“See any guards?”, Cody said as he glanced over his shoulder.

Thequen looked around. The regular guards of Volport usually wore at least a little armor regardless of the weather, with a distinct shield motif engraved on the chest-piece. Nothing seemed out of place to him at a glance. “I don’t see any. Just people getting shops set up and stuff.”, he said as he turned back toward Cody and the door.

Cody pulled his knife from his belt and held the blade up and pushed the point in above the body of the lock. He leveraged the spine of the knife against the door and pushed, the muscle of his forearm bulging a little with the effort. To Thequen’s surprise, after a few moments, there was a screech of metal on metal as Cody’s blade dug in, shimmering with a faint golden light as it sliced clean through the body of the lock. “Problem solved.”, Cody said as he sheathed his knife, then grabbed hold of the ruined lock, untangling it from the fixture on the door. The door swung open easily at his touch, hinges squeaking slightly.

“You know, I realize you enchanted the knives a bit, but I didn’t think that would work.”, Thequen said as he followed Cody inside. The room was small and dusty. A small table and chair were in one corner, and the rest of the space was occupied by empty wooden shelves, stands and racks. There was another door on the far side of the room, near the small table. Cody opened the curtains and coughed momentarily as the dust fell off of them and fouled the air. Daylight illuminated the room.

“It was another experiment. Like folding iron a few times, I tried layering the rune for sharpness. Most of the time it failed, or made the blade extra brittle. On this one, it worked. Come on through here and I’ll show you your room, such as it is.”, Cody said with a shrug as he walked across the room and then proceeded through the back door.

The back area was much more expansive. A high ceiling, one wall dominated by a stone brick furnace and forge. Slightly off from the center of the room was a well-used looking anvil, with a hammer dangling from a hook on a ceiling beam nearby. Cody pointed to a ladder in a corner of the room, which led up to some sort of platform. Thequen could partially see the space above-- it was nothing more than a platform. No walls or anything. Light trickled in through cracks in the ceiling. There was a back door that Thequen assumed led out into another street or alley. It was barred from the inside by a solid plank of wood on a pair of hooks built into the frame. “You sleep up there. I’ll work something out down here for me.”, Cody said as he grabbed the hammer from where it hung and held it firmly by the haft.

“Got it. Thanks.”, Thequen said as he walked across the room and approached the ladder. Despite the weirdness about the lock being changed, the place seemed like a normal blacksmith’s workshop, complete with a small front room for selling excess product. It was well kept, materials organized in piles and on hooks and racks along the walls, organized. Cody walked slowly around the room, occasionally reaching out to touch a tool or run his fingers along the surface of a table or a vertical support beam.

“Looks like whoever messed with the lock didn’t take anything.”, Cody said. Thequen climbed up the ladder and found that the space above was further constrained by the slant of the roof. There was a neatly arranged bedroll tucked where the ceiling was lowest and a small crate, one side missing and rotated so that it could serve as both a small shelf and an endtable.

“That’s good, at least? Should we… talk to your landlord?”, Thequen called down as he unloaded his few books and other belongings onto the little shelf.

“Don’t got one. This is my place, free and clear. Got copies of the papers in a vault at a bank and everything. Whoever messed with the front door, if they do come back, I’ll be here waiting.”, Cody said with a frown as he sorted through a wooden bin filled rectangular and square pieces of metal. He chose a few and set them aside on the table.

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Thequen climbed back down the ladder. “Gonna make something?”, he asked.

“Yep. Horseshoes and daggers for starters. Easy shapes. Things that’ll definitely sell sooner than later, until word gets around and people start making requests.”, Cody said as he placed the last bit of metal onto his newly formed pile. He then moved over the forge and started to load it up with wood. “It’ll take a while to get up to temperature.”, he said as he produced some matches from a pocket of his pants, struck one, and tossed it in.

“Alright. Good if I go take care of some of my own stuff then? I’ll be back sometime after dark.”, Thequen said.

“Go for it. I’m not the boss of you.”, Cody said with a shrug as he fed another chunk of wood into the forge.

“Until later, then.”, Thequen said as he stepped back through the door into the dusty front room, then out from there into the street, which was now bustling with activity. It didn’t take him long as he walked block after block to get a good feel for where he was. He moved through the city, south into the Merchant Quarter, then East into the Common Quarter. By the time he got there the sun had begun to dip below the edge of the city’s outer wall in the distance.

The Common Quarter was the cheapest place in town-- a space occupied by poor families, unskilled laborers, organized crime, and a smattering of mages who had little to no formal education. It was where Thequen had grown up, and he knew its pathways well. Before seeking out Rulf he stopped at a little street-side stall, one of many scattered throughout the Common that sold meat on a stick-- the kind of place where it was an unspoken agreement that one never asked where the meat came from. Thequen paid a pittance of his total wealth for a couple skewers and was delighted to find out via taste and texture that this was heavily spiced venison. Which meant this vendor had a connection to poachers that operated in the King’s forest, most likely. That also meant they might know where he could find Rulf.

The stall owner was a middle aged man that wore patchy loose clothes. He wore a headband that held back his hair for the most part, but also highlighted the shiny bald spot atop his head where he’d started to lose hair. “Good eh, sir?”, he asked as he turned more skewers over on a small grill.

“It is. I don’t suppose you know where I can find Rulf?”, Thequen said.

The man shrugged. “There are many Rulfs in Volport.”, he said.

Thequen sighed. “The one that used to live near here. The banker.”, Thequen said, with careful emphasis on that last word.

“Ah. That Rulf. Listen, if you need some money I know a guy--”, the old man started. Thequen glared at him and put his hand down on the counter, hard.

“I already owe money. Point me to Rulf and I’ll make it worth your time. But don’t waste my time.”, Thequen said.

The stall owner raised up his hands. The other two people seated on stools eating did not react at all, specifically not glancing toward Thequen or the proprietor. “Okay, okay. Relax bud. He’s not too far from where he last set up shop. Couple blocks over east from where he was last year so I hear, if that helps. Ah heck!”, he said as he glanced at the grill. He whirled and withdrew a set of almost-burnt skewers from the grill-top, quickly setting them on a nearby cutting board to cool. Thequen dropped a couple coins on the counter. By the time the stall owner scooped them up, Thequen had already walked away, moving with quick steps toward Rulf’s lair.

Night time was a different beast in Volport. Very few people were out and about. Those that were out tended to cluster in doorways, whether of homes or of taverns, or places of business about to close. Guards on patrol were already a rare sight this deep into the Common Quarter, and at night they were barely ever seen at all. Thequen crossed two blocks without incident, and then ascended the familiar narrow staircase between two buildings that led to Rulf’s old office space. He stopped at the door at the top of the stairs and knocked, using the old pattern he’d been taught when he and Rulf had first done business.

He heard movement from beyond the door, then the sound of many deadbolts clicking and sliding open. The door opened a crack and a lone brown eye peered out from the darkness. “What’s your business?”, he whispered. This was not the same doorman from some months ago.

“Tell Rulf I’m here. I have some payments to catch up on.”, Thequen said.

“Hmm.”, the man at the door said. He closed the door and Thequen heard his footsteps fade as he stepped away, deeper into the building.