Chapter 3 – Rare Coins

- 3 -

Both Mr. Bayer and Agate stared at the pile, their eyes wide open, then at the scruffy-looking boy in his homespun clothes and flour sack bag.

The ice cream vendor was the first to speak. "Where did you get these coins?"

"My mother said I can use them for emergencies, aren't they enough?" his smile was gone, now. He's got the feeling that he might have to give the ice cream back.

"This is a 12th century Queen Josephina gold coin... and King Romanov silver shillings... the rest are all silver... and is that a gold Benjamine?! There are only about 10 known pieces left in the entire Empire!" she poked through the pile, "And there are 2 pieces here!"

"Is that good or bad?" asked Dorin, licking on his drippy cone.

"Let me pay for your ice cream." Agate pulled out a piece of colored paper from her purse and handed it to Mr. Bayer who was still staring at the coins with wide-open eyes.

"But..."

"I insist!" Agate almost shouted. The vendor snapped out of his trance and went to a rectangular contraption where he poked some buttons. A drawer suddenly opened at the bottom of the contraption, full of wads of colored paper and shiny silver coins. He took some coins and handed them to Agate. "Thank you Mr. Bayer."

"Ah, thank you for your patronage!" said the man with a slight bow, "Please come back anytime, especially you, young man!"

"Let's go." Agate put the coins in her pouch and pulled at Dorin's tunic.

"T-thank you as well!" Dorin called back, as he held on to his half-eaten ice cream cone and reached for his branch before exiting the store.

"Where are we going?" he asked the girl who was pulling him along.

"Are you really that ignorant?" she said, "You're lucky I was with you!" She suddenly stopped and looked up at a clueless Dorin who almost dropped the remainder of his ice cream on her. Her eyes have turned a dark shade of blue. "The coins you carry are worth a fortune! If I were someone else, I could have easily fooled you and ran away with it."

"That means you're a good person!" Dorin pointed out with a smile. "I'm lucky to meet a good person on my first visit to the city."

"Ah, you fool..." said his companion, wiping her face with her small fists, "Anyway, is that all the money you have?" the boy nodded. "Then we have no choice," she sighed, "You will have to sell some to a collector..."

"You can sell money?" asked Dorin.

"Yes, when it's old and rare, it can fetch a high price..." she took out a silver coin and held it up to Dorin. "Like this one, for instance," she continued, "This silver shilling with King Romanov on it is more than a hundred years old, this 5 cent coin is currently worth about 5,000 almas!"

"Is that... big?" the boy asked wide eyed.

"Haahhh...." Agate sighed, "Let me put it this way... A man can have a full meal with 5 almas." at this the boy brightened up.

"That means I can have 3 full meals a day for 5 years plus dessert!"

"And that's just the shilling..."

"What about the gold pieces?"

"The Queen Josephina can fetch as much as half a million," she said as she pulled the boy along. "The golden Benjamin costs 3 times more." She stopped in front of a store with a wide display of old furniture-- mostly metal, and all of which looked very expensive. When they left the store, Dorin was holding a thick parcel of bills.

"So, this is paper money..." he asked no one in particular.

"Put it in your... bag..." she stared annoyingly at the flour sack and pulled him inside a different store. They left the store later, Dorin with a brand new leather satchel, and the proprietor waving happily after them.

"I have always wanted my own satchel, but my mother always said that I had no use for it since I don’t travel anyway..." he exclaimed happily, caressing the bag, "Look how supple this leather is!"

"Yes, yes... now about those clothes..."

"Why, yes, I made these myself!" he said proudly, "Mother wove the cloth but the stitches are mine! It's pretty good, don't you think?" He looked so proud that Agate didn't have the heart to tell him otherwise.

'Well, if he's off to University, then it wouldn't matter much what he comes dressed in,' she thought, 'He must have come from a very poor family, those coins are probably all they had in this world. The kid seems to be quite talented in magic, perhaps that's why they decided to send him to school?'

"Is there anything more?" the boy looked at her eagerly.

"No, you're all set," replied Agate with a sigh. "Now, let me give you some advice." Dorin smiled at her and nodded enthusiastically. "First. There are several rules of law that you need to follow in the Capital City. One of which is that minors are not allowed to ride magical vessels without being accompanied by an able adult. The driving age is 16 and you need a novice license to fly on your own, until you reach the age of 18."

"Yes, some people told me something like that on my way here..."

"Good. Did you listen to them?" Dorin looked away. "There are lots of other rules, but you'll eventually learn about them in the University." She took out a small booklet from a secret pocket hidden in the folds of her dress and handed it to Dorin. "Here's a small guidebook about the Kingdom of Beronia,” she told him, “there is a list of common rules at the back."

"Thank you!" Dorin took it and looked through the book. On the cover was a seal that showed a coiled snake about to swallow a diamond at the tip of its tail.

"Second, is that you should never show your money, expensive items, or magical artifacts to people you don't know. You can't trust people that much you know, some of them might swindle it from you." At this, she got a vigorous nod from the boy in front of her.

"Last but not the least," she continued, "Is to never disclose personal information to your fellow students in the university. People from all over the continent and beyond go to that place to be the best in the Empire. It's a battlefield. A person as naive as you could be eaten alive. So keep your defenses up."

Dorin looked surprised. "A battlefield..." he repeated, his eyes shining.

"Now, get on your way. It's way past 3 in the afternoon, and you still have some ways to go!"

"It's that late already?!" Dorin pulled out his pocket watch and flipped it open.

"Take your... branch, and if anyone stops you, show them the guidebook." She pointed to the sun towards the west. "Go straight through this area, the University is just beyond the hills, on top of a plateau."

"Thank you very much Agate!"

Dorin whistled a tune and was raised in a gust of wind. Agate stepped back, surprised. "For a very young girl, you have taught me so much, I shall pass this way again on my way back!"

"Yep, we'll surely meet again!" Agate called back from the ground. Dorin waved at her as he sat on the branch, the pocket watch in his hand glinting in the sunlight, showing a crest of a single black rose flanked by two drawn swords engraved on its cover.

"`Till we meet again!" Dorin tosses one of the golden Benjamins down at her. "This is for you."

Agate caught the coin and looked at him, wide-eyed and speechless, her mouth opening without uttering a sound.

"Hermione!" she finally whispered, as the image of the boy disappeared in the distance.