VII.

"But what for art thou squeezing it? It won't get you any further along, I can assure."

"You think I should be doing it with mine eyes alone?"

"You're biting it!? Stop that, it's not made of steel!"

"You humans are so soft and sensitive... Even your coins can't stand up to the slightest distress."

Lawrence wearily put a hand on his face. It was nearly three hours past midnight, and his heady, inebriated sense of oneness with all that was good in life had evaporated about an hour before. Horo, however, had insisted that he stay up and teach her all that there was to know about the coins on which so much of their attentions had so recently been focused.

"How many more times must I tell you that you must look at the stamps upon the faces to tell where they are made."

"They are far too similar for that! What sense do your kings have, making all their coins look exactly alike, do they want to be mistaken for one another?"

She was seriously asking him this, and Lawrence wanted nothing more than to just shoo her aside and go to sleep. There are times when one is all too glad to make light of the idiosyncrasies of one's society to a primal forest creature, but late after a night's drinking was not one of them. He just collapsed backward with a sigh onto the flimsy bed he had been sitting upon. Horo deftly leapt onto his torso, straddling him as he let out an exasperated 'oomph.' She stretched her torso down upon his own, only coming up to the base of his neck, and rested her head upon her folded arms. Lawrence covered his eyes with his own arm, and tried to imagine her as a warm, heavy blanket upon him.

"I am far too weary for thy games. Get off so I can sleep."

Horo did not get off him, but instead slid slowly backwards toward his legs. "Hm, how disappointing. Not long ago you had me pressed close against you, now you only want sleep? Such a fickle child you are, you could never be a satisfying mate for a great wolf like me."

Lawrence looked at her from beneath his arm, her tail was wagging jauntily at him and Horo had that overly mischievous smile on her face that now seemed to bring him more anxiety than ease. He had wanted her, and he likely would again; but now was not the time.

"I'll teach you all you can learn about currencies tomorrow, but now I really need to sleep so I will have the wits to do so."

Horo, at last convinced that he truly was in no mood, rose up off his body and went over to her own bed. Lawrence drifted in and out of sleep for some time after as the fire in the room's tiny, rusted out stove grew low and weak, leaving only the moonlight. In his half-sleep, he occasionally would see little glimpses of the room, perhaps only dreamed. Once, he looked to the other side of the room, and saw her lying there. She was running her fingertips through her tail, as she was often wont to do when they were alone, but also for just an instant, he thought he saw a flash of light upon her face, a bright spark that was gone in an instant. As white as the pale moonlight coming in from the window it was, as though it had reflected off of something wet.

Lawrence was feeling better than he thought he would the next morning. The sun was high and bright, making even the dinginess of the room look pleasant and acceptable. From outside, the din of the busy streets just beginning to hit pace was all the encouragement he needed to rise and get ready. Horo had risen far earlier, when the stalls were first opening, dimly making vocal that she wanted something to eat. Observing her over the past few days, he was starting to wonder just how much she actually needed to sleep, for it could not be much at all. Twas really the least of his worries concerning her, however. She returned just as he was dressed, she was munching on one of several tomate-crevettes, of which she was thankfully willing to offer him a share. He wouldn't ask how and when she had gotten the coins for them, for it was certainly too early to start that particular discourse. He also wasn't going to ask her about what he saw last night. He reckoned that it must have been a dream, for she seemed in perfectly high spirits today, and there was no sense in spoiling the good atmosphere if it wasn't.

"It's still a couple of hours before the meeting, do you still want to learn about coinage?"

"Of course I do! How wise a wolf would I be if I did not?"

So they walked together through the crowded streets in the stifling heat of the rising sun. Lawrence hardly paid any notice to his surroundings whatsoever, he was too busy giving Horo an impromptu history, explaining why there was a "Rex Romanus", but still a number of other kings, dukes, electors, and prince-bishops, and various other powers in the world that issued their own coinage which could all be traded on the open markets anywhere (usually). But of course Horo had no interest in the pompous courts of far off monarchs, but wanted to know the easiest way to tell what ducat was what, and what its value in trade was.

"Venice!"

"No, that one was minted in Saxony, look at the writing."

"...Dutch."

"Close, it's from Hamburg."

"...?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, that one is actually Turk. I keep it as a good luck charm."

Before they could fall too deep into enveloping financial revery, they were at the office of the notary. A number of tedious minutes later, they were back out again. The two men said their well-wishing goodbyes and separated, likely for the last time.

"Where is the 'Spain', I hadn't heard of it."

"It's to the southwest, and goes very far in that direction."

It made total and complete sense that it was Spanish currency that would be getting more silver. The Spanish had been bringing in that substance in far greater quantities than had ever been seen in Europe before. Zenobe had related then how he had been working in the silver mines in the far northern deserts of New Spain, but had managed to leave miraculously as a deckhand on a galleon carrying sugar into Antwerp. Lawrence couldn't help but feel a certain emasculation in the face of his experience, he was his senior, and yet he had never been out of their homeland. One day, if he became rich and successful, he might travel to see the untamed wilds of the New World. That would only be a decision carefully considered, however, and he would never dream to take up residence there. It was the land of heroes and madmen, and Zenobe, being neither, had not fared very well there. Though it was sensible, there was one more avenue that Lawrence had previously neglected to explore in this matter, and it was no great joy for him to do it now, as was it earlier.