Downtown Druid

Book 2 Chapter 57: Steel's Steel and Steal

Dantes flew across the docks and shifted into himself midair to land on his feet. He brushed some dust off of his dark green jacket, and stretched a bit. Flying so much was leaving his arms much more sore than he’d been expecting. Jacopo landed as a bat on his shoulder a few moments later before shifting back into a rat and climbing into the comfort of his jacket. Once he felt loose enough, Dantes stepped out of the alley and onto the street. He was in the guild district, and so saw the usual groups of tradesmen and adventurers passing by on their day to day business.

He wove his way through them, blending in easily with the crowd. He could’ve landed directly on the roof of his target, but didn’t want to rely on that too much. If he spent too much time flying, he’d miss out on the snippets of conversation and general impression the crowds of people could give him. Even just walking through the streets he was able to get the impression that weapons orders from the city were way up, and adventurers were getting a bit nervous about being sent away on jobs in countries like Viscent and Frasheid that seemed to be less friendly with Rendhold than they’d been in the past. He assimilated that information as he walked, eventually stopping outside of a blacksmith’s shop in the far corner of a plaza.

The sign for the shop said, “Steel’s Steel,” which Dantes thought was actually kind of a fun bit of wordplay, for a dwarf. He could hear the ting, ting, ting of hammer against metal even from outside and the heat of the forge radiated even from where he was standing. It was open of course, having that much heat in a fully walled off building would make little sense, but the flames, smoke, and steam made it hard to actually see within it until one got close.

Dantes walked in with his eyes squinted, and followed the noise of the hammer until he reached a dwarf hammering a scalding steel rod with a hammer. His hair, skin, and beard color couldn’t be discerned due to the sheer volume of soot and smoke that had clung to his skin. He was a few shades of gray darker than Dantes himself with all of that clinging to him. He wore goggles as he worked, and did so with tremendous focus and precision. All dwarves were squat and muscular, but the work of the forge had made Steel even more so than the average member of his people. Each of his fingers was as thick as a sword hilt, and his arms were so thick Dantes wondered why the hammer was even necessary, when he could just use his fists to flatten any metal out that he needed to.

Steel stopped his work for a moment, and inspected the piece of metal he was working with. He grunted, and put it to the side looking up at Dantes. He peeled his goggles off, and rested them on his forehead, revealing surprisingly pale skin and light blue eyes.

“If you’ve come with a big order, I can’t help you. I just took a job from the city that’s going to be keeping me very busy.” He spoke with a particularly thick accent, thicker than even Iron in the Mine and his people that had been close to the dwarven conclave in the city.

“Just a small order, and something a little different for Steel’s Steel and Steal.”

Steel squinted at him, “Ah, I should’ve been able to tell you were that type. Come one, step into my office.” He gestured with his hands toward a small enclosed part of the shop behind the forge, and walked through the door.

Dantes followed him, and found himself in a small workshop filled with tools that he guessed were for the measurement and inspection of goods rather than their creation.

Steel reached for a well cushioned chair, but hesitated when he saw the soot on his hands, grabbing a ratty and worn one instead which he sat on. He didn’t offer anything similar to Dantes.

“So, you need a fence? What’ve you got?”

Dantes pulled a small pouch from his coat and handed it to him. Even before he’d left the Pit he’d started a rather wide collection of jewelry from the various people he’d stolen it from. He could pry the gems out and pound the metals flat to sell them without a fence, but it was a lot of work and time he didn’t feel was worth it. Besides, it was always good to meet a new fence in the city, he couldn’t rely on his old contacts for it. At least not yet.

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The dwarf took the pouch and started pulling out the pieces one by one, handling them with surprising gentleness. He pulled a rolling table toward himself and started placing each piece on it one by one.

“Interesting,” he muttered as he placed a silver bracelet on the table. “How did you hear of me?”

The guard had a small file on him that Dantes had found while rifling through the desk of one of Pacha’s superiors. The guard wasn’t willing to make a move on him because the city needed good blacksmiths and he was a small fry. He also apparently had some high up dwarven friends.

“From Stone on the Mountain.”

“I don’t know that I know him.”

“Tall for a dwarf, black beard, white eyebrows. He certainly claims to know you.”

“Hrmph,” He returned his focus to the bag, pulling out the last few pieces and placing them gently on the table. “These are some good pieces actually. Some elven make, dwarven, even some old orcish style pieces I haven’t seen in some time. Almost makes me want to ask how you got it, but that would be breaking the first rule of being a good fence.”

Dantes nodded. As with most criminal work, the fewer questions the better.

“I can do fifteen gold for this lot.”

Dantes raised an eyebrow. “You said fifteen, but I’m fairly sure you meant fifty.”

Steel laughed. “Come on, fifteen’s plenty for you to stay high and in whores for weeks.”

Dantes sighed. Steel thought he was just a regular Mutt that got lucky. To an extent he was right, but even before he’d gotten his abilities he’d have recognized a deal this raw. “You’re going to clear nearly one hundred gold on all that, easily. The raw materials alone are worth more than fifteen.”

Steel reassessed him a bit. “Alright, I didn’t realize you had some dwarf in you. I can do twenty-five, but moving some of these pieces is going to be difficult with how unique they are. No higher.”

Dantes shrugged, “Suit yourself,” he moved to the table and started picking pieces off of it. Steel was no fool, he had an incredibly steady expression, even for a dwarf, but Dantes’s enhanced senses let him pick up on small twitches and changes in his face that he never would’ve seen before. He knew exactly which pieces he wanted the most, and so picked those up first.

Steel sighed. “Alright, this is on me for not taking you seriously. Put the pieces down. I can do forty and a handful of silver.”

Dantes smirked, “One of your hands, not one of mine, and we’ll call it a deal.”

Steel chucked a bit. “Aye, I can do that,” he stood and walked over to a heavy metal box in the corner, inputting a series of dwarven runes on the top until it popped open and he could collect the coin.

“You said you wanted something forged as well?” he asked as he collected the coin.”

Dantes nodded, pulling another small bag from his coat. “I want a dagger forged from these.”

Steel raised an eyebrow and picked up the bag, he didn’t open it so much as let it jingle and take a whiff of it.

“Copper coins?” he asked.

Dantes nodded.

“That’ll be a shite dagger. Copper’s too soft. I don’t think even beastmen use it for tools anymore. I have about a dozen steel daggers ready to sell if you want something actually useful.”

Dantes shook his head. “It needs to be copper. It’s important.”

Steel grimaced as he weighed the bag in his hand. “At least let me mix in some tin with it? Make it bronze? I hate to let bad work into the world.”

Dantes sighed. “Fine, if it goes against your professional ethics I guess we can make that work. I’m a bit surprised you care though, considering your side business.”

“I have no respect for the laws of men, but the laws of dwarves are another story.”

Dantes raised an eyebrow. He was fairly certain plenty of dwarves had been involved with the creation of laws in Rendhold, but it didn’t seem a point worth arguing.

“Guess we have a deal then,” said Dantes, spitting in his palm.

Steel scowled. “I’m not one of those exiles that needs to seal a deal with spit. My word is my bond. I’d be welcomed if I went back home to the stone.”

He saw the confusion on Dantes’s face.

“Don’t worry about it. You clearly didn’t know the difference. Poor bastard.” He held out the sack of gold. “That’s for the goods. I’ll have your dagger in a few days if I can work it in between my larger orders.”

Dantes took the gold. “See you then.” He turned and walked out of the room, through the forge and back onto the street. Clearly he knew a bit less about dwarves than he thought he did.