I Can't Get the Vampire Rogue to Romance Me

Chapter 103 - Good News Or Bad News?

"Okay, so do you want the good news or the bad news first?" Harrowheart's friend Blue said as she straightened from his examination of Hagar's collar. Harrowheart had been leaning over it with him, watching everything the older forger did, and she straightened at the same time. Crossing her arms over her chest, she furrowed her brows as if she already knew what he would say, but was letting him say it.

"Good news I guess," Evangeline said from where she sat on a stool beside a Blue's work table.

"My magic chisel will work on this," Blue said, pointing the tool at the collar. As it had when he had examined the collar, runes appeared across the metal surface, glowing blue as the tip of the chisel passed over them, then vanishing again when it passed. "The bad news is, I won't be able to use this to break the collars. Or more specifically, I could try to break one collar but even if I failed at it, it would destroy my chisel."

"So what can be done?" Sigismund asked. She had been pacing back and forth between the anvil and the doorway, where Valerian stood in its protective shade, sipping on his bottle of blood.

"Alternatively, I can modify one of these runes to allow you some more time away from each other," he leaned forward again, drawing a finger over Hagar's collar. A rune that looked like a little house with three dots around it flashed to life. "This one here is one I actually recognize. If I add another dot below it, this will change the distance the collars can be from each other from roughly ten feet to a hundred feet."

"Oh that would be very useful!" Artmond said, brightening at the prospect. "As it is, we're simply dragging each other everywhere we go."

Blue nodded. "Yes, I can make this one modification per collar without ruining my chisel and minimizing the risk of it blowing your heads off."

"Say what now?" Valerian piped in. "Do you mean the figuratively, I hope, but highly doubt."

Blue shook his head. "It is the risk with this sort of magical work. The runes on these collars, if I tamper with them too much, can react and combust. It would have the chance of killing both you and me."

What an ass, Evangeline mouthed silently.

"That's only if he critically fails for this, so the chances are very low," she said out loud, remembering this information from the several times she had played the game.

"I could cast bless on him to assist," Sigismund said. "That would help prevent a critical failure."

"There we go, we can do this," Evangeline encouraged.

"Oh yes, I'm all for it. You first, Hagor," Valerian said, his eyes staring the druid down while he took a measured pull from his bottle.

"I am fine with that. The risk is worth it," Hagor said sagely.

"Harrowheart, will you assist me?" Blue asked, with a tone that said he expected she would. He guided Hagor over to his anvil and instructed the larger man to kneel and lean his head and neck over it.

"Looks like an executioner's block," Valerian murmured, as Evangeline stepped back, watching Sigismund cast her blessing onto Blue, which looked like a shimmer of yellow light that sank into the older man before disappearing. Yet, there was something about his countenance now that seemed... brighter.

"Don't," Evangeline warned Valerian. "Just for right now, don't be you."

Instead of sneering, or sniping back, Valerian went sober as they watched.

Hagor held still, closing his eyes as the two smiths worked above him, preparing themselves to add the change. The druid's face was a mask of peace and calm, like he was simply taking a nap on the anvil.

When they were ready, Blue stepped up on the far side of the anvil and hit the end of magical chisel once with a hammer. Blue sparks shot off the point and the whole thing began to glow. Very carefully and very precisely, Blue lined up his chisel where he wanted it to be, while Harrowheart braced the collar with her hands to help hold it steady. They checked and rechecked the spot many times, raising the tightness in Evangeline's throat with each check. None of them breathed. Even the square around them seemed to go quiet, the birds holding their cheeps and people checking the sky for darkening storm clouds that just weren't there.

Evangeline slipped her fingers into Valerian's and he didn't pull away. Instead, he squeezed them back tightly. At last, Blue lifted the hammer high above his head, his entire focus on the single point of the end. With a snap, he brought it down and the chisel let out a musical ringing note that lingered for a few seconds too long.

Then the world returned to normal.

Blue and Harrowheart held their poses another breath, then the old smither stepped back and flung down his hammer on his workbench as if were just another day. "Alright, test that out," he said, setting the magical chisel in a fur-lined case with more reverence.

"How do you feel?" Sigismund asked Hagor as he sat up. She had been the closest of them, waiting to rush in to help by healing if it were required. Artmond had done what Evangeline had done, and backed off the platform the forge sat on, out of the "blast" radius. Just in case.

"I feel the same," Hagor reported, using the anvil to help push himself up to standing. He then shifted his head back and forth, cracking his neck in a couple of places. "The head's still on."

"Well, enough yapping and get to walking. Let's see if you get more distance from the rest," Blue ordered, wiping his bald head with a rough bit of cloth.

Nodding, the druid turned toward the square and stepped off the platform.

First, he crossed the square, then he kept going.

And going.

And going.

Join my Newsletter! 

www.meganmackieauthor.com/newsletters