“Huh,” I muttered, sniffing the gold coin in my hand just to be sure. “This one doesn’t smell like magic.”
“Let me see.” Eyes narrowed, Fenris held out a hand for the coin, and I pressed it into his palm. He sniffed it as well, and his lips thinned. “This coin wasn’t produced by the Mages Guild.”
“Then where was it produced?’
Fenris shrugged. “I can’t say what foundry was used, but the metal was mined naturally, not transmuted, which is illegal under Federation law. It is also not easy, as most of the known mines are located on inaccessible tribal lands.”
“Oh.” My eyebrows arched at the implication. There were a number of indigenous tribes scattered across the Northia Federation, remnants of the civilization that used to exist here before people from across the Eastern Ocean had migrated over here, and taken over large parts of their lands. Mining was shunned by these tribes as they saw little to no use for precious stones and metals, and most of them guarded their territory fiercely. This benefitted the Federation, since they wanted to keep the mines off limits, and their citizens well away from temptation.
“Let’s keep looking, and place any other such coins in a pile over there.” Fenris placed the coin in his hand on the far end of the table, signifying where the pile should start.
By the time we finished going through all of Fenris’s coins, we had small stack of illegal gold coins – five in total, out of eighteen. The number was alarming, and I wondered just how long this would have had to be going on for this many of the coins to get into circulation.
“Well, at least we know why the bank doesn’t seem to have a problem giving away all this money,” Fenris said, his lips thinning. “It’s counterfeit.”
“Is it?” I asked dubiously, holding up a gold coin. “I mean, it’s made out of the same stuff, isn’t it? Technically it should be even more valuable since it’s the real thing and not mage-made. Not to mention it would still cost a pretty penny to produce, from the mining costs to the actual minting. I still don’t see how banks could just afford to give this stuff away.”
Fenris scowled. “Maybe so, but production of money like this is prohibited by law, and therefore the term ‘counterfeit’ still applies.” He shook his head, chagrined. “The Mages Guild should be checking on this sort of thing, and regularly.”
“I guess that’s just one more thing to add to the list,” I said dryly. It would be a lot easier if they hired a shifter to weed out counterfeits, but I doubted they would listen to me if I suggested it. Knowing my luck the stingy bastards might dump the job on me instead.
“Indeed.” Fenris jumped to his feet, eyes sparking with ire, and I blinked. I’d never seen him this incensed before. “I will speak to Iannis about this at once. These pesky humans are getting out of hand, and this abuse needs to be stopped immediately. Good morning, Sunaya.”
And with that, he strode out of the room, leaving me staring after him.
13
I spent the rest of the afternoon at the Mages Guild slogging through paperwork, so by the time I walked out the front doors of the Palace I was almost looking forward to the Shifter Royale. Maybe if I was going to watch mages instead of shifters I would have been more enthusiastic. It would probably be educational to watch a couple of mage duels, actually. But even if I wasn’t thrilled about attending the Royale itself, I was looking forward to the opportunity of finding out whether or not the missing shifters were ending up in these illegal fights.
I parked my bike near my apartment, then changed into a tight black halter dress and a pair of ankle boots – the less I had to change myself for the illusion, the less magic I would have to expend. I then hoofed it over to the Enforcer’s Guild, which was less than twelve blocks from where I lived. By the time I got there, Lakin and Annia were already standing by the front doors, chatting amicably enough. I arched my brows at the sight of the huge purple and white steamcar parked in the middle of the lot, ten feet from where they were standing.
“Well look at you,” Lakin murmured as he caught sight of me, his reddish-yellow eyes looking me up and down. They lingered on the ample amount of cleavage I was showing, and I felt a blush sting my cheeks. “You clean up well.”
“Thanks.” I turned toward Annia, hoping to change the subject – encouraging Lakin’s flattery really wasn’t a good idea. “You borrowed your mom’s car?”
Annia shrugged. “I figured it was easier than having all three of us show up on steambikes.” She looped an arm around my waist, grinning a little as she tugged me close. “Besides, I don’t want your hair getting messed up for our second date.”