Spin Offs, Gweth B

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Although Gweth had not intended to stay in Olds for more than a day or two she had, so far, stayed for over three eight-days. As summer approached there was much talk among the locals of the solstice festival. Gweth periodically thought it would be wiser to move on, after all, Lekas really was not that far away… but no one had come looking for her, and she was fairly sure Adwin and his friends must have left for Kaymere by this point to help Tipper with her treasure hunting.

 Since she and Kahlahnti had grown close, they spent time together every other day. Gweth was happier when she was with her new friend and her nightmares had become less frequent. It was becoming increasingly difficult to pretend there was nothing between them when Kahlahnti was working, Gweth had seen the proprietor eyeing her a time or two over the past few days, the man did not say anything but he had become less friendly towards her over the past few days. Rather than cause troubles, Gweth had decided to rent a room at the inn. But first she wanted to get rid of the dress she had found in the chest.

She carefully folded the beautiful dress and placed it in a hemp sack, then, pushing aside her fears, she walked to the local mage’s establishment, which was not far from the luthier’s workshop. The building was an odd structure, there were many tall windows with glass panes and despite being only slightly larger than most of the other buildings in the village Gweth thought it looked like a small palace. The double doors of the main entry were wide open. She took a deep breath and walked in.

The front room was large, likely half the volume of the building. There were windows everywhere, and the ceiling was arched. The place smelled like flowers, though there was not a plant of any sort in sight. There were two shelves to either side, a few display cases between the windows, an ornate counter and a large number of items on shelves or hanging from the wall. Behind the counter there was another door of carved wood, depicting a woodland scene. No one was around, tentatively Gweth called out, “Hello?”

Distantly a woman replied, “I’ll be right there.”

Gweth did not have to wait long, the inner door opened and a rather matronly looking woman looked at her for a moment, nodded, stepped into the shop and closed the door behind her. She wore nice clothes, had a lot of jewellery on, a ring for every finger, a few necklaces and a large number of bracelets, “How can I help you?”

“Ah, I have a dress I’d like to sell.”

“Very well. Pass it over. Are you alright dear?”

Gweth cleared her throat and stepped up to the counter pulling the dress from the sack, “Yes, thank you. I’m fine.”

“Oh, look at that. Very nice. Late Second Kingdom I’d say. Rather rare to see one of these. Who did you steal it from?”

“Excuse me?”

“Oh come now dear, you don’t have the look of an Elquinian lady, nor do you have the demeanour for that matter, this sort of thing hasn’t been made for over a thousand years and it certainly doesn’t fit you.”

Gweth reached for the dress, “Maybe I should go.”

The woman pulled it out of her reach and stepped back a pace, “Nonsense. You came to do business and I’m certainly interested, I’d just like to know where it came from.”

Gweth stared at the woman. She said, “I took it from a couple rogues I met up near Aramy.”

“Aramy you say. I’d heard people were disappearing up that way. No matter, do you know where these rogues might have come across the dress?”

“Not for sure, but I’d guess GreensBridge.”

“Oh, that’s interesting. I’ll take it then. What do you want?”

Taken aback, Gweth wondered if the woman was right in the head, “What’s it worth?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Likely an average sized freehold.”

“What?”

“Are you hard of hearing?”

“No. You said it’s worth a freehold?”

She nodded, “I did, yes. But, obviously I don’t have one of those here and nowhere near that amount of gold. So what do you want?”

Gweth looked around, she certainly did not need more jewellery or figurines, she really did not even need weight, gold or otherwise, “Ah… Well… I take it those weapons are magical?”

She glanced at the wall behind her, “Sure, though that’s all fairly common stuff. Do you need armour?”

“I recently purchased new riding leathers, so probably not.”

“Well, I do have a couple suits of plate armour.”

“Plate armour, no, that’s not something I would need.”

“That’s fair, likely wouldn’t fit you anyway. What about undergarments? I’ve some Ellodran clothing. The sort that adjusts to you size, mends and cleans itself as well.”

“Maybe… Undergarments that clean themselves?”

“Yes, most of the old ellodran stuff works that way, it’ll adjust to fit you properly over the course of a day. Oh, I do have a couple of ellodran weapons, just basic stuff mind you, none of the great artifacts, but much better than what I have on display.”

“Can I see some of the clothing, underwear and maybe some of the weapons?”

“Not the decisive sort, are you. Very well, come along, I’m certainly not dragging all of it down here.” She took the dress and went into the back part of the house. Gweth paused, despite the weirdness of the situation she followed the woman.

She had expected to find a jumbled storage room beyond the door, but instead she came into a very tidy and well laid out workshop with plenty of natural light. There were a number of musical instruments of various sorts displayed on shelves and on the large workbench. The mage led her up a set of stairs and they came to the storage room Gweth had been expecting, though it was very orderly.

There was a lot of stuff, “Is this all magical?”

“For the most part.”

“Wow.”

She opened a wardrobe, hung the dress and pulled out a short coat, “I’d forgotten about this, but it does seem to be your size. Try it on, I’ll get some undergarments for you.”

Gweth took the coat, it was heavier than she expected. Dark green with black trim and four brass clasps to fasten the front, she thought the green material felt like leather, but not of any sort she’d ever seen before. It did not appeared to be dyed. She put it on and was surprised to find that it was a nearly perfect fit.

The mage was rummaging through a large chest, so Gweth busied herself looking at the other things. Along one wall was a row of boots, sandals, slipper and shoes. She spotted a nice looking pair of knee-high riding boots that appeared to be her size.

“That coat looks good on you. Here, one set of undergarments. Do you like those boots?”

“I do. May I try them on?”

“Sure, let me find you a sword or something.”

“Short sword or hatchet.”

“Short sword it is then.”

Gweth sat on a chest to try the boots on, the fit was pretty close. She stood and walked around a bit. She found them to be acceptable.

The woman came back over with a sword, “Sorry I don’t have a scabbard for this one, but it sounds like you already know one of the leather workers.”

Gweth took the sword, it was lighter than she expected and the metal was a washed out cloudy grey colour, it was very sharp. The mage watched her expectantly. Gweth asked, “Is this alright? For the dress?”

“Well, I wouldn’t be inclined to give you much more than that until I’d had a chance to analyze it, but I can’t get to that until the winter probably. So, if you’re happy with those things, I’m fine with the deal.”

Hesitantly Gweth looked around and then asked, “What do the boots do and the coat? Is there anything I should know about the sword?”

“The sword’s a better sword than you could get just about anywhere else, the boots are Equestrian’s Boots, a fairly common enchanted item, back before the Bane. The coat is of drake hide with mythral chain between the layers and a few protection enchantments. The undergarments are as I said, though that set is one of the better ones. If you concentrate on it, and you might have to get used to doing that, but the size and style will change, in just a short while. As I said, one of the better sets.”

Gweth did not know if she believed what the woman was saying, though if she was speaking the truth, the dress had to be something very special indeed. Still, what she had now was more useful to her than the dress. She gave a nod and extended a hand, “We have a deal.”

“Good,” They shook on it, “I’m so glad you’re not one of those people who spit into their hand to seal a deal. So gross, that custom.”

“I think that’s more of a western thing.”

“Well, let me walk you out, I really should get back to my work.”

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