The unscrupulous graverobber left the shop with a fair amount of coin in his pockets for a dirty night's work. Not many merchants in the city would deal in fencing pilfered goods, but the shopkeeper Temmin was a greedy and ambitious man. The rings, necklaces and precious stones could be sold to a jeweler friend in the next city over, and the rest of the junk could be sold from his own establishment. He wouldn't hesitate to sell fake relics to desperate people and only gave a small pittance to Martin in exchange for the strangely warm carved stone.
I can offload this garbage on the next fool that comes in here and make my money back and then some, he thought to himself.
He didn't need to wait long because the tarnished old bell above the shop door rang and a group of young coal miners stumbled in. Their rough clothing still had fine coal dust from the mines clinging to them, and their faces were smeared with sweat mixed with coal residue from the dangerous work underground. One young man in particular had a harried look on his face and looked desperately at the items on the shelves.
Temmin had a feeling that this particular miner was an easy mark.
"Young man! You look upset about something, is there something this humble merchant can aid you with?" Temmin spoke in a honeyed voice.
"Why yes! I need a gift for my wife, today is
her birthday and I don't have much coin to spend on her gift. This winter has been hard on my family," the young miner lamented.
Temmin beckoned him closer. He placed the warm carved rock in the young man's calloused hands and watched his face light up in surprise.
"It's so warm!" he exclaimed. "Did you heat this on a wood stove?"
"No, sir. This is a druidic aura stone," Temmin lied. "It uses the power of nature to stay warm and give comfort to the holder. I purchased it from a travelling hedge wizard. It can be yours for 63 silvers."
One of the other young men, a gangly fellow who looked barely old enough to shave pulled his friend aside.
"Clayton! That is more than we make in two weeks down in that hellhole, are you sure this is worth it?" he leaned in and whispered in the buyer's ear.
"Jessica always complains about how cold our apartment is at night and how little wood we can afford to burn," Clayton responded kindly to his friend's concern as he reached into his coinpurse for the silvers. "I'll take the magic stone, please."
Photo by Isaac Li Shung Tan on Unsplash
