Jinx

Erlis' pendant, a kiss and the key to a grave

Part II

“We’re basically looking to have a badge made. Something to wear around the neck of sorts,” Jinx started, making it up as she went along. Soren frowned as much as a thick-browed man could, but Zola elbowed him in the kidneys just in time, to prevent him from asking something truly embarrassing.

“A gold badge,” Frank, now standing behind his counter said, opting for the most expensive order.

“Well, ahm… was thinkin’ something non discreet, like iron?”

“Gold is great,” Soren blurted out and Zola started chuckling. Frank pointed to the Northman all business.

“There’s a lad, who knows his jewelry,” His eyes telling Whisper to better sit this one out. “Ain’t nothing better than gold, my good friend.”

“Thanks,” Soren beamed, deeply moved at the kind words.

Luthos is having a great time right now.

“Yes, well… we are looking for three—”

“Crafton should get one,” Zola intervened and Jinx threw her a hateful glare.

“Liko as well,” Soren added, still grinning. “We should make one for all our friends, right?”

Oh, for fucks sake.

“So, that would be five,” The Gish started again, Frank cutting in before she could finish.

“I have to make a special mold, depending on the engraving… better to round it up, for all parties involved,” That would be his party mostly. “Let’s say ten. You’re a big enterprise, I’m sure. It’s not polite, leaving people out in these matters,” He stared at her pensively. “Alas, it creates division.”

“Aye!” That was Soren.

Jinx narrowed her eyes.

“How much is this going to cost?”

“Eight silver for the work.”

Okay, that wasn’t incredibly steep.

“And you’ll provide the gold,” Frank continued undaunted. “If no gold is provided, I will have to procure it,” He eyed her behind his glasses. “And you will cover the additional cost.”

Ye nasty cunt, Whisper Jinx thought, in the mind to slit his throat open with her dagger, keep the gold to herself.

She kinda wanted information though.

“Ahm, so for ten badges you’ll need…” She murmured riffling through the contents of a heavy leather purse, she’d produced. All kinds of coins in there, tons of copper, some silver, but not a single gold coin to save her life.

Where had her money gone?

Ah.

It was that darn dog race! Stupid arse-sniffer much’ve been drugged!

“Two gold Eagles, or three Dinars. The gold variant. For the work,” Frank patiently explained.

“Right, hmm…” Whisper put that purse in an inside waist pocket of her leather vest, popped a couple of buttons open and reached inside her inner shirt, under the scrutiny of those present.

“Apologies,” She said, a little self-conscious at all the attention. “I keep the good stuff between the girls,” Jinx chuckled nervously, at Frank’s raised eyebrow. “Sometimes ye get hit there, you know and it hurts a lot. Not as much as getting’ smacked on the tit that’s right agony, but it’s pretty uncomfortable.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Frank commented keeping it professional, while she produced a second equally heavy purse, secured with a cord around her neck.

“How much coin you carry on ye, Pretty?” Zola asked stunned.

“Not too much,” Jinx lied and turned to Frank, two of Glen’s square coins in hand. She placed them on the counter and Frank picked one of them up and brought it close to his face.

“Good grief,” The jeweler gasped, nigh impressed. “Where did you get these?”

Jinx narrowed her eyes.

“It’s from my dowry,” She deadpanned, Soren’s pained moan coming from the back.

Frank, twisted his nose this way and that, glasses dancing and pushed the other towards her.

“One will suffice,” The jeweler replied. “You don’t see them much these days.”

“Why is that?”

Frank, pushed the rim of his glasses up surprised. “You don’t know?”

“Heard different things,” Jinx lied.

“Well, these were blank originally, only the edges had this pattern,” He showed her. “Imperial coin, not minted anywhere these days, a Zilan currency of a more refined era, just like their jewelry.”

“Right,” Jinx nodded.

“So, the Realm’s Banks and that’s a Mclean & Merck engraved Eagle right there, have repurposed them for decades, at double the normal gold Eagle value, but they are slowly getting out of circulation,” Frank continued his diatribe.

They had ripped Glen off, Jinx thought blinking.

Hard.

“They are pretty rare,” He added, dropping the coin in a drawer and locking it.

“Okay then,” Whisper started. “So what’s the damage on the gold?”

“Depends on the quality, but keep in mind, with what’s going on, it could take a while to get it from my supplier.”

“How long?”

Frank shrugged his shoulders.

Jinx looked at the square gold coin still on the counter.

“Can we use this?”

“Hah,” Frank guffawed. “Sure, that’s as good as you’ll get.”

Jinx kept her eyes on him, keeping her silence. The jeweler frowned.

“You’re serious?”

“Why not?”

“How many of these you have?”

Jinx snorted, then glanced behind her, where Soren and Zola pretended to be uninterested to their conversation, failing spectacularly and smacked her lips, tip of her tongue parked before her front teeth.

She reached inside her purse again, Frank’s eyes grew wide and a vein started throbbing on his left temple at the sight of the gold stack that had appeared on the counter.

“Will that be enough?” Whisper queried coolly.

“One badge per,” Frank managed to say, looking at all that gold.

“One per,” Jinx agreed with a smirk. “And the whereabouts of Shifty Walker.”

Frank pulled back from the counter.

“I don’t know where he is,” He replied defensively.

“He has a meeting in a couple of minutes, behind your store.”

It was one hell of a coincidence in her book.

“Bah, I’ve no idea what yer talking about.”

“And I can pretend, I don’t know about the coins true value,” Jinx countered.

Frank paused amidst launching a fresh denial and frowned thinking about it.

“So when I say two…” The man started.

Whisper separated a coin from the pile.

“I understand two,” She finished it for him. “I’m foreign, shit happens.”

“Right, a Gish,” Frank agreed with a nod, snatching the coin off the counter, before she changed her mind. “You hate math, I suppose.”

Jinx narrowed her eyes, half suspicion and half a desperate need to piss. She clasped her thighs together to reign it in, discomfort on her flushed face.

“I just need a concept,” The jeweler said, taking a blank vellum out and placing it on the counter, next to the pile of gold coins.

“Uh?” Jinx snapped, looking around for a place to do her business.

“What to engrave on the badge,” Frank explained patiently. “I’ll mold it, but we need to agree on a theme.”

“Right, ahm…”

“The name of your gang?”

“Mercenary company.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Frank deadpanned. “The name?”

“The Gallant Dogs,” Jinx said, through clenched teeth, feeling something trickling down her leg.

For fuck’s sake!

“So a canine… head.”

“Hey!” Soren barked from behind. “For that much coin, we want the whole dog, mister!”

“A dog,” Frank repeated. “A prime idea.”

“That’s right!” The Northman beamed.

“A wild dog, like the ones we fought,” Zola added dreamily, not to be outshined on the artistic department, everyone seeming ready to keep firing up ideas, until Jinx urinated all over herself before them.

“Is there a back door?” She asked, the busy writing down ideas jeweler.

“Why?” He asked without looking up.

What the fuck?

“I need to use the girl’s room?”

“There no such thing here,” The man replied a little affronted.

“Hahaha!” Soren exploded, finding it hilarious.

“Okay,” Whisper said with difficulty. “A boys thingy?”

“It’s a workshop, not an Inn!” Frank was fired up now and ready to go on a tirade, annoyed at the interruption. Jinx stopped him raising a hand, small beads of sweat on her forehead.

“So… a back door?”

Frank snorted, then pointed with a hand.

“Straight behind the staircase, you can’t miss it.”

Naossis tits, I almost lost it in there, Jinx thought, letting it rip, while sitting down in the empty alley behind the workshop, a hand keeping her pants from the golden stream, the other wiping the tears of joy from her eyes.

She sighed, the night cool on her naked arse, the feeling of fullness retreating, leaving only pleasure behind. Nothing better than peeing outside, Jinx mused. Well, unless ye do it in water, the time-tested Gish way.

Then again being so horny out of the blue, or from just peeing, is ridiculous even for me.

Although abnormal was the better word.

Fuck.

“Had I known,” Shifty Walker said, his Lesia accent perfect. “The treat I was about to receive; darling, I would’ve dressed up for the occasion.”

Oh, that’s just great.

Jinx raised her head and caught a glimpse of him stepping out of the shadows. He always picked the darkest spots to stand. Short, barely taller than her, his red-rimmed eyes gleaming in the dark. The scent of his lust smacked her right on the nostrils and made the flow of her piss wither and die.

“Hey Alix,” Jinx said and tried to get up, but the male Gish stopped her putting a hand on her shoulder, after covering the distance as fast as a leopard.

“It’s the perfect spot, darling,” Alix ‘Shifty’ Walker whispered knowingly. “Give me a sec, to shed these garbs.”

“Get that claw off me!” Jinx snapped, half panicked she’d almost agreed with him.

“Goddess, I know it’s my steely flesh thee prefer—”

“No, I fuckin’ don’t!” Whisper bellowed, pushing him away, although she was more than a little aroused as previously established. The reason for it at least now clear. Gish tend to make everyone around them horny.

“You’re in pain,” Alix agreed, voice smooth and sugary. He then lowered it to barely above a whisper in order to add; the emphasis strong. “I can make yer need… go away.”

He’d a whole pelvic move associated with the words, coming right after them, which he demonstrated shamelessly.

Shifty was always lissome, she had to give him that.

Jinx closed her eyes in despair, then remembering she had her cunt on full display, stooped fast and pulled her pants up, ill at ease.

“I’m here on business,” She announced matter-of-factly.

The male Gish blinked once, his expression changing.

“You’re here to meddle wit my business,” He corrected it for her, in their species… well, time tested manner.