“You wouldn’t happen to know someone named Emelri, would you?”

She searched his face incredulously. “Mevlo?”

He blinked. “How do you know—Ziluria, is that you, Emi?”

“Holy shit. Dad. I—”

She froze when he crushed her in a big hug. “It’s really you?” he said in ancient Elden. “I never thought I’d see you again.”

“I... yeah. Neither did I.”

“I always wondered what became of you after I left. It’s been so long...”

“You look so different now,” she admitted. “I didn’t recognize you.”

He gave a wet laugh, pulling from the hug while moist, rainbow eyes searched her face. “I didn’t recognize you either. You’re all grown up and some kind of warrior, it looks like. Why are you all the way out here? I heard what happened to Yundet, so I assume you escaped. Where are you living now? What have you been up to?”

She blinked away, her chest panging with so many emotions, she wasn’t sure what to think. “I have questions myself. Things I’ve wanted to know my whole life, like why you left when I was only five years old. Why you never visited. You said yourself earlier you haven’t had time for relationships. It has me wondering if you ever cared for me.” Sudden tears filled her eyes that she was not prepared for. “You left me with that woman and... and I just needed a father figure, a parent who would be there for me, but you left. Why?”

“Oh, Emi...” He hesitantly lifted a hand then wiped a tear from her face. “I’ve missed you every moment we’ve been apart. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you. I made a selfish choice. It’s my biggest regret. I just... I couldn’t be with Daldi anymore. She’d worn me down so much, and I’d had enough, but I knew she’d put up a fight if I tried to take you with me. So, I left. After that, I put all my focus into my weapon making business. It was wrong. I know that. I should have taken you with me and gotten us both out of there. I’m... I’m so sorry, Emi.”

As more of his own tears appeared, she found it impossible to harbor feelings of ill will. She gripped his shoulder. “I know better than anyone what she’s like. I understand why you left and why you buried yourself in work you enjoyed. I left her when I was thirteen for the same reason.”

His eyes widened. “You did?”

“I was able to find a new family. Two amazing fathers that adopted me.”

“Oh, truly? That’s wonderful, Emi. Are they good to you?”

“Yes. I’ve been really happy living with them.” Pepin blinked at that.

“Are you nearby then? Where are you living?”

“Um... that’s kind of a complicated question.”

He shook his head. “You don’t have to tell me. You don’t owe me anything. I’m just happy you’re even talking to me.”

“Of course. I missed you too. I’ve been wanting to find you my whole life.” He wiped under his eyes and nodded. Looking him over, she pulled him in for another hug. “I’m so happy to see you.”

A soft, choked sound escaped his mouth. “M-me too. Me too...”

They held each other like that in silence for a while, until he was pulling away to wipe his face.

“Well, now that you’ve made this old man cry, why don’t you introduce me to your traveling partner.”

“Hm? Oh, Pep?” Looking over at the magic user who’d been watching them mutely from the side, she reached out and took his wrist, tugging him over. “This is Pepin. We were adopted at the same time, actually. He speaks ancient Elden too. We’re on a quest to find his sibling, Toulou.” 

“Is that right? Nice to meet you.” They exchanged a bow of the head. “Is your sibling lost or something? I can help look around Barshio.”

“Uh, it’s not like that. They’re the oldest of us three and a magic user like Pep. We’ve been tracking them for a few weeks now. They’re headed for the Spiller stronghold, Fort Blood.”

“What? The main base of the Spillers?”

“That’s the one.”

“Woah, wait. That’s where you two are headed? What is Toulou wanting to go there for?”

“They... have a vendetta against one of the Spillers named Carnadine. It’s a whole fiasco—”

“Carnadine? The Spiller who supposedly possesses Teptrite?”

“You’ve heard of her?”

“Heard of her? She’s all everyone up here can talk about. She’s been stirring up chaos the last few years, and most recently, the Spillers have been under attack from a very powerful young magic user—hey, wait... That’s... that’s not Toulou, is it?”

“Yeah. The very same.”

“Holy—”

“We’re trying to talk them out of it, but we’ve been unsuccessful. They’re dead set on killing her, so things may become hostile when we catch up to them, but it doesn’t matter.”

“Doesn’t matter? Emi, that magic user has leveled entire strongholds by themself.” 

“I know but they’re family and we need to stop them before they get hurt. They’ve been poisoned, and we have the antidote that will save them.” She patted a pocket on her left thigh.

Mevlo looked between them seriously. “This is extremely dangerous. Any way I can talk you out of it?” They shook their heads, and he gave a soft sigh. “Right. Is there any way I can help then?”

“We’re in kind of a hurry. We need to catch them before they reach Fort Blood.”

He nodded, biting his lip in thought. “If you can spare some time, I can draw up the safest route there and I may have something that could be useful for you if you find yourself in combat.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“If you’re facing Carnadine and your magic user of a sibling, things could get ugly fast. However, I could modify your axe to have magic capabilities that would give you an advantage since you are not affected by Teptrite.” The two teens gawked. “A user immune to Teptrite is unrivaled.”

“You... could do that?”

“Sure can. I can also fix and restore that necklace of yours, Pepin.” He pointed at the black glass pendant around the user’s neck. “Looks like it used to have some kind of cover over it that was meant to hide the crystal’s light if needed.”

Pepin looked down. “You can fix it?”

“Yes, and I can replace the broken energy crystal as well—”

“No, er,” he cleared his throat. “Just the actual necklace would be fine. Would all of that take too long?”

He shook his head. “The rest of the afternoon at most for both items. Would that be too long?”

Emelri glanced at Pepin who hesitated. “We’re still behind,” he said softly, “but I’m doing further and further jumps each time, so I’m confident we’ll catch up in the next few days. We need to reach Toulou on time, but we also need to be able to protect them if we run into Carnadine. If we get this wrong, not only will they die, but there’s a strong chance we will too.”

She searched his face, then gave an affirming nod. “Then we stay a bit longer. Lead the way, Mevlo.”

 

 

Mevlo took them to the main workroom where Emelri watched a man hammer a red-hot slab of iron connected to a sword handle, while a woman with beefy arms shoveled coal, and another man carved something into a knife blade. They were all Venwi Folk, and each perked up at the Alchemist man’s approach.

“How goes it, Boss?” the woman with bronze skin and wavy black hair asked in Venwi as she continued her shoveling. “You’ll be happy to know we’re ahead of schedule today.”

“That’s great Anette! I’m actually going to have two of you drop what you’re doing to help me fulfill a last second order.”

“Oh?” The man hammering paused, seeming to see Emelri and Pepin for the first time. “These two kids your client?”

“That’s right, and they aren’t kids. Emi, let’s see your axe.”

Nodding, she took Broyeur from her back and reverently handed it over. She watched as the three blacksmiths looked it over while the man previously engraving the knife blade took over hammering the still hot weapon that’d been set down.

“This is Elderian steel!” Anette exclaimed, eyes scanning over the blade. “Where the hell did you get something like this, and in such good condition too?”

“Uh...” Emelri began, her voice cracking. “Traded for it somewhere. I don’t remember where...”

“Well, you either have a hellova lot of cash on hand,” the man beside her father said, “or whoever traded you this is a fucking moron.”

“Probably a moron then, I guess,” she said, chuckling uneasily.

“I can’t believe you’ve been carrying this, Emi,” Mevlo said, lifting the weapon with two hands before placing it down on a worktable. “You really fight with something this heavy?”

He received a hard smack on the arm from Anette. “Look at her arms, Mev. What kind of stupid ass question is that?”

Biting back a smug little grin, Emelri rubbed her bicep with one hand, catching the quiet little snicker that escaped Pepin’s mouth.

“So, what kind of magic will I be able to perform,” she asked as Mevlo examined the ruby embedded between the half blade and death spike.

“Magic created by a non-user is very different from that created by a user like Pepin here. You will be able to discharge a burst of magic and even create a forcefield, but the crystal is doing all the work since you have no connection to it. I will show you how to interact with it while these two begin work on Broyeur. I hate to ask this, but may we remove the gemstone?” He pointed to the ruby and a wave of anxiety flashed over her. “It would just be a perfect place to put the energy crystal.”

“I...” She was trying to be very mature about the situation as the intense desire to rescue Broyeur from these people overwhelmed her. “Th-that will be acceptable,” she heard herself say, and the tender place in her heart for the weapon screamed in protest. “Just... please don’t alter him in any other way.”

The male worker snorted, reaching out to lift Broyeur up. “We’ll do the same work we do on all the weapons—”

She grabbed his forearm to stop him. “I expect you to take good care of him,” she said darkly. “Are we clear?”

He eyed her, obviously impressed by her unassuming strength by the way he looked down and up at the arm that held him back. 

Mevlo burst out laughing, patting her on the back good naturedly. “Emi, don’t worry. I only hire the best. They will take exceptional care of your baby. Pepin, you can leave your necklace with them. They’ll repair it in no time.”

It was Pepin’s turn to hesitate as he reluctantly gave his necklace over to the woman.

“Don’t worry. They won’t touch the old energy crystal. Now, come with me while they get started. I need to make sure you’ll be able to use this upgrade effectively, Emi, plus I did say I’d draw you up proper directions to Fort Blood.” He led her away as she looked over her shoulder anxiously. 

“What do you mean, use the upgrade effectively? How can you ensure that?”

“I’ll have you practice with weapons I’ve already upgraded. It doesn’t take too much learning, but I do want you to have the basics down. Good thing I have training grounds just for this very thing.”

“Yeah, okay,” she said, finally peeling her eyes away from her weapon to look at him. “I’m ready to learn.”

 

 

Thrusting forward the small axe with a glowing green crystal embedded on the hilt, Emelri watched as a burst of green light shot out of it into the sky. 

“That’s it,” Mevlo complimented, walking up to her. “This is effective on magic users, Spillers, non-users; anybody really. Just make sure you put the crystal back into place when you don’t want to use its magic.” He reached out and turned the energy crystal to the right. “If you don’t, you risk shooting magic out of it when you aren’t wanting it to. Now, making the forcefield is slightly more involved. Follow my movements.” Holding his own energy crystal embedded weapon, he pointed the tip of the sword at the ground then drew a circle around himself. The glowing green line he painted spread up and around him like a bubble.

“Oh, wow,” Pepin commented from the sidelines where he was sitting cross legged on the ground.

“Just like a magic user, huh?” Mevlo asked, grinning.

“Exactly so.”

“This in combination with your shell will protect you, Emi. That’s why I made it for you, you know.”

She blinked. “You did? I just thought it was another one of your projects.”

“Well, it was, but it was made with you in mind. I’m surprised your mother didn’t throw it away.”

“She tried. I dug it out of the trash and kept it hidden, especially after I found out what it does. It’s saved my life several times now.”

“Oh, really? That soothes my nerves a bit.”

A grin crawled over her face as she drew a green line around her with the axe blade. “You know, I heard about you all the way in Quixotryl.”

“Huh? You did?”

“I salvaged one of your swords I’d stored in our old house in Yundet. Your insignia was on it, and a trader recognized it. You’re... kind of famous.”

“I am?” He looked genuinely shocked, causing her to chuckle.

“Did you not know?”

“I mean, I knew people would travel pretty far just for my shop, but that far...” He breathed out a bewildered laugh, rubbing the back of his neck. “That’s really something.”

She grinned. “Well, you should be proud. I mean, your work with energy crystals alone is amazing.”

“Oh, yeah. Thanks, Emi. I hope you enjoy your new and improved weapon once it’s finished. Should be done in a few hours, I’d say. You have somewhere you’ll be staying tonight?”

“We have camping supplies. We need to keep moving if we’ll ever catch up to them.”

He nodded. “Stay safe, okay? I wish you the best of luck and hey, you’re always welcome to visit me, but only if you wish.”

“Yeah,” she said, smiling. “I just might.”