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de Rolo men are not allowed to be in charge of their own gold.
de Rolo men are not allowed unsupervised access to the Whitestone Vault.
de Rolo men are not allowed to be treasurer of city funds.
These are rules and habits instilled upon the boys of the family as soon as they have any concept of what money actually is.
de Rolo men of the past have had problems with; not knowing how much items are actually supposed to cost, cases of overzealous charity in the name of Pelor, making deals they don't fully understand with people they shouldn't trust, and on three separate occasions, spanning a close to two hundred year timeline, almost bankrupting the city during games of cards or games of chance, played with visiting nobles.
de Rolo men are not good with their gold but the are good at finding people to trust their money with. Generally relying on their mothers or older sisters when they are young and later trusting their wives with their gold and with their hearts.
Percival Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III is proud to be generally good with his gold. After all, he survived this long on his own. He's learned how to haggle. He is quite smart, is suspicious of most, and won't be swindled.
Compared to him, Vex'ahlia is a master.
The first time he sees her haggle, only a few hours after being freed from his jail cell he is convinced she is playing a joke on him and that the shopkeeper is in on it.
After leaving the shop with all of the items they wanted after she paid the woman the agreed upon price that just doesn't seem likely.
Outside the shop, he does the calculation in his head. She just purchased quite a number of things, which as a grand total, cost the party less than the most expensive item included in the purchase is actually worth.
He is just so impressed and at the same time in complete shock.
Vex'ahlia breaks his concentration and smiles at him while tossing the set of leather armor, that was purchased specifically for him, at his head.
After catching it, he stops short just to watch her as she distributes the rest of the items among the party.
Feeling wonderful after eating the best meal he's had in weeks, he bumps into Vex'ahlia on the second-floor landing of the inn where they have rooms for the night. He stops her from continuing downstairs.
He's watched her closely the last few hours and has made his decision.
This woman cares, she can be relied on and trusted, which is why he wants to give her every gold and silver piece he has. He doesn't even know the total of what he'll be handing over.
They only thing he says to her in that moment, "I trust you with this."
She nods as a response, not quite understanding until he takes his coin pouch from his side.
He passes her the pouch and their fingers touch, sending a blush to his cheeks and down his neck, along with thoughts that he chooses not to linger on in front of her.
Leaving quickly after that, he is satisfied to know that he made the right choice.
A feeling of certainty settles in his gut that night as he falls asleep. Now alone, he lets his mind wander back to the first thoughts he's had about his family in ages that wasn't about revenge.
Is this how father felt after he gave mother the key to the Whitestone vault for the first time?
He gives Vex'ahlia what little gems he has the next morning.