Chapter 825 - Retrieval of Artifact (1/2)
As promised Rowan arrived at Gringotts with a glamour on her hair and face. Standing in front of the burnished bronze doors are goblin guards in a uniform of scarlet and gold clutching sharp spears. One of the goblins had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard, with very long fingers and feet. The guards in a uniform bow and permit her to step inside to reveal a second pair of silver doors that hold the familiar words,
Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed,
For those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay most dearly in their turn.
So, if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware,
Of finding more than treasure here.
Rowan pays the words no mind as she had no intentions of committing any sort of theft.. Inside the chamber are hundreds of goblins sitting on high stools behind long counters, scribbling in ledgers, weighing coins on brass scales, examining precious stones through eyeglasses, while other goblins were going in and out of hundreds of doors leading people in and out. She walks to a nearby female clerk, who stares at her in confusion until Rowan briefly removes her glamour for only a few seconds.
The female clerk startles in recognition and hurries away to speak to a guard. The guard intently looks up from his post as the female clerk gestures to Rowan, before gesturing for her to follow him. She is ushered to a private room elegantly, but simply furnished. A female goblin attendant hurries inside and says, ”Might I offer Miss Prince anything?”
”I thank you for your hospitality,” Rowan replied in gobbledegook, ”but I am presently satisfied. May gold always be found by your hands.”
The female goblin grins with pŀėȧsurė and replies in gobbledegook. ”Ragnok will shortly arrive, and may gold always find its way to Rowan Prince,” the female attendant returned the greeting, before bowing and shutting the door behind her.
Rowan studied the portrait or rather the unfished outline of a young woman whose face gently gazes downward with loosely drawn disheveled hair hanging down loosely. It was a famous painting called, ”La Scapigliata,” attributed to being a work of Leonardo da Vinci. The museum copy was supposed to be an original, but with magic, well, identical copies can be created.
Whether it was a magical copy or the original, it was irrelevant as Rowan had always found something very compelling about the portrait. There was almost a magical air about the female in the portrait, a witch. There were rumors that Leonardo da Vinci had been a squib. Whether he had been or had not been could not be proven, but he for certain had been friends with witches as he had painted several still portraits of witches including the most famous one of all, a certain Mona Lisa.
The door swung open to reveal the youthful face of Ragnok. Elegantly dressed the pointy-earned goblin, Ragnok tilted in a sincere bow. ”As always may riches flow before you, Miss Prince.”
”And I hope that many riches find their way towards you, Ragnok,” Rowan courtesy replied in Gobbledgook.
Ragnok flashed her a sharp grin as he took a seat before her. ”Your Gobbledegook is nearly flawless, Miss Prince. You speak nearly as well as a goblin,” he truthfully flattered her. He pauses to open the ledger that he had carried into the room with him. His neatly trimmed fingernails tap the pages ensuring all is in proper order before his long fingers cease to move.