Her new home sits on part of the colony called the Noble Shelf. Reserved for the high society, the shelf occupied the center of the colony. They completed the Shelf first and the industrial buildings below. They built a few buildings, mostly homes for barons like herself. The largest home was a manor for the Marque.

Together with Gloria, they set off towards the southeastern dungeon entrance. It was the only constructed area outside the center. A small market district, city hall, and a split residential section, with the wealthiest sticking towards the middle.

Their first stop being the Hunter’s Guild. It was the largest building close to the entrance, but still 50 meters away. The streets were modestly busy with miners, crafters, and workers of all sorts were busy doing their work’s business.

As they neared the guild building, the traffic thinned and shifted to mercenaries, soldiers, and a few hunters.

“I heard that hunters have been leaving lately for other colonies.” Roxana had noticed the lack of hunters and the conflict with the Sophos was the prime candidate. They took the loss of their pets personally and few hunters wanted to draw their ire.

Inside the guild, a clerk sat behind a counter, tending to a pile of journals before him. Without raising his head, he had noticed her coming in and brought his work to a stopping point. When she reached him, he was wearing a warm smile and bowed.

“Greetings, My Lady, welcome the Hijol Hunt. How may the Guild be of service?” He was wearing plain clothes, but clean and suitable for working the desk.

“Thank you, I am Baroness Horstin. I came to see what cores and monster parts you have in stock.” His head tilts and his pupils dilate. Her accent and title triggered his tells.

“My pleasure Baroness Horstin. Please, come right this way.” Pulling keys from his coat, he walks to the far end of the counter. At the end, a space to walk around also leads to a door which the clerk promptly unlocks.

He turns on the room’s lights and leads her through a quick tour. He points out the cores, how they sort them, the monster parts, and returns to the front desk. Gloria had noted it since Roxana was too busy inspecting every core.

“Gloria! They have fox cores here!” It took quite a long time for her to make it through the cores. She finally selected 12 cores, with 9 regular and 3 special. Looking through the monster parts, she found a mana absorbing shell and strips of infused hide. She wrote the number on the shelves for the monster parts and included the residence lot number.

Taking the cores with her back out to the counter, Gloria closed the door behind her.

“I will take these two monster parts. Please, have this delivered to my workshop?” Seeing the number of cores and the turtle shell, his eyes bulged.

“Right, yes. That will be 280 gold crowns, My Lady.” Almost stammering, the man looked nervously between Roxana and Gloria. Gloria approached and pulled a coin purse from a bag she was carrying. From it, she removed 3 small gold bars representing 100 gold crowns each.

The man blinked furiously as he accepted the bars and counted out her change. Roxana smiled brightly.

“Make sure the hunters keep those shelves stocked and you might make more. I am an enchanter and I will need a good local supplier.” He took a moment to collect himself and regulate his breathing.

“I see. In that case, let me register you as a business.” He went through a door right behind himself and returned a few moments later with a silver key. Attached to it was a round tag made of a monster hide. The Hunter’s Guild logo was on one side.

On the other side, he used a small vial of acid and a knife to cut in her family name, then used a brand heated by enchantments to burn the key number into it.

“Here you are, Lady Horstin. This key will allow you access to the storeroom whenever you wish. If you leave a note like this with which items you’d like and your name, we’ll have the items dropped along with your change.” He sat the key in front of her along with a paper filled with writing.

“This is a contract in which you agree to accept the key for following the rules. Allow no one but your personal servant in the room along with you. Remove no item from the room unless a clerk is present to sell it to you. Last, you’re responsible for the lost key and lost product.”

Roxana promptly signed her name and removed a ring from her left hand. The clerk dropped some prepared wax next to her signature, and she pressed her ring into it for several seconds. Finished, Gloria took it and cleaned it before Roxana put it back on.

“Excellent. Thank you for your business. If there is anything in particular you need, please ask. We can also offer a bounty service if you would like to make a specific request to hunters. Repeating, large, or high reward requests will get filled sooner than small one off requests.”

“Thank you, that will be all. I may have a need for such service in due time.” Roxana bid her farewell and left alongside Gloria.

“We got off cheap, only 3 bars.” Roxana gasped in mock horror and playfully slapped Gloria’s arm.

“How dare a stuffy old bird imply I spend too much?” Gloria whistled like the songbirds in a mocking tune. Together they laughed and made their way towards Tobold’s Timbers. Roxana noted the tune held the success signal in it and no negative ones. Gloria placed the first array.

Getting on into the afternoon, the workers thinned out and off work pedestrians sprinkled towards the shops and bars. Tobold’s was close to the Hunter’s Guild, needing close access to the nearest expanse, but also plenty of space for all the materials.

The ladies entered the main entrance and walked up to the counter.

“Greetings ladies to Tobold’s Timbers. We guarantee all products as advertised or your money back. What can I do for you today?” The eager sales pitch put a weak smile on their faces.

“Thank you and greetings. I am Baroness Horstin. I want to look at what materials you might have for crafting arrows and see what is available.” The younger lady smiled broader and seemed to hop in place.

“Your presence, My Lady, honors us. Please, come this way.” The young lady lifted a portion of the counter, that was only the top part of the countertop, to allow them passage. She then led them into the warehouse with long rows of shelves stuffed with various plant materials. The shelves each held stocks of the same material, but sorted by the mana infused into them.

The clerk left them a writing tool and paper and she returned to the front.

They browsed every aisle and found the best spot to place the second monitoring array. Once finished, Roxana marked down the materials she wished to order and her residence. They paid for their materials and left. Gloria sang the same tune as before and Roxana playfully slapped at her.

Gloria led them further from the main road to turn back towards the center. Before they could reach the next center bound road, four people came out from behind buildings to block the road. Two behind and two in front of them. Each pair had a sword and staff.

“Baroness Horstin I presume? Count Luffian says you are too vile to squash under his heel.” With that, each one with swords attacked.

Gloria tossed off her travel coat and reached inside hidden pockets at her sides. From them, she drew a short sword in each hand.

“Watch her! How did she get her hands on those!?” One mage shouted from behind. Their pause gave Gloria time to pick her first target and dashed in close. Before they could react, the butt of her sword uppercut into the man’s jaw and knocked him backwards. She kicked into his chest with one foot in a fluid motion, sending him flying into the mage behind him.

Roxana pulled out a collapsible crossbow she had made for protection. She fueled it with mana and took aim at a distracted mage. The silent shot got the mage in the neck and dropped her from the fight.

The swordsman from behind tried to take Roxana’s head off as she killed the mage. His blade found the angled side of Gloria’s crimson blade, bouncing up and over her head. The icy blue blade followed at waist height and buried into the man’s side, with the crimson finding a space in the armor from above.

The second mage knocked to the ground, stood up and ran for it. Roxana takes aim with her crossbow and fires a shot. It tears a clean hole in her cloak, but cannot hit or stick in the cloth. The mage darts down a side road and vanishes.

“Are you alright Lady Roxana?” She nods and puts her crossbow away. Gloria fetches her arrows and tucks them away after a quick clean. Roxana drags the dead mage back into the side passage he came out from while Gloria moves the dead swordsman alongside her.

Together, they grab the still living and take him to a different passage. They place him against the wall. Gloria reaches out with mind magic to alert the guards while Roxana studies their attacker.

“Stupid, just completely stupid.” Roxana removes the man’s helmet and smacks him hard. “Wake up fool. I have questions.” Shaking him vigorously, the lack of response irks her.

“Mistress! I think you might kill him. I hit him rather hard in my haste.” She raises one eyebrow at Gloria.

“He did just try to kill us.” Gloria opened her mouth and closed it several times, but no words came out before staying closed. Roxana laughed at her.

“Go fetch the guards, I’ll monitor this guy.” Gloria nodded and headed off towards the nearest guard post. It was moments later, the guards came around the bend to meet her. When they returned, the six guards split up to investigate the scene.

The lead guard stepped forward. An older man who clearly had put on many levels over the years. His movements were powerful, smooth, and he gave off a sense of being aware regardless of where his eyes looked. He stopped before Roxana and bowed.

“I am Captain Yomast Tyrom. Please explain what happened.” They each told the captain what happened and answered his questions. More guards arrived to clean up and take the unconscious man away.

“We will see what information we can get out of this man, but not a lot to go on. Do you two need guards to escort you?” They satisfied the captain with their answers and he made to leave.

“No, thank you Captain Yomcast. Please let me know what you find out.” He nodded in response.

“I will, Lady Horstin. Please be safe. We’ll keep an eye out for the escaped mage, but without a clear description, it will be hard. I will come see you once I have something to report.” With that, he bowed and left with his guards.

Gloria and Roxana huddled together and continued onward. Roxana leaned towards Gloria to ask a question.

“What was that about?”

“I think you are right that for just a shoe, this is too much. Chances are they see you as a threat or sending you here and killing you would help them somehow.” Roxana nodded her head in agreement.

“I thought at first they were trying to force me out so I couldn’t grow my estate further. Perhaps, it was just to get me away from the capital so they could kill me more easily.”

“It is as you say, My Lady. Though, what shall we do next?” Passing by crowds, they fell silent and kept their senses open to dangers. Roxana carefully considered how to respond to this threat. After several blocks, when no one was around, did she respond?

“We’ll warn Yokan to increase security, but I think it is me they are trying to kill. In that regard, perhaps I should summon my delve team early to be my guards. I can trust them and they are quite skilled.” Gloria gave a slight bow, but they kept on.

Finally, they reached the major store for the Allcan Miner’s Guild. The board hung out front showed a gem, a metal bar, and coal without a name. A simple sign with a straightforward message.

As they entered, they were in a large room filled with rows of boards listing various ores, gems, and various materials that were mined. Each board was black, and they wrote prices with colored chalk. Blue marked a rising price, orange marked lowering.

Once they found the materials, they were after and budgeted out what Roxana needed, they headed for a counter covered with paper and writing tools. The papers were in order request forms that would allow the guild to fill and deliver the request.

At the counter, they quickly purchased the metals and gems she needed and made for home. Together they whistled the success tune. All three were in place.