“I cannot promise a teaching job,” he said, shaking his head. “But at the start of the next term, I could hire you as my secretary. Would you be alright with that?”
She beamed widely at him. “Yes, I’d love that.”
He smiled back at her. Ned would be less happy about it, he was sure, but all children had to leave their parents eventually. Plus, he thought, Eris would be pleased.
Once his social visit was complete, and there were no more meetings, formal or otherwise, Adrissu said his goodbyes and walked about a half mile out of the city before taking his draconic form and heading east for Wintergrove. If he flew directly there, it would have taken only an hour, if that; but he was careful to give the populated areas a wide berth, especially when he drew near to Tyrsun’s territory. Finally, he landed down in a heavily forested area where he could change back to his elven form and walk the rest of the way, so it was nearing sunset when he arrived in Wintergrove.
Like most of the villages and towns in this part of Autreth, it had grown considerably in the past few decades and was significantly larger than it had been when Adrissu first visited. It was large enough now that there were several inns and taverns he could choose from. Even though it had been long enough that he was certain that Luc, the owner of the tavern where he had met Daiana, was surely long dead—and his son probably too old to remember him, if he still operated it at all—he decided still to go to a different inn on the other side of town. In part, Adrissu wanted to avoid even the slightest chance that his visit might be remembered and remarked upon; but also, a new inn in the more up-and-coming part of town was more likely to house rumors of the new weapon being developed here in Wintergrove.
He did little that first night, tired from his travel and eager to relax. The next day, though, he sat in the tavern and watched people go by, noting younger folks and those who looked like they could be mages or tinkerers themselves—any who might know about the weapon, or those developing it. He had very little luck with the lunch crowd, so in the afternoon he left the tavern and instead took a long, meandering walk through the neighborhood, listening for any indication of workshops or unusual smiths. There he had better luck; he noticed a blacksmith’s apprentice working on an odd-looking metal tube. When he asked the human about it, the boy told him they supplied small pipes and things of that nature to an enchantment studio operating out of that district, which sounded promising.
Adrissu asked the boy where the enchanter worked, but he had never been there and could only point him in a general direction. Adrissu thanked him anyway and resumed his search, but he could find nothing that seemed like the kind of workshop he was looking for, so he resolved to return in the morning and give the neighborhood a closer look. He returned to his room, had a decent meal, and rested.
The next morning he set back out in that part of town, making a careful circuit up and down its orderly roads. It was mostly inhabited by artisans, so the buildings were eclectic and mismatched, despite the neat grid of walkways that they were built upon. He passed a pottery studio painted a deep eggplant purple, and a shop where a woman was sketching a mural on a pastel-pink wall. The streets were already noisy with activity, so Adrissu blended in easily with the various passers-by milling about.
In the early afternoon, he found it. It was a nondescript building compared to many of the others Adrissu had seen that morning, built of practical brick with an unassuming metal sign beside the door:Blackthorn Enchantments.
He hesitated in front of the door for a moment, then began to walk again, giving himself time to come up with a plan now that he’d actually found it. The only name he knew was Blackthorn, but there was no guarantee the elf would be there, and he needed a reason to see the studio even if he were absent. He would need something enchanted, then—perhaps Adrissu was a visitor and had lost an item he needed—or, no, he was interested in getting a gift for a friend, something special, something unique.
Once his story was set, Adrissu turned around and headed back toward the enchantment studio, still at the same casual pace. This time, when he approached, he pulled open the door and peered inside. It opened into a small showroom with several items displayed on shelves and wall mounts, and a human sitting behind a counter who perked up as Adrissu stepped inside.
“Hello, welcome,” the man said, smiling up at him. “Can I help you find anything in particular?”
“Well, I’m looking to have something custom done,” Adrissu said, flashing the man a polite smile. “And I’m hoping you can give me some insight whether it’s something you can do.”
“Sure, let’s hear it.”
“I’m here on a leisure trip, and I’d like to get a souvenir for a friend,” Adrissu continued. “I had a thought, but I’m not certain how to execute it. I was thinking something small, like a locket, but when opened it would display a larger picture, maybe an image of Wintergrove. Would something like that be some kind of little illusion, or...?”
“Definitely!” the man answered brightly. “We can do something like that. Do you have a locket you’d like to enchant?”
“No, I don’t have anything yet.”
“That’s alright, we can produce one for you, too, but that will take an extra day, if that’s alright with you.”
“That is acceptable,” Adrissu said, bowing his head slightly in agreement. “I have to admit, I’m curious about how such things are made. Would you just buy a necklace from another store and enchant it? Or would the locket need to be made yourselves in order for the magic to work?”
The man laughed, his eyes crinkling. “We can do either way, although flashier stuff needs to be made in-house—just the nature of how enchantments work. Do you know anything about magic?”
“A little bit,” Adrissu answered.
“Would you like to have a peek at our workstations? I know people are often curious,” the man said, and Adrissu nodded. He gestured for Adrissu to come around the counter, then unlocked the door behind him.
“I am rather interested to see how it’s done,” Adrissu agreed, and followed him through. “Do you do anything bigger than little trinkets like this? I’d imagine you must work on a variety of projects if you have multiple workstations.”
“That’s correct,” the man said, starting to explain, but Adrissu mostly tuned him out as they entered the back room. There were several small stations with humans working at them, each set up with a large stone table carved with various runes that Adrissu recognized as different variations of enchantment: some quite simple, while others were complex even at a cursory glance. Near the back was a forge, similar to what he had seen Granville Kipp use all those years ago. He did not recognize any of the humans, three of whom waved politely at him as the human giving him the tour led him by; but the larger forge in the back was unoccupied.
“What is that big station in the back?” he asked, interrupting the man’s explanation. The man hesitated, glancing between Adrissu and the forge.
“That’s for very complex projects,” he said, and to his credit, his tone was just as cheerful and informative as it had been. “We’re actually doing some cutting-edge applications of steam-augmented magic, the same kind that’s used to power hot water and light fixtures in cities like Wintergrove. Unfortunately, I can’t really tell you much, though. As you might imagine, lots of contracts and patrons limiting what we can say about it.”
“Of course,” Adrissu said, and let the man continue with his routine; but he kept his attention on the forge, trying to figure out as much as he could from this distance. The size and shape of it was familiar, but the magical components within were mostly hidden from his sight; the few that he could see were not immediately recognizable to him.
“So Lathe here would be the one who would work on your locket,” the man continued, pulling Adrissu’s attention to the youngest human working there: a bespectacled, dark-haired boy who must have been no more than twenty, who gave him a friendly smile as his gaze lingered on his ears. “He’s just graduated from his apprenticeship, but I can assure you his work would be of perfect quality for a project like yours.”
“I see,” Adrissu said, then nodded. “Well, I look forward to seeing it, then.”
“I can have it done in three days’ time,” the boy offered.
