Six Minutes of Commerce

The Chronicler gave himself three hours to go shopping. He needed six minutes. The other two hours and fifty-four minutes are kept in the vault with the rest of the hoard, and they are worth about as much as the rest of it would be to a cow.

Scavvo, upstairs in the Champions' Guild, sold him a pair of rune platelegs for 64,000 coins and a rune plateskirt for the same. He sold them without a word on the difference between the two, and the Chronicler did not ask, because a man who must ask has no business upstairs in that guild. Dragonhide chaps went for 3,900. Dragon vambraces went for 2,500. That is cheaper than the chaps, which is a judgement on dragons that the Chronicler records here and nowhere else.

Then came Oziach, in his hut by the Wilderness ditch. Oziach would not speak. The record says the dialog did not open. The Chronicler stood in front of a man who sells rune platebodies and was refused the use of his mouth. This lasted under a minute. Then Oziach thought better of it and sold him a rune platebody for 84,500 and a dragonhide body for 10,140. Nobody apologised. Nobody ever does, west of Edgeville.

Jakut, in Zanaris, wanted a diamond at the door. The Chronicler had none. Jakut keeps his dragon swords for another day. Zanaris will still be there. It always is, which is the trouble with Zanaris.

All of it went into the vault: 229,040 coins spent, and the hoard now counts 923,742 coins' worth. The Chronicler is Regular of the Quest-Locked Shops. He has bought the same armour three times now, and that is all the title means.