Tia Raymond

"Sid's forge let's go!" Ellis held the wisteria sword in its sheath. She had chosen this sword for obvious reasons. It was thin, fluid like a rapier, yet had the sturdiness of a great sword. Also, the purplish sublime refraction to it was captivating; made better by the streamline design.

"Do you think Tia's in?" The large Maverick Spellbook had now shrunk to the size of a small notebook, incredibly convenient to carry. However, it didn't seem to 'click' with Curtis like how his current spellbook would.

An anvil sign hanging above a store, this time with 'Sid's Forge', bold letters etched into it. Its sign properly letting customers know that it was, closed. Ignoring it, they burst open the door.

What greeted them wasn't a rickety workshop with the smell of gunpowder, but a well lit interior with a pleasant earthy wooden scent of incense. Under the white lights hanging above, a girl who was sitting behind the counter suddenly jumped onto her two feet and rushed over.

"Curtis! Ellis! Welcome back. How did your trip go? Anything interesting happened? What's that?" Tia spouted a handful of questions. A flash of excitement flickering in her eyes.

"Yes. A lot happened. Ellis almost got killed," Curtis looked at Ellis with a sideways glance. "And she was sleeping through the whole.."

"Curtis!" Ellis pouted.

Tia laughed. "Really?"

"!!!"

The fervent chatter made them forget the real reason why they came here in the first place. Maybe the main reason why they came here wasn't actually to upgrade their equipments, but rather, to have a nice chat. They would always drop by store after every voyage. Tia would then urged them to share their stories, listening intently.

Sid's forge was basically a four part building with the forging area hidden at the back. The main section, which was the smallest of the three was where Curtis, Ellis and Tia were at, the store. Another other area was a small scale training room. More objectively, it was a place for buyers to test out the equipments freely before deciding on an order, or, quite literally, a place Tia wrecks havoc.

The forging area was the largest of the three. Sid had about 20 forgers working together with him. Even with this work force, they would struggle at times to keep up with speed of commissions requests.

Though, the four part building was connected to their house into he upper floor.

Sid's forge would close at 140 degrees day, 40 degrees earlier than most conventional businesses related industries. This was to allow them time to focus, working the commissions and constructing the equipments. Even though the store had closed from the outside, the whole forging area would continue to cook up steam until late at night. The it'll start over again at 20 degrees in the morning. (Confused with the time system? It's explained at the back)

This season however, there an incline towards a slower business. It would happen every year at around this sort of time. At these times, they would put more attention on constructing weapons to be sold at weapon stores across Haital, one of which including the Croquel Guild's armament store run by George.

Tia was a 16 year old girl. Her height was just a tad shorter than Ellis'. Her hair was purple. Somewhere between violet and lavender. In fact, it looked like she dyed her hair. Though, that wasn't the case. She kept insisting that it was merely her natural hair colour.

Her hair was tied into a braid, laid across in front.

Her face was slender, with a rounded chin. Despite being young and chatty, she had a look of a mature teenager. Together with her narrow shoulder and lissom body, she was quite pretty. If she were a few centimeters shorter, the word 'lolli ' would have truly suited her.

While Ellis was busy griping Curtis to explain further regarding the incidents that night, Tia came with a tray of Earl tea in small lavish white cups.

"Are there any new information regarding the Jesters?" Curtis' voice sounded like a oscillating pendulum.

The sudden appearance of the Jesters a month ago created an insatiable curiosity and craze among the people. This sort of conspiracy stemmed from fear and worry of the unknown. Jesters were already known to have existed years ago. However, they were never known to have ever affected a nation at core. Most stories before this incident came from adventurers that said they either killed or stole resources from them. If that were the case, what had they been planning behind the shadows? What was the purpose for then to come cause trouble among the crowd?

"Let's see," Tia looked like she was thinking hard when in fact, all she really wanted was to purposely avoid eye contact. Ellis was wrapped around Curtis, her vice was like glue. Curtis was tossed around like her pillow. Ellis thought it was quite fun, "The rumor about infecting other people, the knights said that it was a hoax. A total of three people were discovered, currently."

"Three?"

"It's odd. I don't think there are only three. If not, that doesn't explain how they group up in teams of 5 in the first place. No, didn't they say one?"

"Waawawa," Ellis finally let go of Curtis. Curtis then gave her a pat in the head, as a joke in retort. So cute.

"Maybe the knights were right. Then that would mean that there are others are hiding— "

"Also, Jesters only consists of mages." Tia chided, "That was what a friend of mine told me.."

"Only mages? Wasn't there a rumor that said it was mixed?"

"That's a hoax. Just be careful."

"Right."

Tia looked at Ellis.

"What was Ellis begging you to tell her?"

"It's a secret,"

"..." Ellis narrowed her eyes at Curtis.

"It's best if nobody knows.." Curtis drawled.

Ellis stared even harder. It won't kill, nor drill a hole into Curtis, so it was, for the most part, safe, probably.

"Couples quarrel," Tia muttered jokingly under her breath before sipping her tea.

After awhile, when their conversation had reached an end, the mood fell a little awkward. It was quiet, with Curtis being in a half pensive state. He wondered why Tia would tell him that the Jesters would only consist of mages? He had never even heard such a rumor before.

Curtis was a part-time conspiracy theorist; something for him to wrack his mind around about. For what reason? He didn't have one.

Tia glanced at Curtis in contemplation, then peeked at Ellis who seemed to not have enough of 'staring at' Curtis yet.

It was another minute when the sound of a door opening broke the silence.

"Papa!"

""Sid,"" Ellis and Curtis said in unison.

A tall man walked in from the door behind the counter. He had a large square looking body, broad shoulders and incredible muscles. He wore a white tank top with a short coat over it. His face was covered entirely in sweat while a white towel draped over the back of his shoulders. On his coat and pants dangled forging (designing) tools, including a small hammer, marker, wrench and many screwdrivers. His towering height can't even be compared to Curtis who was shorter by more than a head.

His masculine physique only accentuated his charming, handsome face. His gaze was like the waves of cloud cascading the sky, bold and gentle.

"Welcome back Ellis, Curtis. Is there anything—oh, looks like you have something interesting with you guys today."

Ellis gazed at Curtis for his consent before passing her Wisteria sword, still covered in the sheath, to Sid.

Sid uncovered the sleek blade under the light. The milk-lavender (wisteria) sword gleamed, the exceptionally sharp edges glinted. The thin blade wasn't one to break easily in effect of the dense material it was made up of, a constitution of titanium-based alloy. Sid scrutinized the sword from the hilt all the way to the tip of the blade.

"I'm surprised you could get your hands on one this. It was definitely made by a master blade forger. Where did you get this?"

"It was a barter trade," Ellis blurted.

"Barter trade?"

"Spirit essence," Curtis added.

Sid crooked a smile.

"Spirit essence? Where did you get that from?" Tia was curious. Spirit essence was incredibly rare, even rarer than gold, some would say.

"From killing Ellis."

"But she's still here?"

"Erm, more specifically, Curtis killed my doppelgänger."

"Doppelgänger? I thought you could only get spirit essence from elemental sprites?"

"Forest Sprites can shape-shift. It was a first for me."

"Shape shift huh? So how did you tell the two apart?"

"One sounded like a mortician while the other one was sleeping," Curtis joked. Ellis gave Curtis a jab in the shoulder. "Sid, I also have a Maverick Spellbook I'd like a commissions to attach a 50% purity red crystal to. For Ellis' sword, could you help attach a 10 slot fusion crystal? And maybe if there are some leftover red crystals pieces, would you mind attaching them to the sword too? Thank you."

Sid's crooked smile distorted a little more this time. The most common gryostones were around 25% purity. Finding one above 25% purity was already difficult, and here, Curtis was requesting one with 50% purity? And a red crystal?

His confusion soon cleared up when he saw the supplies handed over by Curtis.

"This..." Sid was astounded by what he saw. The Maverick Spellbook, an exceedingly large red crystal and a bottle of Spirit Essence. An item among them had he only seen in books, and was now before his very eyes—Spirit Essence.

"You can keep the excess Spirit Essence as a gift, just use some to purify the red crystal to 50% purity," The red crystal was already very pure to begin with, so Curtis expected that there was no need to use a lot of Spirit Essence to refine it further.

"Eh? Wait, Curtis, I thought you gave it all to Sir Dean.."

Sid bursted into a haughty laugh. Tia too was quite shock, but for a different reason. When she was chatting back then, she had forgotten to ask them about their commissions!

"How about 20 gold for the whole package?" Gold, silver and bronze coins were the main currency in the whole of Monarch Empire. 100 bronze coins were equivalent to 1 silver coin; 100 silver coins were equivalent to 1 gold coin; and above gold— that'll be for some other day. The coins were made into small squares with a beautiful flower cut-out in the centre. They were small, and light, easy to carry—easy to lose.

"That'll do. I'll take that as the price," and the savings go down the drain. But well, weapon upgrades were known to be expensive after all.

With the orders placed and more meaningless chatters later, Curtis and Ellis left Sid's forge for the lodging at Croquel.

"Come back in two days, I'll definitely get it done by then," Sid had made special arrangements to focus on their commission. With spirit essence, Sid would have to spend some time to review old notes all while carrying out experiments to acquire a better understanding of Spirit Essence. Based on the things he had heard from his teacher before, Spirit Essence was a very potent and hard to balance material. If it weren't for that, he could have completed the commissions fairly easily in a single night.

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"Boss. It is those two right?" From the shadows, someone asked. From above, his eyes glued to the two walking down an open alley.

"Yes. Find out the location," the guy who was the supposed boss felt that something wasn't right with the way, Dean treated these two inconceivable adventurers. So a spy was arranged in abrupt. Their conversations were overheard, and the information about the new pillar had been somewhat stolen.

"Got it boss. Leave it to us,"

"Use erratic moves on them. There's no need to use harsh methods all the time," right after the 'boss' said that, the man nodded and leapt into the air, disappearing into the night sky.

The boss continued sitting there, observing the two. He thought that the mage was quite interesting. How could he have never noticed him before? He would definitely make a good asset.

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Curtis laid on a linen-white queen sized bed. Staring up the at ceiling, he saw that the wooden support beams had beautiful carvings, patterns of followers and geometric ornaments, similar to the ones at the guild hall. Besides the magic lights, there was also that extra magical lamp sitting in the corner of the room that lit a part of the room milk-tea brown. From downstairs, he could hear muffled din transmitted from the cafeteria.

The lodging wasn't too big nor too small. A party of 4 people could squeeze inside this room, what's more, there was going to be only two people occupying the room, Curtis and Ellis. Two separate beds, table and seats, a small scale washroom, and a workbench, perfect for the duo.

The cool breeze blew into the window, making the curtains flutter. The vicinity outside of the guild was dimly lit. The silent hum from the vast expanse beyond the kingdom and flickering stars in the sky above. Not to mention the bazaar, all the lights running in a long stretch as far as one could see.

Curtis had a blank expression.

Why would the Jesters only consist of mages? They were known to be notorious in their combat, how could a mage match up to the rumors describing them? Could there exist more powerful mages? What was their agenda?

Curtis had become more inclined to ruminate about in his thoughts ever since he nearly lost Ellis' life. Was it the side effects of nearly losing Ellis or was it something else?

As these questions regarding the Jesters slowly drowned out, it was replaced by the thought of Ellis.

That smile of hers, her cheerful temperament and cute pouting face she would make when she becomes slightly frustrated. He couldn't part with it. He couldn't part with her. What's weirder, he felt oddly uncomfortable being with her now.

Why did he come to like her in the first place? Having known each other for 7 years and stuck together in a party for more than a year now, having not even experienced his first kiss yet, what made him attracted to her? What was making him avoid her?

Curtis was indulging in the world within his mind, feeling his way through his emotions and sorting out his feelings. Ellis had already told him that she would spend some time with Ruth in the bath house. Which meant that she would take a good while before coming back, giving Curtis some space. Space that he clearly needed.

While planning measures to tackle the mystery behind it, he wondered.

What was Ellis up to anyways?