"Ah, there you are, Pan; what happened to you? You look like shit," Old hag Baba calls me out on my bad looks right after I return to her shop with the things we needed to start the day, which, of course, pissed me off just a little.
"I got assaulted by some goblins; luckily for me, Okina found me before I got raped," I respond to Baba's question, which immediately makes her worried, which was not the reaction I expected from her at all, like what had gotten into her lately!?
"Oh, those pieces of shit! Where is their nest!? I'll destroy it myself! Those goblins must pay!" Lady Baba says, all while casually touching my cheekbones and my neck once in a while, which made me so uncomfortable I felt like I could pass out of cringe and embarrassment. Baba wasn't seriously thinking about me that way, right?
"It's alright. Okina didn't let a single one live, but more importantly, haven't you been touching me too much lately?" I told Baba what I thought about her recent antics, but the response was nothing like what I would've expected. Instead, I got her even closer to my face with a crazy look on her face.
"What do you mean, sweetie? Don't you like when momma Baba does this to you?" Baba suddenly grabs my butt while she hugs me close to her, giving me nothing but goosebumps as my mind keeps filling up with images of an old naked lady next to me, and it's awful! AWFUL, I TELL YOU! OH BABY JESUS!
I know I said I would love to relieve some of my male needs with one of the forest's witches, but I did not mean it in the sense that any of them would do! The simple thought of a naked old lady is enough to make one faint; luckily for me, I've learned to suppress those feelings a little better.
{Knock, knock}
Luckily, a knock at the shop's door saved me as it forced Baba to see who it was and what they wanted or needed to be made, as was often the case when someone came to the shop. "We are still closed; if you wish to get something made, please come a little later, alright?" Baba says while walking toward the door, just to get a strange response.
"I'm one of the Queen's shadows; we are looking for your apprentice, the elf girl." The voice says with so much authority it shakes even Baba down, who quickly runs toward the door to open it so the 'shadow' can enter the shop, where she immediately recognizes me.
"Oh, sorry about my bad manners! I didn't know it was one of you! Please, come in! Come in! My apprentice is right there by the workbench! What business does the Queen have with them, if I may know?" Baba asks the lady who carefully inspects me before putting her hand over my head, accompanied by a silent 'appraisal.'
"I'm afraid I can't tell you. As for you, we are going to see Her Majesty right now; I'll bring you back soon. Open gate." The shady shadow lady simply puts her hand over my head again and quickly makes the entire place change. In what felt like the blink of an eye, we were already at the door of the Witch Queen's room.
"What the!? What was that?" I say to myself that I didn't really expect the shadow to respond, and to no one's surprise, she stays silent the whole time, even when she walks forward to knock on the office door. Talk about a shady military force, am I right?
"Come in; I've been waiting for you," Another voice inside the room responds at the shadow's knocking, which lets the shady lady just shove me inside the room without telling me why I was there or anything at all, it all made me feel like the mob had kidnapped me not going to lie.
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{Gnossienne: No. 1 (Arr. for Viola and Harp)}
"Don't be shy, come on! Sit down and have some tea and pastries with me, little boy." The Witch Queen says that all casually, like she knew of my identity all along, and yet she was not angry or at least did not look like it so far. In any case, being tense would help no one, so I do as she says for now.
"Why did you wish to see me, Your Majesty? Did I do something I wasn't supposed to?" I try to stay calm and relax while I carefully sit down to finally get some of the pastries on the Queen's office table near her desk to the left of her.
"Oh? No, nothing like that. I just wanted to check on your progress and well-being; my friend Focalor entrusted me with your well-being, so I'm just checking up on you. Everything alright so far?" The Queen says that so casually I cannot take it any other way, but at face value, I mean, Mother did say the Witch Queen and her were kind of like friends, so why wouldn't I believe the Queen?
"Okay? I mean! Everything is going well, your excellency. I don't know how well my stats compare to those of a human blacksmith, but so far, Baba has entrusted me with some important forgeries and artifact crafting!" I say to the Witch Queen, followed by a big swallow of one of her delicious blue muffins that kind of tasted like Dr. Peper.
"Good, good! I've heard good things about your craftsmanship and called you here. I have a special task for you, Pan." The Queen, now sitting before me, also grabs a pastry that looks like a donut and stuffs it on her face, followed by a delicate sip of hot tea.
"A task? What could I do that those shady ladies that got me here can't do? I meant no disrespect to them! They are just shady! Please don't kill me!" The Witch Queen only laughs a little when I act all apologetic after what I thought would be taken as an insult, but I guess she didn't take it that way.
"My shadows are powerful, yes, but they lack the proper power to craft things, which is where you enter the picture." The Witch Queen tells me all this while offering me some weird dark drink that reminds me of black coffee. I, of course, did not reject her offer and grabbed it right away.
"What is it you want built or crafted? I fail to see how I would be better than someone like Baba." Weirdly enough, my humble comment only gets the Witch Queen to wheeze just a little again as if saying, 'Stop acting dumb.'
"Your unique Skill is what I need from you. Haven't you noticed how nobody else can do what you can? Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about." The Witch Queen frightens me with her words; how did she know I could create weapons without needing to work the metal? I had never even told Mother about this ability, so how did she know? Or could it be something else?
"I don't quite get it; I'm sorry; which skill are you talking about?" I say to Witch Queen, who suddenly drops a bag of rare crystals, experience bottles, and some rare metals right before me on the table.
"You can forge things without needing to work them, right? Craftsmen like you come once every millennium. Of course, I would know how to recognize your power." The Queen comes out and reveals my secret like it was no big deal, but to me, that felt wrong and even a little scary since I never even showed that skill around her, so how did she know?
"Yes, I can do that, but why would that be so valuable? Crafting done this way is not as good as hand-crafted craft. It's not that good." I had to be honest with the Queen since, even to this day, my instant forge skill was still inferior to my handwork, labor-intensive weapons.
"That's because you don't raise its level, probably because you lack support, which is why I called you. For you to create what I want, I am willing to offer you as many resources as you need to raise the level of your unique skill." What had the Queen just said? I could raise the level of that niche technique I never bothered to use. How!?
"How would I even raise it's level?"
"Skills usually build up like muscle, use it almost enough to the breaking point, and it will usually go up with each level becoming harder and harder to obtain."
"Does mother know you want me to do this for you?"
"No, but she will appreciate the thing I will make you capable of crafting; you could say it's a 'fail-safe,'"