Date: Twenty Fifth of March, year 810 Post Seminal War (810 PSW)

  Job Arseoth shook his head. A traveling companion would be good for the company, but terrible for keeping secrets. Especially this whole Dragonmarked thing, being perhaps a one-of-a-kind on the entire material plane… the only other things that could be said to be true of were magical Artefacts, unique items of immense magical potency. If word got out about his nature before job was ready for it to, that would cause him a large number of problems.

  Job patted his coin purse and felt its emptiness. He would need to stop by the GUild anyway, to pick up his payment from them by way of Ethna. It was either that or find passage as a hired hand on a ship. As a licensed Sorcerer, that shouldn’t prove an issue, even though he wasn’t registered as an adventurer with the Guild. The position of ‘Ship’s Spellcaster’ was usually available, even on a temporary basis. His penchant for fire spells was far less risky than it would have been even ten years prior, when ships were dry wooden tubs backed full of flammable tinder and tar. Now they were made of metal and only the insides could burn up.

  Job pushed that line of thinking to the far side of his head as he approached the Guild. He was owed a payment for the expedition to Mevada, and he needed to tell Enra and Sly goodbye at least. As he entered the hall he could hear Enra sputtering in protest.

  “Couldn’t you at least not give us so many small denomination coins?”

  “Princess, we’re the Guild, but not a Bank. this is what we have on hand, and our standing policy is to pay in cash for damn good reason. First Altheim Bank is three blocks over if you want to get it exchanged.”

  “Sssss. Fine. Baar’Miin, Job! Come on in and pick your sack.”

  Job shrugged and walked into the room.

  “What’s the deal?”

  Enra gestured to the small mountain of coppers and silvers. “Our payments.”

  “Small coins, so what? Better then broke.”

  “Heavy is what.”

  “Three blocks to the moneychanger, and you’ll need some copper and silver anyway, to make change.”

  “Sigh, fine, just pick one already.”

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  Job rolled his eyes and hefted one of the remaining four sacks at random. It was fat and heavy with coins, clinking as he hefted it into the palm of his hand. Idly, he pulled up a chair at the corner of the table and peered inside. A stack of coins, the hilt of a dagger, and a scrap of paper. Job pulled the paper out and unfolded it:

  “ ‘23,000 copper, 800 silver, 120 gold, and a sun-marked dagger’? Why the dagger?”

  The Guild representative just shrugged, “we were a tad short on coin, but the dagger is worth a fair bit to the right collector. It’s appraised at 750 gold if you were to sell it via a Guild auction, or you could take your chances with a private sale.”

  Job picked up the dagger. It was a fantastically light stiletto, embossed with a serrated sun icon on its pommel. He squinted at the icon, trying to place it. It gleamed faintly, like it was putting out just a bit more light than a mere reflective brass pommel would. Intrigued, Job called up a bit of magic and cast a quick and quiet Detect Magic spell on the dagger. The edge shone with unnatural sharpness, the pommel glowed dimly with waiting radiance, and a soft voice whispered “all is well”.

  Job blinked the spell away, “I think I’ll keep the dagger, thanks. It’s better than my current one anyway.”

  “Suit yourself.”

  “Enra, have you seen Sly around?”

  “She should be with Baar’Miin, helping her navigate the numbnuts trying to recruit her.”

  “Right, I’ll go fetch her then.”

  Job wandered back out into the hallway just in time for a blinding flash of light and heat to wash over his face.

  “”

  Job pushed through the light, heedless of the way it scorched at his exposed skin. “Lay off the Lady, unless you want to get cooked!”

  The shouts of confusion and howls of pain died down after Baar’Miin shut off her Radiant Consumption. “”

  “”

  “”

  Job met the rest of the party in the room. The Guild rep had run out of the room when Baar’Miin had lit the place up, and was trying to help sort the mess out.

  “Alright, while everyone is here, I might as well tell all of you. I need to head out of town for a bit, sort out something I found out down in Mevada. It’s a personal thing, and a dragonblood thing, so I need to go alone.”

  Baar’Miin perked up, “if it’s a dragonblood thing then I can…”

  “No, you need to stay here and help your egg-mother out. This is something I need to do alone.”

  Enra frowned, “Where will you be going? And how long do you expect to be gone?”

  “I’ll be headed to Sapphie, in the Jeweled Republics, and from there to Glacierheart. going by ship... at least a month, possibly three.”

  “I think I could get you passage on one of the Altheim Navy’s anti-pirate cruisers that’s headed in that direction…”