“Oh, no. Nope, get inside,” Roor cried pushing them back into the store. She was the first one to spot a suspicious group of people, lingering not too far down the street. They did not do a good job of blending in with the island life and looked like a bunch of ravens in a rainforest. “I told you this was the right place.”


    “No you didn’t,” Lei protested, but after seeing the group slowly move towards the shop, he too decided it was a good idea to stay.


    Shutting the door, they peered through the windows, pretending they were a part of the decorum.


    “Are you one of them?” Brano asked the shopkeeper, clenching his fists as he hid behind a tall cupboard full of knives. “How did you know?”


    Ullie chuckled, a little less serious than a moment before. Instead of answering, reached into the pocket of his long coat and pulling out a thin silver key.


    “Not to worry,” he said, as he lodged the key into an almost invisible hole on the back wall. He turned it three times to both sides like he was opening a safe until it clicked. “I am one of me.”


    Long shadows approached the shop. They were quick to surround the place and did not seem to care about being seen, even in the daytime.


    “These guys don’t give up,” Lei said hiding behind a garden gnome with a sinister smile on its face.  “How did they even find us here? I thought we lost them at Galakus. This is not right.”


    “You didn’t answer my question,” Brano insisted.


    “Do I really need to?” Ullie returned as he offered them a plate of almond cookies he pulled out of somewhere. “Want some?”


    “No,” Brano growled. “I haven’t yet found a single reason to trust you.”


    “Alright. You hold that bag as if your head were inside it, and you come looking for someone who knows a thing about magical artifacts, of all things. You may as well have a glowing sign on your back that says I AM IN DANGER.”


    “Right,” Brano lowered his head and glanced at his companions. “We did not mean to bring trouble to your door, but this is the last place we could turn to. We were told… we can get a good deal here.”


    “Must be important, the thing you carry," the shopkeeper said with a growing intrigue in his eyes. He felt it the moment they entered his shop, a power that was hard to ignore, and for the first time in a long time, he was a little more than curious. The magic they carried did not feel right, like a bad note in a symphony.


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    “Damn right it is,” Roor hissed. “I nearly lost my arm getting it… Oh shit. They are coming here.”


    "Now, you answer my question,” said Ullie, pointing at the silhouettes of several robust figures outside, ignoring how time-sensitive the situation was. “Who exactly are they?”


    “Don’t think it matters at this point,” Roor said in a faint tone. “They’ve been after us for days. Everywhere. It’s like they can track us, creepy bastards.”


    Lei shifted closer to her, avoiding the bells in between the shelves. “Please, sir, we are not keen on getting caught after all we’ve been through. We’ve been told this shop is a safe haven.”


    “Ah,” Ullie exclaimed as if emerging from deep thoughts. “So, you took it from them?”


    “No,” Roor cried, increasingly frustrated with his hesitation. “We… they want to take it from us. They would do anything to get it.”


    “Well, I can’t say you’re the first… salespeople to come to my door, but you are certainly the first to bring the market competition along as well. In any case, whatever it is you are trying to sneak away must be very valuable to them, and thus to me, so, I will make my decision, based on your answer.”


    The people outside the shop lingered. It was a matter of moments before they barged in.


    “Ask,” said Brano, watching Ullie walk up and down the isles. “Please.”


    “Where did you find it?”


    &nbsp“Is this a good idea?” Lei whispered shaking his head. “We could get into trouble for even mentioning that. I really don’t want the Bureau at our backs. We’re already as good as dead.”


    “The Bureau?” Ullie said and smiled even wider. “Now that’s interesting. Please tell me more.”


    “One year ago,” Brano began after a lot of hesitation, as the twitching in his eye returned. ”A group of divers found a wreckage near one of the submerged caves in Angalin. “


    “Go on.”


    “Well, at first, they thought they discovered a vessel from the Paranian War. They believed it could be one of the ships that sunk while carrying gold to fund the East campaign, so they rushed the expedition. A lot of money was put into getting it out and dragging it ashore, but when they did, they realized something was off with the ship itself. They spent months analyzing the materials because they could not believe that it is actually several millennia old, all the while holding the resemblance and technology of ships from two hundred years ago.”


    “Two thousand?” The shopkeeper''s eyes faded out into the distance and he turned back to the wall with the keyhole. “Fascinating. I wonder how I never heard about it.”


    “You wouldn’t. The government locked It all up once they knew something was off, including all that was found on the ship. The Bureau has it all now, and no one knows just how much there is. However thanks to all the rumors, some things did manage to find their way out before the shutdown, and we got there just in time. That’s all there is.”


    “Good,” Ullie whispered as he pressed onto the hidden door, perfectly camouflaged in the wallpaper. It creaked and opened a way to another part of the shop. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to show you the back room.”


    They hesitated at first, looking at one another, unsure what to expect, but Ullie insisted nonetheless, waving his hand in the air, calling them forward.


    “Are we really going to follow this weird guy into his dungeon? Is that not the plot of every horror film?” Lei whispered in Brano’s ear, like a prophet.


    “Do you have a better idea?” Brano protested, clenching the bag and bending his head below the shelves.


    “The things I do for money,” Roor mumbled as she shoved them both through the opening.