Hajin kicked the attic door shut that afternoon and peeled off a tunic still damp from their careful practice.
Tomorrow's examination sat close enough that he checked the recommendation again, though Allen inspected the seal himself that very morning. The room cost two silver a night, which bought a bed, a door, and none of the innkeeper's finer views.
'A bed, a door, and space to turn without wrecking furniture, damn, I'm practically nobility now.'
He paid tonight's two silver to the innkeeper earlier, leaving tomorrow's fee to sit beside the recommendation.
"Ten for the tariff," he muttered, stacking the gold on the blanket, "and not one copper more, you stingy old goat."
He tucked the recommendation into his coat and bagged the ten gold apart from everything else he carried.
