When we arrived at the source of the explosion, I was glad to see Inertia and Bevel were both safe, though I was honestly surprised to find that it hadn't been centered on them.

I was also surprised to see a Forgeborn that managed to make Inertia look small.

"Are you all so big?" I found myself asking Inertia, even as I stepped closer to Bevel. Which is when I noticed the literal chainsaw sword Bevel was carrying. "Why does Bevel have a chainsword?"

"Peace," Inertia said in a burst of hissing steam, as if that made any sense whatsoever.

Then she gestured to a cloaked figure who looked remarkably like Tresla, except their cloak was much paler, almost white. They were holding a blade in their hand, which I noted, didn't have spinning bits of metal running up and down its length.

"That explained, nothing, you know that right?" I asked her, tilting my head to look up at her hulking form.

She simply started whistle-hissing with laughter.

"Who the depths are you?" a voice asked from behind us. One I'd been introduced to only minutes before. Well, for a certain value of introduced. I'd forgotten all about Tamrie's mum.

I turned around, with Tamrie's arm still looped through mine, to face the woman.

The fact she seemed even more upset than before was, in a way, a good thing. At least, that's what I figured. After all, it proved she was worried for Tamrie.

She shared the same messy hair as her daughter, and the keen brown eyes. Her nose was sharper though, and she had colored glass woven into her clothes in a way that absorbed light rather than reflect it.

Still, I needed to deal with Bevel before we worried about Tamrie's mother.

"Can you tackle your mom while I make sure Bevel's okay?" I asked in a near whisper.

Tamrie grimaced, but nodded letting go of my arm and taking her mother into a brief hug, before pulling her to the side.

"You're okay?" I asked Bevel, moving over to put a hand on her curly locks. I ruffled her hair even as I sent a Restore Form through her, just in case. Other than a bit of fatigue, it didn't seem to do anything, which was a relief.

"I'm great," Bevel said, holding her chainsword up in front of me. "Look what we made!"

"It's very… jagged. And spinny," I said, using Eagle Eyes to inspect it closer. I hadn't noticed the smoke at first, since it was rather subtle. Bevel had managed to use the smoke to give the jagged chain its momentum. I wasn't sure how well it'd maintain its speed once it started chopping into things though.

"I based it off your designs! It's a prototype," Bevel said, gesturing to Inertia.

Inertia seemed to understand what Bevel wanted, because she hefted a large chunk of wood into place in the middle of the pit.

The blade spun up, and to my surprise, it had no problem cutting through the wood. Nor the floor of the forging pit.

"Oops," Bevel said as she pulled the sword up, inspecting the jagged cut at the bottom of the pit. Luckily, it was already closing over. "Might need to add some sort of enchantment for that."

"Might actually be tough enough to get through the trees," I said, holding my hand out for the blade. "What's its name?"

"Uh…" Bevel mumbled something I couldn't quite make out. I raised an eyebrow at her, but she didn't clarify.

"So, how do I get this to work," I said instead, studying the enchantment.

"You might not be able to… oh nevermind," Bevel said as I channeled mana into the chainsword, causing it to whir with a rather loud hum.

"That's a very good intake design," I said, letting it return to its 'idle' mode, which still left the chain constantly spinning. "It's going to need some sort of lubrication though, since there's no enchantment for that. Otherwise you're going to be replacing this chain every hour or so."

"Redesign?" Bevel asked, eyes lighting up.

"Redesign," I chuckled, tussling her hair again. "But not now. Have you eaten? I was thinking of grabbing dinner."

"Uh…" Bevel glanced to the side as her stomach protested.

"I'll take that as a no," I said, chuckling. "Did you think to make a sheath for that thing, or is it always like that?"

Bevel looked at her chainsword. Then her freckles shifted as her face lit up in a crooked smile. "Uh… can you put it in your ring?"

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"Let's see, shall we," I said, carefully taking it from her. I put the sword in the tier 2 ring, since its stasis should be stronger than the simple enchantment she used on the blade. Sure enough, the blade went in, though it took up more than twice the space it should, since the billowing smoke counted as part of the item.

There were all sorts of interesting connotations to that we'd need to discuss later.

Luckily, there were all sorts of street foods available. I ended up getting us a selection of baked goods, including some fried dough sticks that tasted just like donuts. Was even able to convince the vendor to roll some into a circle for me, for a little bit extra. Much as we'd expanded our food supply in Cape Aeternia, flour - and all the delightful treats that it was made into - wasn't something we had huge amounts of.

With trade from Spellford, hopefully that'd change soon. We didn't even need much, just enough grains to start proper crops and the mills to grind it.

As we ate, I noted Tresla talking to the other Forgeborn's translator, though their actual verbal communication was sparse. No one had introduced us to the Forgeborn or its translator, and I was left wondering if there was some reason for that, or if they were just so excited to have someone new to talk with.

A few feet away, Tamrie was still talking with her mum. With Bevel's toy safely secured and something to tide her over until we can find a proper meal, I returned to my partner, hoping to reinforce her.

"-likely to bring the nets back full," Tamrie's mum said, nodding to her daughter. "That one came in top twenty. Good reward for that. Sponsored too. And he's local, merchant family. Can't beat a local Spellford boy. A full ten for attractiveness, seven wealth, and eight for connections. An excellent mark. Nice to see you haven't lost the eye. Could be better than I ever was, if you made the effort."

Tamrie smiled and laughed, then tilted her head slightly, pointing to someone in the crowd. "And how 'bout him? Not as rich."

"Don't know bout that one. From the Green Sea, he is. They're all quick shots, down there, if'n you get my meaning."

Well, it seemed like Tamrie wasn't having too much trouble with her mum, if she was laughing like that.

"More n'like you're right," Tamrie said, letting out a sigh before adding, "Fortune's probably all gone into drink or dredging the depths. So just another ten-three-three."

I didn't hear her mother's response, just the sharp sound of laughter.

They were clearly evaluating men. Though as they started talking about their next 'target', I realized that wasn't true. It seemed they were talking about any attractive person they could see.

Felt a bit hypocritical after her getting upset about me studying Arizar's enchantments.

Before I had time to dwell on it, Calbern had his hand on my shoulder, directing me over to where Bevel and the Forgeborn where standing. It took a second for me to realize Bevel was talking to the giant bear-like Forgeborn as though she could actually make sense of the rattling and whistles.

"Really? You used to be a slave before you fought in the Altean uprising? My sister was like that too, until Papa freed her," Bevel said, nodding. Then she went quiet as the bear-Forgeborn responded, the steam rolling over her. Both Bevel and Inertia started laughing, and somehow, I felt even more out of place in this conversation than the one Tamrie and her mother were having.

"It seems Lady Bevel has had quite the day," Calbern said, a gentle smile on his lips.

"No kidding," I said, smiling alongside him as we watched her break out into another bout of laughter with the two Forgeborn. "How was yours? Any luck with your other task?"

"Not so much. It seems my mentor has been seen, but no one knows where he is. There's a possibility he's already left," Calbern replied, shaking his head. "However, if I understand correctly, there are over four million residents, so it is possible he has simply been lost amongst the crowd."

"Wait, really?" I asked, looking around. "I knew Spellford was big, but four million?"

"Even more, with the refugees," Calbern said, inclining his head slightly. "Perhaps twice that count, though none could tell me with surety."

"And Thozgar's only asking us to take on ten thousand to start," I said, shaking my head.

"That is still a significant number, master Percival."

"Sure, but… not compared to four million. Or eight, if its really double. Rags and oil," I said, trying to guess just how much infrastructure it would take to house even a tenth of that. "Getting Overflow B converted is even more important than I realized."

Calbern shifted his posture slightly, and I realized Tresla and the other cloaked figure had joined us.

"May I introduce Oltras, Equilibrium's translator," Tresla said by way of greeting.

"Greetings, translator Oltras," Calbern said, inclining his head in the being's direction.

"Nice to meet you," I said, offering it my hand.

The translator accepted my hand with enthusiasm, shaking it hard enough to pull me forward half a step. "It is nice to meet you as well. Translator Tresla was telling me you are the young lady's father?"

"Her Papa, yep," I said, nodding.

"I must say, meeting her has been quite the…"

I wasn't too surprised he'd trailed off when he had. Mainly because I was too busy being surprised by the speeding Bevel-missile that had smacked into me halfway through his sentence. "Oof, love you too, kiddo."

The simple display of affection was oddly touching. Or maybe not so oddly, if I thought about it. I went to set her down only to realize she was softly sobbing into my shoulder.

No explanation seemed to be forthcoming, despite Inertia and their new Forgeborn friend joining us.

"Maybe it's time to call it a day," I said, glancing over at Tamrie and her mother. "Sun's already snuck off on us."

"I shall retrieve Lady Tamrie," Calbern offered.

I nodded, holding Bevel against me with a bit of balancing that only worked by using my new flight ability, addressing the pair of translators. "Thozgar set up rooms for us in the Upper Holds. Some place called the First Drop. Did you have arrangements, Oltras?"

"We are staying there as well, prior to our meeting tomorrow," Oltras replied, his voice oddly painful compared to a minute earlier.

"Y'all should come to my place. Much better than some inn in the upper holds," Tamrie's mum said, arms crossed as they joined us.

"No need for that, mum. Our rooms are already set up for us. Private rooms," Tamrie said firmly, taking my arm in hers.

"Lady Tamrie is correct. It would hardly befit us to refuse our host's hospitality," Calbern added before her mum could reply. Judging from the way she was eying him - not so different from the way she and Tamrie had been looking at the Surgers they'd just been evalutating - it wasn't her agreeing with him that kept her from speaking.

"Oh Lady Tamrie, is it now? I 'spose it's for the best. Things been right screwy lately, what with Thozgar stopping by in person. And that's not to mention that other gent poking his cane at things. Don't 'spose you'd know anything about that, would you, ser Calbern?"

Calbern's eyebrow raised a fraction of an inch, his eyes narrowing just as minutely. "And what have you heard about this gentleman with a cane?"

"Hmm. I 'spose I could tell you… if'n you all were to come spend the night."

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