Erika took a moment to breathe in the clean air, no longer stained by blood and rot, the cool clear crispness felt like a long cold drink on her tongue.

  Erika felt like her head was full of cotton wool, what do you do after you discover such secret horrors? Well first thing first she decided to check her gems.

  Shuffling the two pouches from ehr belt she slipped into Sigurns protective shadow to hide the gleam, then poured them out into a single larger bag and counted them with her fingertips, a half dozen each of rugby, sapphire, emerald and opal each one easily half the size of her palm then two dozen more diamond, amethyst, jet, amber and pearl each one the size of her thumbs pad. It was a fortune, a fortune of fortunes, enough to buy a street… more than enough to pay any level of debt her mother might have incurred from her carelessness.

  And that wasn't even mentioning all the gold, weapons and treasures she had back in Losthope, Silvermane got the first bid but she was known to like spending money, they might even sell for over market price which combined with the jewels would make her as rich as a lower ranked Jarl which would let her own a household and thralls if she so desired, she couldn't have ruined more than that could she?

  Just a bit more Erika thought just in case, just to be sure, a bit more treasure and a few handfuls of hacksilver and I can be sure that I have enough no matter what.

  “That's about that then?” Erika asked slipping the precious bag into one of the hidden pouches in her cloak of office, not to be confused with the non-hidden pouches that Erika kept food and tools in… Erika really liked her cloak of office if it wasn't obvious and had modified it expensively turning it from a simple garment into a full support system, she’d even included chainmail taken from corpses during the expedition into its lining.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Sigurn smiled at her and playfully rolled her eyes. “Oh are you sure, after all it's just defeating a assassination plot using divine poison, bargaining with otherrealmers and then discovering their secrets, that's barely a full day's work.”

  “Ha ha.” Erika said dryly but she couldn't entirely stop herself from smiling, she’d gotten to really use her galdr today, to properly smith and shape life itself, nothing ever felt better for a vitki.

  “How is your pool doing?”

  Erika shrugged as they set off walking back towards the distant fires of the camp through the cramped corridors that lead into losthope. “Ok… I've regenerated a bit but still not got much, I’ll sleep when we get back and focus on refilling it, then I've got that book to read.”

  “Ah that silver plated spell book?”

  Erika frowned and looked up at Sigurn quizzically. “What's a spell book?”

  “Ah yes of course, sorry it's wording from the southern realms, but you hope that book with the silver plated cover will improve your galdr correct?”

  “Ah… yeah I hope so… i'm not sure but it seems like it explains some of the fourth angle that i need to improve,” she shrugged helplessly. “We’ll just have to see.”

  Sigurn seemed satisfied by that and the rest of the walk back was in companionable silence until they arrived at Erika's home, temporary though it was, in the silvermane section of losthope.

  Bidding Sigurn goodnight Erika climbed into her bed and felt her iron heavy eyelids slam closed.

  Nearly enough she thought as she began to slumber then we just need to figure out how to leave.