The team were all standing on one of the top decks of a very large ship. It was so large in fact that they had to transfer onto it from a smaller boat from Greenstone as the magic density was too low to support the boat with all its magical amenities. Teddy was holding onto the railing looking slightly worse for wear, they had drunk heavily on their first night on the boat and being hungover on a in the rough conditions on the high magic ocean was not pleasant for him.

You have been afflicted with [sea-sickness]. You will be debilitated with [sea-sickness] until it wears off. Continued exposure to conditions that caused [sea-sickness] will prolong the condition.

Teddy was normally fine with the sea and boats and ships, it was the hangover that was causing him grief. Fortunately Kyra had Lucky on deck to make him feel better and was healing the condition as soon as it manifested. She couldn’t do anything for the hangover though so as long as it was going to last Teddy was stuck in a cycle of feeling awful and better.

They were spending their morning looking our over the lower decks ‘people watching’ all the types of people that had chosen to make the trip to Vitesse. As soon as they had done the necessary shopping and ritual of summoning they had bought return tickets. Lucy’s new familiar was flying out before them, swooping and hiding in the sun, it looked the size of one of the gulls but they knew that was an optical illusion due to the high altitude it was at. They had been amazed at the size of the summon when it had appeared, the swirling tornado of feathers that had appeared when all the ritual components were absorbed swirled up to seven feet, when it had got to that height it had suddenly thrown out its wings, easily eighteen to twenty feet in span. They had all been expecting an owl that would perch on Lucy’s shoulder, the creature in front of them could stare eye to eye with James standing on its own feet. The hooked beak looked savage; owl beaks don’t look scary when they’re on regular owls because they’re smaller than an eraser, when they’re the size of a sword and just as sharp and pointed they are terrifying. Her claws were long and exposed, each point ending in a talon four inches long and clacked on the floor. When she beat her wings it buffeted everyone with the force and the edges were thick and solid. She swooped closer, showing off to Lucy, as she did it formed a huge shadow on the deck that looked like a monster. Luckily the crew were wise to the kinds of monsters they could expect on their run and as adventurers that would be expected to defend the ship Lucy had registered her familiar so as not to be shot down by the crew when they were defending the ship in actual attacks.

As the voyage went on after a week the crew had given a warning of an approaching monster and everyone had gone below decks to their cabins to wait it out. The ship was technically a gold rank class ship. The approaching monster was a gold rank serpent monster, it was huge, three to four times as long as the ship and swam just below it. It carried on it’s way without even slowing down and the crew explained that the higher rank monsters didn’t always attack and they noted position and direction and reported them to the adventure society, every now and then they would have adventurers that claim free passage to jump off half way to hunt these monsters. Smaller, weaker monsters often appeared. They sometimes came in shoals that were attracted to the power of the ship and attacked. They bounced off the hull of the ship as if they had been zapped by an electric fence, killing most on touch.

Lechuza was sometimes swooping and diving to catch small enough monsters and carry them off, savagely ripping into them as she sped back away from the water to avoid any higher rank monsters. Lucy had joined her familiar on some of these dives by looking through her eyes. What the description had not made clear was the rush of information, the feel of the air, the wind through the feathers and the spray of the water. She had talked to James about it after as he had some experience in transfiguration into animals. He gave her some tips on how to deal with the mental change from two legged human to a feathered predator. Lechuza was also able to use some of Lucy’s powers from a distance and she was getting some decent loot off the exotic monsters. She also scavenged off the dead monsters the ship killed as they were unclaimed bodies. Whereas the others often had their familiars absorbed to save space and make travelling easier Lucy had left Lechuza to stay out and about most of the time, due to the inherent nature of being able to see through her eyes she could sense where she was and use telepathy to talk to and from. The great owl knew it had catching up to do on the team though and worked hard but also came back regularly. She did so now, swooping down blocking the sun to land delicately on the deck and drape her wings back like an enormous cape.

[I am returned Miss Lucy] she spoke directly into her mind.

She stared intently while she spoke unblinking with huge owl eyes. James jumped slightly at her quick bird-like movements as she looked around, in the past this would have been a flinch but he had been trained hard at the academy annex to turn those flinches into reactions. His feet stepped out and fists came up slightly like a boxer. This startled Lechuza in turn and she ruffled her chest feathers and ducked her head, her wings slightly raised out to the sides. This time James did flinch and he stumbled.

[I am sorry my landing startled you, I will make it my aim that I can land soft enough you will not hear me right behind you]

James gulped and straightened himself out.

“No harm done, but please don’t make your aim to sneak up on me, something your size shouldn’t be capable of that.”

“Thankyou.” Lucy said. “The crew have warned we are getting close to port that we should keep you close.”

Lechuza looked up to the sky and over the water then hopped a couple of times towards Lucy and into her. She disintegrated into a cloud of owl feathers that shot into Lucy. The tell-tale sign for Lucy having an absorbed familiar was the feather pattern around her eyes, it looked good, like eyeshadow from a distance. In a world where no one used cosmetics it stood out and made her look striking. The ability she gained when Lechuza was absorbed was some of the incoming projectile reflection, they hadn’t had the opportunity to test it out much but it seemed to not give too much protection but was welcome all the same.

Their voyage ended at the enormous port in Vitesse, this one large enough for even the huge vessel. The massive ship would have given them a good view over Greenstone but the buildings of Vitesse were much bigger, with obvious magic engineering. There were essence users flying above the streets, having visited the home of the original Remore academy once before they knew that you needed a special licence to fly in the city.

They headed to the temple district to see the local church of hero. Last time they were in town they were sent there to see local contacts for lodging so they weren’t taken advantage of and they were hoping to use the same contacts again.

That evening they were sat in what would have been a modestly priced inn that had rooms for both couples and a very nice communal area that served good food. The price would have been modest for the quality, but, as they walked in Kyra was using her cleansing power habitually and discovered the owners toddler had just drunk cheap cleaning materials by accident in the basement that was just within her powers range. After she had seen the affliction cleared she had asked at the bar who might be drinking cleaning solution as she was concerned why anyone would be. After the owner panicked about their missing child and then found them in the basement with the cleaning chemicals she refused to take any payment from the team. Kyra had made sure the child made a full recovery.

They were sat in the common room with a bar full of people, they had managed to snag a table in the corner and were going through their plan for the next day.

“So me and Teddy need to go early in the morning, there’s apparently a whole street of book shops! It’s going to take us all day to get through them all.”

“What if we find what we need in the first shop?” Teddy asked with a note of panic at the idea of all day book shopping.

“Through. Them. All.” Lucy said looking him dead in the eye. Teddy shrew up his hands and went back to his beer.

“I’m not sure where I need to be,” James said, “the description said a magical engraver or tattooist with the right skills.”

The owners wife was cleaning a table next to them when she overheard.

“Sorry my dears but I couldn’t help overhear. We had some fancy engraving done recent. Me husband thought it’d bring in some fancy clientele if we had a fancy sign out front.”

“I did like that sign as we came in…”

“Well that was journeyman work, here I’ll give you the address, the master metalsmith said all sorts about magical effects and whatnot, we went cheap because I didn’t think it was worth the bother. Do we look like we need more people in here?”

She was bustled off by a new group taking the table she had just cleaned, she wrote the address out on a slip of paper from her apron she used for taking orders and went about getting drinks for the new patrons.

“Well seems like you’re all busy tomorrow then…” Kyra said.

“You can come with us!” Teddy said, eager to have the numbers to bully Lucy into not going into every bookshop.

“Nahuh, I have plans of my own for tomorrow!”

“What plans?” Teddy asked suspiciously.

“Shopping!” She answered cryptically. And as hard as they might they couldn’t get an answer out of her for the rest of the night.

The next morning they had breakfast together early while the streets were still quiet they went their separate ways. Teddy and Lucy to the book street, James to deep in the industrial sector and Kyra to her mystery shopping.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

James was getting slightly worried the further he went, the obvious shopping streets were left behind as were the cafes and restaurants catering to shoppers. The bright door signs were gone, replaced by functional signs for tradespersons to find industry workshops. He followed his directions looking for the metalworker. When he got there he found a drab grey workshop with a sign outside that looked no different from its neighbours that said ‘Master Randolph’s metal’. There was no bell and there was so much noise coming from inside that no one would hear a knock he opened the door and used his aura as a bell, hoping that the metal workers would be essence users. As he stepped through the door all the work stopped, there were four benches with two workers each on them and a long snaking conveyor belt made of metal rollers which had three people around it. They all locked onto James, seeming far too interested in his presence and all started slowly moving towards him. Getting freaked out James was preparing his aura to release Koda to improve the odds when a strong aura pulsed as the office door at the side of the workshop opened.

“Everyone back to work.” The voice had absolute authority like he was used to being listened to.

He was a tall slim elf, pure silvery hair and wore magical spectacles with multiple lens that could be flicked in and out on the top of his head.

“Well what have we here? I’m not expecting new orders today. Don’t mind them, I beast them about recognising interesting artefacts and they’re more interested in that vambrace than you. I don’t let them work with armour until they have a few solid years playing with the metal.”

“Yeh that was a little weird.” The workers were still trying to get a look at the vambrace. James held his hand out to shake the new man’s hand, his right hand, which was the arm that had the vambrace. “I’m James Mitchell, was pointed your way to get some engraving done.”

“Oh I’m hoping I know what item you’re after having engraving.”

He said, unabashed looking over the vambrace. While they were shaking hands he had met James’ eyes then taking a long look at the armour, going as far to turn James arm while he had hold of his hand, he rubbed a thumb on the metal of the hand plate, James didn’t think he could have stopped the man if he tried, he had a strength like a ten tonne machine.

“Some beautiful work you’ve already got done there. Not a professional but certainly a gifted artist, I’d appreciate his details if we do business.”

“Mind if we go in your office to chat? It’s a bit noisy out here.”

The elf looked him up and down judging him. He nodded and beckoned him in. When they had sat down he opened a large drawer in his desk and pulled out a steaming kettle and cups.

“You know we all recognise that’s a soul-bound item, you’re perfectly safe. It’s no use to us other than being an amazing artefact. Tea?”

“Please. I’ve got to admit I was a little worried. I didn’t think I was that obvious though.”

The elf smiled in a friendly way.

“You’re new here right? And I’m not just talking about being an iron ranker. You’re an outworlder right? It’s hard to mask when you’re two ranks lower.”

James knew the vibe he was getting was a higher rank and now he had a figure to put against it. Silver rank was too high for him to do anything about if he turned shady and he refocused his efforts on his aura control. The elf must have noticed because he smiled then pulled out a paper pad and a pen.

“Now Mr Mitchell, you were about to ask about some engraving.” He wrote out James name at the top of the page and ‘quote’ with a blank line next to it.

“I should probably start with why I would like some engraving.”

The elf leant back with his notepad and doodled, keeping it to himself.

“I have a looting power, the magic society guys I let have a look said that the power turns the residual magic left in the monsters into usable items. The likelihood of these items being personalised to me is higher as it’s an intrinsic power. The item I’ve got can be improved to make my other powers and transformations more powerful. What I was hoping was you could help me with a design to put on a plate on the arm piece here. The catch is that as it’s a growth item the conditions for growth become more expensive with each engraving on it. So I was after a few quality ones before ranking up without going crazy. If all goes well we’ll be coming back this way once we’ve ranked up and could get more.”

The elf politely nodded along showing he was listening while doodling on the pad. He put it face down on the table and held out a hand.

“May I see the item? See what we’re working with.”

James put his hand on the forearm part and the whole arm seemed to expand slightly knowing that it was being removed. He slipped it off and set it down gingerly on the table to be examined. He was nervous taking it off in the office after he had seen so many people taking interest in the rare item when he was alone and outranked. The elf sensed his nervousness and gave him a kindly smile before pulling out a tool roll and focussed on the Vambrace. He slid the glasses down on his head and started flicking through various combinations of lenses. He took a scraper out of his tool kit and probed the metal. Various crystals came out around the armour and lit different colours.

“Fascinating, what you have here I have rarely seen produced by some of the best gold rank armourers around. It is truly priceless.”

He pushed the armour into the middle of the table so it was directly between them. He then took the notebook he had been working on as James spoke and flipped it placing it next to the armour. He might as well have cut the wing off the greatest eagle, dipped it in silver and put it on the page, the drawing was incredibly life-like and had taken him moments while they were talking. The detail was intense, James felt like it was an optical illusion, as he was focussing on a feather on one side he could swear the feathers were moving as if in a breeze on the other side but when he looked they were a still drawing. Randulph had pulled a new notebook from the desk and was writing down complex equations, referencing the tools he used and the crystal sequence.

“Are you satisfied with the rough draft?”

James steadied himself, remembering he was purchasing a service and wanted to make a good impression so as not to get fleeced.

“We seem to have skipped a step where I tell you what style I want and what powers I want enhanced.”

The elf barked out a laugh, short and severe like he didn’t use it very often.

“You now know this is the design you want, the magic speaks boy, this is what the armour calls for. You can ask for whatever you want but this is the only piece I will engrave on that item first.”

He sensed he had pricked a nerve by being so brusque and calling him boy.

“Mr Mitchell, there is more magic to these things then you may realise. The first engraving you had done seems to be kismet; right place, right time, right person. It was a virtuoso performance. This is a planned piece of work you are having done and there is a rightness to going about it.”

James seemed mollified by the explanation.

“The other thing is Mr Mitchell is that I don’t need your business. What you need to know is that I would very much like to do is work on this project. The items you see on the workshop floor are the bread and butter of my business but personally work like this is why I still work at silver rank. It would be a privilege not a necessity.”

James picking up the armour and turned it over, tracing the design on the hand plate with one finger, thinking things over.

“Let’s talk price.”

The elf smiled again.

“The price will be my usual rates, it will take two days, the second day I will do for free if you allow me a third day to study the magic.” He held up his hands. “No harm will come to the item and no invasive testing will be done. The study of this item will develop my understanding of its creation and to possibly make something like this in the future.”

“Well that answers the question of how long it will take. Will you do the work yourself then? I had thought it would be done on the workshop floor.”

“No, this item is too unique to be trusted to anyone else. I will work on it alone.”

“Mr Randulph I think we have a deal.”

……..

Teddy was not as exasperated as he thought he would be. It turned out that magical bookshops were pretty amazing. The variety on display was staggering. Entire bookshops might be devoted to a speciality, one for farming crops, another for livestock. One bookshop had tomes of different cloth patterns. The shops varied what types of books they sold. Most sold a variation of magical and non magical of each book. Some were straight up skill book shops and others were magical in that they spoke to the reader or had a hologram effect that read and demonstrated. This allowed those who did not have a skill book ability to still benefit from the magic.

They were just leaving a store that specialised in gardening in the late afternoon when they bumped into James.

“Hey guys, got to admit you weren’t my first choice to hang out with but…” he trailed off when he realised what he said and quickly snatched up his wife. “What I mean is book shopping is pretty far down on my list of fun things to do in a massive magical city, but Kyra isn’t answering any messages and I have no idea where to run into her and I figured you would be somewhere down this street. How are you getting on?”

“We have a few more to hit but there isn’t much gas left in the tank to be honest.” Teddy said.

“You guys are tired from shopping? You’re essence users!”

“No I mean not a lot of steam in the kettle, wind in the sails, lead in the pencil, gold left in the pot.”

“…you both spent all of your money on books? That’s not possible.”

They proceeded to prove it, Teddy jumped up and reached as high as he could and tore a slice to the ground, showing stacks of books inside, Lucy’s rune portal appeared and he could see in, left and right that there were piles and piles of books. Teddy sealed his rift and Lucy dismissed the portal.

“We really leant into the ‘hold nothing back’ mentality to this trip, we’ll need to make some extra cash on our return.”

“It’ll take weeks, months to just absorb that much information, why did you get so many?”

“We’ve got an idea, we think there’s a way to make some money here.” Lucy said looking a little nervous.

“Do you remember the iron dagger loop on Skyrim? It’s not like we have crafting essences to level up but we can literally churn stuff out to sell at market. If anything it’ll give Lu a lot more flexibility to her magic mojo and I can make the groups consumables.”

“Wow, well, I’m dubious how much money it’ll make but you’re going to have a lot more knowledge than the rest of us.”

“How about you? Any success finding a shop full of wonderful suits of armour and weapons and a tiny master crafter you have to sell your soul to get him to come out of retirement and complete one last master work of art?”

James shrugged. “A worn out warehouse where they were banging out some new bridge girders magicked up to keep away troll monsters.” When he told them the price they were shocked.

“Dude, thats pretty much what we’ve each spent together!”

“Well thats also with it at half price. I did a little asking around and it turns out that the silver rank owner Mr Randulph has been turning away lots of business, he does the work he needs to keep the workshop going and people employed and happy but he’s been waiting for the right work apparently.”

“Silver rank isn’t that going to…” Teddy started.

“Make the effect even better than the same work at iron, yes, yes it is.” James let out a big grin.

………

They all met back at the Inn that night, they’d had a long day and the boat didn’t leave for another three days. They finally caught up with Kyra in the lounge room of hers and Teddy’s suite.

“Good day sunshine?” Teddy asked.

“I had a great time! Shopping is a lot more fun when they’re dog friendly and it turns out everyone’s dog friendly and likes have a little ball of sunshine around that makes you literally feel better.” She ruffled Lucky’s ears. We had a LOT of fun.” When she told them how much she had spent they gasped.

“That’s pretty much how much each of us spent, what did you buy? You weren’t even shopping for anything!”

“Oh I don’t know, this and that…”

She pulled a hand mirror and multiple items appeared on the table between them. Earrings, necklaces, a diamond tennis bracelet, various dresses and outfits on one end, even some hats. What looked like workout gear, a collection of shoes and some bags.

“Kyra, I’m really sorry to say.” Lucy said, sweeping the piles with her eyes that could pick out magic. “But I think you got ripped off, none of this is overly magical.”

“Oh no this isn’t all of it, I have a lot on custom order that wont be ready for a few days.”

Teddy looked even more shocked, “So, you spent all that coin on just stuff, plain vanilla stuff?”

“No, this is shiny,” she said, turning over the chunky diamond tennis bracelet, “This is colourful, this is silk. None of it is plain vanilla, a few of the tailors will be adding magical enhancement to the wardrobes to keep them nice and self repairing and cleaning.”

“Wardrobes plural?!”