CHAPTER 11 – A Favor for the Blacksmith

The place that Reina intended to take Caim wasn't that far. But before she set out, Reina went to the large town hall, hoping to find a book on the strange letters she came across, but came up empty-handed. She wasn't surprised in the slightest yet felt a little disappointed.

Caim, on the other hand, didn't seem the least bit interested, given how he scowled at the books in question. Not sure why given much of what was about what happened when the cities were still thriving.

They left the town shortly after that, Reina was about to tell Caim to get a horse, but he didn't seem to want to waste money on getting one for himself and would instead just run on his own two feet.

Not that she would fight him on it. If he just wanted to try and outrun a powerhouse like Rostam, then so be it. Besides, she would never let anyone ride Rostam while she was on the horse's back, neither would the stubborn horse. He only allowed Reina for reasons she never fully understood but was grateful to have him by her side.

As they continued on past small towns and villages, fighting off Shades as they did so, Reina kept an open ear out for any rumour of a roaming blacksmith. Since the person they were looking for never seemed to stay in one place for long, though always seemed to be where Reina needed an upgrade or materials.

She also wondered if the blacksmith they were about to see might have come across something or heard something about this type of writing. It wouldn't have been too far of a stretch to guess that since that person might have seen more than Reina or Caim, as well as looking into the effects of being in the City of Mist since neither Reina nor Caim had issues like so many others who've gone into the Cities previously.

Which was odd; usually, a person would have become increasingly ill or die a slow, painful death if that person didn't have any protective gear. But they were fine, no signs of sickness or the like. Reina ultimately decided to just keep it to herself since the last thing she wanted was someone thinking that she was infected.

And since Caim also showed no signs, she could only calk it up to either sheer dumb luck or something that couldn't be outright explained, which at this point, after getting a weapon that changed shape, Reina wasn't about to question any further and just rolled with it.

When they reached the next large town, they ran across some people speaking about someone taking up residence in an old mining cave abandoned several years ago.

Found you. Reina thought before turning Rostam in the direction of the cave in question, with Caim not too far behind.

The area looked to have been for mining at one time before it became a heap of scrap and junk littering the grounds. Leaving Rostam outside near a small pond and some food, Reina went into the first cave she came across, where she could hear the sounds of banging and shuffling.

There were piles of unfinished weapons mixed with scrap and other things as a sign hung above a makeshift counter.

Hephaistos Forge.

Seeing that Reina knew she was in the right place. Her bright blue looking about the countertop before spying a familiar buzzer, and upon hitting it, a tune began to play, one that sounded as though it was from a music box followed a voice.

"Just a second!" a woman called out from the back. Then moments later, a tall, muscular woman with dark skin and copper hair pulled back into a messy ponytail came out with a wheelbarrow. "Sorry about that. I needed to take stock of inventory." She said as she looked up, her eyes like that of a cat, holding gold, yellows and orange. The moment she caught sight of Reina, a smile broke out in glee.

"You're still alive!" the woman proclaimed with a big grin, hoping the counter to get a better look at the redhead. Revealing the robotic left leg that she had peeked out from underneath her overalls as she moved to stand in front of Reina to show that she was taller than the redhead and was as tall as Caim, if not a touch taller by an inch or two. "Holy shit, look at you. You haven't changed a bit."

"It… hasn't been that long…" Reina said.

The woman gave a half-smile. "And still not much of a talker either. You do sound better than last time, though."

Reina didn't respond to that comment.

The woman then looked to Caim, who eyed her with suspicion. "And brought a friend with you too." She extended her hand to him. "I'm Artemisia, but you can just call me Artie if that's too much hassle."

"He… he can't talk," Reina told her.

"Oh," she said as Caim took a step back, not taking her hand. She ran the offered hand through her hair. "Well, you can think it then, regardless if you can speak or not. I know my name isn't… normal, so to speak."

"You mean it's not like a flower?"

"Exactly," Artemisia responded by snapping her fingers and pointing both hands at Reina with finger guns. "But enough about that, what can I do for you folks?"

Reina turned to Caim and lightly bit the inside of her mouth before speaking. "Could you fix his sword? I… told him I'd get it fixed, for helping me…"

"Let me see it," Caim handed it to her, and Artemisia whistled. "Well damn, what'd you do to it to make it break in half like this?"

Both women looked to Caim, who just stood there.

"Ah, right, sorry. Well, this looks like it's seen better days anyhow. You must have been fighting a long time for it to get this bad." Caim folded his arms across his chest and looked away with annoyance as he clicked his tongue. Artemisia looked to Reina. "You know what, since you're here, I could use your help with something. If you could collect something for me, then I can fix this in the meantime, and any other weapon you might want upgrading."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I know you've always preferred that anyhow. You just like to get things done then being stuck idling about. Though after this, it'll be back to paying me for my services. I still have to eat like everyone else."

That seemed fair enough to Reina. "Sure, okay."

Artemisia took Caim's old broken sword and placed it on the counter. "So, what do you want me to upgrade for you?"

Reina held out the spear that she had been using recently. "What about this?"

Artemisia took and held it in her hands. "Hmm, I've never seen a weapon like this, or at least not crafted like this before. Where'd you find it?"

"The…" Reina stopped, her tongue suddenly felt heavy, and a dull pain rested along with the temples near her eyes as she recalled how she came across this peculiar weapon. "The church… in the City of Mist."

"Huh," then the realization came into her golden eyes. "Wait, what?" she shouted as her head snapped in Reina's direction. "You got in? Inside one of those places?!"

"Uh… yeah?" Reina said, suddenly feeling a bit hesitant to explain. "It was for a job."

"Did you find anything else? Any materials that could be used?"

Reina dug into her bag and pulled out the red glass rose. To her surprise, it hadn't shattered during her fight with that massive white creature. When Reina held it out to Artemisia, she looked at it in awe.

"Incredible," then placed her right hand underneath her chin as her left hand held her right elbow. "Hmmm, this could work. If I up the temperature of the forge right, I should be able to melt it so I can use it to upgrade your weapon. It looks super delicate; you must have had trouble getting it here without it shattering." When Reina shook her head, that made Artemisia's eyes turn wide. "What? Really? Something that looks this delicate didn't shatter? What in the world…" she began mulling it over in her head before answering. "Tell you what, I'll give it a shot, and if you ever find yourself in another one of those Churches, take whatever it is you can find, and I mean everything. I'll upgrade this weapon for you with it. Or whatever other weapons you might come across. I mean, who knows, you might find more weapons in those places."

I don't know if I even want to go back inside another place like that. Reina thought before biting her lip and asking. "…what do you need from us?"

"Right, that." She vaulted herself back behind the counter effortlessly. "This works with something I've wanted to get for a while. It's why I came here in the first place."

"That being…?"

"I need you to get something for me in Crater City. It's not far from here, but it's a two-person job, and I don't have the means to go myself, sadly."

"You can fight, can't you?" Reina asked. In all the years she knew Artemisia, the topic of one's capability to fight in battle never came up before.

"I can, but I'm only good for long-range type of attacks. And this will be close-quarters and underground where there's a ceiling that could collapse and kill us all if I went. So, I'm pretty much the north-side of useless."

Reina was silent for a moment. "One problem though… how do we get down there?"

Crater City was like any other city, except that it had fallen into a massive sinkhole, unlike the others. The whole area fell within less than ten minutes before the ground was covered, leaving nothing but a gigantic crater where it once was, hence the name.

Whoever came up with that somewhat misleading name for the City was an idiot.

"Oh, that? I made a way to get there." Artemisia said rather casually, in which Caim gave the muscular woman a questioning stare where she continued. "I was testing out some experimental weaponry, but it kind of got out of hand, and it exploded… everywhere. It was a mess. It took me nearly a week to clean up. But because of that, one of those pieces launched itself into this wall that turned out to be hollow. I made my way through, and there was a ladder that leads down to Crater City."

"So… someone made that a way to the City before?"

"From the looks of it, yeah. Oh, and don't worry about the ladder. I reinforced it so that it won't break no matter what."

Reina went silent, light blue eyes shifting deep in thought. How old was that ladder? Was it like how they went underground in the City of Mist?

"What is it that you need in Crater City?" Reina asked.

"It's several things, actually." Artemisa picked up one of her worn tools. "It's his tools. You see, years ago, before I was ever with the old man, he had his forge. It belonged to his family where they worked from inside the city before it sunk into the ground." She smiled as she ran her fingers over the old mental lovingly. "He'd tell me things of how these tools would never break or rust. Something hard to come across in this day and age. But he could never find the City to try and reclaim what was lost, mainly because he wasn't strong enough and… there's Legion. So he had to make a choice, though he always said that if he were able, he'd want to go back to get them so he could give them to me."

She then placed the tool back down on the countertop. "It's one of the last things he had and truly cherished. I'd like to get them back and to put them to good use. I know it's a selfish request, but this is important to me. Please, Reina. Get my father's tools for me."

"Do you have a list of what they are?"

Artemisa produced a worn piece of paper, yellowed with age to the point that it looked brown. "He wrote down everything in case I ever tried to get it myself."

The list had a total number of ten items, with drawn images beside what they were called so it would be easier to find.

After looking it over, Reina put it away. "It… will take some time. Did… he say where the tools are?"

"They should be in the forge itself. The building itself is pretty big. Oh!" Artemisia ducked down under the counter and dug around before pulling out a map and handed it to Reina. "He also gave me this. It's a map of the City. Though I'm sure there are some areas you might not be able to get to, but he marked where the forge is, you can keep it."

Reina, however, looked at the map with hesitancy before asking. "Are you sure?"

Artemisa nodded, but there was a sadness in her golden eyes as well as her voice when she said. "Yeah, I'm sure."

Reina took it and put it away, and lightly bit the inside of her cheek before responding. "…I'll do what I can."

"That's all I'd ask. In the meantime," she picked up Caim's broken sword and grinned. "I'll work on this and your spear."

With a nod, Reina left the place with Caim not too far behind. Once outside, Reina let out a breath. Caim looked at her with a frown. So as they headed towards the place where the City would be, she elaborated. "Her father's always been a bit of a… sore subject." Reina began after lightly biting her tongue. "I met Artemisia long after he passed. From what I could understand in the brief moment when she'd talk about it, they're not blood-related. He took her in and raised her as his own, and taught her what he did for a living making weapons and tools. Always told her to embrace what she wanted to be and to be herself no matter what others thought. But as she'd tell me, she could never fully measure up to him in his craftsmanship. Still, the amount of respect she had for him was immense, and she always vowed to make something so grand that she'd even impress him in the afterlife. If you believe in that kind of thing…"

Caim made a cutting gesture across his neck with his right hand before pointing his thumb in the direction they came.

"How'd… he die?" when Caim nodded, she shook her head. "I don't know. I asked once. And… the look she gave… it was… dark. She told me that what killed him was something she'd vowed to get back at. But I don't think it was Legion or those other creatures that the people call Shades that did it. You're more than welcome to ask her if you want to know… but I won't unless she brings it up herself."

He then made a motion, tapping an invisible watch on his wrist before pointing to her then again from the place they came.

"How… long have we known each other?" Reina said, and again, Caim nodded. Reina merely shrugged. "A while, I guess? Why? What does it matter how long I've known someone?"

Caim didn't make any motions with his hands as his dark blue eyes shifted away before looking back to her with a questioning stare.

In which Reina frowned at him, in turn, bit the inside of her cheek before talking. "What? You got a problem with whom I'm with? I don't really have anyone you could consider a friend besides Rostam. I don't like to get close to people. Artemisia's an exception. Even if we don't talk much about it, we both can understand that there are things we'd not bring up about ourselves or other things like it. Look, I'm not nosey, okay? I've got my own issues to sort out before I start digging into anyone else's."

Caim just gave her a dull stare.

Reina gave an exasperated sigh. "Just… shut up."