Unlike any of the other buildings that were situated on the outside of the old Inner Walls, the Bank stood with a straight back in Sentinel’s Square. It looked down on all its peers that chose to slouch against the ancient fortifications, imperious and disdainful of everyone who passed by.
A testament to the wealth within, great boulders of obsidian had been hewn from deep within the mountains, brought low from their fiery origin and cut to exacting precision to form its structure. Its white mortar looked as if it repelled dirt and grime by pure disgust alone. Even the main doors; solid silvan wood six inches thick with only the barest of embellishment.
It was only right. All the people of Upartesk; [Emissaries] and [Aristocrats] visiting with wagons of gold that definitely weren’t to be used for bribing mining guilds; even the tax office of Upartesk itself.
Everyone needed the Bank. If not, you were risking a midnight visit from one of a ever-increasing number of [Thieves] that could literally smell the money under your floorboards.
Yan, wide-eyed and innocent though he was, knew this. Which is why he looked so dejected, carrying his month’s wage in a bag on his waist. Tucked away though it was below an old leather cloak, it weighed heavy on his mind. He couldn’t help but peer suspiciously at anyone who looked his way.
Sel walked alongside him on their way back to the Watch House, the pair having failed to be seen to. It may have been a lot to Yan, but it seemed that there was more money changing hands than usual at the Bank today so his paltry deposit had been delayed until a [Banker] could open an account for him.
“Look, it’ll be okay,” she said, “you can keep the money in the Watch House until they can open an account for you. It’s probably one of the safest places you can keep money. Apart from the Bank, though, obviously.”
“Probably,” Yan admitted. “I’ve just never had this much money to my name before. Its… weird.”
“Wait!” exclaimed Sel. “I completely forgot. Himura’s family works in the Bank! She’ll probably come in today after all because of that golem everyone’s chasing after.”
“Won’t she have to go after them as soon as possible? I doubt she’ll have the time to go back to the Bank with me. And anyway, why would she help me?”
“Because I’ll ask her to, duh. Plus, she’s nice like that. She’d definitely help you if you asked her yourself anyway.”
“You told me she freaks you out?” Yan was confused. “I just assumed you both didn’t like each other or something.”
The pair stepped into a quiet Watch House. Sel made to go up to Himura’s office and Yan followed along behind, wondering if he’d misread the situation.
“Um no?” Sel replied, also confused. “She’s like the only one my age in the office. Well, she was, anyway,” she conceded, nodding towards Yan. “We hang out a lot, especially after work. I just don’t understand why she’d rather work on bodies and... leftover bits, instead of potions and stuff.” She shuddered.
“Right,” he said, still confused but hesitant to question Sel in case he ended up understanding even less than he did now.
Sel walked up to Himura’s door, knocked on it loudly, and retreated several steps as if it was about to spontaneously combust.
Himura opened the door with a sigh. She somehow managed to pull off looking like she’d fallen out of the wrong side of the bed with the grace of a [Model]. Yan stuttered a little before Sel came to his rescue.
“Hey Hims!”
“It’s too early for your shit Sel. Please take pity on me, I didn’t sleep until morning bells.”
“Sorry, I thought you’d be dealing with some weird smells again. I learn my lessons the first time around, thank you very much,” Sel said, quite obviously overdoing her display of defensive self-righteousness.
Yan noticed the very strong smell of coffee emanating from her office. More specifically, from the mug in her hands.
“Is that uh, is that straight coffee?” he asked, a little incredulous.
“Yeah,” she replied, momentarily distracted from dealing with Sel. “Normally it’s suppa for everyone but I picked a cup up when I got a [Message] from the Captain. Want some?”
“Forget the coffee,” Sel interjected, “mind doing us a teensy little favour before you chase after that golem with everyone else?”
“What?” Himura deadpanned.
----------------------------------------
“You really didn’t have to embarrass the poor man like that Himura.”
“Yeah, well, he was being annoying. Plus, he was smiling to himself like a right git when I told him my parents worked in the Bank.”
“I mean, to be fair, most people wouldn’t believe your parents are dwarfs either. You were a bit too pissed to pay attention, but Yan looked so confused when they came down to see you,” chuckled Sel.
“Hey!”
“Am I wrong?”
“Well, no.” conceded Yan as he made his way back to the Watch House for the second time that day. He would’ve tried to defend himself a bit better, but he was only just coming to terms with the fact that he had so much money to himself now.
He’d seen Caiwal handle large sums of money at the end of a long month, but it was always gone within a few days. Raw materials, food, debts, taxes. Not having to deal with any of that yet meant he only had to pay off the small tab he’d built up with the [Baker] next to the Watch House.
He waved off Himura and Sel, ducking into the small shop to do just that. He stepped back out into the street and just stood there for a moment, taking in the hustle and bustle of people going about their business, breathing in so deep that he could taste the food that was being made inside the shop behind him.
He couldn’t help but chuckle a little when he saw Himura burst out of the Watch House with a satchel on her shoulder, run in the opposite direction, and cut into a side street back towards Westward Road. When he got back into the Watch House Debby was at her desk absorbed in writing up what looked like a report, so he hesitated before asking her what was on his mind.
“Say, Debby,” he ventured. “Do you think I could cook using the heatstone in the canteen?”
“Umm,” she considered, leaning back so her chair teetered on its back legs. “I mean you could give it a go. We hardly ever use it for anything other than reheating suppa. It should be fine I guess.”
“If there’s anything to do, I could do that instead?” he ventured. Yan didn’t want it to seem like he was slacking off before he’d even passed his training.
Debby hummed as she thought, rubbing at her eyes a little as she did so.
“I know. Because of that damn golem that’s apparently running around the city, everyone will be busy most of the day. Ever tried cooking for…” She took a moment to count.
“Ten people? Call it fifteen because we have a Terry.”
“Well yeah I have actually. Basically grew up in a monastery,” Yan joked.
“Oh,” Debby winced, “I’m sorry I completely forgot.”
“Nah, it’s fine,” Yan waved off her apology, “It’s just a fact, right? I’ve been with Caiwal longer than I’ve been with my family at this point. Any preferences with what I make?”
“Really?” Debby asked with a slight grin, eager to take the easy out that Yan had given her. “Hardly anyone has the time or money to make their own food and you’re telling me that not only you can cook, but you can offer me a choice of meal as well?”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“It was cheaper than buying cooked food for us,” Yan said with a shrug, before grinning a little himself, feeling an opportunity to prove his worth in some roundabout way to his new team. “I mean with the amount of food you want, I assume something like a stew is best right?”
“Hang on a second,” Sel said out of nowhere. Yan jumped a little at her voice sounding out right next to his ear. It took him a second to connect the dots and realise Debby had seen her coming and been smiling in wait.
“What was that for?!”
“Why not?” she asked innocently. “Anyway, if you’re offering to make food then I want more than just a stew.”
“I mean the food I used to make was always stuff that could be made in bulk. I can’t do some kind of fancy roast or something, not for ten of us.”
“Ooh I know,” said Sel, pointedly ignoring Yan. “How about wraps? I went to Himura’s house once and her parents had some fresh dwarfish flatbreads wrapped around… some sort of salad as well I think. I can’t remember exactly but it was so good.”
“I have never even heard of a wrap before, let alone made one Sel. Please no.”
“Actually,” said Debby with a wry smile, “that does sound quite good. I haven’t had one either, must be something new the folks up in Old Town are having nowadays. It doesn’t sound hard to make either. I mean you could just get the flatbreads from any dwarf [Baker] and do the rest yourself.”
“Exactly, thanks Debby!” Sel beamed at Debby before turning back to Yan. “Think you can handle it?”
The stubbornness in Yan reared its ugly head. He’d spent years making food, how hard could making it all himself be? It was true that he’d only made large dinners for Caiwal and the lads, but he’d be lying to himself if he said he’d never experimented with any odd bits of leftover food. Bread and meat? He could make it all himself easily enough.
“Well then,” he said with a newfound vigour, “ wraps it is.”
“Got enough money to buy everything you need?” asked Debby, “Sel said you all went to the Bank earlier.”
“Relax Debs, me and Himura stopped him from depositing all his money like an idiot. He’s got, what, four hundred dollars out?”
“Yeah. It’s a lot but I think I—”
“Why in the hells did you listen to these fools?!” protested Debby, her exasperation plain to see. “Himura’s parents are loaded . Sel probably burns money to keep warm, the way she’s always complaining about not having any.” She rubbed at her brow, as if to ease out her frown lines, and sighed.
“Go upstairs and put it all in your room. A little advice? Give yourself about twenty dollars a day, if that . You’re single, and you don’t even have to pay rent or anything. Trust me , save what you can, when you can.”
Yan obediently did as he was told while Sel tried to defend her spending habits. He stood for a second in his room marvelling at the complete lack of space to hide anything anywhere. Eventually he settled on stuffing the smaller bag of money at his waist under his mattress, by the headboard of his bed and against the wall after taking out twenty dollars as instructed, and went back down.
“Don’t worry about drinks,” called out Sel from her desk as he made his way outside, “Terry normally picks a cask up after things like this.”
----------------------------------------
Down in the Meadows, a lone figure stood in the shade watching. He watched helplessly as [Watchmen] ransacked it, tearing up years of meticulous notes and research.
He tensed his fists hard enough that his nails drew a little blood when a lumbering oaf of a troll knocked an already precarious-looking wall over without thinking twice. The damn thing even had the gall to lumber off after some decrepit-looking dwarf with fresh bread from his own pantry.
Izmerek watched, helpless and impotent with a rage he didn’t know what to do with, as the Watch dismantled any hopes he had of venturing up into the mountains. His life’s work taken apart piece by piece.
If it weren’t for one [Watchman], the one that looked like the only other living thing big enough to take that troll on in a fight, he’d have tried his luck against the others. The ones that had stayed behind looked like they’d be easy pickings.
He stood there in the shadows, watching and waiting. It took him longer than he’d care to admit, but he eventually realised that Panya hadn’t come down for her usual classes. Normally she’d have been there for a while by now.
As he watched, Izmerek considered how to word a [Message] to his apprentice [Wizard] without raising any suspicion from her. He settled on just playing it innocently in case she had come and seen the [Watchmen] or the wreckage of his house before he’d gotten there.
Minutes turned into hours. He watched as [Watchmen] came and packed up all of his belongings into hessian sacks.
By the time they had left, the cold was really beginning to set in, like the mountains beyond were sending one last gust of cold air towards the city before hibernating until the next winter.
Izmerek was speechless, his mind blank as he walked into his home. It was like a bomb had gone off. Papers that had meticulously pored over, written in painstakingly intricate calligraphy, strewn about the floor and trampled underfoot. The sofa in his sitting room upturned, cushions cut into, and the feather stuffing pulled out in great handfuls.
He felt naked.
It was an out-of-body experience, seeing everything he had worked so hard for come crashing down for no reason. For some reason it looked like the damn Watch had elected to blow a hole through a wall instead of just coming in the through the front door. Sure, he would have had to replace the door, but it would have been a damn sight easier than replacing a wall.
He trod upstairs into his loft bedroom was greeted by the sight of his mattress overturned onto the floor, a large cross cut into it and most of the straw inside scattered on the floor.
It was a like a switch clicked inside his head.
What right did they have to do this? To stroll into the home of someone who had taken very good care to avoid the authorities and lay waste to it.
They’d ruined his life. Had that not been enough?
No. They decided to take away the small amount of money he’d spent decades saving. Every last dollar, gone.
As he felt his rage slowly build up, his mind playing back images of them all laughing with each other during the day, he remembered the only other thing he had of any considerable value.
Fear panged deep in his chest. For all of his saving, all of the alchemical vials and potions he had accrued over the years, the miiran bracers and cuirass everything else pale in comparison.
He tore out of his bedroom and bounded back down the stairs, taking them two at a time. Holding onto the banister at the bottom and using his momentum to pull a sharp U-turn, over feathers and papers and cutlery.
Izmerek stood at the entryway of his pantry, his chest heaving as he gulped in air. He had seen the pile of debris that had once been his pantry earlier, but he hadn’t been paying much attention to specifics.
Now though, after seeing that the small safe that had been embedded into the wall was no longer there, Izmerek tore through brick, plaster and wood like a man possessed.
Nails bit at his hands and jagged bricks grated his scales as he searched, his muscles straining as he struggled to shift the rubble out of the way. Dust kicked up into his face and he squinted his watery eyes, ignoring every desperate plea his body gave him to stop.
Even when he had reached the dirt floor, he didn’t stop. He refused to believe this was happening to him.
He rubbed at his eyes, truly alone. He felt an urge to break down into tears right there, sat on his haunches in the aftermath of the Watch’s visit, and hated himself for it. A voice inside him berated and screamed at him for being weak, for allowing it all to happen in front of his own eyes.
Izmerek let his tears run free.
[Class Consolidation, Class Permutation: Alchemist , Mage Anarchistic Arcanist ]
[Level Consolidation: Level 9 , Level 13 Level 11 ]
[Skill: Efficient Distillation]
[Skill: Better Recall]
[Skill Permutation: Arcane Attunement Arcane Resonance ]
[Skill: I Belong]