It did not take long to find Ophirian. The man-snake was in a heated debate with an armorsmith about the proper way to layer scales on scale mail. Neither were budging and they had drawn quite a crowd, enough that the two had spilled their debate onto the street causing the crowd to swell even more.
“Your imitation scales offer so little flexibility and absolutely no protection from liquids. Surely you see the inherent inferiority!”
“Flexibility is all well and good until someone tries to shove a spear through your gut! Even if the natural scales aren’t penetrated, they still move too far and allow for a blunt injury to your insides. On top of that, strong metal will stop most any blow from penetrating. It’s clearly better.”
“If any of your imitation scales are damaged, they are forever broken. Natural scales can be shed and regrown or even healed. As for strength, are you really going to say that simple steel scales are superior to a great serpent’s scales? Surely you are not that foolish!”
The crowd had split into two groups that were enjoying the debate. Most of the beastkin and non-humans had joined Ophirian’s camp while the smith’s camp was mostly humans with several dwarves mixed in. The debate was heated, but Duke could tell that they were both enjoying themselves. There were some that he saw in the crowd that were becoming far too invested in the “my side is better” mentality.
Duke decided to step in before things started to boil over. He strode into the middle of the debate and loudly declared, “In this world of magic, both scales can be greater than anything else out there. It is the magic of the scales that makes them superior. Now, let’s all step aside and get back to our own things, yes?”
The crowd immediately dispersed, having realized that the king himself came to break them up. Duke received nods of thanks from the guards that had gathered to control the crowd should it have gotten out of hand. Duke grabbed a pair of collars, “Oh, not you two. You both are coming with me to the tavern.”
Ophirian tugged at his collar but Duke’s arm did not budge. The smith had no more luck in getting himself free of Duke’s grasp as he tugged them along with him. Onlookers marveled at the sight.
“That’s the king, isn’t it?”
“Oh, those two are in trouble!”
“Where are they going?”
“To the jail I bet!”
All voices silenced when Duke pushed the pair into the tavern. They stumbled as he let them go, turning to look back at him. His expression was not one of anger, but of amusement.
“OK, you two, join me at a table for a drink. You’re not in trouble, but I had to stop the public debate before things got out of hand.”
Ophirian sat down returning a confused and curious look, “Why?” The smith nodded in agreement as he also sat down.
Duke joined the pair, waving the waitress over. He fixed them both with a stare, “You two were having a very lively debate and that is great. It is important to have such debates, and I hope you both learned something from it. But here’s the problem: The crowd had separated into two camps. One following you, Ophirian. And one following you…I’m sorry, I don’t even know your name.”
“Arnson, Your Majesty.”
“Arnson. Well met. With the crowd polarizing, neither of you seemed to notice that your…let’s call them followers for now. Your followers were so invested in each of your positions that they were surging towards a violent altercation. That would have been an awful outcome for everyone involved.”
“Your Majesty, I assure you that I had no intention of anything like that happening.”
“Neither of you did. Some would have blamed you for it, but I saw it unfolding and it really wasn’t either of your faults directly. You just need to be more aware that you both have strong personalities and that attracts people to whatever cause you are promoting. In this case it was artificial versus natural scales.”
“I did not know this.”
“I know you didn’t. You haven’t exactly been interacting with other people for a long time.”
“I’m sorry, Your Majesty, I don’t understand.”
“That’s OK, Arnson. I wouldn’t have expected you to know that Ophirian here is less than a year old and has never been in a city before.”
“A year old? How? That’s-“
“I matured very quickly and this is not my natural form. Be thankful that I’m not in my natural form. That would have ended the scales debate.”
“I kind of want to see that now.”
“Not in the tavern. There’s no way he would fit in here.”
“You’re a dragon aren’t you?”
For the first time, Ophirian’s countenance faded to sullen humility. He spoke slowly and reverently, “My line is descended from the world dragon before she passed away millennia ago. But, I am no dragon. I am a Great Serpent, however. And I proudly bear the bloodline of my people!” Ophirian returned to his prideful demeanor as he spoke, dispelling his humility to the furthest corner of his mind.
“A great Serpent! No way! Now I really have to see you in your true form. How big are you? Are you fully grown? So many questions!”
Duke laughed at the befuddled look on Ophirian’s face. Seeing as he was not responding, Duke picked up, “Once we have a drink and something to eat, we can head out and see what Ophirian looks like in his full glory.”
The waitress arrived and took their order. Duke knew he had waved her right over but it seemed she was waiting for a break in the conversation to interrupt. Maybe she’s worried about interrupting the king. Don’t know. If it wasn’t for my Aura keeping things going for a bit longer, I would really rather just step down and really put Madrigal in charge. I don’t have the time to sit around and do kingly things.
Eventually, drinks and food were brought out and conversation turned towards more mundane topics. Arnson shared that he had studied smithing in the former capital of Chopie’s kingdom. When he was young, he had shown an aptitude for smithing and was quickly apprenticed to a master. The problem had been that the master was almost exclusively focused on weapons.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“I struggled every day learning how to forge and hammer weapons into shape. I could always get the temper right, but I never could get the balance right. Until one fateful day where a warrior came in looking for a new sword and shield. Normally, mind you, we would have sent him over to Clannan’s for the shield, but Calnnan’s anvil had developed a crack as big as a donkey’s arse so he was not making any armor for a while.”
Duke and Ophirian listened intently to Arnson’s story as he continued, “Master Hammond told me to work on the basic form of the shield while he worked on the sword. Master Hammond was really good at his craft. The king himself had commissioned a sword for himself. The arsehole didn’t pay for the sword, but it was a fine weapon nonetheless.”
“I knew it would take a week to make the sword. Other smiths could have made it faster, but faster wasn’t better quality. So, I knew I had time to work on the shield, and it was the first real project I had ever been given. I poured everything I had into that shield and had it roughed out in two days. Then I worked with the warrior on the design a bit more without Master Hammond knowing about it.”
Arnson paused to take a long drink of his ale, “After spending a whole day with the warrior, I knew how he moved and what he wanted from the shield. My hammer flowed so effortlessly making it. The steel sang under my blows and before I knew it, I was polishing a hardened steel shield. Even fitting the grips on it was easy – it all seemed natural, you see.”
“When I showed the shield to Master Hammond, he was angry with me at first as he had told me to only rough it out for him. But when he examined my work, I received my very first smile from the smith! He declared it better than adequate which was far more than he had ever said of my work before.”
“So what happened when the warrior got the shield?”
“He liked it as much as the sword. He even gave Master Hammond an extra gold over the price as acknowledgement of the quality of the set.”
“That is quite the story. I take it after that, you were set to work on more shields?”
“Indeed, so, Your Majesty. Shields at first and later, armor. That is until I was able to set up my own armorsmithy.”
“Did you ever see that warrior again?”
“Um, funny story there, I guess. He was stabbed in the back by a spear on his next adventure and died. I never found out what happened to my first shield after that.”
“At least it wasn’t in the front, right through the shield.”
“That would have ended my smithing career. It’s been a good career, but ever since moving here, things have been crazy. My smithing Skill has grown so fast, I cannot believe it. I have already reached Master rank. I was just in Adept when I got here. If this keeps up, I may make it to Grandmaster before I retire!”
“Are others experiencing the same growth?” Duke was intrigued by this turn and was wondering if his Aura was affecting others like this or if this smith was the exception.
“Many are, Your Majesty. The Mayor tells us that it is due to your presence in the kingdom. We are all quite grateful for it. Havenreach is the home to more master crafters than any other city I have ever heard of. And having the Portal to trade through makes things that much more amazing. We are secure here, safe. We have the Adventurer’s Guild to keep the monsters culled back from the city, the miners and treemen keep us supplied with ore and wood. There are even enchanters that have created magical forges for us to use. We don’t need charcoal! The farms supply food and cowhide that the tanneries turn into leather of supreme quality. Really, everything is running perfectly. There is a reason you are so beloved here, Your Majesty. Mayor Shellenberger never fails to let us know that you are the reason that we have it so good.”
“That’s good to hear and quite the ego-boost. But I hope he has told you that I will be going away soon, and it could be for years. The prosperity will fall off during that time. I just hope you all have grown your crafts well enough that you can still prosper without my help.”
“We have been told, but many don’t believe it.”
“When my bonded tells you something. Believe it. He does not lie.”
Duke cocked his head in Ophirian’s direction, “Thank you for that endorsement. I do speak the truth – something that my mother taught me. She would always tell me that if you tell the truth, you never have to remember what story you told. Life is a bit more complicated than such simple statements, but I try not to directly lie. That doesn’t help anyone.”
“A wise woman I would say.”
Duke did not respond but gestured for the waitress to come over again. She quickly returned and he handed her a sum of gold coins, “Thank you for taking care of us. We will be heading out shortly.”
She attempted to hand the coins back to Duke but he shook his head as he rose from his seat. As Ophirian and Arnson followed suit, he TELEPORTED the three of them well outside the city, into the foothills of the mountains. He smiled, “Ophirian, why don’t you let Arnson study your true scales.”
He grinned in response and shifted into his true form, spreading out over his hundred-meter length. Has he gotten even bigger than the last time?
Arnson swore and leaped backwards in shock, “You weren’t fucking kidding! An honest-to-the-Seven Great Serpent! And I debated him on scale design. Oh.”
“Go ahead and examine my scales. You’ll see how good they are. Stab them, strike them with your hammer if you like. You aren’t going to hurt me.”
Arnson hesitated and Duke gave him a nod, “Go ahead. He really means it. Be as brutal as you like, you’re not going to hurt him.”
Shaking off his incredulity, Arnson, pulled his smith hammer out of his belt and lightly stuck the scale in front of him. There was no reaction from the serpent and the hammer left no mark at all. Duke gave him another nod and a gesture telling him to hit harder. Arnson gulped and wound up for a full-force strike. The hammer, once again, rebounded from the scale. This time it left a tiny indentation that faded seconds later.
“See, natural scales are so much better. They heal on their own.”
“I do see that your scales heal on their own, but that’s not something I can make for every soldier. What am I saying, I cannot make that for anyone.”
“I see your dilemma now. You have to craft with the inferior materials because that is all you have to work with. It makes so much more sense to me now. Thank you for teaching me this valuable lesson!”
Ophirian’s head snapped forward like a lightning strike. Duke stepped in front of the smith instinctually, but quickly realized that the smith wasn’t the target of the strike. Instead, Ophirian had torn a sizable patch of scales from his own skin. The wound was jagged and bleeding, but the serpent didn’t seem to mind. He hissed a chuckle, “Perhaps I should have told you what I was doing. Take these scales, Arnson and see what you can make of them. There should be enough there for at least one suit of armor. If you can, find an enchanter that can make them heal like they naturally want to do.”
Duke fashioned a wide-mouthed drawstring bag of holding out of dungeon essence and placed the scales inside for the smith and handed it to him. He grimaced briefly, “One warning, do not attempt to take that bag through a Portal. It, and everything inside it will be destroyed, forever lost.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty. And thank you, Great Ophirian. I will make the most spectacular set of armor out of these scales and will get it fully enchanted. Of that you can be assured!”
“That would please me greatly.”
“But we do have to get going now. So, I’ll drop you off back in Havenreach and we’ll be on our-” Duke was interrupted by a notification that he could not ignore.
*** Worldwide Notification! Hear This!
A Quest has been offered:
Quest Name: Fight or Die
Quest Description
All residents of Teldin are called to her defense. An invading force has landed on the planet and seeks to consume all life on it and ultimately consume the world spirit. Come to your world’s defense or lose everything!
Quest Rewards: Unknown, survival of life on Teldin
Will you accept this quest and defend your world? (Y/N)
***
He accepted the Quest without any thought or consideration. It wasn’t like this system was a quest-generating machine. He had only been offered one or two in the entire time before now. Accepting the Quest produced a location on Duke’s map. From what he could tell, it was on the other side of the planet but that did not stop him from springing into action. “Arnson, did you get that notification?”
“I think everyone did.”
“Even in here. Remarkable. OK, I’m going to drop you off at the Mayor’s office. Tell him that all combatants are to head through the Portal. I’ll have a destination for a rallying point set up in Cloudspire. Ophirian, shift for me please, we will need the space until we get to where we are going.”
The transformation was faster this time, taking only about thirty seconds. After which, Duke TELEPORTED Arnson outside the Mayor’s office while he and Ophirian were TELEPORTED to his throne room. There were order to give, planning to occur, and most importantly, scouting to occur before he set up Portals to bring his Legions to bear. Time to see how many nations will respond and if I can bring them all together.