Roofrats 16

"I'm here for selling a thing there," Nico tried to clarify.

"Okay. And then what?" asked Triviality. At the same time, he took out something sharp, turned it and examined it in the daylight then stowed it back in his shirt collar.

Nico shrugged. "Go for a walk, maybe. Why do you ask?"

"Well, it'll make it easier to follow you," Triviality said.

Nico spun around and stopped, facing Triviality, next to the shop's door. Arms akimbo and frowning slightly, she asked, "Why?", too surprised to bother being more precise.

"I don't know. Because it's a nice day? Though there may be clouds later. Wait, is that what you were asking?" said Triviality, watching her in case she did anything interesting.

"Is what?"

"I'm sorry. I'm probably being stupid. What was your question?" asked Triviality, cocking his head slightly to one side.

Nico relaxed a bit and smiled - was she imagining passers-by were giving her even weirder looks than usual? - and said, "Question was, why you follow me."

"Oh, I won't," said Triviality. "Snags will - or whoever's on minder duty today. I know it was Weft last night."

"Ah." Nico cocked her head to one side and looked in the middle distance for a thoughtful pause, before turning to Triviality again, and asking in a very similar tone as before, "Now question is, why I have minder." She seemed a bit and in fact was considerably more interested now.

"I don't know. Nobody's told me. Maybe you hired one and then forgot about it," Triviality offered. "People... well, actually, people don't often do that."

He was still paying close attention to the people around, but nobody had seemed to raise his interest since he'd come down from the canopy. Possibly this was because he was even more visible, standing here near the shop entrance, or maybe the gang had already given up.

"Not surprise," Nico said, shrugging. One thing after the other. She turned quickly and walked into the shop, putting on a friendly smile.

Triviality didn't follow her in. The interior was full of finished weapons, all bearing some kind of maker's mark on the blades and sheaths.

There were no guns, of course, those being illegal in the city itself and so not something a certified weaponsmith would risk his licence to sell. It was mostly ornamental and not-so-ornamental blades, along with a few more unusual or interesting pieces.

There were some wearables, too, and the place was full of a light smell of leather, balanced by some kind of floral smell from a few dish candles.

The shopkeeper, fallow-skinned and white-haired, seemed surprised to see someone like Nico.

She was used to it by now. Her quick survey of the shop got stuck at a set of bicolor brass knuckles with claws, which drew a raised-eyebrow smirk from her. Odd weapon to decorate, in many places.

When she turned to the shopkeeper, she'd found to a friendly grin again. "Hello! You buy to sell again, too?"

"And yet the monks let you in. So here you are. Hello. You seem to have something to sell." Mr. Weaponsmith had bright blue eyes and was watching Nico as he would a play.

She nodded and reached for the knife, while asking offhandedly, "They turn away many people?"

"--you ask. And I say I've seen no trouble in here since they offered to help. You have a curious dagger, I think distinctive," Weaponsmith said.

Which did not answer the question at all. Oh, well. Nico offered the dagger to the shopkeeper and said, "You should know, it's of one of those who try to cause trouble here."

He took it and turned it over, closely inspecting it. "I look at it and see that that is correct. It is a jambiya with the hilt of an ear dagger, ornate, of the type bought by young men. I don't need to say that it is not my own work. Now this makes me wonder how it fell into your hands." Weaponsmith peered up at Nico. That was probably supposed to be a question.