“Good morning! Hello! Hello?”

Cal woke with his eyes gummy and a crick in his neck. Bright morning sunlight filtered in through the grubby windows of the shop front, lighting up the motes of dust that rose into the air as Cal stood awkwardly and stretched.

A figure stood outside - no, two figures. They were silhouetted against the morning light. One was Jason, Cal recognized his shadow, but the other was new to him, a small, round figure, who was holding something in one hand and knocking on the window-glass with the other.

Cal shuffled groggily across the bare boards to the door, turned the handle, and pulled the door open.

“It wasn’t locked,” he groaned, peering out into the morning. Bright sun, cold snow, blue sky. Early. It must be really early, because the sun was still low in the sky. How long had he been asleep?

Not long, he thought. He remembered wandering round the shop, examining things with his newly enchanted eyeglass. He’d found a few more useful things - a big ledger, mostly unused except for the first few pages, a bundle of quill pens, an unopened bottle of ink. Then he’d dragged the only serviceable chair out to the front shop, sat down behind the counter, and laid his head on his hands.

Maybe three hours sleep?

“Come in,” he said, waving for his visitors to enter. “Leave the door open, it could do with a change of air in here.”

Jason came in, followed by the stranger. Cal sat back down in the chair behind the counter, and Jason put a paper cup of coffee down in front of him. The stranger smiled genially around at the interior of the shop, then stepped forward and placed a second cup of coffee next to the one Jason had brought. Then he added a paper packet which steamed in the cold air that was now filling the shop.

Cal squinted at the man. He was big, jovial, red-faced and twinkling-eyed. His great thick mustache had a fleck of what looked like flour on one end, and he smelled of fresh-baked bread.

“You’re my new neighbor,” Cal said after a moment. He recognized the man from last night. This was the fellow who’d stepped out of an adjoining door to empty his bucket in the backyard.

“Alyn Longjaw,” the man said, continuing to smile, and stepping forward to shake Cal’s hand. “I’m your neighbor next door.” Alyn nodded to his right, then tapped the paper packet he’d laid on the counter. “I brought you some breakfast from my shop to say welcome to the neighborhood. Best bread rolls this side of the Jut River, even if I do say so myself!”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Cal blinked, then grinned suddenly. “Thanks!” he said, suddenly feeling more awake as the smell of fresh bread and bacon reached his nostrils. He popped the lid off the nearest of the paper cups and inhaled deeply the smell of fresh coffee. “And two coffees.”

“One from each of us,” Jason said. “Alyn here was telling me about his suppliers. They have some contacts with the adventurer guild as well as being a coffee importer.”

Cal pricked up his ears as he started to drink the hot coffee. “I have a few contacts already with the guilds, but I’ll need to establish a relationship with a steady supplier sooner rather than later.”

“I don’t know much about enchanting, or enchanting supplies,” Alyn admitted. “I’m just a baker, and I’m most interested in getting the best flour for bread and sugar for cakes, but Biddle and Kronk, who I get my coffee from, do a trade in more exotic goods. I’ve definitely seen some adventure teams around the place when I go there to put in my coffee order. I was planning to go down this afternoon. Why don’t you come with me? I can introduce you.”

Cal smiled. “Thanks, Alyn,” he said. “That’d be great.” Most adventurer teams were like this - they hunted monsters in the Westmountain Shore and the Wildlands over to the north and west of Roon Isle, where Jut City lay, then they came back and sold their harvested cores to wholesalers for a good price. Cal wondered if he’d be able to afford what the exotic goods merchant would charge, but he’d go along anyway. Perhaps the merchant would let him have some cores on credit.

When the baker had gone back to his shop, Cal and Jason wandered around the shop while they drank their coffee. Cal told Jason about the eyeglass, and Jason tried it, but he couldn’t see anything.

“That’s interesting,” Cal said. “I must have tuned it to myself by accident, and now no one else can see the information it displays.”

Jason grinned. “What does it say about me?”

Cal turned the eyeglass on Jason.

Jason Lightwell

Class: Stone Singer

Subclass: Color Weaver

Magic Level: 3

Reputation: Good

Energy Level: Good

Cal told Jason what the eyeglass said, and Jason chuckled.

“I think it’s going to be most useful when it comes to doing enchantments,” Cal explained. “I’ll be able to see the nature and status of enchanting supplies, spells, and that kind of thing. It will allow me to really know what I’m doing in a precise way, rather than relying on feel, like most enchanters do. With a bit of practice, I should be able to make some really good enchantments, and probably offer something that most other enchanters can’t offer.”

“Good!” Jason said. “I’ve been thinking, you’re going to need a bit of help getting this place in order. I’ve got a free day today, and I contacted Jerome out in Realgood Street - the man whose fireplace I’m meant to be renovating - and put him off for a day so that I can have tomorrow free as well. I think it would be best if I spent a bit of time here to help you clear the place out. What do you say?”

Cal was very grateful. Apart from anything else, having Jason here to help with the clear out would give Cal the time he needed to go and see the suppliers that Alyn had mentioned. Cal would need a supply of monster cores before he could begin enchanting in earnest, and that meant getting a relationship with a reliable supplier as soon as possible.