Chapter 14

Emerald Anvil

Two hours later (8 in his home world, Mikel couldn’t help but think) he, Helsket, and Telgil were tucked safely within Telgil’s smithy. They’d managed to lose the women over a course of time and deftly taken turns and backtracks until, one by one they’d dropped off the pursuit.

Now, all three men smelling of char, sweat, and dust sat looking at one another with wide-eyed horror at just how close they’d all come to dying.

The smithy, if you could justify such a base name for the place, was unlike anything Mikel had ever seen. As soon as the terror of their flight from the women began to wear off, Mikel became aware of the absolute wonder around them.

Like many things in the strange world he kept finding more and more about, the smithy was not at all what it seemed from outside appearances. Although he hadn’t taken the time to study the outside of the smithy, it was obvious the building that contained it was grand in its own right. Well-fitted bricks, golden adornments, marble accents - but the thing it didn’t have was size. The building was crammed in between two others and cramped from above by yet another which rose towards the starry sky. It was gorgeous but small.

That description only held true from the outside though - as soon as he’d careened through the door, much like he’d done coming to The Market of Dreams in the first place, he found the smithy much larger on the inside than the outside - and every inch of that extra space was occupied by some miraculous object or another. His family's caches were full of treasure - the spoils of ancient battles and deep raids into enemy territories - but this display put anything he’d ever seen to shame.

Shining, opalescent silver spears and swords hung from the walls, while shields and armor hung from wracks custom-made to support the heavy constructions. Swords of all makes and sizes clogged the walls and even more wracks hugged the bottom portion of the walls. Practice dummies were strewn through the space more or less evenly, some having arrow decorations punched through where their eyes would have been had they been real men. Gold filigree was everywhere. It was apparent that Telgil appreciated form as much as function - the two never impairing the other only accenting and improving. To Mikel’s novice eye, the work was beyond master level - this was transcendence on a level he could scarcely believe was real.

The most amazing thing, which rendered Mikel speechless for several moments, was the true centerpiece of the shop. The center of the smithy should revolve around the forge - and what a forge Telgil had.

Mikel had been in a few blacksmith’s shops throughout his life. Although he’d only commissioned a few things here and there, he’d gotten the general feel of the places. Up to the point of the forge, Telgil’s shop was more or less normal, aside from the miraculous and beautiful armaments plastered to every inch of wall, ceiling, and floor space available. The forge is what set it all apart.

The brick construction was shaped into what looked like a massive dragon’s head, complete with burning eyes and lava dripping from its jaws which bled away in specially cut-out sections of the floor which allowed it to flow like glowing, molten rivers into holes that led to only the gods knew where.

An anvil shaped from what looked like emerald sat in front of the dragon forge and like the women and the Reverie, Mikel felt inexorably drawn towards it. Some part of himself wanted to walk over to the anvil and simply run his hands over it for all eternity. He knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that if he did that he would never want for anything ever again.

The promise, was, of course, a lie, but a tantalizing one without a doubt.

It was only with immense personal power that Mikel ripped his eyes from the anvil and brought his attention back to the conversation between Helsket and Telgil.

“You should have just sweet-talked them!” Telgil said as Helsket heaved a heavy sigh and scratched his head, char flaking off in ashy streams, “You look the part of the rugged hero and I know you can turn on what you call charm from time to time.”

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Helsket shook his head, locks flaring left and right as he did, “I could have… but I was caught unaware. Celine… Well, she wasn’t just another girl, if you get my drift. We were something back then. When I lost her… It felt as if I’d lost part of myself.”

Telgil snorted, “Grow up. They tried to kill us. She doesn’t remember you except as a fling one summer years ago.”

Helsket’s expression flared and before he could leap up and start the brawl from earlier anew, Mikel spoke up and broke the tension.

“I thought you said The Market doesn’t let evil people in!” Mikel practically yelled as he shifted on the hard, stone floor of Telgil’s shop, “Those women were trying to kill us! How in the nine hels did they get let through?”

Telgil scratched his head before answering, careful to select his words, “Those women weren’t evil - far from it. They were priestesses of Gaia - the mother of all plains and the seedbed from which all life springs.”

Mikel was taken aback, “Priestesses… But, they seemed so dangerous. No! They were dangerous! They tried to kill us!” He thought the last fact obvious but felt the need to say it again.

“Precisely,” Telgil said with a wry smile, “All women are like that - dangerous and will kill you if given the chance - but these make it a bit more obvious. I’d ask you to think of all the natural disasters that befall mankind that are spawned from the earth - now think of those cataclysms turned into the weapon of a vengeful priestess… Or five vengeful priestesses. With one blonde one that wasn’t actively trying to kill us.”

“But Helsket knew Celine - I think is what you called her? Right?”

Helsket shook his head, a haunted look in his eyes, all the more evident by his lack of burned-away eyebrows, “Aye, but in another lifetime. I was taken aback seeing her. I thought she was dead, lost at sea a decade ago while she and I were ferrying across the Western Sea. To see her here… Now, threw me for a loop.”

“You thought she was dead?”

“Aye, as did everyone else. One doesn’t simply fall overboard during a Father Storm on the Western Sea and survive. Hel, half of the shipmates were killed just trying to keep the boat on course. By the time we realized she’d gone over, it was too late and we were hours clear of the storm.”

“What happened since then?” Mikel asked, still trying to wrap his head around the whole scenario, “She hardly seemed to recognize you.”

“I think…” Helsket began before glancing at Telgil, who nodded agreeing with him, “I think that she somehow ended up here. That’s how the first adventurers found this place after all. There are many theories about its origin but none have panned out. Many think it’s an artifact from the Sunken Folk, some others from the gods, but aside from a few monsters cropping up every so often, there’s nothing to back either claim up.”

“So you think she fell overboard and somehow ended up here, for a decade?”

“To her more like two or three years,” Helsket said wistfully, “I was much younger then and was still your father’s man. She and I… Well, we were together, if you can believe that.”

Seeing Helsket in his prime, Mikel could see how that could be true. Celine was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, and while Helsket, even now, certainly wasn’t the best-looking guy around, he had a particular charm that bled through his pores as if it were a tangible asset.

Being the size of two full-grown, robust men didn’t hurt his chances either.

“She… Recognized me, but only barely,” Helsket said lightly, “It was as if I was a ghost to her.”

“If what you said is true,” Telgil said, “It might be that spending nearly three years in this place has warped her memories. She might not even remember who she is.”

“Was she a priestess of Gaia when you knew her?” Mikel asked.

“No. She was a devotee of Love.”

Suddenly, the woman’s appearance made more sense, “I see,” Mikel said, “That explains why she was so… unearthly and beautiful. If she was a priestess of Love, then she would reflect her god’s innermost ideals. Do people usually change the gods they worship?”

Telgil answered, “No. They may add to their list of daily devotions, but people rarely forgo their older gods for new ones. The god has much power over you once you worship them long enough, and the wrath of a being like that is something you don’t want to bring down on your head.”

Helsket grumbled and buried his head in his arms wrapped around his knees.

“What?” Mikel asked, “What’s wrong?”

Helsket looked up, forlorn, and said, “I’ll tell you when you’re older - but for now, we need to get to work outfitting you with something you can use. That was the saddest excuse for a fight I’ve ever seen. Don’t think I wasn’t watching just because I was a bear - if anything, I saw more of your embarrassing performance against that dust elemental than I would have as a man.”