◈ Chapter 126:
A black wooled Lyra stepped through the upper class and quite posh streets with a little hop of excitement in her step. It wasn't that she was afraid, of course she was afraid, a bounty hunter or gang with no scruples could come for her at any moment! But it was Florens. Florens! Her home city! Being here was special, in her opinion Florens was the greatest city in the world, although admittedly she might have been a little biased since she had grown up here.
She tried her best to not think of how much her view of the world had changed since she had first left the city. Goblin slaves were once something that her eyes passed over without even registering, now they were eye catching blemishes on her city that caused a squirmy feeling of guilt deep in her gut.
The small Kobold at her side was slightly less joyous, giving the well dressed levelers they passed surly looks, his claws resting on the sheathed blade on his hip, hunched and wary.
The edges of vast manses could be seen over the roofs of the busy streets they were wandering through. They were on the edge of the noble quarter, as near as could be without actually entering it. They found themselves in a street of stalls and shops selling the kinds of luxury things the elite were likely to spend their money on.
She stopped by a stall that a mouldy grey scaled Drake smoking a pipe was watching over, seated comfortably in an armchair.
"Hiya!" said Lyra brightly.
The Drake eyeballed her, a wisp of pipe smoke curling around his head.
He nodded toward the tables, and Lyra looked over them and bit her lip. She needed to buy at least something, what better way to get a merchant's lips flapping?
After a moment of hesitation, she picked something out, a bottle of wine.
"Is this the wine that's like really popular amongst the nobility?"
The Drake lifted a lip revealing gold teeth, sharp teeth.
"Aye, it be. Enough the stuff goes through those many golden gates to drown a dragon. Ain't hard to get a claw on a few bottles these days if you gots the know how. It's all yours, the real deal noble experience, all for a beggerin' twenty five gold coins."
"WHAT?! That's daylight rob- aheheh I mean, that's uh, nighttime gifting? Like, WOW, what a... generous price. You are a very kind and handsome Drake."
The Drake squinted at her.
"If you don't like the price then I reckon maybe you don't belong here. This isn't a place for paupers and trash, girl."
"I'm sure it is a great and very reasonable price, and I am. very. happy. to. pay. that." said the sheep girl, struggling to get the words out.
It was kind of like a bribe right? She found thinking of it that way helped a bit. A little bit.
Lyra instinctively dipped her hand down to grab a fistfull of coin from the dimensional bag on her hip. At the last possible moment she recalled that it was currently filled with nightmarish shadow things that would very likely dissolve her entire hand if she were to put it inside. She jerked her fingers away with a shudder
Instead, she carefully reached for a regular purse she had hung next to it in preparation for brib- paying for goods.
A pair of claws latched onto her hand as she was fiddling with the purse and she looked down to see Red glaring up at her.
"I'm the treasurer and I say no."
She reacted quickly.
"Get your filthy claws off of me slave!" She slapped Red in the face, gently of course, but it still provided an impressive stage sound.
The Kobold looked at her flabbergasted.
"This is the last time I buy a dungeon fresh slave. You forget your place! Do not deign to talk to me again." She waved him away and turned back to the Drake.
The Kobold rubbed his cheek vaguely and glared at her. Were the dramatics really necessary?
Lyra grabbed a fistful of coin from the purse and waved her closed hand in the air showing she had the money for the popular wine.
She of course had been well aware that the bottle was a favourite of the nobility and in limited supply. It was the reason she had stopped at the stall in the first place.
"Soooooo. I suppose you have to be quite well connected to get your, aheh, Drakey claws on one of these bottles. Know the ins and outs and the comings and goings and the ups and downs and the insides and outside and the things that happen?" she lifted an eyebrow suggestively, then her other eyebrow too, doubling down on the suggestiveness.
The Drake blew smoke. "If by that you mean do I have friends amongst the staff. Sure. nothing wrong with that. I know many young maids, old too, you know how it is."
He gave her a weird leer, mouth opening and revealing that every one of his teeth were gold, smoke curling between them as he chuckled.
"D-do I? I-I mean, yes? And, good?"
The Drake paused then snorted through his nose. "You know nothing. Pay up or piss off."
"I can pay, I can pay!" she dumped her fistful of coin onto the table, less than the total. "You know how it is, gold is very heavy and I'm only a little sheep. If you would take pity and help relieve me of some of it? Perhaps by telling me a little of a certain noble house? The Fenhorns? I'm sure it would be of no trouble, no trouble at all."
"You could have gone with that from the start you know."
Lyra paused. "Well in that case I won't buy this ridiculously over priced wine."
"Too late now, if you don't buy the perfectly reasonably priced wine you'll have been wasting my time and that makes me less than inclined to be talking with a nosey one like yerself."
"That's-!"
It was the Drakes turn to raise a brow
Lyra let out an agonised sigh and scowled at him. But she still slammed down more fistfuls of gold onto the table.
"S'good wine, no need to get in a huff. So good that I fancy it's aged into a finer vintage just as we been speakin."
Lyra's scowl deepened and she slammed down another fistful of gold, practically punching the table.
"The Fenhorns?"
The Drake tapped ash from his pipe, speaking as he refilled the bowl.
"Can't say I know much about 'em. They're the soft in the head sort, the sort of folk who spendthrift on charity, helping out stuck low levelers, feeding the starving, all that kind of useless shit." He relit the pipe by snapping his claws together, some Skill or other creating a shower of sparks. " 'Course I do know of one of 'em more than the others. Their so-called golden child. Hard to not know about that, when a family is angling for the top they crow and parrot about their spawn havin' explosive growth at every chance they get."
"Brax Fenhorn right?"
The Drake nodded. "Aye. Bugger came back to Florens and practically got a parade. The prodigal son returned! Look how strong and mighty he has become! Our star is rising!" The Drake turned and spat to the side. "Bunch of cunts if you ask me."
"Were there others with him? Did he return alone?"
"He had a few girls hanging off his shoulders if that's what you mean. One a noble like him by looks, the other I don't know. They're living on the Fenhorn estate. I hear a lot about that cause the maids ain't particularly happy about it, and by that I mean talkin' my ear off with complaints. Trashed rooms, won't stop rutting on the furniture, oh and the wailing, waking them up at all times."
"Uhhh, okay that last bit I really didn't need to know, but... thank you?
The Drake leered at her in that way again, gold teeth on display.
