After a few more hours where he focused more on his own work than anything the shop needed, occasionally picking his teacher’s brain on how to make different ideas possible, Thera came in while he was staring at some of the bullets for his handgun, lost in just what might be done with them until his girlfriend pulled his eyes away.

He could tell from how she looked she still didn’t want him joining her, the worry on her face all but screaming that fact to him, but he wasn’t going to back down. Instead, he was going to do something else to take her mind off of it.

“Thera, perfect timing!” He called out happily, trying to raise her mood with his own. “Hope you aren’t busy ‘cause I’m going to be borrowing you for a while.”

“I told Aso I wouldn’t be able to hunt today when I read your note, but more importantly, why aren’t you in bed?”

“Cause as annoying as the headache is, laying in bed isn’t actually going to get me better faster when the problem has just as much to do with my soul. But more importantly, don’t worry about that and come here.”

He grabbed her hand and led her to the side of the shop, pulling out a string and wrapping it around her to take measurements, right up until she realized that was what he was doing.

“Ben, I’m going to need an explanation now,” She told him, her eyes judging as he laughed.

“Since you don’t need your cloak anymore you need proper armour, or at least something that will help your defense. Honestly, you should have been using something for that this whole time but we’re not going to stress about that and instead get you outfitted. I have a few ideas already but tell me what you think you’d like and I’ll do my best to make it work for you.”

Despite herself, she was interested when he started to explain. She hadn’t used armour in the past, but she knew that just as she was worried for him, he worried about her so she understood why his head went there and knew that in every way that mattered, using whatever he made would only help her.

“I guess the main thing is something that’s light that I can move in easily,” She told him after a second's thought. “Other than that it doesn’t matter too much, I think you already know what would or wouldn’t work for me.”

“True enough, and an armour that’s light and easy to move around in is exactly what I was thinking anyway. Give me a second.”

He grabbed a sheet of paper and sketched out his idea before her eyes, explaining what he was thinking as she looked at it. “So here’s the basic idea, given how resistant to being physically altered it is, we’ll have an orichalcum scale over a thin leather vest, with some pants to match, though I might leave those for later to work on the design a bit. As annoying as it is to me personally, I won’t actually add any enchantments to it for the simple reason that if you practice with it I should have no reason to. It’s already strong and by turning the metal into a thin foil, if you get used to strengthening it with your magic then it should be pretty much invulnerable to any sort of piercing damage. Of course, I’ll also flood the thing with sacrificial enchantments to be sure it doesn’t break, but I’ve been watching how you handle your mana and at least for earth and life spells I don’t think there’s too much to worry about anymore.”

She understood what he was saying and genuinely did like the idea, even if a small part of her felt it was a little disappointing. It would give her exactly what she wanted, something incredibly strong, light, and easy to move in, but she’d also seen him make so many things with his enchantments that couldn’t help but be curious about what he would have done if she didn’t need to worry about destroying them by mistake, at least she did for the moment before he kept talking.

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“So over that I’m thinking a new cloak. Since the armour would only cover physical defense and it would honestly be worse off for me adding enchantments and a mana crystal compared to you just strengthening it yourself, that means all of the magical defense will have to be separate, if that’s good with you of course. I get you’re happy not having to use one anymore, but this is for your safety and I promise I’ll make you something incredible.”

“It’s not like I’ll have to wear it all of the time so that’s fine,” She told him, a small smile forming on her lips despite herself as he instantly got rid of that little bit of jealousy in her without even realizing. “So what are you thinking for the cloak?”

“Well, since I’m making this for you it obviously has to be the best I’ve ever created,” He told her as he let himself get lost in his thoughts. “Let’s see, I guess I’ll have to incorporate not only all of my resistances, but also every defensive skill I can get my hands on, but I’m going to have to build it up to a level that most people just don’t do. I’m at the point where even if the payoff isn’t as good as the amount of work it takes would make it seem, I could enchant on individual threads without breaking them so I think I’ll work it like that and then knit and weave it all together into a finished whole at the end, but I need to pick what other skills to go with it. The way I use barrier magic in my jacket is honestly pretty clever so I should see if I can refine it at all for you to get even better results, but from there…”

She listened to him ramble on, not paying any mind to her uncle or the rest of the shop as she let herself rest her head on his shoulder. Listening to Ben lose himself in his ideas as he worked felt natural and she enjoyed hearing him so passionate about it, especially when that passion was directed at her. She just wished it wasn’t attached to the fact that he intended to follow her into whatever danger she faced.

“...But beyond that, we need to talk about your staff.”

“Hmm, what about my staff?”

The one he’d made her was working well, a testament to both her growth in her magics and Ben’s in his ability to make them, even if it was a little plain, but he just looked at it and shook his head.

“I’ve put it off since that one’s been holding up well, but I want to make you something exceptional, and since it’s ideally not going to break any time soon, I want your input on how it looks.”

Back when he’d made her one from the wood of the dryad trees, as well as her golden hair and a collection of other rare and valuable materials, Ben had expected it to last a while. Of course it had managed that, lasting longer than even he would have expected without him around to maintain it, but that was part of the issue. When he’d made it, he’d never expected to be trapped somewhere else for months.

Of course, his skill had also improved significantly since he’d created that minor masterpiece, to the point that what he now made for the purposes of being a temporary fix was just as good, but he would accept that no longer. He wanted to make her something as he pushed his skills to their absolute limit again, and he could see in her eyes that her excitement at the prospect was the perfect distraction from her worries as they gleamed with anticipation, thinking of exactly what she wanted from a staff. In the end, all that really mattered was having something that worked without breaking, but she couldn’t deny the small voice in her that wanted more than that, even if it was embarrassing to actually say out loud.

“I mean, I guess beyond just having it work I’d kind of like something that looks cool,” She mumbled, finding herself embarrassed to even ask such a thing but couldn’t deny the small bit of jealousy she felt seeing other mages. When she’d seen the last staff Ben had put his all into making her she couldn’t deny that she’d been thrilled to have something more visually interesting than the plain ones that she’d been using before and since, and she wanted that again.

Ben for his part just looked mildly amused as he smiled back. “Who do you think I am? Of course it’s going to be cool looking. I’m thinking I can coordinate it with the armour and cloak I’ll be making you too, but we can go over the designs a bit over lunch if you’re feeling it?”

He was doing his best to raise her mood with her interest and it was working. “That sounds great to me.”

“Awesome. Hey Falk, your lovely apprentice is taking a prolonged lunch break! I’ll bring you back something tasty when I’m done.”

Without waiting for an answer they went off, discussing exactly how to leave Thera satisfied and enjoying just a few hours of the day in peace.