Edward Graves and the mysterious girl

The voices of men and women could be heard cheering from inside a tavern, obviously drunk the lot of em'.

Ale, rum, beer and wine were being spilled over the ground while drunkards argued with one another, some had even begun brawling each other over the stupidest of things.

"Hey! Y'all better not break anything! I'll take yer damn teeth and sell em to some crazy quack with a tooth fetish if ya damage this filthy bar o' mine!" A short, obese dwarven man spat out as he was cleaning one of his glass mugs.

He wore an apron over his wool woven clothes and stood on top of a wooden crate behind the counter since he was otherwise too short to serve his clients without it.

"C'mon Korgen! They're just having some fun, no harm done." a man sitting on one of the counter seats said to the dwarf named Korgen.

"Yeah, yeah. It's all fun and games to you until someone has to pay for the broken tables! Marcus, anyone is welcome here as long as they pay up… But if they go around breaking my tables and mugs we're gonna have a problem!" Korgen replied and slammed the freshly cleaned mug on the counter.

"You don't need ta worry bout anything my dear friend! Ha ha ha!" Marcus laughed as he took another big gulp of ale from his mug.

Korgen snorted, obviously still annoyed at his patrons but as long as he got his pay he didn't mind the racket.

The tavern was quite lively that night, men and women from all around the town had gathered to have fun at ol' man Korgen's tavern, as he served some of the best alcohol from all over the country!

At least according to him.

Reality was that this was the only tavern in town…

And these people had nothing better to do...

…

All was well until the tavern doors were suddenly kicked open, some people turned a glance at the man who entered while others didn't even notice over the huge commotion they were making with their partying.

The man stood at least six feet tall, wore a black hooded mantle, covering most of his body and face. He had leather boots on, a small bag on his side strapped to a belt and seemed to be wearing a leather coat under the mantle.

The man ignored the people who stared at him and simply marching towards the counter, sitting right in front of Korgen.

"Edward? That you under the hood there?" Korgen asked the hooded man with a puzzled expression, obviously surprised to see him.

"Korg, it has been quite some time hasn't it?" Edward said, removing his hood and revealing a handsome face, according to him at least.

Edward had a scar running down from his left eye, slightly long black hair, unkempt and dirty, his eyes were a shade of silver and his beard hadn't been trimmed for quite a while, giving him the look of a homeless person.

Which he was.

"I thought you'd have died in some ditch by now." Korgen said while pouring a mug of beer and serving it to Edward with a loud thud.

"Drink. It's on the house."

"Why thank you for the warm welcome ol' friend. But I'm here on other business." Edward replied, still grabbing the mug and chugging a good chunk of it down.

"And what may that be? Surely you're not back here after nearly six months just to try and pry mi secret wine recipe outa me mouth ar ye?" Korgen asked, pointing his finger towards Edward.

"Course' not," Edward retorted. "You can keep your filthy wine recipe, that thing is worse that goat piss and you know it!"

"Hmpf," Korgen snorted in distain "Ye just can't appreciate the fine taste of it is all."

"Never mind that, I just came to ask for your opinion and expertise." Edward said, sliding an item across the counter to Korgen.

"And what may this be?" Korgen asked, picking up the item with a puzzled expression to inspect it.

"It's a 'gun'. At least that's what I'm going to call them. That one in particular is called a flintlock pistol." Edward replied.

"Another one of your experiments no doubt?" Korgen said unamused as he returned the gun to its owner.

"That it is, been thinking of selling the design maybe making a quick buck? What do you think Korg?" Edward asked as he waved the pistol around.

"I don't know, what does that thing even do?" Korgen asked.

"It kills people, from a distance." Edward replied nonchalantly, like it explained everything.

"So it's like a bow?" Korgen asked again.

"Hmm… More like a sling shot I guess?" Edward replied, uncertain of his own answer.

"How do you kill people with a sling shot…?" Korgen asked once more, a tad bit confused by his friend's answer.

"It's a very deadly sling shot." Edward replied and took another big swing from his drink.

"How deadly we talkin' then?" Korgen asked.

"Bout this much." Edward replied and outstretched his right hand, still drinking with other while pointing the pistol towards Marcus' head.

Without any warning the gun fired and a sound akin to thunder roared through the tavern.

Marcus had just been minding his own business, examining a new dagger he had acquired though questionable means.

Yet now in no time flat, his brain had been splattered all across the floor and some had even landed on the counter.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at the now dead body of Marcus, shocked more so from the loud sound rather than the dead body.

All the people here were in fact outlaws, the town itself was a hiding spot meant for said outlaws.

It wasn't a big surprise to see bloodshed even on the streets let alone inside a tavern.

But a thundering sound like that? They had not seen the likes before.

Korgen on the other hand, simply whistled in approval. "That's pretty deadly."

"Ain't it? Hahaha!" Edward laughed and returned the gun to his belt.

The people there soon returned to their own activities, either not caring enough to inspect things further or too drunk to care in the first place.

However, some still seemed to show a hint of interest.

"Soo, about the dead man on the floor…?" Korgen said in a questioning tone.

"Ah, sorry bout that. You can ask Billy the cannibal to take him away I guess?" Edward replied, drinking the rest of his beer.

"Billy died a month ago," Korgen sighed "some kind of disease he got from eating a sick fella" He explained.

"Aww that sucks…" Edward said, his shoulders slumping down. "He was quite the funny guy to be around, you know...? Anyway pour me another!"

"Aight, but this one ain't on the house, just so you know." Korgen said, pouring Edward a second drink of beer.

"Tsk, cheapskate…"

"I don't want hearing that from you, now pay up Ed."

Edward looked at the beer for a moment and gave in, paying the appropriate sum to the old dwarven man.

"Why, thank you for your patronage kind sir! Hehe." Korgen said with a chuckle.

"Beat it Korg! So anyway, what do you think I should do with the pistol? Worth selling the design or nah?" Edward asked.

"Well, depending on how hard it is to mass produce I'd say you could rake in quite the amount of money from it." Korgen said, musing for a moment. "It's not enchanted is it? Those hypocrites at the church will be on your ass faster than whatever that thing shoots, if it is and you sell it."

"Not enchanted, obviously. What kind of idiot would sell their own enchantments?" Edward asked with an expression filled with confusion.

"What kind of idiot would sell their own inventions?" Korgen retorted.

"Fair point." Edward agreed, drinking his beer to the bottom of the mug. "I think I'll just keep it on hand for now, see how it holds up in actual combat and then decide whether it's worth selling or not."

"You do that Ed… Anyway you got any plans for after this?" Korgen asked

"Hmm… No, not really. Why? You need something?" Edward replied with a question of his own.

"Aye, there was some elven girl looking for you a couple weeks back, came asking if I'd seen you. I, obviously unknowing if you've become a pile of monster poo or not just replied that I didn't know." Korgen said.

"So instead she told me to tell ya to go meet her at the Raspberry Inn when I do see ya. She's been waiting for a while, keeps coming and asking bout you too…" Korgen explained.

"An elf, huh? Why would an elf be looking for me? I mean, I know I'm dashingly handsome and all but to go to such lengths to meet up with me? That's a first." Edward said while entering a thinking pose.

"Don't you think she just needs your help as the only enchanter who lives in this wretched dung of a town we call home?" Korgen said with a sigh.

"Oh right, you may be on to something." Edward replied and stood up. "Well then, I can't keep her waiting much longer now can I?"

Edward finished his second drink and started walking towards the exit.

"Hey, what am I supposed to do with Marcus here?" Korgen yelled out, pointing towards the dead body.

"…" Edward turned around and silently stared at the body for a second. "I dunno, your problem Korg."

"Edward! Come back he-" Before he could even finish his sentence, Edward had already closed the tavern's door behind him.

He walked down the street which was lit up using special lamps, powered by magic crystals.

Edward saw allot of people who were doing their own thing, be it trading illegal goods like drugs or weapons, street fighting or even selling slaves.

On a rare occasion he would even spot an amateurish enchanted item, quite expensive for something of poor quality.

Still people bought those items, even resold them.

the reason for that being simple.

Aside from enchanters, the likely hood of a normal person obtaining a magical sword that could light itself on fire by itself was quite small.

You would need to venture inside of a dungeon, which is reckless and dangerous.

Another option would be buying them at a city's market, allot of adventurers tend to sell the more useless treasures they acquire, albeit at a ridiculous price…

An enchanter's items on the other hand, were usually sold cheaper at the black markets throughout the underworld.

Some enchanters would sell their items for a cheap price, enough to sustain them at the very least, but they would never sell the enchantment itself to another.

They like to keep their knowledge to themselves, and doing otherwise has often been considered…

Idiotic.

…

Soon, Edward reached the Raspberry Inn. Unsurprisingly, it had a label with a raspberry on it.

Edward entered the establishment and asked around for an elven girl.

He didn't know anything about her, and he realized he forgot to ask about things like name or appearance a bit too late.

Still he soon got his answer.

"An elven girl?" asked the female Lizard folk Innkeeper. "Sure, she's been here for about two weeks. Been waiting for someone apparently, I really don't know or care as long as she pays for her stay here."

"Is she here right now?" Edward asked.

"Yes, actually I think she's just upstairs. The room at the far left, can't miss it." The lizard woman said

"Thank you, ma'am." Edward flashed a smile before moving up the stairs and to the room where the elven girl looking for him was presumably staying.

He then proceeded to knock three times on the door, awaiting an answer.

"Come in, it's open." A delicate, soothing female voice sounded from behind the door.

Edward pulled the handle and entered the room, what he saw inside was a single bed, some backpacks on the floor, a table and two chairs.

The elven girl was sitting on one of the chairs, reading from what seemed to be a book.

She had a visage worthy of the elven rumors, flawless smooth skin, a small button nose and silver eyes. Her ears were long and pointy seemingly very delicate, the girl had wavy platinum blond hair hung down to her waist.

She was quite the sight for sore eyes.

"Howdy, so you're the elven girl who's been looking for me ey?" Edward waved his hand at her and closed the door behind him.

"Greetings, my name is Meriel Venna, a pleasure to make your acquaintance. From your words I would assume that you're Edward Graves? The famous enchanter whose name I've heard from far and wide?" She spoke in a flattering manner, with a calm and collected expression akin to that of a noble lady.

"Hehe, well famous might be a little…" Edward blushed and scratched the back of his head.

"You're right, infamous might be a better term. You're the crazy quack who made people's coins explode." She said closing the book in front of her, standing up from her chair, chuckling silently at the thought.

"Hahahaha! Yeah, I remember that one! It was bloody hilarious!" Edward laughed heartily.

"How did you even do it?" Meriel asked, interest piqued .

"Ah, well I made this special stick thing that when waved around would create a gust of invisible smoke that made all small bronze pieces, coins in particular go boom! Hahahah!"

"That sounds soo cool!" Suddenly the elven girl said all excited, dropping all manner of courtesy and formality.

"It is!" Edward replied, seemingly unfazed by the elf's change in attitude

"Yes!" She yelled out getting even more excited, hopping once in the air.

"Wait, so why am I here again?" Edward remembered and asked.

"Ah! Yes, yes! I wanted to ask you mister Graves… Can you please teach me how to be an Enchanter?!" She blurted out and gave a deep bow.

"Eh? Excuse me?" Edward asked, all surprised.

"Please...! Master!" She bowed even deeper.

"Oh, boy…" Edward muttered, placing a hand over his forehead.

"This can end one of two ways…"