“Jason!” Cal called out across the crowd. His old friend had appeared from the direction of the restaurants. Jason was looking well, smartly turned out in a good evening coat of dark blue over a jet black tunic, and he even wore a glint of silver at his neck. He seemed to be alone, and from the look on his face, he was here with a definite purpose.

Many of the people around Cal were visiting the auction for fun. Even if you weren’t serious about buying, an auction at Randall’s was something enjoyable to do in the evening before dinner. Jason’s expression told a different story. Aside from his fashionable clothing, he looked more like one of the somber agents than a regular customer.

Jason hadn’t heard Cal calling over the chatter of the other people. Instead of shouting again, Cal made his way through the crowd toward his friend. He had to push a little to get through, but after a minute he had got within reach of Jason, and he reached out to touch his friend on the shoulder.

Jason turned and his serious expression melted away into a smile of recognition. They hadn’t seen each other for ages, and they both found it particularly funny that they should meet again here at the auction house, exactly where the whole adventure of the Emporium had begun.

“Cal!” Jason exclaimed. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”

“Same,” Cal said, grinning. “But I’m not here for the auction. I came down to see if I could get a word with Randall, the auctioneer. I guess he’s going to be pretty busy until the evening’s entertainment is finished, though.”

Jason looked around at the packed and excited crowd. “I guess you’re right there,” he said, gloomily. “There’s a lot of people here tonight, more than I’d hoped.”

“What are you here for?” Max asked. “You don’t look like you’re just here for the fun of it. Are you after something in particular?”

“A bound set of The Saga of the Sinking Sun,” Jason said, indicating an item on his own price list. “You know I like my dwarven sagas, and this is a really nice edition. It’s nearly 70 years old and has woodcut illustrations by Kosa Ren. This is a really rare edition, but looking at this crowd I don’t know how much chance I’ll have to get my hands on it.”

Cal looked at the listing on Jason’s pamphlet. “The Saga of the Sinking Sun is quite a way down the list,” he said. “It’ll be a while before it comes up for bidding. Why don’t we find somewhere quiet and have a drink before you go in? It seems like ages since we’ve seen each other.”

“Yeah, all right!” Jason agreed happily. “I was going to push my way in and get a good seat so I could watch the action, but I wasn’t expecting to have company and it’s going to be pretty stuffy in there with this crowd. I’ve probably got an hour at least before I have to go in. Good idea, let’s go and get something to drink and a bite to eat, then we can sit down and get up to date with each other’s news. I want to hear all about the Emporium.”

The cafes and restaurants on the main street near the auction house were too busy and too posh for their tastes, but they didn’t have to go far to find somewhere that met their needs better.

“Come up this way,” Jason said. “I know a place that’s more our style.”

Jason took Cal up a small side street that led off between a hat shop and an expensive restaurant. Here, there were a number of smaller eateries for people who wanted to stop quickly, rather than settling in for a full evening’s dinner. The place Jason led Cal to was called Tomorrow’s, and it seemed to be run by a team of small creatures that Cal initially had trouble recognising.

Gnomes! Cal thought after a moment. That’s unusual. I knew there were gnomes in Jutlyn, but I haven’t seen them running a business before.

One of the gnomes came up and ushered Cal and Jason toward a seat near the window, welcoming them and offering them a drinks menu.

“What’ll you have?” Jason asked. “My treat this evening.”

“Oh, you sure you’re buying?” Cal asked.

Jason nodded. “I came into some money recently. I did a good turn for one of my clients a few years ago. He died a couple of weeks back, and I just found out yesterday that he’d left me a gift in his will. Not much, just a few hundred crowns, but he left it with the message that I was to use it to enjoy myself rather than for anything serious. So, I’m on a mission to enjoy myself. That’s why I’m out here chasing expensive copies of illustrated dwarven sagas, and I’d say buying you a drink counts as enjoying myself, too!”

“Well, thanks,” Cal said, smiling. He didn’t usually drink; it wasn’t something he had ever been particularly interested in. Now, however, he cast his eye over the beer menu and read the names and descriptions of what was on offer.

“Okay, I’ll have a Long North ale, I think,” Cal said.

Jason nodded and caught the eye of a passing server. “Two Long Norths, please,” he said. “And a snack platter, too, just a selection of whatever’s on this evening.”

The gnome nodded and trotted off.

They were small creatures, these gnomes, much smaller than dwarves, though they were by no means the smallest of the inhabitants of Jutlyn. The fae that worked in the telepathogram service and had a monopoly on the laundrette service in the city had that distinction. The gnomes who ran Tomorrow’s were perhaps three feet in height, but they were strangely proportioned in a way that gave the impression of being tall and thin despite their actual size. They had long fingers, thin faces, narrow shoulders, and the distinctive floppy pointed hats with colored tassels that were the classic garment of the gnomic people. Bright blocks of single colors defined their clothing, with most of them seeming to prefer yellows, reds, blues, greens, and purples.

The strange physical appearance, bright clothing, and distinctive hats, coupled with the peculiarly piercing gaze that they all had made the gnomes easy to spot in the cafe, and Cal looked after the little server with interest as he bustled away.

“Unusual, isn’t it?” Jason said, seeing Cal’s look. “I don’t think there’s anywhere else I can think of in Jutlyn that’s run by a family of gnomes.”

“A family business, is it?” Cal asked.

Jason nodded. “The name Tomorrow’s comes from the name of the gnome who started the restaurant, Tomorrow Greencloth.”

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“That’s an odd name,” Cal said.

“It’s just different from our naming conventions,” Jason said with a shrug. “Anyway, Tomorrow Greencloth - Tom, they called him - migrated to Jutlyn back when the city was going through its boom phase in the years after the war ended. Tom Greencloth brought his family with him and started a little restaurant not far from where the Clothmakers Guild is now, over the river in Seawitch Village, you know it?”

Cal grinned, thinking of Maddie and the conversation he’d just had with her.

“What?” Jason asked, seeing Cal’s smile.

“Oh, nothing,” Cal said. “I’ll tell you later. Carry on with your story.”

Before Jason could do so, however, the server returned with the drinks and a selection of snacks balanced on a tray. The gnome beamed at them, his pale eyes glittering with pleasure as he swiftly and neatly set two brimming glasses and several bowls of snacks on the table between them.

“Thanks,” Cal said to the gnome. The server was dressed in bright blue from head to foot, except for his boots, which were made from gleaming dark brown leather. As the gnome met Cal’s eyes and smiled, Cal caught an unsettling glimpse of a packed row of needle-sharp white teeth between the thin, pale lips.

Cal shuddered involuntarily as the gnome departed.

“Strange,” Cal said. “I find them kind of unsettling.”

Jason nodded. “They’re not to be taken lightly,” he said. “Gnomes are - or perhaps I should say were - pretty fierce. They had a reputation in the early days of the city, that’s for sure.”

“Really?” Cal said, surprised.

“Oh, yeah,” Jason said. “In the early days, Jutlyn was a rougher city than it is now. You have to remember that when the city was expanding, the war had just ended, and part of the peace settlement was that the warring realms would have open borders with each other for civilians. Or course, more often than not civilians in that context ended up meaning recently demobilized soldiers, so you had a rapidly growing city with lots of experienced, trained, hardened fighters turned loose on civilian life and expected to work things out among themselves in the matter of choosing who got which land to start a business. Tom Greencloth and his gnomes had to fight hard to carve their niche, but they did so, and in time ended up moving their restaurant up here, where there was more custom. Cheers!”

Cal had been hanging on Jason’s every word, but as Jason lifted his glass, Cal smiled and did the same. The Long North ale was served in heavy glass tankards that were similar in shape to the pewter tankards that dwarves favored for their ale, but the thick glass meant the color of the ale could be seen, gleaming a rich, deep gold in the warm light of Tomorrow’s.

“Here’s to the future,” Jason said.

Cal was happy to drink to that. “The future,” he said, and their glasses knocked together with a satisfying clink.

Cad paused for a moment before he drank, breathing in the rich, hoppy scent. The ale tasted as good as it smelled; crisp, refreshing, with a hint of fruit and roasted meat.

“Ah, that’s delicious,” Jason said as he put the glass down. “Good choice.”

“I just liked the name and the description on the menu,” Cal said with a smile. “I’m afraid I don’t know much about drinks.”

Jason chuckled. “There certainly is a lot to know if you get into it. It’s not exactly a small topic, and it’s getting bigger all the time. There never used to be so many beers, but these days everyone seems to be making something new. Hey, maybe you should get into beer making? Enchanter Ale could go down well!”

They both laughed at that.

“I think I’ve got enough on my plate for the moment,” Cal said as he helped himself to some of the snacks. There were sun-dried tomatoes in rich oil, spiced just enough to give them a pleasant kick. Next to these in a little bowl was a selection of crisp little biscuits, some of them with cheese through them, others with black pepper and still others flavored with rosemary and sea salt. A small plate held a selection of cheeses and cured meats, and there was a bowl with mixed olives and pickled garlic, and another with slices of sea bream poached in lemon juice and honey. Next to these lay a generous basket of soft fresh bread that they could use to soak up the oil and juices from the snack bowls.

“This is some spread,” Cal said. “I didn’t expect quite this much food when we ordered snacks.”

“The snacks at Tomorrow’s are legendary,” Jason explained. “It’s one of the reasons I like the place so much. They don’t do full meals here, but they make the snack plates big enough that you can eat and be fully satisfied while you have a drink.”

They drank their beers and munched their snacks in quiet contentment for a few minutes. Cal felt grateful for the size of the snack plates at Tomorrow’s. Apart from a few biscuits at Maddie’s place, he’d barely eaten that day, and it had been a very full day at that. What with freeing ghosts from their binding, sorting out Alyn’s spider problem, and getting the samples of the cloth, Cal felt he’d hardly stopped.

“A busy day, then?” Jason asked, as if echoing Cal’s thought.

Cal swallowed some more Long North and nodded. “There’s been a lot going on,” he agreed, and launched into an account of everything that had happened in the shop since Jason had visited last.

There was a lot to tell, and they got through the snacks and were well into a second beer by the time they had finished. Cal didn’t hold back. The only thing he didn’t tell Jason about was the abilities that had allowed Laria to free Sark from his binding. That, Cal thought, was Laria’s secret alone, and not something that he should let on to anyone, not even Jason, no matter how much Cal trusted him.

At the end of the story, Jason sat back and shook his head in amazement. “I had no idea anything like this would develop from you getting a shop. I thought that you’d settle into having a shop and become a boring, old-fashioned stick-in-the-mud, just like all the other enchanters, but here you are bucking trends, changing things, experimenting with new magic, and annoying the nobility like a good one!”

Cal spluttered with laughter. “You didn’t actually think I’d end up being an enchanter like all the others, did you?”

“Oh, yeah, big beard and everything,” Jason said. He kept his face deadpan, but his eyes twinkled with laughter.

“Not going to happen,” Cal said with a grin. “And you know it.”

“I do,” Jason said, grinning back, “you’d never be able to grow a beard.”

“Really, though,” Jason continued more seriously. “It sounds as if you’re doing great. I’m so pleased that it’s all worked out for you.”

“There have been some challenges,” Cal said, “but it’s so rewarding. I don’t doubt my choice, and if things keep going as they have been, I’m going to be doing even better soon.”

“Yeah,” Jason said. “I want to see this amazing spider cloth.”

“I have some here,” Cal said. “Some small samples that Maddie cut for me. She asked me to show it to people I trusted, so here you go.”

Cal took a slip of the cloth from his pocket, flattened it out on the table, and pushed it across to Jason.

Jason picked the sample up and held it near the candle on the table, gazing at the way the light reflected off the strange, colorless surface. “I’ve never seen anything like this before,” he said quietly. “It’s so light and soft… and warm! Even just holding it in my hand, I can feel the change in temperature underneath the fabric. And the color is so strange… it’s not even really a color, is it?”

His voice trailed off as he gazed at the fabric as if entranced, moving it this way and that to see how the light reflected. “Not really a color at all,” he murmured again. Of course, Jason was a color weaver. It was only natural that the strange not-color of the wonderful fabric would catch his attention.

Suddenly, Cal sat bolt upright in his chair as if he’d been stung.

Of course! Why hadn’t he thought of it before? Normal methods for dying the fabric hadn’t worked, but it wasn’t normal fabric. This was a magic thread. Perhaps a magic solution might be found where a traditional one had failed? And what better place to look for a magic solution to dying cloth than a color weaver.

“Jason,” Cal said, trying to keep his voice from shaking in his excitement. “I’ve just had an idea. An idea I think you’re going to like.”