Weaponsmith - Chapter 89 (Patreon)

Hineni stands down in the ice-cellar, looking around himself at the assortment of things that has begun to collect down here. Meats for the kitchen that Obscura has hunted hang strung from strong hooks. Crates full of tubers and perishable vegetables sit stacked in orderly collections. Between all of that, strong crystals of ice fill the room.

He shudders. It’s gotten colder down here lately.

“Eilig,” says Hineni, knocking on the door of the small doll-house with a finger. “You home?”

A blobby, indiscernible face pops out of a window. “Of course I’m home. Where else would I be?” she asks. “What do you want?”

Hineni blinks and shrugs. “I don’t want anything. I just wanted to say hi,” he says. “Seltsam told me you haven’t been out of the cellar in a while.”

“Why would I leave my cellar?!” she snaps, leaning out of the window. “I like it down here. That’s why I live here,” explains the fairy. “Down here, I’m free from you people.”

“You feeling alright?” he asks, leaning down. “You’re not getting sick, are you?”

“Huh? What?” she asks. “Back off, frog breath,” replies the fairy, hitting his nose with her fist. “You’re gonna stink up my house!”

“I haven’t eaten a frog in ages,” says Hineni, lifting an eyebrow.

“Then consider practicing better oral hygiene,” she replies, her wings buzzing angrily on her back. “Sometimes a person just wants to be left alone, okay?”

Hineni looks around the room, full of much more ice than usual.

“Aren’t you going a little heavy on the ice?” he asks, kicking a crystal down by his feet and breaking it off. “There’s barely room to walk here anymore.”

She places her hands on the top of her window. “Maybe that’s the idea!” she barks and then slams it shut, disappearing inside again.

Hineni shrugs, looking around the basement, full of ice, before heading back upstairs.

_________________________________________________________

It is a day later.

Hineni climbs down the ladder to the ice-cellar, letting out a surprised hiss as something pokes his leg before he can climb down. The man turns around, looking down at the ground below him.

The entire floor of the cellar is covered in razor sharp, jagged spikes of ice that point up towards the ceiling, which is starting to frost over.

This place looks like some wild cave at the peak of a mountain, more than a cellar in his own home.

Carefully, Hineni makes his way down, breaking the crystals from the side with his boots, before working his way slowly towards the house, attached to the ceiling by a spire of ice.

He knocks on the door.

“Eilig.”

It’s quiet for a time.

A few moments later, he hears a loud, obvious stomping coming from inside of the doll-house. Loud enough that it can’t be accidental, she’s trying to make a point of it.

The front-door opens up.

“What?!” snaps the fairy, looking out his way.

“Good morning,” says Hineni, holding up a small, fairy-sized plate. “Rhine made this ready for you,” he says. “Since you didn’t show up for breakfast.”

An annoyed buzzing comes from inside of the house as she flaps her wings again in agitation. “Why would I want to eat breakfast with you people?!”

“Because we’re family and you belong there,” says Hineni, doing his best to hand her the tiny plate. “Seltsam was sad you haven’t been there.”

“Shut up!” she barks, taking it.

“You sure you’re feeling well?” asks Hineni. “The ice is really getting out of control.”

She sets the plate of food down on a small table inside and then walks back to the door, holding it.

“I’m fine!” she says. “As if I could have the luck of getting sick and dying.”

“You were already dead before,” notes Hineni.

“And boy do I miss it!” she barks, slamming the door shut on him.

Hineni stands there, his hands on his hips as he watches the door.

She opens it up again, staring at him.

— Then she slams it shut a second time, without saying anything.

Hineni shrugs, walking away to climb back up the ladder again.

The sound of a tiny door being slammed a third time reaches his ears as he leaves the cellar.

_________________________________________________________

It is another day later.

Hineni climbs down into the ice-cellar, looking around himself.

— Everything is thawing out. There’s barely any ice left and everything is damp and wet from all of the melted water. He notices that many of the boxes and crates have been rearranged to create a sort of closed off area from the front of the cellar.

“Eilig,” says Hineni, climbing down the ladder. “Good morning.”

“G- good morning!” replies a voice that isn’t Eilig’s. Seltsam, the librarian.

“Hey, morning Seltsam,” replies Hineni, looking at the stack of boxes and then towards the fairy-house. The string of ice holding it up to the ceiling has all but melted away, so several crates have been placed beneath it to stop it from falling to the floor. “Taking things into your own hands, I see.”

“T-That’s what friends are for!” she says, her voice cracking as she sounds almost too excited saying the phrase. Hineni supposes that having a friend is something new for her.

“Is Eilig in?”

“No. Get lost,” replies a snappy voice from the house. “I’m sick of you coming down into my cellar.”

Hineni nods. “Gonna keep doing it every day until you come out,” he threatens, waiting for her to appear somewhere at a door or a window. But she doesn’t ever show up. An audible, but forced, groan comes from the doll-house. “Do I need to get a doctor?” asks Hineni, thinking. “Don’t think we’ve ever had anyone get sick before.”

“What you need to get is a noose!” snaps the fairy.

Hineni lifts an eyebrow. “That one is a bit too much, even for you,” says the man. “You really are getting sick.”

“Get lost!”

A voice comes from behind the boxes. “It’s magical overload syndrome,” says Seltsam.

“It isn’t! Shut up, Selty!” snaps Eilig. “It’s none of his business!”

“Magical whats-it-now?” asks Hineni.

“Magical overload syndrome,” repeats Seltsam. “Fairies are made of the ambient magics of a place. But that means they’re also very vulnerable to fluctuations in those energies,” explains the librarian. “With all of the people in the house and with the leylines messing up because of the war and with a god living here, it’s too much ambient magic in comparison to what it was before,” says Seltsam. “It’s not good for her.”

Hineni crosses his arms, as he thinks.

“- All of those high-power, magical weapons sitting around aren’t helping either,” finishes Seltsam.

Is this a real thing? Apparently. But if it is, this is a real problem. The entire point of their operation is for Obscura to grow in power and for their guild to become stronger and more active.

“Will it get better?” he asks.

“It will, once you get lost!” barks the fairy.

“I think so,” says Seltsam. “But it’s going to take a while for her body to adjust,” explains the librarian. “But I only know what I've read.”

He sighs in relief. “That’s good,” he says. “What can we do to help?” he asks.

“— How about being quiet?!” asks Eilig.

“Well,” starts Seltsam, thinking for a moment. “I heard there’s a vault being made. So maybe have the workers insulate the cellar against magic currents a bit more,” she says. “And in the meantime, keep any high power magical things away from her. And uh… you know, things that have been around magical things a lot too.”

Hineni nods. This makes sense.

The room is quiet.

“…That uh- that means you…” says Seltsam, meekly. “You’re around the owl-god the most, so you have her magical residue on you,” she explains. “It’s very bad for her right now.”

Hineni’s eyes open wide and he looks down at himself. He’s just been making things worse by coming down here every day.

The man takes a few steps back. “Sorry, Eilig,” he says. “I had no idea.”

“I told you five times to get away from me!” she snaps. “But you’re such a selfish asshole that you always just ignore what I want!”

He rubs the back of his head, running his fingers through his hair. “Sorry. I thought you were just being cranky because you’re sick,” he explains. “I really didn’t know I was making it worse.” He heads towards the ladder. “Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help,” he says. “Seltsam. I’m leaving her up to you. Whatever you need, tell Sockel. I’ll tell her to arrange it.”

Hineni climbs up the ladder, leaving the ice-cellar and closing the trap door behind himself. He looks at the cooks, arriving for the day.

“The cellar’s closed off today,” he says. “Sorry. Just run a light kitchen with whatever you can buy at the market today.”

Lutz and Leicht look at each other and shrug. “Okay,” replies the orc. “But we’re opening soon. We should hurry to buy some ingredients, then.”

Hineni nods, walking through the kitchen. “Okay. One of you, come with me to the market,” he says and then gets ready to leave the house.

Forging might be the most important part of their operation in consideration of all of the contexts of their lives. But people and health management really is something that he has been neglecting in a way.

Perhaps this is a project to tackle next.