Sky and Scottie sat at home with a pile of quatloos on the table in front of them. Scottie scooted five coins to a small pile with side with his hand as he continued to count, “Twenty-five…” He added five more, “Thirty.” Sky’s hand quickly pushed the coins over the edge of the table into a nearly full satchel that she was holding beneath it, save for a modest pile which she pushed into small pouch. The coins jingled as Sky shifted the bags in her hands and fastened them shut.
She hefted the bag’s strap over her shoulder and mused aloud as she got situated, “I really didn’t expect him to be that upset about it. You’d figure he’d know us well enough to not be so shocked. And he won, for Builder’s sake.” The couple had a visit from Brother Lapis the night before, when he made it extremely clear that he was not pleased by the recent wager concerning himself and Malus. Some points were made on each side about entertainment for profit, confidences, motives for fighting and the like. Scottie shrugged and responded, “He’ll get over it. I’m not about to change how we do business simply because a monk who isn’t getting his daily dose of caffeine got his feelings hurt.”
They stood from their couch and walked out the door, heading down the stairs on their way outside. Rounding the corner, Sky hesitated and pointed back over her shoulder with her thumb, “Think I should go ahead and drop off that donation we promised to the Church?” Already a few steps in front of her, Scottie turned around with his hands in his pockets and gave an eyeroll, “Yeah, you ought to. If that’ll keep the Brother quiet about the whole thing. Remember to not let anyone see you, it’s best to keep this anonymous.” Sky handed the satchel over to Scottie, then reached in and removed the small pouch, giving him a wink, “Gotcha, love. Back in a moment!” She meandered down a small nearby alleyway and disappeared from his sight.
Scottie watched her go before making his way to ‘Cuffs. It was quiet so far this evening, but he had no doubt folks would come to collect once the word got out. And due to some rather bad “insider information” Frankie had helped spread on the docks, he was looking forward to making collections of his own tomorrow.
Hearing the news as he wandered the streets, Tepic shrugged to himself, after all, it had always been a long shot. He looped round, made his pick-up, then strolled to Cuffs, depositing two bottles of fresh vole milk on the steps….
Scottie nearly tripped over the bottles as he approached the doors. Picking them up, he made his way inside and held up the bottles to Sky, who was sitting on the mantle, “So what do you think? Does the mayor drink this kind of milk? Or.. hey! What about a special cream to put in the coffee? We could call it ‘Babbage’s Best Dairy Creamer’.”
Sky laughed, “And what if people don’t like vole cream?”
Scottie shrugged, “If you call it the best, people will drink it. They won’t even know what’s in it. And if they ask, it’s proprietary information.”
Malus turned quickly as a brick nearly grazed his shoulder, then another. He hurried quickly down Front Street, dodging a few more bricks, then ducked into ‘Cuffs.
“What has got into the longshoremen?” He asked the proprietors. “Why are they rioting?”
Sky looked at Malus with a confused expression as she slowly realized who was giving her the news. She bit her lower lip and looked at Scottie out of her corner of her eye, trying very hard not to laugh.
Walking along the Port, Emerson noticed all the longshoremen looked so much more sullen than normal. ‘It’s a beautiful day,‘ he thought, ‘I wonder what’s gotten into them.’ Shrugging his shoulders, he continued on his way.
Scottie catches Sky’s look, just as confused when it dawns on him as well, “Umm, well… they seem to be a bit down on their luck lately, I suppose.”