A dragon's great greed for gold,

Does not tary nor grow old.

Prophecy of the duskbringer

Seventh day of the first week in Autumn, Morning….

Guppy carefully squirreled away the gold weights in one of her pockets and got to experimenting.

She failed over and over, sometimes sending the lead weights flying towards or away from her. Sometimes she froze them, or lit them on fire, they blurred into shadows or emitted a bright lights.

When one flat out melted through the table and floor Guppy decided it was time for a break.

After such a multitude of mishaps she decided to make a quick trip to Bombas's bakery for some food to quell the ever increasing hunger that was paining her.

Guppy picked clothes that covered as much skin as possible and slipped on a hooded cloak to hide her changed appearance, after she was assured that no glowing tattoos could be seen she exited the apartment.

Striding quickly down the streets Guppy made sure to avoid bumping into anyone, deftly weaving her way through the crowd as she traveled to Bombas's corner bakery.

Once inside, she scooped up a few loaves of fresh bread and made her way to the counter to pay.

On her way there Guppy passed a display of bottled jams and froze in a sudden realization.

‘The jam Bombas gave me yesterday, I never got to eat any!’

Guppy had a moment of despondency when she realized the fate of the jam she had been so excited about only a day ago, she had no doubt that it was thoroughly disintegrated in the blast.

‘Wait a moment, I'm going to be rich from now on, one bottle of jam at 10 coppers is a trifling amount’

Guppy may have justified it in her mind, but years of living as frugally as possible still made it a difficult choice.

She gritted her teeth and snatched a jar off the display, bringing it to the counter with her selected loaves of bread.

“Will that be all missus?” Bombas's wife Marigold asked.

Guppy felt a slight shock and pain that Marigold treated her so unfamiliarity, before remembering that she currently looked like a completely different person.

Not wishing to make a scene she quietly paid and left.

Deep in her thoughts of what she had lost she walked absentmindedly back to her apartment.

Out the door, through the market square…and successfully ran straight into someone.

She rebounded off them and stumbled back, her hood falling off as she fell on her rear.

……………………

Seventh day of the first week in Autumn. Four hours ago. Law Officer Precinct building...

Jacques and Hadoom signed back in by the 4th morning bell. Their drooping eyes and tired movements bore testament to the slim few hours of sleep they managed to snatch last night.

They walked over to their desks in the corner, sat down in their chairs, and utilized an extremely important skill they had both cultivated through years of being a tin canner.

They fell asleep with their eyes open.

Thankfully the other officers weren't on speaking terms with them and they managed to catch a couple hours of rest before the sixth bell rang and their patrol shift started.

They grudgingly geared up and headed out once more to begin their street patrol, walking down their all too familiar route.

“Let's pay a visit to miss Brights’ family first” Jacques suggested.

“While there's a good chance they've heard already, someone should make sure they know what happened. The rumor mill will spin a tale a mile long, and it’s never good on the heart to hear that version”

“Sure lad, why not, there's not much else to do this early anyways, unless you feel like helping old Codswallop lay another complaint about his neighbour's pet Zugzug eating his flowers again?” Hadoom said as he finished off a mystery meat pie he had procured from one of the stalls.

Jacques stilled his face to prevent a grimace, the complaint would only be the two hundredth and eleven this year.

Hadoom licked the gravy off of his fingers before continuing.

“We'll head down to the workers square then, someone there ought to know where to find them.”

Jacques nodded and the duo shifted their course.

The seventh bell had barely rung when the two Tin Canners found themselves entering the workers square, a well known, affordable and popular market for the locals.

Jacques came to a stop by the fountain and looked around for an idle beggar to get directions from.

All of a sudden he felt someone collide with him, hard.

Jacques was knocked off his feet and fell face first into the fountain, it was not a pleasant experience, while not winter the water had long lost its summer warmth.

Sputtering he pulled himself out, dripping wet, cold and tired, ready to give whoever shoved him an earful and a week in jail for assaulting an officer of the law.

He heard Hadoom's hearty laughter focused his eyes on the offender.

Kneeling on the ground with her face full of despair was the most beautiful girl Jacques had ever seen.

His fiery words caught in his throat as he saw her tears spill, suddenly seeming inappropriate in this moment.

On the ground in front of her was a smashed jar, of what appeared to be berry jam.

Jacques coughed, a little awkwardly, to draw her attention.

“Excuse me miss, might I know your name?” He enquired.

The girl looked up from her mournful contemplation of the tragic state of the jam.

She hiccupped as she abruptly stopped her tears upon seeing exactly who she had bumped into, her face paled and her eyes widened as she realised just how deep in a bubbling pot of I discernable liquid she was.

“It's alright miss, old Jacques and I ain't going to throw ye in the clinker.”

Hadoom, quick as ever to read the situation stepped in to console the beautiful girl.

‘Wait, she has pointed ears and pronounced canines’ Jacques observed, ‘Is she a half-elf like me?”

These thoughts did nothing for Jacques composure, he had never come across another half elf, or an elf for that matter, he only knew what he had learnt in books.

‘Those heterochromatic eyes, is she the child of a high elf, only they are said to have the emerald eyes of the forest in their bloodlines…’

While Jacques swirled into a confused contemplation Hadoom covered for him.

“Don't mind Jacques over here, he's a big softie let me tell ya. Now if ye can lass, would ye mind showing us to the residence of the Bright family?”

The girls face that had been calming down suddenly stiffened, her eyes narrowed and she paused before asking,

“What do you want with them?”

Hadoom, seeing the sudden defensiveness rising, and realizing this girl must be related in some way, perhaps a family friend, answered as carefully and gently as he could.

“We have bad tidings concerning their eldest, a certain Gupalagia Esme Bright, she's disappeared, presumed dead, after a dreadful accident at her place of work, and we” Hadoom pointed at Jacques and himself “Have the sorry job to break the news to them”

Guppy was taken back but quickly realized how the accident scene must have looked from another's perspective.

It was quite reasonable for them to expect her death, indeed she should have died, and almost had.

“I am afraid you have wasted your trip then officers, you see I am Gupalagia Esme Bright, and I am still very much alive”

Another silence ensued between them, filled by the clamor of the market around them.

Jacques had woken from his musings just in time to be hit by the bombshell statement that she was one of the presumed victims of the incident, this sent him straight back to musing.

‘Was she at home when it happened? No, witnesses saw her enter and not exit before the explosion'

'But Gupalagia is supposed to be a human with brown hair and eyes and… damn, focus’ as Jacques had looked her up and down and compared the disparity in descriptions he quickly lost his train of thought.

‘She's 17 Jacques, quit acting like a pubescent teenager and do your job!’

Jacques shook his head and focused his thoughts while ignoring Hadoom's snickering.

“Perhaps we could go somewhere a little quieter and take down your statement miss Gupalagia?”

Hadoom elbowed him in the thigh, Jacques's ribs being too high for him.

“What he means to say miss Bright, is could you come down to the station and spin us the tale of yesterday morning’s events?”

Guppy opened her mouth and then closed it again, summoning her manners and curtseying she asked.

“Beg your pardon good sirs, but I have an appointment in a bit that I cannot afford to miss, might I be able to come on the morrow before the fifth afternoon bell?”

Guppy tried her best to be polite as it seemed the best method to deal with these two tin canners.

“Of course miss Bright, we wouldn't wish to inconvenience you.” Jacques said.

Guppy looked surprised, she had not expected them to let her go so easily and had prepared several excuses, none of which stemmed to be needed anymore.

Nodding goodbye she pulled her hood back up and hurried out of the square on one of its many side streets.

Hadoom looked at Jacques “Never thought I would see you acting like a pup again partner” He grinningly teased.

Jacques gave him the stink eye.

“I admit she caught me off guard in more ways than one, but I am no fool for a pretty face, look at this”

Jacques opened his right hand, in it the white scale was glowing slightly and giving off heat, the patterns on it lighting up faintly.

“She is connected to whatever happened in that workshop, my gut tells me she has crucial information. I wager her appearance changing so drastically is linked as well, too many coincidences pile up for it to be otherwise”

“Well if yer gut says so… ” mocked Hadoom, but seeing he wasn't getting a rise out of Jacques he shrugged and instead strolled over to a nearby one legged beggar.

“Oi Old Lefty, where dat lass been coming and going this a day”

Jacques winced at the sharp street talk that came out of Hadoom's mouth, while he could talk it too, it always felt so unpleasant on the ear.

“She's ben dwadling and blooding with da beg ‘n ved met hadners, be’in hoity ‘n looksie ‘n chan'n ’n popin har ‘n dar. Mor da sham dat gel. Se te no'in bean don der nobble ston road”

Hadoom translated for Jacques who was wearing an unpleasant expression.

“She fought with some strange meat handers this morning, she never came home yesterday yet she appeared from the house in the morning. He said it's just down this way on cobblestone road”

Jacques shook his head “You never fail to amaze old partner, let's set a watch and visit tomorrow evening if she hasn’t come to us by then”

“Way ahead of you boyo” chuckled Hadoom before he entered an animated debate with Old Lefty about remuneration for past, present and future employment opportunities.