“When did the carpet change?” Alex asked. Grandmother looked down at the dark purple carpet with its pattern of diamonds in silver.
“Weren't there always diamonds?” Grandmother asked. She was sitting on the sofa with Ellen, working on adding a set of leather straps and lacing to the glass armor. Grandmother’s glass helmet was passed from hand to hand in the selkie common room with such reverence that she started feeling guilty about the pile she left the rest of the pieces in.
On their return to Home Square Grandmother visited Alex’s shop and asked if he could put together an armor rack. This was his first attempt. He was charging her 14 silver and 20 iron for the rack, plus a delivery fee inside the square of one silver six iron.
“Why so much?” Grandmother asked him.
“There can’t be more than twenty five people in the square who would ever want one,” Alex replied. Grandmother was proud of him. She would mention that he should increase the cost for custom orders after he was done.
“It was copper before,” Alex responded. “I remember because it matched the… beams.” Grandmother heard the stumble in his voice and looked up at the ceiling. The high ceiling was buttressed by arching beams of wood bound in silver.
“Is that silver?” Ellen asked at Grandmother's side.
“I think it is,” Grandmother said. She set the armor in her hands down and stood. She stepped up on the sofa’s seat, and then sofa's back trying to get a closer look at the metal bound beams. “It looks like real silver,” she reported. “Not the stainless steel everyone likes to call silver.”
“Why would it change?” Ellen asked.
“I have no idea,” Grandmother responded, stepping back down.
“Well I am going to have to take all this copper back,” Alex announced. “It clashes with the silver. Stainless steel will look much better.” Alex matched his actions to his words and disappeared out the door carrying his bundle of components.
“Did it change over the maintenance cycle?” Ellen asked.
“Maybe,” Grandmother replied. “I’m pretty certain it was silver when I dumped the armor on the floor. I can visualize the silver lines being distorted by the glass. I’ll have to check my recording before that.”
“When he brings back steel, you should tell him you want a discount,” Ellen said.
“Ha!” Grandmother replied. “Maybe I will. Although if it looks good, I’ll probably give him a pass.”
Ellen was showing Grandmother how the straps were used to hold the armor together, when Alex returned. He carried in a mixed pile of stainless steel and wood. He quickly assembled something that looked like a stick figure. This figure was connected behind to a stainless steel frame that reached down to a set of floor supports that reached forward under the stick figure. Alex mounted a wooden board across the floor supports that provided a low self to set the armored boots on. Grandmother knew there was probably a special word for armored boots, but no one knew what it was. The computers on the Speedwell would know. Eventually someone would look it up.
Alex was right that the stainless looked good with the silver lines in the carpet. He set the new armor rack next to the built in weapon rack and studied them.
“I think that is good. I remembered the weapon rack is wood about half way across the square, but I didn't have all the pieces in wood. I can switch out the stainless for wood when I find them,” Alex commented.
“Wasn’t that weapon rack in copper before?” Ellen suddenly asked. Alex turned and really looked at the rack.
“I think it was,” Alex agreed.
“I like It,” Grandmother announced. “The two look like a matched set. Let's see if we can get this stuff mounted.”
Alex stayed to watch the two women struggle. He was taking mental notes on possible changes to his design. He made variations on shelves, bins and boxes for his back room, but this was the first design that came completely from his head. He planned to set up the copper version in his shop for sale.
Tied and strapped in place the armor display was impressive. Alex wished he had won a complete set. He didn’t think anyone else was going to get one anytime soon. Even Todd and Ellen only won partial sets. The only way people were going get the set was if Kai opened all the patterns and started making them.
“Did you find the amulet?” Alex asked.
“Yes,” Grandmother responded. “It was in my lunch bag.” She went over to a small stone box that was sitting on the ground beside a chair in the sitting area. Alex frowned. The box was too small to be reached easily by someone sitting. Grandmother needed a table or shelves to put the box on.
She opened the box and lifted out a stone on a chain from one of the divided trays inside. She closed the box before handing the amulet over to Alex. The chain was silver. He thought it was true silver, not stainless steel. The pendant was a single oddly shaped stone. At first glance it looked like a chip of stone off one of the automata in the arena. Alex enhanced his vision to get a closer look at the surface, which felt oddly rough under his finger tips. The surface was covered with tiny symbols. Alex didn’t recognize them.
He handed the amulet to Ellen, who was not hiding her desire to get a look.
“The chain looks like it is silver to me,” Alex said. “Maybe it is related to the room changes.”
“It could be,” Grandmother said thoughtfully.
“I don’t recognize the symbols,” Alex commented.
“They are the ones on the physical game interfaces,” Ellen reported. She was staring intently at the stone. Turning it slowly in her hand. “I think there are nine different sections, I keep losing track as I turn it,” she admitted.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“The engraving might change depending on how you hold the stone,” Grandmother commented.
“Does it really?” Ellen said, fascinated.
“Honestly, I couldn’t decide,” Grandmother admitted.
“I could show it to Do-Fa-Ti,” Ellen offered.
“I haven’t decided yet,” Grandmother responded. “I am going to experiment with it and see if I can figure anything out about it first." She didn't mention aloud that she didn't trust the jeweler.
“I want to go to the first of the selkie squares in a day or two,” Grandmother told them, changing the subject. “I think the books will be very important. I want to buy two stout benches for Sarah and her interviewee.”
“I will provide them as part of the group,” Alex said, “but you’ll have to pack them. I have a bunch of extra shelves and small display tables you can use Ellen. I can make them all available for sale with pickup at the end of the day.”
“I might want to do a couple selkie squares back to back, staying over in the gallery overnight,” Grandmother warned. “Ray-Do-So’s stack of interested settlements is rather thick, and I would like to work through them faster than we did the human squares last year. Will that work for both of you?”
“Sure,” Alex responded. “The buying frenzy at the shop has died down. After that haul I brought back from the south gallery last time, I’m set for inventory for at least a month.”
“It should be ok for Sarah and I too,” Ellen responded. “We hired Kai to run the shop for us while we are out. He’s decided he wants to stay in Home Square. He’s been using our back room as a workshop to convert all that physical glass into ingots since we got back. This way he doesn’t have to pay us rent. I think he will want a shop of his own eventually, but he is still something of an apprentice with no master.”
“We will be back here before the first Challenge day,” Grandmother stated. “I don’t think we dare miss that. I will check with Todd and Companion to see if they are good with that plan. If they are, let's head out tomorrow.”
Ellen and Alex both agreed. Alex noticed how fast ‘in a day or two’ was transformed into tomorrow. He thought Grandmother must be bored. The old woman always liked to stay active.
Grandmother found Todd in the training yards. He was sparring with the red wizard who lost in the arena. Grandmother was happy to see the woman back on her feet. Harry reported that Amanda's leg was completely regrown in five days. Amanda was armed with Todd’s spear, while Todd was defending himself with a large Speedwell knife.
Harry came over to stand beside Grandmother where she watched the fight.
“The coliseum is great motivation for cross training,” Harry commented.
“Yes,” Grandmother replied. “I think that is the point. You should try to get each of your fighters to learn at least one spell, warrior or wizard, from each of the five trees.”
“What about the sixth?” Harry asked with a wave over to another corner of the yards where Companion was demonstrating how to sing the tier six swift spell. The final casting sound, of two notes at once, was the hardest part for humans. Alex did it by humming and whistling at the same time.
“If they can manage it, all six,” Grandmother confirmed. “Don’t hold back anyone who can’t do the last one. I can’t.”
“Will do,” Harry responded.
“You said earlier Enchanter visited while we were at the Speedwell. I left her books, but I was worried she wouldn’t make any progress without someone reading them to her. When I saw her in Seagrass she seemed to have a better grasp of the spoken language than Companion. Did anyone help her when she was here?” Grandmother asked.
“Oh yeah, we all helped her,” Harry responded. “She is a sweet lady, it’s hard to say no to her. I read her books to her several times myself. I told her a couple children stories my Ma told me too. I think Tina might have written them down for her.”
“Tina?” Grandmother questioned. She was fairly certain she didn’t know a Tina.
“The butcher,” Harry responded. “Everyone calls her Tiny but her real name is Tina.” The butcher was called Tiny? Grandmother thought with some alarm. She decided she better just let that one go.
“Well I want to thank you, Tina and anyone else who helped,” Grandmother said.
“We did it because we like Enchanter,” Harry responded. “I accept your thanks but I don’t need anything for it.” They also did it because Harry knew Enchanter learning their language was important to Grandmother. He spread the word around. The square helped the selkie as much as they could as a way to support Grandmother.
When Amanda was too tired to continue, she returned Todd’s spear to him, before thanking him for the match. Todd gave her a few words of encouragement before heading over to join Harry and Grandmother. Two new fighters squared off against each other behind him.
“Were you looking for me?” Todd asked.
“I’m thinking of starting the selkie squares,” Grandmother explained. Todd listened to her plan to do several back to back, starting tomorrow. Todd readily agreed.
“How are you planning on getting to the new squares?” Harry asked.
“I’ll pay Me-So-Ray to send us all to each square. Hopefully we’ll be able to touch the crystals and open the path to us so we don’t have to pay the fee again. I remember you said their transport fee scale means the cost goes up with tier. I'm not looking forward to finding out how much it is going to cost me.”
“Actually,” Harry said, “I asked and was told tier four and above are usually passed through without charge, they just need to pay the travel costs. I got the hint that you should give them the silver a tier three would pay, but it’s more of a thank you than a fee. I also learned that you should always travel as close to the square you want to go to on your own map, because if the portal keeper hasn’t been to a destination themselves in a long time, the travel costs can be high.”
“That’s good to know,” Grandmother responded. “It also confirms why the travel costs to the squares on my map varied so much.” Grandmother wondered how Harry managed to get that much information from the selkie travelers. Harry was pretty good at hearing selkie but he didn't speak it any better than she did. Grandmother decided he must be even better at hand waving than her.
Companion saw them all standing together and left his group of students to check in with them. Companion agreed to Grandmother's plan readily. He was excited that he would get to visit other selkie settlements. Then he said something that took Grandmother by surprise.
“Enchanter wants to come. She is thinking of taking a new apprentice and wants to look over the prospects,” Companion announced. Arriving with a master enchanter would do great things for their reputation. Grandmother would have to keep a close eye on the selkie. If anything happened to Enchanter all the gains they made with the selkie would be lost, and they would be back to war.
“Alright,” Grandmother agreed. Nothing was ever gained without risk. “I was thinking of going back to the Gallery at night. If Enchanter wants to travel with us perhaps we should just get rooms at the inn in Seagrass and base ourselves out of there.”
“If there is an apartment available we could rent it for the season,” Todd suggested. “It would give us space for storage and to do our own cooking.”
“Enchanter’s floor is mostly empty. That is why she chose it,” Companion offered.
“If we’re going to set up camp in Seagrass, I’d like a day to pack some cooking gear,” Todd replied.
“Alright, we’ll leave the day after tomorrow. I’ll just need to update the others,” Grandmother said.
“How long will you be gone?” Harry asked.
“I’m committed to being here for the first Challenge day,” Grandmother responded. “I suspect we will be back before then. Let's call it two weeks for this first trial run.”