Eventually, John comes back into the office. "The messenger just got back with the contract, sir," he says to Eryk as he enters the room.
"Good, let's see..." He unfolds the contract and scans over it.
Then he frowns. Is something wrong? Eryks stands up quickly, saying, "I have to go talk to Fredricson. Sorry Aria, could you wait here a while? John, set up a spot for her to sleep in the back room."
"Sure, but..." John trails off.
"Catch up with me after you finish." Eryk adds. What's going on? Did Mister Fredricson not sign the contract? He must not have if Eryk needs to go talk to him.
"Yes, sir." John quickly moves to gather some things from near the far wall while Eryk rushes out of the room. I watch him draw out some blankets from the low cabinet underneath a table, and quickly head into the back room Eryk showed me earlier. I slide out of my chair and begin walking that way before I realize I still have my shoes on. While I'm working on taking them off so I don't get Eryk's carpet any more dirty, John comes back out, gives me a small wave, then leaves too.
By the time I've gotten my shoes off, I'm standing all alone in Eryk's office.
"I don't get it..." I say to the empty room. For now I'll just keep resting like he said. I carry my shoes with me and head to the back room. The door handle is kind of high, about level with my head. I turn it and walk into the back room.
It looks like before. A table in the middle of the room, two wooden chairs on each side, opposite of each other. Two near the window, and two by the near wall. They're definitely a little shorter than the ones in Eryk's office, so I guess they're for kids too, not just adults. I walk over to one, but the seat is still level with my stomach.
Looking past the table and chairs, I see where John threw some blankets on the floor for me. They're all kind of heaped up in a pile since he was in such a hurry. It looks like they're right underneath the black thing on the wall. I look up at it, I wonder what it is? I try rubbing my finger against it and find that it's pretty smooth. It looks like it's attached to the wall at the corners, with four pieces of wood covering the corners, and a couple nails driven through each piece of wood.
"Huh, it looks like the nails don't go through the black part," I note, feeling where they go through the wood. I try tapping the black part and it feels hard like stone. I can't really figure out anything else about it just by looking at it. I guess I'll ask Eryk sometime.
Which brings my thoughts back to Eryk. What was so wrong that he practically ran out of the shop? Another question I won't be able to answer until later. For now I just look at the blankets. There are three of them, each dyed bright colors. Even if they've been hastily thrown in a pile, the two green ones and the red one each look more comfortable on their own than my bed back home.
Looking from the blankets to my clothes, I can only frown with guilt. If I lie on these, I'll get them all dirty. Even if I took off my dirty clothes, I'm not much better myself. I slowly slide to the floor, sitting against the wall. I don't want to make any trouble for Eryk while he's out working for my sake. So for now, I just roll onto my side on the floor and close my eyes. The wooden floor in here isn't any worse than my bed at home anyway. In fact, the wood is nice and smooth to the touch, so I'd say it's better.
I lie on the floor, still half asleep, for a while, until I hear the fifth bell. Since I'm not doing anything else, I start counting listlessly. With nothing else to do, I count away. I get to four hundred fifty eight this time, when the sixth bell rings. Isn't that longer than last time? It's only a difference of one tick, but it's still different.
Not to mention, last time the bells started at one point between the large ticks and ended at a different point. This time, they rang just a little before the next large tick. So it was on different small ticks earlier, and the same small ticks this time. Staring sleepily at the ceiling, I think to myself that I still need more numbers to work with.
And I just keep counting. When is Eryk going to get back? He does have to walk all the way across town, twice, and talk with Mister Fredricson, so it might take another whole bell... Even if I'm worried, I'm more tired, so I continue to rest.
And then my stomach starts to gurgle. "I have to pee..." It's because I drank all of that water earlier after I got overheated, isn't it? I try to hold it for now, but I have no idea when Eryk will come back.
I only manage to hold out for about thirty ticks before I can't take it anymore. I really have to go. So I lift myself from the floor and look around. Of course there's nothing in this small room. Back in Eryk's office, I don't find anything either. Where do high class people put their chamber pots? Do they have one? There must be one somewhere, right? How else would the people working here manage all day? Adults can't hold it all day, can they?!
It hasn't even been that long, but I'm already straining, pressing my legs together as I walk around his office, but there's nothing to help me here.
I could ask one of the shopkeepers, right? I approach the door desperately, but shouldn't this go to the storefront? I still don't feel like I should go in there, or I'll end up making a scene again. What about the workshop? No, Eryk told me I can't go in there without his permission because it's dangerous. Could I get a shopkeeper to come in here to ask them? I immediately look over to the bell on Eryk's desk. That's how he always got one of the shopkeepers to come in. I waddle over to his desk and try ringing the bell.
Shortly after, a shopkeeper walks in. As soon as I see her, I recognize her, and my heart sinks. The mean woman who kicked me out. I think her name was Isabelle. She's already scowling. "What are you doing in here?!" she demands.
"I'm really sorry!" I bow deeply and stare at the floor. My head is swimming, but I try to speak as politely as I can so she won't yell at me so much. "Eryk went out and told me to wait here, but I, really need to pe- uh, r-relieve myself."
She scoffs, but says, "Alright, follow me. I'm not about to let you wet yourself in Eryk's office."
"T-thank you very much!" I clutch at my skirt desperately while I follow her out of the room. I think we go through the door into the storefront area, but it's kind of hard to tell because my head is going blank and I'm staring at the floor. The next thing I know, we get to another door, which she opens and pushes me inside. It looks like a little room with just a chamber pot inside.
I frantically rush over to it. Isabelle's disgusted sound barely registers as she closes the door behind me. I pull my clothes aside so I can pee, and finally release my clenched muscles. Holding it like that is actually painful, I realize slowly. Once I'm finished and wash myself, I go back to the door. Isabelle leads me back to Eryk's office without a word.
At least on the way back, I have the presence of mind to look around. Like I thought, that door in his office leads into the store area. Luckily, it opens up to an area behind the counter, so at least I'm not that visible to the customers. Once we get back to Eryk's office she stands there with her hands on her hips.
"So?" she asks in a pointed tone. I'm not sure what she's asking. Maybe it's because I didn't thank her again?
"T-thank you very much!" I stammer out and bow again when I realize I might have been rude by not thanking her after she helped me. After a few long moments when she doesn't say anything, I glance back up at her.
"So, what are you doing here?" she says this time. Is that what she meant?
"What I'm doing here? Well, umm, Eryk said he wanted to talk to me, so we were talking, but then he had to leave so he told me to wait here until he gets back..." I try explaining while she scowls down at me.
"Right..." She doesn't seem to have anything else to say. She just keeps staring at me, hands on hips, like she's just going to watch me. Slowly, I begin move toward the back room.
"Eryk... told me to stay over here until he comes back..." I slowly stammer out under her displeased gaze. She follows me into the back room. She takes a seat, sliding it slightly toward the back wall near the window. She slides into it while I lie down on the floor. Even with her watching me, all I can do is just close my eyes and continue resting until Eryk gets back. After sitting for a bit and listening to the silent ticking of my gear, I realize that I completely lost count a while ago. Oh well...
----------------------------------------
The seventh bell rings. Since I'm just lying half asleep, I feel that it falls on the ninth small tick again. I wonder what the pattern is? At this point, I think I've gotten pretty accustomed to counting without really thinking about it, except for times like earlier anyway. I'm only up to about twenty five when Eryk finally gets back.
I hear the door open and drowsily look up from the floor. I see Eryk there, standing in the doorway. I don't know why. He doesn't look it, but he seems... unhappy. He looks down at me, then over to Isabelle, still sitting in the chair and watching me. And for some reason, over to the pile of blankets on the floor.
His next words catch everyone off guard. "Out!" He shouts, calm expression completely vanishing to be replaced with pure rage.
"Wha-" Isabelle shoots to her feet, chair nearly tipping over until it bangs into the wall behind her.
"Get out!" he shouts again. I've never seen him so angry before. I shrink away as he glares daggers at Isabelle.
"Y-yes, sir!" she stammers, and rushes from the room. Then his gaze turns to me and I can't help sliding myself away from the rage burning in his eyes, curling down as small as I can make myself.
"Why are you lying on the floor?" he asks flatly.
"B-because I didn't want to get your nice blankets dirty," I answer, unable to meet his dangerous eyes right now. "B-but the floor is fine too! It's nicer than my bed, so it's pretty comfortable!" I don't even know why I'm making excuses right now. Out of the corner of my eye while I stare at the floor, I can see Eryk shaking. His breath is coming out like suppressed growls. Why is he so angry? Tears begin burning at the corners of my eyes. He isn't angry at me, is he? Because I didn't use the blankets? Even though I'd just make them dirty?
"Come with me, we have to discuss your contract."
"Y-yes, sir," I squeak while quickly staggering to my feet and following him back into his office. I stumble over my own feet as I grab my shoes and rush after him. I almost run across his office to reach my chair, wincing as I bang my bandaged arms on the edge when I hastily climb up into the chair.
"John, go get Aria's lunch."
"Yes, sir." John has a dark expression on his face too. What is going on? After John leaves, Eryk takes a few deep breaths, visually calming himself.
Once he has mostly calmed down, he finally begins to speak. "I went to talk with Fredricson." Despite his forced calm, the name comes out with a harsh tone anyway. "He said that orphans are not able to make contracts in exchange for non-monetary goods." When he says that, does he mean... "For a man so cowed by the upper classes, that bastard suddenly grows a pair when money is involved!" I can see him digging his fingers into the table. "I had to remove your education and access to the refinery from the contract, he refused to sign it otherwise."
"Wha..." I gasp in disbelief.
His explanation comes out in growls. "He insisted that if you want an education, you have to pay for it yourself. If I couldn't get it down on paper, I wouldn't have the right to contract an instructor for you. It would've had to go through Fredricson, and I'll be damned if I'd let him screw that up!" I'm having a hard time, but I think I follow what he's saying. Mister Fredricson is that opposed to me getting an education? "I had to write up another contract to take payment from you, to search for an instructor for you." He grits his teeth angrily. But doesn't that mean he managed to get it after all?
"T-then... that's not too bad, is it?"
"It's awful!" he slams his palm on the table and I flinch. "I converted the education and refinery access into monetary payment. It came to one hundred irons, but half of that goes to Fredricson! Your half gets payed back to me for your education! You don't get shit out of a deal like this!" After he bangs on the table again, I sit, cringing until I understand. So that's how it is...
"B-but... I still get the education, right? I think that was the most important part anyway. I don't need the money, I can just use what I earn hunting for now."
"But you'll be here a lot, you won't have time for that," he sighs.
"I can just split it with Emily," I assure him.
"Even though she's the one doing it?" he asks skeptically.
"W-well, it's sort of complicated but it'll be fine." It is sort of me doing most of the hunting after all. Sort of. There's no way Emily would have a problem with continuing to split it like we have been all along.
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"Fine, fine..." he seems to have sort of calmed down a little at least. "The terms turned to shit and that ass made out like a bandit, but we've formed the contract we need to work together..." He rubs his temples, still looking annoyed. "Let's just do what we can for now. John should be back with your food soon. Then we can finally get to work."
I nod repeatedly, glad that he's mostly back to normal. "Anyway, you said you didn't use those blankets because you would get them dirty, right?" I gulp and nod. Is he angry about that? I don't know why he would be... "You're too considerate for a kid," he sighs and holds his head in his hands. "You should do what you want to do sometimes." Rather than angry, he sounds sad.
"Umm..." I don't really know how to respond. What does he mean, do what I want? All I want is to survive, and not ruin everyone else's lives in the process. So far it hasn't been turning out very well, but I'm really trying! Thinking that, I answer him with determination. "I'll keep trying."
He finally gives me a small smile. "Sounds good."
As he said, it isn't much longer before John gets back with my food. I eat it quickly. I haven't really done much today, but I'm already really hungry. I finish the food before I know it.
"Huh, you really polished that off. I guess I'll start having them make more," Eryk comments.
"N-n-n-no!" I wave my hands in embarrassment. "It's fine!"
He frowns deeply. "Didn't I just tell you to look out for yourself more? You're a growing girl. If you don't eat enough, you won't get any bigger." I freeze as soon as he says that. "Don't tell me you don't want to get any bigger," he says with narrowed eyes.
"I... do want to get bigger..." I mutter quietly. I look down at the table. I guess there are some things I want after all.
"Then eat well and grow," he commands, and I finally give him a good nod in response. "Good. Now that you're done eating, we can finally get to work. Follow me, I'll show you what I need you to work on."
Before we go, he has me drink another glass of water, then we head back into the workshop. It's just as hot as before, but we move through it quickly. Passing by the furnaces, we make it to the open space with the cooling molds and begin to walk along them, toward the back of the workshop. Eryk warns me that they are incredibly hot, and we keep some distance between us and the molds. Carefully walking between the ones along the back of the workshop, we turn left and I find that there is actually a door near the back wall of the room. By the looks of it, it leads to a small room that runs along the back of the refinery, just behind the furnaces. Eryk draws out a key and unlocks the door.
As I walk through, I notice that this door is a different color than most. Not gray like iron. It's kind of dull and yellowish, and isn't really shiny, I wonder what metal it is?
The next room we go into is really tiny. Nothing but the door we came through, and another door in front of us. The way it reminds me of those connecting rooms in that strange rail unit building we went to makes me uncomfortable. Before we go on, Eryk locks the first door behind us. "Remember, what I'm about to show you is secret, no mention of what you see here leaves this room. You absolutely cannot tell anyone, not even Emily or Francis. I can't let word about this spread or it will be dangerous. Do you understand?"
"Yes, I understand," I respond clearly. What kind of secret could it possibly be?
"Alright, let's go." He unlocks the next door, and we move forward again. Eryk even locks the door behind us right after. A little nervous, I enter.
"Here it is," Eryk says with a meaningful tone that I, unfortunately, don't understand.
"Umm..." I reply awkwardly. Whatever it is, it's on top of a table that is a little taller than I am, so I can't see it.
"Oh," he says flatly. He moves over to another table on the left hand wall with various things on it and grabs a crate for me to stand on. Once I'm up on top of the crate, I look over the thing on the table.
"It's just a sword," I comment. It's actually kind of chipped in a few places too.
"Right, I guess you wouldn't know without me explaining it. I have no idea what this sword is made of. I want you to find out." With that explanation, I finally understand.
"You don't know what it's made of?" He runs a refinery, how could he not know?
"No. You may not know, but Eschalle has weapons that are better than anything we can make. Some have been captured in the past, but we've never been able to figure out what they're made of."
"So that's why you wanted me to work with you so badly..." I murmur. I finally get it. If it's something they've never been able to figure out normally, my ability to use mana gives him a new method to try. "But..." I frown a little. "I still don't know most of the metals myself, so I don't know if I would even be able to figure it out."
"Ah, that's right, I suppose you don't." Besides, now that I think about it more, if it isn't any of the metals I know, checking it with mana won't really help any. It'll just tell me that it's something I haven't seen before. Which is exactly the problem they already have...
I shake my head. I don't know until I at least try. "I'll see what I can do. If I can't get it right away, I'll see if I can figure out more by learning about more metals. And if that doesn't work... Well, I'll see if there's anything else I can come up with then, is that alright?"
"Sure, just do what you can," Eryk answers. He stands to the side to watch, and I look over the sword. Inspecting it closely, I see that it's a pretty unique color. Kind of shiny and yellow. Not quite like copper, it has too much brown in the color, and a deeper shine than the copper ingots I've seen. The blade is a good length, not a short sword, but also not a large two handed sword. Based on the handle, it should be usable as a hand and a half sword. The guard is plain and rectangular, but clearly made out of a different metal than the rest of the weapon. It's silver and moderately wide. It has a slight concave curve on each side, but still ends at a flat, square end to give it the rectangular feel.
Then there's the handle, which just looks like wood wrapped in a tough looking brown material that I'm not really familiar with. It isn't exactly cloth, maybe it's some sort of animal hide? All the way at the end of the handle, the sword has a rounded pommel. It doesn't seem to be a particularly fancy sword. The straight edge all the way down until it reaches its point makes it look fairly plain, but the golden brown material it is made of is something even Eryk can't identify...
Of course, if it was easy enough to identify by sight alone, Eryk wouldn't have asked for my help. I take the nuvrite coin from my left hand and hold it in my right. Doing this with Eryk watching makes me a bit nervous, but this is exactly what he went through all that effort of contracting me for.
I hold the nuvrite coin over the surface of the blade and push a little mana through, just to test. It doesn't return any other mana types. So that's out. I want to switch to mollite, but I didn't bring anything with me besides these coins I've been carrying. I'll just use the mollite in my wrist, I guess.
I hold my hand over the blade again and push with the mollite. Without much effort, the blade begins to glow brightly. Glowing? That immediately brings tin to mind, but that produces light mana and this doesn't. There was also that white metal I saw back in the rail unit building, but the white color it had was nothing like the gold color of this. More importantly, that one could carry mana, and this one can't.
Once I've thought that through, I've pretty much come to the conclusion that this isn't any metal I'm familiar with. However, a prickle of feeling and my hairs standing up suddenly alert me to the fact that I overlooked something critical. I freeze for a moment, I know this feeling. But even without me doing anything, it's growing stronger all on its own!
"Shit!" I gasp, jumping to the side to cover Eryk. I brandish the iron coin I'm still holding and in the next instant, a bolt of lightning jumps from the blade, right at the iron coin. The cracking explosion is joined by my gasp as the lightning surges through the coin, then me, into the floor at my feet. I don't even have any lightning mana to protect myself. It just takes the shortest path, up my left arm, down my side, and out through my left leg. I can feel the flesh that energy burned through. I can even smell the burns as I clutch my arm painfully.
"Damn it..." I groan through gritted teeth. Burns like this hurt way more than the cuts on my body. It almost feels like it burned up the nerves in my arm. No, it probably did, those are going to take some time to heal. My side and leg don't feel as bad thankfully.
For a few long moments, Eryk stares in shock. Until finally, "Aria!" he shouts, falling to his knees next to me. "Are you alright? What were you thinking?"
"What do you mean?" I ask, looking up at him.
"You jumped in front of lightning, that was crazy!" He holds his head in his hands. "Why would you do that?"
"Because it would have hit you," I respond. It takes me a few moments to logically think back through the intuition that lead me to that conclusion.
The last time I got hit by lightning, it jumped at me from the coin I was trying to get it to go to, not the one I thought it would jump from. So it was like I was pushing all of the lightning energy away, onto the far coin. Then once I stopped, it all jumped back to where it had been pushed away from. If that same thing happened here, me and the sword were both in the area where the lightning energy was being pushed to, while Eryk was outside of it. Meaning it would have jumped to him unless I blocked it with something like a metal coin, the easiest path it could jump to.
Huh, I'm surprised I got all of that on vague intuition. Especially since I'd only seen it once before. Or maybe I was just coming up with the worst case scenario and reacting to avoid that? Either way, I protected Eryk, so everything is fine.
"Idiot! Even if I'm going to get struck by lightning, why would you take it for me?"
"Because you would have been hurt if I didn't."
"What about you?! It's ok for you to get hurt in place of someone else?"
"Yeah. As long as it's me instead of you, it's fine."
"No it's not..." he says, his tone turning sad all of a sudden. Why wouldn't it be?
"No, it's really fine," I try to explain. "I've been hit with way worse lightning before!"
"You what?!" Unfortunately, that looks like it just made him worry more. "A-anyway, we have to get you to the doctor!"
"We do?!" I gasp. I mean, I got burned and my arm feels like it's on fire, but is there even anything the doctor can do?
"Of course we do. Come on." Without any room for discussion, he scoops me up from where I'm crouched on the floor and carries me out of the room, unlocking and re-locking both doors as he goes. Then he brings me swiftly back through the workshop, despite the stares of the workers. He calls John on the way out, and both men begin jogging down toward the clinic.
Throughout all of this, I feel like if I speak up, it'll just make Eryk mad at me again. In record time, we arrive at the clinic. As soon as we enter, the lady at the front desk looks up at us. "Eryk? You aren't supposed to be back until next Shanaday."
"Aria got hurt," he responds, obviously panting.
"Oh! Please go in then," she says immediately.
"Thank you." He quickly proceeds into the back room while John stays behind.
In the next room, Beth turns around as we enter, asking, "Eryk?"
"Aria got struck by lightning," he says without even waiting.
That sends the doctor to her feet, her chair clattering into her desk. "Let me see." As he sets me down on the table, she asks, "Where?"
"From my left hand up to my shoulder, then down my side and left leg," I explain. With a stiff nod, she begins removing my clothing, then undoing the bandages around my left hand to get a look. Now that I'm looking at the bandages, they're burned black, aren't they? Why was that lightning so strong?
I would rate it maybe... half the strength of the lightning bolt I made the last time, but it only took a tiny fraction of the mana to get that effect. And the way I felt it forming, it was actually getting stronger without me even pushing harder. Something about that metal? My thoughts are beginning to wander as the doctor works.
"How did you get struck by lightning? You've been away for one day! It's not even raining!" Beth begins to reprimand me.
"Umm..." I look over at Eryk. He said I couldn't tell anyone about anything that happens in there...
"Sorry, it's a trade secret," he apologizes. She immediately begins to glare at him and he puts his hands up.
"No, I'm sorry. It was my fault," I apologize, trying to take the blame off of him.
"How was that your fault?" she growls, still looking at Eryk.
"W-well, if I'd been more careful..." I mumble, but Eryk just glares at me to silence my protests.
"What sort of dangerous work are you making her do?!" Beth demands, leaning over the table toward Eryk threateningly.
"No! It wasn't supposed to be dangerous!" I try to calm her down.
"Really Beth, I swear, it wasn't supposed to be dangerous," Eryk says the same thing. "This was a completely unprecedented accident."
She keeps glaring at him, but answers, "Fine. I'll let you off this one time." Then her tone turns cold as death. "But if you come carrying an underage child into my clinic due to a work related accident again, you are going to have some serious questions to answer."
"R-right..." he gives in.
"But Aria, it's fine if you come when you're hurt." She pats my head gently, her tone suddenly soothing. "You'll never get in trouble. I'll never be angry at you for getting hurt. Make sure you come if anything bad happens, alright? Never avoid getting help because you think you'll get in trouble, do you understand?" I nod obediently, and she goes back to working on my bandages.
"I'm seeing some serious burns here," she comments. "Do they hurt a lot?"
"Yeah," I respond, "it hurts pretty bad."
"Where does it hurt?"
"Mostly my arm, I think a lot of the energy was spent by the time it made it to my side and leg."
"Really? You say that like you've been struck by lightning before..." She keeps the expression off her face, but I can see the worry in her eyes.
"Just once, it was a lot worse than this though."
"I see..." She doesn't press any further on the topic though, and continues checking the burns. It's probably made more difficult because most of my skin is still riddled with all sorts of cuts and gashes, but she eventually heads over to her cabinet and pulls a bunch of stuff out. She treats more bandages with various things and wraps them around my arm, torso, and leg. Unfortunately, the process is no better than last time, and I need to close my eyes while she works again. The bandages do feel really nice afterward though.
"There, I've treated the burns. It should help with the pain somewhat. But, well, she's already working on healing all her other injuries, so it could take a while. I do not want to see her back in here again until Shanaday," she says with a glare at Eryk. Then to me, "Unless you get hurt, sweetie, then make sure you come back." And to Eryk again, "Is that understood?"
"Yes, Ma'am..." he responds slowly. After she finishes dressing me again, Eryk picks me up and takes me back to the front. As he approaches the front counter, Beth suddenly sticks her head out the door and says, "Hey, Nina? Make sure to charge Eryk full price today," with a big smile on her face.