It was finally time to meet with the commissioner for the new mithryl blade I'd be making.
In the morning I spent more time with Mama, making sure that I got to spend as much time with her as I could. Just another month or two, and she'd be having my little sister, so I wanted to make sure her attention wasn't gonna be split when that happened.
Back to business, I met with Mr. Darius in the forge, just a little bit before the meeting with our client.
"You ready for today, Amara? She'll be here any minute."
"Yeah, as ready as I can be. Let's do this right." I was jittering with anticipation and anxiety.
Soon afterwards, a beautiful woman who looked to be around the same age as my mother, or a little younger walked into the shop with a girl around my age trailing behind her.
"Hello there, [Forgemaster] Darius?" The older one walked in confidently.
"That'd be me. Are you the one who commissioned mithryl sword?" He replied quickly.
"I commissioned it, but it's not for me. It's for my daughter here. I'm Irina Goldenrod, and my daughter is Ciara. She's an adventurer's apprentice, and as a family with the money to do so, we wanted a sword worthy of her talent. I'm glad we found one so quickly."
"It's a pleasure to hear the praise. We'll need some time with your daughter to make sure the sword is perfectly designed for her. My apprentice here will be doing all that, so why don't we go back to the waiting room and talk a bit." Mr. Darius led us back to the customer meeting room.
"Alright Amara, go to the back and get to know your little client there. I'll talk with Mrs. Goldenrod for a bit and settle fully on a price for the work." He shooed me away with this Ciara girl, and we went to the back.
"Alright, so I'm gonna need to make some measurements, then I'll ask you a few questions. The better I get to know you, the better your sword will turn out. Got it?" I glanced over at her, waiting for an answer.
"It's no problem, I guess." She had a very quiet voice. It was almost hard to tell if she responded at all.
"First thing, the measurements. Stand there with your arms out, and stay there till I tell you otherwise." She did as I said. "Good. Let's get to it then."
As I measured her, I noticed she was almost the same size as me, maybe an inch in any measurement difference.
"So, how old are you Ciara?"
"I'm eleven coming up this month." She replied
"Oh, cool. Mine's in four months. So you're probably a few levels higher than me, being an adventurer, right?."
"Ah, I'm not sure. I get less experience than a normal hunter, and It's cut from bring an apprentice as well. I haven't managed to get over the bump to level seven yet. The monsters don't give enough experience for that. I'm about halfway there though." She blushed a little, seemingly embarrassed by her 'slow' progress.
"Ah, I'm just at the beginning of level 6, myself. It seems like your profession is a bit more lenient than mine. I can't gain any extra experience for anything deemed 'apprentice's work'. I've only actually gained experience from one thing I've made so far. Crazy right." I tried to make small talk, while also getting to know her better.
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"That doesn't make much sense. If you're already level 6, you must have gotten an extraordinary amount of experience from the one thing you did make. In that case, your job would give you a lot every time you made something, right?" She was confused, but clearly argued her point well.
"Ah, well. I only got as much as I did because it was something incredible I made, and was the first time I used the metal I did. It's probably not repeatable. But you can always get experience, even as an apprentice doing work. That's pretty cool." I tried to play it off, but I know I messed up a bit by mentioning it.
"Well, I guess so. I do like what I'm doing, so far, but it can get kinda scary sometimes. I bet it's peaceful doing this job." She looked at me with an expectant gaze.
"Well, if all I did was smithing, it would probably be pretty peaceful, but I'm learning magic too, and that has had a lot of disastrous consequences. One of my aspects is fire, if that clues you in on how it can be." I tried to joke around a bit with her. Talking like this was pretty comfortable, and I wanted to keep going as long as I could.
"Oh yeah, my aspects are mostly harmless. Water, air and dark. Nothing that can cause catastrophes so easily as fire can. But I still managed to make a mess of things when I first awakened my magic. Air and water mana mixing together with dark mana causes some nasty storms if there's too much. I nearly flooded one of our town's fields that night." She giggled, seeming to remember that day.
I blushed, as her laugh was really cute, and now that I wasn't measuring her anymore, I noticed that she was pretty cute as well. Silky looking deep blue hair, sparkling turquoise eyes, and freckles across her cheeks. She was incredibly cute, and I got a bit lost in her eyes for a minute.
"Hello? Amara? You still there?" She waved her hand in front of my face, and the rest of my face burned red hot as my cheeks were. Overcome with embarrassment, I tried to cough and shift the focus back to her work. "So, your mother said you need a sword that fits your talent, and the one you went with was a special mithryl one? Why is that?" I think it was a pretty smooth transition.
"Well, Mom said I probably shouldn't tell anyone exactly how strong I am, but I feel like I can trust you for some reason. Well, I gained a bit of strength more than the rest of the kids around me. My stats are also getting pretty high without me using the points I get each level. Mom says it's not normal for kids to develop like this, so nobody else knows yet." She was looking around the room, and as she finished, her eyes landed back on me. "So please, for my sake, don't tell anyone else."
"Of course not. It's actually the same for me, though. That's why I'm already level 6." I gave her a short hug. "And thank you for trusting me with this. It may even make the sword I'm forging for you turn out better."
"Oh, it's not problem at all."
"Wait. The sword you're forging? Not your master?" She was suddenly very confused.
"Yup, remember that item I told you I made that is the only thing to have given me experience?" I smiled and winked at her, with a finger over my lips. "But don't tell anyone. It's just as secret as the rest of the stuff we've said."
She suddenly blushed again. "Of course not. I would never sell out a friend like that." She sheepishly looked to the side.
"Oh, are we friends now? How long will you be staying in town? We should hang out together sometime!" I grabbed her hands and shook them a bit.
I could feel small calluses on her hands from what I assume was her last sword. The rest of her hands were very soft, and I don't know why, but I didnt want to let go.
"Um, is something wrong?" Her voice snapped me out of my stupor.
"Oh! Uh, sorry." I let go of her hands. "Um, for the rest of the time we have, could you tell me about things you like? Like types of flowers, or something? I need ideas for the design. I want it to be perfect. Suited to you exactly."
"Oh, things I like? Well, I guess I like lavender the most. And, well, you're basically my first real friend. Is there a way to have you represented in the design?" She looked straight into my eyes, her gaze clear and strong.
"If that's what you want, I'd love to do that." Something felt right about designing it that way, and if I learned anything it was to follow my gut at times like this.
We talked a little longer, then she grabbed my hand and took me back outside to Mr. Darius and her mom. They looked over at us, hand in hand, and both laughed a little. We both blushed at this, but I didn't let go anyways.
"You know what Ciara? Why don't you go around town with little Amara here. [Forgemaster] Darius and I have come to an agreement on the price, and now we're going to go have a drink to finalize everything. I hope you have fun together." She winked at us, and we headed out of the forge, with a small smile on my face.