You send curses after the lordling as you clean the forge for the night. Why did they stay so late, preventing you from closing the shop at the normal time?

“Smithy!” Your father calls from the shop. “Could you come here?”

You go to the shop and see your father holding up the lordlings signet ring to the lantern.

“Smithy, the Young Liege left their ring here. Would you run it up to the keep?” He hands the ring towards you. “I don’t want them or us to get in trouble for them leaving it here.”

“Yeah,” you say before mumbling under your breath, “blighted lordling and their blighted ring.”

“Language!” Your father yells at you as you head back to the forge to grab a hammer. You never like to wander the city without a way to defend yourself, especially at night.

You make your way towards the keep following a more direct side street rather than the main road. Maybe if you’re fast enough you might even get there before the blighted lordling.

You slow down when you see a small commotion ahead. Maybe a small confrontation involving the city guards? Even though it’s still a ways off you cross to the other side of the street to avoid it. You see someone else doing the same thing much closer to the commotion. When they get to the middle of the street and out of the shadows you recognize the lordling. You also see a cloaked figure dash out of an alley straight at the blighted Young Liege.

“Rea, watch out!” you yell at them.

The lordling has the audacity to stare at you instead of the cloaked man. You point at the man as you grab your hammer and pull your arm back for a swing. You had finally convinced the lordling that your “weirdness” didn’t exist and now this. Blighted lordling and their blighted ring.

“Duck!”

You swing your hammer.