Reincarnated! A Tale of the Sorceress Amaya

Our court elemental left while laughing maniacally. Magnus watched her go. His face was unreadable.

“Is she going to ask the king if he knows about spies?” I wondered.

“Maybe. I am sure she has a plan.” Lucy answered.

With the tree planted we had nothing to do. So we relaxed in the garden until Ingrid was ready. Then we returned to bind the armour. The whole ritual was not very flashy. Lucy helped to power it. We both used an 8th tier spell slot. The result was pretty neat though.

Lily looked rather menacing in the black plate armour. There was no helmet, but otherwise it covered her entirely, including the tail. It was also very form fitting. I guess I should have expected a succubus to make sure her bust was represented. It was not that different from a codpiece in that regard. Interestingly, I saw some purple accents on the metal. That was new.

“It suits you.” I said.

“Thank you, my lady.” She responded. Then the armour shifted and the maid part appeared. The uniform covered most of the metal. Only on the arms and the feet was the plate still visible. She seemed to concentrate and the visible plate disappeared entirely.

“Neat.” Lucy responded. “So you can disguise the armour completely as a uniform.”

“With a storage item one could simply switch between a uniform and an armour and get the same effect. It’s still nice though.” I said.

“It is better than that.” Lily said with a smile. “It can automatically deploy when I am injured.”

“Now that is a nice feature.” That was pretty cool. My armour did nothing fancy like that. Not that I truly needed armour most of the time.

“It is the plate of a demon lord after all.” Ingrid pointed out. “This is a powerful piece of equipment.”

“Indeed. Now, could you make something similar for Iris and Minerva? And could you recommend a smith I can hire for our county?” I inquired.

Ingrid pondered that. “First the armour, you will need to get me some resources. I still have some of your silk left but we need metal. Possibly some magical catalysts. I can give you a list. As for the smith… maybe. Tyrell is officially retired but he is one of the greatest smiths we have. As an archfey you might be interesting enough that he will work for you. If you can convince him he could equip your knights. He is an even better smith than I am.”

“Retired? How old is he?” I wondered.

“Less than 1000 I think. He does not like to talk about it.” She responded.

That was a good reminder how old people could become. Dwarves lived longer than humans but to reach such an age he must have a certain amount of power.

“Great, we shall pay him a visit! I wanted to go into the city anyway.” I said.

“You are looking for food, we all know it.” Lucy teased.

“Exactly! Is there a specialty restaurant you could recommend?” I asked Ingrid.

“Try the Black Barrel. I think you will like it.”

We said our goodbyes and made our way towards the city. It was almost lunch time anyway. Lily followed us.

“You know, you don’t have to come with us.” I told her.

“It is only appropriate for nobles to have a servant with them.” She responded. Lily did take her maidly duties rather seriously.

“She just hopes you get into trouble so she can use her new armour.” Lucy teased.

“My lady, I would never wish for you to get into trouble!” She protested.

“We could spar, you know. Not right now, but later. I am rather curious about your armour too.” I admitted.

Mountainheart was a lovely city and I enjoyed our stroll to the Black Barrel. The restaurant was a rectangle, two stories high and made from stone. They had a metal sign above the door and a guard in a suit was standing in front of it.

“Greetings, we would like to visit your restaurant. Do we need a reservation?” I asked the dwarf. Ingrid did not say anything so I assumed we could just show up.

“Ladies, welcome to the Black Barrel! We have free tables, all you need is coin and an appetite! We require a bank account or a cash deposit as insurance first. And I have to warn you that some of our dishes can be dangerous. The special menu requires you to sign a waiver.”

“That sounds promising!” I was excited.

He glanced at Lily. “Would that be a table for two? We offer a staff room for servants.”

“No, a table for three.” I glared at Lily to make sure she did not protest.

“Certainly.” He pulled out a tablet. “If you have an account with the dwarven bank you can simply place your hand here.”

I did as instructed. He nodded, satisfied. “Everything seems to be in order ma’am. A server will show you to your table shortly.”

A small woman appeared. She did not look like a dwarf but had a similar height. Maybe a gnome?

“Greetings! I am Hannah and will be your server. Would you like to sit outside?”

Outside was relative, considering that we were underground. But I did like the look of the ceiling with the artificial sun. I looked at Lucy.

“Sure.” She said,

“Follow me!”

The building had a nice courtyard filled with tables. It reminded me of a beer garden but with more comfortable looking furniture. The benches had backrests and were covered in fur. We took our seats and Hannah left to fetch some menus.

When she returned she had three mugs of ale with her. She placed them in front of us.

“Um. We have not ordered anything yet.” I pointed out.

“Ah, that is customary so you have something to drink while you decide what to order!” She said with a smile. “Here is the menu and the waiver if you want to order the specials. As for drinks, if you order a barrel it will be brought to your table!”

You could order a whole barrel? I smiled. What a great place!