A Bored Lich

"Due to recent events," the clerk of the commoners' quarters announced to the group of commoners in the waiting room. "The initiation process will be delayed by a couple hours." This was followed by a collection of groans from the room. "I suggest you spend this time to prepare yourselves and explore the Capital. Get anything you may need now. Around midday, you will all meet up at the building at the back exit of the Capital. You can't possibly miss it. It juts out of the red-light district like a sore thumb. As for all of your keys and the procedures for leaving your rooms…" As the clerk droned on to the unwilling crowd, Frey felt an elbow nudge his arm. He looked to his left to find Doevm.

"Hey, you're alive." Frey said, nudging him back.

"Nice to see you too," Doevm chuckled. "I need to do some urgent shopping today, but I need you to come with me, if you're not busy."

Frey looked Doevm up and down, then flicked him on the forehead. "Sorry," he said as Doevm cursed and rubbed his forehead. "I thought you might be a figment of my imagination, since you're always disappearing."

Doevm punched him in the arm: "You're supposed to pinch yourself."

"I know," Frey smirked and Doevm punched him again. "Alright I get it now quit hitting me! I need to do one thing while we are shopping. Also, I want something out of helping you."

"The usual practice?" Doevm asked. Frey nodded and handed over the book that Liz had given him. "I still need to pack some things." Doevm tossed the book into his spatial ring. "Meet me in front of my room in a couple minutes." The two went their separate ways, Doevm going towards his room and Frey going towards his.

'I guess I shouldn't leave a mess for them,' he thought as he pulled his crumpled pieces of paper out of his desk drawer and threw them into his spatial ring along with anything else that was his, made his bed, and put his key on top of the pillow.

After walking down the hall to Doevm's room, he knocked, and the door creaked open. "Good timing," Doevm said as he stuffed bedsheets and a pillow into his spatial ring. After, he ripped the curtains in as well.

While Doevm was doing that, Frey bent down and ran his hand along the floor. When he picked it up, it had a semi-dry red substance. 'Is this blood?' He swept his gaze along the rest of the floor, which was drenched. Doevm changed into baggy clothes, briefly exposing his wound-covered and bruised body.

'I'm so used to seeing him wounded that I didn't realize he shouldn't be hurt right now. I guess I was right about him, and he really was a part of that. Oh well. He never does anything without reason, like putting on those baggy clothes is probably to defend against a dragon or something. Well, most of his actions have reasons, but not all.'

"Why are you taking the curtains?" Frey asked, sliding a hand down his face. "Leave them. They aren't yours."

"They aren't?" Doevm wrinkled his eyebrows. "But we stayed here. We were given these items to use as we please." Frey shook his head and Doevm put the curtains back.

"And the pillow and bedsheets." Doevm clicked his tongue before balling them up and tossing them on the bed. 'He's so smart but sometimes, in very rare circumstances, I swear he's messing with me. He has to know how an inn works, right? He has to have stayed in one at least once, although this isn't really an inn.'

Doevm left the key behind and they both exited the commoners' quarters and stepped on the busy street "You think it would have died down a little after the attack," Frey said, more to himself than Doevm.

"It's because they believe the mages and guards will protect them," Doevm chimed in as he opened Frey's book. Frey walked in front because he was tall enough to get through the crowd and see where he was going. Meanwhile Doevm put a hand on Frey's shirt to keep himself from getting lost.

"Go straight for a hundred meters or so, take a right at the Colosseum, go for three hundred meters, and it should be a gray building bigger than the rest of the square painted stone buildings around it."

"Got it," Frey said as he moved through the crowd. While the streets were as busy as ever, the people walking on them didn't act the same. They walked a little further apart and constantly scanned the surroundings. The guards which usually rushed about the streets were nowhere to be seen. Frey spotted some people hanging posters that read: "Not in my Capital" with a drawing of a skeletal arm raised up high. As they continued down the buildings, he found several more posters. "What do they mean?"

"They are old flags the Capital used to don a century or two ago, before the War Monks made them tear them down and get new ones. They didn't want to turn anyone away from religion because of their race."

"But I've never heard of the War Monks going to war with this Kingdom," Frey said as they passed by.

"They didn't," Doevm said. "They just made it politically disadvantageous to keep that flag raised, so the Kingdom changed it. The people, on the other hand, didn't change much." Frey heard Doevm flip a few pages. "You."

"Y...o….o. Is that right?" Frey said as they turned right at the Colosseum. People were rushing in and out of it, pulling wheelbarrows of broken weapons from the earlier battles.

"Y. o. u." Doevm responded and flipped a page of the book.

"You always start with the hard ones," Frey rubbed the sides of his head. "Why can't you go for the easy ones?"

"Because then you'll never learn," Doevm responded. "They're not hard. You just believe them to be so. You can do it. Remember that there are rules to the language. Strange, backwards, illogical rules, but they are rules, nonetheless. Blacksmith."

"How am I supposed to spell a long word like that one?" Frey complained as he scanned the buildings.

"No, you're looking for a blacksmith sign," Doevm said. "But since you gave me the idea, spell it." Frey groaned. He could already see the smile on Doevm's face. "Before you give up, it is not as hard as you think. First comes "black" and then comes "smith". Think of it as two easy words rather than one impossible one."

"B. L. A. C. K. S. M. I. T. H. Blacksmith."

"Very good," Doevm's head butted into Frey's back as they came to a stop. He looked to the right at the big sign which read "Blacksmith." "Very good for a cheater." He elbowed Frey. "When we get inside, walk in front of me while I put on my mask. After, stand in the middle of the room and look intimidating."

"Look intimidating?" Frey scrunched his eyebrows. "How am I supposed to do that?"

"Just stare off into space and frown," Doevm said. "And put on your armor." Frey did as he was told, strapping up his armor and putting his shield on his back and his Kopis at his side. His spear, he left in his spatial ring. They stepped inside and Doevm put on his skull mask from behind Frey. In seconds, he grew to the height of an average man and his baggy clothes now fit him. Frey stood at the middle of the room with his hands behind his back and his chest puffed out, staring off into space and frowning just as Doevm told him to.

At the back of the small square room, behind a wooden counter was a tall bulky man with a brown apron. Weapons lined the stone walls, arranged by their increasing size.

"Welcome to my shop." the hairy blacksmith asked, setting his leather gloves on the counter. The blacksmith's smile faded as soon as Doevm stepped out from behind Frey. Doevm's cracked skull mask had a single blue flame, and one eye visible on the other side. "Listen," the man took a step back, alternating his gaze from Doevm to Frey and his Kopis. "I don't know who you fine gentlemen are but I don't want any trouble now. I may make weapons but I don't intend on using them."

"I'm not here for trouble," Doevm said as he approached the counter. "Just business."

"In that case," The blacksmith regained his composure but kept the distance. "What can I do for you?"

"I need your smallest set of armor and a spear, all for a skinny kid," Doevm held his hand in the air at his original height.

The blacksmith stroked his chin. "I know just the thing." He ducked behind the counter. Metal clinked against metal as he slid heavy boxes across the floor under the counter. When he emerged, he had a small set of armor: leather with some basic flat metal plates attached to the breastplate, long chain mail sleeves, and leather greaves. "I don't have any gloves but this should be what you're looking for." He then ducked underneath the counter again and emerged with a spear.

"Good enough for human craftsmanship," Doevm said as he inspected the equipment. "How much?"

"Two-hundred gold," the man said. Doevm didn't move. "It's fine if you are hesitant," the man pointed to the equipment. "This here is tempered Tellik."

"It's iron with an outer coating to disguise it," Doevm shot back, his flaming eye narrowing. "Do I look like I was born yesterday? Sixty gold went into acquiring materials which includes labor. Considering you should be seeking to make a profit; this should be around eighty. Including tax that's a hundred, but let's go with eighty just for fun. Any objections?" He glanced at Frey, the threat clear that if he kept messing with them, Frey's Kopis would be drawn.

'I should probably ask him where I should send my letter,' Frey thought, completely oblivious to anything around him. He noticed the blacksmith staring at him and tried to keep looking off into space.

"Fine," The blacksmith said. Doevm took five sets of armor out of his spatial ring and set them on the counter. "A trade huh?" He picked an armor set up, turned it around, then gasped and dropped them. "I can't buy that. Are you crazy? The guards will arrest me."

"You can burn off the identifying marks," Doevm said, pointing to the symbols of broken cages on each shoulder guard. "Then sell them to the public with no worries."

"No," the blacksmith shook his head. "I don't do those kinds of things. Not with you people, you terrorists." Doevm pointed behind the counter, at the strange metal and wooden tube hanging on the stone back wall. Half of it was covered with a cloth, hastily thrown over it. The man's face lost its color.

"Then what's that? How did you get it? If you don't want to be involved, give that to me. You stole it, didn't you?"

"T-that's not what you think it is," the man stuttered, taking another step back.

Doevm's flamed eye brightened: "I can still smell it, like it was fired recently. You must have gotten that from the tenth floor off of a body, didn't you? All of those should be property of the Acrin Kingdom, not hanging in your shop. Give it to me."

"I don't recognize your man," the blacksmith said, pointing to Frey. "You don't have General Marble's symbol on your chest. One call and they will come running. I don't know which group you belong to but get out." He smirked.

"No, we aren't with General Marble," Doevm said. "We're worse than them, if you cross us." He raised his iron spear and ran it past the blacksmith, using the edge to pull the metal tube into his hands. "The armor sets should get you about a hundred gold considering their poor condition. Keep the difference. We were never here." Doevm stuffed the items into his spatial ring and they both left.

The blacksmith cursed and lowered his head. "Don't come back," he muttered.

Doevm made sure to take his mask off before he and Frey got to the busy street: "Next we need to visit a seamstress."