While setting a hard pace, Kalistra adroitly sidestepped or slipped through the throngs of pedestrians on the streets.

I gamely tried to keep up, but with each collision with another passerby, I slipped further and further behind until I no longer had the short feline girl in my sight. Offering a polite apology to my latest victim, I decided to slow down my pace and avoid further collisions with pedestrians on the street. My master knew what was my destination: Roen's Sign Maker Shop. Before I knew it, I found myself standing in front of the small, two-floored shop.

"What took you so long?" a female voice demanded.

I turned around to face Kalistra and offered my master a deep bow. "I'm sorry I couldn't keep up with you."

The cat girl waved her paw in dismissal. "Let's hurry in and get this secret mission of yours over with." She tried to reach for the door handle to open and enter the shop when I quickly stepped in front of the door and blocked her.

"I'm sorry. I'm not sure if you should go in with me," I said apologetically. Hopefully, she won't do a shoulder-poke again with her claw.

"I'm just a shopper who happened to be around when you entered the store," Kalistra answered with a grin. She reached for the handle again.

I held up my hands. "Master, please allow me a moment to confer with the gods. If they are not opposed to your presence, then you can come inside with me," I suggested.

"Fine!" the fickle cat girl spat out. She folded her arms and turned her head to the side. Her tail whipped back and forth with impatience.

Wincing at her response, I dismissed Kalistra from my mind. Instead, I recalled the image of Musa, the middle-aged matronly looking woman who wore glasses, and directed my thoughts to the goddess: Lady Musa, I would like Kalistra to enter Roen's shop and serve as an independent witness. If you are opposed to her presence, please let me know.

I closed my eyes and waited for the telltale sign of a tingling sensation from my brand. However, I felt nothing; I took the absence of a response as Musa's acquiescence. Thank you, Lady Musa! I opened my eyes and smiled at Kalistra, who was now watching me closely. "Let's go," I said.

The cat girl reached around my waist and grabbed the door handle. Without waiting for me to step aside, Kalistra pulled on the door, smacking it against my back. "Oops! I'm sorry!" the evil minx offered a mocking apology as her pale green eyes lit up with delight.

"-2 Health." I dismissed the message and stepped away from the door. Once my master entered the shop, I followed her and closed the door behind me. There was no point in complaining to Kalistra about the door. After all, it was obviously intended as payback for preventing her from entering the shop. Yup, my master was that petty and I had to grin and bear it.

As usual, the half-elf was hunched over his workbench. "I'll be with you in a moment, sirs!" Roen said without looking up. He was holding a paint brush and writing on a sign.

I was very surprised that he knew there was more than one customer in the shop. I will have to ask him how he knew without looking at us. I waited patiently near the door while my master felt the need to roam around the shop. Thankfully, her natural feline grace allowed her to navigate the floor of the shop without distracting the shopkeeper.

Finally, Roen was finished with his work and looked up at us. "Ah! Perfect timing!" he grinned as he held up his latest piece. It was a piece of wood some six inches wide and four inches tall, colored in light green, with the words, "Do Not Disturb," in clear black letters. The sign was small enough to be tied to a string and hung on the door knob of a guest room.

I walked over to the workbench to inspect the sign more closely. I saw that the corners were rounded, which was an excellent idea. The green color was an interesting choice but contrasted nicely with the black lettering and made the words more readable from a distance. "Very nice work, Roen," I praised and offered him thumbs up.

"Thank you, milord," the signmaker preened like a proud peacock. "Taking your idea, I experimented various sizes and shapes. The sign had to be big enough for the words to fit, but not too big and heavy to make the door handle fall off. I think this is a good compromise," he concluded with a nod.

I saw an "RS" at the bottom of the sign. The letter "S" was a snake that crossed over into the other letter's territory. "What does 'RS' stand for?" I asked.

"Roen the Signmaker needs to mark his product so that his rivals won't try to take credit," Kalistra interrupted and shook her head with embarrassment.

"Right you are, miss!" the half-elf nodded. "It's an extra layer of protection for instances where visiting a truth-stone bearing church official would be inconvenient," he reasoned.

"Is this the only color you're offering for the sign?" I asked quickly. I didn't want to reveal to Roen that I was a member of the Church because we hadn't reached an agreement for his services yet. Therefore, he could raise his prices if Roen had an issue with the Church.

"Of course not!" the half-elf chuckled. Winking at Kalistra, he said, "You may not realize it since you're a nobleman, but we lowborn can be a fickle lot when it comes to our colors. You can rest assured that there will be a full-color spectrum available for these signs. If you are satisfied with this prototype, then we need to discuss your wholesale preorder. These signs will be sold at fifty silver pieces each. My cost will be half that or twenty-five silver. Since you want me to serve as your wholesaler, too, I need a fifty percent markup, which is twelve and a half silver. Therefore, your wholesale price per piece is thirty-seven and a half silvers. I would like to offer six colors at the beginning: lime green, pink, brown, blue, or light gray with the black lettering, and black over the white lettering. But for wholesale, I will need a commitment of fifty pieces for each color or three hundred pieces in total. Your grand total is eleven thousand, two hundred fifty and silver pieces, or one hundred twelve gold and fifty silvers."

Frankly, I expected Roen to charge me a few hundred gold pieces to start up this wholesale operation. If I didn't get that huge bounty for killing Ebenthal, I would have declined this deal because I was also spending that platinum coin on my training with the dojo. But I DID receive five hundred gold coins (less one hundred in tithe and taxes to the Church) and I wasn't planning to keep it all on my person. No doubt Kalistra had already devised other schemes to make me part with my money. Thus, the less money I had left, the better off I would be. Yes, I could make another bank run and deposit the bounty there. But I also didn't want to encourage Kalistra to push me to withdraw coins out of my account either. I offered my hand and said, "We have a deal."

Roen shook my hand and repeated, "We have a deal."

"What about the shop signs?" I asked.

"You mean like this one?" the signmaker asked while pointing at the "Closed" sign at the window.

I walked over and took the sign in my hand. It was an elongated oval shape and felt surprisingly heavy in my hand. The sign was made of wood and covered with a dark brown colored varnish. The lettering was again in black. The sign was a foot wide, half that in height, and some two inches in depth. The sign stood on the bottom edge, which had been expertly sawed off and made flat. When I turned the sign over, I saw "Open." "How much is the wholesale price for this sign?" I asked while marveling at the nice craftsmanship.

"One and a half gold," Roen grinned.

Kalistra's ears stood up when she heard the price. Her tail whiplashed in displeasure at the exorbitant cost.

Ouch. "Why that much?" I asked. Assuming the same twenty-five percent discount for wholesale, Roen was charging two gold coins for this sign.

"The wood alone costs one gold. Since this is for commercial use, the material and craftsmanship have to be top-notch or else the shopkeepers will decline to use these signs. Also, there are far fewer shops then there are guest rooms. Therefore, I expect to sell fewer of these signs and need to make a higher profit on each sale of these shop signs," the half-elf explained.

"What's the minimal order for wholesale?" I asked.

"Only fifty pieces, milord," the signmaker smiled. "That comes out to seventy-five gold," he added.

I breathed a sigh of relief. "We have a deal." I offered my hand.

"We have a deal," the half-elf agreed and shook my hand.

"I will be headed out of town for a few days. So I need to give the payment to you right now," I explained as I started to untie the small sack from my belt that held the bounty. I had four hundred gold coins and tried to pour out half the bag's contents. The gold coins jingled on the workbench.

Kalistra's eyes lit up at the sight of the coins. "Say, Lawrence, how did you get this money?" she asked.

Uh-oh! I had a bad feeling about this. "Um, it was a bounty for killing the wererat leader," I replied meekly.

"I see," my master nodded and grinned. "Did you know that when you are a student of the dojo and you earn money from an outside assignment, the school is entitled to a ten percent cut?" she asked. Kalistra stretched her paw as if to demand my sack.

"No," I said sadly. I obediently passed my sack over to her. "Please take fifty gold from here."

"Thank you," Kalistra took the sack and started purring. Loudly.

Well, easy come, easy go. I watched as the grinning half-elf counted out one hundred eighty-eight gold coins and gave me fifty silver as change. After I retrieved the sack from my master, I promptly dumped the remaining coins on the table back into the bag. After a ten percent tax, ten percent tithe, ten percent fee, and the deposit to Roen, my five hundred gold coins was whittled down to sixty-two gold and fifty silver pieces. Well, at least it was much lighter to carry now.

I almost forgot to get proof of the deal! "Can I get this wholesale deal in writing?" I requested.

"You could but it won't be necessary," Roen replied.

"How come?" I asked.

"I'm not going to scam a member of the Church, not if I want to keep my shop," he pointed out.

I winced. "You knew I joined the church?"

Suddenly, someone came down the stairs located at the back of the shop. "We know a lot about you, Lord Lawrence Eugene Mulligan," a light, feminine voice said.