Waking To Dragons And Elves

I grow slightly tired of watching people testing the equipment on sale and head deeper into the town trying to find good enough shop to examine the necklace the bandit had in the wooden box. Taking a look myself while avoiding touching it, the necklace is a plain grey object with a small purple gem in the centre and what look like some gla.s.s fragments coating the necklace in a way designed to not harm the wearer.

While it looks somewhat valuable, it doesn"t look nearly as valuable as the gold and silver jewellery my mum used to keep. After her pa.s.sing the jewellery helped me stay on my feet enough to care for Elyn even at a slight cost to myself.

I come across a shop with a banner showing a sort of necklace on the wooden board outside with some unreadable text I vaguely understand to be of that Necin language the voice mentioned.

The shop has a second floor compared with the surrounding buildings only having a ground floor, there are a few vines growing up the building adding to its crude beauty. The windows with some crude bars over as if to allow in light but not people matching the guard who is standing outside..

I put Elyn on the ground and hold her hand so I don"t lose her as we enter the store. The guard gives me a look before staring at my jeans and jacket as they seem out of place.

A small bell rings as we enter the dimly lit shop. The middle age man behind the counter looks up from his task as we enter. A younger man, seemingly about my age approaches to speak.

"Welcome to the Verdugo Brightsmiths Sir, What is it you need today?"

The mans bright eyes evaluating me the moment I step in, examining my clothes just like the guards his mood seems to improve slightly.

"Are my clothes really that special?"

"Of course Sir, anyone with an eye for detail can tell how valuable those materials are and the method to make them like so. If Sir wishes to explain where they are from I"m sure the owner here would be thankful for a new business opportunity."

I glance at him shaking my head slightly

"Do you have a way of telling what this object is?" I offer him the box with the necklace inside.

"If that is Sirs wishes that can be done. Lets see here. Sir, have you not seen a Mage-Vice before?"

He glanced in the box and asks me a question about some mage object? I shake my head in reply.

"Mage-Vices were designed many years ago as a method of keeping mages unable to cast their magic should they be caught in wars as slaves or if one is a prisoner in a dungeon. They usually take a rare material called Planegla.s.s to allow them this ability as well as the purple gem known as a Voids tear which can be even rarer in some places. Even the metal holding them together is silver making it quite expensive. I dare say sir, if you would be willing to sell us this for 3, no 5 gold, we would be happy to buy it from you."

"If you would buy it happily for 5 gold, that means you would still reluctantly buy it for 15 gold, am I correct?"

"While Sir might not have practice at bartering, that would be true yes, Sir. If you would be willing for 13 gold we can make the sale right now sir, we don"t have all the money you request on hand and wouldn"t want to owe Sir any form of debt."

"Great, we have a deal for 18 gold then. I will remember this place fondly in my report."

I try to put on an air of being backed by someone larger. I don"t feel like explaining how we have the clothes we do without some sort of backer.

"Very well sir, we have a deal, we might just have all the money you require here give us a few seconds."

He walks away leaving the necklace on the table as he goes upstairs past a guard.

After a minute of waiting he comes back with a two pouches of money, explaining he didn"t have 18 gold coins, but was able to find enough silver coins to make up for it. The pouches contained 15 gold and 300 silver. I made sure to roughly count it out while checking his expression to see if he was cheating me, a skill I learnt when gathering protection money years ago.

Either he does this too much, or that it is the correct amount.

"Thank you for your a.s.sistance in this matter" I pull Elyn out of the shop and decide to walk around a bit more.

The streets are even emptier now it is getting to the late morning, the few people walking around seem to be going between the market and the building which had those people in armour with dog tags walking in and out.

I decide to buy a few bags to carry the money and whatever snacks I might plan to buy.

I can feel someone following us, but they don"t seem to be doing anything other than watching.

I decide indoors might be a better choice, and head towards the building everyone is heading to. I make sure to buy Elyn a snack, but that too longer than expected as most of the stall owners outside refused to let me buy anything using a silver coin. Instead I had to use the copper coins I got as change for the bag to buy some snacks and a proper meal for Elyn.

I made sure she had a proper meal, not just meat but included some vegetables for her. Even I was surprised since they seemed to be a lot more bland than usual, the meat tasted entirely of salt and a bit of fat while the vegetables felt like I was chewing on flavourless gum.

I make a mental note to spend a lot more on good food at a later date, Elyn needs to eat properly and while I feel full, I don"t think that meal was good enough for her.

She tugs at my arm as we pa.s.s a stall close to the building I was heading to with those people in armour, the stall seems to be selling these weird white b.a.l.l.s wrapped in a green leaf. After asking what they were the man behind the store answers that they are small snacks meant to fill you with energy, since Elyn wants one I buy a few.

I"m surprised there is something with flavour in this town. The weird b.a.l.l.s happen to be boiled eggs, or something that tastes quite like it. With a bit of flavour from a seasoning that tastes like white pepper, followed by the leaf I can only a.s.sume is some sort of rosemary.

While it isn"t filling, it makes a world of difference compared to the meal earlier. I buy a few more, with less pepper for Elyns sake as I thank the man and finally take the last few steps towards the building that interested me.

This building, looking similar to the Brightsmiths building, has a second floor, but it also has a s.p.a.cious first floor compared to most of the buildings I"ve seen, the wide double doors kept open as groups of people walk in and out.

After giving Elyn a reminder to stick close, we head inside.