By the time The Council had wrapped up the meeting, which had ranged from celebration decorations to what supplies Arthur himself could provide, it was well into nightfall.

Before anyone could make alternate arrangements, Theorisa stepped up to invite them all to rest at her home. Arthur could tell from her tone that this was not an offer he should attempt to reject. Not that he would have, for two big reasons.

The first was Theobold. While the younger mutant spoke little of his needs, it was obvious he’d appreciate the chance to spend time with his mother. His second reason was his lack of desire to travel through potentially monster-infested streets in the dark.

Plus, he couldn’t deny he was tired and could do with a chance for a meal and a proper bed.

With that settled, he said his goodbyes to The Council with promises of supplies and followed Theorisa back home. Even as they made the small walk to her home, he could sense a difference in the air. While it was still tense early on, Cyrus had sent one of Charleston’s knights out with the news.

Now he could hear voices coming from the open windows of the houses they passed, men and women discussing the potential events at the celebration. These often ranged from dancing to mock bouts between high-ranking knights.

He smiled, imagining Rab standing in the ring to defeat all who dared to stand in his way. That thought made him look over at Augustus. His chief of security had beaten Rab before, and it would be interesting to see if he could do it again when armed with a proper weapon.

This time, when they passed people on the street, he got smiles instead of downcast looks. While it wasn’t a complete reversal of mood, it was a sign that things were looking up.

The feeling was even greater when they walked the streets once more the next morning. Though Arthur would have freely admitted that, that might be entirely down to his own mood.

After a wonderful night of food, company, and a proper bed, it was hard to feel down about much. The latter item was something he mentally put on his list of things to talk to Cyrus about during the evening’s celebrations.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?” Theorisa asked as she walked them to the hole in the wall.

Arthur shook his head. “No, thank you, though. We’ll be back soon, and I’m sure they can use you here.”

“Well, be safe, all you. I expect to see you all tonight in one piece.”

While she said all, it was clear by the way her gaze locked on Theobold, who exactly she was talking about.

“I’ll make sure nothing happens to us,” Theobold promised, which earned him a pat on the cheek.

“Be sure you do. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I should check up on Alyssa and make sure no one’s causing trouble.”

Theorisa smiled as she waved goodbye, and once she was gone, the knights guarding the hole made a show of ushering them out. None of them were ones that Arthur knew, so he was happy to head out to the rickshaw for the trip home.

To his relief, nothing eventful happened on the road, though he saw signs of monsters at the entrances to a few of the houses. Messes that looked unnatural and what appeared to be scrapings of whatever purple markings Rathnil’s creations found themselves covered with.

Once or twice, he had Theobold pull over to investigate a particular structure. Some for monster signs, and others because he thought they might be worth picking up if ever expanded in this direction. Not that he was sure Alyssa would appreciate such a decision.

When he got home, he quickly made his way into the store before anyone had the chance to stop him. As he entered, he could see people milling about, browsing the shelves, and chatting. A few waved to him, and he waved back as he slipped past them and moved over to the counter.

Carly sat there with one of Arthur’s books in her hand as she waited for someone to approach the counter. From the cover, he was interested to note she was reading a history book for a place called Phayun. From the ferocious-looking monster on the cover, he figured it was probably not somewhere he wanted to visit.

When he moved to squeeze past the counter, he knocked on it and cursed. She looked up and flinched, hastily sticking the book underneath the counter. A sliver of guilt welled up in him at that. He knew that motion.

Not long after he’d started, Derrick had given him such an earful that he’d tiptoed around the man for a week. It took him longer than he liked to figure out that the man was all bark, no bite, and that most of his demands would contradict themselves in a week.

“Hi,” he said as he approached the counter. “Look, I wanted to say I’m sorry for the other day.”

“It’s fine,” Carly replied, her eyes locked on the counter.

With a shake of his head, he set his briefcase on the table. “It’s not, and I shouldn’t have scared you like that. Is Penny ok?”

“She was fine, sir.” This time she looked up at him, and he could hear the truth in her voice. “A bit shaken, but she bounced back.”

“Good. But what about you? How can I make it up to you?” Arthur asked, debating if he wanted to use one of his store powers.

Before he could decide, Carly nodded. “Actually, there is one thing I’d like. We, um, discussed it during my interview?”

He resisted the urge to frown in confusion, not wanting to scare her again as he tried to remember. It took him a minute, and then it clicked.

“You were interested in mutations?”

She smiled, and some of the confidence she used with customers returned to her voice. “Yes, sir.”

“I see. Well, that can be done, I suppose. It won’t be today, but if you have an animal in mind, I’m sure I can send a messenger to Dr. Muriler to get that set up.”

A look of concentration crossed her face, and she nodded. “Maybe some kind of dog?”

“I’m sure we can arrange that,” Arthur promised. “Until then, is there anything major I should know about?”

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

“Just yesterday’s reports, I guess. Nyssa said you’d know what that meant.”

“I do.”

He smiled as a familiar popping sound filled the air and a level-up notification popped into view.

STORE LEVEL INCREASED

Current Level

22

Current Gold

4370 Golden Pennies

Store Experience

17200/18100

Store perk points gained

1

Trade Networks

3/9 Used

“Thank you, Carly. If you need me, I’ll be in the office. I have some restocking to get done.”

He heard her enthusiastic response and couldn’t help but chuckle as she closed the door and got ready to go to The Mall. While he could simply sit on the computer and scroll through the lists of his trade networks, he wanted to visit Jessib in person.

That way, he could visit her store about a special order and also set up the rest of his trade networks. Now that he had all these free slots, he figured he should try to fill them for a change.

***

“Arthur!”

Gastho’s voice was loud as he waved to him from the sidewalk that ran along the outside of the mall. No one so much as batted an eye as Arthur moved over and shook the dragon’s hand.

“Hey!” Arthur said with a grin. “Pydes finally figured out how to contact you?”

“Yes, even if it took him longer than it should have. Though I suppose I can’t blame him. The Goddess didn’t exactly design his job and mine to overlap. Sure, we’re both assigned to you, but for vastly different duties.”

Gastho shrugged as he turned and headed towards the doors with the rest of the crowd. Arthur forced himself to keep up, his cane tapping against the ground as he did so.

As they walked, their conversation stayed light and on topics neither minded anyone else overhearing. They talked about the new plants that Dr. Lisa was generating and how busy things had been where Gastho worked.

While he wasn’t that worried about being overheard, it was hard not to wonder how much the security might overhear. His eyes scanned the crowd as they moved through it, and multiple times the two ducked into random stores until a riot-armored dragon walked past.

“Shall we go eat?” Gastho asked. “After the last time. It’s probably better to get this conversation out of the way early.”

Arthur nodded. “Sure.”

With that decision made, they snuck their way over to the information kiosks before teleporting to their normal dining spot. Once the dragoness waitress had delivered their pretzels and left, Gastho started up.

His voice was serious, and he leaned forward as though, even with the privacy wards, he didn’t want to be overheard. “Ok. So, there have been some changes upstairs you might want to hear about.”

“Oh?”

Arthur copied his motion, leaning forward and looking around. Aside from a skinny green dragon chewing on a gem-encrusted desert, no one else was in the restaurant. His eyes flicked over the empty tables, and he wondered why they weren’t full. There were certainly enough dragons and their charges in the building to keep this place constantly full.

“Yes. First off. Good news. Wilth hasn’t gone and blabbed about you being in the building, not that I expected him to.” Gastho looked smug as he grinned viciously. “He’s also not telling people where all those bruises are from, which has the rumor mill churning, let me tell you.”

A snort escaped Arthur before he could stop it. “I bet he’s loving the attention.”

“Oh, for sure.”

For a moment, they laughed at the idea of the nerdy dragon secretary trying desperately to cover up the reason for his injuries. It made Arthur wonder what people were saying about him. Before he could ask, however, Gastho continued speaking, his smile fading.

“But that’s not the biggest news. You know how he told you that The Goddess was at a meeting? Well, news is out about that, and it turns out she’s not back yet and won’t be for a while. Things are getting heated.”

“Does anyone know what it’s about?” Arthur asked.

“No.” Gastho shook his head. “All anyone can tell is that it’s not with anyone from the head office. Someone claimed the accounting department is in freak-out mode more than usual, but well…”

He trailed off, and Arthur nodded, his mind flashing back to some of his earliest messages. How they contained references to Sandra, the dragoness from accounting. From the look that flashed across Gastho’s face, it was clear he knew what Arthur was thinking.

“No.”

“I didn’t say anything,” Arthur said quickly.

Across the table, Gastho took a large bite out of his pretzel. “Still no. I’m not asking her for information.”

“Well, do you have any other way to find out? If they know something, it might be worth discovering what.” He ate more of his own desert as he watched the rage flash across Gastho’s face. It reminded him of the first time they’d met in Epyrth’s office. How enraged he’d acted at being called a secretary.

“I... maybe. Not her, though.”

“Fine,” Arthur said, raising a hand. “I’m not fussed about how it’s done, really. I’d do it myself, but we both know why that wouldn’t work.”

That earned him a snort, one that sounded more humorous than enraged. “True. How goes the quest for Indigo?”

The name reminded Arthur that he’d need to spend one of his Trade Network slots at the art store, which would give him five left to do with as he pleased. He hoped Gastho was asking out of curiosity and not because the security dragon was pressuring him.

“It’s going. I’m trying to summon Rathnil to me and get around the need to traipse down to his lair.”

“Smart.” Gastho said, nodding as he polished off the last bite of his pretzel.

“Thank you, though I’m not sure it’ll work. If it doesn’t, do you know any good survival-based stores in Sellers Alley?”

“It depends on what you need.”

“From what I’ve seen, there’s a lot of anti-radiation gear.” Arthur winced at the look on the dragon’s face. “Expensive?”

“Depends on how fancy you want it, and I doubt you’ll find that in Sellers Alley. Do you need anything else?”

“Well, the knights are throwing a party.”

He gave Gastho a quick rundown, and the dragon nodded along.

“Sure, I have some ideas for that. They want food, right? Any particular kinds?”

“Meat and booze,” Arthur said, not bothering to hide his smile at Kourtney’s rather simple demands.

“Oh, I have a treat for you then. Come on, let’s pay for this and get out of here. We have a butcher to visit.”

“You sound excited,” Arthur noted as he paid for the meal and waited for his guide to initialize the teleportation.

“That’s because I am,” Gastho said as he flicked through screens. “It’s not often I get to visit this place. It might be a touch out of your price range, but trust me when I say it’ll give you some ideas. Oh, what did you want in the way of alcohol, by the way?”

“Mead?” Arthur asked, unsure.

In his previous life, he hadn’t been a drinker. His few times going out with friends hadn’t left him with much desire, but his books also suggested knights and mead would go together. Gastho grunted.

“I’ll make sure you find something nice.”

With that said, they were gone.