Alice started down at the metal box – she thought it was called a strongbox. Thoughts tumbled and crashed together in her mind. Too many to make sense of or put into order.

Numi had no such problem. With a happy cry, she dived for the box. But it was so heavy that she couldn’t manage to lift it out from under the floorboard. Iggy had to step in to help her.

“Alice, can I open it? Can I? Can I?” Numi all but begged.

Alice blinked and shook her head, but it was more to knock her out of her own daze than anything else. “Of course, I want to see what’s in there.”

Though, of course, she already suspected.

Numi immediately turned and stuck the point of her tail into the lock, fishing around. Soon, she frowned, turned, and did the same with one of her long claws. She had no more luck with that. “This is more difficult than I thought.”

It made sense because if Alice’s growing suspicions were right, Sim the Merchant would have more reason than most to keep the strongbox hidden.

“You didn’t have a problem opening the hotel room safes,” Prim pointed out. “Surely, this box could not be harder than that.”

“Oh, those were cheap. This little beauty was built to keep people out.” Numi caressed the top of the steel box as if it were a favorite pet. “It’s gonna take time for me to work out how to crack it.” She sounded cheery about it. As well she should, as unlocking this box would grant her a lot more experience.

Alice wasn’t going to hurry her dragon along. She knew her business.

Turning, her eyes fell again on the mess that had been left in the loft. She stepped to the side, found one of the few clear spaces, and set the lamp down. Then she started sorting through what had been left on the floor: Bits of crockery, torn pages from books, and bits of clothing that had been torn into ribbons.

If people had broken into the store to take the goods, why had they bothered to cut or break everything they could get their hands on or pry up random floorboards?

The answer was easy: they were looking for something, weren’t exactly sure where it was kept, and were angry because they didn’t find it.

Her guess was they were looking for that strongbox.

Pushing those thoughts to the side for now, Alice continued sorting the trash into piles. She didn’t find anything that could be considered untouched, but some of the clothing might be salvageable for cleaning rags.

“What are you doing?” Iggy asked.

“Cleaning,” she answered. “I don’t have the skill for it anymore, but I do have two strong arms, and there’s work to be done.

Visibly curious, the red and gold dragon padded over and started to copy Alice with many glances her way to make sure he was sorting things properly. He looked highly doubtful at the entire process, but it was more interesting than watching Numi work.

Alice had managed to clear up a good-sized square around the strongbox by the time Numi was successful.

There was a soft click followed by Numi’s cry. “Got it! Oh wow, I just got two levels in lockpicking. Whew.”

“Excellent work,” Alice said, and her little dragon preened.

Alice returned to sit down in front of the box. Numi might have taken care of the lock, but she hadn’t lifted the lid, leaving that privilege to Alice.

All the dragons gathered around close. Even Spark watched with silent eyes.

The lid was slightly ajar, and Alice lifted it on its hinge.

All of them took in the same surprised breath.

The strongbox had been separated into two sections. One was dedicated to coins. Three solid golden rows glittered up at them. The fourth row was filled mostly with gold but broken by five coins of steel blue.

The second half of the strongbox was filled with jewelry of all shapes and sizes. Gems of red, blue, green, and completely clear sparkled in the lamplight.

“Are those diamonds?” Alice asked, pointing to an encrusted bracelet.

Numi plucked one out with surprising delicacy. She brought the bracelet close to one eye, then, before Alice could stop her, bit down on the stone.

“Seems like it,” Numi said, “But I can’t tell how many carats it is. My appraising’s too low.”

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Alice sat back. She supposed she should be glad, even giddy with their windfall. Instead, she was horrified by the implications.

No one would just leave this amount of wealth behind.

Suddenly, it felt like this store – and this loft where the merchant had lived – was full of ghosts.

“Alice, what is it?”

Of course, Prim was the first to notice that Alice was upset. She put one forepaw on Alice’s knee and looked up at her in concern.

Alice bit her lower lip, but then decided to share her fears with her friends. “I’m not sure we should stay here tonight. Look around this place. Someone was searching – probably for this box. And if they knew what was inside, I don’t think they would stop searching any time soon.” Maybe they had come back several times... and maybe they were on their way here now.

“Yes, I will say this place has been thoroughly searched,” Prim said lightly, looking around. “But didn’t that lady at the inn say that Sim went back to the capital? And he didn’t return?”

“Yes, six months ago.”

Iggy rumbled. “Then it is very likely tragedy befell him within that city. Meanwhile, the people here knew he was a successful shopkeeper, and rich. Look around. This was a haphazard search, not a professional one.”

Something in Alice unclenched. She looked down at her fearsome dragon. “That is... a very good point.”

It was as if his logic had melted away a good portion of her fear. She looked around the store with new eyes. Compared to the general laborers' barracks, this building was a palace.

And she very much did not want to go and sleep in the woods.

If Sim had been gone for so long, and his store had stayed empty...

A new thought broke through like the sun peeking out through the dark clouds that had been her anxiety. Now they were lifting, Alice saw more possibilities laid out in front of her.

“Why can’t I make this mine?” she wondered aloud.

Prim cocked her head. “The store?”

“Why not?” Alice said. “We do need a place to stay, and my visible class is Apprentice Merchant. It would fit.”

“But you are not really a merchant,” Prim reminded her.

“Who cares?” Numi had been busily going through the strongbox and sorting out the jewelry. At a glance, she had made three piles: Costume, semi-precious, and precious. Not all of it was valuable, though it was all pretty. “As long as people believe Alice is an Apprentice Merchant, what does it matter?”

“Well, let’s take this one step at a time,” Alice said before the dragons could start bristling at one another.

Standing, she took a good look around. She never really had anything that had been ‘hers’ before. And now with the money from the strongbox along with all the coins and jewels Numi had already found in the city... surely that would be enough to purchase the building, or rent it from the city, or whatever it was people did. Plus, it should be enough to buy some supplies for her to sell at a greater price.

Right?

“First thing’s first,” she said again with a nod to herself, “No one will want to set foot inside a store while it looks like this. Iggy, take Spark and go hunt out every rat and mouse in here. I want you to drive them out and put so much fear into them they’ll never come back.”

“Yes, Alice!” Iggy said, took to the air, and practically dived over the railing to start doing his duty. Spark excitedly flew after him.

“Don’t set the place on fire!” Alice called. Then she turned to Numi. “Once it’s morning and we have enough light to see by, I need you to start appraising anything of value downstairs. It looks like much of it is lost, but some of the merchandise might still be salvageable.”

Finally, she turned to her first dragon. “Prim, Numi is going to need an assistant.”

Numi let out a cry of happiness and did a little jig back and forth on her squat, turned out lizard-legs. “Great! I have so many ideas for what I need!”

“You do?” Alice asked. She had to admit she didn’t have any good ideas, herself, other than a basic assistant. She made a snap decision. “Well, then you should tell Prim what you need. I only have one aspect token, but if you all work hard, I should have another one soon.”

With that, Alice went back through sorting through the ruined goods upstairs. Numi scuttled over and started speaking excitedly to Prim. Though she spoke too low for Alice to hear – Alice got the impression she was trying to keep certain things a surprise.

For a moment, Alice worried that Prim would be disdainful of Numi’s ideas. She generally held an air of superiority over the rest of the dragons. But to Alice’s relief, Prim was nodding and seemed to be taking her duty seriously.

Soon, Prim retired to the cut-up remains of the bed.

A few minutes later, she called Alice over.

The egg underneath her was as small as Spark’s had been. It was an odd tan, the exact coloration of a flour sack, or the heavy-duty work apron that general laborers tended to wear.

Curiously, Alice picked it up.

Do you wish to hatch out this sub-aspect?

“Yes,” Alice said.

The egg cracked and Alice got a feeling of deja vu as the dragon that peeked out had Numi’s shape, but in miniature. She was the same dull flour sack tan, though with darker brown circles around her bugged-out green eyes that made it look like she was wearing spectacles.

“Hello,” Alice said softly.

The dragon blinked at her.

Not a talker either, then.

Alice took a look at her sheet. The new dragon did not have elements to choose from, like Spark. Instead, she had several specialties.

Accounting

Retail Management

Repair

Customer Service

“Pick repair,” Numi said, practically doing a jig in excitement. “Ohhh, can I pick a name, too?”

“What do you have in mind?”

Numi practically beamed a dragon grin. “I’m going to name her Fixie!”