Unbound

Chapter Ninety One - 091

Fifteen minutes later, Felix found the smithy. A wide but squat building, built of dark, heavy stones, it was unlike the rest of the mostly wooden buildings around them. The roof was tiled with red clay, and a lacquered sign hung from a peg above the door. It featured a series of squiggles below a huge furnace filled with a blazing white flame.

Obvious enough, Felix smiled. If it weren't, the plume of dark smoke rising from a large chimney would have been.

The door opened on well greased hinges, and immediately Felix was hit with a wall of sound. Inside, the air was filled with the scent of char and hot metal, an odd mineral note that Felix couldn't quite place. And it was very warm, at least twenty degrees hotter than the summer air outside. It wasn't uncomfortable to Felix, not exactly, but he was very aware of the heat pressing against him like a big blanket. The one and only room of the smithy was divided into three sections. The first was what Felix would call the customer area, where people like him waited or browsed through a selection of arms and armor along the walls. And there were plenty of those. The left wall had suits of chainmail and scalemail, even a fully articulated set of plate, all made of shiny steel. The right wall was covered in swords, hammers, spears, halberds, and many others that Felix could not name without aid of his Eye.

Two counters divided the room, one on the left and one on the right, each seemingly dedicated to armor or weapons. Beyond them was the real show, where several Dwarves labored over anvils and steaming barrels of liquid. Perhaps six or seven of them were packed into the work area, each focused on some portion of the smithing process. A Dwarven woman, perhaps five feet tall with brilliant red hair, crowed as she lifted a piece of metal from her anvil and stuck it into the large forge in the back. Said forge dominated the entire back of the building. A white fire blazed in its depths, and even from the front of the shop, Felix felt the threat of its heat.

Turning toward the front, the red-haired Dwarf smiled at him. "What can I help you with?"

Felix started, caught staring at the white flames. He smiled in turn and nodded. "I couldn't help noticing your forge. The fire is beautiful."

The Dwarf paused and quirked her head to the side. "That's different than the usual lines I get."

Felix blinked and immediately blushed as he suddenly noticed the smith's fully covered but curvy figure. "What? Oh, no. I'm-uh--"

"You Humans, always so easy to crank up," the Dwarven woman laughed. She waved at him. "Don't worry about it. I could tell you actually appreciate the forge itself, not the sweaty Dwarven gal heaving around hot metal."

She winked at him and Felix decided he wanted to die, just a little. Clearing his throat, he focused on looking anywhere but at her. "I uh, Jacinda sent me to see you. Said you could help me get some armor."

"Jacinda, eh?" A rougher voice came from behind him, and Felix turned to see another Dwarven woman walk into the smithy with a heavy burlap sack. She had dark brown hair and darker eyes, and was even shorter than the redhead. "You got money, right? That old softy is always sendin' us charity cases!"

The burlap sack hit the ground with a muffled thump Felix could feel from six feet away. The dark-haired Dwarf eyed him up and down, clearly not impressed. Felix smiled at her.

"Yes. I have money. Plenty of crowns. I'm--"

"Crowns?" The dark-haired Dwarf grinned, and Felix felt a twang of apprehension over his bond. She eyed him and his clothes up and down, though she frowned a bit at his canvas jacket. "You've money to spare, right? Or did you spend it all on your fancy clothes and satchel?"

"I have--" he narrowed his eyes. "I have enough."

The dark-haired Dwarf laughed, not unkindly. Then she paused. Her eyes were arrested by his feet, and Felix realized she was looking at his Far-Afield Boots. "That metal...how'd a boy barely past level 15 end up with those boots?"

Felix fought hard not to show his surprise. What did she see when she looked at him? He Eyed himself, something he hadn't considered doing before. He felt a strong resistance and naturally didn't push past it.

Name: ???

Race: Human

Level: 15

HP: 194/194

SP: 153/188

MP: 220/220

Lore: Humans are multitudinous on the Continent. They are statistically weaker than most Races, especially at lower levels.

Strength: Stronger than average for level.

Weakness: Slower than average for level.

The amulet doesn't just hide, it gives me a fake ID! That's cool. He was annoyed that he hadn't thought to check before. When he realized the Dwarf was still waiting for an answer, he cleared his throat and thought fast.

"These old things? A dead aunt left them to me. She was crazy but she had some nice things." He smiled and, distantly, he thought he could hear a muffled scream of rage.

"Crazy huh?" The Dwarven smith straightened up and narrowed her eyes at Felix. "She didn't tell you what those were?"

"No? Are they valuable?" Felix played it as dumb as he could. Of course he had no idea of the boots' value, but as a reward for defeating the Maw? They had to be special, somehow. "They're quite comfortable, which is all I care about. Any armor I have I'd like to tailor it around them, if that's possible. Though if you have something better, then..."

Deception is level 6!

"Better?" The smith sputtered before obviously mastering herself. She pursed her mouth and looked to her side, at the redhead, who nodded. "We can figure something out."

"Indeed we can!" Said the redhead brightly, before putting out her hand. Felix shook it, surprised at the gentleness of her grip. "I'm Eldruna, and this hag is Rafny."

The dark-haired Dwarf spat to the side, still eyeing his boots.

Felix smiled and looked around at the room. "Nice to meet you both. You own this place? It's amazing." He pointed to the armor and weapons on the walls. "You made all of this?"

"Oh yes, with our own two hands. I work on armor, while Rafny does the weapons shaping." Eldruna beamed, clearly pleased at his compliments. She gestured to him and pursed her lips. "Do you have an armor Skill? Light Armor Mastery, Medium, like that?"

"Oh, no. Never worn the stuff. Figured I'd change that." Felix shrugged. "Dangerous world out there."

"Never worn--" Rafny raised an eyebrow. "You a mage?"

Felix opened his mouth, paused, and then nodded. "Yeah. More Mana Skills than anything else."

Eldruna frowned, eyeing his shoulders and torso. "Hold still, I just have to..."

Like she's grabbing a handful of air in front of Felix, she tightened her fist and threw it to the ground. A shaky image formed from heat haze and smoke, slowly steadying into a holographic replica. Felix gawked in surprise, and his replica did the same thing. It's like a mirror spell.

"Illusion magic?" He looked to Eldruna, who nodded with a smirk.

"Just a bit. Armorsmithing Skill called Smoke and Mirrors. Quite useful for figure out a customer's needs without all that measuring and changing." She flicked her hands to the side and suddenly illusory Felix was wearing a set of chainmail. "No, that's no good. Metal doesn't quite suit you."

She flicked again, her hands moving through options so fast his double appeared to be wreathed in smoke and flame. Ringmail, scalemail, splintmail, even half-plate and a full set of articulated plate armor. Nothing seemed to satisfy Eldruna's eye. She pelted him with a series of questions ranging from his favorite foods to his flexibility. Each question was clearly of some importance to her, though Felix couldn't tell how. Eventually the questions blurred as much as the illusory options, the late afternoon sunlight filtering in through a high window and distracting him. It reflected off something metal and flashed golden across his eyes, leaving a deep blue afterimage that persisted no matter how he blinked.

He suddenly felt...uneasy, for some reason. As if something were brushing gently against him, something he couldn't see or even really sense. He tried to put it out of his mind, steady himself and listen, but it continued. Lingering. Like a--

"You look strapping, fer a Human. You a Guilder?"

"Hm? What?" he blinked the blue and gold flashes from his eyes and played back what Rafny was asking. "Uh no. I'm not."

"Tch. Shame. Coulda used a Guilder to get us some supplies from the Domain." A steady rasp came from her hands, busy as she was guiding a whetstone along a short sword.

Felix blinked, coming back into the conversation completely. "The what?"

"Domain?" Rafny gave him a lopsided smile. "Big fuck-off lair beneath the city? What, this your first day?"

"Ease off, Rafny. He seems like a nice boy. Nicer than the usual riff-raff that old Half-Elf sends our way." Eldruna turned back toward Felix and dismissed her illusion. "She's right though. From what I can tell, if you want a great set of armor--great mind you--you'll need better raw materials than we have now. Our supplies are tragically low, what with the...issues at both gates."

Felix made an 'ah' sound and nodded.

"See? Even the new boy has run afoul of the bastards!" Rafny snarled, drawing sparks from her blade. "Yyero blight the Inquisition."

"Watch it, Raf," warned Eldruna in a sharp tone. "The walls have ears."

Rafny snorted in reply, but she didn't say any more.

Eldruna turned back to Felix. "If you do join the Guild and go into the Domain, make sure to collect any metal or cores you find. We'll pay you very well for them."

"Failin that," Rafny said as she tested her short sword's edge against a leather strap. It sliced a thin piece off, like butter. "We'll have some better metals in a week or so. Somethin' in your price range, yeah?"

Eldruna smiled. "Come back in a week. We're waiting on resupply from the Verdant Pass. It should be here by then. Hopefully."

As Felix left, he spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about illusion magic. The Skills he'd seen on display, Eldruna's Smoke and Mirrors and Thangle's serpent mirage both seeded within him a sense of wonder. Something he hadn't felt in a while now. He'd spent so much time surviving that even the miraculous things he could do himself had come to feel...not drab, exactly. Common. Everyday. Whether that was true or not.

But illusions...Felix found himself yearning for more magic, more secrets, more Skills that he could explore. Thangle's offer was more tempting than ever, and he resolved to visit the Gnome soon.

He walked through the late afternoon crowds with an anticipatory smile on his face. His next destination was the bookstore, called the Elder Crown by Jacinda. It was located deeper into the Wall Quarter, where the foot traffic decreased by a large margin. However the amount of wagons and carriages that moved through the streets only rose. From what he'd been overhearing, the Wall Quarter and the southernmost section, the Crafter's Quarter, were the busiest in terms of traffic. Which made sense, as he'd been told most of the businesses were in those two quarters. The Dust and Sunrise Quarters were more residential, though of significantly different social climates. Jacinda had described the Sunrise as "upstart noble bootlickers," but that just sounded like upper middle class to Felix.

Haarwatch, as he'd noted before, was a tiered city, rising up and up toward the center. At the center was the Eyrie, the Guild Hall and home of the Elder Council as well as the Governor. Surrounding them, in elaborate mansions, were the nobility and higher ranked Guilders. The difference, Quarter to Quarter, was apparently moot there. So even within the Dust Quarter, the closer to the center you got, the higher your social standing became. Or because it was higher, you could move further inward. Either way, it had everything to do with money.

Haves, thought Felix as a dark green coach rattled by him. Inside were a number of well to do figures, dressed in silks and lace. Only paces away were three homeless folk, begging for coin. And have-nots. Same as everywhere else.

Felix frowned and quick as he could, tossed a silver into each of the beggar's raggedy hats. He was fast enough that his hands were just a blur, and by the time they noticed it he was already gone. It wasn't much to Felix, but he'd been through rough times before and knew any amount could help.

Despite the crowds and ever-present dust, Felix found the bookstore easily enough. It was small like many of the Dust-side shops. Still, it had a certain charm. Brick and exposed wooden beams proliferated, and it was one of the only shops he had seen with a large glass window. Through it he could see a bevy of bound tomes and scrolls. It was small, quaint, and almost cozy seeming. There was no sign for the business, but a nine pronged star was carved from stone and placed above the lintel of the doorway.

Interesting. He'd seen a star like that before, in Shelim and other places. It might mean nothing, but then again....

Felix entered the shop.

A bell sounded above him, rattling on it's coiled metal spring, and Felix was treated to the sight of shelves upon shelves of books. Bound pages were stacked in corners, in nooks, vertically and horizontally along shelves and ledges. Anywhere a book could fit, it did. And the smell. Felix closed his eyes and breathed it in. It was faintly woody, with hints of old almonds and the barest touch of something sweet he couldn't identify. It was a scent that was both familiar and alien, so much like his books at home yet tinged with something else.

On the far side of the room was a counter and a small bell. Slowly, so as not to knock over any of the many precarious towers of books, Felix picked his way across the store. There were a few close calls, but Felix was deft enough to slip through the maze without incident. However, just as he was reaching the counter, close enough to ring the bell, he heard a sound.

*coo*

Felix hesitated, hand over the bell, and slowly turned his head back...and up. Above the books and shelves, there an absolute forest of exposed rafters. Atop those, perched birds. Hundreds of them, of all shape and size. From robin to barn owl, they sat still and silent above him.

All of them were watching him.

Whooooa, no. That's too many birds, Felix gulped before looking back down at the books. Why isn't there poop everywhere?

"Yes yes! I am here!"

The voice was loud and boisterous, no-nonsense in a bright and jovial sort of way, were that possible. And it was, remarkably. A woman perhaps in her sixties came out from a back room, the door to which Felix hadn't spotted before. It had been almost completely obscured by another leaning tower of books. The woman was familiar, or at least her coloration was: sea-green hair tied neatly back into a bun, and dull ochre skin. She was a Naiad, further confirmed by his Eye.

Name: Zara Cyrene

Race: Naiad

Level: ???

HP: ???/???

SP: ???/???

MP: ???/???

Lore: Naiads are descendants of the primordial elements of creation, namely the spirits of fresh water. Considered capricious at the best of times.

Strength: ???

Weakness: ???

Felix had felt no resistance to his query, so assumed it was likely the level difference that caused Voracious Eye to fail. Zara fixed him with a bright blue eye, squinting. Though there was no gray in her hair, her face was traced with lines at the corners of her eyes and mouth. Laugh lines, hopefully.

"Little Human. What do you want?"

She was not bigger than Felix, in fact was rather slight. Yet he couldn't argue with her presence, which pressed against his senses slightly. How escaped him, though Felix had experienced the sensation before multiple times. Her mouth was filled with triangular shark teeth, and grinned when she noticed his attention.

"Little Human came to stare at the terrifying Naiad, hm?" She leaned forward, and Felix leaned back almost instinctively.

"No, no, that's not it. Jacinda sent me. She said you had the only good bookstore outside the Librarium--"

"Fu was venna!" She suddenly spat. "This is no Librarium, little Human. It is a place of business. Do you have business with me?"

"Uh yeah," Felix was taken aback, but pushed forward. He'd been through worse than social anxiety. "Jacinda, from the Drum Tank? She said to come to you--"

"Ah! My help! Yes, good! You've come just in time." She clapped her hands and laughed. A sudden immense ruffling sounded above them. Felix flinched and looked up, but the birds had not moved an inch. "Just got some new crates in, and you're...good enough."

She grabbed his arm lifted a section of the counter, pulling him back beyond it in the same motion. She was very strong.

"Your help? I didn't come for--" Felix pulled back, but Zara's grip was like iron. "What are you--Where are we going?"

"This way, this way. My you're a heavy one, aren't you? Don't step on the books. Careful!" She guided him beyond a few more tilted towers and into the back room. Said room opened up expansively, nearly the same size as the shopfront itself and filled with crates of various sizes. The air was filled with the earthly perfume of newly cut lumber.

"Here," she handed him a crowbar and pointed at a small section of crates, these no larger than four by four foot square. "Open those crates, move the contents inside the shop, and find a place for them."

Felix looked at the crates, quickly counting all eight of them, before turning back to find Zara already walking out.

"Hey! How am I supposed to do this? Why--?"

"You do some work, I teach you what I can. No such thing as a free meal kid," she stepped out the door before turning back and grinning her shark grin. "Anyone who says otherwise is lying."

Zara waved and kept walking, disappearing from sight. A distinct jangling bell sounded before the sound of a slamming door made him realize she had actually left.

"But I can't read..." He looked down at the crates. "How the hell am I supposed to do this?"

Pushing down his frustration, Felix breathed deep. He flared his Meditation and focused on his problem. He had a corner full of work to do, or else he wasn't going to get what he needed.

"Right," he clapped his hands together and walked forward. He was going to do what he came here to do. "Time to learn."