Soul Merger

It was interesting how relaxing the chaos of a city could be, Alissa mused as the oversized carriage took the group down the streets of Seaport. They'd made it back from their trip without anything more than a few goblin and orc attacks, but they still had to be on guard all the time. Being surrounded by people wasn't exactly peaceful, but she didn't need to worry about an arrow or boulder coming from the trees anymore.

As an added bonus they'd arrived early enough last night to visit the late night parts market. A good delver didn't pass on money if they could help it, and if you killed something you weren't planning on hunting, throwing the pieces to the guild for some extra cash was the best move. And so all sorts of discount parts wound up on sale in the evening.

Which meant Alissa had everything she needed for her commission. All there was to do now was to turn the items in and wait for the crafters to finish.

She looked across to where Clara and Akari were riding. "You didn't need to come along. It'll probably be pretty boring for you."

Clara chuckled. "I'm going to try to get a discount on a bulk arrow order. Might as well spend some money to make sure I'm not left behind."

"I'm going to try to convince Ibaraki to get better gear," Akari said. "Maybe if she sees some higher quality items she'll accept some armor."

"Good luck," Alissa replied. She didn't even want to think about the cost of custom armor. Mithril allowed energy to pass through easily, which was great for weapons, but not the best idea for protection. Then again none of their group wore a lot of metal to begin with.

The carriage rolled to a stop outside the Engraver's Guild Headquarters. Rosalina hopped out. "Say goodbye to our last bit of luxury for a while, because it's time to spend the rest of our money!"

Fili closed her notebook. "It's not going to be that bad. At least not for those of us who didn't throw all our money at alcohol and parties."

"True." Rosalina shook her head in mock sorrow. "We'll have to cure you of that habit eventually. I'll have you embracing the libertine spirit soon enough."

"I think we'll pass," Alissa said as she got off and headed towards the entrance. "Some of us like having a bit of a safety net." Not having to worry about where cash would come from for half a year was another weight off her shoulders.

Clara shrugged. "No idea how you two spent that much but at least it looked like you had fun." The woman poked Alissa's shoulder. "Something you should probably learn to do now that we're back."

"Hey I-" Alissa paused, considering her words. "I have friends."

"Ones you don't pay to see?" Rosalina asked with a raised eyebrow.

Alissa did her best to ignore everyone else's looks, especially Fili's wide stare. "It was only fair at the time. Anyway I'm gonna handle that later so let's get back to what we were doing. The Engraving Master's got a busy schedule I'm sure."

"Rosalina's just bragging about how much she spent anyway," Akari added. "She's still got some in reserve."

"I'll fix that soon enough," the dragon priestess muttered as they reached the front desk.

The secretary sitting behind the piles of papers was a familiar face, and she seemed to recognize them as well. "Here to see Master Engraver George?"

"Yes. We have the materials required," Alissa said.

"Very good." She finished a few lines on her paperwork before standing. "He's actually been very interested in starting work. Your sword just came in, as has the cartridge system for the magician staff. So please follow me." She began heading down the familiar corridors.

Alissa blinked as hurried after. "Master George is going to handle it himself?" That seemed a little ridiculous. And expensive. She hadn't paid for a high ranking Master's time.

"He's interested in the qualities around demonic weapons and how they relate to binding magic," the woman explained. "So he's chosen to handle the project himself. The other two are going to his top journeyman as practice for their masterpiece work."

Fili and Rosalina both perked up at that. While usually it was better to have a craftmaster handling your work, a journeyman under a teaching master's supervision might end up as a better piece at the end. Even if it'd probably take a little longer to finish.

The secretary turned the opposite way at the final hall and led them into a larger workshop. This had four engraving tables with matching desks and noteboards, three of which were covered with diagrams and notes. The master turned away from the discussion he'd been having with two people, probably the journeymen working with him. "Ah! Welcome back. Do you have everything needed to begin the process?"

Rosalina stepped up. "Yes we do." She put her boxes on the empty table. Alissa followed suit, placing hers on one side while Fili took the other. "It was easier and harder than expected."

"Delvers always say things like that," George commented as he quickly checked each one. "In any case, let me introduce my assistants. Bruce will handle the young mage's order, while Ann will be working on your commission Ms Rosalina." He turned to Alissa. "And I shall be handling your blade. Which leads me to the next bit. Making sure the base weapons are correctly designed. If you'd follow me..."

Alissa followed him to the workbench closest to the door, where a shining sword was sitting. The guard and handle were still unadorned, but she could see the streaks of mithril running through the steel. George wrapped some leather around the hilt and handed it to her. "We'll get some rayskin for the hilt after the crossguard is properly etched, but tell me how the balance feels right now. Don't want to waste our time on a flawed blade."

She carefully picked up the blade falling into a guard stance, then did a few strikes. The weight felt wrong, but only slightly off. After a few more moves she was mostly convinced it was just her unfamiliarity with the new sword. It would perform well enough when she got used to it.

"It should work fine," she said, placing the weapon down.

"Excellent. Now a final question, do you want a green gem on the pommel to match your dagger, or something else?" the Master asked. "Garnet would be my choice as an engraver but...."

"Garnet will work fine." Alissa replied. "A bit of asymmetry is good."

He nodded. "I expect the work to take two weeks, though we'll send a runner if something changes. Anything else?"

"From me no. Clara's gonna try to wheedle cheap arrows out of you though," Alissa remarked with a smile as she stepped aside to let her friend fill the space.

As the two started haggling Alissa looked over to where Rosalina and Fili were working on their own designs. Rosalina's looked fairly easy to understand, even if the spinning wheel of spell chips looked weird. But Fili's staff design looked very strange. Around halfway up the staff was a handle attached to a metal section. Right now the mage was looking over some metal tubes.

"This should work," Fili said, before turning around and nearly running into Alissa. Fortunately it was easy to catch the woman, though Fili blushed and started smelling of strawberry and violet. "Sorry!"

"Don't worry," Alissa said as she stepped back. "I was just curious what those tubes were."

Fili perked up, the air around her becoming sweeter. "Oh! They're cartridges." She held one out, allowing Alissa to see the mystic etchings all over the metal. "They store magical energy. Which means I can supercharge a spell for extra effects! It's a little hard on the control aspects but it'd be nice to have something like this for larger monsters."

"Seems pretty useful," Alissa said. "Why aren't they more common?"

"You have to make sure the spell chip is prepared for the sudden surge," Fili said. "And it has to be integrated into the casting focus. You don't want concentrated magic just running through your body. For most mages it's easier to just increase the cast time for a power boost."

"Well, I'm glad we'll have that as a trump card." Alissa patted the mage's shoulder. "We've run into too many things I can't kill with a sword. Knowing someone can put those huge things down will be a big relief."

Fili smiled. "Yeah." But after a moment her expression closed up a little. "Um, I know this is a personal question, but what Rosalina was saying earlier...."

It was Alissa's turn to feel a little embarrassed. "Yeah I don't like hanging around men anymore for... reasons. And that makes it hard to make friends. Most women aren't rushing to ditch half the human population just to talk to one girl."

"I think that's overstating it a little," Fili said quietly. "I think a lot of girls would love to get to know you better. I know I would. And it's not like we'd be cutting ourselves off from the rest of the world permanently..."

"Yeah, maybe I was overreacting. Or pushing my problems onto other people." Alissa shook her head. "Either way you don't need to worry about me. I'm going to fix that mess today. And I'm definitely not going to just disappear on you all. Even if we weren't working together."

"I... That's good." Fili gathered herself up and nodded. "Maybe you can get a hobby other than lockpicking too."

"Hey, it's fun," Alissa said. "Anyway let's finish up here so Rosalina can make dramatic statements about our next job. She's the only person I know who can make hunting goblins for bounty sound like an epic battle for the fate of the world."