Standing at the castle’s parapet, Suliel watched the heavily-laden wagons make their way out of the town gates. “That’s the last of it,” she said with satisfaction. Anton was happy to see that she had stopped wearing the severe black and silver gowns that she had been back at the capital. She was still dressed as a noble, but in lighter, looser dresses in reds and blues.

  “Until the next shipment, anyway,” Kelsey said. She was looking out at the countryside, having claimed to appreciate the view.

  Suliel frowned at the reminder. Anton knew that she wasn’t as comfortable with guns as Anton and Aris had become. He used Delver’s Discernment on her, just to make sure she hadn’t gone up another level.

  Suliel Anat, Level 11, Human, Sovereign of the Crypts, Scion/Sovereign of the Crypts, S: 7 T: 12 A: 10 D: 121 P: 21 W: 20 C: 25

  Her gains were nowhere near what Anton and his companions had achieved from their risky dungeon run, but they were high by any normal standard. Noble classes had that advantage; when you put a teenager in charge of an entire town, they grew faster to meet the challenge.

  “I suppose,” she reluctantly agreed. “Once the war starts, both sides will want more of them.”

  “Exactly!” Kelsey declared brightly. “There’s no business like the arms business! Who do you think is gonna start it? Should we do a betting pool for when it starts?”

  “No, Kelsey,” Anton said. He put his arms around Suliel and let her lean on him. “The start of a war is nothing to celebrate.”

  “Maybe from where you’re sitting,” Kelsey pouted. She flounced over and stood next to him. “Nah, it still feels like happy fun time over here.”

  “Could you… not?” Anton asked. He thought about adding her to his embrace, but Kelsey didn’t really do hugs. Sure enough, when he looked at her speculatively, she slipped out of reach. “People—lots of people—are going to die.”

  “You’re talking about the reason I exist!” Kelsey declared. “Sure, I’m not gonna get any points for it, but I can’t help feeling happy to be the one that kicked it all off!”

  “Are the deaths the point of it all, then?” Anton asked. “Honour and justice, do they mean nothing to you?”

  Kelsey shrugged. “The deaths are a means, not an end. The point is to make you all stronger. And the ones left will be. The more deaths, the stronger the survivors become.”

  “That’s so callous,” Suliel objected. “It’s bad enough that the Rose Circle has to fight to see justice done, but all the soldiers on the wrong side will be dying in service to a lie.”

  “Does it really matter who’s in charge, though?” Kelsey asked. “Are there any studies to suggest that this Syrelle person will be a better king?”

  “Queen,” Anton corrected.

  “Hmm, that brings up an interesting point. If a queen is different from a king, do they get judged on different scales? On different criteria? Is it always better to have a king than a queen, or vice versa?”

  “That’s… not the point, Kelsey. King Ranon might have been false, but he wasn’t a bad king. I think? I don’t have anything to compare him to.”

  “He has kept things together fairly well,” Suliel admitted, “But there might be more room for improvement. His secret deals with the Mage Guild. Tolerating assassins in the capital, even after his son-in-law was killed.”

  “Like you can talk. Aren’t you still providing room and board to that one assassin?”

  “He’s in a cell,” Suliel insisted. “While I’m not convinced we can stop him escaping, he’s nothing like a guest.”

  “Let me have him,” Kelsey pleaded. “I’ve got a light-box room ready to hold him. A week without sleep, and he’ll be singing all his secrets.”

  “We’re not going to resort to torture,” Anton said firmly. “His class may be Shadowblade Avenger, but he’s a member, in good standing, of the Adventurers Guild. A member of a party that did a lot of good for Zamarra. The only thing we have against him is unauthorised dungeon entry. Which…”

  “Which is punishable by a fine or a short prison sentence,” Suliel finished for him. “I think he means to serve it in full. He did admit to being a Shadowblade, however.”

  “Which is tolerated in the capital, as you said,” Anton pointed out. “Where he lives. In the house that the Stormguard were awarded. By the King.”

  “Who is a dirty, rotten, False King!” Kelsey declared.

  “This is getting us nowhere. Let’s head back down,” Anton suggested. “Suliel, is everything ready for your mother’s arrival?”

  “Yes? I think… I don’t know,” Suliel confessed. Her normally iron control broke like a water cracker. “She’s going to be here soon, and I’m putting her in guest quarters.”

  “Our room is full, and a little noisy for a relaxing rest,” Anton joked. He couldn’t see the blush on his wife’s face, but he knew it was there.

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  “I know… I know she knows that she’s no longer the Lady here, but it’s just…” Suliel trailed off with a sigh.

  “It will get easier,” Anton assured her. “At least you’re back to talking with her.”

  “How are you fine with this?” Suliel asked. “She tried to have you killed!”

  “Have you met Kelsey?” Anton asked. “Killing is how she says good morning.”

  “Hey! I resemble that remark!” Kelsey protested with a grin.

  They split up once they entered the castle. Suliel wanted to triple-check her preparations, and Anton needed to find Soraya. He found the courl merchant with a scowl on her face.

  “What’s up, buttercup?” Kelsey asked.

  “I gained a level from the latest shipment,” the merchant courl said sourly. “My Lord,” she added hastily, bobbing her head. Like most of the girls who had sailed back with Anton from Elitra, she had trouble addressing him with the respect due to his rank. Unlike most of them, she had to deal with Anton regularly in her professional capacity, and as the only courl in Kirido, she keenly felt the insecurity of her position.

  As a consequence, she spent quite a bit of effort going against her natural tendencies when he was around.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Anton said, despite knowing it wouldn’t help. “Isn’t a new level a good thing?”

  He took a look at her status.

  Soraya Malik, Level 9, Courl, Penniless Merchant, Merchant’s Apprentice/Penniless Merchant, S: 7 T: 8 A: 13 D: 4 P: 15 W: 16 C: 14

  As much as she had complained about her Tier Two class, she was settling into it nicely.

  “It is, it’s just…” She held out a hand and made a coin appear. “Hidden Purse. My class has a storage Trait,” she explained. “Only for coin, but still.”

  “At Tier Two?” Anton whistled in surprise. “That’s incredibly rare.”

  “It’s only a Fine Class, as well.” Soraya shook her head in disbelief.

  “So what’s the problem?” Kelsey asked.

  “The problem is that this Class is far better than I thought it was,” Soraya complained. “The merchants who took it have been keeping it a secret.”

  “That’s what merchants do,” Anton said, shrugging. He’d studied all sorts of different classes when he was younger, and merchants were far and away the most secretive about their Traits. Nobles kept some secrets, but there were always a few who couldn’t resist bragging. Even assassins and thieves got captured and tortured by governments, and the records from that torture often found their way into the Guild archives.

  “They shouldn’t be keeping it from other merchants,” Soraya groused.

  Kelsey laughed. “I think you might have a biased perception of your profession,” she said. “I’m sure all the merchants your father introduced you to were friends of your father, but there's a big, cut-throat world out there.”

  “If you say so,” Soraya agreed sullenly. “None of the merchants I’ve met here have been particularly aggressive.”

  “You’re an unknown quantity, here,” Kelsey explained. “They don’t know why an Elitran merchant has been put in charge here, and the goods we’re selling are new and rare and valuable. They don’t want to risk being cut off.”

  That made sense, and it fit with what Anton had observed of her interactions with the townsfolk. While they were naturally suspicious of a courl, her involvement with the rescue mission almost entirely offset that. Her association with Anton, who was… embarrassingly popular in Kirido, led nearly everyone to at least give her a chance. All she had to do was keep her abrasive personality in check, which she managed… most of the time.

  “How did it all go?” Anton asked, remembering why he came looking for her.

  “It all went well,” she said. “They inspected the goods, which were all in order, and didn’t try to haggle over the price. I was just about to hand over the proceeds to your treasury.”

  Anton almost said that she could just give it to Kelsey, but one of his recent lessons on leadership came to the fore. Suliel—no, Anton, as a properly organised administrator of his domain—would want the incoming funds properly tallied and a receipt given.

  “Let’s go there together, then,” he said. “I’ve yet to ask you about how you’re fitting in.”

  “It’s been fine, my lord,” Soraya said, falling in behind him as they walked. “I feel that everyone has gotten used to me by now.”

  She answered a few more questions about her new accommodation. When they got to the treasury, he asked a few more questions about how the townsfolk were treating her while they waited for the clerk to finish counting the money. Soraya deposited it all in neat stacks of ten coins, straight from her Hidden Purse.

  “Are you not keeping that a secret, then?” Anton asked.

  Soraya stared at him and then slumped despondently. “I didn’t think of it,” she admitted. “I used it to collect the payment right in front of those foreign merchants.”

  “This wouldn’t have happened if you’d taken Poisoner,” Kelsey chided.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Anton assured her. “You were just saying you didn’t think it should have been kept a secret.”

  “Not from me!” Soraya protested. “Just everyone else.”

  “You know,” Anton said, struck by a thought. “The fourth level of your second Tier is normally a defensive trait.”

  “Is it? I didn’t know it was so… regimented.”

  “It does vary,” Anton admitted. “But normally, yeah.”

  “The other choices were defensive,” Soraya mused. “Except for Pitiful Mien, but that was a repeat. I’m not taking that one.”

  Anton didn’t have to ask why. Soraya’s pride could be prickly. “I’m just wondering if that’s how your class works,” he said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “What better defence for a merchant than to have all your coin hidden away?” Anton asked. “I bet having your coin there hides it from traits that can detect wealth.”

  “Probably,” Soraya agreed. “But that won’t keep me from being killed.”

  “Why bother to kill a penniless merchant?” Anton countered. Soraya’s ears flicked back. She still didn’t like being reminded of her class. Anton pushed on regardless. “I think that your class is about appearing to be poor.”

  Soraya started to retort, then stopped to think about it. “That’s… better than being poor.”

  “Sure. I bet that Pitiful Mien trait is about making you appear to be a worthless wretch that no one should bother with.”

  “Probably.” Soraya glowered at him. “I’m still not taking it.”

  “I’m not saying you should. It’s just something you should think about. I bet you get more experience from deals if your counterparty thinks you’re impoverished.”

  “I am impoverished!” Soraya snapped. “My lord,” she corrected herself again. “I’m just managing your barony’s trades, I don’t have any skin in the deal myself. I’m not even getting a commission.”

  “Should she be?” Anton asked Kelsey, as if he knew what that was.

  “I can’t complain,” Soraya said quickly. “I’m getting free housing, and I do get paid both a retainer and a fee for each shipment. Your wife drives a hard bargain, but it’s a fair one.”

  “Don’t worry,” Kelsey said. “Business is only going to pick up from here. Until the war starts, and then—” she rubbed her hands together—“It’s gonna roar!”

  Anton was about to rebuke her, again, when a messenger burst into the room.

  “Begging your pardon, my lord, but visitors are approaching. They’re flying the colours of Count Brankil.”

  Dungeon Prime ebook is now available for pre-order! That's the link the publishers sent me, so don't blame me if it's for a different Amazon area than you are. So what can we expect from Book Four?

  complete failure last book, and they agreed to plan for two scenes.