“Hello and welcome to Golden Circlet. Let me know if I can help you.” She looked up for a moment before ducking her head back down, focusing on whatever was under the counter.

Only then she did a double take. “Oh hi, Lauren, Kelly. This one of the Pharaoh’s toys?”

“The one and only.” Kelly spoke up. “How’s Claire?”

I noticed she didn’t clarify. But I wasn’t here to puff out my chest and declare I was the one and only for Cleo. No, I was just here to get a ring.

“Good, I think she should be back soon.” The dragon’s wings did a small lazy flap that made her chest ripple.

I did my best not to stare and failed spectacularly. The way the red scales that dusted her chest and framed her face caught my attention.

But she didn’t seem to care. “Feel free to pick something out.” She went back to what I could now see was a small loop of gold. She blew a small jet of fire out of her mouth till the band was red hot and started working it into the desired shape.

I was about as lost as I could be trying to pick out a piece of jewelery. About all I knew was it needed to be made of precious metal and have a big ass stone on it. At least that’s what I thought would make sense for Cleo, given the amount of gold already on her person.

“What about this one?” I pointed to a random ring. It was a little asymmetrical, and the diamond was huge.

Lauren came up behind me and stood on her tail to see over my shoulder. “No, she wouldn’t like that shape.”

“If you are buying for Cleo, the second case on the left is going to be your best bet lover boy.” The owner said without looking up.

I went to look over at that case and it was all bracelets, earrings, but no rings. “There aren’t any rings here.”

“Cleo doesn’t wear rings.” She put down the ring she was working on. “Never once have I seen her with a ring.”

Before I could argue, the front door of the shop dinged open and a woman that looked like the shopkeeper’s twin walked in. “Afternoon.” She had her arms around two men that looked defeated. However the semblance shattered as she puffed herself up like she had something to prove.

No, this had to be the shopkeeper’s daughter.

“Who are they?” The owner asked, her face dour at watching the two men.

“Cleo gave up her harem, sent them all packing. Some prophecy about she finally found ‘the one’” The younger dragon snorted. “Anyway, I picked two out. Don’t they look delicious?”

It took her a second before she saw Kelly and Lauren. Then her eyes flickered to me. “Already getting jewelry for your new master?”

I immediately didn’t like this monster girl. “No, I don’t have a master. I have a soon to be wife.”

She snorted. “Wait, are you one of Cleo’s boys? You know you all just got tossed out.” But she directed the question more and Kelly than at me.

“You better shut up, Claire, before you get yourself in trouble with your loud mouth. We are both on assignment to protect Cleo’s new husband to be.” She threw a thumb over her shoulder at me. “Him.”

“That’s him? I mean he looks pretty decent, but what’s so special.” Claire continued to talk as if I was a piece of furniture.

“Well, you’ll never know it sounds like. Nice meeting you.” I clearly dismissed her with my tone.

“Excuuuse me?” She dragged out the word like a bitch. “Your betters are talking here.” Her nose puffed smoke and her chest was starting to glow orange under the surface.”

Kelly ghosted behind Claire and her scimitar rang as she drew it. “Sorry Claire. He’s under our protection. We’ve even been ordered to follow his commands as if they were Cleo’s own. So maybe you don’t make my job hard on me.”

Claire saw the blade and huffed, sending out a plume of smoke and cooling that warm glow in her chest. “For you Kelly. Plus, I have more entertaining things to do.” She hauled the two men to the back of the shop and through a door.

“I’m sorry for my daughter’s behavior.” The owner of the shop had risen and stepped around the cases to get closer. “I’m Ruby.” She held out her hand.

At least this one was treating me like a person and not some lesser. “Sam, pleasure to meet you.”

“So you are looking for a ring for Cleo, specifically a wedding ring?”

I scratched the back of my head. Saying it out loud felt weird. “I was looking for an engagement ring, but I guess the wedding ring would be a pair that goes with it.”

Ruby licked her lips, and I couldn’t help but notice the forked tongue. “Would you be willing to have me make her a ring? It won’t be easy.”

“Won’t be easy?” Something about how she said it made me feel like it wouldn’t be easy for me.

“Let me clarify. I would like to make a special ring. One with power between the two of you. Given how important Cleo is to all of us who make our home around this oasis and apparently how important you are to her, I’d like to make a set of rings that links the two of you.”

I swallowed around a sudden lump in my throat at just how committed that sounded. “Yeah. That sounds perfect.”

“Good, good. So I assume you came with money today?”

I nodded and pulled the bag from my hip. “Yes.” I set it down with what I thought was an impressive clink.

Ruby opened the bag and ran her hand through the gold coins with a smile. “You earned this money yourself, not given to you by Cleo?”

“Found for it in the arena.” I clarified.

“Delightful. You fought and spilled blood for her.” She raked her fingers through the gold. “This’ll do great for the base.”

“All of it?” It was a lot of gold coins.

“Of course, I’m going to smelt it down and purify it into dragon gold.” She nodded to herself, looking like she was excited for the project. “But we’ll need more than just this. Hmmm…” She tapped a finger to her lips as she hummed in thought.

“I know. You can swim down to the mouth of the manhood river under the oasis and collect something precious from her origin, yes that would be perfect along with the gold.”

I had a feeling I was about to be sent on a quest. “Is that all?”

“A pound of sand from there, along with anything you can find that you’d call a precious stone. It doesn’t matter, if the two of you are as fate bound as she said I’d bet you there’s something down there.” Ruby nodded to herself, happy at the decision.

“And if there isn’t?” I asked.

Ruby seemed one half upset that I didn’t believe her, the other half insulted. “Then you two were never meant to be, and she should once again search for her fated. Though if she thinks it’s you, then I have all the faith that’s she’s right.”

Kelly cleared her throat. “You aren’t going down there, because no way am I hopping in the water.”

“Oh no. He must do it alone. It’ll have more power that way.” Ruby added before looking at my two guards. “You two wouldn’t want to break the magic that this ring would bring, do you?”

It was telling how Kelly and Lauren paused and looked at each other. “You realize how upset Cleopatra is going to be if something happens to him, don’t you?”

“I’ll keep an eye on the oasis.” Ruby offered. “I won’t help him one bit but if someone goes down there and tries to cause a problem, I’ll stop them.”

“What if something happens to him?” Lauren asked.

“That’s on him. If he really wants to make a ring for Cleopatra, he needs to do this himself, without training wheels. But again, you two can make sure no outside influence goes after him.”

“Hold up. Is this really that important, I don’t even know what we expect out of this ring.” I was feeling a little lost.

Kelly rolled her eyes, and Lauren was far more helpful. “You aren’t from here, so let me introduce Ruby. She’s a several thousand year old ancient red dragon. A curator and creator of some of the finest magical items in all of Greed’s territory.”

“Ah.” was all I could say to that. Ancient red dragon sounded like something that could go very poorly for me. Then again, if there was something that should know its way around magical items, this sounded like the one.

“So you want me to swim down do the bottom of the lake, find something precious and get a pound of sand?”

“Not just the bottom of the lake.” Ruby smiled. “Cleopatra was born deep under the sands where she pulled the manhood river out of the sands and gave life to the desert. Even today she spends much of her strength holding the sands back and keeping the underground river flowing. You need to swim up that river.”

Okay, that sounded incredibly difficult. Not that I couldn’t swim, but swimming upstream, underwater for what sounded like a prolonged period was going to be impossible.

That was if I didn’t have magic. “I can buy or use any tools to do this?” I asked.

“Of course! You can’t hold your breath or breathe underwater. Actually…” Ruby dug around and pulled out a necklace with a blue opal dangling from it. “Sorry, it isn’t very manly, but it does have water breathing on the stone, you just have to put the stone in your mouth with part of it touching the water and you can breathe.”

I took it from her, the stone about the size of my thumb, a beautiful thing, but as she said, not exactly something I’d normally wear.

“Master.” Sylvia’s tone came out pleading. “You don’t have to do this.”

I looked at the necklace in my hand and back at Ruby. “What will the ring do if I do this?”

She smiled. “The rings will form a bond between the two wearing them. You’ll always be able to find each other and be able to have a sense for what the other is thinking. It will bring any intimacy to a whole new level too.”

“That doesn’t sound so impressive.” While an interesting effect, it wasn’t exactly exciting for me.

“But the best part is there is no range, no blocking this effect. If either of you are in trouble, the other will be able to come help. Not to mention if you were say separated by a whole nation you’d be able to affirm your love for each other.”

“You mean I’d be able to communicate with her even if I went back to Rindall.”

“Yes.”

Okay, that had my attention. While not critical to my journey. Such a boon would make both of us very happy in the long run. It wasn’t like I could give her a phone call in this world.

“Fine I’ll do it.”

“Good. This will be an exciting project. I get to make Cleopatra’s wedding ring.”

“Wait, you are going now?” Kelly hissed.

“No time like the present, and I have a few hours before I should head back to the palace for dinner. In and out, no problem, right?” But even as I said it, those words felt wrong.