“Derek, I have been thinking about something and I have a question for you.” Derek, Desmond and Garrett were all training in the courtyard of Eona’s house. The three were exhausted from yet another long day of classes and refining steel but they still continued to train as they had been instructed. Derek was practicing casting different forms of weapon channeling spells and slinging them at the training dummies on the other side of the courtyard while Desmond and Garrett were focused on forms.

“Hmm?” Derek grunted at his friend to continue.

“So I am grateful for the help you have given my family, but why are you doing it?”

Derek glanced at him before casting another spell, a white light flashed in an arc and travelled to his targets. He smiled with satisfaction at the success of his experiment before responding, “I mean we’re friends right? That’s what friends do.”

Garrett finally stopped his practice to look at him. “But then why do you tend to talk about this as a Task from your God?”

Derek shrugged, still focused on the spell he was casting through his blade, before he swung it again and a similar white light flashed across the courtyard. “Well, yeah it’s that too. I am a Disciple of the Forge God and he tasked me with dealing with House Fontana’s plans. He said that you are one of his and that I must assist you.”

Garrett’s face scrunched up, annoyance entering his voice, “But I don’t want to be a Disciple or even a smith. I want to be a warrior.”

Derek turned to his friend. “You already are a smith and your life is already tied to him. For that reason he asked me to assist you.”

“Look man, I am just as pious as the next guy, but a god just can’t claim someone if they don’t want to serve them.”

Derek just shrugged his shoulders in response. “And yet, he has. That’s for you and him to discuss. Either way, it has certainly benefited your family.”

“But I didn’t want it, now I am indebted to him.”

Again Derek shrugged, “If you didn’t make an agreement, then you have no debt. Besides gods don’t tend to ask of us what we were unlikely to be willing to provide to begin with. Take this situation for instance.

“I would have wanted to help you anyways, but I would have been less sure of myself as much of this whole process has been so far outside of my comfort zone that I am still unsure of how we will succeed. Instead, with the Task given by the God, I know that there is a way to succeed and that the tools will be provided to me. For example the Priests of the God go out of their way to assist knowing that I am working in the interests of their deity. Many are very experienced men who can all offer advice and guidance.

“In this way the Task is much less a matter of doing something the God wanted of me and much more him providing me with the tools to do what I wanted to do to begin with. They select their followers from people whose aspirations mirror their own. In this way the gods encourage their followers to do what they were already interested in doing and both the follower and the God benefit from it. It’s a mutually beneficial situation, you see? Nothing to worry about.”

Garrett sighed, “Yeah, but I still don’t want to be a smith.”

Derek just laughed, “You already are, man. You know it too. You enjoy working in the smithy. I have seen it. You gain great happiness even while doing the repetitive process of refining. Sure, you want to do other things as well, and so do I. But that doesn’t change the fact that in your heart you are already a smith. If you keep fighting it, you will only make yourself unhappy. Besides, the boons of the gods are powerful, there’s no reason to turn away a God that so closely matches you.”

“Eh, I don’t know man.” Garrett’s noncommittal response could be heard through the towel he was using to wipe himself off with.

Derek shrugged as he wiped himself down next to him. “It’s your choice man. Like I said, that’s between you and the God. You know the choices I have made in that area and I do not regret them.”

“Yeah, I’ll think about it.”

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Desmond finally took that as an opportunity to join in on their conversation as the three young men started heading into the house for dinner. “I hope you don’t think too hard. Don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

“Hey!”

The three laughed as they approached the table. Tristan, Alicia, and her friends were already there as well as the adults. After a round of greetings they began to eat. After a happy meal, they all got up to go to their respective places for the evening, but they were interrupted by Eona.

“Garrett, please stay a while. I want to show you what we came up with for your schema design.”

This seemed rather interesting to Derek so he stuck around as well. His mother took the two boys and her apprentice over to a desk in the parlor, where a runic design had been drawn into a parchment.

“As you can see here, what we have come up with is a rather solid foundation, but it will need to start with a base foundation of five in most of your base attributes and a ten in body. It will be somewhat expensive to acquire the resources but we believe we should have them available in time for your schema reset. We will give you the resources to use first, then reset the schema after signs of them taking effect have been confirmed.

“With these resources, the House will have invested quite heavily in you. Per your contract, when you graduate the Academy you will be bound to the House as a retainer for two decades. After that time, you will have the option to join the House officially or do whatever else you want to do.”

The large boy nodded to her, “I understand and do not mind coming to work for the House.”

“Good, we still have quite a bit to do, but I believe with your unique status and a lot of work, we will be able to turn you into an invincible hero.”

Done showing him the proposed schema, she sent them home. They rejoined their friends outside and the two groups split up to head to their own dormitories. Tristan sat down to read one of his books while the three Magic Warriors all collapsed into their beds and were quickly asleep.

Later that week an Alchemist from the House delivered the first of a battery of potions for Garrett to drink. They smelled horrible and Derek found it hard to keep his appetite just being around them. His giant friend seemed to agree and didn’t eat his next meal though he found himself so famished that he ate extra during dinner that night.

At the end of the week the fated day arrived when all of the Rune Smiths’ contracted pieces for House Fontana. The shops of the town had worked overtime to complete these orders. Garrett, Derek, and Ander as well as Priest Cnut and Arbitrator Nolan joined the various Smiths for their deliveries.

When the large group leading several wagons arrived at House Fontana’s impressive shop they were blocked at the door by guards. After finding out who these people were and why they were there, one of the guards went inside. A few minutes later a small group of merchants came out of the building to guide them into the courtyard between the warehouse and shop itself.

Most of these men wore the uniform of the House, while a much better dressed man was their leader. He was escorting an Arbitrator from the Temple of the Wealth God. Their hushed discussion had no urgency so they group waited for the two men to finish talking.

Finally the leader addressed the large group of men and women, “Ah, my good Rune Smiths. I am glad to see you all. While it pains my heart to think that some of you may have defaulted on our agreement, it at least makes me happy to see that you are all honest folk who wouldn’t try to evade the penalties.”

There was a sardonic smile on his face as he said this and quite a few of the smiths muttered darkly to themselves due to his behavior. The merchant smiled more brightly at having gotten a rise out of them before gesturing towards the Arbitrator. “This man is Arbitrator Locke of the House of Wealth. He will be overseeing the rest of this transaction to ensure that the process is fair.”

The priest of the God of Wealth stepped forward with a smile, “Hello, I have reviewed all of your contracts and am ready to stand as Arbitrator for the closing of them all. Please work with me and I will ensure this task is complete in no time.”

When he had finished speaking, Arbitrator Nolan stepped forward to greet him, “It is good to see you today Locke. I am here as well, representing the interest of the Church’s new endeavor. For the purpose of these contracts I will defer to your judgement my friend.”

Locke merely smiled back as the man next to him’s eyes widened in surprise before turning to the Arbitrator, “What is the meaning of this? Is the Church now interfering with contracts?”

Both Arbitrator’s faces turned hard as they looked at the man. Arbitrator Locke looked at the man coldly before speaking, “An Arbitrator’s integrity is never in question. Even if one side of the contract was the Arbitrator himself, he would never break the faith in regards to his ruling. The God of Wealth is also the God of Oaths. To break an oath is quite simply blasphemy to us.

“To insinuate anything else is slander against the Arbitrator in question, the church as a whole, and the God himself. For that, we can deny service and support. If we were to do so, you would find it hard to continue to do business in the civilized lands as most potential trade partners would be loath to cooperate from someone so shunned by our church. It would be wise for you to remember this in the future, Baron Fontana.”

Properly chastised, the Baron bowed his head in submission and stepped back. Seeing his change in behavior, the Arbitrator smiled once again, before turning to the smiths, “Alright, let us begin the process of finishing this transaction. We will go alphabetically starting with Abnet’s Smithery.”