Darkness was filling the shop as Ozlo and his master toiled away at their various tasks. Ozlo emptying the stagnant water from the barrels and sweeping bits of slag from the floor and Burgin tallying up the profit from the day on a small sheet of rough paper. "Boy, you know your numbers right?" Ozlo turned towards his master who had just spoken, breaking the silence that had fallen over them. "Uh, yes master." Ozlo replied, standing in place while correctly anticipating that his master would have more to say.

"Right, right. Your numbers. Addition?" Master Burgin asked Ozlo. Ozlo shook his head once in affirmation, signaling Burgin to continue. "Subtraction? Multiplication? Long Division?" Ozlo shook his head in the affirmation once more, but was noticeably shakier than when he shook it the first time. "I see, I see. So you have some mathematical learning, but not that much."

Burgin rubbed his chin, spreading soot from his large hands onto his already considerably dusty chin. "Well, there's no helping it. You said you wanted to make some more money so rather than having you just learn to forge, I'll be requesting your help on the mercantile side of things." Ozlo's ears perked up at the mention of money. "Alright boy, before we get started, I'll need to teach you a bit about the currency. Til now you haven't had a need of it, but we don't always deal in shards. For most transactions, we have coin. Being an orphan you wouldn't have had much experience with coin, but regardless, it's time you learnt."

And so Ozlo's master went through the process of explaining how currency worked. The smallest bit of currency being a copper, then silver, then gold, and finally platinum. Mithril coins existed too, but weren't commonly used in transactions. One silver was ten coppers, one gold is ten silver, one platinum is ten gold and so on. After Burgin gave Ozlo the simple explanation, Ozlo went back to sweeping and tidying up the forge so that the two men could clean up, eat dinner, and start it all over again after a peaceful rest.

Burgin took a deep breathe as he placed their meager dinner on the table. Warm stew and buttered bread with a glass of milk. As the two of them enjoyed their dinner, the stress and fatigue of the day wearing heavily on the both of them as they prepared for bed, Burgin once again spoke up. "Boy. I know that you want to get the church payed off as soon as you can, and I can't fault a man for paying his debts but. But I think you should be careful not to work too hard. You're a young man with your whole life ahead of you."

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Ozlo opened his mouth to respond but promptly stopped himself. "Maybe Burgin is right. I have plenty of time to pay them off, besides. Life is good, for the first time in a long time I feel, well, welcome. Mother Patricia isn't screaming at me to do this or that and the other orphans aren't looking at me with disgust or pity. I fit in here."

And with that, Ozlo dropped it. He resigned himself to live a life of peace and to do his best to quietly and diligently, toil until his debts are payed off. And then he can... He can do something. Live his life. Do whatever he wants.

Unfortunately, fate had other plans for Ozlo. Rousing himself from sleep, Ozlo had a typical morning. He cleaned his face, ate a meager breakfast with Burgin, and headed off to join the CDF for his next meeting. Upon arriving Ozlo noticed considerably more people than was usual.

"Ah, great. Everyone is here." Boyd addressed the crowd and as he did, the few mutterings and whispers died down. "Ahem, alright. Today we've been assigned to join Sir Taverly here on his expedition. I want you all to group up with your usual squad and try not to do anything that I wouldn't do. Or anything that I might do when no-one is looking, I'm looking at you Andrew."

Boyd cleared his throat and gestured to a man dressed in sensible, but fine clothing. He had long blonde hair, bright blue eyes and a permanent smile to his long face. "Thank you all for coming, I'm sure some of you have no idea what's going on and that's understandable." He gestured to a man behind him and grabbed a piece of rolled up parchment. "Under order of the Duke of these lands I hereby requisition all militiamen, men at arms, and trained healers in the area to undergo an emergency expedition regarding the northern lands and the forest within. You shall all be compensated accordingly and we leave tomorrow at first light. Please inform your employers, masters, or legal guardians and assemble at the main gate at the aforementioned time. Spoils will be divided fairly with a portion going to supplies."

Ozlo stood there confused thinking to himself as people started to mill about while slowly exiting the training grounds. "Wait. This means me, right? Maybe I'm exempt, I've only been with the CDF for a few weeks after all. I... I need to tell Master Burgin!"

Gathering his wits about him, Ozlo rushed back to the forge to tell his master the news.