She stopped by the jewelry store first and sold her various trinkets for as much as she could get, which was quite a bit. As a merchant's daughter, she knew a thing or two about how to make a good sale. With money now in her purse in place of the jewels, she went to the blacksmith to place her special order.
When she walked into the shop the boy at the counter smiled, his name was Lepido, she'd met him years ago while accompanying her father on business and had run errands here for him since then. The boy was smart and friendly with a good mind for accounting and handled all his father's business, much to his father's disappointment since he'd rather him be skilled in forging and his sister work the store, but it was the other way around and it was actually her Nieka came to see, for as good as her father was, Stalli was even better.
"Good Morning Miss Stratum, what can I do for you today?" Lepido asked looking slightly surprised to see her.
"I have a special order I would like to talk to Stalli about."
"Let me see if I can steal her away from her work for a moment." He said and ran off. He was very good at reading people and dealing with them. Within seconds of meeting a customer, he knew whether to indulge them in chit-chat, give them information about the pieces they were either too embarrassed or didn't know enough to ask about and he could tell when a person wanted to just get right to business as she did now. Usually, she didn't mind the chit-chat or informative little lectures about the different metal products they made but somehow, he must have known that today she wasn't in her usual inquisitive mood.
Moments later Stalli walked in. Soot darkening her already dark skin she wore a bandana to keep the sweat from her eyes and a large leather apron. She smiled warmly and reached out her hand to shake in greeting.
Her hands were clean; at least you could see the line where her gloves had stopped. "I hear you have a special order for me," she said.
"Yes I have several things I want you to make for me and she handed her the drawings she'd made the night before. The metal needs to be strong yet not brittle, and it would be best if it was light. Also, I know that it might take a while since you may have to experiment a little but I would like it to be a rushed order, not to say rush your work but I can pay enough to make it your priority."
Stalli studied the pictures nodding silently to let her know she'd heard her. She was transfixed, loving a challenge or anything new. She'd probably do it for next to nothing just to see if she could do it but Nieka knew Stalli's work would be worth it and she had no desire to shorthand her, and maybe it would be enough for her to start a place of her own in a bigger town like she had told her was her dream once.
Stalli finally looked up and said, "I will have to experiment a little but I should be able to have these dagger things done in 3-4 weeks, the sword in two, and the others you can Pick up next week, just the metal pieces though, you will have to find a clever leatherworker or something to attach them."
"Thank you," Nieka said breathing a sigh of relief. She gave her deposit and let Stalli ask a few questions about her disappearance and the demons as she took measurements of Nieka's hands and arms. She was glad that her friends tactfully avoided mention of her sister and wished them both a good day when she left.
The day was still young so she went searching for Sky Dragon, the sailor who taught her to fight with her whole body and not just a knife. She found him at the docks with some of the other sailors, they all said hello and some tried to talk to her asking how she or her sister was or about the Demons, but she asked Sky Dragon away to talk alone, having no desire to answer any questions along those lines.
She requested he take a vacation during the next voyage, and she would pay him his regular wage if he spent his days teaching her everything he could in the next few weeks. He agreed telling her his wife would be glad to have him around a little more for a while.
They were to meet again that afternoon right after lunch in the fields on the edge of town. This would give him time to announce his leave to her father and his wife and her time to search the library for anything useful.
She grabbed a sandwich from the bakery and ate it on her walk to the library. She didn't find much about fighting at the library and nothing that would help her. After talking to the librarian trying to find anything about the demons she learned that he loved to tell stories and talked for a good twenty minutes.
The librarian was one of the few towns' people from this country. He had lived in the town to their west and being less superstitious than most of the other villagers at the time was one of the first to move to their new settlement. He told her the story about the old village that had once stood where theirs did now.
She had heard the story before when they first moved here, but this time she fully believed in demons and she listened with renewed interest. The original town had been completely leveled and scorched by fire in the largest attack ever recorded in the woodland realm. It was a vicious attack of retaliation as it was the oceanside warriors that lived here that had killed their demon queen; dooming their entire town to its inevitable extinction.
When her father first made port here all that was left were the overgrown fields in a large clearing by the sea. The crew followed the old overgrown road to the nearest town to trade. After a few trips, he decided he wanted to set up shop on the shore and they found that all the ashes had left the soil fertile so farmers moved in, then others started shops: the innkeeper, the baker, the weaver, fishermen, and others.
Some still considered the place haunted or cursed and so no one talked of the old town that now lay beneath their feet. No one talked of the Demons or the families that lay in a mass grave. After he told his story he gave her two old worn books one written in scratchy penmanship the other flowing and neat but in an older dialect of the woodland language. He told her that all the details of how the demons came to be and what happened here so long ago were in those books.
It was all written in the language of the region but read differently than the locals currently spoke. Nieka having spent lots of time on her father's ships or with him on trade business had learned many languages, this one she had only learned two years ago when they moved here, and though she was taught to read and write it, it wasn't nearly as natural to her as it was in her native language, and though she would make reading this book her goal, it was a daunting task and she knew it would take her a while to get through it. Leaving with the books in hand she wondered if Sky Dragon would have any on fighting and decided to ask him.