The short walk to Authentic Runes was strange to Ambrose. He had walked around the city for years, and must have walked down this particular street hundreds maybe thousands of times. It was still a mix of old stone and repaired war scars, of cobbles roads that had been worn down from years of foot fall. It was a static as it had been for as long as he remembered. Yet it felt, different. It hadn't been a full moon’s turn since he had begun living in the forest but already the city was beginning to feel unfamiliar to him.

  He was deep in that thought when he nearly bumped into someone who was standing in the path.

  "Oh, sorry." He said as he did.

  The person, a middle aged man in rather nice clothes, gave him a look that Ambrose new well. The creased nose and narrowed eyes of disgust and suspicion. The suspicion he felt was fair, but the disgust? Considering since Ros had made some soap and now was enforced a strict, once a day washing schedule for everyone at camp, he was probably cleaner now then he had been since he left the orphanage.

  He looked past the man and realised he was part of a crowd, a crowd that were all standing around Reabeck's shop.

  "What's going on?" Ambrose asked

  "Well, I am trying to put an order in." The man responses curtly. "I am not sure about everyone else?"

  "An order?" Ambrose looked over the crowd and could see a line going in to the shop’s main door.

  "Sorry." He said repeatedly as he pushed through the crowd. The alleyway that Authentic Runes sat down was one of the more narrow which only made getting through the group of people even more difficult. He managed to get closer to the building and looked through a window. Inside he could see that the dark and run down building he had visited was now well lit, significantly cleaner and full, wall to wall with people. He could see a man who he didn't know, sitting at the front desk and frantically writing something down and taking coins from people.

  He was trying to look closer when a familiar face popped up from below it, gleaming at him.

  "Ambrose!" Reabeck shouted seeing him. Her face quickly disappeared and then reappeared at the main entrance.

  "Ambrose, come in, come in. I didn't know you would be in the city today?" The dwarf said beckoning him inside.

  The crowd looked at him as they tracked the destination of the invite and he awkwardly made his way through them. Once he was inside, she beckoned him past the counter and into the back room of the store.

  Once the door was closed, causing the ruckus from the store to be stifled, Reabeck let out a sigh. She then looked up and gave a toothy grin. "This. Is. Incredible!"

  "What is, Rea what's going on?" Ambrose asked emphatically.

  She gestured for him to take a seat, which he did and she put a pot on the already lit fire, which Ambrose assumed was to make tea.

  "So, it was a bit difficult to get the runes to sell at first, not many people in the city use runes anyway and considering my reputation. well like I said it was a struggle." As the water started to steam, she took a pot and placed a handful of tea leaves into it. "So, I ended up offering one to a member of the blacksmiths guild I had sold to before." she walked to a cupboard and got two mugs from it. "The next day I was woken up by all this banging on the shop door. It was the blacksmith who was demanding to know if I had more runes."

  "So, he was happy with them then?" Ambrose cut in.

  "Happy!" Rea responded loudly. "He said it was the hottest and the quickest he had ever gotten his forge to burn." She walked up and dipped a mug in the water, looked at the color of its contents and poured it back in. "He bought my entire stock of fire runes and placed and order for even more, plus he started raving to anyone he could about them. Next day a representative of the mining guild showed up since I had been advertising, I had force runes for sale, I let him take one for a sample, and besides the injuries he said it worked amazingly."

  Ambrose had been smirking as he listened and as Reabeck had finished, this turned into a small chuckle. "Gro-Lag will be blown away with how well they have been selling."

  At the mention of the goblin the dwarfs face dropped slightly. "Ah yes, that was something else I should probably mention. As you can see, I currently have many more customers, all of which are putting in orders. I had to hire Seren just to keep up with them."

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  While he had noticed the swell of people, what that might actually entail hadn't actually crossed him mind. "Reabeck, how many runes do you need for the next order?"

  "At the current rate… a couple of hundred."

  Ambrose's mouth fell open for a second before his jaw clenched and his looked turned stern. "How in the name of Lady Brampton is Gro-Lag meant to get all them done?"

  Rea looked at the floor a guilty smile spreading across her lips. "I may have also said I could offer a few other rune types."

  "Like what?" He replied sternly.

  She rubbed the back of her neck and seemed to look anywhere in the room expect at him. "Frost and light?"

  Ambrose pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "So not only have you already sold hundreds of runes we don't have, you have also sold runes that Gro-Lag doesn't even know how to make?"

  Rea made a face that to him looked like was half way between a smile and a grimace and flung her hands into the air. "I got carried away."

  Ambrose put his head in his hands, letting out a long groan.

  "Look, we have few weeks before the orders are due, and Gro-Lag learned the other runes in record time."

  "But that was not your decision to make." He said into his hands. Raising his head he staired at the dwarf.

  Sensing his annoyance she quickly walked over and opened a trunk in the side of the room, pulling put a large pouch. "I was going to drop this off to you when I next came around, but since your here now..."

  She handed the bag over and as soon as she did Ambrose knew what it was. He opened it and saw more coin than he had ever seen in his life.

  "It's your lot’s cut of the sales."

  He looked at it, his mind unable to think of much more than just how much there was.

  "Ambrose?"

  "I can't take this."

  "Wha, why?"

  Ambrose let out a long sign, almost not believing himself what he had just said. "I can't tell Gro-Lag to fulfill this order, I can only ask him, so there is no reason for me to take this when I may just have to give it back."

  The dwarf staired at him, her face shifting between panic and guilt. After a moment it seemed to settle into a blank acceptance. She walked over and gestured for him to give her the bag; she took it and started counting out a number of coins placing them on the small table next to the stool she had been sitting on. Once she had finished, she has a not small pile of gold and silver coins. She stood and placed the bag back where she had taken it from, took an empty pouch and filled it with the coins she had separated.

  "Here, you can at least take this." She said handing it to him.

  "What is it." He asked, not taking the pouch.

  "It's your finder's fee for connecting me and Gro-Lag." She pushed it into his chest. "And I mean yours; this is not money Gro-Lag has made from the runes; this is your money."

  Ambrose hesitated for a moment, and then took the pouch. "It's mine?"

  "It's coin you have earned." She confirmed. "So, by the deep ones Ambrose, use it to sort yourself out."

  His attention had been firmly on the bag of coin which he had been feeling the weight of, but it snapped to the dwarf at her comment.

  "Like how?" The question had come of angrier than he had meant it to, but still, he felt he looked ok.

  Reabeck raised her hands defensively. "Look don't get me wrong, your most definitely in a better state since the first time I met ya, but if you are gonna be regularly visiting the city for business, your gonna need a better outfit."

  He looked down at what he was wearing. The rough spun shirt had more than a few holes in it. His britches did too, but luckily not at any of the important areas. The newest item of clothing he owned where his boots and while they were still more then usable, they had seen better days.

  "I mean… I guess I could see how much I have left after I visit the dentist?"

  "You got toothache?"

  Ambrose nodded. "It's fine, if anything it’s distracting me from my broken ribs."

  The dwarf looked at him blankly. "Ambrose. I know you have been a street rat for quite a while-."

  "Hey." He said, indignantly.

  "But by the stones." She continued "You have coin now. Go. To. A. Healer."