We arrived in Manthia halfway through the third day of our trip. I had a much better time than I was expecting, aside from the annoying fact that I still had to do the exercise regimen. But once we were in Manthia it finally occurred to me, I had no money on me.

I never entered dungeons with money on me, there wasn’t a reason to. If we ever went out afterwards, I could run back to my apartment or just put it on my tab at the guild hall. I had really gotten lucky with running into Lykor’s village.

“What’s with that look on your face?” Lykor asked me as he was unloading some of his things.

“I just realized I have no money on me.”

I rubbed the back of my head laughing awkwardly.

Lykor laughed and hit me on the back.

“Quite the clumsy one aren’t you?”

I forced a smile laughing a bit.

“You don’t have to put it that way. I mean it’s not like I can say what actually happened as some sort of explanation.”

“Well the best way to get your travel paid for is to work as an escort, but I doubt you could get a job like that quickly.”

I slouched, “I guess I’m walking there.”

Lykor put a hand on my shoulder, "Will saying I’ll give you a sword cheer you up?”

“Wait, really?”

I don’t remember the last time my face naturally smiled this much.

“Yeah, but it's under the condition that you don’t sell it to get a horse.”

“How could you think I’d ever do that?”

Lykor’s smile reminded me of my uncle and made me look away uncomfortable.

“I know you wouldn't. I just felt like I had to say it is all. So let's go and get you a sword.”

He patted my shoulder continuing to take things off the cart.

“Personally, I don’t think I have anything in my possession that would actually suit your fighting style. After watching you practice, I think a blade with a single side sharpened would suit you better.”

“So, you’re just going to buy me one, not give me one of yours?”

“Well, I don’t think you walking around with a sword with an elven design is a good choice per say. With you hiding your ears and all it would only make others more curious about you. If you had something of dwarvish or human design no one would bat an eye.”

“What do you mean? Aren’t elves even better than humans when it comes to blacksmithing.”

“That’s why we’ll go with something dwarven made, but these days the elves don’t wander outside of the country much so trade is mostly materials not weaponry. A few other elves and I sell weapons openly, so the few that do get out and around are from a limited source. You’re trying to blend in, aren’t you?”

I guess he was right, I mean having Fluffy around made me stick out anyway but adding an elven sword to my whole look really would be something noticeable.

“You aren’t exactly wrong there I guess.”

I helped him lift the last crate off and onto the ground.

“I’ll find you a real nice one and then you can be on your way.”

“Lykor!” a woman’s voice called walking over to us.

She was tall, her fiery red hair lightly tied back with a few braids. She wore traditional elven armor that had seen its years of adventure.

“Nithroel! So nice to see you. I see our timing finally managed to line up for once, it’s been a while since I saw you.”

“I’ve told you, you should just stay here. I’d let you create to your heart's content, get you a nice large smith.”

Lykor laughed but it felt different from the other times so I guess it was a bit forced.

“You know I like where I am.”

She put her hand on her hip as she came to a stop in front of us.

“I know I know, I just always want to ask you. But who’s this one?”

She looked down at me and I tried to give her a polite smile.

“This is Quartz, he helped the village out with a small dungeon so I gave him a ride here.”

She patted me on the shoulder with a shocking amount of force.

“That’s good then! It’d be a shame if your situation got messed up because of a dungeon.”

That was a weird way of putting that and I glanced at Lykor, who rubbed the back of his head.

“Yeah, well it was really lucky he was passing by the village. Oh right, this is Nithroel Beimaris, she's the guild master of the merchants’ guild here.”

“Nice to meet you.”

Lykor knew impressive people. I didn’t know what was more shocking that he knew her, or that she called out to him in the middle of the street to say hi.

“Why’s he got his face all covered up like that? And that hair, how did he even get it all those muddy colors?”

She leaned into my face trying to get a better look and I backed away quite uncomfortable. Mezu, who was holding onto my pant leg, growled up at her for being too close to me.

“Nithroel please don’t get in the kid’s face like that, you’ll make him uncomfortable.”

She laughed back.

“What type of friend would I be if I didn’t look into the suspicious new people around my friend?”

Stolen story; please report.

“You draw too much attention to someone I’m trying not to draw attention to.”

Lykor switched to Elvish when he said that, there was still a smile on his face and he said it quite quietly. I don’t think anyone around us would have noticed.

“Are you saying I shouldn’t be worried about him?” She responded in elvish as well.

Her eyes glanced down at me and I did my best to feign confusion.

“I’d appreciate it if you tried not to be interested in him at all.”

That changed her expression, softening it a bit.

“Only because we’re longtime friends.”

“If you’re trying to act like you don’t know what’s going on, how you respond from now on will sell it better than the face you’re making,” Alcoroth said in my ear.

“Well then, you should come over for dinner before you leave.” she switched back to common.

“If you’re still around by then I’ll do that.”

“I stopped going on business trips, so I’ll be around, make sure you come to visit me.”

She turned and waved. I didn’t meet her for very long but I was glad she had left.

Once she was far enough away, Lykor let out a heavy sigh.

“Sorry about that, didn’t mean to leave you out of the conversation, she just doesn’t take me seriously if I use common sometimes.”

“What do you mean?”

“The merchant guild is connected to the information guild here.” he said in dwarvish this time.

The switch was so seamless I didn’t know why he was doing it. Well, he knew where I grew up so I wouldn’t have to feign ignorance now I guess.

“She used to be head of the information guild, I think she’s still in that position but since she’s also the face of the merchant guild, the amount of people in power here isn’t so big. Her being interested in you wouldn’t be too great in the long run.”

“So this is just another place I need to get out of quickly.”

“Your hair does a surprisingly good job of hiding your ears. Putting a hood up now would be even more suspicious so let's get you on your way.”

“Alright.”

“Oh you fucking idiot!” Alcoroth said and I turned to look at him confused.

I felt Lykor’s hand grip my shoulder.

“You need to become a better liar.”

I realized he was speaking elvish now and I wanted to hit myself. I was too comfortable to notice. His hand came off my shoulder and he picked up a box.

“Don’t be too stressed about it, there’s just a lot of people here that are more observant than what you might be used to. As long as you don’t spend too much time here it shouldn’t be an issue so don’t worry about it. Now watch the stuff while I carry it over.”

I nodded and sat on a box putting Mezu in my lap to fiddle with his hair.

He had explained a bit of how he did business on our way over as a way to fill up the gaps of silence.

He was acquainted with a smither in Manthia and was lent a corner of his store every time he came out. The smither would get a percentage of the sales and he’d stay until they were all sold out. This smith was run by a dwarf so the fact that there were even elven swords for sale gathered attention and they would sell out pretty quickly. Honestly, I don’t think I could think of anything weirder than a dwarf and an elf going into business together, and in smithing no less.

I assumed he’d buy me a sword from that stock.

“He’s not wrong, you either need to get better at lying or just never get comfortable enough to fuck up.”

Alcoroth’s insult was a bit tame in comparison to what I heard during training.

“We’ll be gone soon enough. I don’t think his knowing what languages I speak will create any trouble in the small time we’ll be here. As long as that woman respects Lykor enough not to look into me we should be fine.”

“You should have pushed him more to find out about that story. There was definitely something there about your past.”

“My past is of no urgent importance.”

“You aren’t in the slightest bit curious about why our arrangement even works?”

“I am, but honestly I don’t care too much about it. What would knowing even do? If it's something I need to hide I already do that to the best of my ability. What would knowing about it change?”

Mezu leaned back looking up at me and flashing a cute smile. I sighed, smiling back at him and hugging him tightly. What was it about that smile that just screamed cuteness? It was enough to distract me a bit from my heritage, but I couldn’t lie, that blank spot in the information page that Alcoroth had shown me had me worried.

At the end of the day, knowing the truth and accidentally letting others know would probably put me at risk. And as Lykor pointed out, I’m not the best at lying. It was probably better for me to just focus on climbing the tower and nothing else.

It didn’t take long for Lykor to take all the boxes to the store and I helped him with the last one.

“My friend is busy in the front of the store,” Lykor said as we entered the back door, “I’ll introduce you to him once the customers leave. We can pick a sword out for you then.”

“Alright.”

It had been a while since I had been around dwarves and I was a bit nervous. I really didn’t want anything to remind me of my uncle. Thinking about the past was always troublesome and it would tend to fill my head for longer than I’d like.

I put the box down where I saw the rest of them, and Mezu wandered the room checking out various things. Luckily with this being a storage room, there was plenty to get his attention, so I didn’t need to do much.

“I don’t know whether or not I should be impressed that you’re so fluent in elvish that you didn’t register that he switched languages. Or should I be relieved that we’ll soon be in the tower and your in ability to lie probably won’t be much of a problem from now on.”

There it was, that was the sort of response I was expecting from him.

“Yeah, well once I get the sword and buy some food, we’ll be on our way out of this place.”

“Buy food? With what money?”

How could I forget about that right away yet again?

I sighed heavily.

Lykor came back into the room this time with a dwarf. Luckily, he didn’t look at all familiar. His hair and beard were curly and a warm brown color, with bits that were burned and covered with soot.

“So this is the kid you were talking about huh?”

“Quartz this is Findoic. He closed the store for a bit so let's get you that sword.”

Findoic came up to me close and looked me up and down. I was used to that glance and just watched him.

“I know you wanted to double check, but my assessment wasn’t wrong.” Lykor said.

“He’ll be getting one of my swords. Of course I have to do the evaluation myself. It would be such a waste to give him a good one if I don’t pick it for him myself.”

He left my side and went into a barrel in the corner. He fished around grabbing a couple of wooden practice swords.

“Let's go out back I want to see you swing a sword for a bit.”

Mezu cheered, running over to the door and opening it.

“What’s with the little brat?”

“Ah don’t mind him, he’s just excited. He thinks swords are much cooler than my fists.”

I glanced out the door before following him. I had completely missed it, ugh I really needed to train my observation skills. The yard had multiple straw dummies lined up and in the back corner was a forge with a small covering for the work area.

“Alright brat let's do this.”

I took one of the swords he held. Its weight was a bit awkward for me and Findoic took it from me almost instantly. I grinned; the eye of a dwarf blacksmith was really something.

He passed me another one that felt a bit better. I took a few swings but Findoic just passed me a couple more. After going through them he sighed.

“I hate it when you’re right.”

Lykor laughed, clapping his friend on the back.

“I know you do, but would we be friends if you didn’t think I had some skill?’

Findoic laughed as well, “You’re not wrong. Alright brat I’ll go get your sword.”

He turned and went back into the building.

“Thanks again Lykor.”

“This is thanks for helping the village out, I told you. Don’t think too much about it alright?”

I smiled slightly. He was treating me nicer than I’d expect from a complete stranger. Maybe Alcoroth was right, he knows something about my past. But I wasn’t that interested in it still.

Findoic came back quickly and passed me a sword.

“Alright here you go, why don’t you give it a swing?”

I took it and pulled it from its sheath. It felt great in my hand, the weight alone felt right. After a few swings, I felt so much lighter with my movements. I knew dwarves were good, but this was a bit beyond my expectations. Uncle just sent me off with a couple of daggers, it’s not that I didn’t appreciate it, but they weren’t meant for me specifically. They were a short-term answer to my problem.

“Alright I’ve done my bit now, I’m gonna head back to the store. Take care of it properly, brat.”

He turned walking back to his store.

“I will, thanks for picking it out.”

He waved dismissively, closing the door behind him. I put it away, strapping it to my hip.

“So I guess this is it huh?”

“Yeah, well I need to get back and well at least out of this place before your friend gets any more curious about me.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

He laughed a little bit and glanced around.

“It looks like he wants to say something,” Alcoroth said.

Really?

I looked at him again, and he looked more like he had to pee than wanted to say something.

“Take care of yourself okay?”

“Sure.”

Alcoroth sighed annoyed. “If he wanted to say something, he just should’ve. What’s with that cheap cop out?”

Mezu ran over to me and jumped onto my back. I supported him a bit with a hand and pushed him up till he climbed onto my shoulders.

“Bye then”

I waved back at him and headed out of the backyard.