The trio wandered for three days, the journey taking much longer than expected. Jesse thought maybe that lady, that being, whatever it was, could make it in a day but no normal human could. Was he even a normal human? Jesse thought so but his growing bond with Aegis and essence improving his overall health had him wondering. He was nowhere near the miraculous levels of a virescent or the arcane power of an arcanescent, but he was still above where a man at his age with his former physical condition should be.

  As they walked Jesse pondered the crystals and what he saw at the ruined waystation. He intuitively understood the crystals better now, just from the brief look at the construct and pedestals. He even had several designs for new tools and weapons in mind. I need a better way to defend myself. He thought as he walked. He looked down at what remained of his arm. And to try to regain some of what I’ve lost. He thought with a wince and a surge of melancholy.

  His mood did slightly improve as he felt Aegis’s excitement as she bounded ahead of them. He felt it through their bond, it was… strange. Years of having an AI implanted in his mind had prepared him for the foreign feelings however. He could even hear more clearly than ever and smelled a faint whisp of smoke. “We are getting close. I… or Aegis… can smell the fire.” Jesse said.

  Tormund eyed Jesse for a moment and then nodded. “What’s it like? Do you share senses?”

  “Yeah, sort of. I can sense what she senses, though I can tell they aren’t mine. It feels external somehow. It’s very strange.”

  “Yeah, it sounds like it. You think you’re going to start acting like a dog or something? Go chasing squirrels and marking your territory?” He asked with a chuckle.

  Jesse ignored the jibe, not really in the mood for banter.

  They continued to walk until in the distance, finally, they saw the wall of a town. “Oh thank the gods.” Tormund exclaimed.

  “Hey so uh, I was curious. When you say that, what do you mean?” Jesse asked.

  “Oh the gods? They are just… uh.. all powerful beings. Each with their own domain.” Tormund responded with a shrug.

  “Do you worship any particular one?” Jesse asked, curious about local customs.

  “Some do. I honestly don’t really even believe in them. It’s just something people say.” Tormund responded.

  “Huh. Yeah I guess it was kind of the same on my world. I just thought here the gods would be more… present than in my world.” He responded.

  “Yeah with all this magic an essence around you would think that.” Tormund shrugged. “There are legends that they used to be. Haven’t seen any divine intervention myself though.”

  Wouldn’t a sufficiently powerful essence user be basically a god? Jesse thought. Maybe there is a cap somewhere? Or is it just too difficult to reach that level of advancement? Was Mordrak a goddess?

  They approached the gates of the town, which were open. The wall was a large wooden palisade with large wooden gate doors that opened and shut via a pulley system. Two guards stood in front of the gate.

  “Halt!” One of them said at their approach. He looked them over with a frown.

  “Please, we are exhausted travelers. We got lost in the woods to the east and just need to rest and resupply. We have money.” He said.

  “Very well.” The guard said. “You’re lucky to be alive if you came from those woods. I’m surprised you found your way here at all.”

  The other guard eyed them with his brows furrowed but didn’t stop their entry. Jesse was thankful his clothes were so torn and covered in muck that they likely couldn’t be distinguished from the local garb.

  When they passed through the gate Jesse took in his first view of civilization in this world. It was… well it looked like a village straight out of a fantasy movie. The streets were paved with rectangular rough cut stones that looked well trodden and worn. The buildings were mostly wooden, some with multiple stories even. A few stone and brick buildings were noticeable as well, usually well off shops or what looked like a blacksmith. Jesse figured the government building would also be stone but he didn’t see it on the main thoroughfare.

  People dressed in neatly tailored clothing walked up and down the street, visiting shops and going about their business. Horses and ox pulled carts stocked with wooden beams and various trade goods. Soldiers walked into taverns laughing with their friends. It was surreal for Jesse. It felt like it had been so long since he had seen a town. His home, well it barely counted. It was more of a massive building than a village.

  He could smell the aromas of cooking food and his stomach growled loudly. After mostly nothing but jerky and dried vegetables and the occasional unseasoned game they hunted, he was dying for a real meal.

  “We should take the day to rest. I will try to contact the resistance tonight.” Tormund told Jesse.

  “I was actually thinking I would find a blacksmith.” Jesse said. “I have some equipment I would like made.” Schematics and half formed ideas whirled in Jesse’s mind.

  “Suite yourself. I’ll be in the Drunk Huntsman tavern.” Tormund said with a shrug. With that he wandered off leaving Jesse and Aegis alone.

  Jesse walked forward and looked at the sign for the stone building that he believed was the blacksmith due to the large anval painted on it. He still couldn’t read the local writing, as Golem had only translated the spoken language. What do you think Golem? What to make some new toys?

  “It would be advisable to make something slightly more dangerous than a toy.” Golem replied.

  “I know… it’s really just a figure of speech.” Jesse grumbled mentally.

  “I am aware. That was an attempt at humor.” Golem replied mentally.

  You tried to make a joke? Not bad for a first attempt! Jesse replied grinning. He hadn’t expected his AI to try to joke with him. Hopefully he could guide his humor to something a little more… well funny.

  Jesse could feel Aegis’s apprehension at entering th large building that smelled of sulfur and fire. The inside of the shop was hot. Different displays of various tools and weapons were setup throughout the shop. Armor was hung in a corner, though it didn’t look to be this Blacksmiths specialty. The pieces were far less elaborate than the tools and weapons. Setup nearby were also pipes and what looked like boilers or some sort of pressure vessel for heating fluid. Perhaps the technology was better than he thought here.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “Uh hello.” He said to the woman who stood at the counter. She stood taller than him at roughly six foot. She had long dark hair and a weather worn face. He gauged her at 40 or 50. Her shoulders were wide and arms well muscled.

  “Hello.” She said in a gruff voice. “What can I help you with?”

  Jesse walked up to the counter and proffered one of the golden coins he had found in the ruins. “I have some custom work that needs to be done for some experiments. What can this get me?”

  She started to answer while reaching for the coin, “Names Myra Vor’Nath. custom work has a wait right now. A couple weeks once we agree on the design…” she trailed off when she saw the coin up close. She bustled over to the door and locked it. She shuttered her windows. “Nevermind. Let’s get you sorted!” She said with a big grin.

  “Wait, what? How much will that get me?” He asked, confused.

  “Whatever you want! You could have the whole store for this, if it proves real!” She said bringing it to another room, where he followed. She looked at it under a magnifying glass and grunted. “You don’t know how much this is worth do you?”

  “I do not.” Jesse shrugged.

  “Idiot. A less reputable shopkeeper would have ripped you off. Listen, you should pay with something else.” She said looking down at the coin. “With this you could literally buy this entire shop. I don’t mean all the stuff in it, I mean the building too.”

  “Look, I really just need the stuff I have in mind.” Jesse said with a shrug. “I’ll take some extras like armor and tools but mostly I want what I came here for. You can keep the change. For uh keeping this quiet.” Jesse didn’t care about the wealth. It wouldn’t matter if he couldn’t get Rebecca back, and besides he had two more of those coins.

  “If you want to be ripped off then fine, I’m not gonna stop you. What can we get started? I have a lot of standard pieces made that we could probably work from to get you where you need if time is important.” She said, slipping the coin into her pocket.

  Jesse grinned. “Do you have any paper?”

  She brought him some and he began to write down his ideas. The first was a tube with various wires wrapped around it in an intricate pattern. Below the tube was a second pipe and at the end another. At one end of the tube was a housing designed to hold something roughly the size of the crystals he carried in his bag.

  “What’s this supposed to be?” She asked him.

  “Uh, like I said it’s an experiment.” He replied.

  “It looks like a toy.” She said, giving him a flat look. “If you want me to make you toys then just say that.”

  “No, it has a purpose. It’s probably safer if you don’t know though.” He said.

  “Alright.” She grunted. “I’ll use some pipes that I already made for the tube and the handles. Just need to fuse em together. I have some wire around too that should do the trick there and I could fashion the cage there at the end out of the same wire.” She said rubbing her chin. “Shouldn’t take too long.” She walked off, getting to work.

  Jesse worked on sketching out his remaining ideas. Occasionally he would ask Golem for some input and the AI would critique or improve the designs based on the data he had collected. In the end he was able to design 3 more devices, aside from the one Myra was making.

  “All done with this one. What else do you have?” She said a short time later. “Oh these are interesting. Getting into some fights are you? Don’t really know why you’d put wire on a club and shield but you’re the one paying. And what’s this last one here?” She said, picking up the last sheet of paper. “Oh I see.” She glanced up at him, her eyes lingering on his missing arm. “Alright let’s get to it.”

  He watched her attach the wiring to a pre-made steel club. It looked like it would serve the purpose he had in mind. Next she moved on to the shield, attaching wire in different, but equally complex patterns.

  “The arms going to take a while, sorry. It’s fully custom work.” She admitted while looking at his schematic. She then eyed the box attached to his arm, the AI module, curiously. “Mind if I ask what happened?” She said while taking measurements of his stump. Is that what people called their lost limbs? He wasn’t sure.

  “The arm was crushed during a fight. It wasn’t salvageable.” He said deadpan, remembering the pain of losing it, at least before the burns prevented pain from forming at all.

  “A fight with fire too. These are burn scars. You’ve got an interesting story, friend. I won’t pry it outta you.” She said.

  “Yeah, maybe I’ll come back some day and tell you.” Jesse said. He silently hoped that he would get that opportunity.

  “Just tell me you aren’t planning on hurting anyone who don’t deserve it.” She said to him.

  “I don’t kill.” Jesse said. “I just need to find my daughter.”

  “Well not killing is all well and good until you don’t have a choice. I would know.” She said with a scowl. “Just keep yourself safe. Don’t cause harm when you can avoid it but do what you can for your daughter. Where is she?”

  “I don’t know. I’m heading for the capital to look.” He said honestly.

  “Well that’s a shame. Mines in the capital. She left when my husband died. Said she couldn’t look at the forge no more.” She said, staring into the fire.

  “How did he die if you don’t mind me asking.” Jesse asked softly.

  “Some bandits came to the town under the cover of night. Snuck over the wall. Lokar and I were working the forge at the time, trying to catch up on some orders. He taught me, you see, how to be a blacksmith. Well they broke in. Lokar, he was a kind man. He didn’t want to hurt nobody. He gave them what they wanted and they used it to kill him.”

  She sighed.

  “I still dream about it sometimes. One with a nasty scar over one eye, it grey and lifeless in the socket, laughing as they left me alone crying over my dead husband. The acrid smell of the evil men. I took over the business to keep our daughter fed. Paid for her to go to university in the capital too.”

  “I’m sorry. That’s horrible.” Jesse said, staring into the glow of the forge.

  “Sometimes you gotta do what you have to. If my husband had fought, if he and I fought together, well maybe things could have been different.” She told him.

  Or you both might be dead. Jesse thought.

  “This arm is going to take me bout a week I would say.” She said after finishing the measurements.

  “I don’t have that long. I need to find my daughter.” Jesse responded.

  “Well how about you take this.” She said while pulling out a hook prosthesis from a box. “We can get you fitted up and then when it’s ready you can come pick it up.”

  Jesse nodded and she fitted the hook over his stump. He sighed, he had hoped he would have some functionality back.

  Once she finished up she laid out his new equipment on a large table. The club came with a belt sheath of sorts and he strapped it on. The shield had a long strap so it could be worn on the back when not in active use. The pipe gun didn’t really have any convenience in storage but Jesse decided he would just put it in a bag until he needed it. Now that he thought of it…

  “Do you have a backpack I could have? I’ll need something to store the equipment.” He said.

  “I have a large leather travel bag that’s worn on the back. It’s clunky but distributes the weight well enough and it’s sturdy too.” She said. “I’ll go clear it out.”

  She soon came back with a huge backpack. He transferred the contents of his bag over to it and his new pipe gun thing. “Can I get a knife, a hand saw, a hatchet, a small forge hammer, a frying pan, and a spool of wire.” Jesse began listing off. She obliged and added everything to the bag. “I’ll need some armor too. Lighter is better for us. And a spear.”

  “I have some basic chain, but even that’s pretty heavy. I’m not a leather worker really.” She said.

  “It’ll do I suppose.” He said putting the armor on, starting with the underlayment. He took a second pair for Tormund. That gave him an idea.

  “Do you think you could fit Aegis with something?” He asked.

  “Not in the timeframe you need.” She said. “Give me a few days and I could.”

  “We’ll be out of here by then unfortunately.” He said. It’s fine. I appreciate your help here and I hope I’ll meet you again.”

  “Whatever you are doing and where ever you are going, I wish you success. Find your daughter!” She answered. “We will see each other again soon.”

  After everything, his load was very heavy. He would need to get Tormund a bag so they could share the burden.

  Jesse headed to the tavern Tormund had indicated. He could use a drink and a meal. He had a lot to think about.