Jess watched as another adventurer exited through the shop doorway. Once again, they had come in to sell but hadn’t purchased anything before leaving. She waited until they had rounded the corner before turning to Mike.

“How do you even stay open when they don’t buy anything?” she asked from where she stood by the window.

Mike grunted as he lifted the barrel from the corner of the room and placed it in front of the counter. “Shops get a subsidy,” he answered. His face twisted in disgust as he swept the assortment of tattered rags, bones and mushrooms into the barrel using a broom handle.

“A subsidy?” Jess repeated, her nose wrinkling. “How does that work?”

The lid of the barrel was replaced and carried back over to its customary corner. “We pay the adventurers. City councilmen refund us,” he said as he returned to the soiled broom. He eyed up some unpleasant grot that was still stuck to it as Jess pondered over his answer.

“You said that you get less adventurers than the guys in the centre. Do they get the subsidy too?”

“Aye. If ye trade with adventurers, ye get the subsidy,” Mike answered, “Why so interested?”

Jess glanced out through the thick glass at the neighbouring shops. It just didn’t make any sense. How could any city run on such a lop-sided economy? The adventurers rarely paid for anything out of the stores, so how could come the city seemed happy and peaceful while it was haemorrhaging gold?

“Just trying to figure things out, that’s all,” Jess said with a sigh.

“If ye’re worried about me paying rent with another mouth to feed, ye ought not to,” Mike reassured her, speaking up to be heard from the other side of the counter. He had disappeared below eye level to rummage in the cupboard below. Jess waited for him to reappear, curious about the new trail of thought.

With a fresh cloth in hand, Mike stood up and looked over at Jess. “I make enough from selling to locals to keep this place open,” he said, gesturing around with the cloth.

Jess frowned. “I haven’t seen a single customer in here who isn’t an adventurer?”

Mike snorted. “Expert now are ye?”

“No,” Jess admitted, returning her attention to the street outside. Couldn’t be less of an expert. I’m not even sure how much the gold in my pocket is worth.

She considered the lack of people outside for a moment. She’d hoped that she would be able to people watch from the window to learn more about the city’s citizens. Those hopes had been quickly dashed when she had realised that aside from the adventurers that strayed by the street remained mostly empty throughout the day. It should have been expected. The trinket store sat on a side street, not on a major road. It wasn’t even a thoroughfare, merely a dead end filled with curiosity stores.

A heavy sigh at Jess’s shoulder caused her to jump. She’d been so preoccupied with her thoughts that she hadn’t noticed his approach. He was surprisingly quiet, despite his hooves.

“I wanted to be in the jeweller’s quarters,” Mike admitted with a wistful look on his face. His distant eyes watched the empty street outside. “That’s what I told them when I arrived.”

“How’d you end up here?” Jess asked quietly.

“I didn’t fit in,” Mike answered in a flat tone.

Poor guy thought Jess. Xenophobia is alive and well in this world too. She waited a moment to see if Mike would offer more unprompted, but he remained silent. His large, baleful eyes now looking up to the clouds.

“So… what happened? Jess asked.

Mike’s brows knit together, and he threw a sideways glance at Jess. Or at least, it would have been a sideways glance had he not been significantly taller.

“What do ye mean?” he asked in a wary tone.

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“You said you didn’t fit in with them,” Jess said. “What happened?”

“What?” Mike asked. His ear flicked and his frown deepened. “The jewellers are good folk. They have a healthy respect for minotaur work. It’s the building I didn’t fit in.”

Jess’s face was flat and emotionless as she processed his words.

“Very small buildings in the jeweller’s quarter,” Mike continued. “Very impractical.”

As if hitting his point home, he reached his arms up and stretched before rolling his shoulders. Jess watched him, incredulous, before turning quickly back to the window to attempt to hide her shock.

Once she had gathered her thoughts, Jess spoke again. “I need a job.”

“All folk do,” agreed Mike from behind her. It sounded as though he had returned to the counter.

“Do you think I could be a shopkeeper?” Jess asked. Mike’s life seemed pretty cushy. She wasn’t aiming for a life of luxury, but she was acutely aware that labouring probably wasn’t going to work out for her.

“No,” was Mike’s firm reply.

Jess turned then with her jaw open, feigning indignant surprise. “Rude!”

Mike smirked.

“Why not?” asked Jess.

“First. Ye don’t know anything about shops. Second. Ye need a permit to open a shop. Which ye only get if ye can prove that ye know how to run a shop.”

“Fair points,” Jess conceded. “I could learn from the best though,” she added, waving a hand to encompass Mike and his shop.

Mike barked a laugh. “I ain't done yet. Third. Ye don’t follow rules,” he said, pointing an index finger at Jess. “That gets ye noticed. Gets ye in trouble.”

“There go my plans of building an information-stealing, criminal empire using a shop as cover.”

The big minotaur frowned and his ear flicked, as though attempting to dislodge an unpleasant thought.

“You alright, big guy?” Jess asked, concerned.

“What did ye do back wherever ye came from?” he asked, brusquely ignoring Jess’s question.

“I was a teacher,” answered Jess.

“Then why don’t ye just do that?”

“Do you know any schools that are hiring?” Jess asked.

The question hung in the air for a moment before Mike answered with a resigned, “No.”

Jess leaned back, resting her head against the heavy wood of the window. “Teaching would be good though. Access to libraries and information. A legitimate reason to ask questions and seek answers.”

Mike nodded wordlessly.

“Plus an actual wage,” she added, before frowning. The question bubbling inside her could no longer be ignored. “The subsidy you get… where does that money come from?”

“City council,” Mike replied, busying himself with sweeping behind the counter.

“No, I mean. Where do they get the money?” Jess asked.

“Taxing the adventurers. Like ye said, can’t grow money on trees,” Mike explained, though the explanation left a lot to the imagination. He disappeared behind the back of the counter as he knelt out of view.

“How does that work then? They don’t even talk, I can’t imagine them filing earning reports,” Jess said as she approached and leaned over from her side.

Mike grunted as he attempted to coerce some specks into the metal dustpan he held. “Auction house selling tax. And charging them to use the magic gate.”

Jess’s brain glazed over temporarily. Mike seemed not to notice as he continued to sweep at the obnoxious specks. Each sweep seemed to send them under the edge of the dustpan instead of within it.

“The what?” she finally asked, her face blank.

“Don’t get too excited lass. They mostly sell armour and weapons on there,” he said, smiling as he triumphantly lifted the offending dirt and walked towards the door with it in hand.

Jess’s mouth fell open as she watched him. Out of both those options, surely the auction house isn’t the one he thinks is outlandish?

When the dirt specks had been deposited outside, Mike turned and found himself the focus of Jess’s incredulous stare. “What?” he asked, ears twitching as he stood uncomfortably by the door.

“You’re not serious?” Jess said, mouth still agape but with a serious frown plastered across her face.

“What else would adventurers be interested in buying?” Mike answered in a wary, measured tone.

“The Magic Gate, Mike!” Jess exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. “I’ve been trying to get home and you just decide, right now, to mention there’s a Magic Gate?”

Mike’s eyes widened a little. “Ah. About that, lass.”

Jess folded her arms and gritted her teeth. The only rational thought in her head was that she needed to bite her tongue until Mike explained himself. Then she could tear strips off him if it was warranted.

“The gate only opens for adventurers,” Mike began to explain.

“And what am I? Chopped liver?” Jess interjected with a growl.

Mike winced but continued. “The gate just appeared. Folk don’t know how it works, but only the adventurers can go through it. Only works when they have some of the spell casters with them too.”

Jess remained as puffed up as an angry cat, though it was becoming increasingly difficult to hold on to her anger in the face of this new information. She ungritted her teeth and licked her dry lips, mulling over his words.

“Have non-adventurers tested it?” she asked.

Mike nodded solemnly. “Aye lass. A few times. The guard won’t let ye near it now. Folk turn to dust as soon as they touch it.”

Jess’s jaw dropped open once more, albeit with shock this time.

Mike offered her a wry smile. “Sorry I didn’t tell ye about it. Just didn’t seem an option given that ye’re more like one of us than them.”

With a sigh, Jess relaxed. The last of her anger puttering out like a flame in the wind. Who would offer that option?

“It’s alright,” she said in a resigned tone. “I get it. Just back to the drawing board, I guess.”