A couple days after arriving in the Doësin capital, Alkara is still wandering the Star Market in Afanen, scowling and muttering to her herself. The Doësin elves are insufferable. She is literally here to give them money and they’d barely give her the time of day. She’d had a hell of a time getting any names. They’re all politeness on the surface but she could feel their insincerity. Something in the way they talked. The round about way they wasted her time and gave her no real answers. And even the politeness was almost a sickly sweet. Like eating too many sugar cakes. The more she tried the worse it got. Every reaction, every expression carefully cultured and curated so that she only ever sees exactly what they want her to see. There’s nothing real about these people, except maybe that they bleed and die like she does. She starts to wonder if she’d prefer open hostility and then she catches herself. She’d come here before with Uncle Iro. She’d seen what that looked like. She doesn’t know how he deals with it.
Alkara sighs. She’s going crazy. But she still has to figure out how to get ridiculously expensive arrows from them. Preferably without pissing them off. She groans as she decides to head to a tavern for some lunch.
Her thoughts churn with her stomach as she enters the tavern. It doesn’t help that she’s been asking around for recommendations for hours, got a handful of names, but has no idea how in the world to figure out if they’re actually good or not. The sleep deprivation definitely isn’t helping either. Dre’s potions sit untouched in her pack; there’d be more pressing times ahead. She hopes they work. She orders her meal and stares at her list, at a complete loss.
Dáire
Rasheen
Aoibhìn
Taldoë
She stops. Taldoë has the biggest variety of arrows. That doesn’t mean they’re good arrows though, Alkara groans to herself. But how else is she supposed to decide? She returns to the list.
Eva
Cuá-
“Hello there.”
Alkara jumps at the deep, rich feminine voice. She looks up at the woman now next to her table. From the light-blue sheen to her skin, to her short, golden-blonde elf locks, and her piercing blue eyes, she looks like a local. She wears a tightly fitting necklace that has an amulet right at the base of her neck: A chunk of adamantyne shaped to resemble a bell. Alkara had seen that around one of the temples, and she’s pretty sure it’s one of clan Doësin’s religious symbols, but she doesn’t know much more than that. Other than that the elf is pretty plainly dressed.
The woman chuckles at Alkara’s stare, who sputters, “Uh. Hi. Can I help you?”
The woman smiles, as if amused by something, “That remains to be seen. But I think I can help you.”
Alkara raises an eyebrow, “And why is that?”
“May I sit down?”
Alkara starts again but nods, “Uh. Sure.”
“Thank you.” She gracefully sits in the chair across the table from Alkara and leans against the wall. “Now, I hear you’re looking for someone to make you some mythril arrows.”
Alkara’s eyes narrow, “How do you know that?”
“You’re a Grecian human walking around with a black panther in the major Doësin markets and you’ve been here all day.”
Alkara gives her a flat look, “Fair.”
“Can I see your list?”
Alkara stares at her a little longer, but decides there’s no harm in it. She’s memorized the names already anyway.
To her surprise, the woman reads through it and starts listing off all the strengths and weakness of the various craftbeings listed. She actually has useful information. She even gives her her choice out of all the ones listed.
“Mistress Rasheen would serve you best of these. She is a bit slower as I said, but the quality is there.”
Alkara is stunned. “Wow, uh… thank you. Can I buy you lunch?”
The woman looks up from the list and grins, “I appreciate the gesture, but you’re going to need to save your coin for these arrows. Not to mention whatever else you’ll need to equip yourself with.” But then she looks back at her list and furrows her brow. “You could hire Mistress Rasheen, and she would do a fine job, but there’s someone else I think you should consider.”
“I’m all ears. You’re the only elf I’ve met today who doesn’t make me feel like I need to see a physician afterward.” Alkara clamps her mouth shut and cringes, “Look, I’m sorry. I’m very tired…”
The woman just chuckles again, “No need to worry. We’re not exactly friendly to outsiders are we? But the name you’re looking for is Tharan onë-Naldo. He’s actually your best bet to pulling this off.”
Tharan onë-Naldo… “Why didn’t anyone else mention him?”
“A couple reasons, one being he’s the clan Bell Keeper, and not a full-time craftsbeing. But his work is beyond compare. Second being he rarely crafts weapons. It’s actually quite difficult to convince him to accept a weapons commission. His preference is for sculptures, instruments, jewelry, and the like. But…” She shrugs, “He is still the best.”
“Okay, so… how do I convince him to make these arrows for me?”
“Well, he’s got quite a long process, and he’s very picky, but I’ve worked with him before so I can walk you through it, answer some questions he’ll have ahead of time, and speed that process up for you.”
Alkara’s eyes widen again but something whispers in the back of her mind, “But… why?”
“Well, like I said, he’s very picky–“
“No. Why are you helping me? It’s an awful lot of trouble for you.”
The piercing blue eyes meet green and the woman simply says, “You asked if you could help me. This will help answer that question.”
Alkara hesitates. As relieved as she is to be dealing with someone who doesn’t feel the need to put on that sickly sweet facade, she realizes this is the first Doësin she’s dealt with who’s ever given her a genuine smile. And she’s not sure if that’s a good thing. Is she looking a gift-horse in the mouth or does she need to be even more cautious?
She presses her lips into a thin line. Sengmar. As long as she can avenge Sengmar, she’ll deal with any repercussions afterward.
“Alright. I’m listening.”