"Yes!" Aleyn cheered.

Going from only completing one of her partial enchantments she had finally finished her second part of the whole enchant after it drove her to madness and eventually being kicked out of the workshop. After reproducing the drawing a few times she was sure of it, the curse was lifted.

Her accomplishments weren't that grand in the end though as Kyrtaar and the other workers had progressed quite far themselves. Some had started with the easier enchantments even after Camedyrs advice and were working on new ones at impressive speed. But she didn't mind since it wasn't a competition. If anything worrying over something like that would be detrimental to her own progression.

Speaking of progression looking back at it now her magic control and capacity had improved by huge steps compared to what they used to be. When training with Nancy the amount of magic she could store was quite small compared to what she needed to exert in her work which meant that there was a definite improvement and being able to complete even a portion of an enchantment which in most cases lacked symmetry meant  her control has to have gotten better as well.

Realizing this Aleyn was quite motivated to keep going for the rest of the day.

Old houses and new houses. Aleyns work had come to an end and she was walking through the southeast part of the city absent-mindedly. The whole day had been very fruitful for her and future of enchanting didn't look grim anymore.

Her train of thought was interrupted by something she had been confused over before. Sadly it didn't bring her many good memories. An old house with two ram heads on the sides of the front door and an alley way which forked in the distance. The very place where she had saved Thess.

The old house this time appeared quite a lot bigger than she remembered, but that was probably because she had been slightly intoxicated last time she was here. Still, it was an unusual size house compared to the rest. Though what drew her to it was mostly that it was the most simple and uncharacteristic house amongst the other ones.

"It was used to store cattle, that's why it looks like that."

She had been too in thought to even notice the passerby's who occasionally gave an odd look at the dwarf girl who just stared at a building quietly.

But this voice was quite familiar even if she had barely talked with the person them self. Aleyn took her eyes off of the building and turned towards the person.

The young dragonkin Stevarth stood next to her looking at the building with her.

"Sorry, I just saw you staring at it for a while and thought you were wondering about it."

"Is that so? No luxury spent on animals huh." Aleyn replied.

"Well, back then they had hard enough time living luxuriously themselves I'd imagine."

"Suppose so." Aleyn sighed.

They stood there for a minute or so before Stevarth broke the silence.

"Did I see you in Kharis's Inn yesterday?" he asked, very unsure of himself.

"Yes, that was me."

Another silence followed which was promptly broken by him again.

"Do you know whats going on?"

Like walking on thin ice, that's the feeling he gave her. Aleyn knew perfectly well, if anyone knew it would be her.

"Oh yes."

Was Stev finally going to get to the bottom of what was going on?

"It's not my place to tell you though." Aleyn followed up.

Not quite. Stev dropped his shoulders in frustration.

"Good day Stevarth." She said as she walked away.

There was no point staying to tease the boy as it was very clear what he was after and it was definitely not her place to share anything no matter how good of a friend he was to Thess.

She didn't get too far before Stevarth stopped her.

"Wait!"

Aleyn decided to humor him and turned around. Stevarth was still standing in front of that old cattle house and not facing her.

"Could you try and relay a message to Thessalia? The short blond elf girl at the inn."

Putting two and two together she figured out he was using Thess's full name.

"Depends what you want to say."

He turned his head towards Aleyn and you could see the sadness in his eyes. It was as though he was carrying a heavy burden.

"Could you tell her I want to hear from her? After seeing her like that I worry deeply."

It wasn't anything out of line. A very sincere message she felt.

"I'll let her know."

Door opens and Aleyn walks in to the inn. It's quite late so there's no one around the reception area as per usual.

As she was about to go to her room someone called out to her just as she was about to leave to her room.

"Hey Aleyn."

Turning back from the corridor and back to the reception area she noticed Thess peaking from her room.

"What's up Thess?"

"Umm, you're good with fixing things right?"

"Not particularly."

Thess's hopeful smile turned to a small frown as her eyes faced the floor in front of her.

"Why? You broke something?" Aleyn asked.

Thess snapped back to look at Aleyn.

"Ummm.. Yeah.. I made an oopsie." Thess answered awkwardly as she scratched her head in embarrassment.

"If it isn't too complicated I can always have a go."

"Umm..."

A plank with a huge crack in the middle of  it laid on the floor next to a wall inside her room. Aleyn picked it up and had a look at it.

"What's this suppose to be?"

Just a plank of wood? Repairing something like that seemed unnecessary as she could just get a new one without any issues.

"I put too much weight on the shelf up there and it came crashing down."

Looking a bit higher on the wall there were two pieces of wood nailed to the wall. Aleyn moved a chair under them and took the knife she carried on her belt to remove them.

With all the pieces together she had a better picture of what she was looking at. A wooden shelf made of three pieces of wood with the two handles that were nailed to the platform and afterwards nailed to the wall.

"I can't really fix this but I doubt it would be hard to make a new and better one."

"Really?" Thess asked.

"Yeh. You guys have some spare planks anywhere?"

"Dad has a wood shed at the back of the house."

"Best place as any to find some I suppose."

Aleyn piled the pieces and brought them a long on her search for planks.

The shed was filled with wooden logs ready for hacking but it was just a tad too bothersome to make the planks themselves so she ignored them and as she shuffled through the pile she found it.

A lone plank which was about her size and in good condition. She put the old broken shelf pieces next to the new plank to compare and was pleasantly surprised to see she had enough to make it work.

An hour or so later she was done with the work. With the assistance of Kharis's shed tools her sawing had been pleasantly smooth and trouble free. Now with her five pieces of different size planks she was ready to assemble.

The idea was that rather than just having the three pieces where a plank was attached to the bottom of two handles which were nailed to the wall she would use two more to make sure the platform wouldn't bend under weight easily.

The only thing she now needed to do was assemble the pieces but that's when the only problem occurred, there were no nails anywhere in the shed.

With no idea what to do she picked up the parts and decided to bring em to Thess's room for now.

"You did all that?"

Thess asked as Aleyn entered the room with the pile of parts. She was currently sitting on her bed.

"It wasn't too complicated since your father has a nice set of tools there." Aleyn replied proudly while piling them in a corner.

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"Though there were no nails or anything similar. Where do you guys keep that stuff?" Aleyn asked.

Thess tried remembering but ultimately she had no clue.

"It's gonna have to wait until tomorrow then. I can pick up some nails from the workshop or make them if it comes to that."

"You can make nails?" Thess said with surprise.

She was quite happily ignorant of such things so just saying you could make them made her quite impressed.

"It's something blacksmiths start their learning with."

Even if it was something simple Thess still showed that she was very impressed as her eyes glimmered and her mouth curled in to a smile.

"Wow."

"Guess this will have to wait until tomorrow then."

Aleyn was about to leave when she remembered something from earlier.

"Oh by the way."

"Hmmm?" Thess questioned.

"I met with Stev earlier."

Maybe she shouldn't have said that. The moment she did Thess's demeanor turned upside down.

"Oh..."

"He said he wants to hear from you, he is worried about you."

Thess just sat on her bed with a sad expression as she stared down at the floor. Aleyn after realizing the mood change decided to just leave the girl with her thoughts and retired to her own room.

The next morning as she was about to leave the inn. She was stopped before she even set both of her feet out the door.

"Aleyn!"

The familiar yell of Thess came from behind her. It took her by surprise as usually she was the only one awake at this hour. She took a quick look behind her and noticed Thess peeking from her room again.

"You're up early."

It was meant as a half joke but as she approached her Aleyn noticed how Thess was. She had large dark rings under her eyes and her eyes them self looked like they had not had a wink of rest since yesterday.

"You don't look so good..."

Thess tried fixing her posture quickly and bringing an awkward smile on her face.

"Ah hehe.. I'm just not a morning person."

"So what's up then?" Aleyn asked.

"Umm... If you're going near the south entrance could you deliver this to Stev?"

She moved her hand from behind the door to in front of Aleyn, in her hand she held a sealed letter.

"What's this?"

Thess showed an awkward expression as she slightly squirmed in place.

"Well.. I thought since I told him to stay away and he wants to talk to me. I could write him a letter."

"And you want me to deliver the letter? Why not Adel or maybe your mother?

It seemed like a perfect job her sister in fact. Why would she choose someone other than her family for such a personal task?

Thess went from half asleep and having issues on concentrating to looking at Aleyn straight in the eyes with a very serious expression.

"I don't want them to know."

Aleyns heart skipped a beat as Thess's change of mood caught her off guard.

"But you know.. It's not my job to deliver your mail. What if I just trash it or open it." She gave a mischievous grin.

"You wouldn't do that. We've lived together only for a week or so but I can already tell I can trust you with something like this and you wouldn't betray my trust." Thess smiled in a tired way.

Aleyn thought for a moment. It was nice being trusted  but the task still felt too personal for her to do even if it was just delivering a letter, she looked at Thess and her half tired and sad face.

"You'll owe me for this."

Thess smiled and handed the letter to her.

"That's fine."

It wasn't hard to navigate to Stevs residence with Thess's instructions. In fact it was quite a familiar house to Aleyn.

"Oh so he is his father, I see."

She was standing in front of  Brevurths house who had payed him very nicely for the cleaning job. Recalling back Brevurth had mentioned he lived with his son and going by how rare of a race the dragonkins were it wasn't too far fetched that she had met the only two in all of Dvalfgar.

Aleyn was about to go knock on the door but before she could she was distracted by a sound that echoed around the house.

"Chop..... Chop.....Chop...."

The sound seemed to be coming from behind the house. Her curiosity aroused she abandoned the knocking plan immediately.

Behind the house Stev was chopping wood and a bit further away you could see Brevurth sitting on the ground as he worked on a parchment with his paint brush. Having found the person she was looking for Aleyn started digging pockets while she approached  Stev.

Noticing the dwarf, Stev gave a quizzical look but continued working on the firewood.

"Cold night ahead?" Aleyn asked.

"You could say that." Stev grunted as his axe came down.

"What do you want?" He followed up.

"Oh nothing. Just thought I'd come and deliver Thess's letter since she really wanted me to. Though you don't seem too interes.."

With a quick sweep of his hand he had already taken the letter from Aleyns hand before she could even finish her sarcastic comment. His enthusiasm wasn't that surprising but the fact that he closed a five meter distance in a blink of an eye was.

Well with her delivery done she was free again to continue her morning ritual.

Or was she?

"Wait!"

She was about to leave but was stopped by Stev. Aleyn turned back towards him.

"Problem?"

"Yes. I was thinking I need to write a letter back, but I can't really deliver it to her. I guess you can see where this is going."

"Don't wanna." Aleyn stated.

"But she wrote right here that you would do it.."

Stev folded the paper and pointed. She had indeed written that even though it wasn't part of the deal.

Aleyn slightly frustrated blurted out as she stared upwards.

"That wasn't part of the deal..."

"Could you though?" Stev stuttered.

The boy was full of worry and questions which weren't answered by Thess's letter, you could see it in his eyes quite clearly. Still, why did it suddenly become her job to be their personal mailman.

Aleyn took a deep breath and sighed.

"Fine fine. Once I'm done with my morning run I'll come back here. You better not keep me waiting."

Stev sighed in relief.

"Thank you miss..."

She was about to say her name but was beaten to it.

"Aleyn." Brevurth shouted.

The old man had been quiet for the whole ordeal up until now yet was very clearly listening in.

"Miss Aleyn"

Stev said but quickly realized something was off since she wasn't the one to say her own name. He turned his head towards his father and gave a confused look.

"Hey old man." Aleyn yelled.

Brevurth just waved her off without taking his eyes from his painting.

"You two met before?" Stev asked.

"Sshe cleaned the housse." Brevurth said loudly.

Stev jerked back at his father.

"You hired someone to clean the house again?! I fucking told you I would do it and besides there's no reason you couldn't do it yourself!."

Brevurth showed how much he cared by making a hand puppet to mimic his speech. Aleyn couldn't help giggling at the scene.

Stev now the one frustrated gave a deep sigh at his fathers action as he turned back to face Aleyn.

"How much did he give you?"

"You don't wanna know."

Stev was about to reply but quickly accepted that it was probably better not to know and dropped his shoulders in defeat.

"Don't waste too much time." Aleyn said and took off.