Rook gave a quick glance at Reina. “You have a keen sense of memory, then? Then, on top of the fact that you move as quickly as a horse, no wonder you’re already a Sergeant in the Sentinels,” Rook said, completely deflecting the question.

  Command presence- Silver Tongued Bastard Activated.

  “Ah, er. Well, yes, I joined up out of Berg, and my speed was quickly noticed. Hopefully, I’m worthy enough to get promoted to Lieutenant soon enough,” Jody responded, seeming to forget about the initial question. There was a sadness in his eyes.

  After a few moments of walking, Jody paused, cutting right once without warning, and went into a small shop.

  “Welcome to mixed dreams, potion shop.” The voice cursed, followed by a small crash. “God maker, damn you, shelf. Just a moment, I’ll be right with you.” Out from behind the shelves walked an elderly dwarf carrying a small box that had been broken in two pieces. “Jody-boy!” The man smiled, then came over and slapped the Sentinel on top of the head with the force to smash a coconut.

  Jody smiled and returned the slap. If this greeting were given to a normal man, he would’ve gotten a TBI, no doubt.

  “Sunder, I need my weapon treated again.” Jody pulled an axe from his waist.

  Rook watched the wicked double-bladed monster as it was unclipped from his belt. It’s a wonder that the thing doesn’t fillet his leg as he was speedwalking. The counter groaned in protest under the weight of the weapon. How freaking heavy is that thing?

  “Shop around, while you wait,” Sunder said, taking a pair of glasses out and inspecting the blade.

  Rook and Reina did just that. As he looked around, it was apparent that there were multiple shops selling a wide variety of items, much like general goods stores. Although this was mainly a potions store, there were a few weapons and even several types of cooking utensils. Stopping by a shelf of potions, he grabbed twelve total for health and mana. He also grabbed enuogh rations for a few days, the cubes of dried meat, berries, and vegetables looked unappealing at best. But the sign said they’re a meal per cube.

  “You think we’ll need that many things?” Reina asked in a whisper. “Don’t you think it’s going to get suspicious having a bunch of potions and rations disappear?”

  “We’ll have to put them in your pack until we have the chance to transfer them over,” Rook glanced at the enhancer’s bag. Then gave her a sympathetic smile.

  Sunder carefully applied a glowing blue ointment from a dropper onto the blade. After a moment, he polished it in with a small rag. Rook watched the demonstration until the man was complete. Having no frame of reference for what the man was doing, he could still tell that he was a master of his craft.

  “There, good as new,” Sunder said, with a warm smile. “By the way, my Sentinel friend, I heard you were promoted to Sergeant. Congratulations.”

  “Aye, Sunder, I was last Summer Solstice,” Jody responded.

  “Heard you got yourself a moniker as well. Iron Jody Splattersong,” Sunder said, standing up from behind his counter. “Twelve potions, nine ration blocks, and a weapons treatment with anti-magic. Let’s consider this transaction free.”

  “Are you sure?” Reina asked, pulling out her coin purse.

  “Of course, Sentinel Scribe. To help the Order is an honor.” Sunder walked over to shake Rook and Reina’s hands. “It’s a pleasure, be careful out there.”

  After exiting the shop, they continued down the street, on a path towards the southern end of Ollar. Jody was busy trying to out walk them, so Rook took the opportunity to transfer the supplies they bought to his inventory with Reina’s help. Opening his inventory and looking inside, he breathed a sigh of relief. He had purchased enough potions for the quest, wherever it took them. Hopefully. I don’t think we’ve been down this street before. On the left side of the street was a shop named Ricochet. Craning his neck, they continued forward, but something about the shop stopped him in his tracks.

  “Jody, can we stop inside for a moment?” Rook asked, pointing at the shop.

  The dwarf turned towards him and nodded. “I’ll wait out here for you both to finish.”

  “Riccochet?” Reina asked incredulously. “Why not?”

  They entered the shop, where walls of crossbows, barrels of ball bearings, and shelves of slingshots greeted them. A man behind the counter cleared his throat, interrupting Rook’s gawking. Rook glanced at the man; he had dark hair slicked to the side and a goatee grown over a few days.

  “Welcome in, my name is Karlo Seon. Let me know if I can help you with anything,” The man said with a smile.

  “I’m Rook, and this is Reina. We’re just looking for something to practice Attramancy with,” Rook said.

  The man walked out from behind the counter, with one leg missing below the knee and a wooden prosthetic in place. “I have just the thing. Many fledgling attramancers use ball bearings to train with until they become advanced enough to move larger objects.” He walked behind a shelf and rolled out a cart full of ball bearings ranging from marble-sized to baseball-sized. “Small ones are a copper, then they go up to ten copper for the large ones.” Karlo handed Rook a burlap bag and returned to his place behind the counter.

  Rook nodded and reached for a handful of the marble-sized bearings. These can be makeshift projectiles. It took a few minutes to fill the bag with marble-sized projectiles, and with a grunt, he placed it on a scale resting on the counter. “This should be good.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “It looks like you’ve got forty coppers worth,” Karlo said, holding a hand out.

  Rook completed the transaction, grabbed the bag, and when Karlo bent down behind the counter, Rook placed it into his inventory and filled the mushroom quiver.

  “Glad we went in,” Rook said, nodding to Jody.

  “Not much of a ranged man, but I know what it’s like to get a good weapons haul.”

  For the next several minutes, they walked past the trading district and the open window shops, they came into the lower working district of the southern Ollar. The air hummed with the sounds and smells of the forges. Blacksmiths hammered metal and quenched weapons in oil.

  The light sounds of children laughing filled the space to their right as they ran with battled with their wooden weapons in the alleyways. The houses and buildings, tall, straight, and prominent, now became less cared for and leaned against one another like drunkards.

  The smell of the forges mixed with the distinct smell of a fish market. “We must be close. How do they keep the smell so isolated to this district?” Rook asked, sniffing the air. It was pleasant, reminiscent of the fish markets in Washington. The fishy smell reminded him of home, of gutting them in the sink.

  “Runes, same as everything else in the city. Just as there are runes to expand, there are runes to dampen smells and even sound,” Reina replied. “In Berg, it’s said that they have runes to dampen the sound on every street because of the Great dwarvish forges.”

  “When, not if.” Rook looked at Reina and returned her cheerful smile.

  “It’s a promise.”

  “We’re taking a shortcut,” Jody said, leading them down a back alley.

  “Oh great,” Reina said, gingerly stepping over a low, dilapidated stone wall, down into a flooded alley.

  There were several large planks acting as a makeshift bridge. “At least you took me down the easy way.” The alley cut into a narrow street, and they continued down until they faced rotted double wooden doors.

  The Ollar docks burst with life. All manner of sailors and dock workers shouted commands indiscriminately as they loaded boxes onto small boats that were docked. People moved up and down the narrow gangplanks carrying supplies onto the ships for future journeys.

  “It’s just ahead,” Jody said, leading them past fish carts and their intrusive vendors.

  The fish on the cart were trout-like with too many eyes and sharp teeth. “Klofins. They’re necrotic fish that feed on dead animals mostly.” Reina let the word hang in the air.

  Comforting. Past the vendors, the ships, and the overall bustle, they continued towards a group of city guards standing in a line stretching across the walkway.

  “Good morning, Sentinel,” The guard said, snapping a crisp salute. He was a sharp-featured man with kind brown eyes. He looked to be of Asian descent, the same as the samurai from the tryouts.

  Jody returned a half-hearted salute. “Lieutenant.”

  “We’re here for a quest,” Rook said, showing the parchment. He had enough sense to place it in his pocket.

  The guard’s face softened, as if a weight he was carrying melted away. “Alright, everyone, Sentinels are here, return to your stations.”

  The guards responded. A female guard with the rank of Sergeant eyed them. “Good day, Sentinels,” she said with a salute. Then turned to the Lieutenant, offering one to him.

  The guard lieutenant removed his helmet, revealing slicked-back black hair. “My name is Troy Hannor. Captain Phane said that you were here to help with the Uldannish.”

  “Yes, hopefully,” Reina replied. “Reina.” She held her hand out.

  “Rook.” He shook Troy’s hand as well. “What do we currently know?”

  “Nothing as of yet. They’re very reluctant to talk to the guard.” He rubbed a dingy spot on his helmet. “Can’t say I blame them. They came here under the guise of the treaty, but at the whim of the Bloodstone.” He almost growled the Elvish name. “Regardless of what they do for the city, the people here associate them with the elf bastards.”

  Another elf hater. Rook wondered about other elves and how they must exist in this world, as well as Orcs and other races.

  “Lawful city, my ass.” He looked at Reina, and embarrassment struck his face. “I’m sorry, Ms. Jax, I forget my place at times.”

  “It’s fine, nobody likes them. Except maybe Sinzo and his group of stonists.” She laughed, Troy laughed. Rook, who had no idea who Sinzo was, did not laugh. He remembered the stonists well enough, the dirty bastards.

  Jody seemed more interested in Rook and Reina than in the actual conversation. Rook couldn’t help but feel as though he was being watched carefully.

  “The Chief put the request out; he should talk, but let’s not get our hopes up.”

  “We’re almost at the end of the docks.” Rook looked around, up and down the docks, and even in the water.

  “Past the barrier,” Troy gave him an amused smile and walked further into the docks, disappearing as if the air swallowed him whole.

  Rook was taken aback. He stared at Reina’s amused face.

  She waved him forward. “Go ahead, it’s safe,” Reina said, putting an arm in the barrier and pulling it out. Smiling, she stepped in, leaving him with Jody at the edge of the docks.

  “Listen, Rook. You’re going to have to walk into potential danger, headfirst and without warning. This barrier is one of those times, it could lead to the other side of the docks…or to the Burning Steppes on a volcano,” Jody said, with a smile, before walking in.

  Rook closed his eyes and held his breath. Better now than never. He walked into the home of the Swiftscale.

  Holy shit. Rook gawked around at the docks that extended easily the same length they had just walked. Shacks made of wood, straw, and mud stood on stilts just above the water’s surface. The Swiftscale home bustled with life. The aroma of charred meat and cooking fish made his mouth water.

  The tanned-skinned Ulundish people could’ve passed for humans in scaly costumes with sleek, colorful hair. Their upper bodies glistened with the colorful scales. Children swam around in the bay, and women wove baskets and worked on canoes. The portions of their legs and arms were the tan skin of those who spent time in the sun. Men dove in and out of the water, bringing up net pouches full of sand. Gingerly dumping it out into containers at sifting stations.

  “Leviathan’s gills!” an older Uldannish hissed at a young one at a sifting station. “You break anymore and I’ll take your hand.”

  Reina took a step forward to intervene, but stopped at Troy’s firm hand. “We don’t know their ways, and to intervene could cause an incident.”

  “What are they grabbing from the lake?” Rook asked, pointing at a nearby sifting station.

  “Vern stones. They power runes and are also used to create potions, they’re valuable alright, but fragile as a broken spirit,” Troy said, regarding the stones with narrowed eyes. “They have to be carefully cultivated, but when done correctly, they can be returned to the water and absorb the power. Which is what they do for the Bloodstone, after a few months the elves come here and gather a load at a time.”