Maya follows Emma as they ventured down the road a bit further before turning off onto a smaller, less busy road. It was remarkable how the atmosphere shifted instantly. Not only was it less crowded, but the air was filled with the distinctive sounds of metal striking metal. The resounding clanks and clangs suggested that there had to be more than one blacksmith's shop, or perhaps multiple establishments crafting metalwork items. As Emma and Maya continued down the road, the cacophony of clashing metal became more pronounced, it was almost surreal that you couldn’t hear it out from the main roads. “Vezzoli’s’ Armaments” Emma stops and announces.

The store was just plain, nothing special, nothing that stood out, the only way you could tell it apart from the other buildings or being a building by itself was just the plain wood sign with an anvil on the side of it that read “Vezzoli’s’ Armaments”. Maya looks up and then back to Emma, “So I’m guessing you’ve been here before?”

“Yeah, I met Vezzoli on one of my first trips up to the town. A really nice dwarf that works hard, he was having some issues with the guild that day. So, this has been my go-to shop for most of my needs since then when I’m in Summerport.” Emma smiles and begins to walk inside.

As they walked inside, the room was a little bit larger than expected, with the back wall closer than the room should feel, which is most likely the area the forge is in. Adorning the walls were an array of weapons, armor, shields, and high-quality backpacks. In front of the back wall, a wooden counter stretched just about two feet high, and behind it stood a stout dwarf. Additional weapons adorned the space behind him, likely his high-end creations. Vezzoli, with a deep and gruff voice, greeted them, “Heya, Emma, long time no see. Who’s yer friend there?” His dark red hair, long, wavy, and somewhat messy, flowed down to his shoulders. His equally unruly beard was braided halfway down, and piercing green eyes peeked out from the tangle of hair, while his mouth remained concealed beneath the facial foliage.

“Yea, it has been a while. This is my friend Maya; we are actually here to shop for her today. She needs a sword.” Emma says walking up to the counter bending into a half squat to lean on the countertop. “Before you go straight into showing your top-of-the-line stuff, we have a budget.”

“Don’tcha always have a budget?” Vazzoli says with a grin, “Here let me show ya what I gots.” He begins to walk away from the counter and walks to the wall on the left. “Right here yer gunna get the best bang for yer buck.” He waves his hand past a few swords on the wall ranging from larger sized to smaller sized. “Now not to sound rude but yer friend, Maya you said, doesn’t look like the strong type.”

“No offense taken, I’m not” Maya says looking over to him.

“Well, if you’ll just indulge me a moment then” With a mischievous grin Vazzoli runs off to the back room.

“Any of these stand out to you at all?” Emma asks Maya.

Examining the weapons, from left to right, the largest one immediately stood out due to some unique design choices, notably the rather ornate handle. While the sword's overall design remained consistent, the smaller ones appeared simpler, with progressively plainer handles. “I mean the design of the handles is a little much on the larger swords but at the same time the smaller swords, which I think I could handle better, are extremely basic.”

“The best part about buying a sword from a smith is you can request to have something changed on it” Emma says quietly as if it was a secret.

“Well, if anything I would want to change the grip, maybe a nice leather base….”

“Here we are!” Vazzoli shouts as he walks back into the main room carrying a slightly smaller sword to the average size, just as long, however. “Try dis one on fer size.” As he hands it over to Maya.

Grabbing the sword its surprisingly light given its size. It almost felt hollow. Upon closer inspection, she also noticed that the metal had a unique quality. Depending on the angle, it shifted in appearance, transitioning from silver to black and back to silver in a seamless, almost mystical manner. “Wow this sword is really light!” Maya says.

“Yea, I’ve been playing with a new type of metal. The issue is it’s not as strong. To reinforce it, I put some extreme temperatures to it with a magic flame. I call it black flash tempering, on account of deh magical flame is black and it leaves a residue on the sword which ya occasionally see makes it look like the sword is black for a moment.”

“Well, this is a really nice sword, but I highly doubt we could afford it” Maya says smiling handing the sword back.

“But do you like it?” He asks without grabbing the sword from Maya.

“Yes, it’s light, and it has a really unique look with the moments of the blade changing color by viewing it from different angles.” Still trying to hand the sword back.

“Then why don’t we werk out a deal then?” His mischievous grin showing back up again. “See, this method and metal aren’t currently in use with other smiths. And since I spend most days here, I can’t go no wheres and really test how durable it is, which brings me to my next problem. I can’t go selling a product to nobodies if it’s faulty. This is where you come in, I will sell this for the price of my cheapest sword on the condition that you bring it back to me if it breaks and of course not tells no one. I don’t need others thinking I have bad weapons and I need to find out why it broke. If it breaks because of something I can fix, then we can try again but if not then I will swap it out for a regular sword for you.”

“Are you sure, feels like I’m ripping you off even as a tester for this sword?” Maya says hesitantly.

“Yeah, I’m sure. I trust Emma here and if this ends up working, I can rub it in the guilds face that I can make a better weapon than these other shops and they will finally start recommend’n my shop at the guild for adventures.”

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“Ahh, is that what you were arguing with the guild about when we first met?” Emma asks.

“Yer darn right! They never sent nobody my way; I still get business but I could be get’n more and finally hire an apprentice so I can try more ideas like this one.” Vazzoli says with a snarl.

Before Maya has a chance to say anything else, Emma says, “Looks like we have a deal then!” as she places the bag of money from the guild on the counter. “Though if you could, before we leave, wrap the handle with a nice leather for grip and grab a sheath for the blade.”

“Too easy” he says before reaching over and nabbing the sword from Maya’s hand, putting it in a sheath he had behind the counter and then, as if he was waiting to be asked, pulls out a long strand of leather and wraps the handle quickly. Handing the sword back to Maya, he counts through the money and passes back the rest. “Til next time, and I expect a full report on how that blade werks for ya.”

“Next time we are in town I promise that’s what I will do first.” Maya says smiling and following Emma out the door. After getting back outside on the street, “Thanks for taking me to the shop and getting me a sword.”

“All I did was take you to the shop, technically you bought the sword with your share, if you want, we can go back to the guild to spar and see how well you handle the new sword?” Emma asks while they are both heading back to the main road.

"Sure, we can go back and spar for a bit, but I wouldn't mind seeing more of the town before..." Maya's words trailed off as her eyes caught sight of a little girl. The child was dirty, disheveled, and crying. Desperately, she went from person to person on the street, trying to get their attention, but not a single soul spared her a passing glance. Maya was momentarily transfixed by the cruelty of the people who could ignore a child in such obvious distress. As if in a trance, Maya locked eyes with the girl. The child, realizing that Maya had noticed her, abruptly abandoned her futile attempts to seek help from the indifferent crowd and sprinted directly toward Maya.

“You have to help. My friend, she’s stuck, and the house won’t let her leave” The little girl cried out while grabbing onto Maya’s arm trying to pull her.

“The house won’t let her friend go….maybe she just means she’s just stuck in the house?” Maya thought. But before she could really process and ask more questions the little girl let go and began to run away.

“Hurry follow me!” the girl said while running off.

Maya quickened her pace, chasing after the child. "Wait, hold up!" she called out to the little girl, who had now become the center of her attention. She looked back for a moment, making sure Emma was following, and Emma was right behind her, keeping up effortlessly.

"What's going on, Maya?" Emma inquired as they both ran after the child.

"It seems like someone is in trouble and stuck in a house," Maya replied. They continued to follow the girl as she led them across the main road and into a network of quieter back streets. The residential buildings in this area seemed to grow progressively shabbier, appearing as if they were on the verge of collapsing. Observing the deteriorated state of these houses, Maya couldn't help but think, "With these homes looking so run-down, it's no surprise her friend got stuck in one of them. They seem like they're all falling apart."

Before long the little girl stops in front of a house before racing inside. The house seemed the most worn down from the others, nearly looking like at one time the house could have caught fire. Without thinking or hesitation Maya runs into the house after the girl. As soon as she entered the house the girl was out of her sight. “Hello!” Maya shouts out into the house.

Emma follows up behind Maya inside, “We should be careful, I don’t think this house is very stable.” Looking around it was clear to see that the house had been abandoned and had been on fire at some point in the past. “Are you sure someone is here that needs help, it doesn’t look like anyone has been here in years?”

As if almost on cue, “HELP!” could be heard from below the house. It sounded weak and from a child. “Can anybody hear me?!”

“Yes, we can hear you! Where are you?” Maya yells back out.

“I’m in.. I’m in the basement. Please get me out of here, I’m scared.”

Maya begins to look for a way to go down into the basement. Walking down the hall there is a door underneath the stairway on the opposite side. She goes to open the door only to find out it is locked. “I think we are going to have to break the door down.” Looking back at Emma she nods her head.

“Then on the count of three we both run at the door with our shoulders, that should be enough force to break the door.”

Maya and Emma stood back-to-back with their shoulders aligned and their eyes on the door, and in unison, “One……Two……Three!” Simultaneously they charge at the door, both closing their eyes before impact. Right as they were about to ram into the door, they go straight into the staircase that leads down into the basement. The door had opened right before they hit it. Tumbling down, rolling over each other until they hit the bottom.

“Oww, damn that really hurt!” Maya says wincing. “Are you ok Emma?”

Rubbing the back of her head, “Ya, I’m fine. What happened to hitting the door?”

“I don’t know, it’s like the door opened right before we made contact.” Maya replies, as they both look up the stairs to see the door wide open. “Something doesn’t feel right.” Looking around, in the dark basement, a small figure was huddled in the corner. “Hey are you ok?”

The small figure gets up from crouching and nervously walks over. It was another small girl that had a collared button-down blue shirt and a long white skirt on, and a white bandana round her neck. “Did daddy send you to save me?”

“No, the other little girl said you were her friend and you needed help.” Maya says, “But I don’t know where she went.”

“Other little girl?!” Emma looks shocked at Maya, “What are you talking about?”

“The little girl, she was covered in dirt, she told us about her friend being stuck and we chased after her. You had to of seen her, she grabbed my arm right in front of you.”

“I saw no such thing….I thought you were talking to Enit again, figured he somehow knew and told you.” Emma replies still shocked and now a little worried.

“Oh, you mean Sophie? She showed me this place and disappeared after I got locked down here.” the girl said.

~ Sounds like we are dealing with a spirit. Witches and kids and those with special gifts can see them but after a certain age people can’t see spirits anymore. Those with gifts are usually the ones that had heavy contact with spirits as children and so when they grew up that ability never faded. ~

“Some witch I am, I can’t tell the difference between spirits and the living. I bet she doesn’t even realize it either” Maya thinks with a heavy sigh.

“Did you guys take care of the bad guy?” The little girl asks.

“What ‘Bad Guy’?” Emma now asks.

“The bad guy that locked me down here. His face was half burned, and his hair was all patchy and his clothes were all torn up.”

*SLAM* the door at the top of the stairs out the basement shuts close with a heavy force.

“That can’t be good!” Maya says, startled by the noise.

“Wait, so what’s going on?” Emma says confused and startled.

“I’ll have to explain when we get out of here, first let’s see if we can break that door.” Maya reaches out for the girl’s hand and all three of them walk up to the door. Both Maya and Emma start kicking the door, but it doesn’t budge.

“He won’t let us leave…” the girl says.

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