Chapter 23
Luna couldn’t believe her eyes and ears. The second Alsen saw that witch, he completely forgot that she existed.
A moment later, he left her behind and started talking about himself to her. He never talked about himself with Luna.
Unbelievable!
She stuck around for a bit to see how it went, but then he simply walked out of the inn with her and her friend, and he literally didn’t notice Luna even as he walked straight past her.
Luna stalked him for a bit afterward, watching him help Arleria scam a merchant with an ugly vase.
He never did that for her.
And now, he was shopping for luxurious clothes, completely lost in his own mind.
Luna gave up the stalking and headed for the city’s underground. First, she picked up her backpack from their room.
The late afternoon sun hit her face before she stepped into darker alleys.
The drugs may have been an embarrassing failure, but she spotted a runesmith shop along the way last night.
She navigated back to the district marked by a fishbone by memory, retracing the path she’d walked with Alsen the previous night. The daylight made everything look worse. Garbage piled in corners. A dead cat floated in a drainage canal.
The fishbone marks started appearing three blocks in. Luna followed them until she found the herbalist. From there, she took the side street, passed a few drunkards, and the runesmith’s shop loomed before her.
She walked straight through the door, slipping past the guardsman who stood on the other side. “Blessings of the Thousand Faced be upon you!” she said in a merry, up-tone voice.
The guard froze in place.
Oh, they all knew what it meant. The gods might have been wiped out of this world, but the faith in the God of Thousand Faces never died, especially not in places like this.
After all, the religion had no official scriptures, only the idea of individual freedom surpassing all order and rules. Underground societies loved individual freedom, so the faith always did great there.
The runesmith, an average-looking man with great musculature and nimble fingers, looked at her from behind his working table. He had a thick mustache and a shaved head. “Those are quite some words, Miss.”
Luna looked over the workshop. A small, cluttered place, hot from the unseparated forge that was built in a corner.
Workbenches covered in tools, etching instruments, crystalline dust, half-finished metal plates, and a magnifying apparatus that looked like it had been built by someone who didn’t trust their own eyes.
Shelves lined one wall, holding finished work. Daggers with faintly glowing runes along the spine. A breastplate segment with symbols etched into the inner surface. Arrowheads. Belt buckles. A pair of boots.
Luna recognized the quality immediately.
Okay, this was a real place. “Divinity brings many blessings. Today, it has brought me.” She smiled, but then dropped her voice lower.
“Now, to business. I’ve got runes and my favorite magical item that I need enhanced.
And I even got gems to pay you with. Or gold, if you want something that’s fun to melt. ”
“What a blessing indeed.” He got up, walking towards her. “You aren’t from here, are you, missy?”
She smirked. “What gave me away?”
“I was, but a little boy when I last heard that greeting. The tone, the intonation, the faith beneath, all of it is genuine. I haven’t seen an envoy since then.” He motioned at an empty table.
“I wouldn’t call myself as such.” She put down her backpack, put the sleeping bag on the table, and started unpacking.
She piled the cloth she took from the temple, the runes, and some gems alongside it.
“This is my beloved sleeping bag. It cleans itself and whoever’s in of bodily fluids.
It’s also really comfortable. I need it to be more efficient at both of those; the cleaner and softer the better.
Also, if it could silence sounds coming from inside, it would be great. ”
He looked over the runes, the cloth, the sleeping roll. His hands moved with casual efficiency, not touching more than absolutely necessary. “All of this for the sleeping bag? I can enhance over twenty items with these runes.”
“Everything into the sleeping bag. If you could do more with some extra money, I’ll get more.”
He measured her. “I apologize for mistaking you for an envoy. Tell the Thousand Faced that Kallas has not forgotten.”
“If I ever get the chance, I will.”
He bowed slightly. “I will enhance the sleeping bag to the best of my ability. It will take me a couple of days.”
“Thanks.” Luna beamed a smile. She headed for the door.
The door opened before she reached it.
Savnoj walked in.
He looked just about the same as on the road. The scar across his chin and cheek was both in place, the rest of him cleaned up, considerably, but with the same sword by his hip and the same cuirass. He wore better clothes around them.
Luna decided to act as if nothing had happened. He might not remember her.
He saw her immediately. His eyes narrowed in an instant recognition. Then, to her surprise, his expression cracked into a grin. “Well, shit,” Savnoj said. “You’re the girl who travels with the mage, right?”
Luna looked up, her face slightly twisting with surprise. “I didn’t expect you to remember me. Savnoj, right?”
Kallas looked between them. “You two know each other?”
“We met on the road,” Savnoj said, still grinning.
He crossed the shop toward her with a casual stride filled with confidence.
“It was around Ambervale. She traveled with an insufferable mage.” He stopped a comfortable distance away, looking her over.
The grin softened into something almost warm. “Looks like he ditched you, didn’t he?”
Luna rolled her eyes. No, but actually, kind of yes, as far as today was concerned. She kept her posture loose, feeling no threat from him. “It’s complicated. You seem to have survived not robbing us.”
“Barely. It’s terrible for morale to let two F-ranks walk.” He scratched his scar. “My boys gave me shit for a week. But I’ve made dumber choices.”
“What’re you doing here, anyways? Thought Vellhorn would be too much of a shithole for a C-rank.”
He laughed. “Can’t say it ain’t. But one of my boys got injured on the last quest, so we need to stay put for a while. This place was a lot closer.” He eyed her for an extra second. “You can sneak into places, can’t you?”
She raised an eyebrow. “You could say that.”
“Since the mage seems to have ditched you for something earlier, you could join us for a job. We need a sneak for this one.”
“And all of you have egos too large to fit through anything smaller than a gate.” She snorted. “Where do I find you?”
“At the golden duck. We’ll be there for at least a week.”
“I actually might see you there.” Luna slipped past him, heading for the door. “Name’s Luna.”
Savnoj grunted, turning towards Kallas. “You wouldn’t believe it, but I need another two runes on my sword.”
Kallas raised his gaze from Luna’s sleeping bag. “You have twelve on the sword and six on the sheath. That’s beyond overdoing it, already.”
“Oh, really?” Savnoj looked over the table. “Did you talk shit to her when she came with an already magical sleeping bag, a dozen runes, and a pile of enhanced cloth?”
Luna stopped by the door, sparing them a glance.
“Yes,” Kallas said. “That’s just as bad as your sword. But I’m the craftsman here, so I will do it for both of you. No matter how stupid a job, it’s honest work for a fair price.”
With a smirk, Luna left.