Jack was eating dinner, a pile of potatoes with some scrambled eggs. He was feeling fairly lonely now that there was nobody he was familiar with. He had continued to spend time at the guild, creating them all manner of daggers and even a couple of swords. He was being paid fairly well too, though he realised he needed to probably create a bank account at the Merchant’s Guild.

He had worked a long day today, enough that he decided to buy a second portion for dinner, and even a light ale. He sipped at it happily as he continued to eat the second portion of food.

The doors swung open to reveal a few heavily armoured individuals, each wearing breastplate and long cloaks. There was a man at the lead, followed by two women and another man. They wore their mercenary plates at their side, letting all know their status and their achievement. They were all Iron, though the leader seemed to be High Iron First Core, since his plate had a different look about it. The top was rounded and so was the bottom, whereas those who had the Iron rank had generally rectangular plates with only the corners rounded.

The mercenaries looked around and then saw Jack, smiling at him as they approached. Jack couldn’t help but think he was in some sort of trouble, slowly shrinking away as he sipped his ale.

“Jack!” a mercenary exclaimed, sitting down in front of the young Apprentice. He took off his helmet to reveal his tan skin and curly hair, smiling at Jack. The other mercenaries all sat down around him. The two women sat beside Jack, revealing that they had tan skin and short curly hair as well, and the last man went to order some food at the counter. “Good to see you,” the mercenary said. “We were hoping to discuss a little something with you, if you’re free.”

Jack looked between the man and then the women, who were all giving him playful smiles to try and ease him, but that didn’t ease his mind. He understood that he was currently in no position to escape, not in a way which wouldn’t bite him in the butt.

“I’m free,” Jack said, biting his potato and then chewing slowly so he didn’t have to talk much more.

“Great, great,” the mercenary said. “I’m Alba, and these are Roha and Sita. That one there is Toka, but you don’t need to worry about him. He doesn’t talk.”

Roha, the one on Jack’s left, leaned in. “He has no tongue. Got it cut off.”

Jack stared at her in surprise. “C-cut off?”

“She’s just teasing you,” Sita said, smiling at him. “Toka just doesn’t like to talk. He’s silent, but that doesn’t mean he shies away from violence.” She smirked.

Jack recalled a saying about silent but violent, but decided against saying something so crass. “So you’re here to tell me about Toka and his silence?” he asked, hoping that was all it was.

Alba chuckled and shook his head. “No, no. We’re actually here to discuss a little deal with you, nothing too harsh. We heard you’re able to create swords with a little bit of cobalt. Can you make axes and that sorta thing too?” Alba raised an arm, letting the cloak raise to reveal his axe. It was fairly well made, though it had seen a lot of use.

“I’m not sure, I believe so,” he said, not realising he had just given them a reason to continue the discussion. His noble training from his youth was failing since he was surrounded by so many strong people.

“How about you make us a few axes? We just need four. If you do well, we’ll bring you along with us on a couple of quests. We’ll pay you a fair price too.” The man smiled. “We want axes which are one part cobalt, and we’ll pay you market rate.”

They would pay him and take him on a quest? That sounded like a lot of fun. “I have to wait for a while for Smith Terry to return, but you can ask him when he returns.”

“Aren’t you man grown? You can make your own decisions, can’t you? Do you need the Smith to wipe your bottom too?” Alba chuckled, leaning back. “Order another round of drinks, Toka.”

Jack wondered how Toka could order food when he didn’t like to speak. Perhaps he only liked to talk about food? He looked back up to Alba, frowning slightly. “I can make my own decisions.”

“Great,” the man said. “So how about it? You make us a bunch of axes and we’ll pay you once you’re done?” The man then reached down and pulled out a piece of paper, placing it down.

Jack leaned in to see that it was a contract, but before he could read it, he heard the sound of a familiar voice. “What’s going on here?” Smith Terry asked from behind Alba.

Alba turned to see the Smith, raising his brow before realising who it was. “Nothing,” he said, grabbing the contract and pulling it back. “We were just having a chat.”

“What’s that in your hand?” Merri asked, leaning aside to see the paper he had tucked away.

“Nothing. Just a note that I was checking.”

“A note?” Smith Terry asked, his eyes then falling onto Jack. “Is that true?”

“It looked like a contract to me,” Jack replied meekly.

“Show me,” Terry said to Alba, who was beginning to sweat slightly. There was a general rule that you didn’t mess with a Smith, but if he had been able to get Jack to quickly sign the contract then it would have been fairly worth it. It wasn’t a terrible contract, it was pretty fair all things considered.

“I think there’s been a misunderstanding,” Alba said, chuckling lightly. “We were just having a chat with Jack and offering him some more work, that’s all.”

“Looks like someone was trying to poach my Apprentice,” Terry said. “Surrounding him with two pretty women and then intimidating him with your size. If you aren’t going to hand me the contract,” Terri said, looking down at the plate at the man’s side. “Why don’t you show me your plate?”

Alba frowned, sweating a little more. For a Smith to ask for your plate was either the best thing for your group or the worst thing, depending on the situation. Here it was most likely the latter due to the circumstance. Alba reached down and undid the plate, handing it over.

Smith Terry eyed up the plate for a little while, seeing what the man’s story was so far. He recognised most of the symbols of the plate, and understood the path Alba had taken so far.

“Just a misunderstanding,” Alba said. “We’ll be out of your hair in a jiffy.”

“You will be,” Terry said, still looking at the plate for a little while. “Show me the contract.” He handed the plate back to Alba.

Alba sighed, handing over the piece of paper. Terry checked it to see the terms. “Jack, what did they say the contract was?”

“They said they wanted me to make them a few axes for them at market rate and they’ll take me out to adventure with them.”

“You’re not wrong,” Terry said, handing the contract back. “Looks like you were trying to poach my Apprentice.”

“It was only for a year,” Alba said, as though it made the situation better.

“Taking him about, giving him a portion of loot in exchange for repairing your gear as well as making you some weapons. It isn’t a bad deal if he were just a typical Apprentice. In fact, it’s probably a great deal for someone just stepping into the world of smithing.”

“Right, right, exactly.” Alba nodded his head. “A great deal, that’s exactly so.” He smiled nervously.

“If he had signed this contract, we would have had quite the issue. What would I have written to Chief Bloodwall?” Terry asked. “I would have been in some trouble, but I wonder how much trouble you would have been in. They asked me to take care of their boy and then I somehow managed to lose him to a bunch of vagabonds.” He stared up at Alba. “How much would I have lost if the boy had made the deal with you?”

Alba nodded his head slowly as Terry stared at him. “Well if it’s like that, we would have torn the contract.”

“Yes, of course you would have.” Terry continued to stare at the mercenary. “You’re barred from my service until further notice, and I’ll be sending a letter to the surrounding smithies to let them know why.”

Alba grit his teeth and then nodded. He should have been a little quicker, or he should have taken Toka’s words to heart. It seemed they would have a hard time getting their gear worked in the nearby area. They would need to leave and head out of the region soon.

“If I have need of you, I’ll let the guild know,” Terry said, tearing the contract and then handing it to the mercenary.

Alba took the torn contract. “Let’s go,” he said, motioning his head to the women and then Toka, who had returned. “You can have the meal we paid for.” Alba and his group then left.

“Seems like you’ve gotten into some trouble whilst I’ve left,” Terry said, taking a seat opposite Jack.

“Usually Don deals with the mercenaries,” Jack replied, scratching his chin.

“Don? From the Mercenary Guild?” Terry asked, leaning in slightly. He looked to Merri, who exchanged the same look. “Jack,” the Smith sighed.

“Yes?”

“Tell me what happened while I was gone.”