Erik soon returned with an armful of supplies, and Vidar tasked him with setting everything up in the workshop while he grabbed some paint, that'd proven good at surviving wet conditions, and a small brush.

  Now that he had a place to call his own, he wouldn't let anyone ruin it. First, he triggered the sowilo runes hidden about his person, and they began emitting a low, pleasant warmth. Vidar soon grew too hot inside the building, since he'd already made runes to keep the house warm, both in the storefront and in the workshop on the bottom floor, as well as the living quarters above. He was through being cold. The house would always be warm.

  He exited through the back door leading out of the workshop part of the house and began painting in small strokes to keep the runic symbols difficult to spot. Once they'd made some more coin, they would find the right type of tools to make metal plates instead. That way, there would be no destroying his creations. Vidar placed one line after another, adding algiz ruins for protection on the back door, at least one by the window, and a few on the walls themselves. As he crafted the runes, he muttered continuous curses about angles between lines and rune theory, rejecting the guild's stupid ideas. These runes were good enough for him. They would be good enough for everyone else. Vidar even found a ladder out back resting under a layer of snow. After digging it out, he climbed the unsteady thing to make sure algiz runes covered the second floor as well.

  The ladder wasn't tall enough to reach the roof, unfortunately. It was unlikely there anyone would come through there, but he took out some wooden discs with barrier runes and threw them up there so they lodged into the snow. A few had to land right side up, he figured. Satisfied, he descended and hid the ladder in the snow again, thinking he might find more use for it later. Even with the heat runes hidden about his person, the cold still reached his hands, and he let out a sigh of relief when he entered the shop.

  "We're going to need some heavy padlocks," Vidar told Erik, "as well as a sign to show that we are open business. Can you handle that once you've brought everything over and settled the room back at the inn?"

  "I can do that,” Erik said, trailing off. He cleared his throat and set his jaw. “So, when am I going to get paid for my labor?"

  "You should be happy you get food and board," Vidar snorted, but when he saw Erik's disheartened expression, he relented. "Once the shop is up and running, it shouldn't be long until we have an income. Are you lacking coin for anything specific?"

  Erik's still slumped shoulders shrugged. "I'd like a hat and some gloves, maybe."

  Vidar pulled from his almost depleted pouch of coins and handed over more than he wanted to part with. "This is for the room at the inn," Vidar said. "You can keep whatever is left over, but I expect hard work from you going forward."

  Erik reached over and grabbed the coins, disappearing them down into some hidden pocket in his clothing. "Hard work is easy. You remember me digging those graves, don't you? No one works harder than me."

  "Good man," Vidar said, trying, and failing, to push the memories of that day out of his mind. Digging through the frozen ground. The padlock on the door where he'd stumbled upon the algiz rune. Above all else, the pale bodies and ritualistic patterns on the floor beneath the church of the fallen angels.

  He shuddered and stood, not wanting to dwell. "I'm going out."

  "Now?" Erik asked. "It's so late."

  "Is it?" Vidar said, realizing he had lost track of the time again. But yes, it had to be very late, considering all he had done that day. He yawned and stretched his arms over his head. "Maybe we'd better sleep first."

  Erik nodded and glanced at the stairs.

  Vidar caught it and understood. "You can take a bed today, but once Alvarn gets here, you'll need to find some way to make the floor comfortable."

  "Maybe I can make a sofa."

  "Make a sofa? You know woodworking?"

  Erik scratched the back of his neck. "How hard can it be? I'll find some wood and hammer it together, and there you go. We even have a workshop now where I can make things."

  "Give it a go," Vidar said, not caring either way.

  That night, even with his failures at the rune scribes' guild, and the many uncertainties ahead, Vidar slept better than he ever had before in his life. He slept in his own house.

  ***

  Through the window by the bed, the only one he'd added two barrier runes to, Vidar saw a sliver of sky above the neighbor's roof, purple and pink, showing the approaching dawn. From the look of it, it would be a cloudless day. Perhaps the sun might thaw some of the freeze holding Halmstadt in an iron grip. He scoffed. Doubtful. It wasn't spring just yet, but it wouldn't be long now.

  He let Erik stay asleep. The young man had his orders, and Vidar needed the next part of his plan to fall in line. Alvarn hadn't accepted coming to work with Vidar as a partner. It was time to get him on board, no matter what it took. They needed him. Needed his legitimacy. The writ he carried was an absolute requirement. Without that writ, the guild would tear down the shop around them without mercy as soon as they sold a single rune. So far, Vidar had avoided trouble by keeping a low profile, but that would not last. Now, they knew all about him and his intentions.

  Alvarn wouldn't need to be the one crafting runes, of course, but he needed him to stand up front with that toothy smile of his while looking all prim and proper, radiating intelligence wearing those thick glasses and lending legitimacy to the operation.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  Not having officially left the rune scribes' guild academy, Vidar could roam its halls without being hassled. Not wearing the robes of a student, he still caught people throwing wondering looks this way, but he ignored them all, focusing on finding the right way in the maze of corridors. Even with him having been at his friend's accommodations before, finding the right floor and corridor proved difficult.

  He happened upon Siv in one of the corridors and realized he must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. The people were giving him even more confused and suspicious looks. Somehow, he'd gone to the wrong side of the building, to where the young women had their classes.

  Siv's eyes widened, and she gave him a small wave before writing on top of a piece of paper. When Vidar reached her, she held it up, and the letters allowed themselves to be read without dancing on the page.

  You leave school?

  He nodded. "It didn't work out for me, Siv. But Erik found a house where we can open a workshop and start selling. Everything would be fine. I'm just here to collect Alvarn to work with us."

  She made a sign to show she acknowledged what he'd said and wrote again, just two names.

  Siv?

  Sven?

  Vidar understood what she was asking. He reached out, about to grab her shoulders to comfort her, then stopped and pulled them back, remembering the time he'd tried to console Ida after she lost her eye. It had not been appreciated then.

  He cleared his throat. "You and Sven stay here and learn. We need you to become proper rune scribes."

  A brilliant smile showed that she approved of that idea.

  Vidar explained his talk with Ida about the thieves' guild, and Ida did not seem to like what was happening in that regard. Thankfully, her worried frown settled down somewhat when he told her Ida accepted runes for protection. Even with the girls being smaller and weaker, the element and surprise and a good helping of barrier runes would see them through the scuffle. Once enemy leaders were in Ida's care, the thieves’ guild too would settle down, he was sure. Not wanting to get into it too much with the young, mute girl, he gave her a more general overview before explaining where to find the workshop. That done, it was time to find Alvarn, and also get out of the women's quarters before some guard arrived and pummeled him into oblivion.

  After searching through the hallways for far too long, Vidar found who he was looking for.

  "Alvarn, you bastard!" Vidar shouted, banging on the door before throwing it open. "Do you know how long I've been looking for you?"

  His friend's few possessions were packed into a bag. The room looked devoid of life without the shelves bulging with books and the desk full of papers. Even the small bed was stripped of linens and there was no sign of Alvarn's student robe. Not that he'd need it again.

  "I've been right here," Alvarn said, looking up from a small book he was reading. It was the one with the old names and symbols, the language of runes.

  Vidar stepped into the room and closed the door behind him, looking down. "Why are you sitting on the floor?"

  Alvarn glanced around himself, at the bed and the desk, even at the sitting chair in the corner, before wetting his lips. "I'm no longer a student here. Felt wrong to use their furniture."

  "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

  "Well..." Alvarn began, but Vidar interrupted him, hoping to escape another strange, philosophical debate.

  "We have a workshop now, a place of our own. Let's go!"

  Best not to ask if Alvarn wanted to join or not, to minimize the risk of his friend saying no. That wouldn't do. Not at all.

  Alvarn shifted his weight around to get a hand under him, struggling a little to get to his feet before raising an eyebrow and taking a deep breath. "A workshop?"

  "Just like I told you, partner."

  The now full-fledged rune scribe nodded to himself as he looked around the room again and then down at his bag, as if thinking. "I would like to join you as a partner."

  Vidar let out a smile and nodded, but Alvarn held up a finger. "But, I have conditions."

  "Conditions?"

  With the one finger still in the air, Alvarn began. "One. The runes we sell will be crafted to the standards of the rune scribes' guild."

  Vidar waved the condition away. "Of course. We'll have the best runes in Halmstadt."

  "I'm serious," Alvarn said, looking at Vidar with an unblinking, serious gaze. "If I'm going to become a partner, we're only selling runes I approve."

  A heavy silence hung between them.Vidar unclenched his jaw with a sigh. "Fine. But you'll have to teach me. This academy of yours won't."

  Alvarn's eyes widened a little, but he didn't comment on Vidar's defeated expression. "Of course," he said.

  "That's settled then," Vidar said, holding out his hand.

  "Not done yet."

  Vidar let out a sigh. "What? More conditions?"

  A second finger rose from Alvarn's fist. "If I'm staying, we're going to have to send some runes to my father for him to sell, or he'll come here himself and force me to go with him. He might still do that, but I hope the runes will be compensation enough for not having me return right away."

  "That's doable," Vidar grunted. "We done now?"

  Alvarn held up a third finger and Vidar's shoulders slumped as he made a gesture, waving for his friend to speak. "Out with it."

  "The water intakes."

  "What about them?"

  "You're going to help me repair them."

  "The crown should pay us for doing their task for them," Vidar grumbled.

  "That's a yes?" Alvarn asked.

  "Fine."

  Vidar waited for a fourth finger, but it did not come.

  "That's it?" he asked.

  Alvarn withdrew his fingers and instead held out his hand. "That's it. I have concerns about the thieves' guild and that man who rode atop the dragon, but we can discuss hiring guards and what to do about the stranger later."

  Vidar grabbed it and squeezed. "Partners."

  "Partners," Alvarn agreed.

  They agreed Alvarn would head over there right away and get the place set up all proper, so they could begin crafting runes and selling them. Vidar explained he'd be over later since he had a few tasks to complete before then, but that Erik would help Alvarn get settled. Later that day, Vidar would get a proper lesson in rune crafting, Alvarn promised, not that Vidar thought he needed it, but if that was what it took to keep Alvarn calm and happy, he'd do it.

  After leaving the rune scribes' guild together, they parted ways and Vidar walked over to one of the hatches that'd take him down to the underground sewer system. This one was near a basin. Since he wasn't certain how the system down there worked, there was no way for him to know which one Rend would've ended up in if he fell in. As far as he'd been able to tell, four water basins were positioned throughout the city. If the dragon rider fell into the water, he'd most likely end up in one of those. If he fell into the river of crap, even finding his corpse would prove an impossible challenge. A body floating in water was one thing, one submerged in a literal basin of shit was quite another. For one, Vidar didn't have a clue how many of the other type of basins they'd built. He'd seen two, but there had to be more.

  Rather than going to the basin closest to Nordstan, he headed over to one much closer, near his old family home. Vidar wanted to check in on his little sister, and this was a good opportunity to do so. Guardsmen stood near the house, both at the front and at the back of it, just like Jarl promised. Satisfied, Vidar turned down another street, made sure no one was following him, and then opened the hatch down to the sewers.