The four of them hesitated for a moment, unsure what to do. Finally, Bordan spoke up.

“Alright, let’s figure out what we still need to do and divide up the work. We have a map and a ride, so that’s taken care of. We need travel rations and possibly additional waterskins. I’d like for each of us to have two. If any of you don’t have a good bag or backpack yet, you should get one. Then, we just have to get our gear and be at the gate tomorrow. Did I miss anything?”

None of the others added something, and Bordan nodded, satisfied. Then he turned to the mage.

“By the way, we haven’t been introduced yet. I’m Bordan and this is Edwin and Leodin. What’s your name?”

She regarded him for a few seconds, then apparently made a decision and curtly answered.

“Salissa.”

“Do you have everything you need? Travel gear, armor, weapons?”

She harrumphed, crossing her arms. To Edwin, the gesture simply looked childish on the smaller mage.

“I have everything I need to travel, and unlike you I am my own weapon.”

Edwin snorted, which earned him a disdainful look from the young girl. Bordan quickly continued.

“Very good. I have everything I need as well and I know a good place that sells rations, so I’ll go and take care of that. Who needs a second waterskin?”

After a few seconds the mage responded. “I do.”

“I need to go to the western quarter anyway.” Edwin offered. “My mace should finally be done, and there’s a leatherworker close by. They sell waterskins, so I can just pick one up while I’m there.”

“You don’t have your weapon yet?” Bordan asked with raised eyebrows. “I thought you ordered that weeks ago.”

“I did.” Edwin answered. “I got a special offer from one of the apprentices, because he wanted to make it as his exam piece. His exam should have been last week, I think. I didn’t expect to need it anytime soon, so I didn’t get around to picking it up yet.”

“Alright.” Bordan nodded. “That should be everything then. Everyone else go home, pack your things and get some sleep. We won’t be back here for a few weeks, so don’t forget anything. Remember what Mennick said, about a cloak, clothes and such. And Leodin, bring enough bolts for your crossbow. And be on time tomorrow, people, the cart will leave without us if we aren’t there, and we have little enough time as is. The western gate at sunrise. Don’t forget it.”

The group dispersed, all of them leaving the guild house except Leodin who stayed behind to speak with Mennick. Getting some more last-minute advice, Edwin assumed. Leodin was a great shot and a decent swordsman – in Edwin’s very limited opinion – but he was still quite young, and he hadn’t seemed as ready and willing to go as he wanted the others to think.

Edwin turned right under the dragon’s head, briskly marching towards the western quarter. It was the middle of summer so the sun was still very much in the sky and would be for a few hours yet, but he wasn’t sure when the shops would close, and the group would be gone by the time they opened tomorrow. Now that he knew where Armin’s was, he could make good time even without Olin’s guidance. He had been back to the western quarter a few times since that first trip, once to pick up his other orders, the others to meet Olin – ostensibly to see if the urchin had more information, but mostly to spend time with the boy. Olin had shown him quick ways to get around the western quarter and some less well-known shops, as well as pointing out important people and locations.

On one of these trips, they had passed by an unassuming warehouse, one of hundreds in that part of the city. Edwin had stopped, comparing the place to his memory. A long time ago, for roughly a year, this warehouse had been the headquarters of ‘Poltin’s Transport Company’ – a fictitious corporation that Walter had created to covertly move his supplies across the country when he began building his laboratory. If only Walter’s father could have seen his son finally putting those business lessons to use… Even now, the thought made Edwin smirk. It had most definitely not been the way either of them had expected Walter to enter the family business.

Edwin arrived at the square where Armin’s Arms and Armors was located and saw with relief that none of the shops seemed to be in the process of closing. After a moment of deliberation, Edwin headed over to the leatherworker. This would be the quicker stop of the two, best to get it out of the way first. He entered the shop, purchased a waterskin from the bored attendant, and was out on the street again within two minutes later, making his way to the weaponsmith.

The counter at Armin’s was empty, but a quick look around the space revealed an equally bored looking apprentice looking busy while pretending to dust some of the weapons hanging on the wall. Edwin asked for Toris, and the apprentice left to fetch him.

“Edwin!” Toris was positively beaming when he entered the showroom, vigorously shaking Edwin’s hand. “Good to see you!”

“And you.” Edwin answered, the young man’s good mood infecting him with a smile. “I take it your examination went well?”

“You could surely say that!” Toris laughed, pulling Edwin towards one of the back rooms. “The master even said that some of my ideas were ‘really resourceful’. He complimented me in front of everyone! He never does that on apprentice exams! You should have seen the others’ faces!”

“I’m sure it was quite something. Congratulations.” Edwin answered, letting himself be ushered through the door. “It is done, then?”

“Oh, absolutely.” The space they were in seemed to be a storage room, shelves filled with boxes, bars, rods and other forms of metal lining most of the walls. Toris stopped by one of the shelves, turning to face Edwin. “It’s just waiting for you to pick it up. I’m sure you’re curious what I did…?”

Edwin really had other things on his mind, but he didn’t want to ruin Toris’s fun. Also, now that he thought about it, he really was eager to see it. “Absolutely.”

“Well, here it is!” Toris said triumphantly, pulling the mace out from between two boxes and handing it to the larger man. The wooden shaft was a little thicker than the ones Toris had shown him during their first meeting, and the handle was wrapped with leather. The head was quite a bit larger than the ones he had held and made of steel instead of bronze. It also looked slightly different. Where the smaller one had had a strange shape of alternating single and double spikes, this one just had four thick, blunt spikes, one on each side. And it was heavy. He gave it a tentative swing and noticed his muscles flexing to stop the momentum at the end of the swing. Edwin smiled. He really wanted to hit something with it.

“So, you said heavier, which got me thinking. First, I thought: ‘Heavier metal, duh’. But I talked to some of the others, and they said I wouldn’t get around making it bigger. So then I thought, okay, just make it bigger. But that’s boring, right? It was supposed to be something special. And you said you wanted it to be quite a bit heavier, so I thought: ‘What’s really heavy, Toris? Lead, that’s what.’ But lead’s really soft, so it’s bad for making weapons. So that’s when I got the genius idea to do it this way. I would’ve left the shaft out so you could see what I did, but I had told you that it’d be done when you came by next, so I ended up finishing it after all.”

Edwin regarded the excited apprentice with a bemused smile. In a way, he reminded him of a much younger Walter, always thinking outside the box and looking for ways to improve upon what he knew. His Master would have to watch him closely. While this mindset could lead to brilliant discoveries, like the Immortalizer, it also tended to cause the creation of useless, superfluous or dangerous abominations. People like them craved the invigorating feeling of creating something entirely new, of pushing the boundary of the known. There was a lot of junk behind that boundary, however, and you could only advance by turning over every little piece. Edwin decided he would keep an eye on Toris. Who knew what the boy would come up with if given the chance?

“So, what did you do?” Edwin asked.

“Right, so, this is it. You can see how I made the head a simpler design, right? Got rid of most of the spikes, only kept those four, rounded the top. That’s because I made it out of steel instead of bronze. I did go over budget, even after you agreed to make it a little more expensive in the end, but I promised you a price and I stand by it. Anyway, it would have been way more expensive than it ended up being if I had done the whole thing out of steel.”

The smug apprentice paused for effect, and Edwin humored him.

“Which you didn’t”

“Which I didn’t! Instead, the head is hollow. I mean, it was hollow anyway, because the shaft goes through it…so, even more hollow.”

“I get it.”

“Right, so on the outside it’s a fairly thin layer of steel.” Toris saw Edwin’s expression change and hurried to placate him. “Not thin thin, just, you know, not solid. Don’t worry, it’s supposed to be used to hit things after all. I wouldn’t make it anything less than sturdy. Anyway, inside the steel shell is a core of lead, basically shaped like a ring. I put a bit of leather between the two, that should keep the lead from moving around inside the shell – I’m honestly not sure if that does anything, I couldn’t do a whole lot of testing, so I figured ‘Meh, it can’t hurt, can it’. Then I made the shaft as long as you wanted it, but I ended up making it a little thicker because of the added weight. Add some complimentary leather around the hilt, mostly because the wrapping technique was part of the exam, and here we are. What do you think?”

Edwin swished it around a few times, then weighed the head in his hand in wonder.

“I like it a lot. I mean, I can’t really say until I use it, but it seems great. I’m surprised you used steel though. Wasn’t that really expensive?”

“Kinda, but I was expected to make a steel weapon anyway, so I had an allotment.”

“Well, I can’t wait to use it. Although I suppose that will be sooner rather than later, we’re heading out on assignment tomorrow.”

“Really?” Toris said, surprised. “You didn’t say it would be this soon.”

Edwin shrugged. “I didn’t know. It was kind of a sudden thing.”

“Well, tell me what you think when you come back. I’d love to hear how it did in a real fight.”

Edwin regarded the young apprentice with amusement, wondering whether it was the idea of fighting monsters, or the idea of monsters being fought with his creation that excited the apprentice more.

“I will. Do you have my shield?”

“Sure, it’s here somewhere.” Toris looked around a bit, finally pulling it out from behind the shelf. It was a simple thing, large and round with a steel band around the outside to provide stability. Toris handed Edwin a sling to hang the mace from his belt, and after a few more pleasantries, Edwin bid the apprentice good night. Walking back through the city, the sun hanging low in the sky, mace and shield in his hand, he felt like a true adventurer for the first time. It was then that the realization finally sunk home.

Tomorrow, we leave. And a few days from now, I’ll be somewhere out there, fighting a monster to the death.