Stella returned to the General Counting Room twenty minutes later wearing a distant gaze. She slipped behind the counter and placed down a small velvet bag. It took her a moment to collect herself. Luci and Wip both held their breath, half expecting Stella to explode.

“So,” Stella said, “I spoke to a member of the Empyrean Guild. They have an exchange across from us where they handle pre-tax trades. And…”

She pulled on the velvet bag’s drawstrings. She tipped the bag over and a bunch of crystals came tumbling out. They were all shaped like dodecahedrons and beefy in diameter, about five centimetres. A teal glow pulsed gently from their centre.

“They bought it for five dan.”

Luci leaned forward in her chair to better gawk at the crystals. She hadn’t seen this much money in, well, three whole months, ever since she ran away from home. “Five thousand kin? For that?”

“Yep.” Stella took a deep breath, then her face twisted into a scowl. “I got ripped off!” she howled.

“Right,” Luci said. “Those guild cronies are always up to—wait, what?”

“That thing was a legit teleporting core,” Stella said. “I saw the readings. I know they were good because they’ve got the accurate, high-tech stuff there, unlike this junk!”

She picked up one of the trays on her scale and tossed it. The disk whizzed through the air then curved, making a path for Wip’s face. Rather than dodge, Wip opened his mouth and caught the tray with his teeth. Luci clapped at his performance.

An agonised howl ripped from Stella’s throat. She grabbed her cat ears and scrunched them. “I could have got an easy ten thousand for it. That grupp head knew I couldn’t say no since I didn’t have enough kin to pay the taxes.”

Wip spat the tray out of his mouth and it clattered to the floor. He slammed a fist into his palm and electricity arced through his hands. “Who do I beat up?”

Stella thrust a finger at him. “You!”

Wip looked behind him, saw nobody, then realised that he was in trouble again. He turned to Luci for reassurance. Wanting to stay out of this drama, she grabbed a cup of water she’d kept tucked between her legs on her seat, which Wip had got for her earlier, and made a show of drinking from it.

“Do you know why this happened?” Stella continued.

“Um… carrion crows?” Wip said.

“It’s because you didn’t bring back any crystals!”

Wip’s eyes glazed over as he tried to work out the logic behind it.

Luci narrowed her eyes. “Mr. Wip, you do know how taxes work, right?”

“Yes, I do,” he said, completely serious. “They make your money disappear.”

Luci opened her mouth to disagree, then closed it. Stella slapped a hand to her face.

“It’s how the city funds itself,” Stella explained. “The main source of money in this world comes from dungeons like the one in Anypaxia. There are twelve dungeons on the continent of Qual and these are the only places where you can get crystals and aftocores. Well, aside from Morgul Gul at the centre of the continent, but the war with the monsters there is way too intense. Dungeoneers get almost no loot from Morgul Gul because they’re too busy trying not to die.

“Now, rather than tax some poor farmers for their hard work, Logos directly taxes whatever is found in the Empire’s three dungeons. In Anypaxia, that works by regulating what goes in and out of the Ravelin. That’s why when you walk in, you have to register all your gear.”

Wip nodded. “So that’s why they ask me to empty my bag every time I come here.”

“What did you think they were doing?” Luci asked.

“I thought they were admiring!” Wip announced, flashing his teeth.

Stella shook her head. “Anyway, when you walk out of the Ravelin, they check you again. Fail to comply or leave with anything that hasn’t been ticked off by a fence, and you get a fine.” She pinched the calcite badged pinned to her skirt. “And the people obligated to pay those taxes are us, the fences. We don’t do it here, of course. DARA—the Dungeon Administration and Remuneration Agency—has an office in the fort proper.”

“But why does so much of my money disappear?” Wip said.

Stella folded her arms and glared at Wip. “Because you don’t bring back any crystals, idiot.”

Wip cocked an eyebrow at Luci, seeking an explanation from her, but Luci only shrugged. Stella glared at Wip like she wanted to strangle him.

“It’s because I’m Kin ranked, the lowest rank. Which is not my fault, by the way,” Stella shouted, facing Luci. She moderated her voice again. “And yes, our ranks are named after the different types of currency that comes from dungeons. So Kin is the lowest rank, then it goes Pira, Cet, Dan, Iko, Siv, and Mith.

“Anyway, the way it’s supposed to work is that lower ranked fences pull worse dungeoneers. Both higher ranked dungeoneers and fences will tend to work with each other because their rank indicates that they’re both better at their jobs.”

“So, I should be the highest rank,” Wip said, folding his arms. “A-class!”

“S-class,” Stella corrected him. “And no, your rank is definitely too high. What DARA needs to do is create an F-class specifically for you.”

Stella rolled one of the large kin on the counter. “Look, there are two reasons why high ranked dungeoneers stick with high ranked fences. The first is the quality of loot. Low-level aftocores aren’t that fantastic and less expensive crystals like kin are rarely, if ever, used by the wealthy. It’s too tedious hauling bags of crystals around, you know? So this creates a strong incentive to get dungeoneers to bring back more expensive loot. It makes sense to cut taxes for these people. After all, they benefit the people who make these policies.”

She wrapped her hands around the dan she was playing with and the dull light ebbing off it was sealed away. “The second reason is corruption. Bigger guilds have more money and influence, so they’ve worked things into their favour. For example, there’s a law in Anypaxia that we fences refer to as the Loophole Law. It lets guilds pay a lump sum at the end of each quarter at the lowest tax rate of ten percent. At least, they’re supposed to, but we all know they get away with a lot less.”

Luci scoffed. “Those guild jerks always get what they want.”

Stella placed the dan she held onto the counter and eyed her sideways. “Everyone is corrupt, Luci. The powerful folks just get away with it.”

The fence’s shoulders sagged. Her tail curled up and wrapped around her waist. “You know what? I don’t care anymore. Even if I got ripped off, this is still the most money I’ve made in two weeks. Everything else Wip has earned me has basically gone to paying overdue bills, so I need this. You know what? I’m going to get a nice bottle of gin and try to enjoy myself.”

She rolled a single dan across the counter. “Luci, this is yours. Give me a second to update your ticket.”

Luci stared at the bulky crystal in disbelief. It had been a long day. It had been an even longer three months. She was tired, miserable, and felt completely gross after everything she’d been through. And now, she was being offered something she didn’t deserve. It was too much.

She sniffled. Nobody noticed, so she sniffled a little louder. Stella and Wip turned to her and she pushed herself out of her chair with a groan. She bowed as low has her tired legs allowed her, pressing Lunacogita firmly to her waist. “Thank you for this opportunity, Ms. Stella, but I don’t think this is appropriate.”

Stella furrowed her brows. “What are you talking about?”

“I—the truth is, I was deadweight. I held Mr. Wip back. He had to save me more than once and…” Luci’s hands tightened around her staff. She took a deep, shuddering breath. “I nearly killed Mr. Wip.”

“Ah, it’s not that big a deal,” Wip said, grinning. “Lots of people have tried to kill me.”

“If anything, that makes it worse!” Luci cried. “It means I’m only adding to your problems. Both of you. I mean, you’re both so capable and I’m just a princess playing at hero.”

“What are you talking about?” Stella said. “You went into the dungeon, didn’t you? And you fought monsters, right? Doesn’t that make you a dungeoneer?”

“Barely!” Luci cried. She pushed her head down a little further. Her legs trembled under her weight. “But I’m nothing like you and Mr. Wip. I’m—I’m useless. It’s like I’m floundering at the bottom of a well, and every time I try to climb, my feet slip and I always wind up at the bottom. And you know what? I’m done trying to climb. This is just where I belong, okay?”

“Okay, okay,” Stella said. She picked up Luci’s dan, circled the counter, and walked over to Luci. She held her palm out, offering the crystal to Luci. “That’s great and everything, Luci, but fences must ensure their dungeoneers are paid. So, unless Wip decides to take it for you…”

Stella shot a death stare at Wip, daring him to do it. Wip, however, didn’t notice. He was was too busy scratching at his collar. Stella nodded in satisfaction.

Stella held out the crystal to Luci. “No, you earned this dan. Take it.”

Luci bowed a little deeper. Tears were bubbling to the surface. She refused to make eye contact. “I apologise, but I must refuse.”

Stella frowned at the crystal in her hand. “Luci, why don’t understand? I’m trying to give you money. Just take it. You look like you could use it.”

“Why don’t you understand?” Luci wailed. “I don’t deserve it. I don’t deserve any of this. All I do is hurt people. I’m never going to be useful on your crawls and I’m never going to be a good dungeoneer.”

Her eyes stung. Each word she spoke took a weight off her soul equal to her guilt, but that weight was her armour. She felt more and more vulnerable as she admitted her mistakes. “You could have accepted the reward from my family. You would have been able to retire from this messy business and lived a happy life. So why? Why are you all being so nice to me? I don’t deserve it.”

Luci sucked back her tears. She refused to cry in front of Wip and Stella. She held out a trembling hand. “Please. Just give me my phone and ticket and forget I ever existed.”

Stella withdrew her hand and clenched it around the dan. “Forget you exist, huh?” She huffed, turned, then walked back to her place behind the counter. She slammed the dan onto the countertop and dropped into her chair. She refused to look at Luci. “Sure, whatever. I guess this is my punishment for thinking I could ever catch a break.”

She took a tablet out from under the counter and tapped on the screen. Luci waited patiently, knowing that if she spoke now she’d only make things more complicated. A minute later, Stella took a phone out and placed it on the far end of the counter. Luci’s phone. Without another word exchanged between the two of them, and with Wip watching on silently, Luci took it and walked out the room.