A Visit Back Home

Writers: Ames, Eimi
Date Posted: 2nd March 2013

Characters: Shyow, Whadi
Description: Shyow returns home to share her new 'treasures' with someone very important to her
Location: Vintner Hall
Date: month 12, day 15 of Turn 6

With bag in hand, and a grin on her face, Shyow walked up to the
house. He would be _very_ surprised by her news. She couldn't wait to
tell him.

Not waiting for entry, Shyow walked right into the home, looking for
him.

Whadi was standing in the middle of the kitchen, arm cocked back with a
book in hand. "Wait," he said, holding up a finger to stop her in her
tracks. His eyes were fixed on the wall where pots and pans were
handing on hooks, a bit dusty from being unused. A gossamer spinner
hung from a silken thread just below a cast iron frying pan, deciding
whether to move up or down. Whadi barely breathed. When the room was
again still, the spinner decided to drop slowly down towards the
counter. That was when he let the book fly, smacking loudly against the
wall. The spinner was gone as the book fell to the surface below. But
was it dead? "Here, you check it." He didn't want to take the chance
it had survived.

Shyow shook her head, rolling her eyes slightly. "Are you afraid of a
little spinner?" She teased, moving over to pick up the book, only to
yelp when the little creature began crawling across the floor. Without
a second though she picked up her foot and crushed it.

Whadi had moved round the back of the table soon as he saw the movement.
"The sharding thing's made of stone are something!" He peeked round
tentatively. "Is it dead now?"

Lifting up her shoe, Shyow scrunched up her face. "Yuck. Yes the
sharding thing is dead now and stuck to my shoe!" She shook her head
once more and turned towards Whadi. "I have a surprise for you." Her
lips curled in a wicked grin.

"Oh?" he asked, stilling eyeing the smushed creature on the floor. It's
leg was still twitching.

She grabbed his arm then, "Stop staring at the spinner. It's _dead_
okay?" She rolled her eyes at him again, then let go of his arm. "Now
do you care about my little surprise or are you going to gawk at the
little bug all afternoon? Hmm?"

Whadi batted her hand away. It was her own sharding fault if the thing
came back and bit her. "For Faranth's sake, spit it out then, Shyow!"

She held out the coin bag for him then. It was clear it contained
many marks, not just the usual few. She dangled it in front of him and
wiggled her eyebrows. "Want to count it and see how much?"

His eyes grew a little wider, the spinner completely forgotten now.
"Where did that come from?" he asked, reaching for the pouch.

She gave him a knowing grin, allowing him to take the pouch.

"You won't believe me when I tell you. I met this dragonrider and he
_gave_ me his coins. _All_ of them!" Shyow couldn't have been more
proud of this accomplishment. She waited for what she knew would be a
good reaction from him.

"Why on Pern would he do that?" Whadi asked, a little doubtful. No one
just _gave_ a stranger a handful of coins.

Shyow grinned as she all but danced in the small kitchen.

"You should have heard the story I concocted." She paused, then
figured she needed to explain further. "This rider almost ruined
everything to be honest. He caught me, so I _had_ to make up something
to get him off my back. I used the old sick father, sad brother story
we've used in the past. Anyway, he _bought_ it, hook, line and
sinker." She did do a little victory dance then. "That's when he gave
me his purse, saying he knew how hard it could be and he wanted to
help!"

"Oh, now, you _had_ to have given him more than just _that_," Whadi
said, not believing for a moment that anyone was that generous. Or
gullible!

"I didn't," she protested. "Not this time. Honestly, he just _gave_ me
the money so we wouldn't lose our home. He was _so_ easily taken. Now,
the only problem," Shyow paused, tapping a finger to the side of her
cheek, "is that now I'll have to be extra careful if he's around or
else he _will_ figure it out and turn me in." She stepped forward,
placing her hands on his arm, "I wouldn't want to deal with _those_
kind of consequences."

"Well, then you just have to make sure he'll want to see the good in
everything you do." A fool who imagined himself in love would overlook
a whole world of hints just to keep the perfect image unblemished.
"Besides, just think what having a foolish dragonrider could mean for
us."

She nodded, "That's for sure. I just have to work some extra talents
with him to make him totally believe every word that I say. I'm _sure_
I can do it." Sitting down at the table nearby, she looked to Whadi,
"so tell me more about what you've been doing while I've been
_slaving_ away at the tavern." Shyow liked her job, more than she
would likely admit. It felt good to have something to occupy her time.
She would never have wanted to be just another man's wife. No,
instead, she got to provide comfort and support to those who sought it
through ale and she made a pretty nice living off of helping them out
of a few extra marks now and again.

"I have been doing research," he said with a mysterious grin. "You
remember a few months back when one of Jonye's men needed to make a
quick get away, and I stole that runner for him? Remember when I gave
him the runner, he handed me a coin sack and said that it was worth far
more than the runner but when I opened the bag, there were just a bunch
of blank wooden circles in it?"

"Oh, aye," Shyow grumbled a frown marking her brow as she recalled how
he head cheated them both.

"Well, look at this." Whadi took out a mark from her little sack and
pulled one of the blank disks from his pocket. He laid them on the
table, one on top of the other. "They are the same diameter, the same
thickness, and the same weight. Go ahead, see for yourself."

Shyow leaned over, gazing at the coins. She picked them up, feeling
the weight of them in both hands. Yes, Whadi was right, they were the
same. She looked at him, confused slightly, "Okay, so they are the
same..." she left the question unspoken, her eyes showing her
confusion. **What was he getting at?** She wondered.

He frowned as he could tell she was not following. "Ok," he said,
taking back the coins and holding them up as an example. "Every Turn,
each major Hall and Hold are allowed to make a certain number of marks.
They take a blank mark, and use a machine that is called a 'die caster'
to stamp their own personal design into the wood to create a mark like
this one." He held up the already stamped mark. "Now, it wouldn't be
good if every Hall and Hold could just _make_ blank marks any time they
want. It would be too tempting to make more marks than allowed and line
their pockets, so they are issued only a certain number of blanks, and
those are carefully counted and guarded. I believe this could be a
blank, unstamped mark."

She thought she was beginning to see his plan. "Are you thinking what
I'm thinking?" She wasn't even sure _what_ she was thinking, but she
knew it would have to be good if Whadi had created the plan. He truly
was a mastermind of marks, if ever there was such a man.

"Unfortunately, I doubt it," he sighed, leaning back and tossing the
marks back onto the table. "This is too big for me. The equipment
you'd need, the _access_ you'd need..." He shook his head. "Even
_having_ these could put me into a very deep mine for a long time."
Sure, Whadi could pull of a nice scheme here and there, but one had to
know their limits.

"I think they _must_ have come from the ruins of Amethyst Cliff, buried
by the earthquake that destroyed the Hold a few Turns back. Or the
ruins of the Vintner Hall or possibly even more likely the Woodcraft
Hall. Otherwise, they would have been missed and a huge search would
have been launched. We would've heard about. That's the only way
these could have ended up in my hands, and I've a feeling Jonye's man
either must have a lot more of these, or else someone was hunting for
them and that's what he was running from." And passed the cursed things
onto him in the hopes that _he'd_ take the fall instead of him. "These
are going to take a lot of careful consideration before I can decide
what to do with them. They could be worth a fortune, which means they
could be worth killing over."

Shyow had thought that perhaps they would trade them with real marks,
but clearly she could see that wasn't Whadi's plan. Frowning slightly
she tried to figure out what he intended to do as he spoke.

"So, what _do_ we do with them for now, then?" She asked, wondering if
there was more to what he'd already shared with her or if that was it
for the time being.

Whadi could hear the expectation on Shyow's voice. "For now, hide them.
But don't worry," he assured her. "I'll find someone who wants them.
Someone who'll pay a lot for them. I just have to go about it carefully
is all."

"Okay," She replied, already considering the best hiding location. "I
think they would be safer here, rather than with me at the Tavern. Too
many people to possibly see them there."

"We'll find a good spot. Don't worry," he said, reaching over to take
her hand. "Since we were kids, I've always taken care of you, right?
Leave it to me."

"I know, Whadi. I couldn't have done any of it without you," Shyow
replied, giving his hand a squeeze in return. "I couldn't imagine my
life without you in it."

Last updated on the March 17th 2013

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