After finishing with Doireann, Velvet checked her spoils. Like Agorn, they carried around 5000 auris each, which put her current capital at 25000 auris.

Two times was a coincidence, but three times was a pattern. Did apprentice mages always carry 5000 auris with them? Of course, they could simply store savings inside their bedrooms, which in turn were inside a pocket mirror inhabited by official mages, something Velvet couldn't do.

That only could mean conflicts tended to arise every now and then, and that Velvet wasn’t the only novice mage plundering another. Which was both good and bad. Good because official mages wouldn’t come knocking on her door and bad because what you do can be done to you. And she didn’t have any safe house.

She could try to summon any fairy who was interested in doing safekeeping, but… Velvet didn’t really like to have her money where she didn’t feel it. As a knowledge mage, greed played half the part, and going against her greedy tendencies could harm her mental state. She needed her mind focused on these two months, not if her money was safe in a fairy’s hands.

Even so, 25000 auris were enough to tear down Casrey’s orphanage, rebuild it again, buy enough terrain to build a greenhouse, a farm, hire several workers to take care of those and pay them more than a fair wage.

If she were to go back, she would become the richest person in Casrey. Not that that was possible, but it was a way to explain her current capital. Having said that, mage lifestyle did cost much more than normal humans.

Next, she checked the pets. Lox was carrying three containers and one feeding ball full of rats.

The first container had a bunch of snakes tangled into a ball. They coiled constantly around each other, keeping as together as possible. Their size was small, so Velvet guessed they were used as ingredients for potions.

The second one had a swamp. And that was it. Well, not really. Velvet saw something swimming under the murky waters, but the waters were just too dirty to see. Maybe some sort of fish.

The third one had a mop. A literal mop. The thing used for mopping. Probably some artifact, Velvet didn’t have the time or opportunity to ask Lox, so she didn’t know what it did.

Now, Doireann’s stuff. Velvet remembered Hasdrubal telling her to switch mermaid tears for mermaid blood, so she hoped one of her containers had a mermaid. And it did.

Just, not alive. Mermaids, like other magical beings, were impossible to imprison in a container, since they could simply use their own magic to break the formation.

Like the monkey being sold at the auction, the mermaid had been dissected and stored in a glass chamber filled with liquid, with smaller glass jars containing the organs and other parts ready for use. Doireann had spent almost half of it, but it was a good prize nonetheless.

The other container had an egg. A big, blue egg.

“Hm. Omelette…” Velvet joked to herself. She was not going to do that, but it was night and she still hadn’t eaten anything, so the thought was unavoidable.

And tentative, but she forcefully pushed it back, after licking her lips.

She didn’t know if the egg had a chance to hatch, or if it was simply a potion ingredient.

“Hyde, do you recognize this egg?” She asked, not really expecting an affirmative answer.

“No, but it’s probably from a reptile.”

“How are you so sure?” She didn’t see anything which pointed towards the egg having scaly parents.

“It gives me reptilian vibes.”

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“Vibes? The egg gives you vibes?”

“I’m a demon, I can feel vibes.”

She stood in silence for a moment. “How do Frenese’s vibes feel?”

“Hungry.”

“How do my vibes feel?”

Now it was Hyde’s turn to be silent.

“That bad?”

“You are a mage that’s killed several mages. At this point, not only demons sense the bloody vibes coming from you. No wonder mages prefer to backstab you than negotiate.”

Hey now, that last point was unnecessary… “Am I better or worse than Alrai?”

“Worse.” Hyde didn’t even try to soften the blow.

“Ahaha…” She let out a tense laugh, before going back to the egg.

A reptile, hm?

She hoped it was the offspring of a magical creature. If it was, and it imprinted on her, the creature wouldn’t try to escape the container, and she would have a stable source of materials of maximum quality.

Of course, if it was, there was no way Doireann wouldn’t try to get it back. But, like with the box, Velvet wasn’t planning on going to war for its ownership. She accepted offers, and money didn’t need maintenance.

That being said, she was hungry.

…

After a trip down the Mergifari’s food stalls, Velvet brought several skewers of roasted squid, zucchini, mushrooms and some unidentified fish, two bowls of coleslaw, a beer and a bottle of lemonade, all for takeout.

She wanted to ask Tristan about the mop artifact, and, since the woman probably also hadn’t eaten, Velvet wanted to bribe her with food.

Like before, Tristan was in her workshop, now in the Mergifari’s Archives, or, the Second Tower. Velvet climbed the spiral staircase, not before informing Merrs of who she was visiting, as to have free entrance. Even so, the free entrance only allowed her to go to Tristan’s archive, and not to snoop around.

She hadn’t even tried to do so before Merrs explicitly told her that.

Knocking on the door, Velvet entered after hearing a voice, opening the door to see Tristan working on an immense machine.

“Huh, what’s that?” The half built part of the machine looked like the suit sailors used to dive underwater, but with some drills for gloves. The other part was still being made, showing the gears, machinery and the metallic skeleton for the user to safely go and remain inside.

Tristan’s voice came from inside the hole in the suit, only her lower half body visible, standing on a ladder. “A prototype for a new Driller model for the SP. The Higher Ups want them to be fAsTeR.” The annoyed tone in which she said that wasn’t lost to Velvet. “You can ask for security or speed, but those idiots only care about speed. If they had two working brain cells, they would understand that security works better long term, and allows to keep more workers around, but-”

Crack.

Velvet heard Tristan cursing, before taking something out. “Pass me a replacement.” Not waiting for her answer, Tristan tossed a broken cylinder at Velvet’s general direction.

A paper figurine sacrificed its cleanliness to grab the greased piece before it hit Velvet.

The cylinder had symbols wrapped around it, who glowed faintly under the room’s light, even after being covered in grease. Ignoring the crack at the top, the materials employed on its fabrication were noticeable.

Is that gold? Indeed, the formation was engraved in gold, with thin, microscopic threads composing the symbols and writings.

With only a glimpse, one could acknowledge that the piece was very expensive, and took a lot of work just to be made. Just for Tristan to toss it to her like rubbish.

And not only that. On the floor there was a box filled with the exact same cylinders, who were separated from each other by smaller, cushioned wooden boxes.

“Do I need to grease it?” She asked, carefully picking one.

“No.”

Velvet gave her the cylinder, and, knowing Tristan, tried to negotiate. “I brought food, why don’t we eat?”

“Let me finish this first, we can eat later. Since you’re already here, make some copies of the blueprints on the table, and archive the originals.”

A sensation of dread crept over her back, making her shudder. “But the food will go cold…”

Not taking her attention away from the machine, Tristan ignored her pleas. “Heat it up with magic once we’re done.”

Velvet pressed her lips in silence. But I am hungry…