I Can't Get the Vampire Rogue to Romance Me

Chapter 30 - Harrowheart

"Sorry, I didn't mean to..." though Evangeline had no idea what she didn't mean. She could just tell by the pained look in Hagor's eyes she had trod over something it would take a Meta point to remember about him. But after last night with Valerian, she realized again it might be better to simply wait for them to tell her their stories so she would always remember them.

"It is of no matter," Hagor said and handed her back the bow. "We should see if anyone else needs our help.

"Thank you!" a relieved woman, nearly as large as Hagor himself stumbled over. Her green skin was streaked with soot from the fire. She lifted the goggles from around her eyes, which left distinct black circles around each to reveal the most gorgeous sapphire color Evangeline had ever seen. The beauty of her eyes was not even diminished by the tusks protruding from her lower lip.

This was the blacksmith Harrowheart.

"The damn rope snapped when I tried to pull it for the emergency water dump!" she coughed, then hacked up nearly-black phlegm before following up with another cough.

"Are you alright? Do you need healing?" Evangeline asked.

Harrowheart shook her head. "Naw, no, nothing I'm not used to, I can take a potion in a bit but which of you saved my hide? I owe you the world's biggest hug, a pint, and anything in my stock if you want it."

"He'll take the hug," Evangeline said, jerking her thumb at Hagor, "since he made the shot. I'll take the pint, and we'll have to look at your stock," she added even though she already knew exactly what she wanted to grab.

Harrowheart didn't wait for further permission. She turned to the large man, who was only maybe a couple inches larger than her in any given direction, and went in for that hug.

"Oh, really, that's not... oh my!" was all he got out before her arms came around him and lifted him up off his feet. She roared as she shook him side to side, cracking his back as well as squeezing him good before popping him back down.

"Woo, you're a big fella. Aren't you? Heck of a strapping lad," she added with a slap on his shoulder as soon as she set him down. "And you're an elf. Haven't met very many elves as large as you are."

"Uh, that's just the way I am," he said, unable to resist Harrowheart's approving smile.

Her smile was so bright, it would make a stormcloud grin. "Maybe you got some orc in there. I have a branch of the family still living in Longwinter. Lot of elves up there."

The orc woman nodded in approval, then turned back to the mess in the cavern, her face dropping with anxiety and worry. With the fire out, the smoke had mostly dispersed. People were filing back in, either returning to their own shops to inspect the damage, if any, or standing around the forge to stare at the smoldering wreckage.

"So what happened?" Evangeline asked, getting the ball rolling.

"I was testing a new kind of wood. The fella who sold it to me swore it would make my fire hotter. Allow me to make some higher-value crafts. Well, it made the damn fire hotter alright, but his instructions on how much to use were completely wrong." She rubbed at her face. "I lost my eyebrows there. Though in some ways, it was my own fault. I should have test-burned it outside first and not taken his word for it." She scoffed at herself, shaking her head at her mistake. "Certainly is enough to remind oneself to be humble."

"Is your forge shut down then?" Evangeline asked. She knew it wasn't, but this was that strange dialogue thing where she didn't know what she was going to say until she said it, and then once she did, she had the weird feeling of déjà vu remembering it.

"I'll have to check. Why? Did you need something?" This time she cast her eye at Evangeline and immediately spied the collar around her neck. "Oh damn. You acquired yourself one of these?" she asked, slipping a finger around the lower edge of the collar to give it a small pinch as if to confirm to herself that it was real.

"Yes, we've heard you've dealt with things like this before and that you might be able to help us get them off or at least give a direction to go to accomplishing that," Evangeline agreed.

Harrowheart sighed again. "Well, I was trying to do that. If this fire additive had worked, I was going to attempt to forge a Mage Chisel, with the power to cut magic runes. Buying one would be my profits for the next two years, but I was up for the challenge of trying to make one."

She nodded toward the forge. "Come on. Let me show you."

The blacksmith marched back into her forge, and over to a stone worktable she had against the back where her tools and a few other things sat, now in a disarray and soggy mess. She started to sort through it, just as Sigismund and Artmond stepped up behind them.

"Looks like it's more or less safe to enter now," Sigismund noted, and Evangeline had to agree since she seemed to be breathing fine without a mask over her mouth. "I'm going to need any early night tonight though. I've already burned through half of my spells for the day."

"That's okay. I think that's the most action we're going to see before then," Evangeline said, though she would need to burn a Meta point to be sure. She didn't feel like that cost was worth it. "Anyone seen Valerian?"

"I'm right here," his sultry, teasing voice said from Evangeline's other elbow. She flinch-jumped at his sudden appearance. Her perception hadn't beat his stealth and the mirth in his eyes told her he knew it.

"Where did you disappear to?" she demanded, a little harsher than necessary.

"Nowhere. I've been here the whole time," he said.

Legerdemain Insight: Success.

He was clearly lying.

Evangeline smirked a little this time since her Ability to detect his lie had beaten out his Ability to lie. Her sudden smugness made his eyebrows quirk together the tiniest bit.

"Oh my goddess, get a room already!" Sigismund declared, then stormed further into the cavern and up to Harrowheart's forge.

"Yeah, good idea," Evangeline said, though she only realized a couple steps later that while she meant move on to the forge... that wasn't what everyone else heard.

Walked right into that one, didn't I?

To be continued...

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