One last divine sugar jam pastry clasped between my teeth, I slipped out of the castle kitchen’s outer door and made my way to the smaller, but still guarded gate that servants used to bring food and supplies in without bother important guests, who use the main gate. I had somehow managed to trail the heavenly smell of cooking food through the massive of corridors, all the way to massive kitchens without running into a single servant.

When I arrived, the plump, red faced woman who has the head chef told me sternly that I was supposed to wait for breakfast at the casual dining hall, not come bother the kitchens, but she gave into my pleading eyes and growling stomach ‘just this once’ and let me pillage a pan of steaming scrambled eggs and a basket of absolutely delicious breakfast pastries. The head cook was quite proud when I showed how delighted I was by the pastries, they were her own personal recipe. She let me eat three more of the sweets before shooing me off, worried that I might end up eating the entire basket. I snatched one more of the pastries while she wasn’t looking and darted out through the outer servant door.

The last bite of the flaky, sugary divinity was melting on my tongue as I walked through the gate, nodding at the guards who recognized the azure dragon on my shirt after a suspicious glance and let me pass them with a polite smile on their faces. I strode confidently out into the crowd as I tried to remember where in the market were the stores that sold pots and sword sheaths were.

Let’s see, the food produce sellers tend to gather in the main square where the statue of Serac’s first king is…..tanneries and blacksmith shops are placed on the side opposite of the coast, so the sea wind sends the smell and smoke away from the city instead of through all of it, that’s probably where I can find a new sword sheath and some ingots…….the better clothing and jewelry shops were closer to the castle…..but where were the pots sold again…...Mh, according to the head chef, I only had about forty minutes left before breakfast was over and I needed to return to the castle for orders. Well, I’ll head over to the production area first then, and hopefully I’ll remember where the pots are, or see some being sold on the way……

It took me about twenty minutes to make may way through the morning crowds to the streets occupied by blacksmiths and tanners. I hadn’t seen any wooden pots being sold as I made my way there, there were some clay ones, but my tree would eat those up in less than a day. The wood pot also couldn’t be made of piece held together by other material like nails or glue, since the tree would eat them and cause the pot to fall apart.

-Though maybe if I got a barrel that was sealed tight enough, the tree would be able to reach the bands that hold it together? Mnnnn, that might work…...If I remember right, barrels should be near the smithing area too, nice and convenient ~-

I was strolling down the relatively less busy street when I caught a dark,fast moving shadow out of the corner of my eye. Turning, I reflexively reached out and grabbed onto the shadow, sweeping my leg in a low kick as I did. A loud thunk filled the air as the person landed flat on their back, my hand clutching a handful of their tunic.

“Ouch!!!!!!! Delta, why did you do that?”

I stared down at the prostrate form of Angus Bradach, a look of ridicule on my face. Rushing at me from behind like that, he was lucky he didn’t get anything more than a slightly bruised back, I’ve broken the bones of people who’ve done that to me….well, usually only if they were repeat offenders. Angus sighed and rolled his eyes.

“Fine, so I may have gone a little over board, I was excited, alright? I didn’t think I’d get the chance to see you so soon after you actually won the tournament, I figured you’d be busy starting your royal guard stuff. I was going mad at the idea of all those lovely little forging tricks you probably have locked away in that lovely little head of yours…”

I watched in amusement and then growing worry as Angus began to emit a complete flood of words without taking a single breath, the wheezing gasps for air didn’t seem to actually bring any air in, so I figured they don’t count as ‘breathing’.

“ ….The more I thought about it, the worse it got, Royal guard do die, you know? If you were could before I could talk to you, all of those lovely little secrets would be lost forever, and the kingdom would keep your sword so I wouldn’t even be able to examine it, -Heeee- and I wouldn’t have anyone to talk to about smithing again since all the other smiths here refuse to talk to me for some reason, and you're actually more of a genius of smithing than me, it would definitely lead to me be friends with a Grandmaster level smith some day, and then I could pick your brains even more...-Heeeeeee-...or maybe I’d become a Grandmaster first, since you clearly aren’t solely focused just smithing, but even then, we’d still be friends and -Heeeeeee- I’d make you all sorts of new weapons to try out since your fighting style is so interesting and flexible, and maybe I’d even reach the level of creating chainmail cloth and be able to deck you out in awesome looking outfits that could promote my name, Ooooh, and I heard about the awesome water dress by the way, oh, and I..something…. for...you …*SLAP*………….. …...-Haaaaaaaah-…”

The white imprint of my hand on the blue skin of Angus’s face gradually grew red as the surrounding skin gradually returned to a slightly more naturally skin tone. Angus’s chest heaved as he desperately sucked in air, I stood over him, my slightly stinging hand raised, ready to administer another slap of reason if needed. Really, he hadn’t struck me as such a chatterbox when we had met the other day…….well, at least not this much of a chatterbox, he seriously could’ve just suffocated to death right now……

Angus lay silently on the ground until his face returned to it’s natural color and his heaving breaths steadied out to a more natural rhythm. Then he reached out, grabbing onto my nearby wrist to haul his temporarily weakened body into a sitting position and then finally to his feet. I grabbed one of his muscled shoulders with my free non-readied to slap hand to steady him, and then stared at him with what was hopefully a questioning gaze, but that no doubt had some ‘really freaked out right now’ gaze mixed in with it. Angus smiled weakly.

“Sorry about that, it’s a little curse this eccentric wandering mage guy gave me a few years back, when I was still wandering around. He was sitting on his own at the bar when I went to ask the barkeep if he had any idea about where this reclusive master smith I had heard was in the area might be. We got to chatting, and then, after a few minutes, the mage guy stood up, mad that we were being so noisy, even though it was a bar, which, the love that is all liquor, is supposed to be noisy, and cursed me to someday talk myself to death. Just me, mind you, he left the bar keep alone for some reason, even though the man had participated as much in our conversation as I had…….The curse is pretty subtle, I just start talking and don’t even realise it’s happened until someone breaks me out of it. -Heeee- Though I reckon I got off pretty light, mages aren’t supposed to study curses any more, and nobody, not even the Master level mages I’ve run across have been able to lift the curse, so I reckon the guy had to be a Grandmaster in all that dark, soul destroying stuff, he could have done something far worse to me. Sure did look like the part of an evil mage, all covered up in the that tattered black cloak. Anyways, it only acts up every week or two, so it’s not too much of a bother, though it’s a bit strange since I had an episode only a few days ago, -Heeeeee- but I suppose it happens sometim - *SLAP!*”

The stuff about Angus’s curse had been so interesting that I hadn’t caught the first soft wheeze and only realised it at the second one when his face started to get a faint hint of blue. It was strange though, he had made pauses and stuff, as though he was breathing, and he manage to say a lot more before he started running out of breath…..Man, this really was one sneaky curse, it acted different from the first time too…..

It took Angus less time this time to recover his breath and straightened from his bent over double position, though he was even more wobbly now. His eyes were wide with shock.

“Two times in a row, in one day, that’s never happened before, and that second time…..my curse hasn’t ever acted like that before!”

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I felt my eyebrows pop up in surprise, so that wasn’t normal? But why would his curse be acting up like this right now…...dark magic, covered in a cloak, seriously bad guy, and the curse is acting up now……..could it be?

I scooped up a stray pebble from the street and focused a little bit of fire element into a single little point on my pointer finger. Pressing the heated point into the stone, I sketched one of the few simple ancient runes that were still common knowledge, [Shield]

Pulling the heat away from the completed rune, I snatched Angus’s hand and pressed the stone into it, face up so I could still see the rune. A flash of golden light from the rune signaled the activation of the spell, but it was almost immediately followed by a sharp crack. Examining the shattered remains of the pebble, I caught the faint flicker a sickly looking green and black light and felt my lips tighten into a satisfied smile. For some reason, when curses cast by the same person come near each other or their caster, they grow stronger. This curse had to be Cedric’s work, even though I wasn’t technically ‘cursed’, Angus’s curse was still able to feed of the residual magic from the major spell had used to steal my voice, that was what was making his curse worse!

As realisation was dawning in Angus’s eyes, I started to pat down all the little hidden pockets I had sown throughout all of my clothes, I usually had a mana crystal or two tucked away in case of emergencies. Thread and needle, knife, candy, gold coin, hair ribbons and pins, steel wire, bandages, lock picks……...Aha!

I pulled a little round gem out of the small pocket hidden underneath the cuff of my left boot. It took a much greater concentration of fire to engrave the rune this time, but the light burst from the rune when it activated was incomparably brighter than the light of the last one. Angus’s fingers curled around the stone and I saw him glance down at it before staring at me with wide eyes.

“A shield charm…...Delta, doesn’t this mean…...your voice…...you been cursed too!? By the same person as me? Do you have any idea who he is? Oh, and why did he curse you?”

Nodding to indicate he was on the right track, I then shrugged my shoulders and gave helpless smile while pointing at my throat. There wasn’t anyway I could communicate my answers with just gestures and I didn’t have anything to write with…..Hmmm, I should probably start carrying a quill and paper around, though it’ll probably be annoying….. Angus stared off into the distance, his furrowed brow showing he was deep in thought as he quietly muttered to himself.

“So you don’t know something? Or you do, but can’t tell me because of your voice…..this sure is bothersome….Ah! I almost forgot about that!”

Grabbing my wrist, Angus pulled me over to one of the nearby forges, like his own, then left me to rummage around in the piles of scrap metal on his desk.

“I know I left it somewhere over here……….Ahah!”

He held what looked like a bulky bracelet triumphantly up in the air. I moved closer to him, curious about what the bracelet was. Angus turned to me, a big grin on his face.

“I made this the day I met you, I figure it’d make it easier for you communicate Here, try it on!”

I accepted the offered bracelet and examined it. The bracelet itself was made of a sturdy black leather and an ornate silver buckle. What I assumed was the main fixture of the bracelet was a plain rectangle of dull blue metal, Cyanate probably, nowhere as good looking as the buckle. There was a little rod of silverish colored metal strapped to the bottom the rectangle as well. Not the prettiest bracelet I’ve ever seen, but I had a feeling the main purpose of the bracelet wasn’t to look pretty. I put the bracelet on my left wrist, the silver buckle surprisingly easy to buckle one handedly.

“Ah, you’ll want the Cyanate on the inside of your arm.”

Angus tugged the bracelet on my wrist so the blue plate positioned on the inside of my wrist. Hmm, so that’s why the buckle was so decorative….Angus proceeded to position my arm so it was held out in front of me, my elbow bent so the blue plate was facing me.

“Okay, now try to infuse a bit of your energy into the metal, you should feel a switch embedded within its essence that will activate the spell.”

I did as he said, and suddenly, the Cyanate was a massive tablet placed against my inner arm and the slim silver pole I had seen was now a silver stylus tied to the plate with a strap of leather. I pulled the stylus free and examined it carefully, one tip was a dark, almost black red stone and the other end was a clear crystal.

“It’s great, huh? The shrinking/enlarging spell was what took me the longest to figure out. The red tip is Carminon, when Cyanate comes into contact with it, it turns white, you can use this to write on the tablet, then when you want to clear out the board, scratch the Solitine on the other end of the stylus against the board and the resulting vibration of magic will cause the Cyanate to return to its natural state.”

I widen my eyes in realization and started to write on the board, happy excitement bubbling up inside me. How in the world did he come up with something like this in such a short time!? I turned the board so it would face Angus.

Thank you, this will be extremely useful for me. As for the cloaked man, I know only that the man’s name is Cedric, or at least, that was what his employers called him, it could be a fake name. I was not cursed, my voice was fully taken from me and I will say no more on the matter.

It took a moment for Angus to read everything I had scrawled down. Then he glanced back up at me.

“I see…..Cedric, it’s not really much to go on…..do you have any idea where he might be right now?”

I shook my head and wrote something else.

No, I do not, but he may come here in around a year’s time.

Angus frowned.

“I don’t understand why he would come here, how do you even know this?”

His current employer is a princess, the king is single, need I say more?

Angus nodded in comprehension and gave a sigh.

“The traditional ball for the king to choose a wife is in a year….otherwise known as the Bloody Ballroom Battle.....”

I nodded.

Yep, now, do you think I could buy some scrap metal and cheap flawed gems from you? Oh, and I need to get a tightly sealed barrel, do you know a good place? I have to get back to the castle before the breakfast hour is over.

“Done with the chit chat, eh? Feel free to take much scraps as you want, I don’t use them much anymore and they tend to pile up. As for the gems, I don’t have any flawed ones on hand, but there’s an old jewelry shop by a good barrel place that buys up bags of flawed gems and uses it to make cheap jewelry, you can probably get some from there. Come on, follow me, oh, and to shrink the tablet back, just use your mana to flip the switch back.”

Angus gathered up a big bag full of scrap metal for me and then lead me through the streets to the two shops he had mentioned. I bought two small sacks of flawed gems and a massive wooden barrel that I could barely wrap my arms around. I tossed the metal and gems in the barrel, sealed the lid tightly, and balanced the large and now quite heavy barrel on my shoulder, my one arm reaching half way around it, it’s wooden side pressing roughly into my cheek as I used my head to help keep it in place. Firesong was on my other shoulder, looking a little grumpily at the massive barrel that was blocking out most of the sun near her. Angus looked at me a little skeptically.

“...Are you sure you don’t need any help? You could just have it sent to the castle instead of carrying it yourself, you know…..”

I shook my head and smiled, it was only a little awkward to carry, and taking it myself would be a lot faster, with no chance of the delivery getting screwed up. I waved goodbye to Angus and started to head my way back to the castle with a little spring in my step, so far, today had been a very good day~