbalist with probably the most famous artificers in the Dravaran Federation—we thought of money like dirt.”
Her voice softened even more. “Then your father disappeared. I got sick. Put trust in the wrong people. You know where I ended up.”
Kael nodded slowly.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
She waved a hand. “Don’t be sorry. Just learn from your mistake. You're just starting in life. This won't set you back at all. Just be frugal. Be smart. Remember that money isn’t just for food and parties.”
“I wasn’t partying,” Kael said quickly. “It was—Lira. I wanted to treat her to a restaurant her family used to go to.”
“You spent six digits for a girl,” Sera muttered, flopping back into the couch cushions. “Is this what they call a SIMP?”
Kael groaned. “I’ll make it back.”
“I know you will,” Elira said.
"Yeah, Kae Kae. You're the greatest. Even if you are a SIMP. Every guy is a SIMP every now and then. That's what CheeraSeven says."
Kael stared at Sera half confused and half scowling. He exhaled through his nose. “Stay off the Arknet.”
He stood, stretching the last bit of sleep from his bones. “I need to get ready for the day. I have a lot of ground to make up.”
“Breakfast first,” Elira said, sliding a plate onto the coffee table. “You’re not leaving this house without real food in your stomach.”
Sera raised a hand without opening her eyes. “Oo, me too, mommy!”
Kael glanced down at the plate—golden-fried root slices, fluffy panbread, smeared with a thick layer of bitterfruit jam. He smiled faintly.
Even after a hundred thousand Marks, this still looked better.
****
The sun had barely crested over the rooftops when Kael stepped out into the street, squinting into the gold-washed haze of another Brinewatch morning. The air was sharp with metal dust, and the scent of fried roots still lingered faintly on his coat.
Malik was already waiting at the curb, leaning against Brogan’s pedicab with arms crossed and a smug look on his face.
“You look like you died and got resurrected by someone who didn’t know what they were doin'.”
Kael rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Rough night.”
“Right.” Malik opened the pedicab door and gestured grandly. “After you, oh great vanisher of coin.”
Kael grunted but slid in. Brogan nodded at both of them through the rearview, and the cab hummed to life.
“You really spent six figures on a dinner?” Malik asked as the cab peeled onto the main road.
“I didn’t mean to,” Kael muttered.
“Wish I could say I understand.” Malik stretched his arms behind his head. “But you’ve got that look today.”
“What look?”
“The ‘I’m-gonna-murder-the-market-and-drink-its-blood’ look.”
Kael smirked. “Good. I’m aimin' for a hundred thousand.”
“By sundown?”
Kael nodded.
Malik let out a low whistle. “Guess that dinner really hurt.”
“It’s not just that. Lira called this mornin'. We’re gonna talk business later tonight. I want to make sure I come into it with leverage.”
Malik grinned. “Oh-ho. So it was worth it.”
“She said her dad approved our partnership.”
Malik blinked. “Wait, you’re serious?”
“She’s going to restructure everything. Cut tax losses, automate the backend. Make it scale.”
“Well, damn,” Malik said. “That’s a real partner.”
Kael gave a short nod.
Malik looked out the window for a moment, then added, “I could’ve used a Lira this week.”
Kael glanced over. “Soggy Bottom Boys again?”
“Worse.” Malik rubbed his temple. “The Drowned Court started demanding tribute too. They’ve got a new enforcer crew. Real psychos. They say if I’m running junk in their territory, I owe ‘protection fees.’”
“How much?”
“I gave them 25,000 yesterday just to keep my knees unbroken.”
Kael winced. “That’s half your cut.”
“Exactly. Which is why I’m done.” Malik smiled now. “Found a place in the Grays. One street east of yours. Just got the lease.”
Kael blinked. “Seriously?”
“No more turf fees. No more threats. Just labor, profit, and peace.” He leaned back. “It ain’t a palace, but it doesn’t smell like mildew and crime.”
Kael chuckled. “Glad you were finally able to get out.”
“I was born in the mud. Though I chose to rise above it, you gave the the rope. Thanks again, lil bro.”
Brogan snorted from the front. “No kissing in my cab!”
They all broke out in a fit of laughter on their way to grind.
They worked hard. Twenty jobs. Scrap hauling, beast bone disposal, a collapsed mana well clearing in Tier Four. By sundown, their clothes were soaked through and their muscles ached, but the numbers didn’t lie:
Total Day Revenue: 101,000 DM Malik’s Cut: 10,000 DM Kael Net: 91,000 DM
Kael stared at the glowing figures in his system window, a crooked smile forming.
Almost broke even.
By the time Brogan pulled up outside Malik’s new apartment in the Grays, the cab reeked of sweat and mana oil.
“Looks like a coffin,” Kael said, eyeing the squat stone building.
“Cozy coffin,” Malik replied. “And I’m alive inside it. That’s all that matters.”
Kael nodded. “See you tomorrow.”
“Kill it with Lira.”
Brogan glanced back. “Where to, boss?”
Kael wiped his face and leaned back into the seat. “Drop me at home. I've gotta clean up before my last stop of the night. I'm not keepin' you away from your family any longer. I'll take a mana cab there.”
Brogan whistled low. “Work all day, play all night, huh, Boss? The joys of young love.”
Kael just smiled and didn’t answer.
The sky outside was soft orange, the last light of day sinking beyond Ashport’s fractured skyline. He opened his system again, eyes scanning the partnership draft Lira had already sent.
Scaling. Automation. Tax optimization.
She wasn’t playing around.
And neither was he.
****
Taryn’s Goods was quiet. The familiar scent of dried herbs, wax, old leather, faint citrus cleaner felt oddly nostalgic. Kael stood awkwardly in the doorway, still a little sore from a full day of labor. He glanced at Lira, who sat at the main desk. Her signature braid was back, but today she wore a t-shirt. Her sleeves were rolled as her arms were busy at work sorting through a stack of datasheets laid out before her. A hint of red colored her naturally caramel ears and cheeks.
She didn’t look up.
“I'm glad you're here,” she said in a voice that sounded like it was trying to remain stoic, but failing.
“Didn’t want to miss the meeting,” Kael replied, stepping in and closing the door behind him.
He half-expected a comment about the night before. A tease. A question. Something.
But Lira seemed to want to focus on business tonight.
She looked up then, cool silver eyes flicking over him. “Then come. Sit. We’ve got work to do.”
Kael hesitated. “So… we’re just gonna skip over the—”
Lira cut in, not unkindly. “I'm anxious, too. Excited even. But you roused my hope—my fire. Not just for love, but for revenge. We can talk about that after business is done.”
She slid a datasheet toward him. It unfurled into a projected display—a legal structure, organizational chart, and a few glowing lines of projected credit flow.
Kael whistled low. “You worked all this up in one day?”
“Last night and this morning. Couldn’t sleep.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You too, huh.”
She didn’t respond. Just pointed at the chart.
“I had a feeling you were doing business the simple way. Charging clients straight through ArkSeal, dumping the credits into one account, and paying labor directly.”
Kael shrugged. “That’s what you helped me set up.”
“Yeah, when we thought this was just going to be you and a cart. But now you’ve got real numbers, multiple jobs, employees, and a name people are starting to recognize. That means we need a real structure.”
She tapped the diagram again.
“Here’s what we do.”
“We spin up two new entities.
First, a private logistics LLC—Taryn Logistics Services. That’s mine. Second, a private holding company—Ashport Disposal & Recovery Corp. That’ll own your current business and any future ones.
Your current company Kael Voren Cleaning Services, LLC, becomes the operating company in charge of waste disposal. The name ‘Ashport Disposal & Recovery’ gets trademarked and owned by the holding company, then licensed back to both LLCs.
All of the companies together will act and appear to the public as Ashport Disposal and Recovery, but will actually be three (or more) separate entities working together.
Each entity has its own bank account.
The holding company charges licensing and management fees to the others—just enough to drain their profit each cycle.
Taryn Logistics Services, LLC becomes the labor and transport arm. It hires Brogan and any other drivers, movers, haulers. You contract me to send crews to your job sites. I bill you for their time. You pay enough to cover my company’s costs—barely. No profits reported.
Meanwhile, your LLC stays lean. It charges clients, pays me and any direct expenses, and sends the rest upstream to the holding company as licensing and admin fees.
The holding company? That’s where all the money lands. And that’s where we pay ourselves.”
—She looks up at him—
“You: President and CEO. 90% shareholder. 1,000,000 DM/orbit salary, plus dividends.
Me: Treasurer and COO. 10% shareholder. 100,000 DM/orbit salary, plus dividends.”
—She leans in—
“And dividends, in Dravara, are treated as debt interest repayment, not income. That means 10% capital gains tax, not 40% corporate tax.”
—She taps a side note—
“The company pays us. The tax code rewards us... or doesn't penalize us as much. No profit left for them to take.”
—Pause—
“And when we grow big enough, we relocate the Corp to Solara. No income tax at all there.”
Kael sat back, blinking. “That’s… genius.”
Lira allowed herself a small, proud smile. “It’s basic. It'll get more complicated as we grow. This is what real companies do. I’m just applying it to ours.”
“Ours?”
She nodded. “If you’ll have me as a partner.”
He laughed. “Lira, I’d be an idiot not to.”
“Then here,” she said, reaching for the stylus and sliding a digital contract his way. “It’s all drafted. You can change terms, if you want. But this is my offer.”
Kael picked up the stylus. “You know… I was expecting this to be more awkward.”
“It still is,” she said, cheeks coloring just slightly. “But I’m not going to let one kiss derail an obvious route to accomplish my goals.”
“Only one?”
She didn’t answer, but her smirk said plenty.
Kael pressed his thumb to the contract. The ArkSeals on their palms shimmered in response, a glowing rune locking their agreement into place. Of course, this was only in their view. In reality, the ArkSeal looked like any other tattoo.
He looked up at her again.
“Alright, partner,” he said. “Let’s make some money.”
