The Beauty and the Poet (And Other Short Stories)

The Shopkeeper and the Thief Part 2

"Have you ever considered questing?"

Tara slowly looked up from where she was dropping her latest deposit on Malisande's front counter, brow furrowed in plain confusion. Over the past week she had made it something of a routine to stop by Malisande's shop daily with whatever money she had on hand, although she looked increasingly surlier every time Malisande saw her. She must have been doing a variety of odd jobs, since the vast majority of her payment was made up of ten and twenty rupee coins, with the occasional fifty, but at the rate she was going, raising forty thousand rupees within a month was feeling increasingly impossible.

"Why would I do that?" Tara asked blandly, then let out a frustrated sigh when Malisande simply quirked an eyebrow. "Isn't that mostly chasing down murderers and thieves? And even with any other stuff, I'm useless at magic, not to mention I can't exactly jump through the ranks with no experience. No one wants to hire a novice."

"Not all of it is chasing down criminals," Malisande offered. "As long as you're looking for it, you can find a number of jobs: collection, escorting, or tailing missions, ridding the locale of some sort of pesky beast, and so on." Malisande herself had run a number of errands herself when she was young and just starting out; it helped her set up some good relations with her fellow merchants, not to mention it gave her an easy insight into what sort of items were selling at the time. For her first couple of years living in Caliair, Malisande had made it a habit to collect a few extra of whatever it was she had been assigned to pick up, and walk away with both a handful of coins and a new product to sell. Of course, not all of her temporary employers had appreciated her edging in on their respective markets, but Malisande took a sense of pride in each sale she managed to secure on her own ground, even if it meant occasionally fiddling with the prices to make sure it worked out in her favor as she built up her consumer base.

Of course, now that she thought about it, Tara wasn't likely to appreciate that particular story all that much. For her part, Tara look unconvinced at Malisande's pitch for questing, so Malisande decided to try a different tact.

"Have you ever been to the Tottering Tavern?" she asked. Tara hesitated, apparently thinking, although when her pause went on for a beat too long, Malisande let out a sigh and said, "Allow me to correct myself—have you ever gone through the front entrance of the Tottering Tavern?"

"I have!" Tara snapped, though it seemed like it was more of a gut reaction than the truth based on the way her promptly went blotchy with embarrassment. It really was impressive how bright her cheeks could glow considering her dark skin.

"Actually, are you even old enough to drink?" Malisande pondered aloud, and badly contained a smirk when Tara started to stammer, caught in her lie. "All I'll say is I heavily suggest you give the tavern a visit and see if there are any jobs available that catch your fancy—if necessary, I'll even accompany you, if only to ensure you make it past the front door." Tara made a noise that sounded rather akin to a bird being stepped on. Malisande was possibly coming to enjoy the girl's guilty countenance a little too much, considering how difficult it was to suppress a laugh. "In any case, even if they are outside your usual field of expertise, I promise you, any mission you pick up there you'll be paid more than the occasional fifty rupee coins."

Tara puffed her cheeks out in a pout, but after a moment she released a defeated sigh. She lifted her head up, looking resigned. "Why would you help me?" she asked. Malisande frowned.

"I enjoy making a sale," she settled on. "Yours will be a worthwhile one."

***

"One moment."

Tara stopped halfway down the stairs and glanced over her shoulder expectantly as Malisande flipped the shop's sign over from open to closed, and nodded in satisfaction when the protection charm shimmered into place.