Erissa’s eyes sparkled, and she tapped her foot impatiently as the apprentice handed the concealed sword to the blacksmith. He removed the silk in a tantalizingly slow motion, then drew the sword. The delyn’s characteristic azure was finally revealed, polished to a high gloss and veined with slightly darker lines where the metal had been repeatedly folded upon itself.
The weapon was a masterpiece.
The man proffered the sword, its blade resting in one of his sooty palms and its hilt in the other. Erissa offered girlish grin in return as she took the ivory in hand. Within a narrow channel along the length of the blade, the words she had long held in her heart were on display for all to see, painstakingly etched there by the smith. Erissa eyes widened as she realized he had copied her graceful handwriting exactly.
“How you achieved this in a week, I shall never know,” the elf said slowly, shaking her head with awe. She summoned a weak charge of energy, and her blade seemed to hunger for it. Erissa willed the orb to elongate and sheath the weapon, and to her surprise, the metal devoured and was imbued by it. It glowed faintly, white and pure against the gritty red light of the shop. The arcanist clucked her tongue in indecision and shook the weapon slightly, with no result. “How...” she muttered softly. The elf looked worriedly at the smith. “How do I release it?”
“Hmmm,” he grunted as he handed her the wooden scabbard. “Same way you captured it, I suppose. I’m no expert, but you might want to do that outside.”
“Yes, of course,” Erissa said with a quick laugh. “That would be best.” She carefully sheathed the sword, hoping it would not explode in her hand.
“So I take it the weapon is to your liking?”
“Very much so,” she replied quickly. Erissa fished a small leather pouch from her satchel and handed it to the smith. “Two hundred and fifty gold coins, as agreed.” The elf smiled thoughtfully before removing several more coins from her purse. “And fifty more for supplementing the boy’s education. Skill such as this begs to be passed on, and the future will be a richer place for it.”
Erissa rushed through the streets back to the Ixian Castle. She was already late for her lesson, and her teacher had a reputation for being less than forgiving.
Out of Character:
Donation to the shopkeeper (Revenant) - 50 gold.
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