Derek and Ander spent some time conversing with the priests in the Grand Forge, as the temple was known. They discussed techniques and material prices for a while before taking their leave. As they were headed to the front entrance Derek saw a familiar face. Garrett was entering the building with an older man who looked to be his father. 

As Derek saw his friend, the aged voice of the Forge God spoke to him, "This one is one of mine. You must assist him."

Hearing this alarmed Derek and he looked closer at the two men entering the temple. This time Derek noticed the trepidation on the faces of his friend and his father. They appeared to be quite anxious. Derek turned to Ander, "Grandfather, I think something is wrong with Garrett's family. Our god told me to help him."

His grandfather smiled at him before nodding, "Yes, boy. I know. I can help you but this is your quest. It will forge you into a better Disciple."

Turning to his friend who had just noticed his presence, Derek stepped forward and smiled, "Garrett, it is good to see you after so long."

His enormous friend reached over and hugged him, "Derek, I was worried you had been injured severely. There had been so much blood that night that we thought the worst. When they told us you had been taken to the Cathedral, they said it would take a few weeks for you to heal, but look at you, already all healed up. I am really happy to see you better.

"Dad, this is my friend Derek. He's the Disciple I told you about and this is his grandfather Ander, who has been teaching me. Derek, this is my dad, Calan Smith."

Derek didn't know how, but the older man was even larger than his son. He was easily seven and a half feet tall. His body was massive too, radiating an image of pure strength. Calan had a red colored beard that came halfway down his chest and a bald head tanned almost as dark as leather. The man walked over to Ander and began speaking urgently with him while Garrett turned to talk to Derek with an embarrassed look on his face.

"Derek, I am probably going to have to drop out of the Academy. Something has come up with my family. I am sorry."

Derek smiled reassuringly towards his friend. "Calm down and tell me what happened. Maybe I can help?"

The larger man just shook his head, "It's a family problem. I can't just involve you for no reason."

Derek placed his hand on Garrett's shoulder, "We are friends right? We were supposed to watch each other's backs. What problem could be so bad that I wouldn't be able to help or at least hear what is happening so I can at least be supportive?"

Garrett paused for a moment before nodding and speaking up, "My dad took a commission with the Fontana House a few months ago. It was to create twenty tier four, level five swords. Things were going well as long as we had materials on hand, but this last few months we have not been able to acquire the steel for the last ten swords. Either the steel on the market is too low quality to produce the weapons we need or the steel is too expensive for us to purchase for this project.

"The remaining ten swords are due next week and we have not been able to source the materials for the remaining weapons. If that happens, my father will be penalized for breaching the contract and will be indentured to the Fontana House for a year. From what I heard they work you really hard for low pay and penalize you for the smallest things. I have heard some smiths have been locked into their service for years due to these penalties. It would ruin our family so I need to leave the Academy to help him attempt to complete this contract."

Derek looked at him oddly, "Why would you need to drop out though? It's only a week."

He shook his head, "We are going to have to purchase the materials from House Fontana so I will need to earn the difference back. I was thinking about going to fight in the Colosseum. It will probably take about a year to earn back what we will lose from this deal."

Derek had a puzzled look on his face. "Why are you sourcing from House Fontana? Wouldn't that be like paying them to take your labor? Can't you buy off of merchants?"

Garrett shook his head again, "No, Fontana has control over all the steel coming into the city. They've even taken efforts to prevent smiths from going to anyone outside of the city for their iron. That's why they were able to raise the prices. It's been that way since they drove House Michel out of the market. The only people they don't price gouge are the Priests and Disciples here, that's part of why we came today to see if we could acquire some steel, even if it is just scraps from here to help defray our costs."

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Derek thought quietly for a few moments, "Garrett, if your dad knew they had a monopoly on steel in the town why did he take this contract? That seems like such a low level mistake for an experienced smith like him."

"House Michel was still in business when he took this contract. In fact, we weren't the only ones to take a contract like this. Easily twenty smithies in the city were contracted this way right before House Michel went under. Only a few lucky ones had the materials on hand to complete the project, the rest of us were hoping another powerful trader would come along to break their monopoly."

Derek turned to his grandfather who had finished talking to Garrett's father.  The Priest, Cnut, had come over as well to listen to the discussion and had a grave look on his face but the Calan looked mollified after having talked to the Priest and Disciple. Ander turned to Derek, "So boy, do you have any thoughts?"

Derek smiled, "Yes grandfather. I have a few ideas, but I wonder if you could advise me on them?"

"Of course boy, tell me what you want to do."

After a short discussion which had gathered the attention of several others in the room, Derek had outlined his ideas. A few had been shot down, a few had been considered decent, and a few had been considered quite clever and had been encouraged by the older men in the room. A few of the Priests even volunteered to help with some of the peripheral tasks as long as Derek knew that the task was his to resolve.

Derek hugged Garrett warmly and shook Calan's hand as they parted in front of the Great Forge. Their plan was set and Derek was eager to get started. The first step was to be started in the morning at Ander's forge.

Derek and Ander met up with the rest of their party after leaving the forge and returned to the Cathedral to eat dinner. That night Derek moved back into his dormitory and was happy to see Desmond and Tristan there. They talked for a while before Garrett joined them.

Garrett's excitement was palpable. "Derek I spread the word, the other Rune Smiths will be meeting at your grandfather's house in the morning like you suggested."

Derek smiled, "Great, this will be fantastic. I can't wait to see how those swindlers react."

Desmond couldn't help his curiosity and asked the question on both his and Tristan's minds, "What's going on?"

Derek smiled, "Oh just some unscrupulous businessmen are going to get what's coming to them. Haha!"

Garrett laughed with him and the other two just stared at them with baffled looks on their faces.

The next morning Derek, Garrett, and Desmond left for Eona's house as usual. In spite of enjoying his time with his granny, Derek was happy to be back on campus. He had sworn to go visit her when he could though, and that had seemed to mollify her a bit.

When they ran into Alicia, Derek was amused to see the other boys' reaction to her. He supposed his granny was right. While he was rather fond of his mother's apprentice he had never considered her as a potential match. The understanding that she would marry for her kingdom had been ever present and their relationship had become too familial at this point for either to even consider changing that up. 

The other boys seemed to not be concerned about that though, and Derek found it rather humorous as he realised that the two were trying to impress her in spite of the impossibility of a relationship between them.

Their breakfast was quite good and was only interrupted when a servant came to inform Ander of a delivery. The old man smiled, "Good, boys, go help the servants unpack our supplies. I will join you in a moment."

Derek and Garrett shared a grin while Desmond shook his head and grumbled about his friends being unnecessarily tight lipped about what was going on. The three boys went out to the forge where they found a half dozen carts filled to the brim with low quality iron. They started unpacking it right away and no sooner had they unloaded one cart when another pulled in front of them. They lost count of the carts as the crates started to fill the yard. All told the invoices showed two hundred cart loads, easily fifty tonnes of the material.

The three boys panted from their exertion before being called into the forge. Ander's voice called from inside, "Alright, boys. We have company. Come in and greet them."

The three came in and saw that almost two dozen men and women were crowded around the forge. They all wore the garb and had the bodies of a smith. Priest Cnut was standing with Ander and the two were talking with a some of the ones nearby while others scowled at each other. A few even traded the occasional barbed insult.

Derek smiled as he saw all these people. They were all proud folk. As Expert Rune Smiths they deserved it. The people here represented all of the shops that had been swindled by House Fontana. Some had been lucky enough to avoid the trap that the others had stumbled into and were less anxious than the rest but they still showed some anxiety. With Fontana's hold on the quality steel absolute these smiths would be hard pressed to be able to earn a decent profit on any new work.

Ander smiled at his grandson before turning to the other folks assembled in the room. “Thank you for coming. I believe everyone here knows what we will be doing here, but I am going to give my grandson a chance to explain his plan to you all as the one that came up with it. Derek, please explain to the others what the plan here will be.”

Derek smiled, “Everyone, really, thanks again for coming, we will need all of you to pull this off. I believe you all know what is at stake here. House Fontana has gone too far and is trying to back you all into a corner so that you will be forced into servitude. They are using their control over the quality steel at the market as the linchpin in this plan, but I have my own plan to correct this.

"We are going to break their monopoly. And we are going to start today!"