Chapter 4 Mana Sensitive
Lenna walked into the Safeharbor General Smithy. The door bell clanged as she entered. Her helmet was on but everyone recognized her beat up royal purple armor. She was notorious for not only being a drow warrior who used magic but also for her absolute destruction of people that crossed her. Neither sentiment was necessarily accurate but it was what people believed. The entry room was thirty feet across in each direction with a sword rack in the middle of the room but off to one side and a spear rack mirroring it on the other side. Up the center was the clerk’s counter and a middle aged human woman was running the counter.
The woman had dirty blonde hair with some streaks of white starting to show. Her pale skin showed how long she had been underground and she had pronounced bags under her eyes. “L-Lady V’Nova, I presume.” She stammered out at Lenna’s approach.
Lenna didn’t answer until she was at the counter. “Yes.” She replied simply. “I was directed to acquire a ranged weapon for our next job.” She explained.
“I-I see.” The clerk replied. “What kind of ranged weapon may I ask? We do not carry bows but we do have a few crossbows. We also have javelins, spears, ball bearings for a sling, and even a trident laying around somewhere.”
“I will be using a hunting bow but I require specialized arrowheads.” Lenna answered. “Hunting tips designed to make the target bleed out quicker.”
“Ah, flute tips.” The clerk replied. “We do not have any ready for you but we have made them in the past and can easily make more.” She hesitated to continue for a moment. “Forgive me for asking but don’t you usually use the old dwarf?”
Lenna nodded. “I do not need high quality but high quantity.” She replied simply. She wasn’t trying to be insulting but her words definitely came off that way. The clerk kept her face schooled but an assistant that was off to the side bristled at the comment. A slight glance from Lenna had him turned around and pretending that he hadn’t heard anything. She wasn’t even trying to be scary, her eyes had just been drawn to the movement.
“U-Understood.” The clerk replied and swallowed hard after watching Lenna glance at the clerk. “We can have some for you within a few days. How many do you need?”
“Let’s start with a dozen.” Lenna answered. “If they prove sufficient then I will order another sixty.”
The clerk smiled and nodded. “They will be ten gold coins a dozen if you want us to have the fletcher down the street make the arrows but if you only need the arrowheads then it will be six gold instead.” She explained.
—
Isaac watched as Lenna’s presence terrified the workers in the smithy’s storefront with a smile. “Reputation really is something.” He commented silently while invisible and standing a few feet from her. He walked behind the counter and looked around for anything out of the ordinary. The clerk had five loaded one handed crossbows tucked under the counter in case of a robbery but other than that everything seemed normal. He looked around and made sure no one was looking before he teleported to the other side of the door that led to the rest of the smithy.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
—
Lenna watched the clerk twitch when Isaac teleported. The tiniest amount of shadows were left behind for only a second but the clerk seemed to notice. Something was definitely up. No normal mana sensitive person would sense that. She was definitely hiding how good of a mage she was. ‘I think I found our wizard.’ Lenna thought to herself.
“Excuse me for being presumptuous but aren’t you usually with Lord Wexler?” The clerk asked.
Lenna nodded. “I am.” She agreed. “And you are.”
The woman gulped. “I see. I was just hoping to meet him is all.” She tried to play off how tense she was. Lenna could tell her heart rate had just spiked again.
“I also require three thousand caltrops.” Lenna told the clerk to get her back to business and try to distract her from potentially feeling Isaac again.
—
Isaac searched room after room but found nothing of note in most of them. At least he didn’t until he came across a room that was packed from floor to ceiling in glyphs, runes, and magic sigils. All of them were ready and waiting to be activated. They were all made from pouring liquid gold into carved wooden panels that were then used as the room’s interior walls. “Jackpot.” Isaac said and moved on. They had all the information they needed to close down the smithy but the problem was that they didn’t have a roster to make sure they got every associate of Mr. Nobody. If they missed a few of the lower ranking gang members it wouldn’t be that big of a deal but if they missed the head of the operation everything they were doing would be for naught.
He moved on but found nothing of note anywhere. “I must be missing something.” Isaac said to himself. “It’s all bedrooms upstairs and the smithy looks normal. Also, that smith definitely felt odd.” He shook his head. “I’ll talk to Lenna about him later.” There was one bedroom that was a little larger than most of the others yet was clearly only for one person. Luckily that room also had a window that faced the street. If Isaac needed back inside the building he would be able to use that room as an entry point easily enough. “I should get going. Lenna’s probably done.”
—
Isaac met Lenna at the cafe across and down the street from the smithy. It was close enough to keep an eye on who went in and out the front door of the target building but far enough away that no one inside would be able to see them. “She is definitely the wizard.” Lenna explained. “She noticed you.”
“What?” Isaac was shocked. No one ever noticed him.
“You were too close to her when you teleported. She has to be more mana sensitive than me.” Lenna explained.
“Our high level wizard then.” Isaac surmised. “Working as the clerk?”
Lenna nodded. “So it seems.”
“This whole job is getting weirder and weirder too.” Isaac commented.
“How so?” Lenna asked. It was pretty straightforward on her end.
“There were no ledgers anywhere to be found. I found the ritual room but I couldn’t even find the business ledgers. There was no paperwork kept in the building at all.” Isaac explained. “But that’s not even the weirdest part.” He continued. “There was a smith that felt odd.”
“You felt him?” Lenna asked, a bit surprised at the prospect of a dark creature that wasn’t her or her aunt and uncle in the city..
Isaac nodded. “He felt really weird though, like I wasn’t supposed to feel him. Honestly I didn’t really feel him at all. It was like there was a blank spot where my Polarity Sense should have gotten something.” He tried to explain. “Maybe he was protected from divination magic?” He shook his head. “I don’t think that was it though. Maybe his nature was suppressed somehow.” His eyes lit up. “Two options: One he’s a werewolf or two he’s a doppelganger and their shapeshifting ability is way more in depth than I thought.”
Lenna’s brow furrowed as she took another sip of her mushroom tea and then a bite from the freshly baked roll on her plate. “A doppelganger would be more dangerous.” Lenna commented. “We could handle a werecreature without much issue.” She continued to think for a moment. “How close were you before you realized anything was off?”
“Ten feet.” Isaac replied with a frown. “If I’m looking for it I could maybe double that distance but I don’t like how close I have to be to notice anything was wrong.”
Lenna nodded. “Agreed.”
“Do you think the boys found anything worthwhile at the other locations?” Isaac asked, slightly off topic.
“They should be arriving soon.” Lenna replied. They had chosen to meet at that specific cafe to minimize traffic in and out of James and Lenny’s house as well as its location. The cafe and smithy were almost exactly in between the other two locations which was another reason for Isaac and Lenna to handle that one.
No sooner had Lenna finished her comment did Isaac spot a young man in a cloak walking towards them. He looked like he was trying not to look like he was in a hurry but was failing miserably. Lenny didn’t even sit down. “They got James.”