“Turns out, most people appreciate being treated like people.”~Unknown

A week later, Bernin was not having a great time. Tyrom wasn’t a bad accountant by any account. Not at all. He was more than competent and had done extensive bookkeeping. He also still had the raw paper from before he organised it, making her job of verifying it all a lot easier. Still, it grated her a little. She loved the search, the chase of finding out what was happening and getting it all laid out for her, felt wrong. Her paranoia also didn’t like it.

Most of the money had been spent on food, that wasn’t bad, especially since he had quite nicely documented that aspect and also had a much larger food budget than most. She had put anything over 6 months out of her mind anyway, food spoiled no matter how much you enchanted the containers and keeping food for longer than that was almost never worth it.

There was also the metal. He had quite a large sum allocated to metallurgy in general. Then again he was a dwarf, any dwarf worth their stone could smith or work metal. The metal filigree and house slowed this off nice enough. The ‘defects’ were sold to the town at cost, again nothing mysterious there. Well, maybe the term defect was a bit of stretch, but again, dwarf.

It all just made sense. Sure, she had expected a councillor to have everything under control, but even the most disciplined people made some mistakes. There was a reason for the margin of error. Everything Gregarious had done was precisely in the lines though. It grated on her and made her question Tyrom to exhaustion and more. There was a form of hero worship she could call on with him, but she decided against crossing that moral line. Honestly, she felt bad for the kid, he was obviously talented, just not magically. Sometimes, that last part was really all that mattered.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

She decided to call it quits for now. Tyrom would be waiting downstairs in the inn, after a week's worth of convincing she had acquiesced to his request for dinner. He was nice enough, but he just didn’t get the hints. Bernin wasn’t really interested in him like that, at least part of the reason she had this job was that she couldn’t be. Her fey instincts were screaming though. He had been nothing but hospitable and even did her some favours. Everything had to be repaid. Nothing would come of dinner though, she just hoped it wouldn’t spoil the evening.

Dinner was a shared affair apparently. Bernin found herself sitting at a large table easily seating 19 others. Plates were passed and shared. She had fully misunderstood Tyrom. He had barely spoken to her, instead catching up with friends and family that he hadn’t seen for a whole 2 days. Far too long in his opinion. His mother agreed with him and made sure Bernin understood it was partly her fault. It was quite impressive, she never said a bad thing about Bernin at all, yet managed to clearly communicate that she better appreciate what he was doing for her.

The whole night was long and Bernin was getting exhausted. Not because of any physical excursion but her social energy was well and truly spent. Introducing herself had been interesting the first time, but after the twentieth time it was getting hard to keep track. Even more difficult was keeping the tailor apart from the family Tailor, who were instead farmers. Not to be confused with the Farmlands who came from a long tradition of cobblers.

By the end of night, Bernin only barely managed to activate her wards before she passed out in her bed, thoroughly exhausted. She hadn’t slept this well in weeks.