Chapter 16 : Thamaworks, Ironroad 10-2

Walking at a normal pace was tedious but somewhat bearable when she took a new route and had something fresh to look at. The capital had all sorts of fun buildings – both new and old. An eclectic conglomeration? Was that a thing a person would say, or was it just fancy dictionary words? She had yet to learn.

For some reason she got an itch to do some renovation work here and there, but the smith shop at home was quite enough work as is.

Ironroad was quite homely, full of busy workshops, craftsmen, and even a pottery worker who seemed to not have made it onto snakey-snake's new naughty list.

The building they had purchased was a two-story construction, with the workshop at the bottom and living quarters at the top. It had been in a sorry state when they got it.

Zhoey kicked off her shoes, walked inside the smithy where her mom sat working, hunched over some simple trinket a noble might pay a fortune for. They didn't sell weapons and armour – well, nothing which would be dangerous if turned against them, at least.

"Hey honey, how did it go?", Thama said, still bent over her work, tapping with a tiny little hammer on an elaborate inlay of some sort.

"I passed. It was quite difficult, but fortunately I didn't have to go first in any of the tests so I just followed along.", Zhoey replied, sinking onto a wooden sofa she had been gifted after fixing the neighbour's old loom.

"I see. Congrats. So when are you gaining access to the library and all that?"

"When the school term starts I guess. If I pass the theoretical tests."

Thama breathed out, looking pleased with her work. She held up a finished armlet then kicked the feet of her rotary stool, sending her body into a spin a few times around. When she halted the motion with a stomp she was looking straight at her daughter though the raised armlet, face shifting to a serious expression.

Was that a master smith ritual, or just a weird mom thing? Zhoey didn't know.

"Hey, where are the rings I gave you? The ones with triple normal enchantments. It's not like you need them, but I still worry."

"I gave them away to a friend at school."

Her mom perked up.

"You've already made a friend? That's nice!"

There was a brief pause.

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"Well look at you – who would have thought that just the other month you were a... a.. what was it... ah, the Wretch of Breccon!"

Zhoey sighed and got up to head upstairs.

"Speaking of filth, I'm going to take a bath."

Thama slowly spun on the stool, keeping Zhoey in view with the armlet scope, then shot off a question.

"Anyways, did you pick up the materials I asked for?"

Zhoey paused halway up the stairs.

"Right. They were almost out of conduit stones but I got the other stuff."

Zhoey strutted back down, letting the system ring release a few piles of ore stones on a sorting cabinet with a multitude of small drawers, each neatly titled by a paper note.

Thama dropped her scope, walked up to the cabinet and promptly began to sort.

"Nice. Decent. Nice. Okay. Flawed. Nice..."

As Zhoey moved to quietly return up the stairs, the all-seeing mom-eyes at the back of Thama's head activated.

"So, are you going out tonight? If you could hunt for some nightwyrm scales instead of clobbering pottery workers that would be nice. What's the deal with those guys anyways?"

"Snakey snake said its mistress is looking into it. They keep making these awful statues and she doesn't know why. There might be a 'rogue god' involved, whatever that means. Supposedly this world 'changed jurisdiction' so now her hands aren't as tied."

"Then why do you have to do it? I thought you were done with her quest."

"Not sure. Snake said that if I do this new stuff I get three gacha draws. It's apparently quite exciting. We... could get that extremely tasty bread again."

"Oh, my! Go get those pottery workers – the nightwyrm scales can wait!"

"Actually, there's another... thing I need to do too, and I have to find a 'heroic weapon' somehow."

"Aw... oh- hey, how about I fix up this rusty old thing?", Thama exclaimed, snatching up the Mace of Breccon from the junk pile, " – I could reinforce the enchantments, maybe squeeze in a new one. The corrosion could be neutralised by alchemy. This part is unsalvageable – probably. Unless I convert the material with-"

With tip-taps, Zhoey finally managed to escape upstairs.

The bath was carved from heavy stone and needed support from several thick pillars downstairs. It weighed a lot, but for Zhoey the only trouble had been to move it indoors without destroying the house and without anyone seeing her lugging the thing around. They were supposed to keep a low profile, unlike in Breccon. Who needs all of that attention?

The bath kept nicely warm as it leeched heat directly from the smithing furnace. It seemed like her mother had anticipated her need as the bath was already prepared.

Zhoey undressed, sank into the bath and closed her eyes.

Then her mother stormed into the bathroom looking like she had something more to speak about. However, upon seeing her daughter relaxing with one annoyed eye open she quietly withdrew, gently shutting the door.

––o––

There had been a visitor to the shop earlier today – a merchant from the Gorrun & Garnet trading company. It took Thama some effort to not eviscerate the man on the spot, not only because of their history, but also because of his awful business proposal. They'd act as a middleman selling her goods, but do no actual work while lining their pockets. That was the long and short of it.

Thama had looked into all of the city's public archives on the ZaGa ruination all those years ago, but found nothing. It was unlikely any sort of incriminating evidence could be raised. So, they would just have to use brute force to settle the matter... when the time was right.