Novel Full Chapter 2242 A List of Steel
--- Hedera ---
Hedera was out and about on a mission. Steel was back at his house, sleeping, but that was sufficient deterrent. At least, he seemed to think so. His logic was that not only could he be awake and ready to help quite swiftly, with training for that specific thing... it was also quite the escalation to attack someone in his house while he’s there as well. Hedera wasn’t entirely sure she agreed... and it was an odd enough statement that she checked a few things to ensure he was the real one, but in the end she agreed to go.
Steel had been able to answer a lot of specific questions about Kat, himself, and the house. Even trying to trip him up by phrasing question in such a way they’d be wrong. Like ’what sort of demon was Lily’. Steel had answered correctly that he didn’t know. Heck, Hedera didn’t know, or at least, couldn’t remember it every being mentioned what she was. Though based on the magic ’demon’ was clearly incorrect.
Hedera had even swung a wide loop back around to the house to check everything, and she spotted her two... acquaintances playing cards in the living room once again. While it didn’t bring her a good deal of joy to know that she could spot them from a good sniping position without anyone else catching her, the fact that they all seemed fine meant that her task list was probably real. Even if Kat wasn’t around to confirm that.
Of course, Hedera had to berate herself over the fact that the only reason she thought to even ask was that the first request was to go to the enchanters discreetly and pick up a box of enchanted items designed to disrupt illusions. Hedera didn’t know the specifics yet, but the hope was to get them quietly, and that nobody would figure out they had them. To hide this, Hedera was also meant to ask for some tips on enchanting her arrows, both as a code phrase and as a way to sneak into the back with the stock without getting caught.
Her fancy new storage ring was going to help with that. It wasn’t very large. About enough space for a table. Sadly one meant more for families then for noble dinner gatherings, but Hedera supposed she was getting this all for free simply for working with Steel up to this point, so it was probably best not to complain or request something larger.
Hedera looked at the enchanter’s workshop from the corner of the street. It didn’t have a lot of traffic at the moment... and it was weird. The whole workshop was just the size of a normal house. Hedera suspected Space Expansion enchantments on the whole thing of course... but even still, why not ask for more space to begin with? While space was limited in the dome, the fact that there were open air fields around the edges meant that space wasn’t quite THAT restricted. There was also the fact that from what she’s heard, the population was going down over time. How many houses were empty these days?
Hedera shrugged it off and then went inside. The front door was open... and immediately she felt like she’d stepped into a furnace. *If you’ve enchanting the shit out of your workshop to give it more space... WHY NOT DO THE SAME TO STOP THE HEAT.* Hedera very deliberately did NOT glare off to the left side of the receptionist desk at the massive furnaces spewing out flames. That would be beneath her. Instead, she glared at the empty receptionist desk. *At least they fixed the sound.*
Off to the side where the furnaces were working, mostly by themselves through a series of moving parts that produced ingots and then moved on, were a few apprentices. The last furnace in the line seemed to actually be for making things and two dwarves were currently hammering away at something.
On the other side, there were a number of benches with jewels scattered around and wires all over the place. Presumably for enchanting jewellery or something like that. Hedera felt like leaving it all out and visible from the front entrance wasn’t a great idea... especially when it seemed like a good deal of money’s worth of gems. Then again, the economy of this city was fucking weird and there could be some sort of enchanted defence.
That was always the problem with enchanter’s workshops. Some of them turn their workshop into a fortress where one wrong step has you shredded to pieces by several traps that were added over time. Or they’re completely unenchanted because spending the time to enchant the building when they could be working on something else was quite substantial. The annoying part was that all the enchanting going on made it hard to use your mana senses to tell the difference. Too much magic all stuffed into one place.
Hedera found herself leaning on the receptionist desk for a while, looking for some sort of call bell or a way to make it obvious she was waiting. As she was looking around, one of the dwarves over in the blacksmith area clearly spotted her, pointed her existence out to the rest of them... and then promptly went back to ignoring her.
Hedera sighed and turned back to the desk. *Alright what do we have here. An inkpot that seems empty but is probably enchanted to provide ink. A stack of paper with nothing on it... an empty mug, a tiny square resting on the papers to keep them in place with the door open. Then again, it’s not like it really gets windy here.*
FINALLY a female dwarf came around the corner in the jewellery area and marched over to her. Hedera didn’t grumble about the time. Instead, she waited for her to get to the desk and ask, "What are you looking for? We’ve got some space for orders at the moment."
"I was looking for some tips on enchanting my arrows," said Hedera as she pulled out the arrow Steel had left in the storage ring he’d handed over. Presumably for this purpose.
The dwarves eyes widened and she nodded, "Ah, yeah. Well, as I said we’ve got some time, so come with me to the back so we’re not disturbing anyone else."
Hedera nodded, "Alright sounds good. Though, I was wondering, is it safe to leave all that stuff out on the benches?"
The dwarf laughed, "Eh it’s fine. You can’t really sell those gems in too many places, and I’ve got something special set up to track when they leave before they’re set into the piece in question. Oh, and the name is Gemstone. Yeah I know. Just call me Gemma. What’s your name?"
"Hedera," she answered as they walked through a few doors. The first door seemed to take them through a break room, with a bunch of enchanted boxes that she didn’t know the purpose of and snacks just, lying around everywhere. They then quickly moved through another door and into a hallway that by itself was probably too long for the house this workshop was meant to be in.
"Alright, so, just to check, but Steel sent you to pick up... what specifically?" asked Gemma, though from the look on her face it was clear she knew what was meant to be handed over.
"Steel didn’t give me a name, but they’re illusion disrupters," answered Hedera.
Gemma nodded, "Yeah that sounds right. I’ll show you where they’re all stored. Most of these doors are for private workshops to rent or for employees but some of them are storage. It changes."
"Alright... though, now that I’m here, I am actually curious as to what sort of enchantments you CAN recommend for my arrows in addition to what I’m actually here for. I’ve got a few other things Steel wants done but none of them are as pressing or important. Mostly asking about ingredients for potions and whatnot," added Hedera.
Gemma scratched at the side of her face. "I’m... not sure how much I can help with that. It feels like a bit of a waste to enchant individual arrows you know? Why not just enchant the bow?"
"I enchant the arrows to give myself a variety of effects and I make intentionally poor enchantments that explode into elemental effects on contact. I do also have a few slightly better made arrows with nets and other such things," explained Hedera.
"Ok that’s... kind of crazy. Still, I suppose I can understand what you’re doing at least. I might be able to think of a few that when broken cut the nearby space a bit? Probably harder to do then your current stuff, and there is some risk of it just exploding in your hand..." Gemma offered.
"I’d at least like to see some examples," agreed Hedera. "I don’t know if they’ll be fit for use any time soon, but it’s a good long term investment for when I REALLY want to kill something. Not sure that the materials will survive, but for kill requests that will be useful," explained Hedera.
"Um... you don’t kill people do you?" asked Gemma.
"Oh right the dome. No I kill monsters mostly," answered Hedera. She failed to realise that the ’mostly’ part was still worrying Gemma a good deal.