"We're closed until next—Oh. It's you," Xri Relven said as Cass, Alyx, and company stepped into the Relven shop. It looked just like they'd left it the other day, weapons on display on the walls. A trough of ice water by the door. The tall xerenth engraver, Xri, at the counter inspecting something with a jewel loop.

Had it really only been a few days since Alyx had taken Cass here?

Alyx smirked. "Lock your door if you don't want people wandering in."

Xri rolled her eyes. Over her shoulder, she shouted, "Tab, Alyx is here."

A loud bang reverberated from the back room and a bolt of white fluff shot into reception.

"Alyx!" Tabith Relven shouted, her body positively vibrating with excitement. "I heard! You won! You're a knight now? Oh, look at you! Aris would be so proud. Her daughter, standing so tall on her own!" The smith grabbed Alyx's hands, squeezing them tightly and looking up into Alyx's eyes. "With a dragon and everything!"

Alyx squeezed them back. A glimmer of mischief flickered in her eyes. "You want to meet him?"

Tabith nodded vigorously. "Obviously! Let me see the little dear! I remember when our dear Kel was first bonded. Oh, the big eyes. The soft belly scales!"

Cass raised an eyebrow. Clearly, they hadn't heard everything.

Alyx led the two craftswomen outside to the street, where Kelstor waited.

Dragon

Lvl 38

[A proud and noble beast, bonded to his knight. His soul reclaimed from the depths of madness.]

He was a huge creature, easily as tall as a giraffe, but with a much longer, heavier body. He was covered in amber scales that glistened in the afternoon sun. A mane of fluffy white hair ran down his back, curling like clouds. A pair of twisting horns adorned his head, one chipped at the tip, but both were plenty sharp all the same.

He lay in the middle of the street, his wings tucked to his sides on either side of the leather saddle he wore between his shoulder blades. A long tail curled around him, like a cat at rest.

"Kel, say hi to Tabith and Xri," Alyx said, gesturing to the craftswomen.

He opened an eye and lifted his head. "Hello, Miss Relven, Miss Tordi."

"That's—" Tabith stuttered, her mouth hanging open, her eyes bulging.

Xri's hands flew over her mouth. "No. But he's—"

"They're both Mrs. Relven now, actually," Alyx said, her grin growing.

"Oh, Miss Xri confessed then?" Kelstor asked.

A laugh broke Tabith's shock. "That's what you're concerned about? Boy, you've been dead for years, and the first thing you ask is if that dummy proposed to me?"

Kelstor cocked his head to one side. "Did she?"

Tabith laughed louder. "No. Of course not. I asked her in the end."

Kelstor nodded slowly. "That makes more sense."

Cass smiled, hanging back a step so as not to intrude. A flash of Robin and Kaye's faces excitedly welcoming her home filled her vision. Soon, she promised herself. She'd find them soon.

"How is he alive?" Xri interrupted. "Was he not killed beside your lady, Tabith?"

"It's a long story." Alyx patted Kelstor's side, her smile fading. "I'll tell you later."

"But, Aris is dead," Tabith said. She looked up at Kelstor. "Then. You bonded with him?"

Alyx nodded.

"And in between?" Tabith whispered.

"I don't remember much of it, miss," Kelstor said softly.

Tabith bit her lip. "I see. I'm glad you're alright now."

"Glad to be back," he agreed.

"Well." Xri clapped. "We should move this party to the backyard before a neighbor complains we're clogging up the street."

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The street was empty. Down the way, the sounds of Festival parties floated from some homes. Cass and company followed the craftswoman around to their yard, all the same.

Their yard was a dirt lot surrounded by a simple stick fence. A set of targets stood along one side. Training dummies stood along another. They likely let customers test out new equipment back here. But there was plenty of space for Kelstor.

Xri opened a set of large barn doors on the back side of the shop, revealing the workshop. "Come on in."

"Are you finally here to celebrate your victory with us?" Tabith asked as they seated themselves around a table Xri and Marco had dragged into the doorway so they could include Kelstor, who didn't fit inside.

Alyx shook her head. "Unfortunately, no, I'm here on business again."

Tabith pouted. "But it's the Festival! And you won! Take some time off. Relax!"

"I would," Alyx said, her voice tired. "But my father finally worked up the courage to banish me."

"NO!" Tabith shot to her feet.

Xri's jaw clenched.

"Now?" Tabith paced the room. "That rotten, cowardly, shortsighted," her insults rambled on, drifting into words that either Cass's Jothi Comprehension was not high enough to translate or were in another language entirely. From the face Xri was making and the revulsion in the smith's voice, it was fair to guess the profanity was considerably vile.

"Settle," Xri admonished as the stream continued with no natural end in sight.

Tabith grumbled but shut her mouth, plopping back down at the table with a final huff.

"I take it you need new equipment before you ship out?" Xri asked.

Alyx nodded. "As quick as Tabith can make it for us."

"How long do I have?" Tabith asked.

"Until the end of the Festival. Sorry to ask you to work on your vacation."

"That's a tight timeline." Tabith shook her head. "You know all I want to do is make things. Especially for you. I'll do my best. What did you have in mind?"

"Well, to begin with," Alyx nodded at Cass.

"I may have broken the armor you made me," Cass said, setting what remained of her chest plate and the rest of the set on the table. Deep rends were cut through the remaining pieces. One of the arm guards was missing entirely.

"You broke it already! This badly?" Tabith snatched the breast plate up, her fingers tracing the cuts in the metal, her eyes flicking between Cass and the cuts. "And you're still alive?"

Cass shrugged, one hand drifting up to rub her shoulder where the paladin captain's hand had pierced her pauldron.

The smith shook her head. "I was told you were a mage. What are you doing getting in range of swords?"

Cass hung her head. She also wanted to know why that kept happening.

"Alright, I'll see what I can do with this. Clearly, we'll need to reinforce it somehow. And without increasing the weight?"

"Ideally, yes," Cass said. She was better suited to dodging attacks than deflecting or tanking them. The armor was insurance for when she was unable to dodge, but it would defeat much of its purpose if she were hit more often because of its weight or bulk.

"We have lots of materials for you to work with." Alyx gestured at Marco, who started pulling the materials they'd collected from the catacombs and arranging them on the table.

The little smith squealed, dropping the mangled breastplate. "Oh! I love the Festival! Look at all this?" She picked up several black metal plates, holding them to the light. "Aventis Gopher plating? Dreadiron?" She picked up a length of silver wire. "Silversoul wiring?" She gasped and lifted a wolf mask from the pile. "A Soulbound Wolf head?" Cass wasn't even sure when Marco had collected that.

Alke antlers from the exit trial and pink crystals from the catacombs joined the table, too.

"Ah, if you have all this, why couldn't you give me more time?" Tabith held the wolf head, shifting it so the sunlight glimmered off the metal. "I could have made so much for you with all this!"

"I know, but do your best," Alyx said.

"Of course, of course. What else do you need?"

"This," Alyx said, setting something down on the table.

A wooden staff, shattered in the center. Her staff. Broken beyond use.

Cass's heart pounded in her chest.

It was just a staff, Cass reminded herself. Barely even a staff. Just a stick she'd found on the ground. She hadn't even been in this world for a day. That was how little thought she'd put into choosing it.

It was just a stick.

Tabith frowned, picking up one half. "This is pretty badly destroyed."

That was what Cass had expected her to say. Which was fine. Because it was just a stick.

"A shame," Tabith muttered, inspecting the broken end. "Rare to see madrone wood this well cured."

"There is a lot of Focus resonance through it, too," Xri said, picking up the other half. "You've used this well."

"Can you fix it?" Alyx asked.

Tabith hummed in thought. 'No' was written all over her face.

Cass's hands clenched around the fabric of her robes. Salos's soul rested close to hers, warm and soft.

I'm okay, she whispered. It's just a stick.

There is no shame in being attached to your first weapon, he said. But all such partners are replaced, eventually. You'd long since outgrown that, and you know it.

"Well?" Alyx asked.

Tabith's hum stretched into a reluctant, "Maybe? Maybe with more time. Maybe with a proper arcane focus."

Arcane focus? Like—

"This?" Cass drew the Stormcaller Stone from her Bag. It was the fist-sized, unpolished gem that Cass had won from the Trove in the catacombs.

Stormcaller Stone

Class: Focus (Unrefined)

[A crystal formed in the ever-rolling storm that is the Elysian Gyre. It is a manifestation of condensed potential, bristling with the energies of the storm it was formed in.]

Tabith's eyes widened. "Oooh. Nice. Very nice. Xri, look at this!"

The engraver took the gem from Cass. She rolled it between her hands, her eyes inspecting the surface carefully. "Yes, exactly like this."

"So you can fix it," Alyx said.

Tabith shook her head. "Not 'fix' so much as remake? The damage is much too severe to fix in the 'seamless' sense of the word. You can't undo a break this big."

Some changes were irreversible, no matter what she wanted. That was a part of life. She shouldn't go attaching greater symbolic meaning to this. It was just a stick.

"But, I can definitely use the pieces of your old staff with this focus to forge it into something new," Tabith added quickly. She was smiling forcefully at Cass. "And isn't that better?"

Cass wasn't sure. But it sounded like they were going to fix it for her, one way or another. It shouldn't matter so much, but she found she could breathe a little easier all of a sudden.

"So, let's talk details!" Tabith pushed the materials to one side as she spread a sheet of paper over the table, a charcoal pencil in hand.

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