The auction house square was far less bustling on the day after the weekly auctions. Still crowded, just not to the point where the street performers got pushed out. On days like these you could find everything from fire breathers and acrobats, even sword-swallowers and puppet shows popping up. It seemed like this was a day when a lot of families liked to come together to the market.
Livia, Oscar and Redd walked past the place where they’d had their stall all week. A few of them had gone to take it all down after the final morning sale yesterday. Seeing it now was bittersweet. Gone far too soon, and after earning them so, so much.
But it was always meant to be a pop-up, and Livia knew that it would be bigger and better each time it made its return.
As they walked up the broad steps and entered the auction house Livia noted how they were far from the only familiar faces from last night's auction, although there were plenty of bidders from the other buildings as well among the people lined up to collect their winnings and pay the piper.
There was nothing else to it, they all entered the line of folks eager to hurry up and wait.
Ahead was a monocled and mustachioed man in a white shirt with a black vest. Gah, how has this place managed to get so classy!? Livia had expected to hold an edge over the competition in that arena. As a newcomer you couldn't afford to get left behind in terms of style; Livia knew well how important it was to make an impression, if the [Guild] were to ever set up something similar. Damn 'em for being snappy dressers. High level Skills at work. Must be.
Nearly an hour later when they finally got to the head of the line, they were faced with a professional summary, as useful as it was brief and open for questions.
All they had to do was hand in their bidding paddle, pay up what they owed, and then take the resulting prize slip to over to their vault & armory. She almost started questioning the guy behind the counter about if he knew more about her item, but it was clearly a dead end. I'll save it for the armory, somebody better know... Something.
So far this whole week had certainly been a smooth transaction. When they first arrived in Dormata with their carts fully loaded, they had brought their personal stuff to the inn; then they’d headed here in the morning, straight away–as per Salman the [Trader]'s recommendation.
They'd made a pretense at haggling, but then sold all the lumber directly to the auction house, since Elin’s Skill had been telling them it was a fair price they were offered. Certainly in terms of what you could expect, dealing with people much higher level. It was not like the auction house had brought out the big guns to deal with a single party from Salcret.
Of course you could sell it individually to projects in need–but that took time, not to mention connections they simply did not have yet–and so with their limited list of priorities, set up during their limited days, they settled for the standard remuneration; despite knowing that Salcret lumber really deserved better than its current designation.
Point being that they’d sold directly to the house, but then kept their money safely in their vaults where you could rent space at a nominal fee, discounted for participants in the auction itself, obviously.
And that was also where their winnings had ended up, after each of their successful days at the market. Then as luck would have it, that was also where they’d both bought and sold their items at the auction–so they’d barely had to actually touch or move their silver all week.
Now they exited with their final balance carried in a chest by Redd, and that was going on the little cart underneath the Cloch-part of their [Cloch Illuminance Sensor], where the thing had looked to have a cabinet of sorts, right above the rimmed wheels.
But when they got there and Livia finally found a place to give vent to her hundred questions; even the auction houses [Vault Custodian] could not do much more than appear apologetic. The man appeared more like a blacksmith than the silverfox clerk, yet he was also dressed in the same snappy–apparently standard–outfit.
But Livia was having a hard time accepting what he told her. “Are you telling me you just sold it, without even knowing the true extent of what it actually does?”
“Madam, I am sorry. I will admit it is unusual, but that is the case. We supplied all the available information at the auction, I really cannot tell you much more than that this is a special case of the seller of the item wishing to remain anonymous; and they are indeed–as you might have guessed even on sight, from looking at the design of their craft–a tad quirky,” He simply spread his hands with that statement. Apparently not even he–who must have seen magic items come and go for years–could guess at its inner functions without actually testing it; another thing its maker had forbidden unless they bought it outright. “We made it clear we knew it could do more than he was letting on, and in turn they made it equally clear that this price was what they wanted it sold at and whether it did more or not was for the new owner to figure out,”
Livia almost wanted to scream with frustration, right in his stupid face. Not this custodian, but the crafter. Who the hell does something like this, after selling something so expensive? What kind of…?
But it was no use. It was clear they were not in fact doing this to mess with her–if they knew more of how it really worked, or what it could do–they would clearly have told her. At least they gave her an instruction manual for a standard [Illuminance Sensor], whose instructions did not help at all, not a single part she was told to interact with appeared to actually exist on this iteratin; but at least it gave her a list of features the machine was likely to be able to perform. It was just missing the small, actually miniscule, piece of information on how to actually make it happen...
Sigh. She didn’t like it, but what else was there to do? It still did what little was advertised, and so it was clearly at least as valuable as what they’d paid for it, what with the fuel being water and the downtime seemingly being non-existent as result.
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She decided to give it one more go. “But it’s Enchanted, so surely you had it appraised by experts before buying, even if you were not allowed to work it...? Yeah, I get it, he's mysterious and all; so I will have to investigate, but can you really not tell me something of the crafters signature? What school it was Enchanted by?”
That was usually standard information, unless the item was very old–even when you purchased it 6th hand from a random [Merchant].
But the [Vault Custodian] merely shook his heavy head. “Unaffiliated. I am sworn not to say more, I do apologize, young lady. But their goods show up from time to time, by this point we take it on faint, our previous appraisals have all shown up nothing, but no customers have returned to complain further.”
And even Redd’s appeal, from one veteran to another; after Livia gave him some puppy eyes, couldn't get them any further than that.
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They finished up and left the auction house; but they did so cautiously, with their riches and new contraption hidden under a heavy tarp. The chest did still jingle if you had high-level hearing–but hell, they were far from the only people leaving the market place carrying valuables. If someone were to strike, it would be on the roads outside Dormata; but that did not mean they could afford being neglectful.
They had Oscar to push from the back, and Livia dragging from the front, with Redd walking beside them on guard, his head on a casual swivel.
They were hoping to be mistaken for the veteran owner of some business and his two apprentices, out moving some regular old piece of equipment, once they got away from the markets and started drawing more eyes. Clearly they weren’t the only ones with such plans. At least the common traits made sure their cover was not looking any more suspicious than anyone else.
They went four streets before there was even a hint of trouble, and they only saw two men struggling and striking each other when they gained room to swing, both far down in a sidestreet alley. Livia made the call not to intervene, since the System would ensure they did not take things too far human to human, instead the three of them simply picked up their pace.
But then it took only one more block before a similar situation happened, but this time it was two fellows in trouble, and they seemed to be getting strangled from behind. It took only fifteen seconds for them both to go out like a light, despite their likely levels. The three of them tensed up when he turned and they caught the man's eyes, but the assailant only tipped his hat to them and then turned back around, seemingly to try and make sure the unconscious lady in hardened leather was alright.
This was a strange day so far, but they’d seen fights break out now and again, Dormata was simply that kind of place if you walked around the wrong streets. At least people did not kill each other, but it was evidently a matter of just giving the wrong person the wrong look before you could end up struggling with an attacker. Not that this was one of those areas, usually. Those last two guys had not even gotten robbed.
But with just a couple more blocks remaining the strangeness just kept going, they saw two other fights, the first was just a matter of two bruisers going at it, this time two females, but the 2nd encounter seemed to have even escalated to a larger group fight. Six fellows were beating up four huge lads who were laying down on the ground and protecting their vitals for all their worth while they got kicked.
This area had been a lot calmer throughout this past week, but then again it was now the weekend. Maybe people just had a lot of excess energy when there was less work being done, on account of recovering faster due to their Classes?
Whatever the reason, despite the many close calls, they eventually managed to remain unbothered with their earnings and expensive contraption. Thankfully the large wheels rolled unexpectedly well, even at the spots that had turned to the roughest of cobblestones.
When they finally rounded the corner and spotted the [Guild] in the distance they saw them all gathered out in front of the Legume; but they’d barely taken ten steps before a gang of five [Warrior]-types with bandanas covering their faces stepped out to block their path.
But they only stood there acting menacing for a second, before a giant of a man, with a shaved head and scars all over his face, who happened to be sitting at the corner sandwich shop–enjoying the sun and gently blowing on some tea–spoke up in a grating voice. “Kindly fuck off,”
Livia thought he was speaking to them at first, and even Redd looked confused and prepared to whistle for their friends to back them up. Then they heard the five slowly shuffling away from them, with a look so worried it was evident even through the piece of cloth covering most of their faces. They realized he’d been aiming his words elsewhere.
This was the strangest encounter yet, but rather than speed up and carry on like they had the other times Livia figured she should at least thank the man: “Uh, Thanks, much appreciated,”
But he didn’t even look at them. “No need, I just don’t enjoy hoodlums on my street,”
And that was fair enough, if a bit of a coincidence. Redd gave him a serious nod.
What else was there to do but to accept the aid in the spirit it was given?
And so they merely shrugged, then went straight ahead to join in with their mates, who were all celebrating the reveal of their new [Guild] logo.
It was time to head out, and say cheers and see you later to Dormata for now.