The clerk slides the verification tray under Jax’s final three hundred thousand coins. The metal should only weigh and count them.
Instead, violet light crawls across the tray’s rim and up the scattered coins, thin as a hunting leash. The glow points straight back toward Jax’s coin bag.
The Clerk
That is not a tally charm. It is a tether.
The Auctioneer’s composure tightens. With a sharp gesture, they clear the women from the hall, and the Ringed Woman is guided toward the doors with cold, resentful eyes fixed on Jax.
The Soot-Coat Man
So that is how they plan to find him later.
The Lantern-Skirted Man
Marked, then recovered when the time is right.
Jax’s paid lot waits on the block, two huge brown pairs of worn adventurer’s boots, their creased toes rounded and heavy under the hall’s torchlight. The men around him lean in, emboldened by the mark now glowing on his wealth.
The Ringed Woman
Remember this room, Jax. It remembers you now.
✓ Quest Accepted
Win the auction for the boots
✓ Quest Accepted
Acquire the two pairs of beds
“Okay 900,000 for those pairs right now and I'll pay for the two pairs of boots”
SUCCESS (Fair Persuasion, rolled +4)
Jax
Nine hundred thousand for both pairs, right now. I pay for the two pairs of boots.
The auction hall holds its breath. Jax’s offer lands flat and final, and the clerk’s hands stop shaking long enough to write it down.
The Auctioneer
Accepted. Both lots are yours.
The violet tether on the tray flickers, then tightens into a thin spark that snaps apart over the coins with a dry hiss.
The Clerk
The mark is gone... and the bag is still his.
The clerk slides the tray away from Jax’s wealth, palms open, as if distance itself might count as safety. The two heavy pairs are pushed across the block to him, one after the other.
The Lantern-Skirted Man
He paid without blinking. So we watch the bag, not the boots.
Quest Complete
Win the auction for the boots
Skill Upgrade: Persuasion Fair→Good
+ New Item Acquired
Second pair of heavy French boots