Chapter ten

The carriage door creaked open and a man that looked like he was more than eighty years old stepped out. He had wrinkles crisscrossing his face but instead of making him look older they just made him look sharper. His long hair and overgrown beard have long stopped being gray and had become snow white. His steely gray eyes were looking at me like he was examining a particularly juicy steak, the only way to describe the look was hunger, the hunger for power. He wasn't wearing any ornamental clothing or armor. He wore a simple green robe with druidic runes of protection running all over it. The robe covered a frame that was anything but frail. He had a straight posture and he seemed to be lightly swinging the heavy looking cudgel he was carrying, everything in me was screaming that this man was dangerous, not because of his position but the personal power he wields.

" Enchanter you say... what are your affiliations, what do you specialize in ?"

Thankfully I have been reading about the common sense of the world so I knew what he was talking about. Runes are a jealously guarded secret that were hoarded by different clans. If you are asking why don't they just copy the glowing runes from enchanted items, apparently no one but me could see those, according to Jules it was a passive effect of the god sight. So when he asked for my affiliations and specialization he was asking me where I'm from and what I runes I know.

" I'm not affiliated with any clans, I'm just a wanderer who picked up some things here and there."

The hunger in his eyes suddenly intensified, " Will you share your knowledge? "

" I'm sorry, I took a solemn vow of silence when I was thought most of the useful runes, the only runes I could teach you are those to smooth stones like you see here."

He looked at me suspiciously, but said nothing. While a vow was nothing in the old world, but now in a world of magic a vow is binding. He made me carefully pen down the stone smoothing and compressing runes, told me he might send work my way and took his leave. But from the parting looks he was giving me I knew I wasn't done with the city lord just yet.

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After the carriage left, I sat down to ponder the new situation I found myself in. I knew that the lord was going to be keeping a close eye on me from this point onward so I couldn't do something suspicious like disappear for a couple of weeks while I was doing research. What I needed now was a place I could be visible to alleviate suspicions about what I was up to. I need a place to show I was nothing more than a wandering enchanter plying his trade. I needed to start my own business.

The next morning I bought the store right next to Walter's (it was pricy at 45 gold but it was at a good location) and spent the whole day renovating it. Finally I hung a brightly painted sign over the door that read "John's enchantment emporium" .

I went back home after the hard day's work and collapsed on my bed.

Two days later was the not so grand opening of my shop. On display were simple items like torches with a light enchantment, pendants to keep cool in the heat, and other such material. The only reason I opened the store was to throw the lord off my scent. I thought I would stay in an empty store ,maybe three times a week and maybe enchant some armor now and then to keep up appearances.

I made a slight miscalculation, I was the only enchanter in the area that didn't work for a clan or the church. Word spread like wildfire , you would think without cellphones or the internet people would have a hard time disseminating information, but no. Within a week I had customers from across the country coming to get their armors enchanted. The part time job I planned to use as a cover became a full time job. This wasn't going to work. I couldn't spend all my time in the shop, I had a lot of important projects waiting at home. I needed someone else to mind the shop and take orders while I do serious work at home. When I asked Walter where I could find a trustworthy employee, he pointed me towards the orphanage.

I closed the shop for the day and went to the orphanage. It was a run down building that looked like it might fall at any moment. I knocked at the door and was greeted by an unexpected surprise.