Rebirth of the Nephilim

Taking a trip to the craftsman quarters of the city was an interesting experience. While there were weapons and armor for sale in the market square, Aila had explained that there wasn’t much use shopping there since nothing premade was going to suit Jadis’ needs. Speaking directly to the smith to get custom work done would be the quickest and most efficient way of getting something usable. Thus, Aila led the three giants to a section of town just off of the docks where large buildings billowing clouds of smoke squatted in clusters set far apart from other stone structures.

There were all kinds of workshops, Jadis quickly realized, not just the expected smiths. Carpenters, bowyers, fletchers, shipwrights, coopers, ropers, masons, and more were hard at work in the various buildings, crowds of busy men and women rushing about in a flurry of activity as the medieval-style industry worked hard to churn out supplies and products.

Not everything was as Jadis would expect from medieval Earth technology though. She couldn’t help but gawk in wonder at a man who cut a large timber post into square blocks without a single tool, visible streams of air slicing through the wood as he channeled a spell. Jadis had to wonder if craftsmen casting magic was a common thing or if the man had some kind of rare class, the existence of such a thing newly presented as a possibility to her by her interaction with the magistrate.  

Jadis didn’t have time to stop and stare at either the magical or the mundane practices of the local workers. Aila led her along at a brisk pace, taking her straight to the smith she knew might be able to make her some custom armor. Upon reaching the large smithy staffed with half a dozen harried-looking workers, Jadis was greeted with disappointment.

“No, I can’t take on any custom jobs right now. I’m already backed up with a large order from the Dawn Brigade,” the tiny smith shook his head, the tattoos covering his face giving him a fierce look.

“How long until you’re done with their order?” Aila asked, handling the conversation. “We’re willing to wait for quality work, Cellach. And you can see from looking at them that it’ll be a sizeable commission.”

Aila motioned towards the three giant women standing outside of the armor smith’s workshop. While the ceiling of the shop left plenty of headroom for even someone as tall as Aila, Jadis would have had to crouch or stand bent over to fit. Instead, she elected to wait outside, watching the goings on through the large open doors of the shop.

“Sizeable indeed,” the smith echoed in a sing-song voice. “But I’ll be at this work for The Dawn for the next month at least. Are you willing to wait that long?”

Glancing back at Jay, Dys, and Syd, Aila shook her head. “No, not if that’s just to start work. Thank you for your time anyway,” she said, offering her hand down to the diminutive man.

“What about a recommendation?” Dys asked, putting her arm against the door frame to lean inside the shop. “Any other smiths you know that might be able to do the work?”

The smith Cellach looked Dys up and down, his sharp eyes glinting in the fires of the forge. “Crafting anything for a big beast like you and the two behind you would be a true test of skill. I can’t easily recommend anyone who had both the ability to make something so oversized as to suit whatever you are, as well as has the time to do it.”

“Can’t think of one person?” Dys pressed, violet eyes questioning. “Not one smith you’d be willing to point us to?”

The smith made an odd noise halfway between a grunt and laugh. Pointing his finger out the door and past where Jay and Syd stood, he answered, “You can try Sabina, if you’re willing to take the risk. She’ll have the time.”

“The time, but not the skill?” Aila asked, arms folded.

“She’s skilled enough for most things,” Cellach wobbled his hand in a so-so motion. “She’s young and low level. She may take the job just for the experience. But the quality won’t be the same as mine,” he shrugged.

Dys nodded, waving for Aila to come out and join her. “Thanks for the tip,” she smiled at the little smith. “Good luck with the job!”

Waving them off, Cellach quickly turned back to his work, scolding his slacking assistants who had slowed their work to stare at the pale giants back into action.

“Let’s go see what this Sabina has to say,” Syd told Aila as they walked away from the busy smithy. “Maybe she’ll give us a discount if she’s that low level.”

“If she’s that low level, she probably won’t have the right skills to do the work,” Aila advised, but still took the lead and guided the three of Jadis down the alley Cellach had indicated. “She might not even have the right tools and materials for that matter.”

“Can’t hurt to ask,” Syd said, not disagreeing with Aila’s assessment.

Jadis had figured it might be difficult to find someone who could handle making three custom extra-large sized armor sets for her. She wasn’t surprised the first person they’d gone to had turned them away. So long as they found someone eventually, Jadis would be happy. She just hoped she wasn’t going to be forced to pay out the bunghole to get anything made.

“Hey,” Jay whispered, leaning down to reach Aila’s ear. “Maybe a weird question, but what exactly is Cellach?”

Giving Jay an odd look, Aila’s face morphed into realization. “Oh, my uncles said you three didn’t recognize them as humans when you first met them. I suppose you wouldn’t know what other races are, would you?”

“I have some guesses,” Jay answered with a wry smile. “But I’d like to know for sure before I make a fool of myself in public or something.”

“He’s not a goblin, is he?” Syd chimed in. “I’m betting goblin.”

Dys shook her head. “Halflings. He and the others are so tiny. Gotta be halflings.”

Aila smiled and waved both guesses off. “No, he’s a gnome. All gnomes are small and have those blueish or greenish markings on the faces and bodies.”

“Shit, I was way off,” Jay clicked her tongue. “I was betting they were some kind of beardless dwarf offshoot.”

“Beardless dwarf…?” Aila murmured, clearly confused.

Before Jadis and Aila’s conversation could continue, they arrived at the building Cellach had indicated. The smithy was even larger than the last one and had dozens of figures running around, in, and out of it. Multiple large smokestacks billowed their ashen clouds from above and the huge bellows pumps the size of cars could be seen all along one wall of the structure being pumped continuously by sweat-drenched workers. The constant clang of iron and steel echoed from the open doors and windows, forcing anyone within a dozen yards to shout to be heard.

“This is a communal workshop,” Aila explained when she saw Jay’s questioning look. “Smiths that don’t have a personal shop can rent workspace here. Give me a second, I’ll see if I can find this ‘Sabina’ or someone who knows her.”

Aila promptly dove into the rush of busy workers, occasionally stopping one or another to shout a question.

Jadis kept three sets of eyes out as well. Not that she thought she’d spot the recommended smith, she had no idea what the woman looked like, but it was interesting to see what the workers were doing. Some of them were tossing their own looks towards Jadis, a reaction she was growing used to. She supposed it wasn’t every day that the locals saw lily-white giants wandering around town, especially if the race was supposed to be extinct.

Among the many interesting sights of the smiths and other workshops in the surrounding block, one thing that Jadis did notice was a pair of guards standing a few hundred yards back down the road. City guards were a common enough sight in the mostly military-occupied city that seeing the two was nothing unusual on its own. What made them notable was that Jadis was fairly certain she’d seen the same guards back outside of the magistrate’s office.  

Was the magistrate having her followed? Jadis had thought the meeting had resolved any suspicions of duplicity on her part, but maybe not. If the magistrate still had lingering doubts, she could well guess that she’d have put a guard detail on her to watch for suspicious activity.

The thought was an unpleasant one, but also nothing Jadis could do anything about, at least for the moment. She didn’t plan on breaking any laws or doing anything more than slay demons and perform, from what she understood, perfectly legal lewd rituals. Hopefully the guards would get bored after a while and leave her be, or the magistrate would lose interest once the guards had nothing to report.

Wait. Did the guards have some way of spying on her when she was in her inn room? Magically, perhaps? One of her previously offered skills had said it could let her look through mirrors to see things with a spell. If she could have access to a spell like that one, then so could others, potentially.

Jadis shivered at the notion that some random mage could be spying on her in private without her knowledge. She sure hoped there was some kind of defense against magical intrusions of that sort.

While she thought about the terrible ways her privacy could be violated in a world of magic, Jadis noticed Aila come out of the smithy, wiping sweat off of her brow from the heat the forges put out.

“One of the workers is getting her, she should be out in just a sec—” Aila started to say before a woman in a black leather apron came rushing up behind her and tapped on her shoulder.

“Hi! Dunkel said you were looking for someone to make custom armor and I can see why! You’re a tall one! Orc armor might work, but you’re too thin for most pre-made stuff. A custom fit is the best way to go, even if you were average height, but you’re not, so even more of a reason! It’s great that you came to me because I’m free to start right away!”

The woman spoke in a half-shout, her high-pitched voice colored with a different accent from most other’s Jadis had heard in Felsen. She almost sounded Italian, though more like a second-generation American-Italian than someone who spoke English as a second language. She also spoke a mile a minute, her whole spiel to Aila coming out on practically one breath.

She was shorter than Aila by a good amount, but taller than most of the other human women Jadis saw rushing about the smithy. She guessed she was about the same height as Gerwas or Ludwas, which she supposed meant she was tall for a woman, though not nearly as much as the lanky redhead. Her hair was black and wavy, cut short in an almost pixie cut. Her skin was bronze colored and not from a tan; the brown shirt under her apron had its sleeves rolled up to the shoulder, exposing well-defined muscles.

A wide grin broke out on Jadis’ faces as she finally noticed the one thing about the talkative smith she should have picked up on right away. Her ears were long and pointed, swiveling about in an almost animal fashion.

Yet, her ears weren’t as long as other elves Jadis had seen around town. Her eyes weren’t a solid color, either. They were a warm chocolate color, though Jadis noticed they had a slight yellow sheen to them that occasionally caught in the light.

Half-elf? Was that a thing on Oros? Jadis had a poor track record of guessing what race people were so far, but she was willing to bet gold that this woman was some kind of mix between human and elf.

“No, I’m not looking for armor for me. I have armor that suits me already. Are you Sabina?” Aila asked, trying to stop the excited smith from carrying on with her false assumption.

A pout briefly appeared on the half-elf’s lips at Aila’s words. “You’re not? That’s a shame. I bet you’d look amazing in some heavy plate, maybe with a great helm? I’d love to make you a breastplate at least. Yes! I’m Sabina! What’s your name? You’ve got great hair, by the way.”

Aila seemed flustered by Sabina’s quick pace and open compliments, eyes darting around in concealed panic. Taking the opportunity to speak as Sabina paused briefly, she verbally jumped in.

“I’m Aila and the armor isn’t for me, it’s for them,” she stepped to the side and motioned towards Jadis’ three selves.

Sabina seemed to notice the giants standing a couple yards back for the first time, her smile faltering as her mouth dropped open in surprise, her eyes growing wide as saucers.

“Oh, wow,” she whispered quietly enough that Jadis could only tell that was what she said by reading her lips.

“Hey there,” Jay said, taking a few steps forward and extending her hand in greeting to the stunned half-elf. “I’m Jay and these are my sisters Dys and Syd. Think you can make us some armor?”

Sabina stared up at Jay, ignoring her outstretched hand for a few moments as she gazed up in awe. Just as Jadis was starting to feel a little awkward, the dark-haired woman suddenly jumped forward and grabbed her hand with a squeal of delight.

“Oh gods, yes!”