Aelariel Silvergleam had left the elven kingdom to find an adventure, and now she stood hungry in the mortal dusk with no idea how to buy bread. She had walked out past the last silver gate that morning, drunk on her own daring. The mortal world smelled of smoke and sweat and cooking meat. Her stomach ached. She had brought no coin, because she had never once needed it. She stopped a woman carrying a basket and asked for food. The woman laughed and walked on. A man selling apples held one out, then closed his fist when Aelariel reached for it. "Copper first," he said. She stared at his empty palm. She did not know what copper was. Night was coming, and no one would feed her, and no roof would open its door. A warm light spilled from a shop across the way. Bright lanterns swung under a painted sign. Weapons hung in one window. Bottles of colored liquid glowed in the other. Aelariel had nothing to lose, so she went in. Behind the counter stood a tabaxi, an orange cat the size of a man, wearing a monk's simple robe. He looked up and his whiskers lifted into a smile. "Well now," he said. "You've got the look of someone lost and starving. Come in, come in. I'm Baulder." Aelariel drew herself tall. "I am Aelariel Silvergleam. I have no copper. I do not know what copper is." Her voice cracked on the last word. Baulder did not laugh. He rounded the counter and pulled out a stool. "Sit. Nobody thinks straight on an empty belly." He pressed warm bread and cheese into her hands. She ate too fast. He watched, delighted, as if her hunger were a gift. "Coin is easy," he said. "You trade something worth having for it. Or you work." His yellow eyes moved to a table of medicinal roots, their red tendrils tangled, blue veins threading dark green leaves. "I need those sorted by tomorrow. Good ones from rotten. My knees are too old to crouch over them." Aelariel touched a leaf. Even in the dim shop the blue veins caught the light. "I know green things," she said. "I grew up among them." "Then we've a bargain." Baulder clapped his paws. "A meal, a corner to sleep in, and honest coin in the morning. You'll learn how mortals live one root at a time." She worked until the lanterns burned low. When she finished, Baulder counted three copper coins into her palm and folded her fingers over them. They were small, dull, and warm from his hand. "Your first coin," he said. "Guard it. There are folk out there who'll want it more than they want you fed." Aelariel closed her fist. She had food, a floor, and three coins. But Baulder's warning stayed with her. Tomorrow she would step back onto those streets alone, and now she carried something worth stealing.