— The Emperor’s Imperial Record, Entry No. 11 —

  I stretched my arms, letting out a loud yawn. Beating the stiffness from my limbs.

  It was a new morning, and I had more to do today than I did yesterday.

  Today, I had to see the tanner. Azul. But, I would do that right after I headed to the forest to check my traps. I had made sure to reset them yesterday and place a few new ones.

  I put on my hunting clothes and walked out of the house. No chores today.

  I was gone and back within two hours, most of the time spent navigating through the forest in the dim, early morning as I brought back my hauls. I made sure to leave some at the back of the house. Wrapped tightly at the spot Huo Qianlei and I had agreed on for things like this. When I was done, I headed to Azul’s tannery.

  I barely had to negotiate with Tarig anymore. The butcher and I seemed to have come to an understanding, I’d bring him meat, he’d sell to me at our agreed-upon price, unless it was something new or exotic, then I’d go to Azul.

  Azul’s tannery was located on the other side of Lunis, close to the Silverscale district. I knew I was there because of the smell of the tanning pits. They hit me before I saw them. That was what probably kept the wild animals away.

  His actual workshop was built far better than almost every other thing in the Mudfoot district. There were perks to being one of the best tanners in the city.

  Barrels of dye and finely crafted saddles were strewn around the place, fine, sturdy stone, and a small courtyard greeted me as I neared the workshop. I brought one of my best hauls so far: a fox, three hedgehogs, five swans, and a beaver.

  That beaver was my most prized one out of all the catches. They made for good meat, and even better skins. Especially as winter approached.

  I had put all my new traps by the lake. I didn’t expect them to pay off so well, and while it wasn’t the most volume I had ever brought him, it was definitely among the most valuable in terms of coins.

  I knocked twice, then shouted Azul’s name. He insisted I do this. I was rapidly becoming one of his best suppliers as far as I could tell, yet the man insisted on being treated like royalty.

  It would have annoyed me more if he didn’t also offer the best prices. He took his sweet time walking out of the workshop. I almost turned back home to skin the animals myself, even if I didn’t skin them properly, I was sure Huo Xue and Huo Mei would appreciate the clothing from the beaver and the rest.

  He opened the door as I was thinking of leaving. ‘Tch, bastard sure takes his time.’

  A soft chemical smell hit me as he walked forward, then lifted up his eyebrows, slanting them like the roof of a house. “What do you want?”

  ‘Ugh, did this man clean himself when he was working?’ I didn’t know why the people here had such a thing for not cleaning themselves. Even in my village, they took a bath once every few days.

  I held up the carcases so he could take a good look, granted, I had wrapped them carefully before putting them in a sack.

  “Fox, hedgehog, swans, and a beaver.” We had to go through this encounter every time I came here.

  “A beaver?” He seemed more interested now, reaching for the cloth bag with a fast, jerking motion.

  I snagged it out of the way before he could touch it. The more and more I got to know him over these past few months, the more I suspected the reason he was out here, so far from everything, wasn’t to do with the smells and chemicals from his tannery.

  “You better have caught it properly. If the skin is damaged, I’m not giving you a darkened copper.”

  I sighed. This was tiring to have to go through, especially after coming straight from hunting and trapping around the farm.

  “You take a look then.”

  Azul tried to snatch the carcass cloth out of my hand again, but I kept my hand away. He was one of the few people who refused to show me any proper respect. Everybody else treated me differently.

  “You could take it properly, or just hold your hand out. You don’t have to snatch it.”

  He rolled his eyes and held out his hand.

  “That’s better.”

  He ignored the comment and brought the animals to a large stone desk. He didn’t even look at the other carcasses, merely pushing them away to look at the beaver’s carcass.

  He started touching and inspecting it right away.

  “This is better than expected.” He ran a hand over the teeth of the thing, then its legs, looked at me skeptically, “Are you the one who caught this?”

  I delayed before answering, not wanting to give him the respect he hadn’t given me, “Yes.”

  “Baah, ”he swatted his hands dismissively. “What does it matter if you cannot get more like this?”

  “If you want more, then you should just say so.”

  He turned to me, wide-eyed, “Are you sure you can get more?” He shuffled closer to me. I could see the dark rings around his eyes, “Of this quality?”

  I nodded, the first time I saw any type of surprised expression on his face.

  “Do you know how hard this is to catch? Wait… don’t answer that.”

  He walked back and forth across the length of the table. “Okay, okay,” he held up his hands as if to stop an imaginary crowd that was interrupting him, “ look, the season is changing and the demand for these furs has increased from the nobles and merchants.” He stopped pacing, removing his hand from his chin, slightly less arrogant. “How many can you get?”

  “How many do you want?” I didn't think they were that hard to catch. Sometimes, those were some of the best meals to have during winter at my old home.

  A brief, painful memory ran through my mind before I crushed it.

  “That’s just what I like to hear.” He thought for a moment, then brought two fingers up to his face. Right in front of his eyes. “Two weeks. How many can you get in two weeks? ”

  “I’ll have to trap them if you want the same quality, shooting them would only damage the furs more than necessary.” I paced for a while, thinking of how to answer. “I could probably catch more near the end of the two weeks. But around two or three a day. Why?”

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  “The merchants will start to leave soon. They’ll want to get as much money as they can before winter comes in full effect. If we move fast, we can sell to them before they go. Not to talk of the nobles who’ll want the latest furs for their wardrobes.”

  This smelled like another opportunity. I had already promised myself I would build an empire of gold… right now, I just had silver.

  “You mean they’ll want to go on one last trade…to sell off their wares?”

  Azul nodded, turning his back to me and waving, “Yes, yes, all that matters is that you can do it.”

  “If you want them so terribly, then name a price.”

  Azul froze, then turned back to me. His fingers twitched, lips pressing into a thin line. His eyes flickered between me and the beaver carcass, right past the other animals.

  Calculating.

  He inhaled sharply. Through his nose, then exhaled in frustration, his jaws tightening as he realized his mistake. I had him by the neck now.

  “One silver.”

  I arched my brow.

  He gnashed his teeth and his nostrils flared. He stared at me like he was trying to bore a hole through my skull. The silence stretched heavily. I was glad I wasn’t the first to speak. After months of disrespect, this was very enjoyable.

  I’d spent most of my life in the forest hunting or waiting for prey to come my way, still as stone. I could do this all day.

  “One silver and 50 copper”

  I started to walk away. Taking a slow step back, and turning just enough to make him think I was serious. A single bead of sweat rolled down his temple. I hoped he wasn’t actually this stupid.

  One step.

  Two…His hands clenched at his side. His lips parted, but no words came.

  Three.

  Four.

  He fought with himself.

  Five.

  “Wait.”

  I smiled. This really was fun.

  “One silver 50 copper per beaver corpse.”

  ‘What? The first offer was for the whole batch?’ This guy was mad. If it were earlier in the year, I doubted those things would sell for more than 65 or so copper each, even if you tried to scam someone. But, now? This close to winter? I kept walking.

  “I won't make money on this.”

  I didn't mind him.

  “Khan!”

  I didn’t have time for this. I’d much rather spend time with Huo Qianlei or talk with the old healer. I was sure she could still teach me some stuff from her days working for a noble house.

  “2 silver!”

  Now we were talking. I turned around. Face natural “Three,” I paused. “And you have to help me out with something.”

  His eyes bulged. I almost laughed. He threw out another offer, “Two, and a ten percent more on any animals you bring in the future.”

  At the end of the day, we settled on 4 silver per beaver corpse in good condition, and he had to give me priority over other suppliers and tell me about all the best animals to hunt in the area when I came by later.

  I was good at hunting, and the quota wasn’t a problem, but if I wanted to make the kind of money I was thinking of, I had to start aiming for things that would get me more money for all the effort I was putting in.

  At this point, with all the work I was doing between the forest hunting, occasionally helping out in the fields, and looking for new opportunities to grow my purse, I was starting to hold up more than I could bear.

  I had to find ways to free up my time. Hunting and selling more valuable corpses was the best way for me to do that.

  After Azul and I negotiated over my other catches, I went off to Big Randy’s smithy. If I wanted to catch the beavers, I needed traps. Not the ones I was used to making. Beavers usually tried to gnaw through those.

  The only reason I had caught this one was because I had come so early in the morning. I wanted something I could reuse multiple times that would match the quality of my own traps.

  I needed them to be made of metal. Especially, with the amount of beavers I wanted to catch, I didn’t plan on making and remaking those traps constantly.

  I was sure his wife would be happy to see me, regardless. Though I was starting to believe she was trying to make me fat. Today, I only saw Big Randy. I almost said a prayer in thanks. There was no way to say no to his wife.

  “Khan,” he looked up at me from where he was watching his apprentice take out a shield he had just hammered, “what brings you here today?”

  He scratched the top of his head, where there wasn’t any hair, “I’m sure we were supposed to meet the day after tomorrow.”

  “Yes, I remember, I just want to get some equipment.”

  “Ah, you’re here to trade then.” He rubbed his hands together as if he were cold, while he was still next to the blistering heat of the fire. “You’re shaping up to be a better business partner than I’d hoped.”

  I wasn’t sure what to say to that. I was operating on pure logic and numbers. If I didn’t have the traps and beavers in time, I could miss out on a lot of silver. If Big Randy’s reputation was half as good as people said, maybe I could even make a whole gold coin!

  If I missed out on that, I wouldn’t be able to take my own dreams seriously. I’d be buying my future one coin at a time.

  Big Randy got up and led me over to a small den in the smithy. It had comfortable-looking chairs, flowers everywhere, and a set of tea and pastries on the beautifully designed desk.

  This must have been his wife’s work.

  “What type of tool are you thinking of?”

  “I just want a strong iron cord and a small door.” That stopped the sizeable man in his tracks.

  “Iron cords? What would you want those for?”

  “I’m hunting some beavers for the tanner, Azul. I want to go ahead and build some traps so I can catch them without the tools wearing down and whatnot.”

  “Aah, you want a pit trap?

  “You know how to trap?”

  He burst into a low, contained laughter, “I’ve been doing this type of work for decades. You learn a little bit of everything when you deal with so many people.”

  ‘Oh! That made sense.’

  “Don’t worry, I can make you something much better. It’ll be able to reset itself, and it’s much easier to carry around. You’ll be able to use it with no instructions. Especially if you’re skilled as I hear”

  “Thank you, Big Randy, but the cost?” I knew that we were business partners now, and his wife even tried to treat me like her son, though I suspected that was just part of her personality, I didn’t think it was a good idea to take free things from him, especially since we had just started our business relationship.

  “It’s not a problem,” but he could still see the worry on my face. “It's the materials that you listed that are expensive. I can make what I just said with barely higher prices.”

  “Can you really?”

  “Of course! Who do you think I am? If I said I was the second-best mortal blacksmith in this whole city, no one would dare to say that they were first!”

  I was starting to think I had offended him. “I believe you, Big Randy. I was just curious.”

  “You said you were hunting beavers, right? Just give me a few and I can take that as payment.”

  “Are you sure? Do you even know how to skin them?”

  “Of course not,” he laughed again, “I don’t know everything. I’ll just ask Azul. He’s a bastard but he’s damn good at his craft.”

  “If you’re asking him, then don’t worry about it, I can talk to him for you.”

  Big Randy showed a surprised look on his face. “Oh? I didn’t think you’d be so connected.”

  I chuckled, brushing it off. I wasn’t anywhere yet. He tapped the apprentice on the shoulder, “That’s enough, dip it in the oil vat and then take it out to cool. We’ll see how you’ve done when it’s been out for a while,” then he turned back to me, “If you’ll handle Azul, then the deal is done.”

  He held out his hand, a weird gesture. “You’re supposed to put out your hand as well, it's something I learned as an apprentice.”

  I put out my hand the same way he did. He brought his hand forward quickly and clasped the inside of my forearm firmly.

  “The deal is sealed now.”

  ‘That was it?’ That was easier than I thought. We barely even haggled.

  “I don’t have to do anything else?”

  “Not unless you want to, my lad.” He smacked me on my upper back. For someone who worked with heavy metals and hot things all day, it felt like he hit me with a hammer.

  “Now, let’s get you out of here before my wife catches you. Otherwise, you’ll be stuffed with pastries and tea until you’re too fat to swing that bow of yours.”

  As I left the smithy, my stomach rumbled. When was the last time I had eaten? I didn’t even eat when we had roasts. I was too busy going around and delivering the good parts to Overseer Liang and his guards.

  I stared at my right arm, then around me to check no one was looking, before I pulled back the sleeve. The mark was still there.

  That thin, bold line running down the length of my arm. I ran my thumb over it because I had given up on trying to scratch it off. This was the mark of failures. I wouldn’t let it brand me forever.