Reasoning dictated Jessica wait longer to shorten the amount of injuries. This held true when information was possible to keep secret. Plainly, misinformation. Though such a thing only became possible when Jessica controlled the information. Regardless of their easy going or free spirited streets. Dwarves were not behind, instead it could be said they were far ahead in the game of information.
Aruna wasn’t large or small. With the entire place looking to get on her uncle’s good side, it was obvious who had the most information. It wasn’t her uncle, instead, when information pertaining to something related to him. He would clearly be given this information. It was difficult to deal with, as she hadn’t even thought about the reality. Jessica was blindsided as Aruna was safe, who would hide their activities in such a place.
Without needing to know where she stayed, he was about to send Victorina. Moving in, Jessica saw Victorina behind the counter. Smiling that charming smile that made countless women who weren’t elves fall in love with him. She couldn’t help but find it appalling. Moving down the stairs, she could feel more heat. Once inside, Jessica was blasted in the face with sound and heat shock waves.
Boom. Boom! Boom. Boom!
Alternating pressure that matched, there were two distinctive sounds that mimicked each other down the sound to the heat that was released during each outburst. Uncle Beast didn’t make her wait long. Not because he didn’t want to punish her for her reckless actions, it was a dungeon so it was always dangerous. Jessica was smart enough to know injuries would slow her down, therefore, why did she still try to push herself knowing it held no benefits. Unfortunately, this was not the way to be punished.
Shortly after arriving, Jessica could feel the tightness in her chest start to calm down. Dwarves put their heart and soul into their crafts. Not just metal, any craft they fell in love with would be given their everything. Metalwork was simply one of the longest, combined with her uncle’s proficiency, it wasn’t surprising that the strikes of the hammer matched that of a heartbeat. Just from sound alone, the body would find itself memorized until once fully synchronized. He could control the heart of the listener with his hammer.
True to his nature, the metal he was walking on was her daggers. Currently, there was only one, as it hovered in midair she had to force herself to look away. It looked exotic and instilled a sense of urgency to wield said piece. Wiping off the sweat, sitting down in the chair he previously sat in. Looking at her, scoffing when she couldn’t meet his eyes.
“You have one week. If you don’t get the supplies and leave, old wrinkle ears will come and break your legs as he drags you back home.” Beast couldn’t help but sigh helplessly, “I know why you’re in such a hurry, only this isn’t the way to go about it. Told you many times, rushing like this will only produce negative side effects.” Many things were left unsaid, as he just didn’t know how to word them.
Merely nodding, Jessica turned to leave. Once she made it back upstairs, she was handed a bag. With a variety of items inside. The item was an inventory. A special item designed to mimic a spacial bag. Unlike the complicated measures and requirements to make anything with spacial magic, compression was incredibly easy in comparison. With a simple spell put onto the string used to open or close the bag. The bag only needed to be made of durable material. Once an item entered the bag it would be compressed by a spell on the string and shrink, simply taking an item out would decompress the item to a normal size.
“From uncle?”
“That old dwarf doesn’t pay me enough to buy you the bag. Though I did buy its contents, there should be enough for two!” With a wink, he sent her off.
Jessica couldn’t pinpoint the exact feeling. She wanted to be happy, and at the same time she could also understand why she was trying to curb the things she was feeling. No longer alone, even when she was alone. Being connected to someone so you felt their complicated feelings was not terribly pleasant. The more she came to know about him, the more she felt similar in nature. With a week as the deadline, she didn’t stay long, nor did she immediately leave.
Once she browsed a few shops, she got to work. Once her chair was done, she called Victorina over. He could only helplessly smile when he entered the open door. Inside he found a completed chair without anyone else inside the room. With a look of wonder, he wasn’t sure how someone with so much control over their body couldn’t control themselves. Or did she have a secret form of a seizure disorder. The chair was ugly as all hell, which was a shame as the wood he bought her was expensive and pretty.
“The poor wood…” Knowing he was an oddity of the elves it wasn’t like he didn’t have the basic trait to respect nature, if it wasn’t for the person who made the chair or who it belonged to he wanted to remove this travesty from the world and let the wood rest in pieces. Maybe even ash or charcoal…
The returning trip wasn’t eventful.
Jessica walked through the front door as the two on guard duty again ignored her. Once inside, she saw nobody was around. It wasn’t that surprising. Unlike the last time, returning this time, the sun showed it was evening. Once she made it deep into the settlement, she saw Aderyn’s mother. She didn’t say anything as the two simply nodded at each other.
Reaching into the new poach on her waist, she pulled out a large assortment of sweets. She handed them over to her mother, as it would be irresponsible to give them to Aderyn herself. Once she saw the things for her daughter, she did smile more genuine.
Entering the house, she saw the old man standing near the fireplace. Taking off the pot, he moved over to the table and poured two cups of tea. She saw there was food on the table and couldn’t help sitting down before being stared at. Jessica felt awkward as she waited to get yelled at. “Go wash your hands, what are you doing?”
After eating, everything seemed normal. She had simply expected him to know everything already. In the time Jessica took to return, her injuries had healed. The cut on her arm was still scabbed over, this didn’t affect her movement, so all she had to do was keep it covered. Once it became dark she rushed him off to bed. “It is just as important for a baby to get as much sleep as possible, the same is true once you start getting older. Now go to sleep!”
He wanted to argue but knew he would lose. If he didn’t at least go into his room, and was caught staying up late reading, he would get an earful. Moving into his room, the living room was left empty. The silence felt awkward, it wasn’t like they talked the entire time. Only this was isolated silence, if they were together the silence was different. Not letting her thoughts wander, she took out the items from her poach.
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With some experience added to her already ample amount, she started to assemble the chair. There were many ways she might increase the stability or longevity of the chair itself. It wasn’t like she didn’t know her chairs were awful. Her uncle was easy enough to understand, he had so many people kissing up to him, he could very easily get an expensive and receive the best of the best chairs. As for the old man, he had taught her how to use daggers. During that time he trained her, he had taken out his sword.
To this day, it was the most beautiful weapon she had ever seen in her life. Asking Uncle Beast, he told her it was his life's greatest masterpiece. Without much delay, he didn’t drop the smugness when he told her, “Don’t worry, I will make you a weapon as good, if not better than that in the future.”
Such a day might not even be far off. Normally, when he made her weapons, he didn’t do anything special. They were simple, it was counterintuitive to make anything super fancy. She was too weak to keep them. Jessica was also not a fan of attention, therefore she was slightly startled when she saw the weapon he was working on. The dagger was similar to the old man’s sword.
Thinking back to when the old man first drew the weapon. His back seemed straighter and his features seemed to grow more defined. The aura she felt when he drew the weapon for the first time was also the first time she felt fear of the old man. It was completely subconscious, he wasn’t doing anything other than drawing the blade. Jessica couldn’t help it, the old man created distance between them without moving a single step. Ostensibly showing that the old man who she knew wasn’t simple was far more special than she had ever imagined.
Having delved into her past, she had tried on numerous occasions to understand how she came to be here. Once she even had the idea of finding her parents, still the old man stopped her immediately. He had no issues with her seeking out her parents, she just wasn’t allowed to take her daggers or any other weapons with her. As for digging into his past, she had done the same. Like a ghost, all she knew was that he used to be someone of status in the Elven Forest. He kept a large amount of information hidden and compiled snippets that answered her questions without giving her enough to dig out the reality without having to go to Elven Forest personally.
Each probe was eventually met with the gentlest of smiles, “My past is my past, if you want to know I will tell you. But all that matters to me now, is now. Because that is where you are.”
Simply three spoken sentences would cut off any attempt to probe deeper. There was one small thing she had noticed growing up. While they seemed to isolate them. The settlement never tried to kick them out. Originally, Jessica believed this to be because the old man was a doctor. This however didn’t make the fact that the oldest generation seemed to look at him with veneration any less strange. Not normal veneration but cult leader level veneration. Though, cults were not accepted in the north or south. When reading it in books, she believed the expression she saw on their faces matched.
A deep inhale before exhaling, she inspected her work with a bit of pride. From the very first chair she made, this one was massively better. Seeing the expression on the boy’s face, she could only scrunch up her brows and have her chest deflate as she returned to her room. Trying to keep a straight face, he didn’t make fun of her. In the effort of that, the convulsing face muscles gave away how he was feeling without needing to feel it from the connection.
The next day started in joy but was destined to end in less than manner. Starting off, she woke up tired. Having agreed, she kept her word. In an experiment to fix the second rune, she supplied mana to the boy before going to bed. The experiment failed, in the end she still wasn’t able to recover completely naturally. Hearing the knock, she gave up meditating as she sat down with bags under her eyes.
Bringing a smile to her face was the missing chair in the middle of the room. Instead, she could see the old man was using it. The old one was likely moved into his room instead of being disposed of like it needed to be. Moving forward, it would be dealt with later. At the moment, she just wanted to eat. Seemingly ignoring her bags, the two ate comfortably before there was an unexpected event.
When all was said and done, the old man reached out his hands, “Let me see it.”
Startled for a second, she quickly understood. Going back into her room, she brought out the bag Uncle Beast had given her. Seeing this, the old man tilted his hand as the bag fell to the table, before he frowned at her. With a large burst of mana she felt the mana enter her room through the open door before something flew through the air. In the next second there was a simple and ugly looking dagger in his hands.
Her heart quickly skipped a beat before calming down. Having failed, she left the dagger out for the boy. She was tired and didn’t bother taking it back, as the boy would continue to scour over the memory slip to find the mistakes in the rune when he recovered. Using her mana as a substitute, he wouldn’t need to enter a deep sleep. Having already come up with an excuse, “I found that in a ruin I visited, after the last time I came back. I meant to ask you to take a look. I found it interesting and kept it with me. Though it doesn’t appear to be as special as I thought it was.”
A smile appeared with a mocking undertone. It wasn’t very strong, almost asking her if she expected him to believe it. Looking her in the eyes, she couldn’t keep her gaze straight as she had to unconsciously look down at the table. Feeling a large burst of mana she couldn’t help gasp as she thought he was trying to destroy the sword. The mana didn’t concentrate on the blade. Instead, it moved over the entity that was next to her.
Very quickly, she could feel the surprise turn to wonder and swirl into chaos. The two seemed to be communicating, only she couldn’t tell what the mana was saying. Only bits and pieces of what the boy said made it to her. Finally, the old man laughed hearty before infusing a large amount of mana into his finger. It felt cold, causing her to shiver slightly, the finger wasn’t pointed at the blade or the boy but her.
Having experienced this before, she once fell in love with a noble who came to meet the old man. Being young, she didn’t understand the noble was using her and didn’t like her back. When the old man suddenly did this action, the nobleman pissed himself as he ran away scared. She didn’t have a hand in it, but he never made it back. This was a way for the old man to test someone. While it might be cruel, it was a very good way of showing her the true nature of someone supposedly close to her.
Before she could interrupt the conversation, there was a sudden change. Neither her nor the old man could have possibly expected it, one of the pieces she heard communicated was a laugh following a crazy outburst, “My old world was filled with games, if you want to play with me. We should up the bet! Hahahahahahaaaaha!”
The outburst was fueled by the madness and insanity from the core inside the seal. She couldn’t feel anything as it threatened to break the seal, as she feared the emotions might not be stopped by the seal this time. Without being able to focus on this, the outburst was followed by a large influx of mana that became visible to the naked ear. Starting off as waves of air that were smashed together until the thickness caused the air to look hazy. Finally, a thin mist appeared as the size compressed to the size of a large ball. This took place in a matter of a second before the two hands holding the ball released it and a huge explosion followed.
Unbeknownst to her, the blade in the old man’s hand cracked from the handle to the tip. It was really a question of how the blade was still being held together. The blade now was split cleanly in half. All Jessica could do was fall to her knees as there was a huge rumble as her legs gave out. She was panicking as the explosion blasted the area where the old man was. Before the panic could reach its highest, she felt a gentle soothing feeling reach her from her arm as if telling her it was okay. Soon the feeling disappeared as she could no longer feel anything inside the seal.