3. Interpersonal Tension

Buying a sword isn’t much of a challenge on its own. I’ve even had to do it once or twice for customer orders before. For this job I just pick up the cheapest one I can find that isn’t actively falling apart as well as a gold worth of Steel-leaf. It’s normally not a good enchantment for anyone who knows how to use a sword, but it should make it a bit more durable for when I inevitably use it wrong … It also plays well with other enchantments if I do want to put one on.

Using Steel-leaf on the blade is on the simpler side as well, I don’t have as much practice with it as other recipes, but it’s a very forgiving process. It’s also a decent workout carving the right symbols into the blade before magically bonding powdered Steel-leaf into the engravings. It’s a mix of art and science especially in getting the symbols right and adjusting their shape to get the right effects. It also makes the entire room smell like some sort of freshly cut wood. I don’t actually recognize what type of wood it is or even if it matches a type that actually exists, but it definitely smells sweeter than any wood I’ve ever smelled before. With that done maybe I should try enchanting it with my own magic … assuming there’s something useful I can even do with my own magic. For a while invisible swords were in vogue, but using them properly requires knowing how to use a sword, and they fell off once people realized it was useless against anything that wouldn’t die to a normal sword. If my magic had a particularly useful application I could store it in the sword to cast it without using my own magic, but … well the ‘if’ part of that is the problem, none of my magic is useful enough to bother committing it to a junk piece of metal let alone a full sword. I guess if I’m trying to intimidate things away then I might as well add an illusion that looks like a better enchantment, it could maybe work on a dark mage even if most animals wouldn’t care about it whatsoever. Though if I run into a dark mage I’m probably doomed anyway, most of the tales I’ve heard say that light mages and dark mages are to normal mages as normal mages are to normal humans. Still that’s about the only thing I can think of that would work better as an enchantment instead of doing it myself, so I might as well try it.

Using my magic for enchanting is pretty similar to enchanting with magical materials, the only real difference is that after carving the runes into the blade I have to infuse them with a lot more of my own magic instead of binding ground up material into the area. It also leaves a scent, but not one I’ve smelled anywhere else. A mix of sweetness, smoke, and an undertone of some plant I don’t recognize. It’s probably my favorite scent from enchanting things, but that’s also probably how it works for everyone. It’s pretty quickly apparent I overdid it with the runes, illusion magic doesn’t take a lot of space to do something and I didn’t need to cover the entire blade with interconnected runes just to create a dynamic illusion. I guess the best use for it is to go all in on different options for its appearance. Designing is easily the best part of illusions so this should be fun.

If designing illusions is the best part, then testing them out is the second best. Unfortunately … well, probably fortunately, there aren’t any Dark Mages at hand whose opinions I can get, but I can flick through the different options myself and admire my handiwork. If I need it I’ll probably default to the burn-edge version, the fire has a delightfully brutal edge to it that’s almost instinctively intimidating. Then again it doesn’t produce heat … well the radiant-edge version produces enough light, so maybe that would be better depending on the situation. I guess they’ll all be situational, illusions as a concept just are situational. It’s fun to subdivide and imagine my power being useful for once, but really this all was just all just a way to kill a few hours. I don’t exactly have anything better to do with my time now, so maybe I should just start enchanting random objects for practice. I’d thought of that as a joke, but it’s not my worst idea, it’s basically how I learned enchanting in the first place … well if I end up without anything better to do I could … that is to say I’ll probably at least try it. Actually … I don’t have anything to do now either, so I guess I’ll just try it now.

The next morning I head by Bridget’s shop. I’ve never been here this early in the morning, and honestly, I hate it. It might just be the weather, but the sun feels too hot, and far too bright. Hopefully the forest cuts that down by a bit otherwise this situation is going to somehow be worse than I expected. While I'm complaining, I wish we’d set up a more accurate time than ‘morning’ since Bridget isn’t here yet. I guess I’m probably the weird one though since the market is basically empty. I’ll just stand by her shop until she gets here.

I’m interrupted from an attempt to mentally sketch out a Corpse Bear from memories of pictures by a shout clearly directed towards me. “Hey! What’re you doing there? Shop’s closed.”

I look over to the source of the voice and find a man standing a few stalls over looking at me. Just from size alone he’s a bit terrifying at a head taller than me, but more than that his outfit screams professional adventurer. He’s wearing his clothes over leather armor, and the sword at his hip is very clearly enchanted. I’d guess it’s a fire enchantment from the runes I can see while it’s sheathed. “Sorry sir. I didn’t mean to offend. I was asked to take on a quest here. Apparently I got here early.”

He takes a few steps closer, and sets his hand on the hilt of his sword. “I keep a pretty good eye on guild comings and goings, you aren’t any guild member I’ve seen. What’re you really here for?”

I put an illusion around myself, a perfect identical copy of me that occupies the same area that I do, that is to say no visible change for him. On its own it’s useless, but it’s an amazing bit of magic to set up when I have time. “I wasn’t lying sir, I’m just new at this. May I ask who I’m speaking to?”

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He draws his blade a tiny bit and I see flames kindling at the area near the hilt as he holds it slightly out of the sheathe. “That’s none of your concern. I know well enough that there’s no jobs here for someone that new. There’s been a lot of suspicious folks around this area, and I want to know what they’re doing here.”

With another strand of magic I suppress everything I can about myself, most importantly I become invisible and inaudible, with the illusion in my place from the man’s perspective nothing changes as I take a large step back so that I’m staring at the back of my illusory head. The illusion copies my voice as it speaks for me. “Then I can’t help you sir. I’m sure the owner of this shop can vouch for me if you’re willing to wait for them.”

He releases the hilt of his sword and it clicks back into place in its sheath. For a second he seems to think about that before he reaches out to grab the collar of my shirt … and his hand goes straight through the illusion he tried to grab. Whatever he was about to say next is cut off by a familiar voice from across the market. “Willard, I hope you’re not making a bad first impression on my friend.”

The newly identified Willard turns towards Bridget as she stomps up to her shop, clearly annoyed. “Oh, sorry. She didn’t say the right …”

He gets cut off abruptly by Bridget, and I’m starting to feel like a third wheel here. “You’re being far too paranoid about Dark Mages Willard. I had meant to introduce you two at some point, but since you decided to jump in and make a mess of everything I guess this is the introduction. Jezebel, this is Willard, he’s who I usually would ask for protection when I would do these types of jobs. Willard, this is Jezebel, one of my oldest friends, and a new member of her guild’s exploration group.”

I step my illusion back a step before shifting it to overlap with me again before dismissing the two illusions, hopefully the change isn't too obvious. “Nice to meet you Willard. Sorry for the miscommunication.”

Willard at least has the grace to look embarrassed about the whole thing. “No, it’s my fault. I thought some … Dark Mages were peeking around Bridget’s shop. I … well I didn’t know any guilds that hired after teenage years … no offense.”

I guess that’s not wrong, my story didn’t make a whole lot of sense as incomplete as it was. “Ah … then it was a bit my fault. The guild hired me for something else a while ago and … well they changed their mind recently.”

Bridget interjects back into the conversation here. “She’s one of the best enchanters I’ve seen, but with the church’s new projects … well you can imagine.”

Why is that the thing she wanted to clarify? It seems like Willard gets whatever's happening though. “Ah, I understand perfectly. I am truly sorry for my confusion. I’ve heard of such things happening, but hadn’t realized it was a part of your situation. I hope we’ll be able to work together at some point in the future.”

There’s definitely something shady about this whole situation. Willard’s entire personality swapped too quickly, and it feels a bit like he grabbed onto the Dark Mages excuse a bit too readily. Still, I trust Bridget, and if she trusts this Willard I can at least give him the benefit of the doubt. “No worries, any friend of Bridget is a friend of mine. I’d be happy to work with you in the future.”

He actually seems to breathe a sigh of relief at that, I’m definitely missing a few things here … I’ll have to ask Bridget about it once we’re alone. “Well then I’m sorry for the interruption. I’ll leave you to get back to your work.”

He gives a very stiff looking bow before turning and walking off. Bridget lets out her own exhausted breath before turning back to me. “Well sorry about that, I should’ve introduced you two earlier. He’s been a bit on edge recently, but he’s really a darling once you get to know him.”

“He’s certainly … intense about Dark Mages. Does he actually stand a chance if he runs into one? He didn’t strike me as a Light Mage.”

She winces at that. “Not … really, not on his own. It’s honestly a bit of a concern how much he obsesses over it … but that’s not for me to talk about. It would be rude of me to explain his life story behind his back, and he has a bit of a history with Dark Mages.”

That’s … a bit more understandable … I guess. There’s still something weird about how he seemed to jump on the explanation as soon as it was mentioned … but I’ll probably have to see how it pans out for now. “Well no worries. I just got here too early anyway.

She all but jumps on that as a change of subject. “Ah, I was wondering about that. I thought I got up early, but I guess I have a lot to learn.”

Honestly I just didn’t feel like sleeping last night, I don’t really get what people see in it. “I don’t sleep much, no worries. I hope I didn’t forget anything else, I’m probably missing some common sense for this sort of work.”

She shrugs “Well then this is a good opportunity to learn some. Normally you’d want to bring your own food and water, but I brought enough for us both by quite a bit. Otherwise you’re fine, you normally just need to bring enough to sustain yourself unless the employer says they’re going to provide something. Also, while you’re learning the rules of these sorts of quests, for future reference always assume that the quest giver is some sort of hybrid between an infant and the concept of insanity. You’ll sometimes be overcautious, but quite often you’ll be closer than you’d think.”

“I … see. That’s a bit horrifying. I didn’t think things were that bad.”

She shrugs. “It’s always best to be cautious when you can be. We should head out now, we’ll need as many subjects as possible to talk about while traveling because it’s going to be incredibly boring either way.”

“Alright … I guess this is it, my first actual mission.”

She smiles at that. “Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.”