Chapter 97: Worktable Talk

The trip to the city hall came with no unpleasant surprises despite Jadis’ expectations of there being some kind of interference from the magistrate yet again. The caravan rescue from the day previous had been, if nothing else, another big red flag indicating an uptick in demonic activity, what with the bramble fiends showing up in an area of Weigrun they weren’t supposed to be normally.

The streets of Far Felsen were even quieter than they normally were with its evacuation-reduced population. Jadis wasn’t sure why, but there were definitely fewer guards and mercenaries out and about that day. There were, of course, the two guards still following her at a respectful distance. There were also still some merchants and tradesmen going about their normal business. Still, less of a military presence.

No guards or government officials got in her way at the city hall, though, and that suited Jadis just fine. She and Aila were able to turn in their bounties and receive a sizeable number of coins in exchange. The demon eye cores that they delivered weren’t anything special like the grundwyrms or the arcane corruptor of flesh, but they had killed dozens upon dozens of twisted wretches and also had a good number of bramble fiends to turn in as well. Sheer bulk made for a good income.

After the city hall, they headed for the crafter’s quarters near the docks and found Sabina in her usual shared smithy space. It was late morning by then due to their slow start to the day. The crafters in the city were hard workers but it seemed many had taken a break for lunch. Not Sabina, though. She was still banging away with hammer and anvil. Since there was less activity around and inside the workshop, Jadis took the opportunity to duck down and take a look inside the forge. For the first time, Jadis was able to observe the half-elf at work, never having been able to get a good look into the workshop before.

Sabina seemed like a whole different person with a hammer in her hand. Gone were her restless movements and nervous energy. With a look of absolute concentration she pounded a large hammer down on a red-hot lump of steel, folding and shaping it with shocking speed. Each of her hammer strikes were delivered with strength and precision, the powerful movements causing the half-elf’s muscles to shift and flex in mesmerizing ways. In seconds she had turned the lump into a long, thin, perfectly proportioned bar.

Satisfied with the result, she shoved the heated metal back into the large forge to keep it heated and wiped some sweat from her bronzed brow with the back of her arm. Her eyes drifted and she finally noticed Aila and the three giants watching her. Excitement lit up her face as she rushed over, then turned around and rushed back to her anvil to put down her hammer and tongs, then practically sprinted to the quartet.

“How’s it going, Sabina?” Syd called out with a grin as the smith quickly approached. “Hard at work today?”

“Oh yes, very busy!” Sabina replied with her own wide grin. “I’ve been working very hard and getting a lot done and I’m sorry but I couldn’t quite finish your helmets in time for today but I did finish your request for a cage for that demon hatchling you’re carrying around which is still a very odd thing to do and I hope it doesn’t cause you any trouble but I suppose it’s your business and that’s okay as long as you’re taking precautions and it’s not like a hatchling can do much anyways but still I think you’d better be careful so I made you this!”

Once again Sabina released a verbal torrent at Jadis. Fortunately, it was getting easier for her to understand the hyper half-elf each time they spoke. The end result of the run-on sentence was easy enough to gather anyway as the excitable smith pulled a boxy device from under a nearby workbench and thrust it into Syd’s hands.

“I don’t know which one you are but I guess it doesn’t matter for this since it’s a commission for all three of you, not that I’m saying it doesn’t matter who you are because of course all three of you are individuals and shouldn’t be thought of as interchangeable just because you’re identical triplets but I just mean that in this case it doesn’t matter which of you takes this cage since it was meant for the demon hatchling and not as a specific item for just one of you.”

“Thank you, Sabina,” Syd smirked, trying not to laugh at the smith’s awkward and, unknown to her, ironic explanation. She had no desire to offend the girl. She really quite liked her. “This looks way better than what we’re using right now.”

Indeed, the metal box did look far sturdier than a simple glass jar. Shaped like a cube, the cage edges were made of solid steel. The face of each side was made from thick glass and had steel wires running across the front of them in a grid pattern, reinforcing and protecting the glass. The top of the cage was hinged and had a simple latch on it that had a padlock put on.

“Did you make the lock too?” Aila asked, a little bit of surprise coloring her voice.

“No, no, that would have taken a lot more time to make something with pins and springs and tumblers and the key to match so I just bought one that fit well enough when I was buying the glass plates from Zeckia so that kept it simple. I mean, I could have made the lock if I had the time and I probably could have added in some extra security measures to it but this lock is sturdy so it should do alright for the purpose unless you think its not enough in which case I can probably find you something better and—”

“No, this is perfect,” Syd interrupted Sabina gently. “I’m certain the little demon won’t be able to get out of this and I’m not too worried about anyone trying to pick the lock.”

Sabina smiled and sighed in relief before her expression turned suddenly pensive.

“So, you’re not mad that I couldn’t get the helmets done?”

“Why would we be angry about that?” Jay laughed. “The speed at which you made everything else so far is amazing. We can wait a little longer for the helmets.”

“Oh good,” Sabina seemed genuinely relieved by Jay’s words. “I thought you might go to someone else if I couldn’t get these items done quickly and I wouldn’t blame you because I’m really not the best smith in Felsen or even the third best in fact I probably don’t rate the top ten so if you wanted to get your weapons and armor from someone more experienced than me I’d understand.”

“Lucky for you, you’ve earned our brand loyalty,” Jay reassured her. “Good customer service goes a long way.”

“Oh?” Sabina chirped, looking confused but happy. “Well, okay then!”

“We do have other things to discuss with you, though,” Dys called for the half-elf’s attention. “Starting with this shield.”

Dys rapped her knuckles against the huge wooden shield she’d carried with her. She’d propped it up against the open side of the workshop, the towering device reaching the roofline easily. She had placed it so the inner side of the shield was facing them.

“It worked pretty well when we needed to block some bile spray,” Dys started, giving her accounting of how the shield worked in the field, “but it’s also pretty cumbersome. It’s so big, even for me, that I can’t see over the top or around the sides easily. Hard to tell what the enemy is doing on the other side, you know? Also, it’s hard to run with. The weight was no problem, but the size made it awkward to jog with because the edges kept hitting the ground.”

Jadis had been a little worried that her criticisms of the shield would be met with some melodramatic show of despair and disappointment from the smith, but other than a thoughtful frown, Sabina didn’t seem downcast at all. Instead, she jumped into the feedback with gusto, asking for more details on what could be done to make the shield better.

“I have to admit that since it was a rush job and I did make it from the unused parts of a castle door that hadn’t been needed that there’s probably a lot lacking in the design but I was hoping that the weight and sturdiness of something this big could help make up for any sightline issues.

“Most tower shields are typically at about this ratio to a soldier’s height,” she explained as she discussed the problems Dys had. She used a measuring stick of wood to illustrate her points, holding it up against her own body for scale. “Less coverage but more than enough for most combat purposes. In Volto they use a shield called the Scutum that has more of a curve to help deflect sword and spear strikes away. I could make something more like that but it would take time. Or, if you want, I could make a larger version of the round shields typically used by the armies here in Alfhilderunn? They’re fairly cheap to make and are solid enough, it wouldn’t take as long to make them either and then all three of you could have shield protection.”

“Well, before you make any other shields, I want to say that I don’t think the giant door shield here is a complete waste though,” Dys clarified. “But what I would like is for you to make some modifications to it.”

With Sabina’s interest locked in, Jadis explained what she was thinking.

Rather than use the huge tower shield as a typical shield, she wanted to use it more as a mobile fortification for protecting Aila. If foldable struts could be placed on the back side of the shield, Jadis could place the shield and put it in whatever spot on the battlefield she needed it to be and leave it in place for Aila to use as cover from any basic ranged attacks or spells that might be pointed her way. It could still be picked up and used as an overlarge shield when needed, but by turning it into a portable barricade instead the device would serve a far more useful purpose to Jadis in that it would help ensure her vulnerable backline mage more protection than she would otherwise have.

“That’s doable! Very doable!” Sabina exclaimed excitedly. “Plus, I can add some spikes onto the bottom edge to make it bite into the ground more so it’s hard to move if anything heavy hits it. Oh! I could also add some belts and pouches on the backside too, so you can store extra weapons or supplies on it that you can have some easy access to!”

“Go wild,” Jay chuckled. “We’ll leave the shield here for you to work on. Do what you can and when it’s ready, we’ll take it out for a test.”

“We had some other ideas, too,” Aila spoke up. “Some modifications to Syd’s lance for one, and maybe some new weapons for Jay and Dys. But the major project that probably isn’t your specialty that we are thinking about is a custom-sized wagon.”

“A wagon?” Sabina repeated, head tilting to one side. She brushed sweaty black hair from her eyes and gave Aila a half-shrug. “Wagons are more the business of cartwrights than smiths but I can see what I can do if you have an idea you want me to work on. Crafting of any kind is fun!”

Jadis and Aila told the smith about what they had come up with while talking over breakfast and walking through the city, starting with a few half-formed ideas and suggestions for weapons but quickly breaking into ideas for the wagon. The half-elf became more interested and energetic as the explanation went on, chiming in more and more as the ideas started to flow, adding in her own thoughts and suggestions. Halfway through she grabbed a large piece of crumpled paper from a worktable drawer and a piece of charcoal and was sketching the design out. By the time they had fully outlined the plan for the wagon, she was hooked and excited to work on the odd vehicle.

“I’ll have to enlist some carpenters to help with this, but I’ll make it for you!” Sabina brightly assured Jadis and Aila. She folded the plans up and tucked them away in her leather apron. “It’ll take time, but I can’t wait to see how it turns out!”

“Neither can we,” Jay said with a grin, the half-elf’s excitement contagious. “We’ll leave you to your work for now then.”

“But if you want to join us for dinner some time, you are welcome to,” Syd added, drawing a surprised look from the smith. “We can appreciate your work ethic, but you should probably take a break every now and then, right?”

“Um, okay? That sounds… nice?”

The idea of taking a break seemed to confuse Sabina. That or she was just flustered to be asked out for a meal. Either way, Jadis passed the smith a downpayment of silver coins as well as the large number of recyclable weapons she’d taken from the battlefield.

Bidding the smith a good rest of her day, Jadis and Aila left the workshop. It was a little past noon then but the summer days were long. There was time enough to do a half-day excursion into the hills to hunt some demons. They decided eating a hot meal rather than trail rations made sense since they were still in town anyway and started heading for the Archway restaurant they’d dined at several times before.

As they left the crafter’s quarters of the city and made their way towards the more mercantile district, Jadis spotted a sign hanging over the door of a two-story building that prompted her to stop. She still couldn’t read the local script, but the image on the sign was descriptive enough. A happy and drunk-looking, almost cartoonish horse was holding up a mug of beer, foamy amber liquid spilling over the edge.

“Does that sign say ‘The Tipsy Mule?’ by any chance?” Dys asked, pointing the sign in question out to her companion.

Aila looked and nodded. “Yes, that’s right. Did you read that? You’re getting better at recognizing the letters, well done!”

With a smile, Dys started walking towards the tavern, her other selves and Aila following behind. Chances were low that her target would be around at the current time of day, but there was no reason not to check.

“Let’s stop here for lunch. There might be someone inside who owes us a drink.”

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