Glade stood behind Bragden doing his best to look imposing as the dwarf actively argued with Helmund’s chief steward, a bookish looking man dressed head to toe in a formal black suit with button up white shirt that went by the name of Avery.
“These here Ice Drake hides were handled with the greatest o’ care by me best hunters and tanners, each one at least a journeyman! To say that they be of fair quality,” Bragden snarled, “is a slap in the face!”
“Maybe where you come from, master Bragden,” Avery commented coldly, gazing down his down his beak like nose at the dwarf with a piercing glare. “But here in the Free Cities we have higher standards for such things. They do not meet the minimum quality required to be auctioned off. We are happy to take them off your hands at 9 copper each skin, but that is the highest we’ll go.”
“They be at least the level o’ fine quality and ye know it, ye bald headed gnome for brains!” Bragden snapped back.
“Gnome for brains?” Avery looked offended at the statement. “That is a new low sir! The price is now 8 copper a hide!”
“They’re worth a silver and 6, ye slagging cheat! But seeing as yer so cross eyed, I might take a silver and 3!” Bragden shot back.
Glade wanted to roll his eyes at the whole performance going on before him. Avery was honestly a gentle soul who had greeted them with a polite smile when they had first met, but when it was made clear that Bragden was going to do the haggling the two had quickly devolved into glaring insults and name calling.
The door to their opulent meeting room opened just enough so that Helmund could sneak in.
“Did I miss anything?” he whispered to Glade, a smile of amusement on his face. “Watching Avery haggle with dwarves is always fun to watch.”
“We’re still on the hides,” Glade said, shaking his head. “Bragden finally conceded that they’re not good enough to be auctioned off.”
Helmund nodded along, having stepped out of the room 15 minutes earlier to handle some business Glade couldn’t care less about. They had been in the room for well over four hours, analyzing every item they had brought down to the last mana shard. The good news was that they had plenty of food and drink readily available. The bad news was that they had started extremely late, having had to wait for Avery to be free to join them after running around taking care of everything else from the caravan’s arrival. It was now well into the night and all Glade wanted was to head to the inn so he could get some sleep.
As he fought off yet another yawn, Glade leaned closer to Helmund and asked, “Any chance you could help speed things along? I know they both want to milk every coin they can out of each other, but this is a bit ridiculous.”
“Why do you think we waited so long to begin haggling?” Helmund said with an unabashed grin. “You should be grateful you have someone as dedicated and unflinching as your bald headed friend. Most give up by the first hour.”
“Do you treat everyone like this or are we special since you’ve deemed us VIPs?” Glade asked, giving the merchant a steely eyed glare. He knew Holo was an unrepentant ass, looking for any way to take advantage of others, but he had thought better of Helmund. Maybe they weren’t so different after all.
“You have me there,” Helmund chuckled. “No, we typically do not. We’d be run out of business if we did. However, this did present an opportunity to test your resolve and understanding of the exquisite items you have for us.”
“Uh huh,” Glade said, unsure if he should feel glad about this or punch Helmund in the face.
“Now, don’t give me that look,” Helmund smiled. “My team was able to secure your portion of the bounty from the devourers.”
“This late at night?” Glade asked, surprised.
“Oh yes,” Helmund replied with his permanent smile. “I have contacts in the most interesting of places. They were quite intrigued to hear about the core. While we had to turn it over to the Free City council, I made sure they paid us for dealing with such a threat. It came to 3 gold per queen, and another 30 gold for dealing with the cored devourer.”
“45 gold total,” Glade whistled. “That's not bad.”
“Oh, no. 45 gold was for dealing with the threat. We got another 100 gold for selling the core to the city. Standard rate for a lesser core and all that, which makes your portion 72 gold and 5 silvers. Would you like that now or would you prefer to keep it on your house credit?”
Glade gave him a look of surprise, not because of the gold, but because he had sold the core at all. Up to this point, everyone had told him cores were hard to come by.
“Lesser core’s have a standard rate? I thought they were rare?”
“Welcome to the world of rare goods my friend,” Helmund smiled. “While cores are untouchable for the layman, they’re available for those of means. Because of Holo and your equally noteworthy goods you have brought us, you now have access to the best our humbled auction house has to offer.”
“So long as I have the gold or goods to participate that is,” Glade sighed. He knew Storms’ Rest was sitting on a veritable gold mine of natural treasures and resources, but safely accessing them was a completely different story.
“So is the way of things, yes,” Helmund smiled, turning his attention back to the two bickering men.
After another hour, Avery and Bragden came to close.
“Thank you for your patronage, master dwarf,” Avery said, this time with a satisfied smile. “Would you like me to go over the list of goods one more time before we put them away into storage?”
“Aye, that I would,” Bragden said, also leaning back with a… well Glade wouldn’t call it a smile per say, seeing as Bragden hardly ever smiled. It was more a look of contentment.
“Right you are. We’ll start with the mundane and move up from there. The items that we will purchase from you directly are the 44 Dusk Rat pelts at 8 copper a pelt, the 39 ice drake hides at 1 silver each…”
“1 silver and a copper each,” Bragden reminded him.
“Aw, yes, 1 silver and 1 copper each,” Avery said, jotting down a note in his ledger. “There are also the alchemical ingredients that are too damaged or of low grade to be up for market. These include the many astral spider carcasses, the red wort moss, dragon lily blossoms…” he droned one for several seconds, listing out each herb Riya had gathered along the way or some of the body parts Bragden had said needed to come, “...all totaling 4 gold, 8 silver, and 9 copper.”
Helmund leaned over to Glade. “If you don’t me saying so, those herbs you gathered would have sold for three or four times as much if you had properly attuned storage containers. Unfortunately, they were too far gone by the time you got them to us. We can sell you some, for a discount of course seeing as you are going to be a long standing partner of the auction house.”
Glade sighed and nodded. This was something that Riya had been drilling into him for some time, which meant it was yet one more thing to add to their pile of things to buy.
“That leaves the cut gemstones you have brought us,” Avery continued, looking over the stones arrayed on a white cloth next to him. “4 blue topaz, 5 amethysts, 6 red garnets, 2 sapphires, and a ruby. Did you need me to recount their separate weights and clarity?”
Bragden shook his head having already fought that particular battle. Glade looked at the stones they had found in the lockbox on the slaver’s ship. There really weren’t that many and he didn’t want to let them go, but every scrap they could put together would help them settle their new home.
“Very well,” Avery continued. “Combined, they total 97 gold, 9 silver, and 2 copper.”
Bragden gave a grunt of agreement.
“That leaves the remaining items that we have agreed to put up for auction. As a reminder, you can set the minimum bid for every item, but the house will take 10% for its service on top of whatever deal you made with the Patriarch of Aldorna. Do you want to set the minimum bids now or wait until you have rested?”
“We’ll wait till we’re rested,” Glade interjected before Bragden made their night even longer. He was beyond ready to get some sleep.
“That sounds most prudent, Master Glade,” Avery said with a slight bow of his head. “That will give us time to assess the current market values so we can provide you with our recommendations.”
That made sense. The other items were sold outright to the auction house, whereas the remaining items would be sold at auction. It was in the best interest of both parties to sell them for as high a price as they could.
“Here is the list of items you have agreed to auction. Please go over them all for accuracy,” Avery said with a smile as he allowed Bragden to read his ledger.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Glade poked his head over the dwarf’s shoulder, scanning the lists of elegant script. During the assessment process, he had overheard the terms used and had taken the opportunity to ask Helmund what they meant. Mana shards, gems, and stones were separated by their attunements, their size, and their purity. The attunements were easy enough to understand, but the size and purity had taken him a minute to wrap his head around.
Size came in 8 different categories - fragment, diminutive, minor, average, large, great, giant, and mammoth. Each size differential was based on the number of charges each one could hold.
The purity levels also came in 8 categories - trash, tainted, poor, flawed, bright, immaculate, flawless, and divine. If he were being honest, he still didn’t fully understand the purity. It didn’t affect the number of charges within the shard, but somehow it added or took away from its strength. He would have to ask Bragden about it later.
11 x Archery Skill Scrolls (Grants up to Trainee Level)
7 x Spear Skill Scrolls (Grants up to Trainee Level)
7 x Field Medicine Skill Scrolls (Grants up to Trainee Level)
Ancient Coins (unknown date and origin)
8 Gold21 Silver18 copper
Mixed Earth (20%) and Fire (80%) Attuned Shards (Magma Beetle)
4 x diminutive / trash level shards6 x fragments / trash level shards1 x average / flawed level shard
Mixed Earth (90%) and Water (10%) Attuned Shard (Forrest Elk)
1 x average / flawed level shard
Mixed Air (70%) and Water (30%) Attuned Shards (Ice Drake)
38 x average / flawed level shards
Shadow (100%) Attuned Shards (Dusk Rats)
44 x diminutive / trash level shards6 x fragment / tainted level shards
Astral (100%) Attuned Shards (Astral Spiders)
107 x diminutive / immaculate level shards3 x average / flawless level shards
Pure (100%O Attuned Shards (Unspecified)
118 x fragment / flawless level shards82 x diminutive / flawless level shards141 x average / flawless level shards
Mana Gems
1 x average / bright shadow gem2 x diminutive / flawed earth gems2 x minor / tainted earth gems1 x fragment / tainted light gem1 x minor / flawed light gem1 x average / flawless light gem2 x minor / flawed water gems
Glade glanced around at the piles of scrolls, the coins they had found on the shadow elves’ remains, as well as the several open containers that held each category of shard and stone. Categorizing the shards had taken the preponderance of their time, Avery and Bragden going back and forth on the size and purity of each and every shard.
They had other items that they had decided to keep for themselves, both in shards and mana stones for their settlement’s advancement as well as their own. They would have kept the mana gems as well, but they needed the money even more.
“Everything looks to be in order,” Bragden said, scrutinizing the list.
“I’ll have a copy prepared for you,” Helmund said, stepping forward as Avery handed the ledger off to an assistant. “I must say, this is quite the haul! Do you think you can continue to bring this amount and quality of goods in the future?”
“I don’t see why not,” Glade said with a shrug. “It may take some time to establish ourselves, but after we’ve settled we should be able to have a fairly steady stream of goods of this kind and quality.”
“I must say, I too am impressed,” Avery said, standing up to shake Bragden’s and then his hand. “To have found three sources of unmixed shards, one of which is pure, is quite a boon!”
“Aye, it is,” Bragden said, giving a pointed glare at first Avery then Helmund. “And keepin their origin all quiet like is critical for our future success as business partners.”
“That goes without saying!” Helmund said in a cheerful voice. “All of our sellers are anonymous! That is the house rules, after all.”
“Are unmixed shards really that impressive?” Glade asked, looking at the other mixed shards. If they were, he could probably use his specialty to remove the lesser of the attunements from the mixed shards.
“Oh, my yes!” Helmund laughed, but not before giving Glade an odd look. He supposed his question highlighted his lack of knowledge, but at the moment he didn’t care. “Why do you ask? Do you have more unmixed shards squirreled away?”
“He’s new to this part o’ the business is all,” Bragden interjected, giving Glade the stink eye. “But we’ll be on the lookout for more unmixed shards, don’t ye worry.”
“Wonderful!” Helmund clapped his hands. “Well then, if I don’t miss my guess, I should offer you some breakfast before you head off to your lodgings.”
Glade groaned internally. He had worked under worse sleep deprivation conditions in the past, but that didn’t mean he liked it. He had been looking forward to seeing the city. Instead, he was going to be sleeping most of the morning away.
“When will the next auction be?” He asked Helmund after they secured their goods in a vault before being escorted to the exit.
“A week from today. While your goods may not be the main draw,” he said with a knowing wink. “They are going to make quite the splash!”
“Good enough for me,” Glade said before fighting off another yawn.
It was still dark outside when they made their way to the inn attached to the Sands arena, one of Helmund’s assistants escorting them. They had little trouble getting access to their room. There was even a bath waiting for him.
After he stripped and washed himself, the attendant on duty took his clothes to be laundered. After he was clean, he collapsed onto his soft bed and fell asleep.
A loud banging woke him after what felt like minutes.
“I’m coming!” he growled, pulling on a shirt before throwing open the door to murder whomever was making such a terrible racket.
“Oh good, you're awake!” Kedryn said smiling. “You need to hurry! Everyone’s at the arena already and Cirea said I needed to come get you. The teams’ duels are about to start and the Arsus and Shadow Striker team are first on the docket! They’ve won their last 7 fights, which means this next fight determines if they will earn the right to enter the Labyrinth. Hurry up and get dressed!”
Glade stared dumbfounded at Kedryn, trying very hard not to reach out and strangle him.
“I’ll catch the next one…” he began.
“Cirea said you’d say that. She says that if you don’t come she’ll drag you by your feet,” Kedryn said, his grin growing wider.
Glade groaned, knowing full well the crazy bailiff would do it too.
“I’ll be down in a moment,” he grumbled, slamming the door.
He quickly dressed, and was subsequently dragged through the common room and then through the inn’s personal entrance to the arena. The moment he crossed the threshold, he was deafened by a massive roar as people cheered and screamed.
“Bragden says there’s a sound barrier enchantment embedded in the inn’s walls!” Kedryn yelled in his ear as he led them to their seats. “Isn’t that awesome?”
Glade muttered something akin to an agreement under his breath, but he struggled to see through the bright light as his eyes adjusted to being outside.
The others in their group were already in their seats. Even Bragden was there, eating off of a massive plate of eggs and sausages.
Without a word, Glade sat next to him and grabbed a slice of bread before digging into the meal.
“That's mine!” Bragden snarled, but Glade glared him down. If he had to be there he was going to get some food for his troubles.
“CITIZENS OF THE FREE CITIES!” an announcer cried, his voice echoing throughout the arena through what Glade assumed was another enchantment. “NOW FOR THE EVENT YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR! THESE BRAVE SOULS HAVE FOUGHT AND BLED FOR THE CHANCE TO BE BLESSED BY THE ADJUDICATORS THEMSELVES! NOW, THEY STAND ON THE PRECIPICE OF VICTORY! HAVING WON 7 MATCHES IN A ROW, THESE UNDERDOGS NOW STAND TO CHALLENGE THE SANDS OWN ARENA AN 8TH TIME!”
Glade rolled his eyes, shoveling the food in his mouth. While he was interested in the fights themselves, he could have easily stayed in bed and caught a later match. Still, he had to admit the stadium was impressive. He had never personally been to the colosseum in Rome, but having studied it in great detail he thought the Sands was comparable in size.
The arena floor was a large area roughly the size of a football field with several closed gates surrounding the edges. Switching to his specialty, Glade noticed that there were several glowing runes throughout. He didn’t know what they did, but he would ask Bragden about them later.
“BUT BEFORE THEY COME OUT, LET ME INTRODUCE THEIR CHALLENGERS! FROM HOUSE FELLU, I GIVE YOU AN OLDER CHAMPION THAT HAS BEEN AWAY FROM THE SANDS FOR MANY YEARS! KIRKASH THE WHIRLING BLADE AND HIS COMPANION HARNEK!”
Glade paused in his chewing. He had heard the second name somewhere before…
“It's the black robe!” Bragden hissed, clutching Glade’s arms. “And the slagging Alpha!”
Sure enough, as Glade looked at the arena floor he saw two very familiar looking Gnolls walking out of one of the many gates.
“They can’t know we’re here!” Bragden hissed again.
“I don’t think they can see us,” Glade mused, patting Bragden’s arm in an effort to calm him down. “How can they be here though? They both died…”
Glade stopped talking, his mind catching up with him. They likely had rebirthed at a bind point away from the tunnels they had died in. But why were they here of all places?
“This can’t be a coincidence,” he muttered under his breath.
“They are likely being punished by their house,” Gent speculated as both Cirea and Kedryn boo’d loudly at the two Gnolls. “All I can say I feel sorry for the Arsus and the Shadow Striker.”
“AND NOW FOR THE HOPEFULS!” the announcer called. “I GIVE YOU THE ARSUS WHO GOES BY RUSSKI SOLDAT AND HIS TREELESS COMPANION SHADOW STRIKER!”
Glade furrowed his brow at the odd name.
“Russki Soldat?” he said aloud as Riya gave a cry. “NO!”
Two men walked out onto the arena floor, the larger of them a bare chested human with blond hair and broad shoulders who raised his gauntlet-covered arms high, getting the crowd even more excited. The other person next to him was completely covered in a dark cloak, his features hidden by the cloak’s raised cowl.
Glade felt the blood drain from his face as recognition ground his brain to a halt.
“Vlad?”