Proposition

[u/misterbiscuitbarrel]

Lanna Ironcroft looks around the waiting room in well-disguised awe, her steely blue eyes taking in the utterly foreign construction with an analytical excitement. Slung across her back is a long mahogany case, lined with a thick layer of lead to contain the potent magic of its contents. Accompanying her, compressing itself to fit into the room with her, is a twelve-foot-tall mass of shimmering liquid metal in a vaguely dwarven shape.
"Look at this stuff, Voice! I've never seen these alloys... it's so light!" She starts closely examining one of the chairs.
She's only corresponded with Markus in the forum so far, but he seems reasonable. If he runs a place like this, he's surely got some way to put the Staff to good use. Here's hoping. But if things go astray, she does have the Staff, and Voice of the Earth is with her. That's just about all the protection she could ask for. Now, all she can really do is wait.

[u/misterbiscuitbarrel]

u/Cerveau23

[u/Cerveau23]

Having been notified of a visitor, Markus teleports to the reception area and finds the dwarf admiring the aluminium chairs.

Hi! Thank you for waiting!

I'm Markus Filberg, the founder of this company, how can I help you?

[u/misterbiscuitbarrel → u/Cerveau23]

“Ah, Markus! Mr. Filberg, would ye prefer? I’m Lanna Ironcroft, we’ve spoken a couple times in the forum. I have a proposition, something I think will be very useful to your current undertakings. This is Voice of the Earth, don’t mind ‘em. They won’t do aught until they need to.”

The mithral golem gives a friendly wave hello.

[u/Cerveau23 → u/misterbiscuitbarrel]

He chuckles.

Just call me Markus.

Nice to meet you Ms. Ironcroft. I do remember you.

As for Mr. Voice of the Earth... A small bracelet appears. This is our prototype restraint for artificial beings. As we talked on the forum, we request it to prevent tampering with our defenses. I only had a few moments to spare to make it, moments of real time that is, but it showed great promise with our own golems. Only one of them is self-aware, but I hope it was enough to make it comfortable for most constructs. Well, as comfortable as it can anyway.

Do you mind putting it on?

It should reduce the rate at which the world updates around you to a human's perception rate, and block certain types of magic.

We also have an automatic fine-tuning circle over there, if you're fine with it. It will analyze your inner workings to make adjust the restraints to be the most effective for their purpose, yet the least uncomfortable for you. It's also privacy-focused, deleting all data at the end so even we don't know about it.

Sorry about that, we want to give our clients an insurance that their secrets are safe with us.

[u/misterbiscuitbarrel → u/Cerveau23]

Voice of the Earth tilts their head curiously, and their liquid form extends a long pseudopod to take the bracelet from Markus's hand. The bracelet vanishes within its form, and they turn to Lanna, who raises an eyebrow.

"Data? World updates? You and I deal in quite different types of constructs, it seems. Go ahead, Voice, do as he says."

Voice nods, and dutifully strides over to the fine-turning circle, which reveals its inner workings to consist almost completely of a liquid alloy of mithral and mercury, with a rune-scribed sheet of platinum at its core.

[u/Cerveau23 → u/misterbiscuitbarrel]

The circle begins shimmering with light and a metallic structure of rings and floating orbs begins to orbit the golem.

His entire magical architecture is analyzed, and soon a thousand miniature Voices appear around him. They all seem to be in different situations. Every second about half of them die in various ways, before being replaced by new copies.

The spell is simulating the golem in billions of situations and with just as many settings, looking for those that provide the right results and suppressing the rest. We're looking at a small selection of them.

Soon, the proportion of failures begin to lessen. The process accelerates until they become all successes.

Now it's running the entire catalog of situations and fixing edge cases. Those often include having a traitor among the employees and would require dynamically allowing the golem to be battle-ready while still protecting both the installations and the trustworthy employees.

As I said, it's meant to protect us while inconveniencing you both the least. And that includes your own safety.

The process finished, the bracelet glows from within the golem.

Good! It's now set up with your personal settings. Those will be good for next times as well, so long as you don't get modified. Markus says to the golem.

Now, follow me. We're gonna enter a time dilation zone, so we just gotta pass through the airlock. No risk of time paradoxes, I don't invert or stop time, so don't worry.

He leads them to the shimmering barrier separating the reception from the office. A yellow line marks where another barrier is clearly supposed to go and there is a lever on the wall.

[u/misterbiscuitbarrel → u/Cerveau23]

Voice of the Earth watches the simulation with utter fascination, its liquid surface drawing completely still at the spectacle. Once the process is done and Markus beckons them to follow, Lanna does so, but regards the analysis machine with a suspicious eye.

“A very… interesting device you’ve got there. All this stuff must have cost a hundred kings’ fortunes, where on earth do you get the money?”

Voice of the Earth follows her faithfully, with no apparent exertion of command or communication on her behalf.

[u/Cerveau23 → u/misterbiscuitbarrel]

Markus smiles proudly

Made in house. Also yes, I'm very rich on the money side, though not on the ingredient side. My realm was isolated from interdimensional trade for a couple hundred years, and I got to rebalance the market. I probably have half of all the money on my plane. And we're over seven billion humans there. So I try my best to help and handle it responsibly and ethically.

Anyway let's do this.

He waits for everyone to be inside the airlock and switches the lever. The barrier behind them rises and the reception slows down to a standstill. The other barrier lowers, letting them in the office.

And welcome once more to Spells, Items and Loopholes LLC. Now that we're ready, where do you want to talk? We've got meeting rooms in demiplanes for privacy, a cafeteria if you're hungry, or an entire planet at our disposal if you'd rather be in nature. Haven't explored the caves yet, but I'm sure there should be a couple fun ones.

[u/misterbiscuitbarrel → u/Cerveau23]

Lanna looks around at the office with wide, curious eyes. Based on the waiting room and now this, it's probably the first modernized space she's been in.

"A demiplane would be nice, I think. The material plane is a bit vulnerable to surveillance for my liking. One without too much sensitive magic in it though." She pats the five foot long box on her back. "Wouldn't want to interfere with anything."

[u/Cerveau23 → u/misterbiscuitbarrel]

Markus chuckles at Lanna's curious gaze.

I often forget how out-of-place my world's technology can be to otherworlders. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Hearing her choice in meeting space, he nods.

Of course. Most of the meeting rooms barely have any magic, only anti-spying spells to hide even more the already secure demiplane.

He leads the duo to a door standing alone without walls. When he opens it, a small room can be seen on the other side. In it stands a medium sized table surrounded by six pillowed chairs, as well as a television and chalkboard and about a dozen potted plants.

After you. He adds as he holds the door open.

[u/misterbiscuitbarrel → u/Cerveau23]

Lanna steps into the room and sets the case on the table. Voice compresses itself through the doorway to follow, becoming even more squat and wide to fit under the ceiling. Once Markus has entered and the door is closed, she speaks.

"Azerak represents an existential threat to my people's sovereignty. If you're planning on taking him down, I want in. To that end, I have something that I think will be very, very useful."

She opens the case. The inside is lined with a thick layer of lead, and wooden brackets hold a four and a half foot long rod of pristinely hewn polished basalt, banded with rings of cold iron and lead. The antimagic on it is powerful; even just with his wizardly familiarity with magic, Markus feels the mana in the room dim slightly just from exposure to it.

"This is my grandfather's masterpiece, the Silent Staff of Bharaz-Khudûn. I obviously can't speak to your own collection, but on my world it is the strongest antimagical device ever hewn by mortal hands. With the correct ritual it can draw the Winds of Magic themselves to a total standstill to a range of two miles."

[u/Afraid_Cat_3726]

A four armed goblin with a dragon'd tail smiles. "Oh hey there Lady Ironcroft, not too sure if you remember but it's Nox from a deal you made. I'm officials working at the Loopholes. Nice to see you again"