We walk for a bit, turning onto the Main Street ourselves long after Emily has disappeared from sight. I have to walk quickly to keep up with Eryk's much longer strides, but it seems like he's taking somewhat slower steps so I don't need to run just to keep up. Walking with adults is hard...

"Forgive my ignorance, but I believe peasants commonly visit the forest to gather resources? I take it you stick to that as well?"

"Yes sir," I nod. A forest joke this time?

"Interesting. I do not know much about that lifestyle. How do you carry your goods without a basket of some sort?" He asks, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Oh, normally we would take a basket. However..." Well, I don't think there's any particular reason to hide this, right? "Lately we have been hunting rather than gathering, so there is less to carry."

"Hunting? You can do that at your age? Without equipment?" His eyebrows shoot up with plain surprise. Based on what Emily said when I told her, that should be common sense. Normally two little kids wouldn't be capable of hunting. Of course he also noticed we don't have bows or any other weapons people normally use to hunt...

Still, I know I can't get into the details with anyone. "Yes, sir," I say simply, leaving it at that.

"Hmm..." he thinks for a few moments. "I don't suppose you found a better method which allows you to catch animals despite your size and lack of hunting equipment?"

That much is obvious, but I won't say anything. "I would prefer not to talk about it," I answer, careful to keep my tone polite again. He just nods a few times. I keep my eyes up as we walk. We're heading toward the central plaza. Is the glassblower there? No, no way. It has to be a store. It's a higher class place selling an expensive product, it wouldn't make sense for them to be at the market.

"You are full of surprises," he says quietly and grins a little. Then he turns to me again and continues his endless, lighthearted questions. "You mentioned that you were going shopping today, did you go anywhere else interesting?" At least he's not pressing me for all sorts of difficult information anymore, I can just relax and talk. Though keeping up the polite speak is a bit difficult.

"Not really, I just went to the clothing store." I can't imagine that would be interesting to a rich person, right?

"Clothing store, huh? What did you get?" he asks anyway.

"I got some underwear." I give a small shrug. When Eryk immediately trips over himself, his usual manner gone, I go cold. Wait, Emily told me not to show them to anyone, she never said not to talk about them! I anxiously wave my hands, going bright red when I realize I completely screwed up with my lack of common sense. "F-f-f-forget what I said!" I frantically stammer.

"Ahem," Eryk clears his throat, clearly forcing himself to look calm. "The glassblower is over in this area." He changes topics entirely. After a bit more walking, he seems to have recovered his usual confident demeanor. Our walk has brought us to an area about halfway down the road between the East Gate and the central plaza. At that point, we turn left, onto a smaller street leading south. The glassblower is so expensive it's below Main Street? We don't go very far, however. Just one street in, there is another surprisingly large road that runs parallel to East Main Street. Leading away in either direction are shops on both sides of the road.

"You've never been here before, have you?" he asks when he sees me gawking at all of the businesses. I can immediately tell them apart from the houses people stay in, because they have signboards out front, some with what must be writing on them, and some with various pictures. Some of them even have numbers mixed in with whatever else is written on them.

"No," I shake my head while I answer.

"I figured as much. This can be called the east shopping street, if you would like. A large number of shops are set up along here selling common goods. There are not many specialty stores, but this is a very common destination for everyday products."

"I see..." I mutter as I look around.

"Of course, they primarily serve vulgants here, so these shops would normally turn you away at the door..." he shrugs. "That's just how it is. If you would like to enter on your own, you'll need to clean yourself up and wear better clothing."

"Right," I nod. "I never have enough money because there are a lot of things I need to buy since moving into the orphanage. Nice clothes are pretty far down my list of necessities unfortunately," I admit.

"That is understandable. What is at the top of your list, if I may ask?"

"Currently..." I think it over for a moment. I got the metal, I got clothing, bandages were the only thing on today's shopping list that I couldn't afford. So, "bandages would be the next on my list."

"Bandages? May I ask why that is the single most important thing for you to buy presently...?" The way he says it clearly indicates that people don't usually have a terrible need of a lot of bandages. Which... I'm sure they don't.

"Of course, the metal and, uhh, clothing was more important today, which is why I bought them first," I explain. "Bandages are next on my list because I cannot afford them right now." I try to make it clear that they're only at the top of my list because I already bought the other things I need more, but I can't tell if he really understands... "Anyway... I need them because I get hurt a lot." I finally explain.

"You get hurt a lot? Why is that?"

"I am not really sure, it just... happens?" I shrug. Then it occurs to me, "I guess I am pretty careless, Mister Fredricson is always yelling at me for doing stupid things..." I lower my head and sigh.

"I take it he is the orphanage caretaker?" he asks to clarify. I have to clarify the meaning of caretaker, but then I nod. "What sort of... 'stupid things' does he yell at your for exactly?" he asks with an eyebrow raised.

"Mmm..." I grumble a little as I think them over. "Things like dragging chairs up and down the stairs, and walking through the house soaking wet." Of course I don't do them now that I know I'm not supposed to, but who knows what other things I don't know not to do...?

"Huh..." he makes an unclear sound in response. I have no idea if that's good, bad, confused, or what. When he doesn't speak for a moment, I glance around. I missed some of the shops while we were talking, but it seems we're walking toward the west end of the street. Merchants pull carts in either direction all around us. There are so many more here than usual I need to be more careful and watch out for them. Some even have horses to pull their carts, so I need to be extra careful not to go near them. The road is wide enough for two carts to pass by each other, but it doesn't leave that much room for the other people around the carts. I stick close to Eryk so I don't lose him in the crowd of tall adults.

There are so many pictures and written things on the fronts of the stores, I wonder what they all mean? If I do survive, maybe one day I'll have enough money for nice clothes so I can go explore all of those places.

As we thread between the carts and other well dressed people on the road, Eryk eventually asks another question. "You mentioned needing things since you moved into the orphanage, how long have you been there? Didn't you not have the belongings that you brought with you?" It's just a bit, but I think the formality is slowly slipping out of his tone.

"I have been at the orphanage for twenty eight days now. I had some things when I got there, but Mister Fredricson took them away."

"He took your things? Why?"

"Well, the rule is that we give half of what we earn to the orphanage."

"Hmm..." Eryk hums while listening.

"I think there was some miscommunication when I asked to live there," I go on. "Since I received all of my things the next day, but he thought I was supposed to start living there the day before, he wanted to count those as things I earned, and wanted to take half of them."

"Hold on, I don't understand. Things you 'received'? I thought they were your belongings."

"Well... it's kind of complicated. They were, but they were given to me the day I left to stay at the orphanage."

"Left where? I don't think I follow," Eryk shakes his head.

"Ahh, it is a kind of confusing story I guess..." I scratch my head when I realize that of course it would be hard to understand when I'm basically telling the whole story backward.

"Well no matter, we can discuss it another time, we're nearly there." He points out one of the shops as we approach. I look up at the sign hanging above the door, but do not recognize the image. It's kind of curvy, made of just a few lines drawn on the wooden plank in a dark black color. I point up at it.

"What is that on the sign?" I ask.

"That would be a wine glass," Eryk answers briefly. I don't know what that is though, so it doesn't do me much good. I would ask him to elaborate, but we're nearly at the store. Approaching the high class shop, still dressed in clothing like these, I'm starting to get really worried. I move behind Eryk a little, I'll have to depend on his introduction so they don't kick me out. It will be enough, right? Maybe it will? No, it definitely will! I don't know...

With my anxious thoughts quickly turning chaotic in the face of another shop I definitely don't belong in, Eryk opens the door and we walk inside. The first thing I see is glass. Things large and small made of clear glass, scattered all over the room, shining and reflecting the light pouring inside through the large windows, seemingly made of glass as well, from three sides sides of the room. All except the back wall. There were big glass windows on the front of the building outside, weren't there?

I gulp, immediately hiding behind Eryk. This is way more high class than his shop, which literally had an employee throw me out on the street just a little while ago. That's not going to happen again, is it?

There are no customers inside at the moment, so a woman calls out as soon as we enter. "Eryk, it's good to see you."

"You too, Kathy. Is Winslow in?" While hiding behind Eryk's leg, I peek out to see a woman with very dark black hair. It's much longer than most of the working women I've seen before, flowing a good distance down her back. Not to mention how clean it is. It shines as she shifts from one foot to another. She has her hands resting as she leans on the counter, only her short sleeved top visible. Like Eryk, her clothing is somewhat dark colored, but everything from the fabric to the details and trim is amazing and intricate and looks so good. How could I ever afford clothing like that? I stare wide-eyed at the woman. Between her hair, clothes, even the shape of her face and her posture, she is the most beautiful person I've ever seen.

"Yeah, he's in the back, want me to go get him?"

"It's fine, we'll go to see him."

"We?" Kathy mutters, glancing around until she spots me. "What are you up to this time, Eryk?" Her eyes immediately narrow. "Is that a peasant girl?"

"Yes it is," he responds confidently, striding into the shop without a care. I stick close behind him as he walks, shrinking under Kathy's glare.

"Ugh, now I need to wipe down the floors before any more customers come..." she complains while digging under the counter. I gulp, glancing behind me to the dirty footprints I've left across their otherwise nice, shiny wooden floors.

"I'm really sorry for the trouble," I say, bowing down deeply.

"It's fine, have to give her some work to do," Eryk says while waving it off. I glance up, seeing him walk past the counter. As he does, he grabs the top of Kathy's head with one hand and begins to ruffle her hair all around while laughing. Even his laugh feels strangely light and airy...

"Sheesh, get going already!" she grumbles, snapping a cloth at him. Eryk backs away with a big grin. I look back and forth between them. How do these two know each other? Even with her hair all messed up and a disgruntled scowl on her face as she turns her glare between Eryk and me, Kathy is still the prettiest person I've seen...

She circles around the counter while fixing her hair, and I bow and apologize again as she walks past me toward the store's entrance. "Come on," Eryk calls from the back of the shop, near a door in the far wall.

"Y-yes, sir!" I respond while still looking at the glaring Kathy. Then I move quickly to catch up with him, carefully keeping my hands close, deathly afraid of bumping anything. He takes us through a door at the back of the shop. The next room looks familiar. Unlike the storefront, everything is made of stone. It is quite well lit inside, but not from big windows. There is a big fire on the other side of the room, as well as numerous candles mounted on all the walls. Tables and various tools are spread around too. It looks just like Gremory's blacksmithing shop.

"Hey, Winslow, I brought someone to see you." Eryk says with some motion I can't make out from behind him.

"Ah, it's good to see you Eryk. Bring a new customer?" The other man speaks while tapping a hand to his chest.

"Mmm, perhaps." Now I'm nervous all over again. Still hiding behind Eryk's leg, I shiver. Isn't he the boss here? Even his employee was glaring at me...

"Well, where is he?"

"I found someone interesting. Right here," Eryk says while sidestepping out from in front of me. I freeze on the spot, staring directly at the man, Winslow was what Eryk called him. I can't help but compare him to Gremory. He's even sitting, kind of like how Gremory was when I first met him. However, he looks pretty different. He's not insanely tall and muscular. I'd describe him as old, but still strong looking. He has pretty toned, muscular arms at least. While he isn't bald, his blond hair seems to be disappearing, sort of. Like it just isn't growing all the way down, so it looks like he has a really big forehead. Not really a good looking man.

Unlike the woman in the front, he's not dressed well, wearing just a big dark colored thing that wraps all around him. It doesn't look like anything I've seen before, so I don't know what to make of it. I glance over at Eryk, to find that he has grabbed a similar looking thing and is wrapping it all around himself as well. My eyes shoot back to Winslow as he looks... not at me?

"Eryk, have you finally lost your mind?" He's not paying attention to me at all, still turned over toward Eryk. "Why did you bring a random peasant child to my shop?" he asks with a dismayed sigh.

"As I said, I found someone very interesting," Eryk just grins at the exasperated man.

"When I said you need to find yourself a woman already, I did not mean-"

Eryk finally throws his hands up and rolls his eyes. "No no no," he says with a hint of annoyance. "I'm telling you, this child is fascinating." Without warning, he reaches down, grabbing something from my basket and tosses it to the man. What the?!

Winslow jolts to his feet as the object flies toward him, but has plenty of time to reach out and catch it. However, as soon as he does, he winces and drops it onto the table next to him. He stands there, shaking his hands for some reason. Actually, Eryk is doing the same thing. I turn my attention back to the thing Eryk threw. That's the bar of nuvrite I bought earlier! But... what is with their reactions?

"What sort of strange magic is this?" are the first words out of Winslow's mouth. He keeps looking back and forth from the metal ingot to me.

"Hah!" Eryk responds with a patronizing laugh. "Not magic, quit being so superstitious. This is just nature at work." Why does it seem like Eryk is so... brash and rude to everyone else? He's been so nice and polite to me... Well, he did say I was interesting, but I have no idea what goes through his mind when he thinks something is interesting...

"Nature? What's natural about that thing?" Winslow demands.

"Aria, would you care to explain?" Eryk asks with a grin.

"Well, sure, but... what am I explaining...?" I'm confused, I don't really understand what's happening. I walk over, reaching for the nuvrite bar on the table, but stop. Even at a distance, I can feel the chill coming off of it. "It's cold?" I mutter.

"Come on, you discovered it, didn't you?" Eryk sighs.

"Well, yeah. Please just let me think for a moment..." I'm so off balance from this entire situation, it's hard to stop and think this through and try to understand what's happening. I close my eyes and make myself push away my confusion to figure things out.

The nuvrite is really cold. What causes it to become colder? Leaving a magnetic field. But that just brings it back to its original temperature. Unless... unless it doesn't! I feel the pieces finally click into place. "Oh, I never thought of it that way before!"

I turn to Winslow to explain. "Nuvrite changes temperature when it gets close to magnetite or other similar metals," I try to explain it without using any of the terms I made up, terms he obviously wouldn't know. "When it goes near magnetite, it gets hotter. When it moves away, it gets colder."

"Hmm..." the older man looks uncertain of all this, so I reach into my basket and hand him the bar of durite, the source of a the strongest magnetic field I have with me. "Here, you can try it for yourself." While eyeing the two metal bars suspiciously, he moves them close together, the chill of the nuvrite disappearing immediately.

"Impossible..." he mutters, but continues to move them together and apart, proving what I said to be true.

This time, I turn to Eryk while I explain what I hadn't realized earlier. "By putting it in my basket earlier, it heated up a lot. That heat dissipated over time until the bar was back to normal. So when you took it out of the strong magnetic field, it got really cold." I can't believe he came up with that on his own after just hearing mention of it secondhand. How smart is this man?! "But..." I slowly voice a concern as it occurs to me, "how did you know I had a strong magnet in my basket?"

That earns the first cunning grin he has shown me. "I didn't," he responds.

"What?"

"I didn't know, it was a guess. I saw all the different metals you had in your basket and figured since you were talking about magnets last time, you probably had a magnet with you for your research." That... is a really good basis for his guess actually. Again, he came up with all of that by just glancing at the contents of my basket? However...

"Huh, then you actually got lucky this time. I wasn't going to do any testing with magnets today."

"Hmm?" he quirks an eyebrow while glancing at the durite Winslow is thumping down on the table with a dissatisfied look. "Then why did you bring that with you?"

"The durite is for something else today. It just happens to also be a strong magnet."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Something else?" his other eyebrow joins the first, but I can't tell him any more than that, so I just turn back to Winslow to show him I'm not answering. However, at the moment when I begin to look away, something happens far off in the woods. Maven is up in a tree on lookout, and he spots Emily. I perk up, turning in the direction I can feel Maven, and have him begin circling through the trees to search for anyone following her. Then my attention returns to my present situation and I shake myself a little after the sudden distraction.

Apparently sensing that our little conversation is over, Winslow speaks once more. "Ok, I'll admit, you found a very strange child. Why did you bring her here though?" He's calling me strange, as if I'm not standing right in front of him...

"She asked me if there was any way to buy glass, so I decided to bring her here, since she clearly will not be able to enter a glassblower's store by herself."

"Well, you're sure right about that," Winslow huffs, throwing a displeased look in my direction. "But glass? No way a peasant girl can afford anything I make," he says dismissively. To that, Eryk simply gestures to me. I guess this is my time. Eryk got me in here, it's up to me to talk with Winslow about what I want.

"Umm, sir..." he just stands there, unblinking. "Eryk told me blown glass is very expensive, so I wanted to ask if unblown glass is also very expensive."

"Unblown glass? You want me to cast something?"

"Cast? I glance back and forth between him and Eryk, who appears to be standing back and leaving this to me now. "Umm, what does that mean?"

"You don't know what casting is?" he shakes his head.

"I'm sorry. There's a lot I don't know, but I'm willing to learn!" I bow deeply in response. Winslow just sighs.

"Yeah yeah, just listen up. Casting is when you pour the molten glass into a mold and let it cool." Pouring glass? I wonder how that works? He said 'molten' glass though. I don't know what that means, but you can pour glass when it's 'molten?' He said to pour it into a mold, but I don't know what a mold is either... I don't want to keep pestering him with questions, but I can't get a full idea of his description with so many holes in what I understand...

"Sorry, but what do 'molten' and 'mold' mean?"

"Ugh, you deal with the kid, Eryk." Winslow sighs and turns back to whatever he was doing before. Eryk steps forward, a somewhat stiff grin on his face.

"I did not expect that there were such large gaps in your knowledge..." he says.

Again, I try to respond politely since I'm clearly inconveniencing both of them right now. "I am very sorry. There are many things I don't know because no one ever taught me about them."

"I suppose so... In any case, I will answer any questions you have. First, molten refers to glass that has been heated until it melts. It is also used to describe metal heated the same way."

I nod slowly. "Ok, then what does 'melt' mean?"

"Melt? It is when a solid turns into a liquid."

"Solids... turning into liquids? That can happen?"

"Of course." Even Eryk looks puzzled by my question. It must be something really basic, but I can't really think of seeing anything solid just... turn into a liquid before... "I'm sure you've seen it before. After winter, it heats up during spring and any snow left on the ground melts." He pauses, watching my lack of comprehension, then speaks even more simply. "The snow, which is solid, melts into water, a liquid." Eryk offers the example, however...

"I'm sorry, I have never actually seen snow before, so I don't really understand that example," I shake my head a little.

"Never seen..." he mutters. Even Winslow turns back to give me a questioning look. "Ahem," he clears his throat after a moment. "In any case. When a solid is heated enough, it will melt. When it does, it loses its shape and becomes a liquid.

"Ok," I nod. Even though I've never seen it, I'll take his word for it.

"Once the liquid cools enough, it will solidify once more. This is where casting comes in. He grabs one of the tools off of Winslow's table and shows it to me. It looks like a box, but it's filled with some sort of gray stuff that looks like stone. A lot of the stone has been dug out though, forming a smooth surface on the inside. "This is a mold. You pour the molten glass in here. Since the glass is liquid, it will form this exact shape. When it becomes solid again, it will keep this shape, even after you remove it from the mold, that's what casting is all about. We do the exact same thing with metal at the refinery. For instance, all of your metal was cast into those ingots. We have big molds that produce bars exactly like the ones you have."

"Oh, so that's how you do it!" I say, staring at the two metal bars sitting on the table next to Winslow. "I was wondering why all of them were the same." Eryk simply nods in response.

"So now that you understand what casting is, do you think that is what you are looking for?"

"Umm, not exactly..." I scratch my cheek. So a glassblower can blow glass or cast it? I'm still not clear on exactly what the 'blowing' part entails, but I got the impression it takes a lot of work. I'm only interested in the raw materials, so I don't need anything that takes work and becomes much more expensive... Casting sounds closer to that, but I'm not sure...

Winslow suddenly turns back toward me. "If you aren't looking for it blown or cast, what do you want?" he asks, sounding a bit annoyed.

"Well, I'm only interested in the glass itself, I don't really need it in any particular shape... So any glass would do, any at all."

"Hmmm?" he eyes me skeptically. Then he walks over to the corner of the room, where a broom is leaning against the wall. He leans down, picking something up and walks back over while blowing on it a few times. He holds up a small piece of clear class. It has about five sides, but they aren't symmetrical at all, just kind of jagged, like they're broken. "So you're telling me that even something like this would do?"

"Yes, I believe so," I nod.

"Really...?" he mutters, an eyebrow quirking. "A shard of broken glass is fine? What in the world do you need it for?"

"I wanted to test its unique properties, the same way I've been testing the unique properties of different metals." I make sure to explain clearly and politely. Whether he decides he's willing to sell to me or not depends on this...

"Unique properties, huh..." He rubs his chin as he considers it. Finally, he just shrugs. "Meh, bit this small is basically worthless. You can have it, see if you find anything interesting." Saying that, he plops the little shard into my hand.

"Wait, I can have it? Just like that?" I stare blankly as I realize he's just going to give it to me.

"I'd just melt it back down with the rest of the glass, but the material itself probably isn't even worth half an iron."

"I-Iron?" I stutter. Just this little broken bit off the floor is worth what, two week's worth of normal gathering in the forest? Even hunting like we are now, it would take a couple days to make enough to pay for this thing. I don't even want to imagine the prices of the completed products in his shop...

Winslow just chuckles at my shock. "Hah, maybe that's a lot to a peasant. Don't worry about it," he waves it off like it's nothing.

"Thank you very much," I say and give a deep bow. Then I look carefully at the little bit of glass in my palm. It's clear like the rest, but just a little piece. I'll have to be careful not to lose it. I go to wrap it up and put it in my basket, but a sudden movement catches my attention in the corner of my eye. In a blink, Eryk is grabbing my hand.

"Uh?" I stammer out a confused sound. For some reason, he is suddenly radiating shock and fear. Even Winslow is suddenly leaning forward, one hand starting to reach for me slightly. What is it?

"Holy... Ok, I should have seen that coming," Eryk mutters. His breath is coming fast, and I can even feel his heart pounding through his hand. He carefully pulls on my fingers so I will release my grip on the glass. "I had a bad feeling. You said you only saw glass for the first time today," he finally addresses me. "That means you don't know how sharp it is."

"Sharp?" I ask. It doesn't look sharp though. Nothing like the edge of a knife.

"Winslow, would you please file this down?"

"S-sure..." he agrees without a single complaint.

After the glassblower gingerly takes the piece of glass back, he goes over to a machine that looks like the grindstone I saw Gremory use and begins to work on the bit of glass.

"Let's see, it doesn't look too bad..." Eryk mutters as he peers closely at my hand. "You said you hurt yourself a lot... You got burned earlier, and now this... I didn't expect it to be quite so bad... I suppose it's partly my fault for not warning you properly though..." He keeps muttering as he inspects my hand.

"Wait, I don't understand, what are you talking about?" I shake my head. It feels like he's been talking to himself more than me. He said glass was sharp and he's acting like I cut myself on it, but it doesn't seem like I did. I'm not bleeding, and it doesn't hurt or anything. So what's he talking about?

"Right right, let me explain. If you've ever cut yourself with a kitchen knife, you know what that feels like." Well I haven't, but I've been cut by other knives, so that should be close enough I guess. "Glass isn't like that. It's sharper. Much, much sharper. It cuts so smoothly and so deeply that most of the time you can't even feel it until later. Just gripping it like that cut your palm. Luckily I stopped you in time so you didn't hold it any tighter, or it would have been very bad."

"I see..." I mutter, looking closely at my hand. Like he said, I don't feel anything. I look closer, searching until I find a small line across my palm, and touch it as gently as I can. I get the edge of my nail under it just a little careful not to pull on it. Yeah, he's right, there's definitely a break in my skin here. Can glass really cut so smoothly that it breaks the skin without hurting or causing any bleeding?

"It will hurt a whole lot later, but it probably shouldn't bleed very badly. You should try to keep it clean, and should bandage it as well. Actually, you have bandages with you already, let's use those." I nod, letting him take one of the bandages from my basket, and offer him my palm. I still flinch when he comes close with the bandage, and need to close my eyes as he wraps it around my palm gently, then ties it off.

"All done, you can look now," he says softly. I open my eyes, feeling embarrassed that I cut myself, and that I still can't deal with bandages. They just remind me too much of the treatment room, no matter how much time passes...

"Thank you, Eryk," I give a small bow in thanks. We both wait for a short time for Winslow to return. As I'm waiting, Maven suddenly jumps to the front of my mind. I jolt a little, perking up as his situation, always sort of running in the back of my mind, takes up all of my attention. He's sitting in the lowest branches of a tree, Emily holding him and stroking his fur gently. Down below, another hobin just appeared. He is well aware of our hunting method already, so he silently jumps from the tree, dropping down on top of the hobin below.

Just like always, I, or he, or maybe both of us? I'm a little unclear on that bit, but we pull its mana out into Maven, and the other hobin loses consciousness. Emily comes down after. She glances around, looking a bit worried. Actually, we had a predator show up yesterday. It might have been a coincidence, but it also might have been drawn by the ones we killed. Maybe she should hold off on dressing the hobins, at least until I'm there with her. I have Maven grab the hobin, and point at Emily's knife, then shake his head.

"Huh?" She blinks a few times, clearly unsure what to make of him at the moment. So I have him drop the hobin, stand up on two legs, and repeat the gesture. "Are you saying I shouldn't dress it?" He nods. Then holds up his front paws and makes a kind of pushing gesture. It takes her some time to figure out, but she responds, "do you mean 'later'?" He nods again. "Well, ok. I guess I can wait. It's not like I have to do it right now..." Maven nods one more time, then Emily takes the other hobin. They both climb back up into the tree to wait, and I let him slide to the back of my mind once more.

I glance around, finally paying attention to my surroundings again. It's only been a few moments, so Winslow is still working at the grindstone. Eryk is... staring at me?! For some reason, he's staring at me intently, but I can't get any impression from his face. He just looks... neutral. Not emotionless like a rail unit, but still completely unreadable. "Y-yes?" I can't keep myself from stammering under his gaze.

Before he answers though, the bells ring through town. So that would be the sixth bell. Only one more until the lunch whistle. After the interruption, it doesn't seem like Eryk is staring at me like before, and it isn't long until Winslow finishes up.

"There, all filed down." He walks back over and holds the glass out as if to hand it to me, then suddenly withdraws it from my grasp. "Remember, broken glass is sharp. And fragile. If you break this, the edges will be very sharp and you will need to be very careful with it or you'll cut yourself on it again. So don't break it." He gives me a hard look.

"Yes, sir. Absolutely." I nod emphatically. Only then does he finally hand it back to me. Even though he said he filed down the edges, I'm still a bit skittish with it and hold it between two fingers to avoid them. Then I wrap it in some cloth and add it to the contents of my basket. Once it is safe and sound, I let out a small, relieved breath.

"And you, getting me to work for free," Winslow huffs and elbows Eryk in the side. That just makes him grin a little. While they playfully joke around, I go to the table, standing on my toes to reach the two bars of metal set there. First I grab the durite, then the nuvrite, which feels cold again after sitting near the durite on the table.

"Huh?" I gasp as I hold the cold nuvrite bar. I don't feel anything. I can't push mana through it now. What happened?

"What is it?" Eryk asks.

I spin around, clutching the ingot to my chest. "Uh, n-nothing," I stammer, shaking my head rapidly. He just frowns and crosses his arms, looking disappointed. My heart sinks and I lower my head. "It's the nuvrite," I begin to explain under his gaze. "I can't... umm..." No, obviously I can't tell him I can't push mana through it. "I can't really explain it, but I can't, uhh... use it right... right now..." Eryk just cocks his head to the side a little. I tried, but that clearly that didn't explain anything. "I'm sorry, I can't really talk about it, but it's a pretty big problem... I don't know how to fix it..." I don't know why it happened, or if the change is reversible. The only thing different is that it's cold now. Before anything else, let's at least try heating it up...

I grab the durite and bring it near the nuvrite once more. It loses the cold feeling as I bring them near, until suddenly I can feel the connection again. All at once, it just works. The worried tension in my shoulders vanishes as I relax, knowing that I can still use it. The change isn't permanent. Wondering about this, I move the bars back and forth a few times to get a feel for it. It seems to change at a sort of... moderately warm temperature. Won't this cause problems if it gets too cold outside? Without nuvrite, I won't be able to convert mana. I only have mollite and nuvrite, if only there was something else I could use in case the nuvrite stops working...

Well, I suppose I always have the option of using a magnet to get it hot enough, but that seems kind of unreliable. Especially since it will keep cooling down while I use it, eventually becoming even colder than it started once I remove the magnet...

As I ponder this, Eryk approaches. "So, you figure out whatever is troubling you?"

"Well, more or less... The nuvrite doesn't work right if it's too cold, but I don't have a replacement for it..." I answer, looking down with concern at the nuvrite in my hand.

"Maybe if you explained how it is supposed to work, I could help you find a solution?" he suggests. I look up at him, meeting his cool, helpful gaze. I consider his proposal. He's not wrong. Eryk is so smart, I'm sure he would be able to come up with something, right? I open my mouth a little, then stop. I bite my lip, conflicted.

As for the downside... That would mean telling him about mana. Since he's so smart, I'm sure he'd also figure out I'm a rail unit if I give him even the smallest thing to go on. I definitely wouldn't be allowed in his store anymore.

Then I realize that him finding out would be even worse than that. He clearly has connections to other stores like this one. I wouldn't just get rejected from his shop, but any other one he tells about me. Surely he would warn others, and the word would spread throughout, what, all the shopping areas?

There's no way I can tell him, I'll be locked out of doing business with any stores in the future. When I realize this, my entire body shudders, then shake my head quickly. "I'm very sorry, but I can't tell you about it," I apologize.

"That's alright." His tone is soothing. "We can talk more about it some other time maybe. For now, let's get out of Winslow's hair." The older man just makes a 'hmph' sound in response.

"Ok," I agree quickly. We walk back toward the door to the shop. As we approach it, Eryk unties that black thing he put on over his clothes before. Maybe it's to keep the soot from that forge off of his nice clothing? Leaving that aside, I stop when we're at the door. I turn back to Winslow. He may not know how much he has done for me, one more type of mana could be the difference between me living and dying.

"Winslow, sir. Thank you very much for helping me." I bow down deeply and thank him as sincerely as I can.

He just chuckles. "She's polite at least. Looks like you really did find an interesting one. See you later, Eryk." The two men tap their fists to their chests and nod with what looks like some sort of understanding.

"Later, Winslow." Eryk waves behind him as he walks out the door. I follow him into the shop, where I'm surprised to see a customer standing with Kathy near the wall to our right. It's a somewhat older woman with slightly graying hair, all dressed up in fancy, colorful clothing. With a mutter, Eryk's pace instantly increases much faster than he's been walking up until now.

The customer's eyes lock onto me moments after we enter the storefront and she demands, "What sort of place are you running here?!"

In response, Kathy yells at Eryk. "Eryk, stop dragging dirty peasants through our shop! Get out!"

Strangely, Eryk doesn't say anything. He just walks fast while I run to keep up. Instead of replying, he balls his hands into fists, plants them squarely on his hips, and struts through the store while laughing a loud, confident, "Hahahaha!" This of course draws the anger of both women in the shop off of me and onto Eryk. Within moments, he has gone right out the front door, and I hurriedly run out behind him.

"I'm so sorry about that ma'am, where were we...?" I hear Kathy continue speaking to the customer before the door closes behind us. Did he just... draw all the blame onto himself? Even though I'm the one who didn't belong there?

"I'm really sorry," I apologize timidly once we reach the street, "you got yelled at because of me..."

"Oh, she'll get over it," he waves it off with a chuckle. What exactly is their relationship...? "I suppose there is only one matter left..." he says as if thinking aloud. "You're welcome to come back to my shop any time. I will make extra sure that the staff treat you well, ok?"

"Y-Yes, thank you." I smile a little. Somehow after everything, I managed to secure a way to buy more metal.

"Of course, I would also be glad to speak to you more as well. Do you think you can come by again soon? We can speak more about the interesting discoveries you've made. I would love to hear about them when you have the time."

"Umm..." Despite any misgivings I might have had, Eryk is a really nice and helpful person. I would definitely like to talk to him more. But... I don't know if I have a few days or not.

At my hesitation, he adds, "I'll have more strawberry juice as well."

"No, I would love to come," I assure him with a nervous wave of my hands. "However, I might have some... uhh..." I have to think hard to remember the unfamiliar words. "...Prior obligations. I'm not entirely sure when though, so I don't know if I will be able to meet you."

"Ah, prior obligations," he gives a small nod. But, his eyes are focused on me with strange intensity as he does. Did I say something wrong? "In that case, what do you say we make tentative arrangements to speak again in one week?" But then he cuts short; it looks like he remembered something. "No wait, that doesn't work... how about eight- no, nine days from now?" He must be really busy, but still wants to find time to talk with me... "You can stop by the shop if you are not otherwise engaged."

"Ok," I agree. "I apologize in advance if I am not able to make it, but I will if I can." I bow again, but he must be used to me doing it by now... In any case, speaking politely doesn't seem quite as hard after doing it this whole time.

"That should be all for today," Eryk says with a smile. "You should go on and catch up with your friends, if you hurry, you might make it to the gate by the seventh bell."

"Umm, first, I really wanted to thank you for all of your help. I wouldn't have been able to get the metal I wanted without your help. And you even went out of your way to take me to the glassblower's. So I wanted to offer my sincerest thanks for everything you've done today." I bow to him again while trying to thank him politely enough to express just how grateful I am for today.

Eryk just laughs. "Maybe you can give me a thank you gift the next time we meet," he chuckles. I giggle a little at the joke, but then sigh dejectedly. It's obvious there's nothing I could give him that he would actually want. Even if I was able to meet him again next week, I doubt I could actually get something Eryk wouldn't find disgusting and low class.

Even when I gave a gift to Marrianne, it was just some of my hair. "Oh, don't worry about it," he says, probably in response to my sigh. Just like before, all I have to give is myself.

Actually... That might work, I realize. No no, that's a stupid idea. But it is something I could give him now, in case I never see him again. But it's stupid. But it is safe. Probably.

"Hello?" Eryk's voice prods me out of my jumbled thoughts. I jolt, looking up at him with big eyes. Am I really going to do this?

"Hey..." I speak quietly. "Do you get scared easily?"

Of course he furrows his eyebrows in response. "That's an oddly specific question..." When I don't respond, he eventually shrugs a little and goes on. "No, I wouldn't say I scare particularly easily." I nod, setting my hand down on the bar of nuvrite in my basket. I push some mana through and it heats under my fingers.

I should get a number of different types of mana because I have all different metals in my basket, I can use those-

That doesn't happen. I blink a few times, still looking up at Eryk. He just raises an eyebrow.

My eyes boggle. "I'm sorry, just a moment!" I spin around, crouching down over my basket. Instead of generating a bunch of different mana types, it feels like I got... something else. I don't have the time to look into it now though. I figured I could generate all I needed easily, but I'm going to have to do each one individually now.

I hastily dig through my basket, pulling things out one after another. I frantically grab a couple nuvrite coins, pairing them with different metal bars one after another as I repeatedly remove things from my basket, then shove them back in. In a flash, I make all the mana I need. With everything strewn about messily in the basket, I spin back around.

"Umm, sorry about that. What I was saying before was that I do want to give you a thank you gift after all," I explain.

"Ok...?" Unlike usual, he looks utterly confused.

"Could you just kneel down?" He does as asked, carefully kneeling close to the ground without getting dirt on his nice pants. He's... still really tall. Even kneeling, he's a little taller than me. "Mmm..." I grumble, "can you lean down a little more?" With a bemused expression, he hunches down just a bit.

Now that I can actually reach, I go up on my toes and kiss his forehead, just like Marrianne did to me. When I do it, I push some earth and lightning mana I created into him. Tiny enough amounts that they won't cause him any trouble, but they might make him just a bit happier and more insightful. Kind of like a slight, helpful nudge maybe?

Eryk still has a bemused face when I tell him, "It's a charm for good luck."

"Pretty elaborate for a good luck charm, but I'll take it," he chuckles and shrugs. "Now get going."

"Yes, sir!" I give him a big nod and bow before I turn to go.

"Good luck, huh?" I hear him continuing to laugh quietly as I walk away. I pout a bit; I was trying to be sincere and he's laughing...

Oh well, I guess something like a 'good luck charm' might seem pretty silly to a powerful adult like him...

I shake my head. I can think while moving. Time to head to the forest.