Grandmother and Todd rented an apartment in Londontown to hold the extra components they collected. Grandmother's shop didn’t have any back room in it. After listening to her explaining about how the shop defended inventory, Todd realized why she didn’t want any items in it that weren’t part of that inventory. Since she didn’t run it herself she needed the shop to guard itself. They returned to Londontown after only five days at the Speedwell. Grandmother was worried about what the rest of the team was getting up to in Home Square and didn't want be away longer. Todd was amused by that.
They arrived in Londontown to find the shop nearly empty. Not only was the shop out of the cheaper component furniture, but most of the high cost unique stuff was gone as well. There was no sign of Grandmother’s covered chair, which she confided in the team she was unable to sell because of the high cost of the fiber she used for stuffing.
It was this complete sell out that made Grandmother decide to collect every component they could carry and sort it out later.
“I don’t get it,” Grandmother told the clerks and Todd, as she surveyed the devastation of her empty showroom. “I quadrupled the prices. Everything was twice as much as what Alex is charging.” The clerks glanced at each other, wondering who Alex was.
Todd was keeping watch out the windows into the square. He gave everyone that passed a close inspection.
“There’s been more money in the square since the spell buying,” Eric offered.
“Hmm…” Grandmother murmured. “If that’s the source of the funds, it will run out. I’ll hold the prices for now, but if you sell out again in the next six days, I’ll raise them again.” She needed to figure out a way to return money back to the square. Otherwise by selling this furniture she was just taking back the coins she paid for spells. To really get Londontown's economy going the coins needed to recirculate inside the square.
“The inn holiday is in nine days,” Todd reminded Grandmother.
“You’re right,” Grandmother admitted. “We won’t make it back here until after that. I guess I’ll increase the prices fifty percent. Hopefully that will make the inventory last fifty percent longer. We better get working on gathering it up.”
“We received a lot of requests,” Lilly reported. She pulled a folded sheet of vellum out from her pocket and handed it over to Grandmother. Grandmother unfolded it and began to read. The notes were written in a very small script and covered both sides of the page.
“Tables, shelves, chairs…. A workbench?” Grandmother said questioningly.
“I wasn’t certain what that was,” Lilly responded. “Carl, the blacksmith wants it. One with a porcelain top if possible he said.”
“A porcelain top?! Todd,” Grandmother said, turning to look at her companion, “who has been coming to Londontown?”
“I think Ellen and Sarah are buying vellum from the leatherworker here. They used to be short all the time and lately they haven’t been,” Todd admitted.
“How does that translate to the blacksmith?” Grandmother asked.
“Well, I’ve noticed the guard has a lot of new blades. The blacksmith shop in our square has started selling a lot of axes and warhammers to the visitors, so I’m not certain where the blades came from,” Todd admitted.
“You think Harry left the square?” Grandmother with total disbelief.
“No, but, ah the blacksmith here is a relative to the blacksmith at Home. They are siblings I believe,” Todd reported. Grandmother rubbed her face. Obviously the transportation system wasn’t going to be a secret much longer, if it even was now. She remembered Companion told her once that you couldn’t travel the true god’s paths with violence in your heart. She really hoped that was true. She remembered thinking about opening up coliseum access to more human squares. If this kept up she suspected that would take care of itself. At least that meant she didn't have to buy anything in the square herself. Coins were already flowing in to replace the ones the shop was taking out.
“I doubt I can find ceramic in the local area,” Grandmother told Lilly. “If he is set on that material he’ll have to wait. Don’t promise him anything, but I’ll see if I can bring in ceramic on the next trip.”
“Alex has a couple,” Todd reported helpfully. “You could buy one from him.”
“Do you have a copy of this list for yourself?” Grandmother asked, as she looked over the well worn vellum.
“No,” Eric told her. “Vellum is in short supply.” Grandmother shot a look at Todd.
“Apparently, you can buy it from the leather shop,” Grandmother informed Eric. “Never mind. I’ll pick some up while we are sweeping for furniture.”
They spent two days gathering components and restocking the store. They carried the components back into the square in bags. They dumped them out onto their apartment floor before going back out for more.
Grandmother assembled multiples of everything on the list. They didn’t find a ceramic top for a workbench, but she built two with stainless steel sheeting. They were forced to build shelving for the apartment in order to sort and hold all the components. They found mostly iron, steel and wood, with only the occasional bronze. Todd remembered Grandmother's store contained glass and copper shelving when he first visited it, but they found nothing in those materials this trip. Components were plentiful. They also found several unique pieces including a wood table, sofa and storage box. The storage box reminded Todd of one that was in Grandmother’s shop before. Perhaps unique wasn’t exactly the right word for these pieces. They weren’t made of components and couldn’t be broken down, but they did appear over and over.
They ended up carrying the large pieces in through the green after midnight. They didn't have a cart, but Grandmother let the strength of her tier show by carrying the sofa through the square single handedly.
“We should put a cart together for them,” Todd said, after he set the storage box down in the showroom. “Alex uses it for delivery inside the square. Your clerks could make a little extra money that way.”
“I’ve been looking for wheels, but I haven’t found any,” Grandmother admitted. “If we don’t find any before the next restock, I’ll try to buy a set from Alex. I know he picked up multiple sets before the remodel.”
It wasn’t until the next afternoon that they found Lucas, or maybe it was more accurate to say Lucas found them. They were coming in the back door of the square heavily loaded with bags. Grandmother was also carrying two wooden chairs, while Todd was hauling an iron table. They already decided they couldn't make it through the back door without detection even using conceal. The bulky items they were carrying were bound to bump into something or someone and break the spell. They decided to brazen it out.
“Isn’t that Lucas?” Grandmother asked as they approached the guards at the entrance. Guards at Londontown always collected taxes. Grandmother was thinking about offering one of the chairs so she didn’t have to carry it anymore.
“I believe it is,” Todd responded. Grandmother was under her typical, don’t notice me spell, but Todd didn’t bother. Until Lucas approached him in the square the last trip, Todd didn’t think anyone knew who he was, so there was no reason to mask his appearance.
“Lucas,” Todd said in greeting to his cousin at the gate. Lucas wasn’t alone, there were two other guards. They were there most of the day. Todd and Grandmother passed them under cloaking spells three or four times already.
“Hello,” Lucas responded. “Where are you headed with that table and chairs?”
“It is stock for the furniture shop,” Todd explained.
“Good,” Lucas responded. “Eric was getting a little worried about running out. Let them pass,” Lucas told the younger guards. “There are no taxes on a royal, even one from a minor line.” The guards moved to the side, letting them pass. Grandmother shuffled the chairs around in her hands, trying not to hit the wall of the hallway with one.
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“Here,” Lucas offered, “I’ll carry one for you,” Grandmother handed off the chair without a second thought. It wasn’t that it was heavy, it was just so awkward.
Lucas followed them into the square and across the courtyard to the shop. It was a pretty long trip. Todd thought about how much nicer Alex’s location right beside the back door was for delivering large items.
“I see this isn’t your first trip,” Lucas commented when they entered the shop. Most of the empty space was refilled with new items. Grandmother headed straight over to the pay surface where she added the chairs and table into inventory. Todd sat the iron table down, next to where Grandmother left her chair. Lucas added his chair to the little ensemble. Todd didn’t think it looked anywhere as good as Alex’s displays.
“Yeah,” he admitted to Lucas. Todd switched the chairs with the component chairs that were on display around the wooden table they carried in during the night. The wooden table looked better, but the iron table was still missing something. Todd thought it needed a potted plant. He didn’t remember seeing any planters. He’d look in the miscellaneous pile when they got up to the apartment. That made him think of the little displays of crafting tools Sarah and Ellen set up around their books. They didn’t have any books on them, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t use the tools. Grandmother could add them to the inventory at or below the vendor price. Or maybe she could forget to add them to the inventory and allow them to be stolen, Todd mused to himself. That was something Irene, youngest daughter of the mad queen, would do.
“The shop doesn’t belong to Eric,” Todd said to his cousin. His own sense of honesty asserting itself.
“Every child of a queen is royalty,” Lucas countered. One of the bags that was slung around Todd's body gave an angry churn. Todd patted it gently, trying to reassure it that Grandmother would be right back. “Are you petting that bag?” Lucas asked. He obviously thought his cousin might be a little off.
“It has a little indigestion,” Todd explained. Lucas looked alarmed now.
“Let’s go up and unload. I think we are getting close. I need to double check the list,” Grandmother commented, before heading to the door.
“Come along,” Todd said to Lucas. “We can talk in the apartment.” If Lucas was aware of who owned the shop, Todd didn’t see how revealing the apartment would hurt anything. Grandmother didn’t say anything on the trip up with Lucas following them.
Their unit was an odd inner corner unit that didn’t have a balcony. It was the only apartment they could find that was available. Londontown, despite any faults of its leadership, was swelling at the seams.
Instead of a balcony it possessed a double wide main room, which they lined with shelving. The shelves were loaded with all kinds of components and items. The floor was mostly clear, although there were still a few small connectors scattered about that they failed to pick up on their last run.
“Open the bags,” Grandmother said to Todd. “It is so much faster when you do it.” Faster was one word for it. Todd cautioned his cousin to stand back out of the way. He started with the unruly bag he tried to calm earlier.
The look on Lucas’ face was priceless when the bag ejected its contents on the floor. Todd handed the empty bag back to Grandmother so she could console it. Between the two of them they were only carrying six bags. That limitation was part of the reason they were making so many trips. The unique items needed to be carried back anyway, which is why they didn’t just buy more bags.
“Have you thought about the school?” Todd asked Lucas, after the last bag was empty. Todd started pulling the longest components and tossing them closer to the shelves. Grandmother gathered up matching pieces and placed them on the shelves. The method they developed was to work their way down in size. Lucas squatted and pulled several crafting tools out of the pile and set them aside. Todd thought Grandmother would like that he helped without being asked.
“I’d like to send my son and daughter,” Lucas announced. “I can pull the money out at the prize altar if you need it upfront.”
“Inventory access,” Grandmother corrected.
“We’re trying to remove the religious references from our vocabulary,” Todd explained. “Altar sounds like you’re praying to the gods, when really you are using the physical interface to access your virtual inventory, hence inventory access.”
“Ok,” Lucas responded. “Do you need the payment?”
“If you have it now, I’ll take it. If I’m unable to get the spots, I’ll bring the coins back,” Todd said. With all the things on Grandmother's list to accomplish before the school opened, Todd wasn’t completely certain they would make it this year. “You can try again next year if they don’t get in this time.”
Lucas’ pile of crafting tools was getting large. Instead of moving to the inventory access to pull the coins, he kept sorting the pile. Todd took that as a sign he had something else to say.
“There is an older man in the guards, he wants to retire but he has no other skills. He’d like to try the school, but he doesn’t have the coins. He has the sickness you see, so even though he’s a skilled fighter, he’s never accumulated much wealth,” Lucas explained. Todd thought ‘the sickness’ must be a euphemism for someone addicted to healing spells.
“I have a theory about the sickness,” Grandmother said from where she was stacking components. “I’ve been wanting to test it, send him around and we’ll see.” Lucas stood up and straightened his leathers. He pulled the coins from the inventory access before heading out, promising he’d be right back with his friend. Companion told them last year that the craving caused by being healed by someone with the same color magic could be removed by a higher tier spell from a different color caster.
Grandmother was assembling a set of weapon and armor stands when there was a knock on the door. Todd picked up his javelin from where it leaned against the wall before approaching the door. Grandmother freed her hands and shifted to cover him.
Todd opened the door to find Lucas standing in the hall with a man in his forties standing beside him. The older man wore a bright blue patch over one eye, and was missing three fingers from his right hand.
“This is Ed,” Lucas said, introducing his companion.
“Come in,” Todd said, stepping back into the room. Positioned himself so he ended up behind the two newcomers as he closed the door.
“What’s the stick man for?” Ed asked. Todd noticed there was a slight tremor in the old warrior's hands.
“It's for storing and displaying your armor,” Todd explained. “I told you we should put armor on it,” he said to Grandmother.
“I already loaned my armor to Harry,” Grandmother countered. Todd realized she’d dropped her camouflage spell somewhere along the way.
“Even cloth armor would give people a hint,” Todd countered, giving their visitors a moment to adjust. Grandmother appeared to consider that idea for a moment before addressing their visitor.
“When did you lose the eye?” Grandmother asked.
“Twenty years ago or more,” Ed responded. “A cougar got the drop on me in the southern halls. I had a spouse then and a daughter. She left me when I got the sickness. She couldn’t trust me to bring food home for the baby. I told her to go, she was better off without me.”
“When were you last injured?” Grandmother queried.
“A real injury… not for years,” the old warrior answered.
“I have a theory about the sickness, but it would mean no more heals,” Grandmother explained. “I have to admit the eye is a complication too. How often do you purchase heals?”
“Everyday, if I can find the money,” Ed admitted.
“You could try tier three,” Todd suggested. “It must be higher than what he buys, or he would have regrown the fingers.”
“Regrown?” Lucas mumbled.
“An eye is all soft tissue, a single tier three might cause it to regenerate,” Grandmother said. “I don’t know. If it does regrow, it will itch like hell. You will have to try very hard not to gouge it out. If you get a heal because you gouge the eye you’ll get the sickness again. Getting another heal won’t help the itching either. It will only make it worse.”
“What are you saying exactly?” Ed asked. Grandmother walked over and set a comforting hand on the old warrior’s shoulder.
“This is going to hurt,” she said, as she cast. The old warrior locked his jaw shut, refusing to moan in agony. His eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed.
“That is an extreme reaction,” Todd observed, “for a man who isn’t actually injured.” Lucas rushed to the older man’s side, checking to make sure that he was still breathing.
“It’s a good sign, I think,” Grandmother observed. A trickle of blood leaked from a cut on Ed’s cheek where he landed on one of the brackets littered across the floor. Grandmother cast another tier three on Ed to seal the cut. She picked up the offending bracket and started gathering the rest up. Lucas stayed at the old man’s side.
“Is he a good fighter?” Todd asked.
“Yes,” Lucas replied. “He trained most of the younger guards.”
“Would he be interested in a position teaching at the wizard’s tower? He’d have to train both girls and boys with no prejudice between them. I’m not certain what the pay would be, but it would include housing and meals,” Todd said.
“He’d have to be free of the sickness,” Grandmother said from where she was sorting her brackets into separate piles on a shelf. “The school doesn’t tolerate it.”
“He can think about it,” Todd said. “We’ll be back in about twelve days to check on the shop. I should have more information about the position by then.”
“I’ll tell him,” Lucas said. The old warrior stirred. He raised a steady hand to rub his head and eyepatch.
“What happened?” he murmured. Todd and Lucas helped Ed to his feet. The warrior was very affected by Grandmother's heal.
“Remember,” Grandmother told Ed as he was leaving, “no heals.”
“Have you ever seen anyone so dazed by a heal before?” Todd asked Grandmother after they left.
“No,” Grandmother answered. “He admitted to twenty years of the healing addiction. That has got to leave a mark.”