I was wandering the town with Treepo at my heels, looking for ways I could help out, when I heard an irregular tapping sound. I couldn’t place it at first. A woodpecker beast, maybe?

Following the sound to close in on the location, I realized that it wasn’t the sound of wood being pecked at, but metal. When I approached a small workshop, I discovered it wasn’t a beast making the sound, but an old man, hunched over an engraving ball vise. I watched from the doorway as he worked away with a small hammer and chisel, intensely focused.

It was a bit surprising to find someone at work on what was clearly a creative pursuit immediately following the battle for the town. I assumed the man, formerly a prisoner, had been denied his craft for years in order to work one of the occupying force’s production lines, and once he was freed he immediately set out to fulfill his heart’s desire. I wasn’t an artist and couldn’t quite understand that level of passion for a craft, but I respected it.

Eventually, the old man looked up, and shot me a hard glare. I was wearing my Velgein illusion, since most of the freed townspeople didn’t know me yet, but he clearly didn’t want to be interrupted. Still, I had to ask.

“What are you working on?”

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The man frowned–possibly confused why I was speaking the Horuthian tongue instead of Velgeinian–but ultimately responded.

“Engraving dagger,” he said in rough Horuthian.

I took his answer as enough of an invite to step into the shop, and peered down at the blade he was working on. He had only just started at it, but it was an intricate work of sweeping lines and gentle curves. He got back to tapping away as I watched.

Engraving steel was difficult given how hard it was, but this man was making it look easy. If he could do such delicate work on a dagger, he could surely work wonders on a softer metal.

“Have you ever engraved gold?”

“Yes. Gold easy,” he grunted.

I pulled out my gold 4-point magic circle as well as my light enchantment, and he stopped his work to look over at them.

“Can you do something like this?” I asked.

The man took the two discs, dismissing the simpler magic circle in favor of the enchantment, and looked over the finely engraved command ring carefully before nodding. He looked at me again, more closely and quizzically.

Pushing some magic into the enchantment, I lit it up and watched the man’s eyes go wide. I pulled out some parchments with the designs I wasn’t able to commission in Roko.

“I can show you something even more amazing, if you can make these,” I said with a sly grin.

Pilus will return in Worldseed Book 3.