*Discontinued* No Longer

Mr. Grumpy Wields a Knife

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**Era Damon White

They went down from floor twenty seven to floor negative three, the elevators producing no more noise than the faint sound of friction caused as the pulley system supporting the lift operated. It was quieter than the usual elevator, Era could tell that much from varied memories he'd gotten from various sources. This was likely due to it being run on magic.

On exiting, he was greeted by a sign in English. It had "Hall of Records" with an arrow pointing left, directly below it was "The Full Directory of Wizards" with a forward facing arrow, and beneath that was "Staff Reassignment" with an arrow pointing to the right corridor. Under this last line however, what was meant to be taken as a decorative embellishment was a line of Falnock.

It seemed such was the norm in Gringotts, as it happened so often. The goblins would hide their actual truths directly beneath the wizards' noses, but the wizards were far too self-centered to realize it.

{Go right for speedier services. Cursebreaking, account care, identity management, and investment consultation are on this level.}

"You truly are the more intelligent species. The wizards are absolute fools, too his up to see their surroundings clearly."

"Which is truly appreciated in situations such as these."

Era strolled down the right corridor beside Iliam, walking  slowly enough that the goblin and him were of a pace so that he could keep up on his far shorter legs.

After walking down a short way, they entered the second door on the left, which had a bronze plaque reading 'Shortfang Mendan' on it.

A staggering array of shelves, piled with boxes upon boxes of files that were meticulously arranged greeted them. The room would have looked neat, and for the most part it did, but there was simply too much stuff in the room for it to be considered neat by most standards.

They continued into the room, and after getting through part of the maze-like shelves, a massive polished oak desk with a thousand perfectly arranged papers stacked on it cam into view. 

A very small goblin, perhaps two feet tall, stood on the stool behind it with his hand seeming to fly over sheets of paper, leaving uniformly perfect lines of Falnock written in his quill's wake.

"Hello Shortfang. I have granted Era here freedom of proper speech, which also extends to you. I've come to get the young princeling here set up with an official identity. Have you the time to assist?"

"Dear cousin" he said, using an overtly sarcastic tone on the word 'dear',"I am incredibly busy. I don't see why you insisted on dragging the young-prince, did you say?-well, I don't see why you had to bring him to me. Let's just get this over with. The sooner it's done, the sooner you'll leave."

Shortfang hopped to the ground, taking a sheet from a stack on the desk seemingly at random before walking briskly to a medium sized but short legged square table. He set the sheet down on the edge nearest him and arranged it slanted to what seemed to Era a random angle.

"Well princeling, I don't have all day. Get over here!"

Doing as he was bid, Era walked quickly to the table, his long strides easily eating up the distance until he to stood by the paper. Shortfang withdrew a sharp silver dagger with a ruby pommel and polished black leather hilt from a concealed fold in his clothing. Era had seen this next part in people's memories before.

"Arm out over the paper."

He complied, kneeling so that his arm was both more easily accessible to the much shorter goblin and closer to the paper. Wielding the blade with a practiced ease speaking to years of experience, he cut a neat slice into Era's finger.