Chương 31: The Merchant's Bargain (to be continue)

The two of them left the catacombs behind, Corin handling the payment for the old woman before they climbed back up into the open air. The world above felt considerably calmer than the one beneath it—the snow had stopped falling for the moment, the wind gone still and the ruin's collapsed silhouette softened under a fresh unbroken layer of white. Stelle breathed it in, letting the cold settle back into her lungs after the dry, papery air of the catacomb, and found she preferred it.

Down there, even the wind had felt like it was listening. They stopped in front of the wagon, its canvas cover sagging under a thin new layer of snow, the horse shifting its weight patiently in the traces.

"Then," Stelle said, "it's time for you to say it." She looked at the merchant. He was silent, deep in thought, and she already knew what was running through his mind. It's not about why she'd brought Cael's corpse with her, but how she'd managed to hide it, and pull it back out of thin air. The man looked at her with the same easy calm he always wore, though something in his posture had settled into stillness for once, as though he'd been waiting for this particular conversation longer than he'd let on.

"Of course," Corin said.

"But first... that ability of yours. What is it?"

"A few gold," Stelle already anticipated his question reply with demand.

"And additional items and information." Corin looked at her, amusement breaking through despite himself.

"You learn fast. Already trying to take advantage of me, are you." He shook his head, though he didn't seem particularly bothered by it.

"Fine. I'll admit I want to know badly enough not to argue the price."

"You're a merchant, aren't you? That's only normal in your field."

"Ha, of course, of course. You're right. But hear me out first." He leaned against the wagon's side.

"First, I want you to understand why your ability has piqued my curiosity. It's not something I've never heard of and it carries a genuinely massive kind of potential. There's only one thing in this world that comes anywhere close to the same principle and it's called Reverie Pocket. It circulates through certain markets, though it has a physical form rather than being an ability. Smaller too. Enough to hold a bag's worth of trinkets, and easy enough to detect with a basic mana reader if anyone bothers to check.

What you're carrying around inside you is something else entirely. No detectable housing and no seams to look for. Frankly, it's a little terrifying. If it's only a few gold and some items you're after, then let's hear it properly." Stelle showed no reaction to any of it. She simply began to explain.

"It's one of my abilities. I can store things in thin air and retrieve them the same way." She let the claim sit as though it were simply one talent among several, rather than the whole of what made her dangerous.

"I can store anything as long as I can touch it first. I think it could hold a whole house, if it needed to." She didn't mention that her Spatial Inventory's true capacity ran considerably further than that. Some numbers were worth keeping to herself even here. Corin's eyes lingered on her the way a man looks at something he's only ever heard described secondhand.

"So you can smuggle anything without being caught." He let out a slow breath.

"And you also can see straight through a Tier 4 Phantasm's illusions. You're not just meeting my expectations anymore, snowflake. You're surpassing them."

"Is that a professional opinion, or a personal one?" she asked, her tone calm.

"Both, unfortunately." Corin's mouth twitched.

"A merchant who could carry an entire warehouse in his pocket and never once trip a ward on the way through customs would be a very dangerous kind of competitor. I'm glad we're in a good terms." Stelle didn't answer, only watched him, waiting—as if to tell him that wasn't the word she'd actually been waiting to hear.

"Well. Let's set that aside for now." Corin exhaled, some of his usual lightness returning.

"I did promise to name my bargain once I'd helped you. Though I've barely helped at all, so let's not delay it any further." He looked her in the eyes.

"I need you to act as my representative at the Trade Summit, five months from now, in the Archonian Dominion."

"A trade summit?" Stelle repeated.

"And representing you?" Stelle makes a face like someone who doesn't want to be part of it.

"Yes. And before you dismiss it outright... once you've done it, I'll give you my Ascension Badge."

"You mean—" Stelle's mind didn't miss the implication. Her eyes sharpened, focusing fully on him.

"Precisely what you need to climb the Tower." Corin's smile widens as if she fell right into his trap.

"That summit isn't simply a matter of standing somewhere and looking presentable. Every year or cycle, the trading houses of the continent gather in one place. Buyers, sellers, brokers, a good number of them ranked high enough to matter in ways that would take you all night to appreciate properly. I need someone to observe and bring information for me there. I'll be handling everything that actually matters from the shadows, where I belong. You'll simply need to be seen and to see."

"Why me? That sounds like a job for a spy. Not a stray child."

"You're right. A stray child wouldn't do and hiring one would be a foolish idea besides." Corin's dry amusement threaded through the honesty in his voice.

"But you're different, right snowflake? We've already read each other closely enough that neither of us has to pretend otherwise."

"Half the Awakened working that floor carry wards specifically designed to flag suspicious activity. I could hire a skilled and professional Awakened easily enough... but fabricating a background solid enough to survive that kind of scrutiny isn't simple. And a face like mine, recognized twice in one gathering, would undo years of careful work in a single afternoon." The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"That's why you're hiding out here in the northern continent, then?"

"Hey now, what kind of claim is that? I'm not some criminal in hiding. I'm here because I want to be," he went on.

"Besides, I'm a member of the Silver Trade, a merchant house with a reputation worth protecting." Stelle isn't buying it. She's well aware of this merchant's poor reputation now.

"What's my actual role, then?"

"You'll be an Appraiser trainee from the Silver Trade."

"I feel like you're planning to do something illegal."

"You take Maren's words too seriously. I'm simply a good merchant." Corin spread his hands.

"You're the perfect candidate for it. The Silver Trade takes on disciples regardless of whether they're commoners or orphans. Appraisers are judged entirely on how well they can evaluate an item—which is exactly what you'd be doing at the summit. A trainee simply stands at their side, doing the same work, or observing."

"I still don't understand why it has to be me."

"Your eyes. The ones that can see straight through illusion. I want you to tell me what's hidden beneath the heavy illusions in that room. The frauds. The fakes. Every item dressed up to look like considerably more than it actually is."

"So I can help you avoid them."

"No. This year's gathering is going to be grander than most. Rarer goods change hands at a summit like that than most collectors see in a lifetime, and where there's rarity, there's no shortage of people willing to fake it convincingly enough to fool everyone in the room except the one person who actually sees through illusions for a living." His mouth curved.

"I don't want you to help me avoid the fakes, Stelle. I want you to help me find them. A false relic sold at a true relic's price is worth something to the right buyer. A true relic mistaken for a false one and sold at a fraction of its worth to someone who knows exactly what they're holding—" He spread his hands, letting the implication finish itself.

"That's worth considerably more, Haha." Corin tipped his head back, looking up at the clearing sky, both hands spreading slightly at his sides.

"How can you be so sure my eyes work that way? I only ever told you I had a special vision."

"Seeing through illusion is enough on its own. But I'm betting on more than that, little snowflake. I know there's more in you than just that."

"You're overthinking this." Stelle argue, though this merchant is already seeing her as a good investment to earn his money.

"Honestly, I don't care about the items themselves. Your word alone becomes our real bargaining chip. Imagine there's a single information source that can describe every item at that convention accurately. People will pay handsomely just to confirm whether something's real or fake while others will quietly reprice their own goods the moment they find out. It's the perfect scheme, and it costs almost nothing to run." Stelle turned the shape of it over, testing it from every angle she could construct.

"You want to profit from the information I gather. Using my vision."

"More or less." He didn't bother denying it.

"I told you it wasn't a difficult job."

"Since you have plenty of time regardless, you should consider taking it. It'll earn you money and teach you a good deal about the Capital besides. You're only Tier 1... that's still a long road to Tier 3. Five years, most likely, before you could climb that Tower on your own. Two or three, if you're genuinely as talented as I think you are. You'll simply be doing the ordinary work. The real information stays with me."

"And if I refuse?"

"Then you'll take on a different task instead, but the Ascension Badge won't be part of it any longer. You already understand that much, don't you? Same as before that opportunities like this one don't come around often." Corin studied her, something almost curious in his expression now.

"But I don't think you're going to refuse. I think you've already done the arithmetic and it comes out the same way it did the first time I asked." It did. Stelle turned the offer over one final time, weighing the badge against the risk, the five months against everything she still had left to do before she could responsibly spend them on his errand at all.

She didn't actually need two or three years, either because once she triggered a proper rapid evolution and recalibrated her Ghost Core to match then She could stand toe to toe with a genuine Tier 3 while being read as one. The only piece she still lacked was the Ascension Badge itself which Corin was conveniently dangling in front of her. His plan sounded simple on the surface. Looking closer, it was considerably more complicated than that.

As soon as that information begins circulating through the floor, chaos is sure to follow..

"I'll do it," she said.

"But I won't go there yet with you." Corin's brow lifted slightly.

"Not yet?"

"There's somewhere I need to go first. Farther north." She held his gaze, giving him nothing further to work with beyond what he needed to hear.

"What Maren saw in me tonight might be a clue to something that I want to understand. I intend to follow it myself before I do anything else. And this arm—" Stelle glanced down at her side.

"I want to be in proper condition before I set foot in the Archonian Dominion. Having both limbs intact isn't optional preparation. It's necessary."

"Are you saying you intend to take your old hand back?" Corin look at the girl, observing her.

"No. I'll have a new one." Stelle said it plainly.

"Ha! You really aren't someone to be trifled with. You know exactly what you want and how to get it. I won't be at all surprised if you're a different person entirely, the next time we meet." Corin considered her for a long moment, and whatever calculation ran behind his eyes this time, he let none of it show.

"Five months isn't a generous window, snowflake, if you mean to go north and still reach the Dominion in time. The northern wastes alone could swallow half of that before you even account for the journey south again, let alone the crossing. And about the contract itself. If you fail to meet it, that becomes a problem neither of us has an easy way out of. You especially, since I'll have already fulfilled my end of it."

"I'm aware." She said with confidences.

"Then I won't argue the point." He tilted his head, studying her with something between concern and reluctant respect.

"You don't strike me as someone who miscounts her own odds. Which means you've already decided the North matters more than my five months do, regardless of what it costs you here. Fair enough. I won't waste breath arguing with an arithmetic I can't see the full sum of." He allowed himself a small, private smile, the tension easing back into something closer to his usual ease.

"Then I'll make it less ungenerous than it looks. I have my own ways of shortening a road, when the reason is good enough, a friend or two who owes me favors larger than they'd like to admit and an airship broker who never asks questions I don't want answered. Go north. Find whatever it is you think is waiting for you. Fix what needs fixing." He climbed up onto the driver's bench, gathering the reins in one hand.

"Send word when you're ready to move again, and I'll see to it the rest of the distance costs."

"And the badge?"

"Waits for you, same as the offer does." Corin glanced back at her, the violet lantern's light catching the edge of his smile.

"I told you, Stelle. I'm a patient man, when the bargain's worth being patient for. At least one month before the Trade Summit, remember."

"And if I don't send word in time?"

"Then I'll assume the North swallowed you whole, mourn the loss of a genuinely excellent business arrangement, and go find myself a considerably less interesting representative." He said it lightly, though something honest sat underneath the joke.

"I'd rather that not happen, for what it's worth. You're the first customer in years who didn't bore me. I'll go on ahead and prepare for your arrival. Everything else will be smooth by the time you get there." Stelle held his gaze a moment longer and then nodded once.

"Then let's meet again at the Archonian Dominion," she said.

"I'll be there." Corin snapped the reins, and the wagon lurched into motion, wheels grinding slow furrows through the fresh snow as it turned back toward whatever road would eventually carry him home. He didn't look back a second time. Stelle watched the violet lantern shrink into the dark distance until it was nothing more than a faint smear of color against the white, and then, finally, nothing at all.

She stood alone in the clearing for a long moment, the cold settling comfortably around her the way it always did now before turning her face toward the north. The items she'd demanded already sat inside her Spatial Inventory—not much, but enough to survive the journey. Somewhere past the mountains, past the reach of anything Oakhaven or the Frost-Veil Peaks had ever taught her to fear, something old was still not entirely at rest.

She intended to find out exactly what that meant for herself, before she ever set foot in another domain full of hurdles far more terrifying than this one.