I’ve only been in Oosal a couple of days at this point and haven’t really seen much of it aside from Broad Street (which is the main east/west road through town leading between the Eastern Gate and the Noble Gate), and a smaller, south-running road that leads to the eastern docks. The Stoutbrooke Emporium, it turns out, is a little to the north of the Wide Sky Tavern, located in the space between what Flynt identifies as the arts and merchant districts.

The fact that the city has an arts district is surprising to me, but as we walk through, it certainly has that vibe. The street is lined with various galleries and specialty shops, tea rooms, and the occasional den of iniquity dressed up nicely in stunning town homes. They all have elegantly carved and painted signs, often in multiple languages—though, I notice, rarely in elvish, the script I’m now able to identify.

It’s late evening as we walk through, but the arts district is still bustling. Magical street lamps dot the road, and glittering light reflects brilliantly off snow banks piled up against the edges of buildings and at the base of trees that line the sidewalks.

The district itself feels very modern in some ways, reminding me of trendy, high-end neighborhoods in some of the cities I’ve lived previously: parts of Georgetown, London’s SoHo district, Newbury Street in Boston. But, you know, here there are more obvious brothels.

My colleagues don’t appear interested in those and, honestly, are unfazed by anything we’re walking past, which tells me this must all be fairly typical of Qeth. Still, the lights, the energy, I can’t help but be surprised and impressed as I try to take it all in.

Flynt leads us up a side street shopping arcade that stepped right out of London-Piccadilly. From the high rafters are strung lights similar to those that illuminate the Wide Sky Tavern courtyard, and their glow reflects off the stone ceiling. All the stores have large display windows filled with their wares. The arcade is populated with a jewelry store, a modiste, several tailors, a milliner, a stationary shop, a patisserie, and finally, Stoutbrooke’s Emporium of Literature and Curiosities. Below the name reads: Fulfilling an Adventurer’s Needs Since 432.

I briefly wonder how long ago that was and realize I really should check out a library or at least a calendar. Or, you know, generally learn anything about where I am. This Experience doesn’t seem to be lifting any time soon, and the faster I acclimate, the easier it’s going to be to go along with the ride.

The Emporium is massive—easily the largest shop in the arcade—with giant windows that present books, armor, décor, and weapons. It’s eclectic, to say the least, but well done; it doesn’t look like a ridiculous hodge-podge. Instead, everything seems carefully curated and in stellar condition. It’s closed, though, like most of its fellow shops—only the patisserie out front still has its lights on—but Flynt takes a key out of one of the pouches in the back of his belt and unlocks the door, ushering us into the dimness.

He snaps twice and a light above us flames to life, revealing a large room cluttered with bookshelves, tables, and armchairs all carefully arranged to provide maximum browsing space as well as opportunities to sit and peruse. It reminds me of the front of a bookstore back home, with tables that announce Recommendations, Newly Arrived, and Hate to Miss It. All the volumes are leather bound and lovely, but for every Stormbringers: A Family History, there’s a Dark Soul of the Night, which the small placard suggests is Eirina Tisdi’s most heart-wrenching and heated tale yet.

To the right of the door, there’s a large glass counter in which are a variety of artifacts, from gem-encrusted daggers to ancient looking tomes, and a giant display case rises up behind it boasting numerous volumes, as well as displayed swords, axes, and bows, several embroidered bags that have to be magical, and a pair of tall boots that aren’t that dissimilar from mine. On the display case sits a cash register that looks like a fantasy version of something that might be found in a cowboy saloon.

Next to the checkout area is a circular staircase that leads up to the next two levels. I can just see the sign on the wall outlining the ground floor (books), the middle level (curiosities), and the upper level (gear).

“I’ve been in here before,” Jonas says, looking around. “A really pretty part-elven woman helped me.”

Flynt nods as he locks the door behind us. “That’s Arda. She’s my half-sister and helps run the place on occasion.”

“Why just ‘on occasion’?”

“She lives up in Westen and runs our family shop up there.”

He pulls the curtains on the door and gestures for us to follow him through the ground level and to a door hidden in the far corner. A light flickers to life as we step onto the staircase that leads down into what turns out to be a comfortable cellar storeroom. There are three tables set up: two with various wares spread out on top, but the third is empty and surrounded by comfortable looking chairs. There’s also an overstuffed sofa in the back near a pair of bookshelves, and a couple of armchairs that match those on the upper level. Flynt closes the door behind us and smiles hesitantly.

“Da lives off-site. We shouldn’t have to worry about him. He won’t be back until the morning.”

Meg picks up a short sword from the table and gently pulls it out of its sheath, inspecting the edge. “Do you live off-site too?”

“No, just upstairs. I’m not sure what everyone’s arrangements are, but there are extra rooms available.”

“How much?” Tyrus asks.

Flynt seems to blush a little, a darker green coloring his cheeks. “No charge. You’re my party.”

He shifts under our stares, suddenly seeming a lot younger than he actually is. Not that I know how old he actually is, but he’s definitely a fully grown adult and not a high school sophomore trying to ingratiate himself with the cool kids.

“I’ll take you up on that,” Tyrus says.

Meg nods. “It’s a kind offer. We might as well. This would certainly be more comfortable than the boarding house where we’re staying in the Lower Ward.”

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

Flynt winces. “I should hope so. You shouldn’t be staying there.”

“We didn’t have a lot of options when we first came to town,” Jonas admits. “We took the first place we could afford.”

Tyrus plops a heavy pouch down on the table. “Speaking of afford… I’d like to divide up the coin if you all don’t mind. It feels wrong to be carrying this much with me.”

I pull the other coin pouches out of my bag and set them on the table as well. Together, we dump them out and sort them into iron, copper, silver, and gold. In total we have sixteen iron, twenty-seven copper, two hundred and sixty-six silver, and eighty-five gold.

Tyrus whistles between his teeth. “Eighty-five gold. That’s more than my family makes in a year.”

“It’s a lot of money,” Flynt agrees, which makes Tyrus scoff.

“You probably don’t even need to be adventuring, do you? A shop like this, in this location? You must have a pretty steady flow of riches.”

Flynt’s mouth and shoulders tighten. “Some years are better than others. We do fine, but it isn’t exactly mine.”

“Comfortable, though.” Tyrus raises an eyebrow. “You’re plenty comfortable.”

“I can’t deny it, and I won’t apologize for it either.”

“And you shouldn’t.” Meg casts a glare at Tyrus who folds his arms against it. “None of us can help who our families are or what they do. We’re only responsible for ourselves.”

“If anything, it makes me trust you more,” Jonas agrees. “You don’t need the money. You’re doing it for the right reasons.”

“I don’t think there are any wrong reasons for adventuring,” Flynt says.

“No?” Meg looks at him incredulously. “What about the people just in it to kill?”

Flynt clears his throat. “I didn’t even think about that.”

I clear my throat to interrupt. “Okay, so splitting it five ways. That’s going to be three iron each with one left over… five copper with two left over… fifty-three silver with one left over, and seventeen gold. I’m not sure what we should do with the extra. We would need to convert it to iron, and then we’d each get an additional… what? Twenty-four iron pieces with one left over. Maybe we can throw it in a fountain or something. Make a wish.”

I look up to find them staring at me like I sprouted a second head. “What?”

“You simply did that math,” Jonas observes.

“It’s just dividing by five.” In the real world, I work with numbers almost every day. I don’t love math, but I’ve gotten comfortable with it.

“Fair enough,” Flynt says. “Let’s count it out.”

We do and each put our share into our own money pouches, leaving the one iron, two copper, and single silver piece out on the table.

“How about we put that toward the get Keira a wardrobe fund?” Tyrus grins. “It’s not much, but it’ll at least get you some under things.”

“We don’t need to do that, I have my share.”

“Take what gets offered to you,” Meg replies. “Our gift to you.”

“Okay. Thank you. Now. What do we want to do about the stones?”

Flynt frowns. “What stones?”

I pull that pouch out of my bag as well and dump them out. “The diamond looks impressive, but I’m not sure about the others.”

“These are largely spell component gems,” Flynt says, inspecting them. “We could get a couple gold off them but might be better off saving them for when our magic advances.”

Tyrus nods. “I’m fine with that.”

“Really?” Meg looks at him incredulously. “Of all of us I’d expect you to have wanted to be as even about it all as possible.”

“Look,” Tyrus says, “as long as good faith is employed, I’m good with it. We can put things toward the group. I’m happy for things like elixirs, spell components, indivisible coins, to go to whoever needs it most. We’re a team, right? I can be a team player as much as anyone.”

“Speaking of elixirs.” I pull out the elixirs from the bag. “I found these. Tyrus found two Essence elixirs. The latter we felt should go to our healer, but I’m not sure about the healing elixirs.”

“Maybe those should go to Jonas as well,” Flynt says. “Just in case he needs them.”

“Or I was thinking one to Meg.” I gesture toward her. “She’s the one in the middle of everything all the time.”

We all look around at each other, and then Jonas hesitantly nods. “I can take them. I was going to invest in a magic pouch anyway. Not as big as Keira’s bag, but it would be good to have for things like that. Unless you want one, Meg.”

“No, I like the idea of you having back-up. I have you, I doubt I’ll need an elixir—or, if I do get to that point, I don’t know how I’m going to drink it in the heat of battle anyway.”

“Okay.” I hand them to our healer. “Maybe we can all go in together and get Jonas a magic pouch, then? If he’s getting it to help us all out, I don’t like the idea of him laying down all the coin.”

Jonas considers this a moment as he carefully sets the vials down. “Do we maybe want to create a team fund? Would that make sense? We can get a pouch, maybe start saving up for more elixirs?”

I nod. “I’m okay with that.”

“Sure,” Tyrus agrees. Meg and Flynt both exchange one of their wordless looks but they nod. “What do we think? Ten percent? Twenty?”

“Let’s say twenty percent rounding down, at least for now. I think we all have more money right now than we really expected to see any time soon.” Meg looks at me. “That’s what, Keira?”

“Uhm. Let’s see…” I try to remember the counts. “Three gold, ten silver, one copper. And I’ll throw in the extra pieces as well.” We all do our counting and turn one of the now empty pouches into the team money pouch. “Who should hold onto it?”

“You, obviously,” Flynt says.

“Why me?”

“You have the bag,” Meg agrees.

“But you don’t trust me.”

“I said I didn’t believe you, and I still don’t. But I trust you with this.”

The others nod solemnly. I sigh before I tie up the pouch and slip both it, the gems, and my own money purse into my bag. I check [Inventory] just to confirm everything.

> [Inventory]

>

> [1 Green Elixir of Stamina, Basic]

> [1 Cloak of Dragon Scales, Legendary]

> [1 Endless Journal, Basic]

> [1 Endless Ink Pen, Basic]

> [1 Deck Playing Cards, Mundane]

> [1 Pewter Mug, Mundane]

> [2 Lesser Enchanting Stones, Basic]

> [1 Key, Wide Sky Tavern and Inn, Mundane]

> [1 Toothbrush, Mundane]

> [1 Jar of Mouthsoap, Mundane]

> [1 Medicine Kit, Mundane]

> [2 Used Breakfast Wrappers, Mundane]

> [1 Vial Ice Spider Venom, Basic]

> [1 Cult of Zendriel Lore Master Robe, Basic]

> [1 Book: Lost Artifacts of the Dragon Wars, Mundane]

> [1 Book: Clash of the Ancients, Mundane]

> [1 Book: Life in the Times of Dragons, Mundane]

> [1 Guardian Angel of Qeth Statue (broken), Mundane]

> [4 Small Zendriel Effigies in Silver, Mundane]

> [9 Small Tapestries, Mundane]

> [1 Book: Ballad of Zendriel, Mundane]

> [1 Waterskin, 1 quarter full, Mundane]

> [1 Small Pouch, Mundane]

> [2 Rubies, Mundane]

> [1 Sapphire, Mundane]

> [1 Diamond, Mundane]

> [6 Onyx, Mundane]

> [1 Amethyst, Mundane]

> [1 Medium Coin Pouch, Mundane]

> [24 Gold Pieces]

> [64 Silver Pieces]

> [7 Copper Pieces]

> [3 Iron Pieces]

> [1 Small Coin Pouch, Mundane]

> [15 Gold Pieces]

> [51 Silver Pieces]

> [7 Copper Pieces]

> [1 Iron Pieces]

My head spins from the math, but it feels like it adds up. I dismiss it, then remove those damn wrappers, holding them up toward Flynt as I’m completely unsure where to put them. When I do, I take stock of my party, all of whom have taken seats around the table, leaning back in them, looking exhausted.

“Flynt. Didn’t you mention drinks?”