---

While in the alleyways leading to the slums, Thadus had a peculiar feeling, like a gnawing feeling at the back of his mind, like an itch in his fingers.

He turned around, and used all of his senses to search for any spirits, but couldn’t detect any he that he didn’t have control of nearby. And yet he had the odd perception that something was following him. He conjured forth a flame and used the wind to keep it floating as he looked around him.

“Is there anyone here, or am I being paranoid?” he murmured to himself.

He continued for a dozen of paces before he turned around again, narrowing his eyes as if that would help sense anything. There was still nothing noteworthy nearby.

Not even a lowly mortal.

This made little sense to him. He was certain he sense someone, something, nearby.

Unable to let it go, he told the earth spirits to tell him if anyone else passed by within the next twenty paces he moved.

Nonetheless, they reported back nothing at any time.

He figured he might be exhausted after all. It had already been a long day, followed by an evening he had certainly not chosen nor planned, and everyone was working against him to allow him to merely return to his estate and rest and forget about this unfortunate circumstance altogether.

He loathed to admit it, but this trial had indeed fatigued him rather much, and, truly, it was possible it was to the point of imagining things that were not indeed true.

As he walked at a steady pace, the flower bud began to open gradually. It blossomed with a pure white five-petalled flower. Soon it released a sweet fragrance. Thadus felt no need to acknowledge it.

You needn’t be in such a haste. Rest some more. There is no hurry. You have plenty of time to do so. I won’t go anywhere. You have worked hard, so wait until I find you a bit of water. Your wood might crack.

He followed the wind’s unwilling guidance. It was clearly a disgruntled spirit.

It deserved it.

There was a brush against the back of the hand holding the sceptre, and he caught the vine crawling out of his sleeve. He gently pushed it back inside.

I did not give you permission to do that. I forbid it.

He then cupped the flower and forced it to regress back into a bud. The fragrance was soon overpowered by the appalling odour of the city. The vine retreated and wrapped around his waist to return to rest, having been so firmly shown the spellcaster wouldn’t tolerate it to grow any more.

Only once he entered the even narrower paths of the slums did he extinguish the flame. It might get hungry and act against his command, and while he could not understand fully why such a thing such as “slums” existed, he was still an educated man. He knew it was even worse than anything he had seen during this one day. Whether it was the same as he had been taught, that was another question altogether — and he had preferred not to enter a mortal-made mass grave for the terminally ill ones full of disease and despair for all who enter.

Finding the silversmith in question, unfortunately, meant he had to find a reasonable target to guide him.

At night.

Naturally, he understood very well this was not an ideal time of day.

It took a while of walking past dark, small hut-sized houses which reeked with noxious smell before he found more than rats, cats and a growling stray dog.

He was not the one causing the growling. He had done nothing wrong when it suddenly began. He had not even seen it first. It growled louder every time he tried to pass.

He had the earth bump its rear so he could continue on his way.

Because the mutt got a fright from the bump, it turned to bite, and a human tumbled out of an alley to escape it. It was not quite what Thadus had intended, but as it worked out in his favour, he conjured forth another vine and caught the human by the waist, raising them up to stop them from running.

That it was a smaller variant of a mortal was of a rather minor concern.

“Where’s the silversmith? I’ll let you go if…”

The one he caught turned to look at him with big eyes. Thadus wrinkled his nose.

“Oh, it’s you. Well, this ought to be easy, do you not agree?”

The youth trembled profusely and nodded quickly.

Thadus put the youth down but kept the vine around its waist as a leash. “I am being rather pleasant at the moment, but I’m running out of lengthy patience. I also rather liked my ornament, see. It was merely a trinket, but it was quite valuable to me personally. So, now, show me to where the silversmith lives or I’ll drag you over to the guards and tell them what it is that you did.”

The youth trembled even more and tried to make some noise, but Thadus glared at it to keep it quiet. That got the youth obedient enough to do as he said. Thadus had no intention of listening to poor excuses or attempts to get away.

He didn’t make this filthy thing walk any faster than was manageable. Instead, he followed the uneven pace this youth was setting. He didn’t care about the time it took, as long as he could get his task done and over with. If he had to set a house on fire, he could opt for that too if he lost his patience with this.

Not even fire could bring him to end a life, after all. Although, he sometimes wished it would.

He soon found himself knocking on a door that hardly could be called a door, but rather a few poorly attached planks. The youth was hiding by the corner, still leashed. The door wasn’t opened by anyone inside.

He opened it himself to search the house for Linden’s token.

He. Did not. Care.

What would the guards do if they found out? Give him yet another amercement? He would welcome it with open arms!

A man by the fireplace was startled by the entrance of the spellcaster and turned to look at him.

Thadus gave him a once-over and noted a few ingots of silver by the fire. He smiled his most politest smile, understanding that this was evidently the correct location. “Are you mayhap the ‘honoured’ silversmith of these parts?”

The man gave him a suspicious look. “Who’s askin’?”

“Oh, I must have been unclear.” Thadus allowe the vine to let go as he snapped his fingers to conjure a flame anew. “Is this the silversmith I am seeking, or shall I burn this place down to make this encounter rather swift for us both?”

---

The speck of dust let go of the coat and landed on the floor. There were many things like it, only these were without consciousness. Horde Master would have said they were filth.

Dust bounced and looked around, seeing a large wooden box with two doors and a hole in each. It was too small for the strange human to enter and not something it could look into easily.

Dust decided to look there while the strange human mentioning burning.

Maybe it was talking about the fireplace. Horde Master mentioned fireplaces sometimes. The strange human could look there. Dust would search over in the strange box.

Dust was not sure what a “token” was. It had a vague memory of it, but Dust itself had never seen it. It floated over to the wooden box and in through the hole. It was as if the hole was made for motes to enter. A door just for Dust. Very useful.

Out of sight from the human eyes, Dust puffed up to not get buried in these fluffy, non-conscious versions of itself. It was a little heavier than these others were.

It moved across the shelf.

— Horde Master! Horde Master! Lots of silver!

It reported this and started inspecting the mountains of silver. They passed a strange item that was smaller and round with something else, but this was not it. It continued to look. It passed by and oddly shaped thing that was not silver. It seemed to be leather. It passed it. This was not it.

It inspected the rest of the shelves in this side of the box, but could not find a “token”.

It was about to move to the other side when it felt Horde Master’s sudden recognition. It returned to the leather, to confirm that this was what Horde Master recognised.

Dust went to tell the strange human, but remembered not to. Dust thought long and hard.

It had an idea. 

It went into the door and found a strange lever inside it. It pushed, and pushed, and pushed. It didn’t help.

It changed forms and pushed harder with all its might.

---

“I’m a silversmith, m’lord. What can I do for you?”

“I am looking for a silver token. Give it to me.”

“I don’t know what m’lord is talkin’ ’bout,” the man claimed.

Thadus couldn’t care less about these empty claims. He wasn’t to be fooled by another mortal. He had had enough of the insolence that these puny vermin showed. If he didn’t receive the respect he deserved, he, too, wouldn’t need to offer kindness in return.

“It has a silver rose on it. Gemstones as well. I demand that you give it to me.”

“I have no permits to make tokens. Surely m’lord understands.”

“No, I do not. Now get to it. I need it immediately. I have no patience for mortal mind games.”

“M’lord, this ain’t no mind games. I truly have no permit to—”

“But you can buy and sell them?” Thadus interrupted, allowing the flame to grow larger. “Hurry up.”

“I sincerely—”

Click.

The sound was loud in the room.

Thadus turned to the cabinet in an instant. The door of it opened just a little. He stalked forward to investigate why a locked cabinet door would suddenly open. This was highly unusual. He was nothing if not intrigued.

The man jumped to cover the door, trying to press it shut. “M’lord, there are merely some minor trinkets in here. The cabinet has been broken for years.”

Thadus had seen this kind of terrified look before, and the man couldn’t hide the trembling and panicked gaze. He wrinkled and pushed the man aside to examine this. It was now also an extremely suspicious piece of furniture.

He pulled the door open and looked inside. A few ingots, what looked like a house seal, a medallion, something in a leather case, some jewellery.

Thadus grabbed the leather case and opened it without scruples.

Inside was what he would describe as a hexagonal medallion with a prominent flower on the face of it. It had a pattern all over its nearly triangular body, and where each corner ought to have been, there was flat with a stamp on it.

“This seems to be it,” Thadus said, putting the token back into its case and placed it into the inner pocket of his coat. “As I have it, I will leave now. It was my displeasure doing absolutely no business with you.”

Thadus had no patience for the man to compose himself enough to say anything. He decisively left.

The first thing he saw as he stepped out was the youth. Startled, the child tried to hide.

Thadus, tired of having to rely on the unreliable wind spirit and the indirect directions of the earth spirits, stepped forward and captured the youth by the collar.

“Show to the Northern Market District and I’ll pay you a sum of fifty silver. Don’t and I’ll just drag you over to the first guard I can find.”

And so he acquired the most capable local guide yet.