Chapter 5: Ch. 5

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The Thaumaturgist (Chapter 5)

 

by

 

Elite Shade

 

 

 

"My beloved Daso, you have nothing to fear. I shall stand vigilant and smite any and all who would dare to harm you or your shop." Arono said to himself as he perched on the rooftop of the bakery across the street, ducking down to hide whenever Daso would pass by one of the windows. During the past week, there had been another three break-in attempts, all three of which had been thwarted by Daso's superior security system. That didn't keep Daso from making upgrades to his system and reporting each incident to the guards. It was after Daso had called and informed Tietro personally, that the elf had learned that it was the very same suspect who had escaped from custody shortly after the very first attempt at a break-in, and that his still love-sick cousin had overheard the conversation, and sworn to apprehend the culprit in question.

 

And, when she sees me standing over the defeated and crying form of her assailant, she shall swoon into my arms. Arono smiled at the mental image, before noticing Daso looking out the window, and ducking down to avoid being seen, and beaten up again, by her.

 

"She is indeed a feisty one." He said quietly to himself, as he peeked over the ledge to see if the coast was clear.

 

In the shop...
　

"Thanks again for choosing Daso's!" Daso said with a smile as he watched the last of his customers leave, quickly flipping the open sign to closed. Daso sighed as he looked at the timekeeper above the door. "Almost time before I have to go and have tea with two member of some of the most powerful families in all of Lyria," he said as he neatly folded his thick leather apron and set it under the counter, before emptying the register into the floor safe again, smiling brightly at all of the shelt he had been able to bring in so far.

 

Thanks to his advertising and word of mouth, more customers had been coming in lately. Apparently, a lot of people were not pleased with the waiting period nor the quality of work that the local Guild had been providing them with. Daso's smile faltered as he remembered that he needed to make himself presentable for the two meetings today. Despite what the two ladies, Sapha Du Griellera De Contiela and Gerda MisTranshire, seemed to imply about the nature of these meetings, Daso was going to treat them as purely business meetings, with the hopes of netting at least one, but possibly two, accounts.

 

After heading upstairs and hopping in the shower, Daso went through his wardrobe, and elected to wear a pair of jeans, and a red t-shirt.

 

There we go! he thought to himself, after running a comb through his long hair. Finishing the outfit with a pair of sneakers, Daso then grabbed the bag he had packed with some of his prototypes and potions, hopped in the cart, and armed his security system again before he peeled out.

 

 

Behind the dumpster in the alley...

 

 

　
He watched as she left, tearing out in a hurry. Zegn made sure to stay in the shadows more often as of late, thanks to Daso's security system's pictures, and the increased guard patrols on the street near the shop. Zegn was jonesing for his Nostalgia fix, scratching at his increasingly itchy and flaky scales. He had considered hopping on to the next ley train outta town, but the amount promised to him for this job was just too much to pass over. However, after his previous failures, he knew that he was going to have to get creative.

 

There's always a way in, always something that gets overlooked... He thought to himself as he, while sticking to the shadows, began to look the entire shop over. "Those pipes are too small." He said to himself, as quietly as his rough voice would allow.

 

"Perhaps one of the chimneys? I can't imagine that she would think to have those monitored too... maybe..."

 

"You will not have the chance to find out, vile fiend!" A voice said from behind Zegn, who froze in place, before he slowly turned, one hand quietly reaching under his roughspun tunic.

 

"You talkin' to me, elf?" He said, snarling his challenge. Arono smirked, flipping his hair once in the light breeze. Zegn had to hold back a laugh at the sight of him. Once more, Arono was wearing the ridiculous white linen shirt, which was unbuttoned half of the way down. "I think that you just got in over your head boy." Zegn snarled, pulling out the short sword he had swiped recently. It glinted in the noon sunlight in the back alley.

 

"No, I think not, my uncouth adversary!" Arono said as he unsheathed his rapier, expertly twirling it in his grasp. "En Garde!" The goblin snarled again, and started to charge.

 

 

　
Elsewhere in Pharanx...
　

 

Daso pulled up in front of a large, wrought iron gate, which led to a twisting, winding cobblestone path through a bright and colorful garden, with many different flowers, an impeccably manicured lawn, and various topiaries, two of which were of twenty feet tall dragons. All of that was before one of the most massive houses he had even seen. Even from this distance away, Daso could clearly make out each of its stained glass windows, all depicting several different diminutive, mostly bearded, figures. The building itself, including the pillars in the front of the giant polished double doors, was carved from some light blue rock.

 

"Can I help you?" Daso turned to see a male dwarf, dressed in a fine suit, with a very clear side-arm on his hip, and a large battle axe strapped to his back, standing in a small booth, seemingly carved from the same kind of blue stone, in keeping with the theme of the estate beyond.

 

"Uhm, I'm here to see Ms. MisTranshire, and her nephew?" The dwarf just sighed before he began to rub his temples.

 

"Lookie here girlie," he began, making Daso frown, "I sincerely doubt that some run of the mill, country bumpkin has anything to do with Mis-"

 

"Gradle?" Gerda's voice barked out of a small silver orb that had started floating up near the dwarf's face, who now stood at rapt attention.

 

"Yes Ms. MisTranshire!" He said.

 

"I have a young lady guest arriving here shortly for tea. Her name is Daso, so please open the gate for her when she arrives, is that understood?"

 

Wide-eyed, he looked back up to Daso, and then back to the silver ball. "Uh... y-yes Ms. MisTranshire!" There was a moment of silence, where Gradle had started to sweat a little nervously.

 

"She's already there, isn't she?"

 

"Uhh... y-yes Ms. MisTranshire."

 

"And you were giving her the business as well, weren't you?" Her voice had become stern.

 

"Uh... w-well, Ms. MisTranshire, I was merely informing what I had thought to be a random solicitor, or possibly a vagrant that only those with a purpose for being here-"

 

"APOLOGIZE TO MY GUEST AND LET HER INSIDE, RIGHT THIS MINUTE!!!"

 

"Yes Ms. MisTranshire!" He said, his now sweating much more profusely as he rapidly turned to face Daso while pressing a button, making the gate swing open on its well-oiled hinges.

 

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"I apologize for the confusion Miss, please head right on inside," Gradle said, now bowing until his beard scraped the ground.

 

"Uh, thank you," Daso said, before pulling a lever and carefully driving up the winding path. He pulled to a stop and killed the engine right in front of the steps, at the top of which was Gerda herself, waving enthusiastically!

 

"Right on time girlie, even with Gradle holdin' you up like that. I like punctuality in a person," she said as Daso climbed down, with the bag of his prototypes slung over his shoulder.

 

"Oh, thank you Ms. MisTranshire."

 

"Oh please, call me Gerda!" She said as she smiled while looking Daso up and down. "I see that you dress nicely, but sensibly, I like that as well!" Gerda herself was wearing a thick leather apron over a simple green pantsuit. "And I take it that those are some interesting little thingamajigs that you were planning on demonstrating today?" Daso nodded, suddenly feeling nervous as Gradle looked, jumping a little when Gerda clapped her large hands together.

 

"Wonderful! Yet another thing I like about you, girlie!" Gerda said, before motioning for Daso to follow her through the gigantic open doorway. Daso followed her through the maze-like halls, past many oil-paintings of landscapes and dwarves, polished suits of armor, beneath elegant crystalline chandeliers, and finally into what Daso would call a study, with bookshelves here and there, a fireplace with two busts of dwarf warriors wielding broadswords on either side, and what Daso recognized as being a Tacitarian rug, with an intricate design of a spider's web, which would fetch a small fortune easily, under a table laden with pristine silverware, silver platters with a variety of pastries, silver teacups, and a silver kettle, steam gently rising from the spout.

 

"I've already informed one of the servants to find my nephew, Lotan," Gerda said as she picked up a small silver plate and started to place some of the pastries on it, before settling into one of the leather armchairs. She motioned Daso forward, who elected to sit on the couch, and had just opened his mouth to speak when the door to the study was opened and loudly shut. In strode a male dwarf. He had fiery red hair, with a matching colored scraggly beard, that was two inches at its longest. He wore a suit and tie, both an ash grey, and a pair of bright yellow eyes looked Daso over.

 

"Hello there," he said, extending his also large hand, which Daso took with the intention of shaking, but was surprised to see Lotan instead pull his hand up to his face to allow his lips to brush against his knuckles.

 

"When my aunt said that she was arranging for me to meet a lovely woman today, I felt rather put-off by the idea of her clearly trying to play matchmaker, yet again. Then when she spoke of your skill at your forge, I became quite intrigued. She said that you are a thaumaturgist?"

 

"Y-Yes," Daso stammered for a second before pressing on. "In fact, I brought a few of my prototypes with me. You aunt has told me that you are an accomplished metallurgist yourself, so perhaps you will find these gadgets of mine to be worth your time," Daso said, hoping that he sounded professional.

 

Seeing some empty space on the table before them, he opened the bag, and pulled out a small metal spike, only a foot tall and as thick as a pencil, setting it in the middle of the table. Daso held his hand above it and made a fist, and the spike split at the top, opening like a flower opens its petals. Indeed, each of the metallic 'petals' changed in color every few seconds. Gerda and Lotan both leaned forward and began to inspect the oddity.

 

"That is quite beautiful Miss, as well as a sign of excellent craftsman--er, forgive me, craftswomanship indeed. Does it do anything in particular?" Lotan asked, not taking his eyes off the metal flower.

 

"Indeed it does," Daso said, standing up while pulling out a sledgehammer. Surprising both dwarves, he swung it with all of his might onto the kettle, only to have the hammer forcible stop exactly three inches from the very top of the kettle, a shimmering pale violet light forming underneath the hammer's head.

 

"It's a portable force-field generator!" Daso said proudly, to the stunned dwarves.

 

"But... it's so small!" Lotan exclaimed, now very intrigued. "Even the smallest force-field generators would still take up the entirety of this room!"

 

"And that's just one of them, don't forget, that with the current field generation tech coming from the guild still requires more than one generator to form any kind of barrier. And that's not even taking into account the massive amounts of energy that they consume!" Daso said proudly, now resting his hammer on his shoulder. Gerda stared up in wonder at the young lady before her, as did Lotan, along with a glint in his eye as he smiled at her.

 

"I take it that yours doesn't require much energy?" He asked, to which Daso nodded.

 

"I've crafted it to be usable with most types of batteries and energy cylinders available. With just one, this bad boy right here can offer anyone protection for six months straight! I call it the Defender Spike... I am still working on other possible names though..."

 

"Amazing!" Gerda said, her and Lotan's minds already thinking of the marketing possibilities. "And that's what you chose to open with? Shall I assume that that is not the only gadget of yours that you brought with you?" She asked. Daso smiled as he nodded again. With a wave of his hand, the petals reformed into the spike, which he picked up and set back down again in his bag, rummaging around for a second before pulling out his next prototype.

 

"Now this one I came up with on a total whim," Daso said as he set a small box, similar to the one on his cart but not as large, with a big red button on it. "I call it the Pocket Pal! Also still working on the name," she said as Lotan picked up the device.

 

"What does it do?" He asked as he pushed the button, not expecting the whoosh of air, nor the sight of one of the teacups to suddenly be slammed clean through the solid stone wall next to Gerda's head. She frowned and snatched it from his grasp, while he looked sheepish.

 

"Next time, I suggest asking that before pressing the button," she said sarcastically before smiling back at Daso. "Men," she said with a wink. Daso wasn't sure how to respond to that, and so just nodded, relieved that Gerda wasn't upset at the perfect teacup shaped hole in the wall.

 

"So, not only defensive but offensive gadgets as well. You are truly a marvel Miss Daso!" Lotan said, looking Daso over again, smiling at the slight blush on her face.

 

"A-Anyway, the way it works, uhm, it generates a small conical field of the air around it, creating a buildup of kinetic energy, which it simultaneously focuses through the tip of the cone, in the form of a bullet, made of air," Daso explained.

 

"Truly astounding!" Lotan said.

 

 

Back at the shop...

 

 

　
Tietro was scribbling notes down in his notepad while two other guards restrained the bleeding goblin, using multiple lengths of rope and chains to tie him down to the bottom of the cart, before shutting and locking the door to it. One climbed in the driver's seat and started the engine, while his partner gripped a pair of handrails and stool on the bumper in the back, watching the grumbling fugitive like a hawk. They were soon on their way to the local jailhouse, sending ahead for the doctor in their infirmary that they were bringing in a wounded suspect, leaving Tietro with his exuberant cousin.

 

"It was truly a battle to behold!" Arono exclaimed while Tietro frowned.

 

"Did it never occur to you that he could have killed you? What did you honestly hope to accomplish by this anyway?" Tietro scolded.

 

"I heroically threw myself into harm's way, to protect the love of my life's store! Now she shall see that my intentions are indeed pure, and that I have the heart of a brave warrior, who shall defend her should the need ever arise!" Arono practically shouted in joy, causing a gnome woman and her daughter to hurry on their way.

 

"Arono," Tietro said softly, reaching out and placing a gently hand on his shoulder, "I don't know how to say this, but even though I do think that Daso is going to appreciate that you helped to catch the guy that's been trying to break into her shop for the past week, I just don't think that things aren't going to go the way you plan."

 

"What do you mean Tietro?" Arono asked confused.

 

"What I mean, is that you do this all the time. You come on way too strong and pursue a woman to the point of making them uncomfortable, and then move on only after they have to let you down harshly, simply because you refused to acknowledge their polite ways of telling you no, and it breaks your heart every time. Don't you see, you're just setting yourself up for another heartbreak, or quite possibly, considering the current track record with your pursuit of Daso, a serious heartbreak and rib break."

 

"... Not really! I never apprehended a criminal for any of my previous infatuations after all!" Arono said while Tietro just started to rub his temples. "But, thank you for worrying about me so, dear cousin. When me and my Daso are to be wed, I would very much like for you to be my Best Man!"

 

 

 

 

 

I sure hope that you enjoyed this newest chapter! I've got a special little surprise coming for you in chapter six! Thanks again for reading!

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