Alula was pleasantly surprised, and relived, when the merchant refused to take her shoes. At least she got to keep those. She was about to hand over the knife, when Kelvin stepped in. He pushed the knife and shoes back into her hands, and began to speak with the merchant. Everything the man was saying was confusing her. Was Kelvin helping her? All she wanted was her hat back. She bent over, again almost losing her fitting, and put back on her shoes.

Once the two were finished speaking Arastoph turned back to her. He asked her if she would be willing to part with the dagger for the hat, not to mention that she had already given up all of her gold for it as well. She didn't really care about the money, she just wanted her hat back. She nodded eagerly, handing him the dagger and in exchange she was given her hat. The little woolen string was a nice touch, it would be much harder to loose now.

Tugging her hat down over her eyes, finally content to keep her face away from the sun and the others gaze, she smiled.

Furnace had nodded and stared into the sunrise while his new friends discussed complex theories of trade and commerce.
He could barely follow the story but the gist of it seemed Kelvin and Vis testing the new man on the subject.
Perhaps they needed to measure his abilities? The new man's words were fast and impressive. His knowledge of movements of gold seemed extensive.
It was clear he intended to boast his talent, even when Furnace couldn't really catch on to what exactly the talent was.
He would trade for them? Furnace had already learned how that went, but he had not heard anything this complex.
This all sounded like a school of magic he'd never heard of. One specialised in reading the movements and fluctuating values of gold?
That would be..

Aurumancy?
Making this man an Aurumancer.
Impressive.

"Uhm... Can you explain your spells in a way the uninitiated understand."

Vis made himself comfortable in the cradle of roots and rested, closing his eyes from the soft rays of the morning sun, a soft light of his own spilling past the shut eyelid of his green eye. He was tired and could not bring himself to eat the bread that he got for himself and instead, shook it in Khat's direction, her hand snatched out instantly and took the bread. She gobbled it down, stuffing it into her mouth and early chewing before swallowing, she didn't realize how hungry she was. Once finished with the chunk of stale bread, she turned to thank Vis but closed her mouth when she noticed him lying there, his chest rising and falling evenly, a sign of sleep. She mentally shrugged, before walking over to where he deposited his bag, among the rest of the group, to break off another piece of bread from their shared loaf. As she did, she looked up at everyone with a level, cool look. They were interesting, that was for sure but she only knew one of their names, the Knight's, Carver.

She spun on the spot for a moment, looking at everyone before her eyes fell on a cloaked lady, the one who had not been so maliciously swindled by the merchant for a pointy hat. She shuffled over, nibbling her new piece of bread, as the last one had sated most of her appetite. Khat tugged the woman's cloak gently.

"Hello."

This guy is as slippery as an oiled dwarf. Kelvin grimaced at both the mental image and the man in front of him as he listed off his conditions. The guy was throwing out numbers and conditions like he had contracts memorized… and he probably did, looking at him. Kelvin repeated the terms in short in his head, trying to think them over. Unfortunately, while he was good at math, economics were not his strong suit. There were some unmentioned holes, but he could use those to his own advantage. The terms looked alright, but no reason not to argue them down if he could.

”I don’t accept.” Kelvin let it roll off his tongue the moment the seer had her hat back. ”If you want to trade with us, you will do it fairly, at no more than half again the market price.” He scratched his beard, ”And only a hundred monthly, unless you want to supply your own food and sleeping gear, and you take twentyfive percent of profit made in trades on the parties behalf, if you also want a fair split of any treasures we find along the way. Otherwise, you are on your own for loot.” Kelvin wasn’t quite sure they were going to be able to afford another hundred gold a month, but if this guy could keep his word… ”I recommend you take that deal.”

Kelvin waved his hand at the gold and shrugged. ”Unless you have a different offer, because I am sure we can find other uses for that gold than stuffing your pockets. It looks to me like you need it more than we do.” Kelvin spared a glance at Separ and Carver. Carver to make sure the knight was witnessing what was happening, and Separ because the guy was technically their leader.

”I hope this won’t take too long, after all, we do have one or two enemies a mile or more that way.” Kelvin gestured towards the forest, roughly where they had come from.

Bah. A mile was far away enough.

Arastoph gazed at the engineer as though he were a bored man, slightly annoyed at the engineers insistence of his own term. Beginning his terms at catching Arastoph's offer concerning personal trades, and then a measly one hundred piece monthly payment, and just a twenty-five percent share of profit made through his transactions. While yes, the job was to make this man's party some money, the point of the arrangement is to allow Arastoph to profiteer off some of trades. However, he could use the engineer's offer to his own advantage.

"Ah, caught that, did you?" Arastoph asked simply and slightly annoyed. "Fair enough. Excluding this section of our contract, no personal trades between me and a separate individual of your party are under this contract's jurisdiction."

The corner of Arastoph's mouth curled up into a smirk. "And I recommend that if you want the best results, two hundred piece monthly payments is the best deal I could offer you... I could make your party that much - and perhaps more - in a week. I will accept your offer of twenty-five percent of the profits made upon your behalf, but if the amount divided between your party is not equal to a base amount of coins, I will claim the total remainder of those percentages. It would keep things fair among the members of your party and prevent money from being wasted."

Now that he thought about it, he wasn't sure if that was something the engineer would understand.

"A person cannot claim ten point seventy-five pieces. You can not just claim seventy-five percent of a gold piece. If the seven of you were to receive that much, I'd take the percentages that do not add up to a base number and add them up together, where I would receive the total of the number equal to the highest solid number. In this example, I would receive five pieces."

Carver blinked his glazed eyes. All this talk of business and deals had put him into a fugue. By the sun, this survivor could talk a whole day away. He saw Separ standing next to him and coughed.

"Ah. Yes. I slept... uncommon well, in fact, considering the previous day's events." With that, the Knight stepped into the middle of the group. "If I might refocus the discussion, there is an enemy horde loose in this area, and they have shown that they are willing to commit acts of terrible barbarism. It might be best to find a heading and proceed from there, discussing what we must while on the road."

A ton of words flashed by in an instant. Much of which Des didn't know. Des looked up at Carver and decided to run some of these by him. "Hey metal man. What's the Sun, or stars, or money, or dynamite? Oh, and what's an enemy?" Des whispered, not wanting to talk unless he was describing one's presence.

Furnace followed Astaropth's explanation intensely.
Like a wizard's pupil listening to his mentor.
He followed the calculations in his head, then did them over when they didn't match up.
"Oh I get it! We find a bag with 7 coins. There's...10 of us so he gets all of it.
If the bag contains 53 we all get 5 coins and he 3.
The smaller the number the larger the chance he get's most of it.
Very smart. This gold magic is really strange but interesting."

Alula didn't pay much attention to Kelvin and the merchant as they talked about potential prices and deals. The concept of material wealth, as well as money itself, was strange to her. She was, in a way, relieved to no longer carry her coin purse on her. It felt like an extra weight, and not just in the physical sense. It felt like too much pressure to have gold, that would mean she would have to spend it wisely. And nothing seemed wiser then spending all of her gold on her hat. His hat. Her prized possession although she could not remember when she became its owner. Their conversation eventually just became background noise.

She tried to melt back into the background herself. She didn't like having the spotlight on herself, and trying to make the transaction with the merchant seemed to do just that. But that was over, and her hat was again where it should be. She tugged the rim of the hat down, covering her eyes. She kept herself a few paces away from the rest of the group, wanting to listen and not contribute much more. She listened as Furnace, again, over complicated things and as Separ and Carver had a brief exchange before Carver tried to direct the group back to their current plans.

His cries seemed to fall on death ears. Kelvin, the merchant and Furnace were all having their own conversation about wealth and trade agreements. Suki was stranding off on her own, Vis and his child were off as well. Separ would likely have some opinions to state so there was still that. The dangerous child then tried to derail the conversation even more by asking Carver questions. Alula held back a snarl.

She was no good at geography, she was foreign to this part of the land, and thus wouldn't be able to add much to the conversation. But getting on their way seemed like a good idea. Walking and talking would be fine, although Alula was bad at both of these things. She nodded to Carver, a gesture that was slightly lost under her hat, willing to do whatever he suggested.

Arastoph looked down at the gnome with intrigue. Well, the little guy was getting a few factors wrong (such as the children; Arastoph did not count them as legible for shares of loot, and ideally, would be put in an orphanage in another town while these people continued their travels), and that part of deal had little to do with finding loot, but the leftover gold that became a remainder after a trade, but the merchant was surprised that he was starting to catch on to what was happening. Arastoph admits that he underestimated the wee one's intelligence, even if its actual value was just a little above what he expected.

"Not quite," he said, but his voice seemed to gleam with approval, "for instance, I wasn't counting children when distributing shares. Ideally, they'd be dropped at an orphanage at the next town... but you certainly are making strides just by watching."

Of course, this pleasant demeanor wasn't much more than a facade. While it was interesting that the little gnome learned quickly, he didn't have any interest in putting the thing under his tutelage.

At the word Orphanage, Khat forgot that she was trying to interact with the less gullible clocked lady and instead, rounded on the trader, her red hair fanning out in fiery sheets. She glared at hm for a moment and her eye twitched a bit. She marched up to him and poked him harshly in his stomach, accusingly and through grit teeth she spoke.

"What makes you think I'm going to an Orphanage, huh buster?" She spat, literally, on his boot. She looked him up and down and her anger only seemed to get hotter, as her pale skin became flushed red in her rage, "Who are you to tell me what I do? You are not my dad, I don't know you and I don't trust you and if you think that you can just get rid of me so you can have more money, You've got another thing coming." She pulled her scarf around her face and marched off, seething in anger.

Vis heard everything and a ghost of a smile crept across his face, 'Brave one...' He thought, as she plonked herself down in the dirt by his side and crossed her arms, still glaring at the man from a distance.

"An orphanage can't replace her.." She mumbled and Vis' smile turned into a slight frown.

"Oh so you turn things into gold and keep a share for yourself?
...
But I do think you mean to have more gold coins if possible. Did I get that right?
Because then you would want to do this with a group that has a large number to divide by.
Of having these children be part of the spell would result in smaller numbers for us and higher numbers for you. Right?"

Furnace prattled on doing calculus on his fingers.
Completely oblivious to the tension between the others.

Carver leaned down to the boy. "The sun is the bright yellow orb you see in the sky. Gaze not too long at her, for her radiance may be more than mortals can comprehend, but know that she is my lady and she loves you very dearly. The stars are the points of light you see at night. Money," he gestured to the squabblers, "Is the root of all evil. Dynamite is... dangerous. And enemies are those who would disturb the natural peace and gentleness of my lady's world, such as those loose in these woods right now."

He looked back to the others, still arguing over deals and sums. Now Furnace was in on it - Carver shut his eyes for a moment and prayed for strength.

"Enough," he said firmly, stepping into the center of the group. "This debate of deals is a matter for another time. Kelvin, I have nothing but respect for you - you have proven yourself wise, brave, and resourceful, and already I owe you very much. As such, I feel confident appealing to you that we must not stay here. Our enemies draw closer every moment - every word we waste endangers the children, and Alula, and Furnace, and all of us. What is more, we could now be well on our way to warning the next settlement, give them time to prepare, evacuate, prevent the horrendous calamity that we have witnessed from repeating itself. To bandy words here is irresponsible, and I am honor-bound not to."

"However, wordsmith," he said, rounding on the 'survivor'. "You have impressed me little. Your tact is skillful, your eloquence laudable, but the direction in which you bend it I find... distasteful. As such, this is my humble request, merchant. Travel with us, do not hinder us, do not steal from those under my protection, and at the very least try to keep your drool off your face when you sight a coinpurse. I will not stand in the way of your deal, friends, but please discuss the terms as we travel. Any admirable path you choose to take beyond that may be your own prerogative. My lady gave us all a purpose; do you really think yours was squabbling for money with travelers in the forest?"

The knight turned and began dismantling his tent. "Break camp, friends. We should leave in twenty..." he glanced around at his companions. "... Thirty minutes, and until such time as someone suggests a better course, I intend to go that way." Carver pointed in the direction roughly opposite Ravenwood.

Suki only continued to watch, before slipping out from the group without making too much noise. Choosing to take a winding, diverging route, she slowly made her way back towards the ruined town. What she was here for, was her scythe. She had left it somewhere in the ground, when Separ carried her, and she wanted it back.

Granted, it was only a simple scythe by design, nothing decorative, but it served her well. However, glaring at the rubble in her way, she frowned, before choosing to slip through between the larger pieces of rubble that almost formed an alleyway, making her way deeper into the city.

Alula watched in interest as Kelvin and the merchant continued to haggle prices. She tugged her hat down over her eyes as the man mentioned orphanages. Even if that would be far safer to live in a home for parentless children then traveling with a group of first time adventurers, she said nothing. She found the man's tone slightly cynical, but nothing she would really bat an eye at. The rest of the party seemed rather quick to jump down his throat. But she understood. Alula shivered, tugging on her hat again.

The young girls outburst was rather odd as well. The child was being rather outspoken and rude for one so young, and she could stand to learn some manners. It wasn't wise to lash out in such a way, especially around the man who had saved her life. Again, Alula understood. And Alula shivered.

She watched in silence as Carver again intervened, playing the mediator, when Kelvin and the merchant seemed to be unable to find an agreement. She frowned when he mentioned her name, however. Equating her to the children and innocent of the party. If only they knew. She kept herself from speaking out, she knew the man just wanted what was best. After awhile the voices informed her that someone had tried to sneak away from the party. It would be best to mention it before things got too carried away.

"We may...need more then...thirty minutes..." Alula slurred slowly, pulling the rim of her hat down over her eyes. "The girl...has returned to the town...she took measures to...not be detected by you all..." She shivered. "We...I...believe...it would be best...to wait for her here...if she wanted us...to follow she would have...told us to."

Des followed Carver, he seemed to be the only one who made sense. "Earlier, you said we are all children of the Sun. Does that make you my brother?" If this guy was Des's family then he might know something about Des's past.

Suki's staff was Exactly where she had left it. There was something slightly suspicious about the fact that it was the only thing left untouched, even more so sense her skeletons lay destroyed beside it.

Upon Carver's command Furnace immediately started to break down a tent, attempting to mimic him as well as possible.
"We should wait here for her then? Have these goods collected in packages for transport by the time she returns? If she returns."
He asked, thinking aloud.

This was a bad situation for sure, the girl Separ had tried so hard to save was now back in the lions den, but for what reason? Was there something she needed to do in that town that was worth risking such danger? As much as Separ wanted to leave for safety, he couldn't find it in his heart to just leave her behind like that, especially after all that hard work he put in trying to save her. Feeling as though some type of disaster may fall upon the girl, Separ took off his backpack and laid it on the ground before walking over to Carver. "I'm going to go after the girl. You keep everyone else safe and continue on towards the next town over. I'll catch up with you there. Just don't follow after me as moving in a big group could attract unwanted attention. If any of you gets injured there's a medical kit I purchased earlier inside the backpack." Separ looked over at his group and smiled. "So I'll see you later then I guess." However when he saw Alula he felt a bit funny, something was nagging at him making him feel uncomfortable. He stared at her for a minute awkwardly before looking away not wanting to creep her out any longer. Deciding to ignore this feeling his attention turned towards Kelvin. "You have explosives right? Do you mind if I take a stick of dynamite as well as something to light it in case of an emergency?" Asked Separ in a rather serious tone. The last thing he wanted to do was blow up a whole area but if it meant surviving the enemy forces it could be useful in a pinch.

Arastoph rolled his eyes as, once again, a transaction was intruded upon. It wasn't just any transaction either, but a contract! That would make great strides in benefiting the party to all here (aside himself) belonged to. And this little girl had the audacity to intrude upon adult matters as though she had any right to?

The boot was worth more than she was!

"Exactly, you little goblin." He said as his smooth tone gradually dripped with venomous and seething contempt. "You do not know me, nor do you trust me; and by extent, do not know what I would do to you if you dare to try that again."

Arastoph caught himself in the midst of his threat, and quickly bound to recover himself.

"...Though as once a father, I could not possibly bring myself to do the likes of which. A hypothetical. That said... you are sorely in need of discipline. To which I would leave the responsibility to the... inarticulate one. If you think I would allow a child to possess any sort of your party's spending power, I'm afraid you are mistaken."

'Then again, the simpering, defective imbecile is probably the reason behind her infantile tantrums.'

In addition to the abhorrent cretin of a human child, the paladin ushered an end to their negotiations which Arastoph had felt was weighed quite considerably in their favor. Carver insisted that negotiations may be finished another time while they packed up and pressed on towards the other town.

'What a shame; we were almost finished.'

Carver praised his skills, but scolded his morality - living up to the stereotype of the rigid moral enforcer, and that his way of living was the one and only way of doing so. However, what had to be the most amusing part of his lecture was what he perceived to be Arastoph's motives! He deducted mere, simple greed! Nay, that was not the case for him; obsession with the mundane, terrestrial concept of currency was not where his heart lies. Rather, it was simply a tool and method of power for him to exert over the less powerful. But as for why this particular path was taken... needless to say, it had nothing to do with worshiping gold coins.

"Surely, Sir Carver," Arastoph mused, "you don't think me to be so shallow and banal to be bothered with something as trivial as greed?"

"I am not so frivolous," he continued. A sly smile has stretched over his face as his eyes turned to the corner upon hearing the oracle's warning of one of their own ranks attempting to slip out unnoticed.

"From the sounds of things, I may not be the one you should be suspicious of, good knight. At least I have been upfront with my business."

Every stick neatly sorted by length. Every sheet of cloth folded in precise squares, piled and bound.
Furnace wrapped every object he owned as well as all other unattended objects in rags and bags.
Divided into equal shares, or at least a close approximation. One package for each person here to carry.

Furnace looked at Carver as he stood beside his work.
It was clear on his face he took pride in it, that he hoped for approval.
"We will take these things to 'that way', right?"