The meeting with Kitaka went by quickly. We didn't talk about the deal much since we had already hashed everything out during the trip, but I got a nice payment of ten tigers, which left me with two gold wyverns in total. It was a relatively substantial sum of money. Part of what made the deal so lucrative was that it was a one-time payment for the idea, so I wouldn't come knocking on her door down the line if I suddenly got upset by how much money she was making with the lightning rods and, I assume, the farming of lightning shards.

  I weighed the heavy bag of gold tigers in my hand before transferring it into my ring. Gold coins were a lot heavier than I thought they'd be. I turned to Maxwell. "Hey, how much did each of us get paid for that job anyway?"

  "Five bears each. I settled our payment with Korr'tak before we left. He gave each of us an extra puma as a tip for rescuing him. I'll split up our shares when we get back to the inn unless one of us needs it sooner."

  "Hmm, that doesn't seem like that much," I said idly.

  Aria laughed. "I think your perspective on money is just a little warped. That bag of coins you're carrying is a small fortune, Helena."

  "I know it's not the same as being a caravan guard, but I made one silver bear plus food as my entire wage from that trip," Iris added.

  "Is that a lot for what you were doing?" I asked her.

  Iris shrugged, but Aria decided to answer for her. "One bear is pretty good money for something that only requires the training to understand the whistles and a bit of labor, but part of the additional pay is for the inherent danger of working in a caravan. Most people live on about three pumas a month or a little over half a silver bear."

  I nodded. "So we just got paid the equivalent of ten months of expenses for most people?"

  "We got paid what we were worth," Maxwell interjected. "You went out and killed a nest of goblins on your own and rescued our employer from umber hounds. Most people can't even kill a lone goblin."

  "That's hard for me to imagine to be honest," I said.

  Piper laughed. "After seeing you cut them to ribbons, I can believe that."

  "Is Helena really that strong?" Iris asked. "I know she told those stories, but..."

  "Those stories were true," Aria replied. "All of us are strong, but Helena freakishly so."

  I blew a raspberry at her. "Don't call me a freak."

  She chuckled. "Not that long ago, I'd have been afraid to. But now I think you'd rather me tease you."

  "Well, it's hard not to enjoy banter between friends," I said with a smile.

  "We're almost there now. The shop is just around this corner." Maxwell started to point but then got a confused look on his face. "That's... weird. The sign has been taken down."

  "What? Did Fen'ritt move her shop?" Piper asked.

  "I don't know," Maxwell replied.

  The building he was pointing to had its windows darkened and there was a noticeable change in the color of the wood where the sign had been. The place didn't look like it was open for business anymore.

  "I can hear something on the other side of the door. Someone's in there," I told Maxwell.

  "I'll knock then," he replied before banging on the banded wooden door. There was a small crash as the person inside dropped whatever they were doing and started grumbling.

  They came to the door and pushed it open. The moment the tall and thin draco woman's eyes caught sight of Maxwell, she suddenly looked frightened. "Oh fuck, it's you." Her eyes scanned over our group and lingered on Luna for a moment before her eyes came back to meet Maxwell's. "W-why are you here?" she asked.

  Maxwell had a rather confused look on his face as he looked past her into the mostly empty shop. "Uh... I came to finish paying off our debt..."

  The woman eyebrow's rose and she jerked the door the rest of the way open before gesturing us in. "Come in then, quickly. I uh, don't want others to see that I'm open."

  I glanced at the others and they looked just as perplexed as I did, but the six of us followed the woman inside the mostly empty shop.

  ("This is as strange as it looks, right?") I asked Luna.

  ("It is. I'm not sure what's going on here either,") she replied.

  The woman dug a metal lockbox out of one of the crates near what used to be the sales desk and plopped it on the counter before opening it with the key she kept around her neck. She pulled out a thick ledger. "How much are you paying back?"

  "The rest of it," Maxwell said.

  She furrowed her brow and looked up at him. "Just like that? Do you, uh, mind telling me where you got the rest of the money?"

  Maxwell paused and glanced at his sister before turning back to the draco woman. "Uh, we got lucky in the Fallow dungeon. When we saw that we had enough to pay off the rest, we came back to Ironcastle so we wouldn't have to pay for transport."

  The woman visibly relaxed. "Great! I'm, uh, glad that you're such a responsible client." She flipped through her ledger before stopping on a page and pulling out a quill. "Your outstanding debt after interest is... six wyverns, eight tigers, and four deer. You have it all?" she asked.

  "I do," Maxwell replied before starting to sort through his bag.

  Iris froze up and her eyes went wide. "A-almost seven wyverns? That much?"

  The draco looked down at the mousegirl that didn't quite reach the counter with the top of her ears. "Magic items are expensive, kid. Even more so if you have to buy them on credit."

  Piper looked around the nearly empty shop. "What's going on here? It looks like you've completely packed up."

  "I'm leaving town tomorrow," she replied.

  "Any reason why?" Maxwell asked as he began to lay the coins out on the tray in front of him.

  The woman clenched her jaw and I caught the quick glance she gave Luna before shaking her head. "Gotten sick of this city. I'm gonna move on for now. Start back up somewhere else."

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  "Where are you headed?" Piper asked.

  There was a long pause. "Don't know yet. Haven't... uh, settled yet."

  "What were you going to do with the rest of the debt if we didn't show up?" Maxwell asked.

  The woman grinned at him. "Taken it as a loss."

  Maxwell hung his head and sighed. "Figures."

  "If it makes you feel better, I'll need the money. And here, I have something for you." Fen'ritt turned around and dug through her crates for a few minutes.

  Eventually, she came back with another ring that matched the ones my friends wore. "I was going to give you this as a gift if you ever paid me back. It's mostly useless to me on its own so you can have it."

  She handed Maxwell the ring, who looked at it dumbfounded. "You had an extra one this entire time?"

  "Yeah," Fen'ritt replied.

  "Why didn't you give this to us with the rest of them?" Piper asked.

  Fen'ritt turned to her. "You couldn't even afford the ones I did sell you. I figured that if you could pay the loan off, I would give it to you, and if you died somewhere, I'd just melt this down for scrap. Since I made my money back from you with interest and freed up some shelf space, I don't mind handing it over. Scrapping one ring is barely worth the trouble."

  She went back over to the counter and wrote some stuff in her ledger before dragging the tray of money Maxwell had placed on the counter toward herself and quickly started counting the coins. Maxwell handed me the other telepathy ring and looked over Fen'ritt's counting.

  "Not going to weigh them?" Maxwell asked curiously.

  She glanced up at him before continuing. "I trust you. You were trustworthy enough to come here and pay me back... Kept up with your payments," she mumbled before nodding and snapping her ledger shut before sorting the coins into her metal box.

  "Trustworthy enough to tell us where you're headed?" Maxwell asked.

  Her jaw tightened up again and she paused for a moment before continuing. "No. Sorry, Maxwell. This is the last you'll see of me."

  "Are you in some kind of trouble, Fen'ritt? We've gotten stronger since we've last seen you in person. Maybe we can help," Piper said.

  She shook her head. "No, it would be better if you just forgot about me entirely... In fact." She snapped her metal lockbox shut and shoved it back in the crate she got it from before pulling out another box and slapping it on the counter. "I'll give you this if you promise to forget about me."

  Inside of the box was a thin dagger and a ring. Fen'ritt gestured to it. "Returning dagger. Wear the ring, throw the dagger, feed it some mana, dagger comes back to you. I'll give this to you if you promise to tell anyone who asks that you don't know who I am and you don't remember my name."

  "Why this dagger?" I asked curiously.

  "Doesn't fit in the crate and I'm short on space," she said while gesturing at the box. Aria laughed and the draco gave her a flat stare. "You guys want it or not?"

  Maxwell looked a bit baffled. "Are you sure we can't help, Fen'ritt? We've gotten a lot stronger."

  She sighed. "I'm sure. Just take this and forget about me. Deal?"

  Piper shrugged before taking the dagger and ring. "Fine, deal. Don't remember the owner of the store we got our rings at. We spent so long in a dungeon that we can't remember her face or name. Take these, kid," Piper said, handing the two items to Iris.

  "Wha? Me?" the mousekin asked surprised.

  "You need a better weapon to defend yourself with if you're going into the dungeon with us," Piper told her.

  "You're taking that kid into the dungeon with you? Actually, no, never mind. Not my problem. Good. Now that we're done take your stuff and sneak out. You were never here. I never met you before," she said, pointing at the door.

  All of us looked at each other in confusion before leaving the shop. The second the door shut behind Iris, I heard the lock on the door snapping closed behind us.

  "That was super weird, right?" I asked the group.

  ("Yes, very much so,") Luna replied.

  "Should we give that extra ring to Iris so she can hear Luna?" I asked.

  Piper looked over at her and shook her head. "Not yet. We should see if she has potential as a mage first. I don't want her to accidentally activate the ring and get mana fatigued."

  "Mana fatigue? Why did you give me this then?" she asked while holding up the dagger and ring that Piper handed her earlier.

  "Don't throw the dagger or activate the ring yet. But you'll need it for the ghosts in the Ironcastle dungeon," Piper said.

  "We're seriously taking her with us?" I asked.

  "It'll be fine," Aria replied with a dismissive wave. "We'll cover for her early on and eventually she'll get good enough to fight things on her own."

  Luna put her hand on my shoulder. ("She'll be okay. The five of us can protect her. The Ironcastle dungeon is much more forgiving than the Fallow dungeon.")

  ("Are you sure? I don't know if I can block ghosts, aren't they intangible?")

  ("Helena, your wolf form is almost entirely made up of mana. Your claws can hit them and your entire body can repel them. Even your axe and armor can hit the ghosts. Maxwell didn't have a weapon that could hit them when we were last here, but we were still able to cover for him. It'll be fine,") Luna reassured me.

  I glanced at Maxwell, who didn't know we were having this conversation. "Hey, Maxwell. I know your sword is magical, but what about your shield? If we're going to go fight ghosts in the Ironcastle dungeon, shouldn't you have a magical shield too?"

  He nodded. "I was planning on looking for a magic shield while we searched for an enchanter for your armor. I was also planning on claiming one of those adolescent umber hounds you fought and get that made into armor for myself after we talk with the hunter's association about our trip. It won't be as good as your armor, but I shouldn't need it as much as you do if I find a proper shield."

  "Are you sure I can afford to get my armor enchanted?" I asked.

  Maxwell looked at me like I was an idiot. "Helena... I watched you get paid an entire wyvern today. You can afford it."

  "I was kinda hoping to hold on to some of the money," I replied sheepishly.

  "Trust me, Helena. It'll be a good investment," Maxwell said while shaking his head.

  "Fine fine, you win," I said chuckling as I followed the two redheads down the confusing streets of Ironcastle.

  Hello! An unexpected turn of events, the enchanter was hiding something. I wonder how long it'll take before we find out what it was. I hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading!

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