Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty Five - 255"What's with all the floof?" Evie asked.
Vess blushed and twisted slightly as she looked down, inadvertently making her skirts swish to the side. "This...My father"
"His Grace the Duke of Pax'Vrell has decreed that Her Grace, Lady Vessilia Dayne return to his Territory immediately," intoned the Hand, smoothly interrupting Vess. Evie expression soured even further.
"Vess? What's going on?" Felix asked. Vess opened her mouth, but the Hand cut her off.
"We shall accompany you all into the Verdant Pass," the Hand continued. Vess wouldn't meet their eyes and her Spirit felt muddled. "From there, we shall request passage from Setoria via Manaship."
"Very good! We're all here."
Felix glanced over and saw Cal walking down the steps, flanked by Bodie, Yan, Kelgor, and even Thangle for some reason. More Haarguard followed. He even saw Karp and Vivianne among them, the archer and inscriptionist both wearing sharp uniforms of a different shade than the guards. The Lady of Haarwatch moved over the ground like oiled silk, her Body giving her a supernatural grace, and soon she was climbing the crates laid out by Rafny's apprentices as if they were steps to a stage. Twice as tall as everyone else, Cal turned to take in the entire square, whose steady business had stopped under the weight of so many people of interest. She spread her hands and gave everyone a smile as wide as it was fake.
"Excellent! With this assemblage there is no threat we cannot vanquish," Cal said loudly as the crowd gathered closer. Felix felt a flicker of unease from her Spirit, rising in time with the curiosity of the masses. "We have been fighting ever since the Eyrie fell. Fighting the Revenants, fighting the redcloaks. All to simply live. Now, as we begin the bare steps toward prosperity, another threat emerges. The brave Haarwatch goes now to face it in the Verdant Pass, alongside our greatest of champions: the Blue Eyed Fiend!"
Cal gestured to him, and Thangle sent a stream of Mana out of his hands. As if a sunbeam had emerged from behind a cloud, a ray of light suddenly hit Felix like a spotlight from above. The crowd's curiosity and rising fear burst into full blown excitement, and Felix's exceptional hearing picked out more than a few thrilled voices talking about him. Felix did a half wave. As usual, his Affinity picked out a ripple in the harmonies around him as people's Spirits were moved by his presence. Just as Cal intended.
The spotlight pivoted, focusing attention back on Cal.
"We shall mount up and take our forces into the Verdant Pass and protect our city and Territory!" The crowd cheered, but Cal pushed onward. "All of you are strong and growing stronger, and Haarwatch will never forget what each and every one of you have done to bring us from the brink. Tin or Bronze, Untempered or Journeyman, you are all of you heroes."
All at once, the Haarguard stomped their feet and saluted at their Lady, and the crowd went wild. Felix was thankfully separated from them by the linen of guards that encircled the stack of cratesnot because they could have hurt him, but the waves of their emotions battered against his Harmonic senses. He pulled back, closing it off for a moment as Cal climbed down from the impromptu stage.
"Thanks Rafny," she smiled at the smith.
"Don't mention it, you wanted a stage, I can make a stage," Rafny said with a snort. "Plus your equipment's in there. So have the big guy pass it out."
"Bodie? You hear the lady," Cal said. Bodie smirked and saluted.
"Alright boys and girls! Line up!"
While the big man tossed out breastplates and shields, and Cal returned to talking to her guards, Rafny gestured over to the others. At some point Elle had come out of the smithy, and she was smiling at the lot of them.
"Evie, Atar, Alister," she said with a nod. "I see you've already picked up your armor. That is good. How do you find it?"
"Comfortable," Atar said, admiring his new battlerobes. They were the same black and grey as before, but they were cut slightly differently. They looked reinforced across the abdomen, shoulders, and upper legs. "And the protection built into them is fantastic. I thank you, smith."
"You are very welcome, young mage," Elle said. "And you Lord Knacht?"
The force mage smiled broadly at the smith. "Alister, please. But yes, my robes are exceptionally well-fitted, and the dueling armor is exceptionally light. How did you make it so flexible?" He opened his blue robes to reveal a pair of greaves, a metal chest piece, and armor going over his right shoulder and arm. It was etched with interlocking lines on each segment and was far more metal than Atar ever wore. The rapier and long dagger at his side reminded Felix that Alister was more a duelist with magic than a wizard.
"All thanks to those Arcids," Elle admitted. "They alloys they were built from was remarkable. The same metals went into your battlerobes Atar and your set as well Evie."
Evie, tore her eyes from Vess long enough to give the smith a nod. She ran her hands down her leather and metal armor. It looked strongbut was noticeably thinner than say Harn'sand was segmented for flexibility and mobility. She moved her arms a little and pulled a waterskin from her waist. "It's a touch heavy, but I'll get used to it. Damn sight better than my last set."
"I'd hope so, that metal all of you are wearing is likely worth thirty crowns per dram," Rafny said.
Evie spit out a mouthful of water. "Pfaw! What? How much?"
"Burn me," Atar said, looking at his battlerobes. "You charged us so little. Why?"
"Perks of being heroes, I suppose. Though if you wanna pay full price..." Rafny said, and Elle put a hand on her upper arm.
"Stop teasing them. We were happy to make them, for the experience if nothing else. But," Elle gestured to her wife. "We have some more for you two."
"Eh, Alister here already got his new sword and dagger. He put his order in a while back, actually, and didn't make me work all night." Rafny reached into a crate that had been set aside, this one far longer and more rectangular. "Here we are."
The Dwarf pulled out a thin metal stave made of dark, umber colored metal. It was perhaps five feet tall, long enough to assist someone walking but not a staff or anything. She handed it to Atar, and the fire mage's eyes just about popped from his head.
"Highest flame," he whispered. He looked between the stave and Rafny with awe in his expression and Spirit. "This...an earth array?"
"It'll replace that stave you lost, collapses just like the other one too," Rafny demonstrated and the five foot stave was suddenly a foot long. She extended it again with a snap of her wrist. "The tip is enchanted with the output of the earth array. Now it can act as your stylus even on stone or wood."
"Remarkable," Atar said, before regaining his composure and give the weaponsmith a stoic nod. "My thanks."
"Ooh ooh, me next!" Evie said, eyeing the item in Rafny's other hand. It was clearly a chain, bladed as her others, and made of a green metal with traceries of silver. She took it gingerly from Rafny and cooed. "Oh it's gorgeous. Does it?"
"Aye. Made it from that thin construct Felix blew up," Rafny said. Skeleton? The thinner Arcid he'd fought had commanded serious strength and a sizable amount of life Mana. Felix peered closer at the chain. "It's a mite shorter than you're used to, but that's just good design. Affix your Will on it."
Evie narrowed her eyes and the short chain let out a series of clanks as links appeared out of nowhere. She almost squealed in joy, and Felix stared with his Manasight at full burn. He just barely caught a series of glyphs that activated within each link, letting them expand and collapse similar to his own Greaves and Vambraces.
"Oh Twin's teeth this is exciting! Can't wait to try it out!"
"You'll have about twice the range you're used to, at the expense of more weight. I'd suggest practicing a bit more with it" Rafny explained but Evie waved it off.
"Just more mass to throw around, far as I care," she said flippantly before grinning. Her Spirit was a bubbling, plucky tune to Felix's ears. "Ooh. Oh perfect." Evie slipped past Felix and leaned into the long crate. She came back up with a set of engraved plates connected by chainmail and leather. "Ouf, this is heavy."
"Fool girl, that's why I didn't ask you to pick it up," Rafny grunted, taking the set of armor away from her. It was enameled with white, silver, and blue across the chest and pauldrons. "This is for the Lady Dayne, forged from the Apollyon's flesh and the last of the Scales. As is that."
The last was directed at Evie as she picked up a long, eight-foot long spear. She immediately pivoted and handed the spear to Felix. "Here. Take this and the armor and go fix this, Felix."
"What?" Felix asked as the armor was thrust into his arms as well by the weaponsmith. She was smirking despite the small shoulder slap her wife gave her.
"Fix it," Evie repeated, before turning him around and pushing him toward Vess' carriage. The young woman was surrounded by a few minor nobles that had wormed their way through the crowd and the Hand was looming nearby.
Fix what, exactly? Change her mind?
Arms full and caught off guard, Felix let himself get shepherded toward Vess, eventually shrugging off Evie's arms. "Okay! Fine. I'll go talk to her."
He walked the rest of the way, un-pushed but inexplicably nervous.
Why? I'm just talking to Vess. His hands felt sweaty beneath the armor, and the spear wobbled a bit in his grip. Why is she leaving, though?
Deception is level 23!
He walked up to the small knot of nobles and tried to keep his face calm and Spirit calmer. Vess at least could hear it. The minor nobles turned and while the first instantly dismissed himlikely for the common cut of his clothesthe others quickly pulled them and others aside and out of Felix's way. He felt their Spirit's quiver and quail under his steady gaze. For once, Felix enjoyed his bit of notoriety.
"Vess, hey, uh." Felix stopped awkwardly in front of the heiress. She was decked out in an ankle-length gown with layered skirts and elegantly embroidered bodice. Itwere those sigils? The entire outfit was stitched with an array. Fascinating.