Ambrose made his way back through the winding alleys and streets that made up the old town, eventually emerging out to the main town square.

  The jewelers were one of the shops Ambrose had to actually ask for directions to get to. He knew a good chunk of the buildings in the city by heart, mostly based on which ones threw away the freshest food. As such the jewelers was not one that he had found a need to frequent.

  When he arrived at the building he had been directed to, he suddenly felt that his offering of carved bone might not be up to snuff.

  The building wasn't much larger than the other around it, but stood out entirely by its opulence. Where the two building either side had entrances flanked by low grey stone walls that curved up smoothly in parallel to their steps. The jewelers’ steps where frames by an archway of intricately carved stone, painted brightly with every color Ambrose could Imagine.

  Ambrose stood at the base of the stairs, trying to shift himself to stand in a way that seemed less… poor?

  Come on Ambrose, you're a lord, kinda. Try to act like one.

  He straightened up and made his way in.

  Once inside, the grandeur of the entrance transitioned perfectly into the interior. The shop front was a grand room entirely made of a brilliantly white stone, which Ambrose assumed was marble. In the square that made up the area that patrons could walk, had on the left and right display cabinets with fronts of very thick looking glass. Inside where rows and rows of jewelry of different sizes and metals, many of them covered in some of the most beautiful stones that Ambrose had ever seen.

  "Afternoon"

  Ambrose jumped as the voice, it pulling him from his entranced gawking.

  "Oh, hello" he said awkwardly.

  The person who had greeted him was a rather pretty young woman, who had seemingly been sitting next to the door reading a book.

  "Huh, you are not actually here to try to steal anything." The young women said.

  "What?" Ambrose said confused.

  While he was trying to process the comment, another voice came from the counter that sat directly in front of the entrance.

  "A customer Sereen?" A man said as he walked to the counter from the back of the store.

  The women; apparently called Sereen, stood and seemed to furrow her brow at him.

  As she did, Ambrose noticed that she was rather tall. Ambrose thought himself to be somewhat tall himself, and Sereen stood noticeably taller than him.

  "No, he wants to sell something." she said while still looking at him. "I'm tall because I'm a half elf." she added, the last part like she had overheard him asking, which made him realize what was going on.

  "Anything good?" The man asked.

  "He seems to think so." Sereen responded.

  "I can very clearly remember being told when I was a prospect for the Mages Guild, that reading someone's mind without permission was quite rude." Ambrose said pointedly.

  "Apologies." Said the man. "We get many people looking to steal from us, this saves us a lot of time and bother."

  "Now then." The man gave him a small bow "Welcome to the Jeweled Soul, my name is Marius Jewel."

  He paused and Ambrose realised he was waiting for a response.

  "Oh umm, I'm Ambrose."

  Marius continued to paused, a gesture Ambrose was starting to expect.

  "Just Ambrose."

  Marius slowly started nodded in understanding.

  "Ahh, right, ok so you have something you wish to sell?" He asked.

  After a moment's hesitation, Ambrose's brain caught up and he took the medallions out of his satchel.

  He walked over to the counter and place them down.

  Marius gave them a curious look, picking one up.

  He tapped it with one of his fingers and examined it closely.

  "Did you carve these?" He asked.

  "No, he didn't." Sereen responded before Ambrose could.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  "Now now, let our guest speak for himself." Marius said.

  Ambrose took a moment to let the annoyance of Sereen being in his head settled before he responded.

  "No, a friend of mine carved them"

  "You know by trying to not think that your friend is a goblin, makes you think more about the fact he is a goblin, right?" The half elf said, somewhat under her breath.

  Ambrose shot her a very stern look. Considering what Gro-lag had told him about how he and his family had been treated he wanted very much to keep his identity a secret.

  "I thought they might have been." Marius said casually.

  Ambrose turned and looked back at him confused.

  "I have seen some traditional goblin carvings before, there was a small supplementary class on it at the jeweler’s guild during my time studying there." He continued.

  This gave Ambrose a small pang of hope. "So would you buy them?"

  Marius looked up from the carved bone and shook his head "Unfortunately there is no real market for them here. There was a bit of trend for tribal carved regalia in Nortok for a while, but they have mostly fallen out of fashion."

  The jeweler picked up one of the medallions and looked at it closely "It is a shame; these are some of the most intricate carvings I have ever seen."

  Ambrose sighed. "Ok, well thank you for looking at them." He moved over to the desk to collect what he had brought when Marius raised a hand to pause him.

  "While they have no value to me, I think I know someone else who might find them interesting."

  After following the directions Marius had given him, Ambrose arrived at the small shop front, tucked away in a corner of the city that seemed to have very little foot traffic.

  How do they even get any customers? He thought.

  The shop was so hidden away, even with directions he had struggled to find it.

  After spending some time trying to think of a better idea of what to do next, he made his way into the building. It was a much smaller and plainer than the jewelers. It was made of the old recycled bricks that a lot of the smaller buildings in the city were made of, with a simple wooden door, with a small wooden sign above it, painted with the name of the shop.

  'Authentic Runes'

  As he pushed open the door, his first impression was that the building was abandoned. It was dark, with only a small amount of sunlight coming through the few windows it had.

  "Hello?" Ambrose said nervously.

  Once inside he could see that while it was set up as a shop front, there was no products on the display shelves and from the amount of dust that had built up on the counter, no one had been there in a while.

  After a moment Ambrose heard a noise coming from the back of the store. He raised his hand and tried to think of some magic he knew he could use to defend himself, a list that was coming up mostly blank.

  "If you’re here for the rent, I told the guild unless they send me better tools I ain't gonna be able to pay it" A voice said from the back.

  The door that led to behind the shop front swung open and a female Dwarf walked out.

  She stopped an looked at him "There a reason your hands on fire?"

  Ambrose looked down and realised he had actually cast enough magic to form a sizable flame of his hand which he quickly closed, snuffing out the flame.

  "Oh, no, uum…"

  Ambrose had not had much of a plan of what to say when he arrived, and now, his brain was a complete blank.

  "You're not from the guild, are you?" The Dwarf said slowly.

  Ambrose shook his head "No I um... The jeweler sent me." He stuttered out.

  "Marius?" The dwarf said after thinking for a moment. "What does he want?"

  Ambrose froze for a moment before seemingly remembering why he had been sent there, and got one of the medallions out of his bag.

  "He said you might find this interesting?"

  The dwarf took it an held it closer to their face to get a better look. They looked at it for quite a while, though Ambrose assumed the low light level in the shop wasn't helping with their examination.

  "Did you carve this?" She finally asked.

  "No, a friend of mine did." He responded.

  "A dwarf?" She asked, almost hopefully.

  "…No" Ambrose said cautiously.

  The dwarf women seemed to deflate slightly at his answer, but also seemed curious.

  "This looks almost as intricate as some of the best Dwarf made runes I have seen. Whoever made it could have a bright future as a Runist." She handed it back to Ambrose and sat on the seat behind the counter. "Certainly brighter than mine." She said, her head buried in her hands.

  Ambrose stood for a moment, not really sure what to do. He looked at the women who was still sitting looking glume at the counter.

  "Do you want some tea?" He asked.

  She gave a small huff of a laugh. "I'v got leaves, but I had to sell my pot."

  "Well." he said with a smile. "You're in luck then."

  Once he had set up the pot Tyrus had given him, and put some wood from the stock underneath, The dwarf women had lit some of the oil lamps that where dotted around the shop.

  "I'm sorry about the state of the place, I'm Reabeck by the way, but just call me Rea."

  "Don't worry about it" Ambrose said with a smile. He placed his hand close to the wood and tried to form fire. As he focused, he could feel pressure starting to build in his head. Before he could manage to light the wood, it grew too bad and he had to stop. He stood, and lent on a wall, breathing heavily.

  "You ok?" Rea asked.

  "Yeah, I guess the fire I made before took more out of me then I thought" Ambrose said, between breaths.

  "Here, let me." Rea walked over to a counter and picked up a small stone square. She placed it into the wood and as she did it seemed to erupt into a small flame.

  "Is that a rune?" Ambrose asked.

  "Yeah, barely though." she responded. "Anyway, you know my name..."

  "Oh sorry, I'm Ambrose" he offered her his hand to shake, which she did. "So, is there something wrong with the rune you used? It seems to work fine to me."

  Reabeck gave a deep sigh "it works fine to light some wood, but it's meant to produce a flame hot enough to melt rock."

  "Oh, well what's wrong with it?" Ambrose asked.

  "Me, and my uselessness, that's what's wrong with it." She said, a resounding sadness in her voice. "No matter how hard I try, I just cannot get them right"

  Ambrose tried to look closer at the rune that still sat in the fire. It was surprising still very much intact despite the heat. On it, he could see an intricate carving across the entire of the side that was facing up.

  "Is it carved wrong?" He asked.

  "Not wrong, just not precise enough. The general shape is correct, otherwise it wouldn't do anything at all." Rea replied.

  As the water in the pot started to bubble, the dwarf stood and got a small box from a cupboard. "I don't know why I can't get it right" she said as she walked over. "I have studied them a thousand times over, I see them in my sleep, yet I just can't carve them right." She took a handful of tea leaves and added them to the boiling water.

  Ambrose thought for a moment, and then took out one of Gro-Lag's medallions. He looked at for a moment before he spoke. "Do you think you could teach someone else?"

  Rea looked up from the boiling tea. "I guess. Why?"

  Ambrose looked up from the medallion. "I think I have figured out what Marius was thinking."