"Holy c.r.a.p, this is yours alone?"Harken chuckled. "I appreciate the compliment. I"m something of a collector in this area."
Harken had showed him into a room in the bas.e.m.e.nt, somewhere close to two thousand square feet in size by his guess. All along the walls were well taken care of armaments of a wide variety. Swords, spears, maces, axes, and some peculiar in-betweens. Along one wall were what looked like ceremonial weapons, far too ornate to be practical or easily used.
"You mainly use your sword, don"t you? Are you particularly fond of knives?" Harken asked.
"I wouldn"t say that, but they are very useful tools and I need something for close quarters."
"Hmm, these may take some adjustment, but come look at these. They"re a bit worn— I used them when I was younger, but they are a quality pair of blades." Harken walked over to a gla.s.s-topped case with hardly a speck of dust. Inside were a pair of knives long enough to be considered daggers, being just over a foot in length along the blade.
Harken lifted the gla.s.s panel, reaching in to take one of the knives. "They"re a little bit different from what you have now, but I can a.s.sure you of their craftsmanship"
Val eyed the blades curiously, they were very unlike the Bowie knives he carried. Slimmer in blade width, with a single edge that curved slightly with the spine of the blade, the knives had an alluring shine to them. The overall shape of the blade was something like a gutting knife, curving outwards from a simple guard, as it tapered to a fine, double-sided point. The handles looked to be ergonomically shaped, though the leather binding was clearly redone.
"I"m guessing there"s a few stories about your time with these."
"Ha, indeed, perhaps next time when you invite me for a drink I can regale to you what I"m allowed. Regardless, these are yours if you would like them, I have some others but in terms of quality, these are the best. Aether-steel blades with just over one percent of its make being the purest aetherite you can get. Few things will chip these blades and with enough force, you can even rend steel armor."
"No, these are perfect, you sure you"re alright giving them to me?"
Harken took the two blades, a notable affection in his eyes. "I"m sure. I trust you will use them well. Besides, they were not forged for the sake of the eye, unlike some of my other pieces."
"Then, thank you. I"ll take good care of them, and I"ll find out what happened to your team."
The mercenary lord held onto them for a moment, before decisively taking two scabbards from a drawer under the case and sheathing them. He handed them to Val with a nod.
"Hey wait a minute…"
"Hmm?" Harken cast him a knowing smile.
"Bah, never mind, clever fox…" As Val took the blades, he noticed two things. First, the knives were much lighter than he expected, despite being larger in size. Second, and the source of his feeling of deception, was the depiction of a dog"s head carved into the small pommel of each dagger. Clearly the blades were a.s.sociated with the Black Dogs and upon inspection would tie him to them, whether he was in their employ or not. At the very least, holstering small arms along a belt was commonplace enough, noting a loop on the scabbards, he directly replaced the Bowie knives.
Val left shortly after, as Harken had more guests relating to the expedition to the South. Val had cautioned him on a particular point of bringing someone who might have some success communicating one way or another. Though Harken was aware of the fact, considering the ongoing skirmishes supposedly broke out due to simple miscommunication, ultimately. Muninn offered to translate, but Val figured it might turn out alright. If Asha and the Dwarves could communicate with him through the most basic of magic, one of the survivors might be tinged enough with magic by now to figure it out too.
It was almost two in the afternoon, and he decided to pay Joanne a visit, in case he did not manage to do so properly before he left. Her ire towards those who neglected simple greetings and proper goodbyes was evident enough from his first meeting with her.
"Hey, is Joanne in?" Val walked into her store and politely asked the clerk at the front counter.
"In the back." Joanne called out from her office or workshop, before the clerk managed to register the question. Val walked over, pushing open the door that stood ajar.
"Hey Joanne."
"Mm, you need something?" Joanne was fiddling with a tunic of sorts, skillfully st.i.tching a section together.
"Just thought I"d stop by and say h.e.l.lo. I only have a few days before I"m hitting the road again. Going to continue up north."
The scarlet-haired armorer paused her work, finally looking up at him. "Which way north?"
Val tried his best at a rea.s.suring smile, figuring she would of course know about the recent disappearances. "Not too far from the coast, following the interstate, or I guess the main road."
"Hmph. Figures, you know, reckless young men who run towards fire don"t get to grow old and retire."
"Maybe, but I won"t be alone at least. I succeeded with the wendigo, didn"t I?"Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.
Joanne narrowed her eyes. "Oh? Yes, do go on about your triumphant victory, glory literally at the cost of guts."
Muninn sounded as if she were suppressing fits of laughter.
"Alright, fine, but no one expected a monster with hyper-regeneration or whatever, and I lived to tell the tale."
"What"s got you so determined to go that way anyway? There are other roads that head north, if you"re so excited to visit the Elves."
Val paused a moment, before taking a serious, almost somber tone. "I… don"t have that many close friends, but the ones I do would be up there, in a place we call Seattle. Either my friends are still alive and I might find something, or they"re not and I cross one place off my list. The East Coast is where my father was, but knowing him he"s probably fine and doing something incredible and technically complicated with the government. Hawai"i is the last place for me to look for friends and family, and I can"t quite get there without a boat or plane."
"I see. I forget sometimes that you"re of the Barren World. I can only imagine what it"s like for the world as you know it to collapse. I do hope they are well and reunited with you, though I"ve lived long enough to know this world is not often kind. A small word of caution though."
"Hmm?"
"Well… Avoid the coast as much as you can. I myself am avoiding those routes due to recent events, but there"s been an unnatural fog since the first disappearance."
"It"s early December, that"s pretty normal isn"t it?"
"Not like this, it does not recede, all day and all night it has been blanketing the coast."
"Hold on, fog, or mist?" Muninn interjected.
"I"m not sure, is the difference important?" Joanne asked curiously.
"It might be… I need to discuss something with Huginn. Val, I"ll return ahead of you." Muninn suddenly flew out of the store, returning to the Chimera"s Den.
"Uh. I suppose I"ll hear from her later… Do you have any idea what she"s getting at?"
"None. We"ve always had fog, and the coast has been peaceful for centuries."
"Right, well, one other question before I go."
"Hmm?"
"Is there like a… public library here?"
"A public library? What, so you might just give away your books?"
"No, err… I guess not, but in my culture we had libraries where one might peruse books of all kinds, at little to no cost."
"Hmm, there aren"t much by way of scholars here, is there a particular book you had in mind?"
Val scratched his head awkwardly. "Not a particular book, rather, history? Some sort of encyclopedia? Admittedly I know very little about this world. I"ve kind of just gotten by so far. Problem is, in our world we study science, history— our history, literature, arts, that sort of thing. Magic and races like yours didn"t exist for us, most people who studied it were either historians or pretty ungrounded from reality."
Joanne thought for a moment. "Talk to Boldir."
"Huh?"
Joanne frowned, annoyance showed on her face, though her tone did not follow. "The man"s incorrigible and greedy, but admittedly he is both deviously intelligent and very knowledgable. Might even show you his private library if you ask."
Val eyed her curiously. "Good to know, thanks. Well, if I don"t see you before I leave, I"ll make sure I see you when I return."
The armorer grunted. "Hmph, if you keep your word this time." Val simply waived goodbye lazily.
*Joanne and Boldir definitely had a thing, right…?*
Val returned to the inn, just in time to catch dinner, where Asha was still at the bar, though now evidently nursing a hangover.
"Hey! How"s it going?!" Val loudly asked when he was but a couple steps behind the elf.
Asha winced, clutching at her long knife-like ears as she grumbled weakly. "…Mark my words Boldir, when he has exhausted his usefulness, I"ll kill him, I really will."
"Heh, I"ll remember it, but I doubt it. Got what you wanted from Harken?"
"I did." Val drew one of the blades and placed it on the bar, inciting a low whistle from Boldir.
"He really likes you it seems, haven"t seen those in nearly two decades."
"You know them?"
"Aye, Harken and I go a ways back, part of the reason I let his handlers recruit here. Knew him when he was a young man like yourself, getting himself nearly killed every other week."
Val smirked. "You knew Joanne well too?"
Boldir raised a curious eyebrow, but Asha spoke up first. "You could say they *know* each other very well, after all, Boldir here is her husband."
Val stared dumbly, his follow-up blown out of the water.
Boldir simply shrugged. "Separated. She"s much too dedicated to her work and I"m not all that different."
"Yet they never bothered to get a proper divorce. In fact he still sends her flowers on her birthday, using his goons to keep track of her comings and goings so he knows where to send them." Asha continued in a drawl.
"La.s.s, you busy yourself with curing your hangover or I"ll feed the boy some of your more embarra.s.sing tales. Like the time I had to bail you out of jail because—"
"Ah ah ah! Fine!" Asha complained, sparking a burning curiosity in Val, though Boldir said no more.
"Ahem… Anyway, Joanne tells me you collect books?" Val tried to focus on his priorities, his mind lingering on what Asha landed in a cell over.
"Hmm? Aye, I do, but what good will it do you? You haven"t learned the language they"re written in anyway."
"I need to learn at some point, got a few days to kill, might as well start." Val had considered this point and hoped to ask Muninn to help him read, knowing Huginn would likely scoff at him and make a roundabout excuse for why it is not a part of his duties, to say nothing of Asha.
Boldir considered for a moment, before removing a key from a large ring. "Sure, a decent way to spend your time, third floor, end of the hall, here"s the key."
"Thanks. Hey, did Muninn come through here?"
"Not sure, might have gone straight to your room through the window."
"Hmm, know anything about the disappearances to the North? I"ve got a deal with Harken to look into it."
Asha"s ears perked up immediately. "Interesting. As usual, the private sector proves more effective than those old coots on the council."
Val shrugged. "I heard it"s one of the reasons we"re here."
Boldir looked at the two of them, cogs turning in his eyes as he likely schemed some means of profiting off the situation.
"Not much, but I was not aware it was a serious issue, just a few missing merchants, no? Hundreds travel the way every month."
"A few missing merchants or a hundred missing merchants, either way, there has been no shipments received by us since a few days after the merging events. I was sent here to talk to the council about why there"s been no trade with us. *Do* you know anything?" Asha asked sternly.
"For free?" Boldir asked incredulously.
Asha pointed to Val. "His tab."
"Hey!"
Boldir, as usual simply allowed her to continue to abuse Val"s funds. "Well, as it happens I have heard of a dense, perpetual fog that even the dumbest and most stubborn of mules refuse to enter. Also, whatever it is, one of the merchants who turned around instead, said he had seen large figures, at least eight feet tall."
"Interesting, the fog is new, at least it was not there when I made the trip down."
"Muninn might know something, she asked for clarification on whether it was fog or mist, when we were visiting Joanne. Sounded like the difference was important."
Boldir narrowed his eyes, before motioning to one of the waiters to cover the bar for him. "It might be, and if an elder raven is concerned about it, we should be too. Come, you wanted to see my library, I remember reading something that might be related."