Staggering, Xander left the Miner Woes, what was meant to be three drinks had somehow become many more. Switching the neural pad on he slowly made his way towards Mrs. Walton's stumbling and swaying as he did.

Rounding a corner he thought was close to the restaurant Xander collided with someone and fell backwards, before his head hit the floor an armoured fist closed round his shoulder and yanked him back to his feet. The shock having helped sober him up, Xander examined the figure before him, a heavily armoured gnome with a cog headed mace on his belt, his armour though marked and dented was clearly more ornately made than the flashy armour worn by Lord Bevelgear's guards, which Xander noted was even more intriguing as it lacked any visible runes, finally looking at the gnomes face Xander took a step back as his eyes met the scowl that was aimed at him.

"Are you Count Xendrix?"

Still somewhat unsteady Xander did his best to respond as he gave a wobbly bow.

"Indeed I am, who might you be?...ah I apologise for bumping into you, it was entirely my fault and..."

Feeling the gnome glare at him, Xander winced and fell silent.

"Call me Fulcrum, Captain Fulcrum of the Gearhold Guards, and you will be coming with me."

Feeling like he was a child being told off by his dad and with his thoughts still addled by the alcohol Xander meekly nodded and followed as Captain Fulcrum turned and started walking down the corridor.

As they walked Xander tried to think of something to say to ease the tension, but the air of annoyance that shrouded Captain Fulcrum left him stumped, after they had been walking for a while he was lead into a large messy training room and Fulcrum pointed to a barrel of water in the corner.

"Wake yourself up and grab a weapon."

Extremely confused Xander splashed his face and blinked rapidly as his brain started to work again. Looking over the weapons scattered across the room and grabbed a dull rapier trying to remember what he'd learnt about fencing as a child, this was why he used his drones for direct combat, a smirk crossed his face as he remembered something.

"Would I be allowed to use some of my own equipment?"

Fulcrum chuckled.

"Sure, if you have it on you."

Reaching in to a pocket Xander pulled out two metal orbs and dropped them, as they fell towards the ground they opened up into a pair of saucer shaped drones with four arms that ended in small softly glowing discs. Fulcrum eyed the drones suspiciously.

"Nothing lethal, you hear me."

"Don't worry, they're purely defensive."

With a nod Fulcrum walked over to a large two-handed warhammer, removed the mace from his belt, placed it to one side and effortlessly lifted the hammer. Xander gave a nervous chuckle.

"Uh, the mace would be more than enough don't you think?"

"If you're using some runic contraptions then I can use my favourite weapon to even it out, now get ready."

With a grin he pointed at a spot across from him self. Xander walked over and shifted into an amateurish fencing pose as the drones floated lazily on either side.

"You should know, these aren't runic, but anyway, I'm ready."

For a moment Fulcrum looked suprised, before shaking his head and charging forward, one of the drones floats into the warhammers path as it brought the glowing panels up just in time for the weapon to be deflected with a flash of light.

Before Xander could react the hammer was already heading towards his legs, as the other drone intercepted Xander took a step back and tried to think of something he could do.

After what felt like hours but was at most a couple of minutes Xander took a deep breath and focused, using the neural sensor to take direct control of one of the drones, as the hammer slammed into the drones barrier he had the drone float backwards as if failing to stop the hammer, with no time to check if his trick had worked Xander stepped forward and thrust his rapier towards Fulcrum before finding himself flat on his back with the gnome looking down at him.

"You didn't think that was a good ploy right?"

His head spinning Xander gave a lopsided grin.

"It ended the fight and I'm still consious, that's a win in my book."

Fulcrum blinked, before offering a hand.

"You end up like this a lot then?"

"More than I'd like but less than you'd expect."

Xander took the offered hand and winced as he was yanked to his feet, dusting himself off he recalled the drones and returned them to his pocket as the gnome watched.

"So if they aren't runic what are they?"

"The drones? Just a couple of gizmos I created."

"Really? Well lucky for me you only have the two of them or I might've been in trouble."

Xander laughed wryly and shock his head.

"I doubt it, fighting isn't really my forte. If I may ask why did we have to fight?"

"I had to miss my dinner to find you."

He gave what Xander hoped was a joking glare.

"I mean I wasn't that lost, I'd have found my way back eventually."

"I'm sure you would've but I wasn't gonna argue with Mrs. Walton, her cooking is the highlight of my week."

"Fair. I should probably go let them know I'm alright then."

Xander turned to leave only for Fulcrum to call after him.

"With how late it is I'd wait till the morning."

With a quick nod Xander left.

As he walked through the door to the Socketed Pinion Xander found himself face to face with an annoyed Maisie.

"And where have you been?"

“Just getting a few things done, I would have been back sooner but...”

Xander trailed off as Maisie gave him an incredulous look.

“Because it's totally normal to run away from something you asked for just to get a few things done.”

Sighing Xander showed her the book he'd bought.

“If you must know I bought this from the market before finding someone to work on clearing a way to the gizmology chambers.”

Maisie glanced at the book before replying.

“So who did you find?”

“Scaff, he seemed rather happy for the work, but he wouldn't let me leave till we'd had a few to many drinks.”

“Yeah, that'd explain what took you so long.

Maisie smirked at him before continuing.

“In that case I'll let you get to bed, but I'll have plenty of homework for you to catch up, can't have the kids out learning their teacher.”

“That would be a problem, thank you Maisie. I'll see you in the morning then.”

As she left Maisie looked back.

“See you in the morning Xan.”