”Oi! You’ll have to start paying me if you plan on sleeping in my shop.” The blacksmith said and woke up Anastacia from the corner of his shop.

After detailing the patterns on the bones so they could be carved in, she had sat down in the corner to take a quick nap, but running around the fields outside the city walls while training had really drained her and the quick nap turned into over five hours of snoring on the floor of the shop. Anastacia stretched her back and got up to see how far along the blacksmith had gotten. It was the third day he was working on it and it shouldn’t be too far from being complete.

On the counter was a beautifully made, shiny black prosthetic hand. The design was clearly based on King’s hands, but made more petite and fit for Yulia. There wasn’t even a hint of the bones visible in any of the joints or gaps, and there was no way a normal person could ever tell it had something like that inside it.

Anastacia compared it to her own hand and was amazed by the detailed shape of every single piece. When she touched it for the first time, the prosthetic jerked slightly as the patterns carved on the bones activated. “This is really good! The patterns are perfect, this will last for months without a necromancer around.” She pointed out excitedly while bending the fingers to make sure all of them were stiff enough to pose properly before locking the joints down. With just the middle finger pointed up and rest pressed into a fist, she turned the metal bracelet around the prosthetic’s wrist.

“Yeah, it’s almost like I’m good at my job or something. I checked and double checked, nothing on it will come loose and with the straps I’ve put on it, the girl’s arm will break before the whole thing comes off. The surface is coated and treated so that it doesn’t soak up water or anything else she might touch while cooking.” The proud dwarf explained while Anastacia gave him the finger with his own masterpiece. “What I want to know is how much force can the locked joints take before giving in…”

“That depends on the necromancer that imbued their will into this. With me doing it, you could hang a giant from a single finger and it wouldn’t bend.” Anastacia said and poked the craftsman with the finger to prove her words. “Do you want to come with me to give this to her? You’ve probably done more for this than I have…”

The blacksmith laughed. “Nay, I’ve got spear tips to forge and I don’t do well with stuff like this. Feel free to tell her to pop over with a cold drink and a sandwich or two whenever she has time though. She needs to know a few things about the maintenance.” He took the prosthetic from the necromancer and wrapped it in a white cloth that had his seal stamped on it. “Run along now, I’ve got to get the forge ready.”

Anastacia nodded and ran out with the package, stumbling on the doorstep and almost falling over on the way out. Ignoring the million times Rosie had told her to not kick the inn’s door open, she crashed through it and rushed to the counter, where the innkeeper was keeping watch over her realm with Emilia. Rosie gave a stern stare to her and nodded towards the door. Realizing her mistake, Anastacia returned outside and came back in, this time gently opening and closing the door instead.

“Better. Is it ready?” Rosie asked with a hushed voice and leaned on the counter.

“Yeah, it’s amazing! Looks exactly like a real one.” The necromancer answered excitedly and put the package on the counter. “He made it from ebony so it’s all pitch-black and shiny!”

Emilia had been sitting behind the counter combing Rosie’s tail, but stopped when she overheard the conversation and got curious. She had not been told about the project and was wondering what the two had been up to for the past few days. “Wait… What did you make Anna do?!”

“Check this out! It has bones inside it and works with necromancy.” Anastacia explained and started to unravel the parcel, but was stopped by Rosie, who grabbed it before anyone could see what was inside.

“Let’s just take it to the back and make the lamb give it a try.” She said and disappeared into the kitchen with the necromancer in tow.

Worried for Anastacia’s innocence, Emilia quickly went after them.

Yulia was busy trying her best to chop some onions, but they kept rolling away because she couldn’t hold on to them and Rosie had given her the dullest knife in the kitchen. She had been at it for almost fifteen minutes and had only managed to badly dice one. When her employer entered the room, she let out a high pitched ‘eep’ and started to rush her work more.

Rosie slapped the onion off from the table and tossed the wrapped-up prosthetic at her. “Put this on.” She ordered.

“Wh… what is it?” Yulia uttered and started opening the package. When she saw the artificial hand, she placed it on the table and just stared at it in daze.

Emilia sighed in relief. “Oh thank Sylvia, it was just a hand.”

Anastacia skipped to the lamb’s side and started fitting her injured arm into the prosthetic and tightening the straps on it. “The way this works is really cool. First you just pose the fingers and the wrist the way you want and then you just turn this thingy here.” She explained and grabbed an onion with the hand to demonstrate its usage. “After you’ve turned it, the fingers stop moving and you can start doing whatever.”

Yulia wasn’t listening at all, she just kept staring at her gift. “Why?” She finally asked.

Anastacia’s face lit up immediately. She stared Rosie squarely in the eyes and grinned like an idiot. “Because you needed a hand.” She said and hoisted her hand up for a high five while the innkeeper cursed under her breath. With no one to accept her gesture, the necromancer slapped it herself.

“Why me? I haven’t done anything for you…” Yulia asked again and began moving the hand.

“Why not? There was this guy called Ivory and he had the design for it just laying around. I think he’s overjoyed that something he invented is helping someone. The blacksmith on the other side of the square had some time and materials on his hands, so I just kind of made him build one.” Anastacia half-lied.

“This looks expensive… I can’t have anything this nice. The enchantment that makes this work must have cost more money than I’ve ever seen…” Yulia tried to make excuses to not be any more indebted to Anastacia and her friends than she already was.

Her attitude annoyed Rosie a lot. “It works with free fucking friendship magic, so shut up and get back to work!” She growled and stormed out, dragging the priestess with her.

The lamb immediately broke into tears as usual for her. Anastacia tried awkwardly patting her head and was grabbed into a tight hug she couldn’t escape from.

Back outside the kitchen, Rosie and Emilia had returned to their posts behind the counter. The tigress started to sort out some paperwork regarding some ingredients she had ordered, usually she would leave things like that for after holly appeared from somewhere to take over the tavern, but with Yulia working for her, she had a lot more time on her hands – even if the lamb could only do the most basic things.

Suddenly a strong odor caught her nose. It was a mix of spoilt eggs, mud, grass and moldy bread – something she really shouldn’t be smelling in her establishment.

“Cat of spice, have seen queen, yes?” Something croaked from behind the counter.