Feisty crossed her arms, leaning back against the shop counter, and stared at me, turning to Finn as he continued up the stairs behind us. After a brief pause, she scratched her head. “Right then… I’ve always hated lying… So I’ll just say it how it is and save us both the trouble yeah? I don’t have a signature for the purchase…”

Finn slowly rubbed his forehead before dragging his hand down his face, neither of them saying a word.

‘Well this is awkward…’ “Do you have any information to go on?”

“That’s not really the issue here…” Finn said, crossing his arms before another silence.

I slowly looked between the two of them. “Then what is?”

Finn sighed. “When you purchase anything from a craftsman they put the order in a log book. They are required to keep track of the buyer by some means. On rare occasions, this means a customer gives them blood or hair, but normally they just have the customer send some manna into the book, and then we use that to track them… But she’s saying she didn’t do that… Which means she sold a forged and enchanted product illegally… What I’m trying to figure out right now is what we should do with her…”

Again, dead silence fell over the two of them. “Well… Feisty… What happened? Did you just need the money? or…”

She sighed. “He asked for the net, he paid me… I made it for him and he left without giving the signature… Long story short, now I know that if someone pays up front they should sign up front too… I… Haven’t been doing this for very long…”

“Well… That explains why you put your forge symbol on it…” He sighed.

“So she just messed up, it sounds more like they stole it right? Why should she get in trouble for that?”

He shrugged. “They paid her… So in other words, no matter what she says, it looks like an illegal purchase. Why would they bother leaving the money otherwise? And if I were a betting man… Sense they did leave the money and put you in a tight spot like this… You're already on your way to having them as regular customers…”

“Not if you catch them first…”

He scratched his head, still trying to figure out what to do next.

‘I mean… It’s not like she did it on purpose… And she needed the money, to say the least… I know those things don’t really matter but…’ “Finn… You said people in your guild were only in power when it was convenient right?”

“Yeah. Pretty much.”

“And arresting her and dealing with paperwork would be pretty inconvenient right?”

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He just rolled his eyes. “Let’s just get going, we need to track this guy down…”

Fiesti’s face slowly relaxed. “You aren’t going to turn me in?”

Finn pocketed his guild emblem. “I’m just a citizen right now, what would give me the right to bring you in?”

She smirked. “Right… Well, you might as well let me finish my story before you leave.” She stood up and squatted down, making Finn uncomfortably turn away again as she rummaged through one of her shelves “I’ve got two blood samples from two different people… Ahh, here it is.” She pulled out a small hammer with a bloodstain on it. “Don’t know if it’ll work, but you know… It’s there.”

‘Something tells me they didn’t exactly just run away…’ I started looking around again, seeing little signs of a conflict like broken and cracked stone in one of the walls. “Where’s the other one?”

She just sighed, unbuckling the strap from her apron that wrapped around her neck and letting the top half fall down to her waist, revealing long streaks of blood staining her Stoney skin like war paint.

‘What…’ “This isn’t your blood?”

“No, One of them attacked me. Beast Kin, practically tore my clothes off, but broke his claws on my skin and ended up bleeding quite a bit. They wanted to make sure I knew who was in charge so they were going to rough me up… But after that, I pinged his friend in the head, and they both ran with their tails between their legs.”

“What…” ‘I knew dwarven skin was tough… But dang.’

“This should be enough right?”

‘She’s being way too casual about this, isn’t she? Or… Maybe I’m just overly sensitive now… Because of what happened to me…’ “I’m going to have to touch you to get the blood off… Is that alright?”

“Sure, go for it.”

I touched my finger to her ribs and slowly gathered the dried blood, pulling it off her skin and into a ball in the air. ‘If he bled this much he must have broken more than just one claw… Even for a dwarf, it’s impressive her skin is this hard… Is it because of the runes? No… None of these look like durability runes… Well… Serves him right.’ “You hardly look like someone that got beaten… But if you are hurt I can heal you.” I pulled a glass jar from storage and placed the blood inside, tapping Finn on the shoulder and handing it to him, as he continued to stare the other way.

He took it and swirled it around. “This is more than enough for a tracing spell. From their habits, it sounds like we’re dealing with the circle of ash… They target low-level areas and adventurers, figures they’d need a blacksmith, they haven’t been able to get off the ground until recently. So they tried to get Fiesty to join them with threats and by breaking her will to fight back. At least that’s my working theory. Is she covered again?”

‘He’s being way too casual about this too…’ I sighed, pointing at her apron which she slowly buckled back together over the thin scraps of cloth she had sowed together to cover her chest.

‘This feels so wrong… Why is he the skittish one in this scenario…’ “You can turn around now…”

He did so calmly, shaking the vial of blood as it started to glow. “Dwarves really are pretty amazing. Skin tougher than rocks, and a language so sophisticated they can imbue it with magic. Then again… I’m just a human so anything I say will probably just sound like flattery since you’re also cute.

The way she showed skin didn’t bother her in the least… But just like that a faint tinge of red showed under the soot on her face and she started tugging at the edges of the apron.

“You really need to learn when to shut up Finn…” ‘That’s what she gets embarrassed about? Are all dwarves like this or is it just her…’ Letting out a long sigh I reoriented myself. “You need money right? Help us track these guys down and I’ll buy everything in your shop.” ‘It’s all way undervalued here anyway… I could just sell it at the beehive and turn a profit.’

Any faint sense of embarrassment vanished in an instant, replaced by a grin. “Don’t have to ask me twice. Let’s get going.” She said, quickly grabbing some armor and strapping her hammer to her belt.

Finn groaned. “Fine, she can tag along… But only if she puts on a shirt…”

She paused mid-way through strapping on a metal chest piece. “Erm… Does this count? Or like… Underneath or…”

Finn turned around for a moment, letting out a sigh. “Yes… That’s fine…”

‘Ah, adventurers… Dad was right… No shortage of interesting people.’