"Hey Gorthmir, you around?"
Rune pressed the buzzer on the counter, trying to get the attention of the blacksmith working down in his workshop.
"Oi kid, I hear ya. Stop pressing that damn thing. I was working!"
A short, burly dwarf walked up the stairs behind the counter. Each step strong and firm, pounding against the floor like a hammer. He appeared with goggles raised on his head, clothes covered in soot and grease.
"Take it you have some more crystal to sell me?"
"You guessed right, more than usual too. Was finally able to clear that first room."
"Ha! Good on ya. My sister will like that, since that means you will likely be buying more potions off of her."
"Both of you are just trying to keep me in a constant state of being broke! I sell you the ore, then turn around and pay it all back to her for potions. Well, what money doesn't go to the healer."
Rune had been selling directly to the dwarves since he couldn't sell to anyone else. Most humans sold goods to one of the great factions called the Ledger, using the system they get when they are brought to this world by the Unnamed God.
"Before you get all mad, I am just joking. I am grateful the innkeeper sent me to you. Lucky that you dwarves still deal in old money, so I don't need the system to survive."
The old dwarf stroked his beard. "You'd better get that sorted, kid. If any of the humans find out you don't have the system, they will know you weren't brought here the normal way. Will cause you trouble in the long run."
"Yea well… I don't really know how to go about that. The god that brought me here was a bit cryptic in what she could tell me."
"Aye, so I've heard. I was born after the old gods vanished, but stories of Aurea, the goddess of fate, are still passed through my people. They say shes a kind and generous god, but she never gives you what you want, just what you need."
The dwarf stopped for a moment. He had thought the stories of the old gods were fairy tales since his birth. He had only known this world, the one where every race aged to a certain point in their lives, then stopped. Being frozen in time, not growing old, and becoming unable to die.
"Then that must mean I am a man who has everything, since she left me with almost nothing," Rune said as both he and the dwarf filled the blacksmith shop with laughter.
"All right, kid, you are all set. I will see you next time."
"Thanks again, Gorthmir! I will tell your sister you want to set up a family dinner night when I see her."
"No! Anything but…."
Rune had run out of the door before he could hear the end of the dwarf's sentence. He knew what the old cranky blacksmith's answer would be.
He had said that partly as a joke, but the other part was sincere. Rune lost his mother, father, and sister years ago. He wished he could have more dinners with them and wanted the dwarf to have that when he could not.
*****
The inn was quiet, like it always was. The city of Precipice seemed like it was built all at once on a whim. There were many empty or 'dead' districts. This inn was in one of those, and because of that, no one else ever came.
"Innkeeper, I am back!" Rune yelled as he entered the door. "..and I have enough money left over to extend my stay. You should be happy you won't miss me."
The innkeeper spoke as he walked up from the darkness behind where Rune was standing.
"Me, miss you? Anytime I get that feeling, I just have to look in the mirror, since you are still wearing my clothes… and each day you come back with more and more rips in them."
BANG! Rune's feet hit the ground after jumping from being startled.
"I hate when you do that. I don't even know how you do it. I just came from that direction, and you were not there before."
The innkeeper stood up straight, like a crazy person trying to act regal. "That is simple, my child. I am half ghost on my mother's… no, no, my father's side. Come from a long line of ghosts, ancient and kingly. The best kind, if you ask me."
Rune moved his hand to pat the innkeeper on the shoulder, placating him.
"Yes, I know you aren't human, since you talk about being here before the gods vanished. So the only possible conclusion is you are part ghost."
A slanted smile washed over the innkeeper's face. "See, I knew you were smart. And by the way, speaking of ghosts, the one who brought you here left you a present in your room. She said something like, 'Oh great, wise and humble innkeeper, please give that wayward child this gift, for it is exactly what he needs in his time of need.'"
Rune thought it was odd that the blacksmith had said almost the same thing in regards to her giving people what they needed, then this happened right after. But this world was filled with far greater mysteries for him to solve.
The innkeeper leaned in and sniffed Rune.
"You smell different… you smell like a sun… and a moon."
Rune chuckled to himself. This was another one of those things that he would be questioning later.
"You know what those two things smell like, do you? I unlocked my element in the dungeon today. Turns out it's both light and shadow."
"Ah, that explains it! I used to know someone who had that combination. Who was it… the leader of the giants? The fairy queen!? Steve! Maybe Steve! I don't know, I forget. But good on ya. Us natives to this world used to all have to do that on our own. So at the very least, you are as good as the weakest goblin child."
"You know, I was proud of myself, but you just had to go and rain on it. Goblin child, huh? We're talking like 12 or 13 years old?"
The innkeeper just shook his head. "The goblin ritual of element happens on their 6th namesday…"
"Great, I am as strong as a 6 year old goblin."