Nymph interlude (Afina)

[Anastasia]

Yes. The first meeting where he wasn't raging at you, anyway.

[Ebiris]

"Goldenariux," Afina inclines her head in greeting. "Medi's facilities help a lot, while the army gives me lots of practice. Though I try not to spread my work very far beyond that, aside from the odd dealings with the Mercane. Even if it's little in the grand scheme of things, the thought of a devil ever wielding a weapon of my creation turns my stomach."

[Anastasia]

"Yes." Gold himself grimaces at your words, "Once, I gave a ring I enchanted to a promising champion. He fell and the demon that slew him took the ring for his own. It was a bitter lesson."

[Ebiris]

Her reservations about making things for the market mostly concern the chain of commerce allowing devils to freely purchase her work through a few layers of obfuscation, but the scenario Gold posits hits close to home as well. The devils probably picked up a few trinkets from the fallen during their attack on Lethe, but then there's the arsenals that Lief and Muirfinn were equipped with, no doubt now helping some rotten devil advance itself.

"Ironically I'm actually here to make a weapon for evil in this case, so we can pay our respects to the Archomental Bwimb when we visit Ooze tomorrow. I expect he'll just melt it down so it's not a great concern, but funny how we ended up on this topic."

[Anastasia]

"Isn't it?" Bubbles giggles, "Somehow our conversations end up on smithing. We drift to what we're good at."

"Ooze? I wish you well," Gold says, "I hear there are blue gems native to there worth a great deal of money, should you find any."

[Ebiris]

"You're the first person to actually mention something positive about ooze," Afina says, smiling. "Oh yes, have you met Bubbles yet? She's a recent recruit as well, come to us from the Citadel of Ten Thousand Pearls on Water," she adds, having been remiss in her introductions. "Bubbles, this is Goldanariux, late of the plane of Mineral. He was recommended to us by Platinum in the court of Lord Crystalle. Moore's done a good bit of diplomacy for us with that realm."

[Anastasia]

"Charmed," Gold says, taking her hand and kissing it. "We've met already."

Bubbles is all smiles, "Thank you, thank you. I must ask, is Mineral heaven for dragons?"

Gold flashes a smile, "I'm afraid not. It's all look and not touch. It's a tease."

This gets Bubbles to laugh, "Oh, your own personal hell?"

"To some." Gold clears his throat after, "I mean to ask if Aurora needs any rings forged. That seems to be a weakness in your crafting regime, especially as Sylvie is currently away."

[Ebiris]

"Yes, we have apprentices who can make minor rings but for more potent ones Sylvie is usually called on. Even she has her limits though," Afina says. "I'll introduce you to Recce," she waves for him to follow, fluttering out of the main workshop floor towards an office where a bookish looking pixie spends most of her hours in support of the Crusade. "She takes in requests and portions work out to the apprentices or lets me know if it requires my skills. Helps with the stock-keeping too, so if you need particular materials or reagents she'll liase with our merchants to get you what you need without you having to leave the forge or bother Elena."

[Anastasia]

Recce looks up and waves a bit, nose firmly buried in her book.

"Yes, Sylvie introduced us," Gold says, "I've lost hours in work already, barely keeping up with the demand on a busy day. Not for anything terribly complex, but the demand for the basics alone is considerable."

Bubbles murmurs along, taking out a little paper fan and fanning herself. "It's only a shame the forges are so hot. Sugar, have you ever studied marid cold forging?"

[Ebiris]

Afina leaves the unsociable but hardworking pixie to her own devices since Gold's already made her acquaintance.

"I almost exclusively craft through fabricate spells," she tells Bubbles. "But I'm unfamiliar with marid techniques."

[Anastasia]

"It's a technique that melts metal with a specially prepared acid rather than fire," Bubbles says, "A marid forge is as cold as Auril's teat, dearie."

[Ebiris]

"That sounds like it would be fairly time consuming," Afina says. "Not dissimilar to cold iron forging. But for efficiency a fabricate spells can't be beat."

[Anastasia]

"Without any doubt," Gold says, "Though there is value to doing things the hard way, sometimes. Rituals, the sweat of your brow mixing with the weapon."

[Ebiris]

"Oh, I do like rituals," Afina says, reaching behind her back and unsheathing Afame, holding up the crooked blade of black metal with a pale silvery etching that sometimes glistens with other colours for Gold and Bubbles to see. "This is Afame, I forged it of an adamantine-tempered linthrum alloy around a horn taken from a sylvan Lord of the Hunt. I actually originally intended it for sale, but the blade wouldn't come into its own until it was blooded on something antithetical to Creation, and I wasn't about to waste its potential on a mere gibbering mouther so it spent a long time simply in reserve. But a few months ago I had cause to travel beyond the Outer Planes. While there I was accosted by strange and malign beings, but it gave a good opportunity to properly hone this weapon at last. It ended up being too good to sell," she smiles fondly, turning her wrist so the sword catches the light at different angles, "And is in some respects a reflection of my own nature. That's why I've been travelling to the para-elemental planes recently, to hone myself and Afame, for its too unique a weapon to merely infuse magic in to enhance as I would with my other sword. A harder and more time consuming effort, but satisfying all the same."

[Anastasia]

"May I?" Gold asks, peering at the blade.

Meanwhile Bubbles nods along, "Wait, outside the outer planes? That's impossible."