Balthazar looked back and up at who had given him the warning. Standing under the glow of the brass chandelier above the atrium was a woman in a blue dress. Not just any regular blue dress, however. This one was beyond expensive. Not that the crab knew much about tailoring, but he certainly knew about gold, and the glint of the embroidery on her attire was unmistakably that. The golden filigree was finely woven into the fabric in meticulous and complex patterns from top to bottom, making her radiate an aura of royalty.

Once he was done marveling at the beauty of his favorite metal, the merchant finally managed to look past the blinding glow of the dress and focus on the lady wearing it.

And he found even more gold.

Atop her head, framing a perfectly groomed hairdo, was a delicate circlet ending on a tip at the center of her forehead, with a flawless sapphire at its core.

She wore at least one ring on each finger, most of them sporting opulent gems, and carried a golden chain around her neck, which held a thick golden key hanging from it at the center of her chest.

Next to this woman, Madame Margo’s jewelry might have even seemed modest.

Yet, despite the exquisite dressing, the lavish jewelry, and the perfect makeup on her face, there was something that made it all still work without feeling overdone. A simplicity to her complexity that was declared merely by the glare of her piercing blue eyes.

Perhaps it was just the way she carried herself, a certain air to her presence, but Balthazar could instinctively tell this was no meager pretender, like the Antoines of this world. She was the real deal. What her deal was, however, he did not yet know.

Or maybe it was just that the crab liked shiny things. Who could say?

“I beg your pardon?” Balthazar said, trying to keep his voice from cracking at the sight of so much gold.

Damn, do I miss my golden shell…

“The place you wish to go to,” the regal woman calmly stated, “I wouldn’t recommend it.”

The crab frowned one eyestalk. “And you are?”

A coy smile appeared on her face. “Truly a traveler from far away, if you've gotten all the way here without knowing who I am.”

Stepping forward, the lady in gold and blue approached Balthazar and offered him the back of her hand.

For a moment, the merchant wondered if he was supposed to pick one of her rings to take for himself, but then he remembered the human’s strange habit of offering each other their hands as a greeting. A shame, as the large gold band around her index finger really appealed to him.

“I am Octavia Marquessa, baroness and mayor of this city. Delighted to meet you.”

“Oh, your parents named you after the city? That’s odd,” the crab said, while nonchalantly giving the back of her hand a gentle bump with the back of his own pincer.

The baroness looked down at her hand, where the traveler had just bumped it, and the corner of her mouth twitched for a split second with something that Balthazar could not tell if it was amusement or annoyance.

“I’m afraid you have it the wrong way around,” she explained with a gentle smile. “The city is named after me. Or rather, my family. We founded it generations ago, back when it was little more than a river port surrounded by a few farms.”

“Oooh,” said the crustacean. “That makes a lot more sense. Anyway, nice to meet you, I’m—”

“Balthazar,” Lady Marquessa interjected. “A traveling crab from the west who also happens to be a merchant.”

He froze, taken aback by her statement for a moment. “How do you know that? Aside from the crab part, I mean. That one you don’t need to explain. I meant the rest.”

A sly smile made her lips purse. “You will come to learn I deal in many things, information chief among them. But perhaps some explanation is in order. Walk with me?”

With a smooth sidestep, she extended an arm to the other side of the atrium.

“Why? Are you afraid to trip and fall?”

“Er, excuse me, baroness,” the guild girl behind the counter said. “Before you leave, Mr. Balthazar also delivered this letter for you from Madame Margo.”

The mayor took the piece of paper, but seemed in no rush to open it.

“See to it that Mr. Balthazar’s companions are treated to a good meal and a place to rest while he and I have our conversation, please,” she told the staff member while sliding the letter into her sleeve. “I hope this is acceptable to you, Mr. Balthazar. I’m sure they are quite tired from your journey, and the business I wish to discuss would certainly prove rather dull to them.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The crab and his party exchanged a brief glance, and he gave them a nod to go along with the young girl.

After watching them head towards the cafeteria hall, he turned back to the mayor.

“Shall we?” she said.

Balthazar nodded and followed Baroness Marquessa as they leisurely strolled through the halls of the guild house.

“So,” he started. “Going to explain what this is about now or…?”

“I suppose you wish me to start by explaining how I know who you are.”

The crab shrugged. “I was going to start by asking if the cafeteria my friends just went to serves any pastries, but sure, that works too.”

Lady Marquessa paused for a moment to look through the busy front doors of the guildhall.

“It is part of my job to know all that happens in this city,” she said. “Everyone who comes and goes. And especially those who take the time to aid my niece when she is being bothered by a lowlife in an alley.”

“Ooh, that was your niece?” said Balthazar. “Feisty, that one. Not sure she even really needed any help, to be honest.”

“Indeed, she is,” the regal woman said, unable to hide a hint of amused pride in her smile. “And while that girl is more than capable of getting herself into trouble and out of it, the fact that you stepped in to help someone in need makes you stand out in this city.”

“Yeah, I noticed,” the traveling merchant said with a nod. “People here don’t seem very neighborly.”

The baroness resumed her slow stroll down the atrium, and the crab followed.

“It wasn’t always like that,” she explained. “The nature of an increasingly larger city, and especially with the less pleasant nature of recent events, people have grown more closed and untrusting. Certainly nothing like what you are used to around the quieter roads of Ardville.”

Balthazar frowned.

“Now hold on, I never told your niece where I’m from, and so far it didn’t look like anyone around this place knew who I was either.”

Once again, a sly smile curved the corner of her mouth.

“As sharp as the stories claim, I see.”

“Huh?” the puzzled crab said.

“You are right, your fame has not yet reached this side of the continent, but once my niece told me about the peculiar talking crab who came to her aid, I inquired my vast… sources about who you might be. It wasn’t long until one of my informants from your region told me all about your fascinating popularity around Ardville.”

Balthazar eyed the baroness, but said nothing. The merchant didn’t like the feeling of her knowing so much about him, while he still knew next to nothing about her, and even more importantly, about her intentions.

“Don’t worry,” she said, glancing at him from the corner of her eye as they walked. “I only heard good things. Mostly. Otherwise we would not be having this conversation.”

“Yes, and why are we having this conversation anyway?” the crab asked tentatively.

“Because I took an interest in you, obviously.”

Balthazar frowned at her games. “And why would the mayor of a big and important city take an interest in some crab who is just passing by?”

Stopping by a large window to the outside, she turned to him.

“Tell me, Mr. Balthazar, since you entered Marquessa, has anything in particular stood out to you?”

“Uh… The mango pies?”

The woman let out a quiet chuckle. “Yes, they are quite good. Anything else?”

Scratching his chin, the merchant pondered. “That people here seem oddly casual about a giant talking crab roaming around?”

“That is true,” the baroness said. “As a metropolis of trading, Marquessa is used to open borders and ports, with all manner of travelers passing through. You will find that people here are much more open to non-humans than most other places in the continent.”

She gave a gentle nod that told the crab to look around, and he did. He saw people moving about the guild house, across the atrium, through the different halls, different sizes and gear to them, but only when he really started paying closer attention did he notice it.

The hooded scout in leather armor by the adventurer’s hall, with a little more fur to his face than a regular human typically would have.

By the merchant’s desk, a bureaucrat in a toga was looking through some documents, and he had a long tail coming out of his garments and nearly touching the floor. Balthazar felt pretty sure humans didn’t usually have those.

And crossing the atrium with a stack of boxes in his arms was a tough-looking mercenary with green skin and tusks sticking out of his mouth. That the crab knew wasn’t a human, because he had dealt with orcs long enough to recognize one.

Now that the merchant looked at the crowds moving around him with seeing eyes, instead of just glancing, he finally realized just how mixed the races bumping around Marquessa were.

“Quite the departure from the populace around Ardville, I take it?” the city keeper said with a discreet smirk. “How is Bergen these days, anyway?”

Balthazar turned his attention back to her. “The mayor? Uh, he’s… loud. Why, you know him?”

The baroness chuckled. “I did, long ago. I see he hasn’t changed much then.”

Crossing his arms, the crab exhaled sharply. “Alright, so a non-human walking around is not a big deal in this city, I get that, but it still doesn’t explain then why you are here talking to me, or why you don’t recommend I go to where I want to go.”

“The latter is quite simple,” the woman in gold explained. “The coastal cliffs you wish to reach are an extremely dangerous place and the trip there is nearly impossible, even for a seasoned scout. Try to find your way there on your own, and you will surely get lost. Try to find someone to take you there, and you will be looking for a long time.”

Balthazar’s mouth scrunched up in annoyance. Of course Tweedus couldn’t just be sitting on a lawn chair by the beach out in the open, waiting for him. He had to be in some unreachable hole up in the middle of nowhere. Things could never be easy.

“However,” the mayor continued, “I do know one person capable of getting you across to where you need to go.”

The crab squinted his beady eyes at her. “Why do I feel like there is going to be a ‘but’ to it?”

She smirked once more. “There always is, in any good negotiation, as I’m sure you know better than most.”

Moving away from the window, Baroness Marquessa started making her way back to the front desk.

“Come, let us go into my office,” she said. “I have a deal to offer you.”