We said our goodbyes soon after. Vivi and I made our way out into the town. The guards still looked a little shocked but that was not my problem.

I led Vivi through the streets. All the decorations on the buildings severely slowed down our progress with the cat having to take a closer look at every single one. Since we were not in a hurry, I decided to let her be. She clearly enjoyed herself.

The few dwarves on the streets looked and pointed, sometimes exchanging whispers when they thought themselves out of reach. Apparently, everyone knew about me. There had to have been some rumours passing through with what they thought I was. For all their apparent technological and cultural advancements, the dwarves were still a little caught up in superstitions. At least these were mostly positive.

When we approached the tanners’ street, I sent Vivi a warning about the smell.

“It could get really bad. I don’t know, my nose is unable to sense most of it.”

“I smell it”, she answered, “It’s not too bad. I smelled worse in the forest.”

That kind of made sense. Wild animals were not peculiar with where they left their droppings. There also were rotting carcasses every once in a while. She had to be somewhat used to it. Walking down the actual street was still too much for her, it seemed. Vivi half-covered her nose with water, half turning it into water.

Finally, we reached Safrah’s house. I knocked on the door before opening it with a shadow tendril. As we entered the building, I heard steps coming down the stairs. She had been resting in the living room, most likely. I closed the door behind and turned to watch her freeze for a moment when she spotted us.

“Oh, uh. Hello, Fio”, she said.

I nodded a greeting while forming a connection with the supersensory matrix.

“Hello, Safrah. This is Vivi, my friend I told you about.”

I indicated the ocelot standing next to me. The dwarf walked the last three steps down into the kitchen. Standing in front of each other, the two were almost the same height. Their ears twitched somehow in sync as Vivi sniffed the dwarf with her normal again nose. I still held the connection to both so they could communicate without problems. Still, they took a few minutes just looking at each other. Only when I drew their attention with a hoot did they finally snap out of it.

“Oh, ehm. Sorry. I..”, Safrah seemed a little confused at her own actions, “Yeah. Hello, Vivi. I’m Safrah. Um. This is my home and… feel free to spend your time here. If you want.”

The ocelot nodded.

“Hello”, she sent, “I like your scent.”

That caught the dwarf off guard and she looked away before turning around and beckoning us to follow.

“Let’s go upstairs. It’s nicer there.”

We followed and she gave another house tour. I tagged along even though I had already seen everything. In the bath, Vivi was very intrigued by the tap and shower. Water coming out of seemingly nowhere was magical even to someone who lived under a pond.

The workshop, though, was where she really caught. The tools and carvings spread all around drew her in and the two started talking about carving like I was never there to begin with. I only butted in to tell Vivi to form a connection herself before disconnecting my own. Having to hear anything she said was a little distracting. Especially with my plans for today.

I made my way out onto the roof and scanned the area. There was something I wanted to have but I needed to find a place to get it. I took off and flew through the streets. It seemed lunchtime was coming because a lot more dwarves were starting to make their way into town from the quarry. They spotted me, obviously, some yelling, some waving, but most were polite or dismissive of my presence.

At last, I found what I was looking for. The banging of metal sounded through the street I had arrived in. The nearby buildings had half-opened ground floors with light and noise leaking onto the street. Blacksmiths. I was wondering why the noise was so quiet. I had always expected the craft to be louder. The answer was, of course, magic tools. There was some kind of special paving around the smithies leaking magical energy. I spotted sensus and void aspects forming around it. It seemed to eat the noise right up.

I looked around a little. The stocky dwarves standing next to their anvils and forges were working in full swing repairing pickaxes, hammers and something that looked like oversized chisels. Piles of damaged tools were stacked up next to every single one of them and they were going through like a starving wolf through a slab of meat. Those were some real Skills at work.

Most blacksmiths had two or three other dwarves in their smithy keeping the fires running and moving broken and fixed tools to and from the master. As I was observing one of the smiths for a while, one of the apprentices exchanged some words with his master while pointing at me. After a quick back and forth, he came up to me. He was a bit hesitant but finally pulled his courage together to address me.

“Um. Hello? Can I help you?”

He seemed a little confused and freaked out. I nodded and gave him a hoot before forming a connection. I was particularly careful not to scare him. It seemed a little unpleasant for most people. I was right to do so as he flinched back and almost turned to run away. Only, when I spoke into his mind the poor guy froze on the spot.

“Hello. Yes, you can help me. In fact, I’m looking to have some work done by a blacksmith. And if you work with gold as well, there’s even more.”

The dwarf only nodded and ran back inside to talk to his master. Another heated back and forth ensued until, finally, the apprentice walked back out. He opened his mouth a few times, before finding the courage to talk to me.

“Uh… T-the master… will talk to you. After the lunch repairs are done.”

Before I could react, he was already back inside getting to work. He was kind of cute. Of course, I gave him a proper answer.

“That is acceptable”, I sent.

The poor dwarf dropped the pickaxe he was holding and jumped back as it clattered on the ground. I more saw then heard the master shout at the poor boy making him jump once again before he hastily scrambled to pick up the tool. I chuckled to myself while disabling the connection. The work continued for another half an hour at most in which I enjoyed myself intently watching the scared apprentice, making sure to look right into his eyes whenever he stole a glance at me.

Finally, the pile of broken tools was empty and the master, after drinking some water and washing his hands, made his way towards me. He was tall for a dwarf, towering almost two heads above me. He mustered me for a bit before speaking up.

“So, you’re the rumoured Guardian? Can’t say I’ve ever seen some’ing the likes. What can I do for you?”

I shook my head while forming a connection. The smith almost avoided showing a reaction but I noticed how his finger twitched.

“I’m not a Guardian. And I don’t plan on becoming one. I need some metalwork done. And I would like to buy some processed ingots.”

He turned around and walked into his smithy, only giving me a wave with his hand to follow. We went into a back room, entering a material storage. Ingots were stacked neatly in piles of corresponding materials. There was mostly iron and a pile of coal. Though a shelf held small amounts of gold, copper and brass. Or maybe it was bronze? We passed through another door reaching a less confined room with a table and a few chairs in the middle. I spotted more of the noise-cancelling pavement build at the doorstep. The walls were lined with small workstations covered in paper and writing tools. Most of the sheets seemed to be covered in designs for tools, weapons and armour. A few had some things looking decidedly similar to the brass circuitry I had seen in the dwarves’ magical tools.

The smith sat down at the table and bid me to take place facing him.

“So, what can I help you with?”

An apprentice brought over a stack of clean paper and some writing tools. They used some sort of fountain pen instead of the feathers I had seen in the ork lands. There was also a clearly magical tool that I could only presume worked as some sort of eraser. I had a flat tip maybe half a centimetre wide covered in brass and lines of the shining material going up to some sort of tank.

“Never seen a ink eater? Don’t ask me how it works. I got no clue about artificing. I only do smithing.”

I nodded. That was just fine.

“While I’m interested in artificing, that’s not why I’m here today”, I sent, “I would like a necklace to hold my supersensory matrix in place.”

I pulled up the item I had fixed to myself with shadows.

“Mostly for my friend, though. I can’t really use metal when I’m in this form. At least, I shouldn’t touch it with my body.”

The smith raised an eyebrow.

“Why? You gonna eat it?”

I nodded.

“Something like that. That’s what I want the ingots for. I want to absorb some more materials and see if anything changes.”

The smith let out a short laugh.

“Ha, that was supposed to be a joke, you. Ah, whatever. I want to see it.” Then he turned to his apprentice still in the room. “Get me a steel ingot. One of the smaller ones.”

A moment later, said ingot lay on the table in front of me.

“Now, go ahead. It’s yours. Consider showing me your thing the payment.”

I eyed him dubiously. But I relented. The ingot was more like a sample than a bar of steel. It would not cost the dwarf much to give it to me. I went ahead and jumped on the table, putting my right foot’s talons right on top of the metal. In an instant, the material had been absorbed. My talons had gone from shiny iron to shiny steel, though I could barely see a difference. I did, however, feel the difference. The magic of my body let me know my talons had gotten a lot stronger and more flexible at the same time. Especially compared to my other foot.

I looked up at the smith. For the first time, I saw genuine surprise in his eyes.

“Would you look at that! What a bird you are!”, he bellowed.

I preened under his attention.

“Could I have another one for my left foot?”, I asked.

The smith’s smile only grew.

“Of course! But this time, you’ll have to pay for it. Don’t worry, I’ll make you a fair price.”

I nodded.

“That’s fine. I also want to try other materials. Gold and brass especially. They are much more conducive to magic. And I want to try making some thaumium, so a bit of normal iron would be good.”

The dwarf froze.

“You a thaumaturge?”, he asked with a cold voice.

I tilted my head.

“Sort of? I dabble. I know the dangers, though. Got my Thaumonomicon from killing a few orks.”

His expression softened a little.

“Killing orks is good. But does Captain know?”

I nodded again.

“Of course he does.”

That seemed to relieve the smith’s worries.

“Then it’s fine. He wouldn’t have let you into town if you ‘ere a danger. Now, let’s get to business!”

It took another half an hour to finalize a deal. In the end, I left the smithy satisfied with two dozen iron ingots in my storage and a bunch of steel, gold and brass as well. The necklace for Vivi’s supersensory matrix would be a simple chain. The smith would need the item to finish it but that could wait until tomorrow. I would simply bring Vivi over and have them work it out.

I made my way back to Safrah’s home. It was time to try making some thaumium and then to see what the metals could do for my body.