Adam and Vonda enjoyed the street food of East Port, with its variety of spices, important from even the likes of Voska. Adam also brought some for the walkers, not wanting to let the young ones starve while they carried the cloth. Once they were brought to the Adventurer’s Guild, he handed the coins over to the young urchins, and made sure they each left with some more food he had brought.

“These are the colours I brought for the business,” Adam said, revealing a bundle of cloth of each of the four cloths he had brought four rolls of.

“Red is far too aggressive for our business,” Jaygak said.

“Sir Vonda picked the red, and I trust in her ability to spot reds,” Adam replied.

“No, I meant that red is too aggressive for the business, not that this red is too aggressive.”

“Jaygak,” Adam replied, frowning.

Jaygak replied with an innocent smile. “Yes?”

“How can you do this to me?”

“I didn’t think you’d actually listen to me.”

“So, it’s treason then,” Adam replied, wondering if he should noogie her.

Jaygak pulled away towards Kitool slightly upon seeing the way he was looking at her.

“Red can be the clothes for our guards then,” Adam replied. “We can use the blue grey for the typical workers, and the brighter blue for some of the higher ranking people. We Executives should have blue clothes with the red for the trim, since that looks coolest.”

“What are the other rolls for?” Jurot asked, spotting the other set Adam was currently packing together.

“The red, blue, and purple are for our Aunts and Uncles. The yellow are for the children. The Salifi gold is for Aunt Sonarot, and your aunt and uncle, Jurot.”

Adam began to write a letter for those back in the Iyr. He wrote who the bundles were for, allowing them to figure it out between themselves, while stating who the yellow and gold belong to. Adam then wrote the most important line.

‘Also, please find a way to stop Lanababy and my little babbies from growing so they stay small and cute forever.

All the best, Adam.’

Adam smiled at his letter. Images of his children flashed through his mind. ‘You little rascals. How can you make me miss you this much?’ Adam thought about his business. It was a good excuse not to adventure if he needed to use it. Then he imagined his children being called the young bosses of the business. ‘I’m going to be the coolest dad ever.’

“You are writing a letter?” Jurot asked.

“Yeah. I’m planning on sending it back with the bundles of cloth.” Adam left the letter out to dry, staring at it with a stupid smile on his face.

“The gates are closed,” Jurot said.

Adam blinked, before looking at the Iyrmen and Sir Vonda before him. He looked as though he had been slapped out of the blue. “Damn it.”

“You can keep it in the Iyr’s account with the Adventurer’s Guild,” Jaygak informed. “They will send it along once the gates are opened, or you can pick it up in Red Oak and take it with you when you return.”

“That’s a good idea…” Adam stared at her suspiciously. “Who are you and what have you done to Jaygak.”

“I have to make it up for teasing you.”

“So you knew you were bullying me?”

“I have to bully you,” Jaygak said.

“Why?”

“It must be done.”

“…” Adam narrowed his eyes at her harder. “Anyway, I realised something while we were in the tournament. You don’t have plate mail.”

“Are you bullying me because I hurt your feelings?”

“No, I’m being very serious. Everyone I faced, from the Priests to the Guardians, all wore plate mail. Every Expert pretty much wore it, and I realised that you were the only one without plate mail. If you had it, you probably…” Adam realised she had won every fight up until Kitool. “Damn, you’re pretty strong, Jaygak.”

Jaygak looked to Kitool for support, but Kitool replied with a soft bow of her head. Adam was technically not bullying her, he was just being Adam.

“Since this is the matter of the party, we’ll use some of the party funds, and my own, to order the plate mail.”

“I can afford it,” Jaygak replied. “I made a lot of coin in the tournament.”

“You did?”

“Yes. Since you were all having fun fighting, I had my fun betting. I was planning on buying some from the Iyr soon. I could request for it using a favour, but I made enough money that I don’t need to use a favour.”

“You can call in favours?” Adam asked, glancing between the Iyrmen.

Jurot nodded. “We gain favours from our deeds, and we can use them to assist us, or others.”

“Oh?”

“We can petition using our favours too.”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Ah,” Adam said, slowly nodding his head. “Well, since it’s still to do with the party, we can use some of the party funds to pay for it.”

“There’s no need.”

“If you don’t use some of the party fund, I’ll conveniently forget to use the party fund when paying for things more often,” Adam warned.

“Why are you so annoying?” Jaygak grumbled quietly, feeling the gazes from both Kitool and Jurot.

“I have to be,” Adam replied, flashing a charming smile. “I’m Adam.”

The group ate together during the late afternoon, before Adam excused himself to go meet with Yellow Turban at an inn. He hadn’t realised Jaygak was following him, since she also needed to deal with some business at the inn on behalf of the Iyr.

Adam coughed from the smoke as he stepped into the inn. ‘Gods, why is it so smoky inside?’

One of the Devilkin from earlier in the day, the one who had threatened him, spotted the Half Elf and approached. “Follow me.”

“Okay,” Adam replied, waving his hand through the smoke to stop it from assaulting his senses.

The Devilkin stepped out of the inn, and led Adam away towards another nearby building, which was a deep blue, with yellow patterns all across it. It was quite a large building, five stories tall, and was easily twice as long and wide as any of the nearby buildings.

Adam stepped through the central gateway, which led into a large garden, rectangular in shape. He spotted at least a hundred Devilkin, some as young as babies, and others older, near venerable. Each wore a different yellow, and wore attire similar to that of the Iyr, and every Devilkin who was at least a teen or older wore a blade at their side. Those who didn’t hold blades at their sides, being too young for the weapons, wore tiny yellow hats, whilst the older Devilkin wore yellow turbans and scarves. Adam saw the head wear wasn’t split by gender, or by any other obvious distinguishing factors.

The Devilkin led him along one of the outer paths, which was split by light greenery from the central courtyard, towards one corner where Yellow Turban was sitting.

“Adam! Adam, come!” Yellow Turban said, standing up and extending out his arms, motioning for Adam to sit.

Adam shook Yellow Turban’s forearm, before taking a seat opposite him. “Thank you for agreeing to meet with me.”

“How can this Yellow Turban refuse?” Yellow Turban replied, before pouring some wine for the pair of them. “Food will be brought soon.”

“Oh, you don’t have to go that far for me,” Adam replied. “I’m hoping we can deal with our business quite quickly.”

“How can we talk business if we are hungry? Brrt brrt, our stomachs will say while we speak.”

“That’s a fair point.” The Half Elf chuckled, before glancing around to his side, noting the large inner garden area. The building was a rectangle, long and wide, with a garden which took up about half of its area.

“This land, fifty years ago, all houses,” Yellow Turban began. “All Aswadian. Devilkin, Human, Aswadian, yes? My father, he come, he buy all the land. He buy this land, he buy land next, and all across. Cannot buy some land, the inn I tell you to meet, cannot buy. There is statue, three hundred steps out,” Yellow Turban motioned a hand towards its direction. “Cannot buy, belong to city and Eastsea family.” He shrugged his shoulders and chuckled.

Adam assumed it would have been difficult to buy a statue belonging to the city and the Eastsea family, depending on what kind of statue it was, and what it represented.

“No problem,” Yellow Turban continued. “Father buy up all land he can see. He break houses, one bazari, one block, at a time. Many people angry, curse. Build all houses you see, up towards sky. More people can live, you see? We meet in garden, I see my neighbour, my families, and we eat and talk together. All this land, belong to Yellow Turban. We charge just to make copper on gold for our people. We make just ikya, small bit money. We pay taxes to city, they are happy. The families pay small money, they are happy. We make money from our business, we are happy.”

“It sounds obvious, but it takes a certain type of person to not want to make more money,” Adam replied. He wasn’t sure if he could be so kind.

“My father tell me, you keep your community happy, they keep you safe. I tell my father, I see my community come when I have Windsabre, yes?” Yellow Turban laughed, slapping his knee.

Adam smiled, chuckling lightly. “Well, I suppose so.”

“My father tell me, he tell me, you kill all with Windsabre, then why do you need Windsabre?” Yellow Turban continued to chuckle lightly. “Windsabre not worth community, yes?”

“Yeah.”

Yellow Turban slowly nodded his head. “It is still worth much gold, but my people, you cannot buy with gold.”

“A fair point.”

The food was brought. Fluffy flat bread, similar in some sense to the flat bread within the Iyr, but it was thicker and airier. It was like fluffy bread loaf, but flat, full of herbs, and lathered in butter. The food they were going to eat was undoubtedly some kind of curry, lamb or goat from what Adam could see, and it was well spiced, or as Yellow Turban would have put it, lightly spiced.

Small basins were brought for each of them to wash their hands, before they could begin their feast. Yellow Turban scooped the curry for Adam, giving him a generous portion, before scooping himself some of the curry. It was messy, the wetness of the curry always threatening to stain their clothing. The meat on the bone almost melted off as Adam used the flat bread to tear it off. More than once they had to use the thick, black, wet handkerchiefs to clean their mouths.

Adam almost groaned at the end of the meal, which had been followed up by a dessert made of milk, some kind of thin pasta, and shredded nuts. Adam stifled several burps as he was offered some fruit shakes to deal with his thirst. Even Yellow Turban relaxed after eating so much food.

“You speak of business?”

“Right, right,” Adam said. “I, uh, heard about this Salafi gold.”

“The cloth?”

“The metal.”

Yellow Turban bowed his head, motioning for Adam to continue.

“I’ve heard that it can be used to enchant.”

“We know how to enchant it, yes.”

“As you probably know, I work for an enchanter, the Enchanter we call them,” Adam said, chuckling lightly. “I believe our Enchanter might be interested in this metal.”

“Only our people know how working it,” Yellow Turban replied.

Adam bowed his head slowly. “I was just hoping that, perhaps in the future, we could procure some.”

“Perhaps.”

“Fair.” Adam cleared his throat. “I was also hoping to…”

Yellow Turban raised his brows, slowly bowing his head.

“I was hoping to ask about Windsabre, and, perhaps in the future, the Enchanter could… study it?”

“Salafi gold, for one roll, fifteen gold. We sell to people we like, twenty gold. We sell to people we like like, twenty five gold. Yes?”

“Yeah?” Adam replied, unsure of why he would work that way.

“I know you, Adam, few days. I know of Iyr, long time. Iyr ask me for Windsabre, I know they bring back, I still think for it.”

“I understand.”

“Salafi gold, metal, worth much coin. Your axe, if Salifi gold, maybe thousand gold. You know how much we sell if you we like like?”

“Two thousand?”

“We do not sell if we like like. We only give if we like more than like like. I know you, Adam, days. We know years, maybe Kalid, my handsome boy, gift Salafi gold.”

“I understand,” Adam replied, though he was still slightly confused due to the way Yellow Turban spoke the Aldish tongue. “Well, I’d like to let you know that, once we are open for business properly, we are happy to do business with the Yellow Turbans.”

“Your business, it sell magical weapons?”

“Yes.”

“Magical armour?”

“Not right now, unfortunately.”

“Which weapons?”

“Basic,” Adam said. “If we like like, Basic Enhanced and Greater.”

“And for this Yellow Turban?”

“I’ve only known you for a few days, so just like like right now,” Adam replied.

Yellow Turban poured Adam and himself some wine, before raising his cup. “I hope we know for years.”

“Me too.”

Yellow Turban knocked back the wine in one go, and Adam mimicked him.

Constitution Save

D20 + 6 = 21 (15)

Adam swallowed down the wine, which set his throat ablaze, before coughing lightly into his shoulder. ‘What the fu-hoooaaaark?’

“This wine, only for people we like like,” Yellow Turban said, offering Adam some more.

Adam squirmed, feeling a wave of heat rock through his body, his head beginning to grow itchy with ease passing second. Adam nodded, his eyes burning with tears. “Hokay,” he managed to gasp out.