I was left to contemplate what Shale had said for a few hours as I milled about the house. I was even more shaky on my feet after my brief engagement with the Noctis agent, even thought I felt as if it was a good, decisive and most importantly, easy victory. I could defeat Noctis infiltrators in single combat, while injured, and without my primarily equipment as a Sigilist. I felt at least some pride, in that, even if I had gotten kicked around a little bit during the engagement, and apart of me worried that they had sent Shale with expendability in mind, as if they were alright if he was killed to delivr Tali’s…message. It fit Noctis’s methods, from what I’d heard, and I wasn’t fond of the notion, so I chose to focus on the bright side as best I could.
It also, in turn, left me to mull on my thoughts on the matters at hand, that being whether or not to trust what I’d been told. While the message had come from Noctis, it wasn’t the sort of information that was truly a tactical breach. They stood to gain from giving it to me, for several reasons, though I was slightly struggling to wrap my head around them all. These people were smart, but…
Ugh. I hated this. I needed something new to do with my hands in the meantime anyways, I moved for my training room, which had been trashed by my brief engagement with Shale from a few moments ago. Opening the door and heading inside, I looked about the slightly damaged room. The dagger was still in the wall, and apart of it was also dented from Shale’s flinging via the mace. That’d be a slight pain to fix, but I could pay for it later in all likelihood. For now it wouldn’t bother me, considering it wasn’t going to be letting any water or outside problems in with the minimal damage, and it sort of added to the atmosphere all considered. Grizzled warrior with a training room full of memories…yeah. I liked that plenty as an idea. I did however, pick up the dagger and place it back with it’s brethren on the wall. To be used later, likely. I had considered taking them with me the night before, but in all honesty, I was afraid of their volatile potential with carrying them on my person, especially with my first night where I would be fighting someone for real. If those had detonated during my fight with Tali…I’d likely be dead, or at the very least be so horrible scarred that I would never walk again, or even function like a normal individual again. And with my current funds, it would be doubtful that I could get a healer or any form of trained individual in magic to get me out of such a predicament. Yeah. I left the daggers where they were, even making sure to take extra care tidying them up onto the wall.
The mace…the poor mace. That was one of the worst things about the fight with Shale, was that it forced my hand with the weapon. It was probably one of my nicer possessions, and there it was, with a large ugly crack down the middle. I sighed, as I gingerly turned the weapon over in my hands a bit, before crossing the room slowly and placing it down on my workbench. I’d have to put some work into it later, fix it up…maybe start taking it with me on active combat outings. It was a useful backup weapon if I ended up disarmed, or if I needed something just hit exceptionally hard. I liked that idea. So, after carefully covering the mace in a tarp and keeping some lingering reserves there so the present sigil wouldn’t fade, I stepped away, happy to have a way forward with it. For now, however, it was done. Only one thing left on the agenda for the day. I reached over to besides the workbench, grabbing Tali’s sword.
Time to sell things which weren’t mine. The very honorable thing for the Kingdom Solider to do. The thought put a small smile on my face. In reality, though, it was legal as far as I was aware, and Noctis didn’t really have property rights in the same way most people did, so as long as I had it, wasn’t being fought for it, and it wasn’t a particularly dangerous item (it really wasn’t as long as I sold it to the right people, not like it was magically volatile…anymore at least). For all legal purposes it was mine, and in this case, mine to sell.
I moved for the door and stepped out, feeling surprisingly energized all things considered. I’d been hurt fairly badly the night before, plus having fought a well trained Noctis member today. A normal person probably wouldn’t have been able to walk, much less be ready for another activity, yet here I was, ignoring jabs of pain in my side as I moved down the streets. Some of the market stalls would be closing about now, getting ready for night to fall in just a few hours, but most of the shops would remain open until around that point, lucky for me and my purposes today.
I hadn’t really gone about this exact sort of transaction before, but I had looked into buying weapons before, and thus knew where the three blacksmiths in the city were. The first one I knew, and had only visited once, many months ago, was currently in overtaken Noctis territory. I’d hoped that the human man who ran it was doing alight, amongst it all. The other two, however, were in safer parts of the city. One of them was dwarven run, and was generally heavier weapons, and other was elven run, and was generally lighter weapons, though both had exceptions to their respective rules. I knew they took weapons people didn’t want for gold or trade through word of mouth, if only expand their own wares and stock for prospective customers, so policy wasn’t a problem, it became more of a question of who I thought would pay me more. I really only wanted to make one trip out today, all considered, and I didn’t want to trek across the city twice or more just for a handful of extra gold.
The ideas went both ways. The dwarven run smith might get me more, due to the fact that it wasn’t something they normally got his hands on. But at the same time, they might get less from it, since no one was going to the dwarven smith looking to buy elven weapons. The inverse was also true for the other smith, except I might get less because it was what they normally have access to.
I eventually settled on visiting the elven smith. It seemed more likely they’d pay for something that fit their customer base rather then something which didn’t, and if I ended up being wrong, then I could live with a bit extra gold. I hadn’t expected this in the first place, so it wasn’t like it would disrupt any of my plans regardless of what I got. Extra money was extra money, in the end.
It didn’t take me long to make it to the shop, a smaller building with a simple sign which read ‘Ryo Family Smithery’, with presumably the same name written below it in elvish by the looks of things and my limited understanding of the language. Lights still shone within, so I approached the door, and entered within.
The shop itself had a very homey feel to it, despite by and large being covered in lethal weapons. Torches, likely magically made to burn at the fullest lined the walls to provide light where weapons didn’t hang, and the weapons themselves gleamed stunningly where they hung and laid.
Nothing heavier then a few elegant longswords hung throughout, with a few masterfully carved bows and quivers of arrows hanging below them with thin but deadly sharp points tipping them.
I stood there honestly stunned for maybe half a moment, before snapping back to reality. The shopkeeper was already looking at me expectantly, and I felt like a complete idiot. I looked over. They were a taller elf, almost seven feet tall, with a near completely androgynous form, wearing flowy, too long clothing which even obscured their hands in draping cloth. They had blonde hair, striking yellow eyes and a seemingly docile stature and demeanor.
“Right-hello-” I said, raising my hand in greeting somewhat awkwardly. “Do you buy weapons?” Right down to business, I decided. Makes things easy.
“I do.” They said, voice melodious, and just as genderless as their form. I nodded in reply, holding up the cloth wrapped sword and moving for the counter, laying it down and removing the cloth from it enough so that the blade could be seen.
They looked it over with what I assumed to be an expert eye, raising an eyebrow at one of two points, seeing the faded symbols, but likely assuming it to be some fancy embroidery or marking rather then sigils. Most people either didn’t know much or anything about sigilism, or if they did, they’d also know that no sigilist would give up their work like this. After about a minute of appraisal, they seemed to nod, as if coming to a conclusion.
“I’ll give you three hundred and twenty suns for it” they said conclusively.
I did the math in my head. That was…three thousand two hundred Ardents, and thirty two Salazars. The coins went in order of most recent rulers as the most valued coin, second most recent as the second most valued coin…and the third most recent as the third most valued. The coins names and faces might change every fifty or so years, but the metals they were made of, copper, silver and gold, would always hold the same value. Not as confusing as the elves that would make fun of us over it would make it out to be. Either way…that was about as much as I expected. Seemed fair, at the very least. I gave my own nod in response to them.
“Fine by me. Thanks. You see work like this often?” I said, gesturing to the sword.
“Not in a long time. This is elven wood make. Out east, it’s likely a lot more common. Here…stuff like that rarely leaves. May I ask where you got it?”
“From a member of Noctis. I’m a freelance fighter for the Kingdom” That was the best way I could define my role.
“Hm. I won’t get in any trouble for accepting this, will I?”
“Not that I know of. I won it in battle. Noctis can’t take action against you unless they somehow advance this far, which they won’t.” This shop was miles away from the current front. We’d get all the back up we needed long before they made it here. The elf seemingly knew that as well, nodding.
“Very well, then. Let me get the money” They vanished into a back room, and returned a moment later with a hefty pouch. “That should be all. Feel free to count.”
I looked into the bag, eyeballing it. I elected not to count it. If they cheated me, I’d deal with it. It was more then enough money either way. “I’ll be alright, thanks. Have a good night.”
“You as well, sir.” They said, smiling, as I turned and left the shop, tucking the pouch into my belt and out of most peoples sight to avoid theft.
I was about halfway down the street when I noticed the light begin to fall away. The sun was rapidly setting. I’d overestimated my potential of ground covering, and it seemed I’d be walking in the dark. Either way, I should be safe, no way any Noctis members would be this far out.
That’s what I thought, at least. When the bolt of light arced down from the roof, and landed at my feet, that’s when I had second thoughts.
Kindling And Miscellany 