After a long, heavy minute of silence, the man looked at the empty bottle as if it were a holy relic. He raised his head, his glowing eyes fixed on Thomas. "Hey mate, do you have more of these up there or what?"
Thomas exhaled a cloud of tension he hadn't realised he was holding. "Sure, there are tons of these here," he replied, quickly shifting into his 'Merchant King' persona. He forced himself to sound nonchalant, even slightly bored. "But there are rules and regulations to follow. A vintage like that can't be offered for free twice."
"I understand," the man said, his voice dropping an octave. Thomas braced himself, fearing the man would baulk at the price. He cursed his own greed—was he pushing too hard, too fast?
But the man continued, "The problem is... I don't carry any money with me in this world. I don't even have any artefacts on hand to exchange with you."
