Chapter 15
The calm Merid gained focussing on her work eased all other concerns, and she truly felt at peace. While she'd rather be working on glyphs – or tattooing someone, provided they allowed her silence to work – copying text had a simplicity that relaxed her. And working as a scribe offered a stable income to support her true calling.
The infrequent opening of the door to her little shop often irritated her, which she had to suppress. Her appearance could intimidate potential customers, without also glaring.
So she adopted a pleasant smile as her focus was broken by the door. She discarded the mask as Thjorn entered.
She glared to little effect; he'd never been put off by the tattoo surrounding her left eye. A bird, its lines formed a glyph which allowed her to enhance her vision to a remarkable degree. Facial tattoos were rare enough that it drew attention and tended to put people on edge. Thjorn had only ever been fascinated, and that had lasted five minutes, at which point it was no longer new.
He carried a small wooden box. She nodded for him to follow her to the back room after locking the door.
The front was for those hiring her to scribe, and had a respectable appearance which slightly ameliorated her less-than-respectable style. Her clothes, while not expensive, were always neat, but the tattoo she defiantly wore drew attention. The back room was where she did tattoos, and acted as a working lab for her experiments in glyphing, in particularly her studies with various substances of use in tattooing. Clean, it was cluttered, or at least filled.
Merid took the box, placed it on a table, and opened it.
'Will that be enough?' he asked.
She dragged her eyes from the arvinim shavings. 'More than enough to be getting on with.' She closed the box, still shocked. She hadn't really expected him to get hold of them, although doubting him never seemed to work. Still, having the box here left her feeling vulnerable. 'You couldn't have acquired them in a quieter manner?'
'Not as easily,' said Thjorn. 'It can’t be tracked here. I take precautions.'
While she didn't doubt that, it failed to exorcise her unease. Which she should have prepared for when she'd agreed to it. The opportunity to experiment with pure arvinim had been too good to pass up.
'What about the rest?' she asked. 'I heard a handful of bars went missing.'
'Two. One was traded for information. The remainder of this one is secure. Don't know if I'll use it, but it's useful to have. If your experiments are successful you can always have more.'
She nodded, guardedly. The agreement for this had been vague, and she wasn't sure the full price she'd pay. Thjorn wouldn't squeeze blood from her over it, not as he saw it, but he tended to treat everything like doing each other favours.
The glyphpunk community, as much as there was one, was based on a system of helping each other – or at least helping out those in the community with whom you got on – while they all tried avoiding the notice of the guilds. Avoiding notice had never interested Thjorn.
She'd always admired that about him, and partly wished to join him, to be taken seriously as a glyphist. But as things stood the guilds were too powerful, and came down hard on unauthorised glyph use. While they didn't look for it, if it became too obvious they had no hesitation acting.
So the glyphpunk community here in Idstil kept quiet, although she'd heard rumours of increased pressure in the wake of the theft. Likely the Society were looking for anyone using arvinim who shouldn't. She had a few decent hiding places, and should take the stuff to her other laboratory when she'd finished with Thjorn.
'Sit,' she said, and set about preparing. 'You still sure this is what you want?'
'Of course,' he said in the irritating way which seemed to ask why he would have changed his mind. She tried to remember when she'd found that cute. It had been a while ago.
'Okay,' she said, and started mixing.
'Also. Can you put me in touch with someone who has connections to both the Society and the Alliance?'
'What kind of connection?' she asked, less than enthused by the direction the conversation was headed. 'Supplier, or...'
'Preferably someone within one of them.'
'You do know they're politely hostile to each other, don't you?'
'Only at the higher levels,' said Thjorn. 'There's communication between the working members.'
'If you know so much about it, why can't you contact any?'
'Because I don't know any. None who'll talk to me.'
'Imagine that.'
Thjorn ignored that. 'You have connections among local glyphists of all affiliations and none.'
This was true. Her aptitude for studying the useful properties of glyphing substances had made her a number of contacts who normally shunned glyphpunks. She'd even had offers to join the Alliance – unlike the Society they allowed female members, even if they didn’t have many. The offers hadn't been pushed, and she disliked some of their actions too much to consider joining.
'I may know some,' she admitted. 'What do you want to know?'
'I'd like to talk to one.'
She glanced sceptically. 'They may not want to discuss certain things with me, let alone you, so if you think I'll introduce you without...'
'It's only basic stuff about the organizations and links between them I'm after, from someone inside who'll know what they're talking about.'
She frowned, not sure introducing Thjorn to someone would result in that person remaining a contact. Still, this was the price of the metal.
'I'll behave,' he said, reading her mind, or possibly her face.
She regarded him, trying to decide who she knew that would be least offended by Thjorn's general Thjorniness. There were only a few who matched his criteria, and of those only one she knew well enough to ask it of. Did she want to risk alienating him? He was tolerant and easy-going, but even he'd have limits.
Sighing, she turned back to Thjorn. 'You remember Timaron?'
'The clockmaker?'
'Yes.'
'Haven't actually met him.'
Taking a moment at the thought of what not having met Thjorn must be like, and feeling guilty at suggesting they deprive Timaron of that, she continued. 'He's part of the Alliance, but has friends everywhere, including the Society. I'm not sure how much he'd know...'
'He'll do.'
'It may be easier if you told me what you want to...'
'I don't know what I want to ask. A conversation would be more useful, and more efficient, than passing messages.'
Given that she'd said his name, she didn't have much choice but to make the introduction. Otherwise Thjorn would likely go to see him alone. At least she could go along to make sure it didn't get out of hand.
'You will behave yourself, and don't go making too much of a nuisance of...'
'Nuisance? Me?'
'And don't interrupt when he answers your questions. It's irritating the way you constantly do that.'
'It is?' said Thjorn.
'Yes.'
'So why not answer more concisely?'
She didn't respond out loud, satisfying herself with the thought that the following procedure could be made painful.