Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

In the afternoon Seth had just finished the fourth blade and quenched it in the water when Fin suddenly came rushing into the armory. She excitedly started talking like a waterfall!

"Seth! Fin knows now where the old guild master is hiding! Fin used her impeccable interrogation skills to have Old man Jenkins tell her! She is called Yudrid and is hiding somewhere in the old district! Does Seth remember? The maze-like part of this town. That's where she is somewhere!", while talking at high speed she was flying around him like a wasp on cocaine.

She must have been very proud.

Wait...

"Yudrid? Yudrid Dawnblade? Fin, that's the huntress who dismantled the Titanoboa for me! And Asso′s adoptive mom...parent? Whatever.", Seth added to the flood of words falling from the fairies mouth. She stopped immediately.

"You already know her?! That's great! Then it should be easy to give her the book!"

"Yeah, let's go right now. I have the way on my map and I'm fairly certain we can get there without Asso. ", he said confidently as he packed away the blades he had just made.

Thanks to the map he could now easily find the way without any help after having visited the shop several times. He had also used automap and was horrified by the complexity of the old district. Even with the map, he managed to get lost!

With Asso he had reached the workshop in a quarter of an hour. With the map they walked for 45 minutes until they reached the shop.

"There it is.", Seth commented as they finally stood before the big doors of Yudrid's warehouse. He wanted to knock against the door and it slowly swung open as his knuckles hit the wood. It was not locked.

Weird~ was written on Fin′s and Seth′s face as they looked at each other. Please don′t let it be another adventure! Seth was fed up after that random dungeon showing up.

The big store room was empty and dark. The flickering of a candle could be seen from the door leading deeper into the shop. Maybe something happened? Fin flew up above into the darkness while Seth slowly walked towards the door.

Behind the door was another ware house filled with shelves and unassuming boxes. A burned down candle was desperately fighting to stay lit during the last moments of its life. I stood on a writing desk with an open book. The book was filled with alternating neat and sloppy handwriting. Probably the inventory list.

At the edge of the candle′s flickering shine, barely visible in the twilight beyond laid a collapsed figure!

"Oh Fin′s god! Is it dead?", Fin exclaimed tactfully as she could not identify what the messy dwarf crumbled on the floor was supposed to be. Seth crouched down to check on her and as if on cue the messy dwarf let out a massive snoring. A little further away at the foot of a shelve was an emptied bottle of booze. It must have rolled away, when Yudrid keeled over.

"This is our mysterious guild master...", Seth explained. Fin was skeptical, looking at the deafeningly snoring female dwarf with a beard drenched in drool and booze. And was that puke on her chainmail? Fin decided to increase her distance a little. She didn′t want to be in range, if Yudrid had some more ammunition in her stomach.

"Hey Yudrid! Wake up!", Seth gave her some slaps on the cheek and immediately regretted it. The Urge to wash his hand was his biggest problem until the dwarf woke up and emptied her stomach on Seth′s clothes. Fin was proud. She had made a wise choice and was not even close to the splatter zone!

"The fuck? Who woke me up?", she looked into Seth′s face that was distorted in revulsion. Then at the tiny fairy in the distance. "You...what do you guys want? I didn′t keep any materials! And Asso already took the karfunkel, so you can′t have it back. Don′t you can mug me with your little fairy thug!", she asserted and stood up. Her jittery hands tried to straighten her dirty clothes in vain.

Seth blinked a little baffled about her defensive reaction. Was it because she was still drunk?

"None of that. We are here to give you something... guild master"

Yudrid froze when he mentioned her title. It had been ages since someone had called her that. Despite doing her best to wipe away those memories with alcohol, everything came back with just these two words. Her face turned really dark and rigid. They could hear her teeth grinding.

"Don′t call me that. I′m not the guild master... anymore." She walked up to the writing desk and took another bottle of booze from the drawer.

"Unfortunately, our quest says otherwise.", Fin said seriously. The fairy had turned solemn upon seeing the dwarf's reaction. Yudrid sighed.

"All right, gimme whatever it is and get lost.", she gestured at Seth to give her item. Seth took the guild log from his inventory and handed over to the guild master in denial

<Ding! You have completed the quest –Guild masters last Request-! You have earned Experience.>

<Ding! You have leveled up! You are now lv.18!>

He was back to lv. 18! Great!

"This is...?", Yudrid took the book covered in dried blood with shaking hands. She opened it and read a few sentences. Even after a decade she recognized the handwriting in the log.

"Where did you-?", she looked up at the young man she had puked on and his fairy guard.

"We came through Ivicer and found it in the old guild branch. You should read the last page."

Yudrid had put away the booze and held the book in both hands as the skimmed though the pages. When she reached the last ones, tears started to well up in her eyes. The wiped away her tears.

"This stupid idiot was never good in dealing with sudden situations...", her tears dropped on the blood covered pages. She wiped them away and some of the blood came off too, revealing another sentence.

-I′m sorry, mom-

All dams broke and Yudrid started bawling her eyes out. She cried and snuffled in between sobbing.

"Mom! What′s going on?!", Asso had come in and saw the disheveled dwarf sobbing with a book tightly pressed against her chest. Asso walked up and pulled her into a tight hug. He had never seen her lose composure like this. He gave Fin and Seth a sharp gaze before his attention went back to the mourning dwarf in his arms.

When Yudrid had calmed down a little she apologized for her reaction. It seemed that this had built up for quite a while. She them thanked for the book after composing herself, but asked them to leave. Although they were interested in what exactly had happened, they were not tactless enough to ask the old guild master to pour her heart out to them. She had Asso for that.

The two left the warehouse with mixed feelings, leaving the lizardman and his adoptive dwarven mom behind. They were glad that the quest was finished at last. Well, Seth was happy it was over. Fin now had to find a way to kill time in the next few weeks while Seth worked on the Lord's order!

They talked about possibilities on their way back. Fin could go and explore the dungeons, the library and the city while Seth worked. Or she could return home-

This suggestion made the fairy wildly shake her head. She definitely did not want to visit home. They would totally make her a hero and make her do her duties. Or force even more duties on her! No, no, no, she was good. She preferred being bored and laze around with Seth, over returning back there!

It was dark when they reached the palace. They were in time for dinner! They high-fived and entered the dining room. The Lord and Ikram were already seated at the table. There was also a new face they had not seen before.

At the dinner table sat a middle-aged man in long, flowing robes. They were in shades of moss green and black. His head was cleanly shaven and decorated by black tribal tattoos. He had sharp eyes and an obviously evil goatee! He looked like the typical evil sorcerer any cheap fantasy movie likes to antagonize!

"Ah, you have noticed Megito! He′s our part-time court wizard.", the Lord explained joyfully.

"Part-time?", Fin asked innocently as they sat down.

"Oh...yeah we-", the Lord started to try and explain, but Megito interrupted him.

"Zhiqe is my home. Unfortunately, being a wizard is quite costly. Considering the cities situation, I cannot stay here all the time. I have a business in Oriekot. I travel back and forth and act as a court wizard on a …voluntary basis.", he explained in a friendly manner and gave them a smile nobody would expect from this kind of character. The Lord had a thankful expression when he looked at Megito. It was hard to explain for a noble, that they could not pay their own court wizard.

"I fathom you are the blacksmith the young master invited?", he asked in a friendly manner. Seeing Seth nod over decimating the food on the table, he continued

"Do you think I could take a look at your work tomorrow? If you don′t mind, of course."

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