“Bank?” Jon asked as we departed the guildmaster’s residence.

  “Yes. And thank you for your support with the guildmaster. That list was a brilliant idea, and I don’t think he would have given it under different circumstances.” I said.

  “Nor would I have asked him to do so. But we need to know where those gemstones can be found and some collector with a hangup about parting with his trinkets won’t fly.”

  “We would take them by force?” I asked.

  The Steward shrugged. “That would be the Duke’s call. I’m sure that official requests, followed by compensation, personal favors, and peer pressure, would all come first. But would you have the alternative be allowed if it meant human lives?”

  “I guess not. I really have not had to think about such things before.” I admitted.

  “Those days are over, I’m afraid. And I’m as sorry about that as the rest of us.” The steward said. “But you must now think in terms of life and death, and the death involved will be messy and horrifying. War is not as it is portrayed in books. The horrors of the Deathlight will pale in comparison to the total destruction of all life in the city; every man, woman, and child.”

  I let his words sink in as we walked back the way we had come and toward the bank. After a few minutes, Jon must have decided to change the topic because he asked, “It was very generous of the guild master to trust you with that tray of gems. Do you have any idea what powers they have available?”

  “Not completely. I have not handled many 28pt gems before. They are rare and expensive. I know the 7pt elemental gemstones pretty well, along with several of the 10pt gems. I have used a few, but mostly they are not something an apprentice would be exposed to.”

  “But you are a journeyman.” He said with a smile.

  “Yes, for nearly twenty-four hours.” I agreed, returning his smile.

  He shook his head. “We are lucky to have you.”

  I didn’t know what to say, so I just remained silent. But I began thinking about the tray of gems. There were five 28pt gems, ten 10pt gems, and twenty of the 7pt gems. They were isolated to the elemental gems only, but that was still a lot of magical gems. I did some quick calculations of crafter costs and said, “Jon, we just promised to reimburse the grandmaster 14,000 gold for those gems. Crafter rates are 50% of retail, which is originally what I had expected we would need to pay when the Duke mentioned fair prices. But crafter rates probably make more sense since they will get us twice the supply for the same investment.

  He whistled. “This is going to get very expensive very quickly.”

  “I agree.”

  The Keelwell Bank of the Realm was near both the park and the Round, so it was not too far from us. We entered the bank a little after it had opened for the morning. The bank director was on the main floor and was making rounds when he saw Jonathan enter.

  “My Lord Steward,” He greeted Jon, “how may I be of service?”

  “Good morning, Director Silverchips. We have a transaction to complete with Lord Istari.” He said as he waved to indicate me.

  “Lord Gwydion Istari?” Asked Edmond Silverchips with a smile.

  “Yes,” I said, surprised that he knew who I was.

  “Ah, all is in order for you. Please come this way.” He said as he began walking to the back of the bank and up a flight of stairs to the second level, where private offices were located.

  Jon and I looked at each other. Had word gotten to him before us about the transfer?

  We followed the bank director up to his office. He was sorting through some folders on his desk, found what he was looking for, and came to sit with us at a round table that was nice but had seen a lot of use over the years.

  “Here we go, Lord Istari. Everything is in order. I served as executor myself, given the important status of your former master. We shall miss him, and you have our deepest condolences.”

  He handed me a document that read at the top, “Last Will and Testament of Master Sundance Stormrock, Triplekin, Owner and Proprietor of Sundance Jewelry.”

  The bank director said, “Dwarves are very specific. You will note that it does not just read his name, but there were three other facts as well: his master status, dwarven lineage, and ownership of his store. Usually, we just have names at the top of these documents.”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “This is Sundance’s Will?” I asked.

  “Of course, it is in fine shape, and as his only heir, it lays out everything he bequeathed to you.”

  I was at a loss for what to say.

  Jonathan came to my rescue. “We were actually here for a different reason, Edmond.”

  The smile faded. “Oh? Is something wrong?” He looked at me, “Does it have to do with the marshall? He had a lot of peculiar questions about you and your master. It left me feeling like I was a suspect in something deeply nefarious.”

  “About Master Sundance?” I asked.

  “No, Master Glimmerblade. Your enchanter, master. Or former, now that you are a journeyman. Congratulations, by the way.” His smile was back.

  I pleaded with Jon with my eyes.

  “No, Edmond. We are here to provide a transfer to Commander Istari. He has taken on a special job for the Duke, and we wanted to transfer funds to him.”

  “Of course,” he said. “We can take care of this afterward, and you can visit your magical vault.”

  It was a day for eyebrows because mine had drifted up to the top of my forehead again.

  Jon handed him the signed parchment from the Duke. Either the director was good at hiding his emotions, or he was used to dealing with very large sums, because a transfer of 50,000 gold would have caught my attention. In fact, it did when the Duke announced it.

  “Would you like this transferred to your vault or will you be taking it with you?” He asked.

  “The vault is fine,” I responded.

  “It says that you would indicate the coinage. How would you like this distributed?” The director asked.

  “Copper,” I said.

  The bank director paled. “You would like 50,000 gold in copper? That would be five million copper coins.”

  “Of course,” I said, realizing just what we were talking about. “I meant, 50,000 in copper, 50,000 in silver, 1,000 in platinum, and the rest in gold.”

  Without missing a beat, he said as he jotted a note on the official parchment and did the mental math in rapid and nimble fashion, “34,500 gold. Excellent. We can get this transferred to you in a few minutes, and you will join us for your acknowledgement of the vault. That has to be done in person, of course.”

  I looked at Jon and then back at the director. “That is fine, thank you.”

  He pulled another sheet out of the file. “As you probably know, Sundance was trusted as a contractor with the bank to purify coinage for use by mages in various ways. Because of your success with the silver commission, solid references, and current skills in this area, along with a request to add you to Sundance’s production team a few weeks ago, the bank is authorizing you for purification of coinage for copper, silver, gold, and platinum, but not for alloys such as bronze, augentium, electrum, imperium, etc.”

  He handed me the paper and said, “Sign at the bottom if you agree to the terms.”

  I glanced at Jon, who nodded encouragingly.

  I read it quickly and then signed at the bottom.

  He accepted the parchment back, signed it at the bottom as well, filed it, and withdrew another paper. He smiled and said, “Excellent. Now that you are official, I have an order here for coins that need to be converted into purified bars. The order includes 5,000 copper, 5,000 silver, 10,000 gold, and 500 platinum. There is a five percent commission amounting to 777 gold and 5 silver for you. The coins will be shipped to your premises if you accept and are due back to the bank within five days. The bank will see to their pickup, of course. Do you accept the contract?”

  I took the paper, read it over, and signed at the bottom where it indicated “Accepted Contract” and left the spaces blank where it indicated “Received Coins” and “Returned Bars.” The note itself indicated that each bar was to be stamped with my seal and in a bar value of one hundred coins each.

  After he took the paper back from me, signing as a witness to my acceptance of terms, he thanked me, excused himself, and walked out of his office, stating, “I will handle getting the Duke’s funds moved over to your vault.”

  Jonathan turned to me, “I take it you did not know about Sundance’s will?”

  I looked at the document sitting on the table before me. “No, he never said anything about it. We talked about going into business when I returned from guild journey, but-” And my eyes teared up.

  “Do you mind if I look at this?” He asked.

  I handed it to him.

  “Well, he was very generous to you, but you come from a wealthy family, do you not?” He asked.

  I nodded again.

  “No other siblings?”

  I shook my head. “Just me.”

  “If you don’t mind me asking, how much do you have in your own personal accounts?”

  I was still numb and just answered his questions. “I’m not sure. Around 10,000 gold, I think. Maybe a little more. I know that my mother and father planned to give me a pretty large gift after completing my apprenticeship. They said something about 1,000 platinum.”

  “So you have around 20,000 in gold value and inherited another 34,000 in gold according to the tally on the will.”

  I nodded my head.

  “So you doubled your wealth, but you were already well off to begin with.” He said.

  I nodded and then looked at him sharply, anger rising in my voice. “I did not have anything to do with Sundance’s, with my master’s-” I just trailed off and waved my hands.

  “Shhh, quiet down, Gwydion. I believe you. But if Sniffer is on your trail, and it sure sounds like he likes you as a suspect, I am just trying to figure out what he is thinking about you.”

  I settled down. “All this and the goblins, too,” I said with a sigh. It’s all coming at me so fast.”

  He looked over the document and stopped at the signature page. “Uh oh.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “Look at who the witnesses were for Sundance.”

  I looked at the last page where the bank director had signed as executor, Sundance had signed as testifier, and Master Glimmerblade had signed as witness next to my father’s signature as a second witness.

  Jon said, “There are no laws that prevent witnesses from being friends and family. But you can see how this looks to the marshall.”

  “But they are all wealthy. More wealthy than Sundance was.” I argued.

  He shrugged. “If money was not the prime motive, maybe it was revenge, or jealousy, or half a dozen other reasons people do bad things to each other.” He sighed. “Don’t worry. I will inform the Duke about this, and he will know what to do.”

  The bank director came back in. “Sorry for the delay, gentleman, but we are all set. Once you are ready, Mage Istari, we will go together to your vault, and you can use a dolly to move your coins in. Even as a bank director, I cannot enter a magical vault. But we have the coins in crates and waiting for you down there.”

  He handed me a clean quill and a lidded ink bottle from the center of the table in a little desk arrangement. “Please sign the very bottom of the Will acknowledging receipt as the sole heir.” He turned to Jonathan. “Are you signing as a witness that he executed this Last Will and Testament without compulsion or constraint?”

  With a grin, Jon said, “Sure.”

  When we all signed the document, Jon asked me, “Is there anything else you will need? I will get you the letter of introduction to Grandmaster Rothilion Venstina, the Elven ambassador, as discussed. It will need to be in Elvish, of course.”

  I thought for a moment, “Yes, could you also provide a letter of introduction and send word ahead to the guild masters for armory and weaponry. I will want to meet with them like we did with Master Toleraine this morning.”

  “Of course, but by the time you get with them, they will already be aware of things. You will not need a letter, just meet with them as soon as you can.”

  Thank you for everything this morning, Jon. I appreciate it.”

  He patted my shoulder. Take a little time in your vault, look over some memories, meet with the other masters, and then return to the shop. You have a busy day ahead of you. We all do.”

  Jonathan departed, and the bank director walked me down to the vaults, having remained at a discreet distance as Jon and I spoke.

  This was all coming at me fast, but one thing was for sure- I had moved away from training and gathering resources and into the main arc of this game.

  I only hope I am up to it. Death is forever in the Shallowlands…