After Kyren was done eating we headed out onto the streets, following her as she weaved her way through the city toward the artisan district. It bordered the inner wall of the city and overall seemed nicer than most of the areas we’d been through so far. There were homes with small gardens, stained glass windowed studios, and people’s crafts on display all throughout. We began looking for anyone who seemed like they could make masks and eventually saw a man working in a small garden to thread several feathers through a dainty porcelain mask painted the colors of a peacock's tail. We approached him, but before we could say anything Kyren held her hand up to us and we waited until he was done with the feather he was working with.

“Excuse me, ser,” said Kyren.

The man sighed. “Masks I’m guessing?”

“Yes.”

“Then no.”

“Pardon?”

“I can’t take another order for masks. Every one of these frilly nobles has a dozen specific little requests and notes and every time I do exactly what they ask for they tell me, ‘no, I didn’t mean like that, I meant like this, I can’t do anymore okay. You can go ask Dulyn or Creyd a few blocks down. Honestly though I think most everyone is booked up at this point.”

With remarkable patience Kyren simply nodded and we left.

Hrig shrugged as we left, “I can’t blame him. Could you imagine having to deal with the nobility all day? I could barely stand the few parties I went to.”

“Aye, I can’t imagine trying to keep people like that happy all the time. I can manage it until I get what I want from them, but as a day to day job? No thank you.”

We had no more luck with Dulyn and Creyd and were heading back through the market when a young man with short curly hair approached us.

“E-excuse me,” he paused, he was out of breath and had clearly been running to get to us, “Are you looking for masks?”

“Yes,” said Kyren, “Are you alright?”

‘I’m fantastic,” he paused again, still trying to catch his breath, “I would like to volunteer to help.”

“Yer an artist?” asked Stone.

“Yes, well, an artist’s apprentice. My master is Dulyn, who you spoke to earlier.”

“Shouldn’t you be doing whatever work your master assigns you?” I asked, feeling a bit hypocritical as I did so.

“Well, yes, but he’s so narrow minded! He only ever lets me do the most basic of tasks. Not to mention getting him food, pouring him tea, and emptying his chamberpot.”

“Why take this risk then?” I asked.

“Because making masks for the King’s masquerade is a chance to get my name out there. If people ask you about them you can say it was courtesy of Trevlyn Conters, artist extraordinaire. If it goes well enough I could open my own shop, or maybe even find a patron!”

“Well, it’s not like we have much of a choice,” said Kyren.

Trevlyn smiled. “Thank you. I only have a couple of conditions. I’ll only charge you one gold piece each, but you have to let me design the masks myself.”

We all nodded to one another. “That sounds reasonable,” said Kyren.

“Alright!” he began pulling out small white tablets, “I’ll just need a face mold for each of you and I can get started. Where are you staying?”

“The Drunken Monk”

“Excellent, I’ll bring them there myself in a couple of days.” He began making the molds. It only took a short press for the impression of everyone’s faces to be made. Eventually he got to me.

“I’m afraid I can’t remove my armor. I’m bound by an oath to Dur not to.”

“Oh, well in that case.” He simply pushed the mold onto my faceplate, startling me for a moment. “I think I’ll be able to figure something out for you. I’d hate for you to miss out. Also for me to miss out on more potential customers.”

“Thank you.”

Once he was done he simply hopped along the sidewalk, back in the direction of Dulyn.

“The lad forgot to take our money,” said Stone, frowning.

“Luckily artists don’t need good business sense to be good artists,” said Hrig.

“I suppose that’s true,” he conceded.

After that was settled we made our way to a tailor where everyone but me got themselves fitted for finery. Hrig grumbled a bit at first about it, but when the tailor informed her men’s cuts were coming into fashion for women she was satisfied with a red doublet with silvery sleeves. Stone managed to find a piece of clothing another dwarf had never picked up in his size and so got a deal on a black outfit with touches of light blue and gold buttons. Kyren found a simple, but elegant white dress. I spent most of my time nodding yes or no when one of them asked if something looked good or bad. I felt a little left out, but it wasn’t anyone’s fault. Besides, I was always the best dressed member of the party, it was their turn to shine.

We left the clothes for some last minute alterations and gave the tailor the location of the ‘Drunken Monk’. From there we headed for the inner gates to meet with the nobleman Percy and Byren had so liberally borrowed from.

…

The inner city was a place of absolute splendor. The houses, while more modestly sized than estates, were built upward to make up for it. Gardens of flowers and topiaries in unique shapes were common, and many were open to the public. People in fine clothes walked and talked, seemingly less weighed down than the people of the outer city were. Eventually we came to the manor of one Lord Phaismis, the man Kyren’s brothers had borrowed a hefty sum from.

Unlike the surrounding homes, this one was clearly new construction. The architecture was in a newer style with columns and a kind of downward swooping roof that curved at the edges. It was painted white, which seemed gaudy even in comparison to the splendor that surrounded it. I got the distinct impression that Phaismis was new to being a noble, I certainly didn’t recognize the name.

Kyren showed a butler at the front door a letter and he escorted us into the waiting room. A young woman was cleaning the room as we entered, but she bowed and left. Another young woman came in to offer us tea, which we accepted. A third young woman entered with a small platter of pastries. My first thought was that his house seemed overstaffed, my second was that it seems odd not to hire more experienced help, and my third simply resulted in me muttering, “Oh”.

“It’s not too uncommon,” said Hrig, hearing me, “I can’t blame a man for wanting some eye candy, and I didn’t notice any bruises on them. My guess is that these girls knew what they were getting into.”

“My grandmother did the same thing. She always called her servants her, ‘young men’ ; it made more than a few visiting nobles uncomfortable. I think that was the point as much as prettying up the rooms was.”

“An enlightened woman, clearly,” said Hrig with a smile.

“You know, I always hear you refer to her as yer grandmother, but what was her actual name?” asked Stone.

She sighed, “It was Kyren, of course.”

“Ah.” said Stone, dropping it.

A few moments later we were called into a small reception area where a man dressed in a purple doublet with gold sleeves and wearing a hat with a jaunty feather poking from it was sitting. He was a thin man with black beard trimmed into a neat goatee and his mustache was thin, sitting just above the top of his lip. He stood as Kyren entered and gestured for us to sit at the chairs arranged in front of him. He had an oddly infectious grin that I would’ve returned if it had been possible.

“Welcome Lady Kyren, and company, welcome.”

“Thank you for meeting us.”

“Of course, of course, it’s the least I can do after what happened with your brothers. Besides, it’s not smart not to meet with people who owe you money.”

Stone chuckled at that.

“I do hope there are no hard feelings. I feel, in many ways, betrayed by your brothers as well. They seemed like good people, friendly, and capable of paying the debts they accrued. Had I realized that they were sending the money to those damnable barons I’d never have agreed to it.” He had a kind of musical way of speaking, one that made it easy to get lost in his rhythm.

“It’s fine Ser, a loan is a loan and debt it debt. The circumstances are behind us and it looks like I may be able to pay you off, I will simply need some time to find buyers.”

“Yes, the elyrium you found. I have a specialist staying with me, he’ll be able to determine if it’s genuine and if so I will grant you three months without interest to find a buyer and pay in full. The others your brothers borrowed from are willing to take my word and offer the same deal.”

Kyren nodded, “Sevald, please go retrieve the sample we brought.”

I nodded and left the room. I then made sure there was no one nearby, removed my gauntlet and began to remove one of the bars from myself. I narrowly missed a vase, three small statues, and a rather low hanging chandelier, but I managed to extricate it without incident.

I re-entered the meeting room and gently laid the bar down in the center of the room. An older elvish man was standing next to Phaismis with excitement in his eyes.

“May I?” he asked.

I nodded and he made a beeline for the bar. He lifted it at the end and began inspecting it. He tested the weight a few times before taking a small hammer out of his hand and tapping it. His ears twitched as it rang out that same peculiar sound it made when we’d struck it in the dungeon. He then licked it.

“Does that really help with identifying it?” asked Phaismis.

“Not really,” he responded, not elaborating further. After a few more seconds he nodded satisfied. “This is it, this is genuine elyrium. Gods, I haven’t seen it since I was a boy.”

“Well Lady Kyren of Wyrwind, it looks like we have a deal.” He removed a piece of parchment from his desk and signed his name.

Kyren then stood and signed the document as well, after which they shook hands.

“Am I to understand that you’ll be at the masquerade?”

“Yes, we’ll all be attending. The King was very kind to invite us.”

“Kind, trying to control the narrative, I suppose he can be both.”

“It’s often a king's job to be.”

After those pointed words we made our way out to leave. Unfortunately a maid was escorting us out so rather than simply storing the elyrium as I had when we entered, I instead had to somehow make it from room to room while holding it. After a few too many close calls with fine antiques they simply opened a window and I passed it out to Hrig. Once we were further away we ducked into an alleyway where I quickly stored it again.

After that we headed back to the Drunken Monk for food and ale. I realized that this was the first time I’d been able to actually enjoy what a city offered. Certainly I had the memories of moonlit walks in Usulaum, eating street food in Cirros, and going to dinners in the capital, but experiencing it myself was different, and very enjoyable.

“I’m thinking we should see what research we can do here on Aurum,” said Kyren, breaking my reverie.

Stone finished chewing a piece of sausage. “We should. There may not be much, but maybe we can figure something out.”

“I’ll check the temple, my mentor may be willing to share what she knows, though I may hit the same walls I did In Buryn."

“I’ll see if any of the contacts I used to have here know anything.”

“I suppose I could check the library. The recordkeeping in Caedun is terrible, but most places at least have information on their own city’s history and that of the ruling line. I may be able to learn more about what happened with that ship,” I said.

“I suppose, out of those options, I’ll help out at the library,” said Hrig.

“Really? I’d have expected you to be more interested in Stone’s contacts.”

“With Stone, ‘meeting old contacts’ means two hours of talking about the good old days, and maybe ten minutes of actual discussion. I’d take the silence of a library over listening to old men reminisce about the old times, anytime.”