As night bleed into day, the sun rose and with that so did the caravan. Wanting to arrive at the Guild house as soon as possible, everyone moved with efficiency. We approached Ravenaire in record time, which was when my group gave the caravan our goodbyes, Prya's being more emotional than expected. She was glad to be going with us, but it was still tough leaving behind almost everyone you know. She has no way of knowing how long until we venture to her home lands again, so this was a very impactful goodbye.
Yet as we made our way into the Guild building, you wouldn't have noticed her sadden state. The cheerful and ever loud Prya was back, and ready to make her mark on society.
We headed in, lucky to see that the line for Nate was short, and we quickly sold the 27, now, rare beast cores, netting a round 100 gold. With them fetching around 4 gold per core. It was a good haul, seems like common was worth 1 silver, uncommon 1 gold, rare is 3-5 gold. A beast merchant was a pretty well paying job in this world. The fake job I gave Nate in the spur of the moment wasn't such a bad idea after all.
Prya stared at all the gold whispering "Were rich!" punching her hand in the air. At least she had the decency to keep her voice down. I quickly got out of the main lobby and headed towards the bazaar, figuring it was best gloat, or stand out too much, I saw what happened last time with foxfeet. No need to cause attention to ourselves, but as we walked into this first Prya shouted
"Where's DAR! I want to meet your only human friend!"
"Do you have to shout that!"
"My mother says it is a side effect of my Fiery nature, so get use to it mister!"
"I am starting to regret telling you things..." I muttered as she flew away inside the Obsidian Raven.
By the time I headed into the shop, Prya was already deep in conversation with Dar. It seemed she didn't forget my promise to split our earnings, because she was already ready to spend the money we earned. She was currently holdings a way over sized wizard's staff in her hand with a large red crystal, and glowing symbols spread across the shaft. The weapon seemed to radiate magical power, unlike Ravenrush, which was made of great material, but had almost no magical power, just the ability to convert from a staff to a naginata, or a spear tip depending on the end. I had no problems with Ravenrush, but it wasn't a magical spear. It was made of strong steel, but I was not going to be casting any spells with it. This was what the large contrast of cost between the two.
Ronin, Ari and I made our way over to the where the magical staff's, wands and scepters for sale, and I was astonished to see the prices. With around 140 gold in my pocket, I felt like I was earning money at a pace, Yet now I am instantly regretting that, some of the staves were worth multiple Mithril Coins, a currency, I didn't even know exist. Prya, of course, gave no indication that she noticed how far these items were out of our price range, and continued to examine each and everyone. Yet, due to her small frame, the selection for her was almost nothing. So we transitioned to wands, but as we did this, I could tell Prya was not a fan, and so could Dar.
"We don't get a lot of Fae folk down here on this continent. Your yearly caravan is all we see in the 5 kingdoms here. It's half the reason all of your good fetch such a high price! So unfortunately, there is not a market for staff's that would fit your requirements here."
"Can't you craft me a super powerful staff! you made one for ronin in no time!" demanded Prya.
"Ahh, yes I could easily build you a staff, but it would just be a staff. What you are looking for is a Staff artifact. One that has useful enchantments, a magic stone, and amplifies the users mana. These are quite costly, and unfortunately out of my scope of expertise. I could never enchant, nor did I learn the art of rune crafting. Tried countless times, but I was stuck in the forge. "
"Come on old man, don't tell me you are saying no?!? You told Jason that you would outfit his whole party."
Dar looked up, trying to hide the large grin on his face. It seemed he had been winding her up this entire time. He was showing her the most expensive items in the shop for reason, he did a very similar tactic with me. He had another deal he was going to strike us with.
'Out with it, I know you are just pulling her leg for no reason, your looking for an exchange. Hell you might have been setting me up on the first meeting' I knew I was pretty a little harsh but my one promise to myself was I would not be controlled by a higher power or destiny. I was going to live my life how I wished.
'Ever the cynic. But alas, I do have an exchange but it's pretty personal, so when this pretty young Sylph, said she was your soul spirit, I indeed had the intention of hiring you, could you come over for dinner tonight to discuss? You are welcome to stay the night, both my daughter's are long moved out, so I have a spare room. The reward will be worth your while.'
Having only one human 'friend' in this world, made decline Dar almost impossible. Besides, I can't imagine a blacksmiths request will be outlandish. Most likely some fetch quest to a forbidden location. Using this rationale, I accept the offer in full, saving us from having to find logging for the night. He thanked us again, and we headed out of the Obsidian Raven.
Prya fluttered next to my head, and spoke in my ear.
'I think we should do your permanent bonding first, and once that's done, we can try the more complex Tri-Soulbond. So we will need to find 1 light crystal, and 1 nature crystal. As well as a few local regents to help solidify the magic circle. Multiple things should work for this'
I wanted to stop her, I hadn't even decided yet who I wanted to make my first permanent bond, but it seemed Prya had made the decision for me. Women.. but the more i thought about it, I only had one real choice. I wasn't going to be able to bond with Ruby, and Siya said I didn't have enough strength to bond with Ari when I asked earlier… which left Ronin. The so called weakest magical creature.
However, the more I thought, the more appealing bonding with Ronin became. There so far hasn't been an injury to a magical beast or spirit he hasn't been able to heal, which will pay dividends in the future. 2nd, Ronin and I are very compatible in terms of Affinity, Ronin is Nature and Healing, while I'm Beast and Nature. So we have that in common as well. Lastly, Siya mentioned we would gain strength when bonded. This means, I could potentially gain a healing based spell or skill.
It seems Prya had already come to this conclusion, as she patiently waited for my thoughts to end before speaking again?
'You ready?! There is a Cramers Crystal store a few stores over! Let's go'
I nodded my head and followed our Psuedo-leader for the day.
In the end, it cost me a little over 30 gold for all the ritual regents. A quarter of our earnings.
We ended up with Two near flawless crystals, one nature and one light, soil from the base of a Dryad, pure ash from an ashfiend tree, and a dozen starlight blooms. In my opinion this was a random assortment of items but Siya confirmed what Prya was saying when we discussed how to build the ritual circle. Given, I had absolutely no clue, it was like Siya and Prya were having a conversation, and I was just the middle man, as we discussed which regent would be more compatible to Ronin and I.
Once we left Cramer's Crystals, we grabbed a quick drink at the Inn before the bazaar closed for the night, and then made our way back to Dar's apartment.