The apartment was done.

Dominic passed it on his way to the inn. The front step had been swept clean, the herb patch cut back to bare soil. He stopped just long enough to rest a hand on the iron gate. Then he kept walking.

---

Wobbly hit him at the doorway, a soft, warm impact against his chest. It glowed brighter and hummed before sliding down to press against his ankle.

Theresa sat by the window, a stack of books beside her and cold tea at her elbow. She looked up. Her eyes paused on the bruise fading along his jaw, then moved on.

"The city has a reasonable selection of books," she said. "The historical coverage is thin past the last three centuries, but the economic texts are thorough."

Dominic sat across from her. "How far did you get?"

"All of them."

He glanced at the stack. Four books in two days.

"The written form here differs from what I was used to," she said. "Different characters, different grammatical structure. It resolved itself within the first few pages."

"i see... well we should head to the guild," Dominic said. "Get the meeting done so we can see the new place."

Theresa set down her cup. Wobbly was already by the door.

***

The morning market was loud and crowded. A man wrestled a bolt of cloth through a doorway while two children chased a chicken past a fruit stall, the vendor shouting after them. Theresa watched it all like she was filing it away.

"Why is the guild building off-center?" she asked. "Most branches I’ve read about are positioned centrally."

"The dungeon was her first. The guild came later, then the city grew around both."

She nodded as if he’d confirmed something she already knew.

A woman ahead of them stared at Wobbly on Theresa’s shoulder. Wobbly stared back, glowing faintly. The woman bumped into a lamppost and hurried on.

Dominic ran the meeting in his head. Frank had seen Alina’s report. He knew what Theresa could do. His offer would be generous, but how far could Dominic push before Frank turned cautious?

***

The guild hall was active. A squad was heading out, heavy boots on stone. Two adventurers ate at a corner table. Alina spotted them the moment they stepped inside, abandoned her queue with a quick apology, and vanished down the inner corridor.

By the time they crossed the hall, Frank was already there. He shook Dominic’s hand firmly, then turned to Theresa.

His grip stayed steady, but his weight shifted back an inch. He scanned her face, a quick, professional appraisal. Then the mask returned, and he gestured down the hall.

"Come on in."

***

Frank’s office was bare. A wide desk, a window onto an alley, a board covered in pinned notices. A half-eaten meal sat on the desk, the bread gone dry at the edges.

Wobbly settled into the corner behind Frank’s chair like it was claiming territory.

"Alina’s report was one of the more unusual documents I’ve read," Frank said. "Walk me through how you two formed your partnership."

Dominic kept it simple. "She was already in the dungeon when my team left me. She found me on the third floor."

Frank turned to Theresa. "You entered a dungeon in an unfamiliar city without registering."

"I didn’t enter by choice." Her voice was even. "My city was destroyed. I was fighting, and then I was somewhere else. I was in your dungeon. I have only what I experienced."

The room went quiet. A cat on the windowsill stretched and dropped out of sight. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"And her city," Frank said. "No record of it."

"Nowhere on our maps," Dominic said.

Frank looked at Theresa once more. Whatever decision he reached, it settled behind his eyes. He moved on.

"What are you building here? Both of you. What does the next six months look like?"

Dominic laid it out: rank progression, resource development, and they’d see where things went. He let the ambition show, a little too large for a Bronze card and an empty record.

Theresa spoke. "He won’t be doing it alone, of course. His ambitions are large, but so is what he has behind him. I don’t see why that should be impossible."

"She explain things for you often?" Frank asked.

"When it’s efficient," Dominic said.

Frank’s mouth twitched. Then Dominic made his pitch. The off-board missions, the ones nobody wanted. In exchange, Frank’s name as a shield. Frank would get the credit. Their reputation would be anchored to his desk.

Frank listened. "I won’t compromise the ranking system. You’ll still do on-board missions, rake up achievements. That’s not negotiable."

"Understood."

"But you understand why those missions are off the board? No real pay, dangerously high risk."

"We’re aware."

Frank studied him. "If you’re what you present yourselves to be, I have no problem."

A wet, gelatinous sound came from the corner.

All three of them looked. Wobbly had the paper wrapper from Frank’s meal in its mouth. The food was gone. Wobbly froze.

Frank blinked once, then turned back as if nothing had happened. He pulled a folded sheet from a stack and set it on the desk. "There’s a graveyard six miles outside the south wall. Inactive for forty years. Three reports in the last month of strange movement at night. No confirmed sightings. I need eyes on it. Survey, record, do not engage unless unavoidable. This is your test."

Dominic folded the sheet into his coat. "We can do that."

Frank produced a card and slid it across to Theresa. Silver grade. Fresh stamping. He’d pushed the system as far as he could justify.

Theresa picked it up, turned it over. Something flickered across her face. "Thank you," she said.

Frank walked them out to the main hall entrance. "Report within a week of the survey."

"You’ll have it," Dominic said.

Frank looked at Wobbly, still attached to Dominic’s boot and being gently dragged. Then he went back inside.

***

Theresa started her list before they cleared the guild quarter. "Proper gear. I have almost nothing for field work."

"We have twenty-seven gold."

"I know."

"We’ll burn through it fast."

"Most of it is investment," she said. "Equipment that carries the agenda forward."

"It’s expenditure until the next job."

"Then we should do the next job. Why not more dungeon sweeping?"

"Inefficient unless we go past floor ten. The new cores are barely mature. And I’d die going with you."

Theresa glanced at him, from his face to his stance. "We might need to add a training room and equipment to the list."

Wobbly drifted between them, listing left for reasons never explained. A passing dog gave it space.

"What else?" Dominic asked.

"Books."

"Books."

"I’m allowed to want books."

"You read four in two days."

"Then I’ll need more."

He had no response that would close the argument, and she knew it. The morning smelled of bread and coal smoke. The apartment gate appeared.

***

Theresa moved through the rooms carefully. She checked the study light, the courtyard drainage, the kitchen size. "The study needs extra work. A bench for the courtyard. The kitchen is manageable."

Then she stopped in the main room doorway and was quiet.

Wobbly navigated to the exact center of the floor and settled there, glowing faintly, completely at home.

Dominic stood in the entrance. The deed was in his ring, bought with gold from a dungeon that should have killed him. Plain walls, swept floor, the first thing he’d truly owned since he was eleven. He didn’t let the feeling in, but something in his chest settled anyway.

Across the room, Theresa watched the courtyard light shift across the floorboards.