Vachlan led the two of them, when they finished eating, out of the house and back to the slope-stairs.

“Zeisad is someone who lives at the halfway point,” she pointed out as they began climbing. “That way, no matter what direction his clients come from, they’re given the same time and distance to get to the house of exchange.”

“The house of exchange?” Rive echoed. “Sounds like he does more than exchange items for coin.”

“Good ear,” acknowledged Vachlan, nodding. “It’s true, though I don’t use the area in the back. That’s for a different type of exchange. It’s a few minutes before us at a good pace, but you can see it from here as well.”

Rive moved so they were next to Seren. “A thought. If we’re going to be around people who talk for a living, then Captain Serri’s what you need to be known by.”

“Oh?” Vachlan tilted her head to the side, and Seren was amused to see that her walking took on a slant. “You’ve been calling her Seren, so what did I count as?”

“Not someone who enjoys talking to people,” Rive responded. “A seller of items is always a seller of information. I mean, technically anyone is, but if there is anyone following us, then they wouldn’t ask a random beastkin like Vachlan. The people in charge of shops, however. They would be fair game.”

“Agreed.” Seren nodded a thanks to Rive. “Captain Serri from here on out. Raintide Sea faction, and our only ship’s the Picotree Drop.”

She felt a warmth in her chest as her crew agreed, and a place created of unique stones came into view. It didn’t have a pattern like Tairdi’s library did, but it wasn’t like Vachlan’s home and everyplace else they’d seen here, where the walls were of one type of rock, the doors were hollowed-out spaces, and woven fabrics to cover the doors and windows.

Here, that idea was turned on its head. The doorway, she saw as they grew closer, was a physical doorway, one that swung outward, and which looked to have every broken fragment of rock found throughout time stuck to it. There were red specks, blue bits, green shards, and all the colors in between, some of them smoky browns, light blacks, and dark whites.

“I… see...”

“It’s showing that everything is welcome here,” grumbled Vachlan, turning up the slope leading to the building. When they arrived at the door, she had already grabbed it with a claw and slid it to the side. Seren checked and saw that there was a clever indentation where the entire door could go, spaced large enough that nothing would scratch.

The place looked very much as if the door had vomited inside, except this time there were more than rocks and crystals around the place. There were ropes, glasses, lanterns, rocks, and other things that Seren couldn’t identify.

“Zeisad?” Vachlan stepped inside, her feet clacking against the floor. “Are you in?”

“Where else would I be, little Vachlan?” A much bigger beastkin that any of them had seen stepped into the room, fur running in wide stripes of black and white along his chest. “And I know you haven’t been needing much from me lately, so there must be good trades in the future for us!”

“No.” Vachlan stepped to the side and pointed a wing. “These are the two you need to trade with, part of the Raintide Faction. I’m reporting to the council.”

The being made a face, and Seren continued trying to figure out what type of beast it shared its features with. There were the stripes along their torso, fangs jutting from their smiling mouth, and heavy paws that reminded her of Tairdi. But other than that, she wasn’t sure what kind of beast they were. No tail either, and his ears were rather small.

“Deal with them fairly, or I’ll scratch your door again,” warned Vachlan. She turned to Seren and Rive. “I’m going to report to the council and see what they say about our recent haul. I’ll come find you when we’re done.”

She turned and strode out of the place, her tail tucking over her shoulder so that it didn’t hit the door. Which left her and Rive along with Zeisad.

“So...” he said, taking a few faltering steps out from behind the counter. Seren noticed he was using it to hold his weight when he came over, leaning and pushing off when moving. “I see she has left the two of you in my care.”

He wasn’t giving off a feeling that he’d care for them.. Maybe what they brought to trade, but that was about it.

“Here,” she said, pulling out the rock she’d decided to sell first. Out of all the colors, the blue wasn’t as pretty as the orange and the green, so she was happy enough to start with that. “What can you give me in exchange for this?”

“Ahh...” he breathed, limping closer. “You’re the outsiders who have been fishing for the rocks. This is a splendid specimen. Now, I can give you many things, but I think you’ll find that the question to ask is more, ‘what am I willing to trade’?”

Seren almost laughed at the bickering she saw ahead of them. He was already acting like her father, so she at least had something to base her negotiations on.

“Something to note is that Rive also has a rock that they want to sell as well.” She motioned to them and made a gesture to pull it out of their pocket. Rive arched an eyebrow at her, but nodded and slid their stone onto the counter, putting it next to Seren’s. The smoky gray set off the blue of hers nicely. “As you can see, we have two stones that we would like to sell through you. As my friend Vachlan told me, it sounds as if you’re the only person in this town that deals in coin.”

Zeisad nodded and smiled large enough it looked as if he was squinting. “Very true. Others will take and give coin as change, or course, but I’m the best place to turn an object wholly into coin.”

“I see. Then, you might as well know that we’re going to need to buy supplies in this town for our ship.” Seren let her eyes linger on the rope near the doorway, some bags of dried food she could see stacked in a corner. “Which means, of course, that the coin will go to you.”

“Captain Serri,” Rive whispered, “what are you doing?”

“And in turn,” continued Seren, ignoring him and focusing her attention, “what you give us is going to be up to you. You could, for example, give us a stingy rate of coin for our rocks, and then we wouldn’t be able to buy the items around here at whatever marked up price you tell us.”

A gleam appeared in Zeisad’s eye. “I see you know your way around bargaining,” he rasped, trying to cover a cough.

“None of this includes what we’ll say to others traveling here, which means a bargain would have free marketing for you.” Seren walked over and touched one of the ropes. “So, if you’re stingy and we can’t get supplies, then we might have to tell people that it wasn’t worth coming to this town to trade.”

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“I have enough trade in town, thank you very much,” he said. “You threatening me with talk about my place doesn’t scare me.”

“It should?” Seren stopped and looked back. “I mean, if I can tell people you’re more than fair in your dealings, then they’ll be happy to come here. When you give them too little coin, they’ll think it’s proper. And when you overcharge for items, they’ll think that’s normal.”

Rive, she saw, was looking at her as if she’d grown a second head. The shop keeper, on the other hand, had a smile that continued to get bigger and bigger.

Zeisad hissed and dipped his head. “An interesting idea to consider.”

Seren grinned. She had him.

“It is. I recognize you need to keep some currency for yourself. Used to pursue your own entertainment.” She waited. “But by acting against your principle of getting all the coin you can out of us, you will gain even more in the future.”

He nodded, tapping a claw on the counter.

“You make an excellent point. But why do you think people are going to be coming to this area more than they already do now?” He spread his paws out. “You are the only outsiders here. Tourism is not exactly booming.”

She reached out to stroke one of the dried food bags. Whatever made up the cloth was rough and durable.

“I’m sure there’ll be more people coming. We know about Tairdi and xyr library, and that’s a significant reason for people to be right at the top of Azmar. As soon as they hear about it, that is. The reason there’s no tourism now is that there’s nothing to do. Give beings a reason, and you’ll have more items than you’ll know what to do with, since they’re going to bring things from their homes.”

He let out a small sound, almost a purring rasp.

“There is that... and if tourists leave behind things not commonly found here, then I’ll be able to sell at a profit.” Zeisad gave a decisive nod, then let out a laugh. “And I see that if you leave here unsatisfied, then those tourists will not be told of the place they can go to trade their treasures.”

“Exactly.”

“It is nice to do business with someone who knows how to bargain well and fairly!” he boomed, lunging and grabbing Seren by the waist, Rive’s hand knocked aside. He threw her up in the air before she could let out more than a squeak of surprise. “You, outsider, are a fun person to talk with! Yes, very much so! Unlike that old bear over there.”

Seren twisted even as she was being placed back on the floor. “Tairdi? What are you doing here?”

“I came by to see if there were any books to pick up from Zeisad.” Xe looked at the shopkeeper. “I’m guessing no?”

“No.” He turned and leaned on the counter again, moving behind as if it was a place of refuge. “I have no more books for you. I didn’t have any yesterday or today, and I won’t have any tomorrow.”

Seren frowned at that last part. Sure, Tairdi might have already been in yesterday and today to check, but how could xe have already looked into the future?

“I thought that might be the case,” xe said, nodding. Xe looking at Seren. “I was actually coming to check on friends.”

“Ah...” Zeisad’s lips narrowed, and the joy fled from their face. “These two mentioned you in passing, that’s true. Didn’t think they knew you well enough to be labeled ‘friends’.”

The atmosphere of the small store had changed, but Seren wasn’t sure exactly why. Tairdi wasn’t doing anything aggressive, just being there, but Zeisad wasn’t taking any effort to mask his revulsion at the... conversation? Presence? Maybe there would be an opportunity to dig into the details later, when they were back up top with Tairdi. Maybe. Xe’d seemed pretty private about some parts of xyr life and this might be something that xe didn’t want to talk about.

“Where’s Vachlan?”

“Reporting to the council,” Seren replied.

“Yeah. She’s also telling them she’s part of our crew now,” Rive added, their tone of voice showing their happiness at that action. “Captain asked her if she wanted to sail with us, and she decided”—they cut off as Tairdi turned to them, xyr face locked in a snarl and claws fully extended.

“What?!”

“Um... said she’d join us?” Rive drew back a bit. “Is that a bad thing? She was unhappy here.”

Tairdi didn’t answer. Instead, xe turned, slammed the door to the side, and strolled out.

“What was that about?” asked Seren, looking at Zeisad. “And why were you so rude to xem?”

“Because no one here’s happy with xem and xyr decisions.” Zeisad sighed, rubbing both of his cheeks. “Look. We tolerate xem. But xe’s not wanted here.”

“Why?”

“Long ago, xe stayed silent when there was going to be a storm of high waters and winds, and we can’t forgive xem for being quiet. Simple as that.” The shopkeeper turned to the right and started shuffling through papers. “We figured it all out that night. Xe’s got farsight. Start adding up where xe could have saved a life, kept a marriage together, stopping a place from burning down. Then it becomes a hundred and one other events we can’t forgive.”

Serri bit her lip. She wanted to shout out that magic wasn’t one hundred percent dependable, wasn’t even fifty percent sometimes. Nineteen times out of twenty, her dad could cast an air spell, but that twentieth time saw the energy behind such spells flagging. And her father was good at charm—great, even! But that didn’t mean he didn’t run into people he couldn’t control.

Rive nudged her with their shoulder.

“I can understand that mindset,” they said, looking at Serri. “Although I prefer to think of my future as something I can change at whim and not anything that’s locked into place.”

She saw the shopkeeper’s mouth open, then close into a firm line.

“However, that’s neither here nor there. Captain Serri is here to buy supplies from you at a fair price, and as the first mate of the Picotree Drop, I’m happy to take over that duty. The rope, please. Along with some other supplies.”

“The other supplies being...?” asked Zeisad, waving his paw for them to continue.

“Some travel food. And as my captain has raised the idea of entertainment, I’d like to see which books you have that may have caught her eye.” Rive flashed a smile. “She’s building a library on the ship, but I don’t remember which books are already there.”

“As long as you promise none of these are going to that...” Zeisad struggled with what they wanted to say. “That cretin.”

“Sure thing,” said Rive, holding out a hand. “I promise I will give none of the books we buy from you to Tairdi.”

The shopkeeper squinted at Rive, but brought their hand out and shook it.

“Very well. Captain Serri, if you’d like to look at this shelf here, these are the books I currently have for sale. If your crewmember would tell me the rope dimensions and the amount of food the two of you wanted, then I think we can move onto bargaining shortly.” He rubbed his hands together. “And we can talk about what you’ll say about me to bring in future customers.”

Seren wanted to ask Rive why they were being a jerk to Tairdi, who’d used up a lot of xyr energy to dowse for them when they couldn’t afford it. It would be better to present a divided front, though, so the two of them could get the best deal. Once they were out of earshot, she decided she would ask Rive what they were thinking about.

It didn’t seem likely that Rive agreed with the shopkeeper. They and Tairdi had shared their love of tea after all. That had to mean something other than having a drink in common. At least, she’d hoped they were becoming friends.

Rive and the shopkeeper wandered off to where the rope was, them trying to explain that they didn’t know exactly how much they needed, but they had a rough idea. Serri started looking through the books. There weren’t that many, to be honest. Either books didn’t sell often down here or the town had a lot of readers that kept the supply low.

“Dance Fight,” she read aloud, her finger running down the spine. She hadn’t planned on getting more books, but if Rive didn’t mind having a small library on board, then she would happily fill any space with books. There was so much more to the world than she knew, or at least had been taught, and a small part of her wanted to make up for lost time. Another, larger part whispered that knowledge was power.

Look at Tairdi, trading knowledge for coin. At Rive, knowing when to lie—or at least, she hoped that was one. And while one had information most couldn’t see , and the other had experiences perfecting their art, she could supplement her book learning and help that way.