The jewelry store smelled like metal shavings and some sort of dull chemical smell. Several of the glass cases made a similar noise to the one Seren acquired. It made them wince and rub their ears.

“Is something bothering you?” The jeweler asked. She lifted her gold rimmed magnifying glasses up on top of her curly hair. Seren lowered their head and rubbed their ears again.

“What can you tell me about this?” The man Seren was following, having introduced himself as Mr. Asche held the ring they’d gained. The jeweler hmm’d and took the ring, sliding the glasses back onto her nose.

“Silver… inlaid sunstone, very unusual.” She mumbled to herself as she inspected the ring. “Ah-ha! I thought I knew a little fae-silver when I saw it.”

“Fae-silver?” Mr. Asche asked, sparing a quick look back at Seren. They moved to just holding their hands over their ears. “You have a lot of face-silver here?”

“Oh yes! It’s unbreakable, at least by physical means.” The jeweler gestured to her cases. “I get it whenever I can, all my cases are made of fae-silver. Protect my assets, you know.” She paused when her magnified eyes traveled over Seren.

“Continue.” Mr. Asche waved his hand in front of her face to break their eye contact.

“Oh! Yes. Of course.” She looked back to the ring. “This ring has a band of gold in it, the fae love gold. Which is why they are cursed to only ever possess silver! It’s an ancient story about-”

“Get to the point,”

“Right! Right.” The jeweler flipped her glasses up and put the ring down onto a towel on the table and ducked under the counter. Bringing up a large ledger and placing it on the table. “Most fae put some gold in their jewelry somewhere. A band this small makes me think it was a lower-class citizen. The gemstone is significant however, the silver powers the gem’s natural abilities to make it…” The woman flipped through her pages, taking glances every once in a while at Seren.

“Ah! Sunstone. A warming spell!” She cheered. “Wear the ring and you never feel the chill.”

“Impressive. Seren, step out for a second.” Mr. Asche said, Seren stepped back in surprise but didn’t leave right away. He turned back to them. “Go.” Seren slipped out the door and let it close. With a frown they crossed their arms.

A ring that if you wore it, you’d never get cold. Seren breathed out a long stream of white mist, before shivering slightly. The sun disappeared behind the thick clouds and new tiny flakes of snow fell. Seren scowled at the sky and pulled their coat tighter around their shoulders. Trying to lower their hat enough to cover their ears from the cold. Seren cursed to themself about how they handed over the ring instead of keeping it, they couldn’t count all the ways they could make use of a magic ring.

The door jingled as it opened. Seren turned and hopped down the front steps as Mr. Asche came out, looking the ring over impressed.

“I was right.” Seren said, planting their hands on their hips.

“Indeed, you were,” Mr. Asche said inspecting the ring. “Here,” he tossed the ring into Seren’s surprised hands.

“Why?” Seren asked suspiciously. Mr. Asche took out the leather coin purse and looked through the money.

“Altogether I counted 43.55, nearly double what you were after.” He continued, heedless of Seren’s question. “Impressive.” he fished around in the bag, mouthing numbers to himself.

“You are owed 4.35… That’s two copper ingts, 4 mag, 1 stl, and 1 irn.” He said pulling up a handful from the purse and holding it out for them. Seren perked up, holding out their hands for the two bars and six coins to be dropped into their hands.

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Copper ingts were little bars of copper with the imprint of cogs and the phrase; ‘in luce et vapore vigemus’ which the university said was Latin. The smallest round coins were the magnesium alloy coins, they had a small helical gear in its center with the Latin phrase around it. Its width mimicked a helical gear and the mag coin was worth the most of all the coins. After it came the stl, a steel coin that was bigger than the mag, it had the second highest denomination and had a pair of bevel gears on it. The width also mimicked the gears it depicted and displayed the Latin phrase. Seren received an iron coin. The second biggest coin with spur gears on it, Seren didn’t care for the feeling of the spur pattern on the coin’s width. The last of the coins, the one Seren hadn’t received, was a cor. A large copper coin with a standard toothy gear on it, worth the least of all the coins.

Every coin had a ingt counterpart. For the cor there was the copper with the toothy line of cogs. The irn had the iron, with the squiggly line of spur gears. Stl had the steel, with its bevel gears in a box shape. Last, for the mag there was the magnesium alloy, the most valuable of all the ingts with all the gears displayed, including the helical gear, in a single machine.

Seren stared at the money in their hands, feeling their chest soar. With the stl from earlier they had altogether 4 ingts and 60 coins. More than enough.

“Thanks, mister!” Seren grinned, pocketing it all.

“Mhm,” He said thoughtlessly. He took a half-step then turned back. “Tell you what, kid. You show up to the academy tomorrow, and I’ll have more work for you.”

“Really?!” Seren asked, “You’re not bothered?”

“Bothered by what? Your rates?” The man scoffed.

“Miss Jass said if people know they wouldn’t want anything to do with me.” Seren explained.

“I don’t care if you’re fae-touched or not, as long as you get the job done.” Mr. Asche sighed. Pulling a gold chain pocket watch out of a hidden pocket and holding it to the light so he could read the time.

“No… not that.” Seren said quietly. They tried to speak but couldn’t make their voice work. “N-nevermind.”

“Let’s settle it this way.” Mr. Asche put away his pocket watch. “If it bothered me, I wouldn’t invite you back. Would I?” He started down the street and back toward the Summer district.

“I suppose,” Seren said with a smile, feeling the weight in their pocket. They took a shaky breath and squealed in excitement. Bouncing in place before spinning around and darting further into the Autumn’s market district.

Several shops held their signs covered in frost, their lanterns hung over the doors, unlit in the mid -morning light. Seren slid to a stop at the front door of the city chemist. They shouldered the door open, the bell ringing above them as the warmth of the shop slapped them hard in the face.

Their face and fingertips stung as they let the door swing closed behind them. Seren shivered and rubbed their thin gloved hands together to restore their dexterity. The shop's interior had lots of shelves with random over the counter in house made vitamins and remedies. At the back sat the chemists themselves, with their counter and little kitchenette they used to make their remedies.

Seren idly looked at the shelves and their contents as they passed them on their way to the counter. They stuck their hand in their pocket, trying to ease their anxiety with the money in their pocket. The chemists turned from their alchemy behind the counter to stare at Seren. With black facial masks that covered most of their faces. Any hair the chemists had was tightly held beneath their hoods, with black barred glasses that kept from seeing any skin.

“Serenity.” The chemist said as they stopped at the counter. “We expected you a month ago.” The chemist rummaged around under the counter.

“I’m sorry,” Seren felt small under the weight of their full name used in such a tone. “I’m here now.”

“So you are.” The chemist sighed. “Don’t suppose you brought any of the bottles for reuse?” Seren’s mouth shut tight and shook their head no. Eliciting another sigh from the chemist.

“Of course,” they sighed again. “Well, did you at least bring the right amount this time?”

“I believe so,” Seren cleared their throat. “I still think it should only be worth 1 ingt though.”

“It isn’t.” The chemist stood up and leaned on the counter. Seren could feel the glare through the blackout glasses. “3.25.” Seren fished into their pockets and pulled out the two ingts and two mags. Placing them onto the counter. The chemist leaned over the currency and counted it, twice. Then sighed frustratedly.

“Close enough,” They huffed, mumbling under their breath; “at least it’s three ingts this time.” The chemist swept the money into their black gloved hand and dropped it into the cashbox under the till.