ULTRAMagic Shadowland - Chapter 23
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Everything was incredibly hectic since it was the day before the demolition. Weaver had a bit of a spring in his step as he happily strode into his workshop, looking to finish up something he had been working on. The forge was ignited and the anvils were ready to go. A large, unfinished mace sat before him on the project shelf, begging to be worked on. Everything was all set, with the weapon just needing to be assembled. As he worked and neared completion, Torunn and Gabriella entered the shop.
Waiting at the counter, Torunn rang the call bell several times. “Hey, Cousin? You got a job that Barna’s too busy for!”
“Coming! Coming…” He called out from the back. “Torunn, Gabriella, what’s good?” Weaver had soot all over him.
Torunn smiled. “It’s a big job: Gratiana wants you to touch up her spears. They’re a bit dull and rusty…” She indicated the giant sheath on her back.
“The Magnus Fulgur themselves? Damn… ha, bring them on back and I’ll see what I can do.”
Making their way around Weaver’s mess, Torunn noticed the mace in the back. “Oh hello, who’s this bad boy?”
“That’s what I’m calling The Dire Mace and it’s for you.”
“Another one!? Jeez, is it my second birthday or something? Thank you, Cousin… is it ready though?”
“One second…” Weaver quickly tightened the leather around the handle grip and made sure it was secure. “Okay, there we go.”
Torunn picked it up and inspected it. The thing was quite large and heavy, but nothing she could not handle. Eight, thick blades made up the head, decorated with etchings invoking the celtic traditions of their homeworld. “Haha, anything getting hit with this sucker is going to feel it…”
“What’s the occasion for such a craft, Weaver?” Gabriella wondered.
“Several reasons. One, I got inspired recently. Two, the whole stockpile intel kinda has me up in arms; so I figured why not, you know? As for this design, I intended it to be more versatile than a typical hammer. You can swing it back and forth, then change to left and right and so on and so forth.”
“I see. Very thoughtful of you, even if the weapon is a bit barbaric.”
Torunn grabbed a leather holster and put the new mace on her back. “Well the enemy isn’t just going to bend the knee because of our sensibilities. It’s unfortunate, but that’s how it is. Anyways, I’ll have to brandish this around a bit. Those remaining cultists are getting pretty ornery now that they have an idea of what we’re up to. See you later, Weaver. Either I or Gratiana will be around to pick up the spears,” she said as she left.
“See you, Cousin!”
With that being said and done, Gabriella glanced over to a pile of ingots and a sword hilt. “What’s all this?”
“That’s Morrigan’s sword… or at least, the start of it. I’ve gotten back in touch with her about it. Apparently she’s staying in The Great Uncity at the moment.”
Gabriella picked up one of the ingots, only for it to fill her with a horrible feeling. It was like her body had been tossed into a fiery pit, causing her to drop it. “My goodness! Where did you find this much Infernal Iron?!”
“Morrigan. I guess she’s loaded where she comes from. That earned her a pretty big discount.” Weaver got out the spears and began inspecting them. They were made of what appeared to be iron, decorated with gold and engraved with antiquated runes. “Alright then, I see what the issue is…” He went over to the right back wall, grabbing several kits and boxes.
“Mind if I work on my guns while you work?”
“Sure, go right ahead. If you need any tools, the firearm kits are on the far left wall, third shelf if I remember correctly.”
Not much talking was had as Gabriella focused on her repairs. Gratiana’s spears were fairly easy to fix, at first. Sadly it quickly became a lot more complicated than it initially seemed. The gold had to be worked around and the runes looked very important. Weaver also had a sneaking suspicion he was not working with standard iron. It would have been nice if he could contact the original blacksmith, but that was a long shot he knew he could not make. It seemed like a transmutation was in order, but he needed to know exactly what he was working with first.
“Oh boy, Gratiana isn’t going to be thrilled about this…”
“Why that’s, Weaver…?” Gabriella watched as he cut a small piece from one of the blades with his magic. “Ah, I see…”
“Now what do we have here?” Weaver poured an amber solution into a beaker and dropped the piece into it. The metal began fizzing, with electric sparks crackling on the surface of the liquid. “Oh boy, I know what this is…” He then went to a shelf to retrieve a book. “Dragoslava wrote about this in one of her articles.”
Gabriella paused what she was doing to look over his shoulder. “What is it?”
“Thunder Iron. And it’s… Oh, lovely.”
“What’s wrong? Is it rare?”
“No, we just have to go to Cyclone World…”
“Oh. Is that the only place the metal can be found?”
Weaver sighed. “There might be some deposits at The Storm Plateau, but that’s not exactly the safest place at the moment.”
Requesting to see the book, Gabriella looked at the coordinates. “I don’t see why we can’t go there right now.”
“Um, okay… we still need to find the ore in question and that could take all day…”
She took him by the hand and led him outside. “No problem. I can get us there in no time and we’ll come right back here if we don’t find anything immediately.”
Gabriella unfurled her wings and jumped up into the air with a flap. Weaver was then enveloped in a glowing aura, following behind her. The angel was fast, but it still took roughly thirty minutes to get to the chaotic planetoid. As to be expected, several hurricanes were raging across the surface. Spotting a big enough eye in the storms, Gabriella plunged into the atmosphere. Thankfully her flight training in Heaven made her fairly adept at handling the strong gusts. Rain and wind battered the two, but that was not going to stop them.
“Wow, this is a lot more stormy than the article led on,” Weaver remarked. He had to speak up over the howling wind.
“And a lot colder to boot, brr. My apologies, Weaver.”
“No worries, we had a really bad nor’easter prior to Grimwald chasing me off. This is a sunny spring day compared to that. Come, let’s make this quick…”
Moving with the eye of the storm, the two trudged through water and mud. They found many ore and gems along the way, but none were what they were looking for. Several winged creatures touched down and watched them while they searched. It was a little unnerving, but Gabriella sensed no malice from them. Fortunately for the two, the creatures had an inkling as to what they were looking for. Shrieking in a guiding manner, they led the two to a bog of sorts. Gabriella thanked them as they flew off.
“Right over there!” Weaver pointed to a boulder that hummed with electricity. The only issue was that it was in the center of the mud. “Where’s a big stick?”
“What do we need that for?”
“Ah-ha, this will do…” He brought over what looked like a stripped tree branch. It was stuck deep into the mud, the bog making noises as it went in. What clung to the branch went up to Weaver's thigh. “Yeah, no, we’re not wading through that. Ha, if I wanted a mud bath, I’d go to the Green Witch’s Bog. I’ve heard it’s pretty relaxing. Yngvild even imports mud from there for her wellness sessions.”
“Weaver, are you nervous? You seem a little tense…”
He chuckled. “No no… okay, maybe a little. How are we going to get that boulder?”
Gabriella studied the situation for a moment. “Well, I suppose I could fly over and try lifting it up. It doesn’t look too heavy…”
“If you think you can handle it, go for it… just don’t drop it or yourself into the mud.”
With a deep breath, Gabriella flew up and over to the ore. It was quite slippery making it hard to grip. After several failed attempts, Gabriella realized something: Why was she not using her magic? Following a couple of seconds of focusing, the boulder was enveloped in the glowing aura from before and popped right out. Despite the strain, she did not set it down. She knew it would be hard to pick it back up once she did. Weaver voiced his concern, but she handwaved it and picked him up too.
The trip back was just as long, despite the two knowing where to go. The boulder was quite heavy and slowed them down considerably. Upon reaching the front door of the workshop, Gabriella dropped the ore with a thud. She was out of breath and dragged her feet inside. The rest was no problem as Weaver could easily roll the boulder to where he needed it. He just had to be careful not to scuff up his floors.
“There we go!” Weaver said with one last heft.
Gabriella had made her way to the back, taking a seat where she had left her guns. “Oh yeah… forget it, I’ll tune them up some other time…”
Weaver was a little surprised. “Took that much out of you?”
“Yeah,” she softly grunted. “Maintaining this form requires a degree of effort and that was certainly a task…”
“Well then help yourself to whatever’s in the fridge. Lord knows you’ve definitely earned it.”
“Thanks…”
While Gabriella fetched herself a drink and something to eat, Weaver got to work. First he chiseled off a piece of ore to test it. The amber solution produced the same reaction as before. That was good as now he could get to work. First came the rust removal for the spears. There was another, golden solution for that that was soaked into a wire brush. It scratched the metal, but Weaver had a fix for that.
Working around the gold was a pain, but he managed with care and patience. Next up was to address the wear and tear. Looking over the spears, Weaver noticed that the right spear was slightly more worn than the other. It made sense given that Gratiana had mentioned in the past that the Arlotti family always believed that the right hand was the mightiest… despite Gratiana being left handed. The next couple of steps involved Weaver melting chunks of ore down, removing the impurities, and turning them into plates. Once they were all ready, he gestured for Gabriella to come over.
“Want to see something cool?” he asked. “What I’m about to do is called Merge Repair. Barna taught it to me.”
“Oh? Alright, let’s see it.”
Weaver placed a plate on one of the blades and held his hand over it. Arcs of electricity hummed and buzzed, causing the plate to vanish. This made part of the spear look brand new. “Ah, we still need more. You keep going until you have stuff left over.”
“Incredible. So what is this process doing?”
“We’re filling in the gaps so-to-speak. Deterioration leads to loss of material, eventually causing things to break. This process fills in the voids and fixes atomic bonds…”
“How fascinating,” an older female voice commented.
The two turned around to see who it was. “Oh hey, Gratiana, welcome to the shop” Weaver greeted. “So yeah, there was a slight delay, but I’m fixing the spears as we speak. I’m just not sure what to do about the gold…”
“Don’t worry about that, dear. All that really matters is the Thunder Iron and the runes. Truthfully I’ve been considering stripping the gold and replacing it with something like adamantine.”
“Hm, that’s quite rare now…” Weaver remarked as he went back to the repairs.
“True, but I guess Andelin has located an individual who is quite knowledgeable with the metal. He popped up recently and I believe she said his name was Cronus.”
Gabriella was shocked, remembering some history lessons from her childhood. “Oh my… well, um, he’d certainly know a thing or two in that regard” she commented with a nervous chuckle. Evidently Gratiana was not in the know. “Ahem, how did you get here, Gratiana?”
“Oh I snuck out of the castle and took the backways. Sten has been ravenous with his quest for knowledge, so Andelin and Fyodor distracted him so I could take a quick break.”
Weaver laughed. “Yeah, Sten can get quite obsessive when something catches his interest.”
As Weaver continued his work, Gabriella had another question. “Curiously, what are the limits of this process?”
“Aside from requiring enough material, you need the exact metal and it needs to be free of impurities. Dirt and other elements make the process a bit tedious as you either need to work around them or remove them on the spot. Leaving them in can ruin the repair.”
Gratiana looked over to the boulder. “Goodness, where did you find such a concentration of Thunder Iron?”
“Cyclone World. I would’ve preferred to go to The Storm Plateau, but I’m not taking my chances with that thunderstorm and I don’t feel lucky.”
Before anything else could be said, someone else entered the shop. “Weaver! I need your tools for a second” Barna said as he rushed over to the shelves.
“Oh, sure. What’s the matter?”
“Some of the components to the detonation setup are on the fritz and I need this stuff for what I have going…” he answered as he got to work fixing up the compact devices he had brought with him. After a couple of minutes, he was done. “There we go… Oh, hello, Gratiana. Fancy meeting you here.”
Barna had held out his hand, so Gratiana happily accepted the shake. “Likewise, Barna.” Time then began to slow for the two as they looked each other in the eyes. Before they were enemies, but now they were allies on equal footing.
Weaver noticed the two spacing out, so he cleared his throat loud enough for them to hear. “I’m finished with the repairs, Gratiana.”
“Oh, goodness, sorry about that. Thank you very much, Weaver” she said as she took the sheath and loaded the spears into it.
Barna chuckled, albeit slightly embarrassed. “Right, better get back to what I was doing… Gratiana, mead or ale?”
“Oh, well I fancy myself a good ale every now and then, despite all the fine wine I’ve sampled over the years.”
“Great to know,” Barna replied with a clap. “After the demolition: you, me, Dashing Ram. I owe you a drink.”
Gratiana giggled. “Shall we make it a date then?”
This caught Barna off guard. “Whoa ho ho, a date? I mean, well, yeah. Sure! A date, dot dit… haha, a date it is then!” All of that he stammered as he made his way to the exit. “Don’t get too roughed up tomorrow!”
“Same goes for you, Prince Barna!” Once he was gone, Gratiana slung the sheath around her back and made her way to the backdoor. “Farewell, you two. And be ready for tomorrow.”
Weaver and Gabriella remained silent for a moment. “Well I think that’s the happiest I’ve seen those two so far…” he pointed out.
“What was all that about? If you don’t mind me asking. That looked like love at first sight, or something similar.”
Weaver chuckled as he wiped his hands with a rag. “Well that confirms a suspicion me and the others have had. Let me clue you in on a little something: Gratiana has always had eyes for Barna. No matter what we’ve been through, she’s always refused to finish him off.”
Gabriella blushed, then laughed in joy. “Oh, I see. How wonderful for those two then. Of course, this makes me question why Gratiana stayed with Milosh for so long…”
“Agreed. Hey, since we have some time, let me help you with your flintlocks.”
“Oh, sure. Now these are very complex weapons, Weaver. Some of Achasiah’s best work, if you ask me…”
Next: Chapter 24
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
Master Post - Patreon
Everything was incredibly hectic since it was the day before the demolition. Weaver had a bit of a spring in his step as he happily strode into his workshop, looking to finish up something he had been working on. The forge was ignited and the anvils were ready to go. A large, unfinished mace sat before him on the project shelf, begging to be worked on. Everything was all set, with the weapon just needing to be assembled. As he worked and neared completion, Torunn and Gabriella entered the shop.
Waiting at the counter, Torunn rang the call bell several times. “Hey, Cousin? You got a job that Barna’s too busy for!”
“Coming! Coming…” He called out from the back. “Torunn, Gabriella, what’s good?” Weaver had soot all over him.
Torunn smiled. “It’s a big job: Gratiana wants you to touch up her spears. They’re a bit dull and rusty…” She indicated the giant sheath on her back.
“The Magnus Fulgur themselves? Damn… ha, bring them on back and I’ll see what I can do.”
Making their way around Weaver’s mess, Torunn noticed the mace in the back. “Oh hello, who’s this bad boy?”
“That’s what I’m calling The Dire Mace and it’s for you.”
“Another one!? Jeez, is it my second birthday or something? Thank you, Cousin… is it ready though?”
“One second…” Weaver quickly tightened the leather around the handle grip and made sure it was secure. “Okay, there we go.”
Torunn picked it up and inspected it. The thing was quite large and heavy, but nothing she could not handle. Eight, thick blades made up the head, decorated with etchings invoking the celtic traditions of their homeworld. “Haha, anything getting hit with this sucker is going to feel it…”
“What’s the occasion for such a craft, Weaver?” Gabriella wondered.
“Several reasons. One, I got inspired recently. Two, the whole stockpile intel kinda has me up in arms; so I figured why not, you know? As for this design, I intended it to be more versatile than a typical hammer. You can swing it back and forth, then change to left and right and so on and so forth.”
“I see. Very thoughtful of you, even if the weapon is a bit barbaric.”
Torunn grabbed a leather holster and put the new mace on her back. “Well the enemy isn’t just going to bend the knee because of our sensibilities. It’s unfortunate, but that’s how it is. Anyways, I’ll have to brandish this around a bit. Those remaining cultists are getting pretty ornery now that they have an idea of what we’re up to. See you later, Weaver. Either I or Gratiana will be around to pick up the spears,” she said as she left.
“See you, Cousin!”
With that being said and done, Gabriella glanced over to a pile of ingots and a sword hilt. “What’s all this?”
“That’s Morrigan’s sword… or at least, the start of it. I’ve gotten back in touch with her about it. Apparently she’s staying in The Great Uncity at the moment.”
Gabriella picked up one of the ingots, only for it to fill her with a horrible feeling. It was like her body had been tossed into a fiery pit, causing her to drop it. “My goodness! Where did you find this much Infernal Iron?!”
“Morrigan. I guess she’s loaded where she comes from. That earned her a pretty big discount.” Weaver got out the spears and began inspecting them. They were made of what appeared to be iron, decorated with gold and engraved with antiquated runes. “Alright then, I see what the issue is…” He went over to the right back wall, grabbing several kits and boxes.
“Mind if I work on my guns while you work?”
“Sure, go right ahead. If you need any tools, the firearm kits are on the far left wall, third shelf if I remember correctly.”
Not much talking was had as Gabriella focused on her repairs. Gratiana’s spears were fairly easy to fix, at first. Sadly it quickly became a lot more complicated than it initially seemed. The gold had to be worked around and the runes looked very important. Weaver also had a sneaking suspicion he was not working with standard iron. It would have been nice if he could contact the original blacksmith, but that was a long shot he knew he could not make. It seemed like a transmutation was in order, but he needed to know exactly what he was working with first.
“Oh boy, Gratiana isn’t going to be thrilled about this…”
“Why that’s, Weaver…?” Gabriella watched as he cut a small piece from one of the blades with his magic. “Ah, I see…”
“Now what do we have here?” Weaver poured an amber solution into a beaker and dropped the piece into it. The metal began fizzing, with electric sparks crackling on the surface of the liquid. “Oh boy, I know what this is…” He then went to a shelf to retrieve a book. “Dragoslava wrote about this in one of her articles.”
Gabriella paused what she was doing to look over his shoulder. “What is it?”
“Thunder Iron. And it’s… Oh, lovely.”
“What’s wrong? Is it rare?”
“No, we just have to go to Cyclone World…”
“Oh. Is that the only place the metal can be found?”
Weaver sighed. “There might be some deposits at The Storm Plateau, but that’s not exactly the safest place at the moment.”
Requesting to see the book, Gabriella looked at the coordinates. “I don’t see why we can’t go there right now.”
“Um, okay… we still need to find the ore in question and that could take all day…”
She took him by the hand and led him outside. “No problem. I can get us there in no time and we’ll come right back here if we don’t find anything immediately.”
Gabriella unfurled her wings and jumped up into the air with a flap. Weaver was then enveloped in a glowing aura, following behind her. The angel was fast, but it still took roughly thirty minutes to get to the chaotic planetoid. As to be expected, several hurricanes were raging across the surface. Spotting a big enough eye in the storms, Gabriella plunged into the atmosphere. Thankfully her flight training in Heaven made her fairly adept at handling the strong gusts. Rain and wind battered the two, but that was not going to stop them.
“Wow, this is a lot more stormy than the article led on,” Weaver remarked. He had to speak up over the howling wind.
“And a lot colder to boot, brr. My apologies, Weaver.”
“No worries, we had a really bad nor’easter prior to Grimwald chasing me off. This is a sunny spring day compared to that. Come, let’s make this quick…”
Moving with the eye of the storm, the two trudged through water and mud. They found many ore and gems along the way, but none were what they were looking for. Several winged creatures touched down and watched them while they searched. It was a little unnerving, but Gabriella sensed no malice from them. Fortunately for the two, the creatures had an inkling as to what they were looking for. Shrieking in a guiding manner, they led the two to a bog of sorts. Gabriella thanked them as they flew off.
“Right over there!” Weaver pointed to a boulder that hummed with electricity. The only issue was that it was in the center of the mud. “Where’s a big stick?”
“What do we need that for?”
“Ah-ha, this will do…” He brought over what looked like a stripped tree branch. It was stuck deep into the mud, the bog making noises as it went in. What clung to the branch went up to Weaver's thigh. “Yeah, no, we’re not wading through that. Ha, if I wanted a mud bath, I’d go to the Green Witch’s Bog. I’ve heard it’s pretty relaxing. Yngvild even imports mud from there for her wellness sessions.”
“Weaver, are you nervous? You seem a little tense…”
He chuckled. “No no… okay, maybe a little. How are we going to get that boulder?”
Gabriella studied the situation for a moment. “Well, I suppose I could fly over and try lifting it up. It doesn’t look too heavy…”
“If you think you can handle it, go for it… just don’t drop it or yourself into the mud.”
With a deep breath, Gabriella flew up and over to the ore. It was quite slippery making it hard to grip. After several failed attempts, Gabriella realized something: Why was she not using her magic? Following a couple of seconds of focusing, the boulder was enveloped in the glowing aura from before and popped right out. Despite the strain, she did not set it down. She knew it would be hard to pick it back up once she did. Weaver voiced his concern, but she handwaved it and picked him up too.
The trip back was just as long, despite the two knowing where to go. The boulder was quite heavy and slowed them down considerably. Upon reaching the front door of the workshop, Gabriella dropped the ore with a thud. She was out of breath and dragged her feet inside. The rest was no problem as Weaver could easily roll the boulder to where he needed it. He just had to be careful not to scuff up his floors.
“There we go!” Weaver said with one last heft.
Gabriella had made her way to the back, taking a seat where she had left her guns. “Oh yeah… forget it, I’ll tune them up some other time…”
Weaver was a little surprised. “Took that much out of you?”
“Yeah,” she softly grunted. “Maintaining this form requires a degree of effort and that was certainly a task…”
“Well then help yourself to whatever’s in the fridge. Lord knows you’ve definitely earned it.”
“Thanks…”
While Gabriella fetched herself a drink and something to eat, Weaver got to work. First he chiseled off a piece of ore to test it. The amber solution produced the same reaction as before. That was good as now he could get to work. First came the rust removal for the spears. There was another, golden solution for that that was soaked into a wire brush. It scratched the metal, but Weaver had a fix for that.
Working around the gold was a pain, but he managed with care and patience. Next up was to address the wear and tear. Looking over the spears, Weaver noticed that the right spear was slightly more worn than the other. It made sense given that Gratiana had mentioned in the past that the Arlotti family always believed that the right hand was the mightiest… despite Gratiana being left handed. The next couple of steps involved Weaver melting chunks of ore down, removing the impurities, and turning them into plates. Once they were all ready, he gestured for Gabriella to come over.
“Want to see something cool?” he asked. “What I’m about to do is called Merge Repair. Barna taught it to me.”
“Oh? Alright, let’s see it.”
Weaver placed a plate on one of the blades and held his hand over it. Arcs of electricity hummed and buzzed, causing the plate to vanish. This made part of the spear look brand new. “Ah, we still need more. You keep going until you have stuff left over.”
“Incredible. So what is this process doing?”
“We’re filling in the gaps so-to-speak. Deterioration leads to loss of material, eventually causing things to break. This process fills in the voids and fixes atomic bonds…”
“How fascinating,” an older female voice commented.
The two turned around to see who it was. “Oh hey, Gratiana, welcome to the shop” Weaver greeted. “So yeah, there was a slight delay, but I’m fixing the spears as we speak. I’m just not sure what to do about the gold…”
“Don’t worry about that, dear. All that really matters is the Thunder Iron and the runes. Truthfully I’ve been considering stripping the gold and replacing it with something like adamantine.”
“Hm, that’s quite rare now…” Weaver remarked as he went back to the repairs.
“True, but I guess Andelin has located an individual who is quite knowledgeable with the metal. He popped up recently and I believe she said his name was Cronus.”
Gabriella was shocked, remembering some history lessons from her childhood. “Oh my… well, um, he’d certainly know a thing or two in that regard” she commented with a nervous chuckle. Evidently Gratiana was not in the know. “Ahem, how did you get here, Gratiana?”
“Oh I snuck out of the castle and took the backways. Sten has been ravenous with his quest for knowledge, so Andelin and Fyodor distracted him so I could take a quick break.”
Weaver laughed. “Yeah, Sten can get quite obsessive when something catches his interest.”
As Weaver continued his work, Gabriella had another question. “Curiously, what are the limits of this process?”
“Aside from requiring enough material, you need the exact metal and it needs to be free of impurities. Dirt and other elements make the process a bit tedious as you either need to work around them or remove them on the spot. Leaving them in can ruin the repair.”
Gratiana looked over to the boulder. “Goodness, where did you find such a concentration of Thunder Iron?”
“Cyclone World. I would’ve preferred to go to The Storm Plateau, but I’m not taking my chances with that thunderstorm and I don’t feel lucky.”
Before anything else could be said, someone else entered the shop. “Weaver! I need your tools for a second” Barna said as he rushed over to the shelves.
“Oh, sure. What’s the matter?”
“Some of the components to the detonation setup are on the fritz and I need this stuff for what I have going…” he answered as he got to work fixing up the compact devices he had brought with him. After a couple of minutes, he was done. “There we go… Oh, hello, Gratiana. Fancy meeting you here.”
Barna had held out his hand, so Gratiana happily accepted the shake. “Likewise, Barna.” Time then began to slow for the two as they looked each other in the eyes. Before they were enemies, but now they were allies on equal footing.
Weaver noticed the two spacing out, so he cleared his throat loud enough for them to hear. “I’m finished with the repairs, Gratiana.”
“Oh, goodness, sorry about that. Thank you very much, Weaver” she said as she took the sheath and loaded the spears into it.
Barna chuckled, albeit slightly embarrassed. “Right, better get back to what I was doing… Gratiana, mead or ale?”
“Oh, well I fancy myself a good ale every now and then, despite all the fine wine I’ve sampled over the years.”
“Great to know,” Barna replied with a clap. “After the demolition: you, me, Dashing Ram. I owe you a drink.”
Gratiana giggled. “Shall we make it a date then?”
This caught Barna off guard. “Whoa ho ho, a date? I mean, well, yeah. Sure! A date, dot dit… haha, a date it is then!” All of that he stammered as he made his way to the exit. “Don’t get too roughed up tomorrow!”
“Same goes for you, Prince Barna!” Once he was gone, Gratiana slung the sheath around her back and made her way to the backdoor. “Farewell, you two. And be ready for tomorrow.”
Weaver and Gabriella remained silent for a moment. “Well I think that’s the happiest I’ve seen those two so far…” he pointed out.
“What was all that about? If you don’t mind me asking. That looked like love at first sight, or something similar.”
Weaver chuckled as he wiped his hands with a rag. “Well that confirms a suspicion me and the others have had. Let me clue you in on a little something: Gratiana has always had eyes for Barna. No matter what we’ve been through, she’s always refused to finish him off.”
Gabriella blushed, then laughed in joy. “Oh, I see. How wonderful for those two then. Of course, this makes me question why Gratiana stayed with Milosh for so long…”
“Agreed. Hey, since we have some time, let me help you with your flintlocks.”
“Oh, sure. Now these are very complex weapons, Weaver. Some of Achasiah’s best work, if you ask me…”
Next: Chapter 24
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
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