Leaving the Endeavour, Rhys marvelled at the nearby cloud ships and how much variety was displayed between each one. Bluefreight ships made up the vast majority of what visited Arn Creth, and they had a standardised ship format. In comparison, it seemed like every other ship he saw was a new style.

Some were sleek and dangerous looking, some large and squat and, one, in particular, was oddly triangular. It was fascinating to see how much variance was between the different ships.

Perhaps the middle and upper docks at Arn Gol were more like this. Rhys would have to give serious thought to trying one of them when they went back.

There seemed to be one main route off of the docks in the form of a larger path that was filled with all manner of people. The majority were uniformed crew, but a decent portion wasn’t, as well as dockworkers transporting cargo both onto and off of the docks.

The congregation of people heading off the docks seemed to flow organically to one side up ahead. That kind of synchronised movement was odd to see in a crowd like this, but the reason soon presented itself.

A squad of five inquisition troops came marching down the other side of the path from where the crowd had congregated. The black and red uniformed troopers ignored the crowd for the most part and seemed to be patrolling more than anything.

Seeing members of the inquisition just walking around like that drove home how unsafe Arn Allinor was for Rhys right now. He picked up the pace and set off into the spire with renewed speed. Rhys wanted to get this done as soon as he could.

Thankfully, he was able to make his way off the docks in good time, finding himself at an open plaza with the Captain’s Guild on one side, an open-air market on the other and a paved path carrying further into the city.

The Guild’s headquarters on Arn Allinor was the largest he’d seen yet, almost triple the size of the one on Arn Gol. Rhys almost stopped to head inside but instead carried on into the city. He wanted to visit Kraus and Sons first.

With a city this size, Rhys could find the store by just wandering around, but it might take a lot longer than he wanted. That meant he needed directions. Looking around, Rhys spotted an artificer store nearby and shrugged. That was as good as anything.

‘Morning, what can I get for you?’ A young boy sang out as Rhys stepped into the store. The boy was sitting behind a desk, working on something out of sight, likely his runework.

Looking over the store's interior, Rhys felt a wave of nostalgia for the life he’d left behind. His old shop had been one just like this, and Rhys had spent more hours than he cared to remember sitting in the same position as the boy in front of him.

‘Hello?’ The boy said, looking up from his work to give Rhys a curious look. ‘Are you okay?’

‘I’m looking for some directions to Kraus and Sons if you know it?’ Rhys said, coming back to the present and giving the boy a slightly embarrassed smile.

‘You don’t want to buy any artificed goods?’ The boy questioned, giving Rhys a wide-eyed hopeful look that melted his heart.

‘I will, but can I have the directions first?’ Rhys asked, sighing internally as the boy jumped up, rattled off some directions and then started showing Rhys the things they had on offer.

Heaters, coolers, lights, sparkers, they had all the standard artificer goods on sale. Annoyingly, all the items on sale were made with the new method of concealing their runework, but Rhys supposed that was to be expected.

‘..and over here we have some damaged discount items. Nothing too fancy, but we do have a gatherer with a flaw that reduces capacity and a farseer with a cracked quartz lens.’ The boy told him, pointing out a pair of used items off to one side. The gatherer was an ironwood cube with a quartz connector poking out at one side, the wood showing quite a bit of wear and tear. The farseer was an ironwood spyglass, but with quartz rings built into it and a bit more girth than Rhys would expect from a normal spyglass. The cracked lens was the end piece of quartz that the bearer would see through, which definitely limited the item's usefulness.

The heaters, which were like the one that Lucy had shown him, and other mundane items were of no interest to Rhys. If he wanted some, he could just make them himself.

These damaged items were far more intriguing, but Rhys knew better than to show too much interest. While he might be a novice at trading whole pallets of materials, Rhys had spent years working in a store just like this.

‘What does this actually do then, if it’s damaged?’ Rhys asked, putting what he hoped was just the right amount of scepticism into his voice as he reached out to tap the gatherer.

‘It still does plenty. These are all working pieces,’ the attendant said, frowning as he turned to face Rhys and folded his arms. ‘The gatherer will pull in ambient energy for quick-charging any other artificed devices you have, sure it can only hold about half of what a fully functional one can, but that’s still plenty!’

‘Hmm, I see, and this one?’ Rhys said, waving a hand at the farseer.

‘A standard model, it works like a normal spyglass, but it enhances the image and provides an optional zoom function. The end quartz lens is cracked, but you can still see about three-quarters of the image.’

‘Oh, I see,’ Rhys said, trying to seem disappointed. ‘How much for these?’

‘The gatherer is four sovereigns, and the farseer is two.’

As far as Rhys was aware, a gatherer artifice would be around ten sovereigns, and the same for the farseer. If the farseer was metal and collapsible, he was sure it would be at a higher price, but for the basic ironwood version, and with a cracked lens, he doubted anyone would buy it. Well, anyone but him, that is.

‘I’ll give you five sovereigns for both,’ Rhys said, keeping his expression under control as he considered what he could do with these items.

‘Five?’ The boy repeated with a grimace, glancing between Rhys and the items a few times before sighing and nodding. ‘Five it is.’

‘Excellent,’ Rhys said, pulling out the pouch of sovereigns he’d brought with him and passing them over. It was a good chunk of what he had left at this point, but they’d be getting an influx of money soon, and it was absolutely worth it.

A few minutes later, Rhys left the store with a lot less money than earlier, but with the directions he needed and a wicker basket with the two items in. Taking note of where he was so he could get back here easily, Rhys headed back to the Endeavour, keeping a careful guard of his precious cargo as he went.

Rhys avoided the patrolling inquisition forces and dropped off his cargo without issue. Part of him wanted to wait there and work on his plans straight away, but he knew that he needed to go to Kraus and Sons.

Giving his newest acquisitions a final, reluctant look, Rhys locked up his cabin and headed back out of the Endeavour and into the spire once more. Thankfully, he hadn’t gotten that far into Arn Allinor before he turned back, so he was able to find the artificer store again in a short time.

Back on track again, Rhys followed the directions he’d been given, heading deeper into the city and away from the docks.

The general press of people slackened off as Rhys travelled further from the busy docks, with the huge variety of shops and markets slowly changing over to housing and more prosaic storefronts.

Unsurprisingly, the local branch of Kraus and Sons was exactly what Rhys was expecting, though it was a lot busier than the other two. Rhys was one of almost a dozen people in the shop when he entered, far more than he’d seen in the other branches.

Looking over the other customers, Rhys noted that at least three of them wore the classic garb of a cloudship sailor. Most sailors wore long-sleeved tunics or shirts to protect from wind-chill, but they always had ties at the wrist and bicep to keep the material in place. The last thing anyone wanted was loose material flapping in the wind when trying to work, after all.

Exchanging a nod with one of the sailors, Rhys looked over the prices on show and immediately cringed inside. He’d expected Arn Allinor to be somewhat more expensive for general goods, but this was ridiculous. The display items for buying bulk shipments of food and supplies were almost half again as expensive as Rhys would normally see.

Moving past that section, Rhys looked at the cost of morcal acid and akast crystal, sighing in relief as he realised that their prices were in line with what he expected. Still expensive, but not as much of a markup as the other items.

Looking back at the first section with a slight frown, Rhys moved to look at a few other displays, checking the prices of what was on offer. Much like the other two branches, a wide range of items was available, but nothing else seemed to have received that large price increase.

Rhys knew that Arn Allinor had its own farms on the spire itself, supporting the city and the military outpost. With the output from that, surely they had enough stocks of rations and food to keep the prices down?

Intrigued by the oddity, Rhys almost didn’t notice when the young-looking man who was watching over the store finished with his previous customer. Thankfully, none of the other patrons in the store were ready to finalise their purchases, so Rhys was able to slip in and catch the assistant.

‘Excuse me. I was hoping to speak to Gunther if he’s available?’ Rhys said, giving the assistant his best professional smile. Both Otto and Hans preferred to go by their first name, which made sense given how many brothers they seemed to have, so Rhys was fairly certain Gunther would as well.

‘Of course, can I ask what it’s regarding?’ The assistant said, glancing down at something behind their desk with a frown.

‘I have a shipment from his brother, Otto.’

‘Oh, the overdue shipment?’ The assistant asked eagerly, looking back up at Rhys with a hopeful expression.

‘Yes, he said it was an express delivery,’ Rhys said, somewhat surprised by the eagerness of the young assistant.

‘Right, I’ll take you through straight away. Please, follow me,’ the assistant tidied away their work with hurried motions before leading Rhys through the familiar corridors of the store. It was really quite impressive just how much each store resembled the other.

The assistant opened Gunther’s door without knocking and walked inside at a quick pace, moving over to the seated proprietor and whispering into his ear. Gunther leaned back in his chair and thanked Rhys’s guide before rising to his feet and approaching the captain directly.

‘I do apologise. My assistant didn’t catch your name,’ Gunther said, reaching out to shake hands with Rhys.

‘Rhys Hunt, Captain of the Endeavour, a pleasure to meet you,’ Rhys said, taking Gunther’s hand with a smile.

‘The pleasure is mine, Captain. I am Gunther Kraus, great-grandson of the original Otto Kraus, founder of Kraus and Sons. I run the Arn Allinor branch of the family business.’ Gunther said, shaking Rhys’s hand with a firm grip before letting go and waving him to a chair.

Like both of the other brothers that Rhys had met, Gunther was a portly, well-dressed man with dark eyes and an expertly groomed moustache. Like the others, he wore a tailored waistcoat of fine make, but his was a bright blood-red colour.

Gunther returned to his chair as Rhys took a seat, taking a moment as he did to move some documents on his desk. ‘Now, you have my full attention, Captain Hunt. I believe you have a shipment for me?’

‘Yes, a consignment of goods, as well as a two crates for you personally,’ Rhys said, noting how Gunther’s gaze sharpened at the mention of the two crates.

‘Excellent, and when can you deliver it, or do I need to arrange for it to be picked up?’ Gunther asked.

‘I don’t have the facilities for delivery, but we can accommodate a pickup at any time that works for you. When do you have in mind?’

‘Tomorrow at dawn?’ Gunther said after a few moments of thought.

‘I can make that work,’ Rhys said, a little surprised at Gunther’s answer. It was odd to want to unload cargo that early in the day, to say the least. ‘We could unload this afternoon if you can get people down to us if that would be better?’

‘Ah, no, tomorrow at dawn is really the best choice. Now, was there any other business you had?’ Gunther asked, clearing his throat and shuffling the documents on his desk a little.

‘Nothing beyond checking to see if you had any further work for me?’ Rhys asked, hoping that Gunther would have something they could pick up straight away.

‘Sadly, no, nothing that I can put your way at the moment. Stop in the next time you’re at Arn Allinor, though. I usually have more going on than this,’ Gunther said with a grimace and a small gesture upward.

Rhys froze in his chair as he realised what Gunther was referencing. Even now, that huge warship hung over the city, a threat to everything he was working to create.

Shivering a little, Rhys thought he saw a reflection of his own fears in Gunther’s eyes, but that was surely him projecting. A merchant had nothing to fear from the inquisition. Still, even the presence of the inquisition would put off all sorts of trade and make people wary, so it wasn’t surprising that it was impacting Kraus and Sons.

‘I’ll head back then,’ Rhys said, suddenly feeling uncomfortable being out in the city and not in the Endeavour. ‘I’ll have the cargo ready for first thing tomorrow morning.’

‘My people will be there at dawn,’ Gunther said, rising to his feet and shaking Rhys’s hand once more before ushering him out.

Somewhat unsettled, Rhys started back toward the docks. He’d feel better once he was on the ship again.