The one with the half burned beard stepped forward and took the letter with both hands. He sniffed it, inspected the seal, and tapped it with the back of his hammer. Another dwarf leaned over and tasted the air near it. A third examined the runic impressions left by the seal.
In perfect harmony, all five nodded.
"This is real."
The lead dwarf let out a grunt. "Fine then. We will talk."
Meng Bai whispered to Cattaleya, "So attacking Lin Mu was normal. But sniffing a letter is the real check."
Cattaleya snickered. "Welcome to dwarven logic."
Daoist Chu simply nodded. "It is surprisingly consistent."
Lin Mu rubbed his shoulder, even though he had not felt a thing. "Thank you for finally calming down. Now, shall we discuss why we came here?"
For the first time since the encounter started, the dwarves looked fully ready for conversation instead of hammer testing.
Though one of them still murmured softly, "He really ate gold. I knew it. Beautiful."
Lin Mu pretended not to hear.
