Jerome barely kept from trembling. With the number of high-level mages here he wouldn’t stand a chance, even with Krystyna’s powered-up form.

“I’m here to sell crystals,” he said in a voice he hoped wouldn’t anger the gnoll warrior standing in front of him.

“Did Takita not… never mind. I’ll show you.”

Jerome followed the warrior, trying to take in everything around him.

There was little greenery in the front half of the courtyard, on either side of the path. On the left mages pulled stone from the earth and destroyed it again. On the right warriors stamped out, through repetitive drill, any life that may have once existed. Only farther down the path did grass and multicolored flowers turn the courtyard from death rehearsal grounds into something more pleasant.

The stone walls looked climbable from the inside, so that warriors could get on top and toss down spears. Mages could destroy the stone with a motion, creating a new front for easy flanking, then close up the hole again just as easily. It was only the attacker from outside who had no good options. If they wanted to attack the palace, he’d have to steal that earth-destroy move from a mage, which meant he’d have to get close enough to touch one without triggering any alarms. Now was not the time for that.

When the path split they took the route with the purple flowers, just like the guard had said, and soon they entered a tunnel — although others might call it a hallway. It was a thin passageway that had a roof but was open to the courtyard air from either side. The air cooled noticeably when they entered.

“That’s the door,” said the warrior. “Once you’re done, be sure to get out quick, unless you’ve got other business.”

Was there other business he could invent? Asking the warrior might tip it off that he was human, so it was better to just stay silent on that matter. Sneaking… well, if he was caught he didn’t trust his Blast Off to take him outside the walls before a mage got a Hold on him. It seemed that, unfortunately, his stay at the palace would have to be a well-behaved one.

“I’ll do that,” he assured the warrior before opening the door and entering. On the way he brushed the warrior’s shoulder with his hand, hopefully with enough intention to grab the thing’s form and thus whatever moves it had. Not as good as a mage, but every little bit helped.

Inside the room sat a gnoll writing notes in a ledger. It wasn’t at a merchant’s counter but at a desk meant for studying.

The gnoll turned towards the squeak of the opening door.

“Visitors!” it said. “A stranger. A gatherer. You must be here to sell.”

The gatherer form was working great so far. Too bad he couldn’t keep a gatherer around for handy transforming whenever he needed to go buy and sell in the city.

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“Yes. I hear you give ten gold for a crystal.”

“You’ve heard corectly.” It got up and went to a second table filled with instruments, then patted it. “Now just come over here and set the crystal down and I’ll get you paid. I’ll worry about the processing after that.”

Scientific instruments. ‘Processing’. Yeah, they were totally building a superweapon.

Was it okay to sell these superweapon crystals to the madman king? Sure, the city was run fairly well, the policegnolls kept order, and everyone in town looked fairly happy, but the outer tribes were terrified and the king was literally paying for their body parts, so… madman confirmed.

Then again, with the money they got from this, they could buy whatever equipment they wanted and overthrow the king that much sooner.

Jerome grabbed a handful of crystals from his bag and placed them on the table.

“Oh my…” said the gnoll, impressed.

He grabbed another handful, bringing the total on the table up to nine.

The gnoll’s jaw dropped.

Jerome fished the last of the crystals out from the Bag of Holding. Fourteen total — the twelve they’ve killed together and a couple others that Krystyna had killed while he’d been gone on his first trip.

The gnoll took a moment to compose itself, starting several sentences before finding one it like enough to continue. “So you must have, uh…. Two smaller hunting parties from the outer tribes wiped each other out, and you stumbled on the remains of the battle?”

Sure, why not. Jerome nodded.

“Quite lucky… not sure you deserve a hundred and fourty gold just for fishing out the loot from another’s battle… but a deal’s a deal.”

The gnoll opened up a cabinet, pulled out a sack of gold and started counting out the pieces into piles of ten. At about eighty he had to pull out a second sack of gold.

Surely they could afford a bag of holding! To be precise, they could buy almost seventy with the gold that he was about to receive. Maybe they thought it would be harder to steal this way… as if any self-respecting thief wouldn’t bring their own Bag of Holding.

Jerome started scooping up the coins into his bag, but the gnoll slapped away his hand. “Wait until I’m finished counting.”

He’d come this far to get ordered around by a scribe. Such was the way of life when the scribe had elite warriors and deadly mages on its side.

Finally Jerome could take possesion of the gold. It felt good to see it disappear into his bottomless sack.

“I hope you make good use of the crystals,” said Jerome. Asking about what specifically the crystals were used for was an obvious no-no, as evidenced by his earlier conversation with the gatherers… but he could use this opportunity to fish for information.

“Oh, we will,” said the scribe. “They’ll make our kingdom that much stronger.”

Not a confirmation, but it didn’t go against the superweapon theory either. How much time left until they completed it and then used it to obliterate their enemies and create a worldwide tyranny?

“Good,” said Jerome. Can’t be seen as anti-superweapon here.

He walked himself out of the compound, heart pounding, hoping none of the mages or warriors noticed anything amiss about him. When he got outside he found a nearby alleyway and leaned against a wall to collect himself.

More than at any other time, he felt like he’d gotten away with something. Walking undetected through a field of powerful enemies, walking away with one hundred and fourty gold…

He could buy anything he wanted… as long as he could find the shops.