“The History of Windglen” was a bit verbose. The first 20 pages weren’t history at all, but a sort of auto-biography of the writer and how he came to Windglen. He claimed the previous edition of these records was “biased” and had anti-monarchy undertones. After skimming some more rambling about his subpar adventures as a paladin, and skipping a chapter about the founder of the city, I got to something useful.

The “Royal Charter” was a deal made with a vendor from the following categories - catering, weapons, horses, and most importantly for me, outfitter. They were renewed every 10 years - and the incumbent had to compete against anyone invited to enter. They did however, start with an XP advantage.

The Charter Competition typically worked like so - the royal family would bring a stack of quests that fit in each category, and the first vendor to 500XP would win. Typically, this took a week, although apparently 30 years ago a baker had managed to grind to victory in only 3 days. The winner of the charter would gain access to the “Suppliers of Valor”, who sold rare materials that couldn’t be found anywhere else. They would also gain exclusivity rights to sell within the capital, whether they chose to relocate or just fulfill from afar.

I was scanning the list of winners, trying to see if any of the names sounded like they encompassed lighter and medium armors, or were more heavy blacksmiths like my competition, when a messenger bird appeared above me. I pressed the little [ACCEPT] button above it’s wing, and it dropped a scroll with golden edges right into my lap.

To: The Owner of Fanwen’s Fabled Fabrics

The Royal Family invites you and desired companions to the 32nd Royal Charter Jubilee, a celebration and kick-off party for our next round of the Charter Competition. Attendees will have the opportunity to officially enter their name for consideration, as well as receive valuable instruction on rules and regulations.

Fabulous food, drink, and entertainment provided.

Where: Emerald Garden Festival Grounds

When: The Eve Of The Summer Equinox

[ RSVP: YES | NO ]

“Desired companion, eh…” I muttered. The Summer equinox was only 3 days away. Even if I wrote to my siblings, they likely would not have not have time to move around affairs and travel up here, even though I know Alaris was always interested in a proper party.

There was simply no way I was showing up to the Jubilee alone, many other competitors likely had whole teams accompanying them. I had only just convinced the town I was not haunted, and I was a complete unknown the royal family. I had to make a strong showing.

“Maybe our pal Lithia would go with us?” I asked Rune, who was bouncing a small ball of yarn back and forth. She mewed encouragingly in response.

***

The next day, I closed up shop early and invited Lithia to come over and try on potential dresses. You couldn’t exactly enter as an outfitter in any old clothes.

“You really make all this without even looking at pattern or recipe?” Lithia asked, sounding impressed, as she watched me rummage through a fabric drawer.

“I used to, but around level 6 I found I didn’t need them anymore,” I responded, shrugging.

“Wish I could make something in my class. Well, I accidentally made a sculpture once when I missed a punch and hit a cave wall, but I don’t believe that counts,” she joked.

I laughed and pulled out my highest quality thread, which automatically bumped up the rarity level of any item it was sewed into. I was doing everything I could to upgrade a dresses for both of until they were “legendary” status. Doing so would ensure a glow around our summary cards everyone would be able to see.

Lithia had hers on, carefully standing as to not move around the pins holding the hem in place. She turned in the mirror, admiring the black satin. I had buffed it with some great strength boosters, so she could theoretically use it outside of the Jubilee if she wanted to - although I realized the style was not quite practical for adventuring.

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“This is going to blow them away,” she assured me. “The princess, Elorel , I heard she’s really into fashion. She’s not going to want to sign on a boring blacksmith, she’ll want someone with more style.”

“I hope so.”

“And besides,” she continued, “there’s no way she doesn’t see through Enos’ fake charm, his father might be able to impress those with class, but he’s always been terrible at that, you should see him talking to the mayor…”

I found myself, not for the first time, curious about something. “Why exactly do you dislike him so?” I asked. “You call him a prick, which I certainly agree with… but then also he is one of your brother’s friends and someone you travelled besides doing quests with before he became that. So, what happened?”

Lithia sighed. “Are you going to be sewing for a bit there? It’s a bit of a story.”

I nodded. “Great time for a story.” It was true, I liked a bit of background noise when I sewed. Usually, I played music.

“Well, it’s actually about the halfling. His name, it was Kaslan.”

My hands briefly left the fabric, but only for a moment. I’d never heard his name before, just “the halfling.” This should be interesting.

“It was different for him here, at first. What I mean is, he was quite successful in the beginning.” She glanced over to me quickly, seeming to realize what she was implying. “Not that you wouldn't have been if Enos hadn’t interfered!”

I laughed. “I'm not offended, keep going. I was going to write to him about all this, you’re saving me the trouble.”

She nodded. “But everyone warmed up to him quickly. It was like he was a missing piece almost. We didn’t have a lot of people crafting equipment for the shorter races, so that generated some excitement but…it was more than that.”

Her voice grew a bit quieter, almost wistful. “He was good at remembering things. People’s names, birthdays, he’d always ask you about something you mentioned casually. Like if you mentioned one day you were close to leveling up a skill, he'd ask you how it went next time he saw you. And if you hadn’t done it yet, he’d just smile and say something encouraging like ‘Well there’s always tomorrow!”

“I wish I could have met him,” I said, and I meant it. As much as I was grateful this space had opened up, it was strange almost wishing the vendor before me had succeeded after all.

“Truth is…” Lithia kept going. “We actually spent quite a lot of time together.”

Was she…blushing? I decided not to push, but my curiosity was certainly peaked.

“He got along well with my brother too, we’d all grab drinks at the Torchlight and just talk all night, until Rugan would kick us out! Enos would join us sometimes. He was a little…it seemed like he always wanted to misunderstand something Kaslan said, take it the wrong way.” She sighed. “But I didn’t see his true feelings. I wondered if I could have stopped him.”

“Can I sit down?” She asked suddenly.

“Just watch for the pins,” I replied.

Lithia did so, carefully moving the dress so she didn’t poked as she settled down. Luckily, she then went back to the story unprompted. “Anyway, so one day there was a ton of commotion over at the Brass Forge. I had just finished up a quest, so I popped in to see what was wrong. Enos’ father, he’s a nice man really, not sure where his son got it from.”

I wasn’t sure if I agreed or not, based on my overheard conversation of shady deals, but that wasn’t something I was ready to reveal quite yet.

“He was panicking, this legendary level helmet he was about to put on display, it was missing. I remembered my brother talking about some quest he had helped them out with to get the materials, it was not cheap to put together. For some reason, Enos was insisting he thought Kaslan had taken it.” She sighed.

“I didn’t believe him at first…but then I was sitting in this very room with Kaslan, telling him about it…” she sounded wistful. “And I saw it, in the corner. Peaking out.”

I gasped.

“Yes, that was about how I felt at the time.I should have taken a moment to listen to him, to ask, but I didn’t think. I ran right over to the Brass Forge. Enos and his father made a real public scene of it, walking over with the landlord and everything.”

“Did they try to get him arrested?” I asked.

She shook her head. “That was the odd part, they made a big thing of it all, but Enos insisted they should provide ‘compassion’ and that surely there was a good reason he did it, made himself look very reasonable to the crowd that had started lurking.”

“Kaslan firmly denied it. Then…they asked me to testify, right there in front of everyone. I looked him in the eye, he seemed so innocent, but I knew what I had seen, so I did it. I told them I saw it in his storage space. And even though no charges were drafted or anything, that was it. The public made up their mind. Folks barely spoke to him, let alone buy anything." She glanced over to see my reaction.

“Enos planted it there, didn’t he?” I realized.

Lithia nodded. “He admitted it to me, maybe a week after Kaslan was gone. He didn’t seem ashamed either. And that’s how I learned he was a prick. Do you think I’m awful?”

“No, of course not,” I quickly assured her. “You went off what you saw, and clearly Enos hadn’t revealed his true colors to you yet. You did what you thought was right.”

She sounded relieved. “I was a bit nervous about telling you, honestly. It seems so obvious in hindsight.”

“I appreciate you telling me. And now that I know? I’m not just doing this for me. When I enter this competition, and I win, I’m doing it for Kaslan too.”

Lithia smiled. "I like that."