Fiona had been to several high-class weapon shops before, but she had never been able to afford any of their expensive wares. This had never really been a problem. Sure, her old sword had been so blunt that it was as much a bludgeon as a blade, but with Fiona’s strength, that hardly made a difference. She had always dreamed of owning a fine enchanted sword, but it had never really been a priority until now.

Now she was short a weapon, had a mage for a friend, and had recently come into a windfall of cash thanks to Andra’s talents with blackmail. Finally, she was in a position to afford one, so when she and Riven entered the shop, it was with the intention to buy.

Inside, everything was nicely polished and neatly organized and displayed. Fiona had to admit she preferred the more chaotic layout of the lower-class shops. There you never knew what you might find: a fine claymore hidden in a bucket of rust-covered used weapons? a high-quality dirk buried under a pile of spears? However, there was something nice about being overwhelmed with the endless selection of impressive craftsmanship found at shops like this one.

“I usually use a claymore, but I think I might switch to something lighter,” Fiona said, leading Riven towards the one-handed swords.

“Really? You moved so fast back in the warehouse,” said Riven.

“Yeah, but it was hard to maneuver in close quarters like that. I almost let that one spider reach the boss.”

“You know she could have just killed it herself and actually helped us. You didn’t need to do all the work just because she told you to.”

Fiona’s ears lowered sadly and she looked at Riven like an injured animal.

Riven sighed. “Okay, look, it doesn’t really matter what type of weapon you pick because of the enchantment I’m going to place on it. Just choose whatever.”

Fiona cocked her head. “Why? What kind of enchantment are you doing?”

“The only kind I’m any good with are transformations, but I’m really good with those. So I figured I could place an enchantment on it that’ll let it take on the form of whatever weapon you want. Sword, spear, axe, anything.”

Fiona’s eyes widened with excitement. “That sounds like a complicated enchantment. Isn’t it going to be a lot of work?”

Riven shrugged. “If we’re going to be working together, it works to my advantage if you have a better weapon. Plus, hopefully it’ll make up for how embarrassing I acted under the effects of that love potion.”

“But you already apologized for that. You sent me chocolates the next day, remember?”

Riven grimaced. “Yeah, those weren’t apology chocolates. Maxim’s potions are really high-quality.”

“But why do you want to apologize anyway? It’s not like you cared when you shot that fireball at me.”

At that moment, Riven seemed to decide that a nearby saber was the most interesting thing in the world, and lifted it from its display to examine it. “So you should pick something out.”

Realizing that Riven probably wasn’t going to answer her question, Fiona selected another saber. “This one’s nice.”

Riven leaned close to examine it. “It could work, but enchantments stick better to artistic things.”

“Wait, but if art is subjective…”

Riven huffed. “You sound like my philosophy teacher. I’m the one enchanting it, so it’s about what I consider artistic. Like that.”

She pointed to an ornate rapier with a complicated, twisting handguard.

“That’s not really a weapon,” Fiona replied. “That one’s meant for displaying.”

“It doesn’t matter because it’s gonna change shape to whatever you want.”

“But if I buy that, then I have to take that to the clerk and…” she trailed off.

“What?”

“It’s embarrassing! I should know better than to buy something like this.”

Riven sighed. “Fine. Give me your money and I’ll buy it. You can hide behind those spears over there if you want to.”