Arc 2 Part 2
The following day saw Pearluna and Vil on the first floor of the inn eating breakfast. They sat across from each other in a booth. “So any plans for the house you’d like?” Vil started.
“I was thinking to keep it simple and cozy.” The witch took a drink of water. “No need to complicate things.”
“Good morning you two.” A familiar pink kimono came into view.
“Good morning Mrs. Tenant.” Vil replied.
“Please, just call me Aiya.” The kitsune replied. Pearluna moved over so that Aiya could sit next to her.
“My husband asked me to guide you to his office to finalize everything and to meet with the Mining Guild representatives.” Aiya started stroking one of her tails. “But I also wanted to ask Pearluna something.”
“What is it?” The witch smiled gently.
Aiya asked. “Would you mind doing enchantments for the kimonos I make?”
Pearluna look unsure. “I um, my deal with Vil was to enchant his creations. Right Vil?”
Vil did not look offended by Aiya’s question. “I never said that it was exclusive. I’m not greedy to try and covet you all to myself. Pearluna, you can make your own decisions.”
Pearluna gratefully smiled at Vil and turned to Aiya. “Would you be okay if I can work for both Vil and you?”
“I don’t see why not.” The kitsune responded.
<Scene Change>
Once Vil and Pearluna finished eating Aiya guided them to her husband’s office in Mariana. It was not much of a standout building, the only indication that it was the landlords was the sign with the words “Landlord Tenant.”
As the small group made their way to the second floor, they could hear three men talking behind the door at the top. Aiya knocked on the door, causing the voices to go silent. “That must be them.” The recognizable voice of Reef could be heard.
The door was opened by the Naiad himself and he first looked at Aiya. “Thanks dear.” He gestured welcomely to the witch and blacksmith. “Come in, we were just finishing our tea.”
The group entered and saw the two representatives from the Mining Guild. One was a blond fellow with feathers growing in his hair as well. One way to describe his look would be that of a canary.
The other person had gray hair with wolf ears. Draped over the right armrest was a wolf’s tail. He was finishing his tea as Reef kissed Aiya goodbye and then closed the door.
The two men stood up and turned to greet the witch and blacksmith. “A pleasure to meet you both.” The birdman said as he and the wolfman bowed. “I’m Carb Haldane, this is my colleague Heimer Schmidt.”
Pearluna and Vil bowed back. “My name’s Vil, and this is Pearluna.”
Reef clapped his hands once. “Well, now that you are all aquatinted, let’s get started with why we are all here.” The landlord sat behind his desk. “Let’s start with our Mining Guild friends.”
“Right then.” Heimer handed a document to Vil to read. “This is a standard contract for smelting for the Guild. Now because you are one of the very few smelters in the area and will be working in Mariana, the pay will be higher since a lot of material goes through the harbor.”
The canary man spoke. “There is a clause there for the Guild to supply certain expenses. Is there anything we need to supply you?”
Vil thought back to when he was looking over the forge and all of the items he saw in it. The things that he was missing was what he needed to even perform for the Mining Guild. “I’ll need a smelter behind the forge building.” He read further to the number of iron ingots he needs to make, he needed to make four pallets a week, according to the document. “I’ll also need pallets, coal, and wood.” He finished.
“Setting up the smelter will be no issue.” Heimer began. “My two sons will be delivering the ore to you with the pallets that need to be filled, while taking the ingots, every week. I can add coal and wood to the list of things they’ll need to deliver to you.”
Vil handed the document to Pearluna. “That should be everything then. Pearluna?”
The vampire read the document herself. Her parents taught her how to read such documents so that she could find anything that could be used against her in the future. The document from the Mining Guild was surprisingly very fair, pay was generous and there was no underhanded wordplay.
She looked up at the birdman and wolfman. They didn’t look nervous at all or have that smirk of appearing better than her or Vil. ‘They are being genuine and nothing is suspicious about this.’ She thought.
Pearluna put the document back into Vil’s hands. “Everything appears to be in order. It’s now up to you Vil.”
Vil placed the document on the desk. “I’ll sign it.”
Reef handed him a quill pen. They all watched Vil sign his name to the document, cementing the agreement. Vil put the quill back in its ink when he finished.
As Heimer took the document Carb spoke. “Thank you for your cooperation. I’ll coordinate with Reef later for installing the smelter with the guys remodeling the place.”
Heimer and Carb bowed and then walked out of the room. After they were gone Reef gestured for the pair to sit in the vacant chairs. As they sat down the naiad slide his own documents to them on his desk.
“Glad to see everyone playing nice. That’s why I like it here.” Reef said. “Now here is the price for owning the house and the remodeling. We are giving you standard furniture as well, but nothing fancy. If you want to change anything like get more expensive furniture or paint the house blue, now’s the time to mention it.”
Vil pulled out the sack of money he got from the king. “Pearluna and I already discussed this. We want to keep the house simple.” Pearluna nodded in agreement.
He started counting the gold coins as he was making sure he got out enough to pay upfront. Once he finished he handed the stacks of gold to the landlord. “That should be your price.”
“It is. Now it will take a few days for everything to be in order.” Reef put the money to the side as Vil and Pearluna signed their names.
The landlord looked over their signatures. His eyes settled on Pearluna’s last name. ‘So it is the Count’s daughter, she is not as demanding as I was expecting.’ He put the document into a drawer. “The housework will take a few days. I’ll let you both know when it is done.”
Vil and Pearluna stood up and bowed politely. “Thank you.” Vil said. “Have a good day.” Pearluna finished.
<Scene Change>
Pearluna and Vil found themselves sitting in a coffeeshop. With all the paperwork done the pair were free to relax for a bit. As Pearluna took a sip of her drink, Vil asked. “Pearluna how hot can that enchanted stone of yours get?”
The witch put her drink down. “As hot as I need it to be, why?” She could see that Vil had an idea.
“I wanted to use them for the smelting process.” He took a bite from his biscuit before continuing. “It could save a lot of time to just have a bunch of those stones in the smelter and not have to add fuel to a fire.”
“It’s possible to do that.” Pearluna explained. “But you asked for wood and coal earlier.”
“That is just incase it doesn’t work.” Vil elaborated. “I also need the coal for making steel.”
“Steel?” Pearluna questioned.
“Kunin told me that smoke from coal is part of the process of turning iron into steel.” Vil explained. “You heat the iron in the forge while in the smoke. Then you fold the iron and repeat. Eventually you get steel.”
“I didn’t know that.” The witch admitted. “But back to the enchanted stone idea. I can make the stones hot enough for the smelter.” She then got an idea. “Would you like me to teach you how to activate and control them?”
Vil had a surprised face. “You can teach me?” While he had his affin to move things, he never tried magic and he felt he never would.
“Of course.” The vampire offered. “It’s always strange starting out for everyone. But I can show you how to control your mana. Let’s go to my room in the inn.”
Vil smiled and nodded at the prospect.
<Scene Change>
Inside of Pearluna’s room, the witch put her hat on her bed as Vil stood behind her. Pearluna then got out the stone from her bag and placed it on the floor in the middle of the room. With that done she stood in front of the blacksmith.
“Place your hands on mine.” She offered her hands so that Vil could place his on top. She gently gripped them. “I’m going to have my mana flow into your body and back to mine. This will help you know what mana feels like.”
“Okay.” Vil was a little stiff.
“Relax your body and when you feel a push, don’t resist.” The witch explained softly. “Let the mana flow.”
Her body started to glow blue. Vil saw the blue aura reach their hands, then his body started to glow. As it was happening he felt the strange push feeling. It felt like he was be pushed back. As much as he wanted to stand his ground, he didn’t know how against Pearluna’s mana.
“The uncomfortable part is almost done.” Her soft red eyes were contrasting the blue glow.
Suddenly the pushing let up. Now it was a strange flowing feeling. It was like feeling water from a shower hitting the body and traveling down to the floor. Or in this case from his left hand traveling to his right.
“Feels therapeutic doesn’t it.” The witch stated.
Vil couldn’t deny even if he wanted to. “Does magic always feel like this?”
Her soft eyes looked welcoming. “With many spell yes, with some others, not so much. We will stay like this for a bit longer.”
As they stood in this position, Vil started to get used to the flowing feeling of Pearluna’s mana. It just felt so welcoming to him and easing of the mind. “I’m going to stop now.” The witch claimed.
As the blue aura around them dissipated, so did the feeling. Vil felt a little disappointed that it ended.
“Now we will start with me assisting you to activate the heat stone.” Pearluna pointed at the stone on the floor. “Reach out your hand and concentrate on the feeling you had just before.”
Vil did as she told. As he was trying to regain the feeling, his hand pulsed with a small flickering aura the color of red.
Pearluna was behind him and got really close to him. Her left hand entwined its fingers with his right. The full length of their arms were touching and the witch rested her head on his shoulder. “Not everyone gets their first casting the first time.” Suddenly her both their arms started to glow, his red colored and hers blue. “Remember this feeling.” She instructed.
Suddenly the stone started to get warm. It’s heat felt like holding a hand over a candle. “Now let's control it to dial back the heat.” The mana flowing feeling shifted to Vil as the stone started to cool off.
When the stone was no longer emitting heat. The auras stopped glowing as Pearluna let go of Vil’s hand. She gave him some space by walking to her bed and sitting down. “It’s a start.” She smiled at him. “Don’t look disappointed. I couldn’t get my first spell off without help either.”
Vil’s face brightened. “So can we try again?”
The witch smiled. “We have a few days, like Reef said. We will continue these exercises till then.”
