All arouhe dwarf settlemeended up and down along the cavern's walls.

  I’d been in a few dwarf-built settlements underground before and each teo differ depending ohey’d carved out their settlements. When you have aing natural cavern like here? They took the route that required the least work.

  Korvath had been built in what could best be described as an underground yon, so the dwarves had taken to building their homes in the walls, dwellings carved into the rock. A single road threaded its way down to the bottom. Further up, the outskirts of settlements were carved to the side instead. Even dwarf architects hadn’t bothered trying to build on the cavern ceiling. Not for this settlement, at least.

  The Imperials had hung an are sun from there, necessary for those of us whose vision wasn’t funal in the dark underground. It hung there, a ball of glowing light that hurt to look at directly, especially as the iy grew. At its dimmest, you could see the rune-encrusted metal sphere directly, shedding a dim light barely greater than a single moon. They’d even made it gh a day/night cycle of a sistent twenty-four hours, which was more than could be said for the length of day and night on the surface.

  The guild headquarters and most of the businesses y he bottom of the settlement. Farther to walk if you didn’t live down here, but easier access to the tunnels and caverns further below. Which left those dwarves who hadn’t fled with their kingdom on the levels above, where I currently walked.

  A few watched me from the fronts of their houses. I could feel the weight of more eyes looking at me from within those houses. I did my best to ig, simply waving a hand iing. No ohered to return it.

  They may have chosen to stay behind, but those who hadn’t fled deeper into the earth did not like surface dwellers among them. Tolerated at best, and only with the striderstanding Imperials would e down on anythiely resembling a rebellion.

  Going past the still-dwarf inhabited parts of the settlement, there were a lot fewer people in the houses and a lot more walking the street. Not too many, though, and only a dozen along my path toward the bottom.

  Most adventurers would have left on their delves by now. Those left would either be those taking the day off, new signees, roups who’d finished early. Which meant my path to Halmon’s shop was mostly free of interruption.

  I ignored a pair of adventurers making the sign of Halspus at me. An irritating itch sprouted behind one of my eyes as one of them tried to follow me, shrieking something about succubi ing from the depths to tempt the ho, good people of the world.

  Trying to correct him o being a demon wouldn’t help, and the only person ing close to falling for temptation down here would likely be him. I just hoped the little prick of divine magic that had hit me didn’t irritate the imp.

  A wall near me shifted, turning liquid. I kept a wary eye on it, but after a few moments, it stilled.

  Nothing, I told myself. There were other practitioners of magic down here, all far more active thahe spirit was likely attracted by them, not me. Best to keep my mind focused oask at hand.

  Acc to the dires he left, Kalsyp’s b would be he bottom, but I had enough time to che with someone else first.

  Halmon’s Ingredient store was unmarked, looking like another residential dwarf home taken over by someone from the surface. The granite walls only had a single door that remained firmly shut, and only the mplight uhe door hihat this pce was lived in.

  Halmon was a big believer in the idea that if you wanted his services, you’d find them yourself. This was not the best business model, and it robably why he remained retively minor despite being an excellent supplier of alchemical ingredients. However, given how some of those ingredients were sourced, I could uand not wanting to advertise too publicly.

  I khri the door, then waited. After a few seds, a voice barked from within in a short clipped tone.

  “We are closed. e tomorrow.”

  “Mr. Halmon,” I said, pitg my voice high enough to be heard through the rock door hopefully. “I appreciate this beiively close to closing time, but this is about an ingredient I acquired in part thanks to you. Just some questions, shouldn’t be too long.”

  There ause, then a sound very simir to the hiss of steam leaving a teapot. “Fara,” the voice hissed, followed by several words in gnomish that I could only guess the meaning of.

  The door opened, a young woman behind it, a slightly apologetic look on her face.

  “Mr. Halmon will be out shortly. He said he o go…” her voice faded as she searched for a diplomatic substitution to what I was sure had been a string of profanity-den instrus for myself: “Freshen up? You’re wele ihough.”

  Nodding my thanks, I entered Halmon’s shop. It was a verted front hall and dining room, racks of herbs, preserved animal parts, crystals, and other alchemical ingredients crammed into every space wide enough to hold a shelf. The kit had been verted into a ter, and I’d never veo the sed floor or any other part of the resideurore. Wooden doors separated those parts from the parts of the store avaible to the public, clearly installed by Halmon himself. Dwarves always used stone when and where they could.

  One of those swung open, and an elderly balding gnome in a suit stepped through carrying ay basket, his expression carefully ral.

  “Mr. Halmon!” I waved over to the gnome. “Already pag up for the day?”

  His ral expression turned into a thin grin. “Yep. And you know the rules. You are not iore on time, you do not get access to my stotil tomorrow.”

  “As loathe as I am to miss the opportunity, there are problems of a different nature I o discuss with you. The ingredient I mentioned. Preferably in a more private setting?”

  Not too loathe to miss it. My b was likely beiroyed as we spoke. Best not to dwell on that too hard. Increasingly, oion was being the most likely oo deal with this problem.

  Halmon gruhen turo his assistant. “Harie, finish pag, the ready. I’m not missing out on tonight’s expedition. You, follow me back.”

  I gave Harie a polite smile before following Halmon toward the back through a beaded curtain. Politeness was key, even with the impolite. Especially when said impolite could and would threaten those who were impolite back with explosives.

  The tale of Terry the thrice-exploded was very popur in the guild tavern.

  The back of the store was a storeroom, shelves filled with various packages and boxes, a few herbs poking out on occasion. Elemental lilies, Dragon Toadstool, Mortaietia, a full stock. I felt a pang of jealousy looking over it all. This overshadowed the colle I had in my b. Corre: used to keep it in my b. If anything were left intact, I would be quite shocked.

  “Get that look off your face,” Halmon snapped. “If I find ohing missing from back here, I’m ing to the surfad p holy water down your throat.”

  “Why Mr. Halmon, I have no idea what you mean,” I said, hand up pgly. “Have I not been an ho and well-paying er?”

  “Yes,” he snapped. “Which makes it even more likely you are part of a bigger scheme. Tell me whigredient you had trouble with, and the out of my store.”

  I suppose this is what I got for associating with the least reputable ingredient supplier down here.

  “The ingredient iion isn’t defective, I just have questions about where you got it from. Or more accurately, how you heard about it, since I hahe harvesting process. The wyvern whose location you suggested to me has brought me back here,” I said. “It seems that-”

  “I don’t know anything about that,” Halmon scowled, folding his arms across his chest.

  I sighed. “Yes, I’m aware of your policy regarding admitting when you’ve given someone information, and I am willing to pay for you to ighat policy.”

  “Ain’t nothing to pay for. I got a hot tip, I sold you the hot tip, and the person who gave me that tip ain’t popped in sihen,” Halmon waved his hand dismissively. “So we have nothing to talk about or trade about. You leave.”

  “I disagree,” I said, putting a single pound down oable. “You saw the person who gave the tip. That’s information I could use, Mr. Halmon.”

  He grunted. “Put the away. You’ve been a good er. Probably trying to rob me, but good for now. But I don’t have much. And my name does not e up. In any circumstances.”

  I pocketed the . “Anything is a help. It’s a start, at least. And your name will not e up at all.”

  “Really should grab someone capable of making binding oaths down here,” he muttered. “But that would mean bringing a third person in. Fine. Red hair, greealler than me.”

  I frowhat wasn’t a lot to go on, although it did souish. Probably not the best idea to assume. “How tall, approximately?”

  “Taller thahe gnome replied. “Anything beyond that is your , not mine.”

  “Well Mr. Halmon, I am most grateful I did not spend a on this after all,” I said.

  He grunted. “Out, please.”

  “Certainly.”

  I didn’t pay too much mind to the door smming shut behind me as I tinued on my way down. Well, that was one line of inquiry pretty much sunk. With everything that had happehe suddeh of a wyvern and the very puarding of her corpse had stuck out in my mind as rather suspicious. Just in time for a series of poisonings requiring materials from her brain to cure? Didn’t taste right. Someone was trying to py me. The only question was, who?

  One name lept to the forefront. Versalicci would tug me around just for the kicks, but especially if he thought the pressure could be leveraged to make me rejoin the Bck Fme. I frow the thought. The main issue with that was nothing ected Versalicci to the poisoning business. And if he knew who I was there were easier ways to apply pressure.

  I stopped a few levels down, leaning on the short wall keeping people from toppling off the ramp. I still had about ten to go before I reached the bottom.

  This was infuriating. I had the names of people who I knew would love to try something like this, but there was no evidehey were involved, and other people I’d never entered before went out of their way to mess with me.

  “Miss Fara?”

  My hand was on my saber’s hilt before my mind processed whose voice it was. Behind me, Halmon’s assistant had backed up against the wall, frightened.

  I let go of my saber. “My apologies Miss Harie, I’ve had a difficult day. May I help you?”

  She eased up, the tension fading out of her. “No, but I help you. I overheard your versation with Mr. Halmon, and while I ’t promise miracles, I think my memory of the er you asked about is a little more crete.”

  “I ’t help but notice you decided to e out here instead ing this up inside Mr. Halmon’s shop?” That raised the w possibility that the gnome was in on this.

  Harrie winced, looking over her shoulder. “I…want to request something in turn. Something Mr. Halmon wouldn’t approve of.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “You have my attention. What do you want?”

  “A referral,” she said, doing her best to meet my gaze. She seemed to be resisting an urge to look back over her shoulder as she talked. “I’ve always wao join the guild, and my apprenticeship with Mr. Halmon was to be a stepping stoo joining the guild itself. However-”

  “You’re worried that by the time the apprenticeship is fihe guild will have left.” I finished for her.

  She nodded. “No one give me a defiime, but the monsters ing from beh ot be endless. I want to feel the taste of adve least on my lifetime. And the guildmaster talks to you fairly often.”

  “Mostly because he wants to recruit me, and I’ve kept the possibility open but never decided one way or the other,” I said. “I have his ear a little, but not by much.”

  “A little is more than nothing,” she replied.

  I looked over Harie with a more critical eye than I had all the times I’d entered her in Halmon’s store. She was young, not as young as I’d been when I’d been scripted into what some might term a very morbid kind of adventure. What kind of excitement was sweeping her up into the mood to head on one? Definitely one different than mine had been, and not one I really should pry into.

  “The information on the er who supplied the tip first, please,” I said.

  She nodded. “It was weird, he couldn’t have looked more Keltish, but his at was Varavian. Not heavily, but just enough there for me to pick up on.”

  “You have a lot of experience pig up on ats?” I asked.

  “No, but I once helped some immigrants from there adjust to the city,” she expined. “Even the ones who got uage the quickest had these traces of their old at. They sounded very simir to him.”

  “etic mods, more than likely,” I said to myself. “I suppose if you want to keep your identity secret, airely differehnicity is a good idea. Not being able to disguise your at makes it a little less worthwhile, though.”

  “I don’t know who else would have picked up on it,” Harie said, joini the little stone wall. “It wasn’t the weirdest thing about him, though.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “It wasn’t?”

  “he er was dressed like he’d just e from a fancy dress party. Top hat, fancy coat, I think he even had metal woven into them.”

  “Metal thread?” I grinned. Finally, something was fitting together. “If I were t you some clothes, do you think you’d tell if they were the same ones our mysterious Varavian masquerading as a Keltish we’re wearing?”

  Harie frowhinking. “I could tell if they looked like the ones he was wearing, but if they were the exaes? No.”

  “Close enough,” I said excitedly. “I’ll see when I bring them down. You’ve been a great help Miss Harie. I find you down here once I have the clothes ready?”

  Those I’d left with Tolman, who’d keep them himself for now. Leaving them at my apartment seemed unwise.

  “At Mr. Halmon’s shop, and if not there then down at the guild hall. The Guild master lets me sleep there and earn some extra s doing muasks. And he wants to hear what Mr. Halmon has been up to.”

  I nodded. “I’ll check either of those first. My thanks, Miss Harie.”

  “You’re wele. And the Guildmaster?”

  “I’ll suggest it. I ’t do much more than that.”

  Truth be told, I didn’t know what Almaseck would say. He’d been trying to recruit me for a few years now, but an apprentice alchemist might be too low a level of experience for him.

  Harie hen started to walk back towards Halmon’s shop, and I tinued my way down. The Delver’s guild was close enough to make out people walkiween the buildings down below.

  The guild hall occupied the old town hall of the dwarves. Three stories tall, it still bore the scars of battle. Hasty repair work had been done for the ks in the roof and wall that were missing, but only the texture of the stone gave away arts had been redone by mages.

  As rge as the building was, the entire guild didn’t fit in it. The guild sprawled across all of the lowest levels, spreading like a fungus across abandoned buildings repurposed from their inal use. Oh, some still served their inal purpose; the military barraow housed adventurers.

  Easily a hundred of them lived there now, although I only knew about a dozen close. Most retionships down here I kept strictly merary.

  I waved to a few adventurers as I passed, people I’d worked with freeng for the guild. They’d get word to Almaseck I was here sooner or ter. I’d be invited for another recruitment attempt disguised as a versation.

  Hopefully, I’d have finished my business down here and be done by then. Not that I didn’t enjoy my discussions with the Guildmaster, but I had few enough hours in the day as is.

  I was one level away from Kasyp’s b when my step faltered. A grey or a suit had rouhe er, the insignia of the guild on the upper right chest of his suit jacket.

  Helvek, Almaseck’s right-hand man. I wasn’t dodging the meeting with the Guildmaster.