As the phoenix’s chains dragged it back into its lava prison, the beast let out a screech that rivalled a god’s death cry. Bound by some strange magic, it couldn’t leave the forge, nor would it know how to do so, for throughout its life, it had lived in this prison, a prison meant only to incubate its egg before setting itself free into the oceanic desert. But the giants had trapped it underneath their mansion, bound by cursed chains forged by a man who’d passed long ago.
"Sorry, I didn’t see you folks climbing down," hopping into the palm of her floating iron glove, Meimei moved closer to the end of the steps as Raven and his party finally came to the lava pit’s base. "Had I known, I wouldn’t have brought Kuruon out and risk getting any of you burned."
"Kuruon, fine name for a bird–but don’t worry about it anymore," shrugging off the matter, Raven gestured for Mei to show them what they’d been brought here for, "I would much prefer if we talked about the equipment that required a phoenix’s flames."
"Oh! Of Course!" Jumping up on her astral legs, Mei clasped her hands and turned excitedly back to her workshop. Floating closer to it on top of the iron glove, she pointed first at the other glove, hitting what appeared to be some sort of violet metal. "I have a lot prepared for you guys, but I need your blood to bind the equipment to you and you alone! We wouldn’t want the enemy to be able to use these items, after all~"
"You can do that?" Stepping forward, Reina stared at Mei from the side. "How?! You gotta tell me how!"
"Hmm?" Blinking her eyes, confused as to why this strange woman was so worked up about what to her was normal, Mei gave Reina a nod. "Sure, just don’t touch anything, and I’ll teach you how to do it. You can do magic, right? Because you’re gonna need to if you want to replicate my technique."
Glancing back at Raven. Reina stared at him intently.
"Oh, I’ll learn it, you’ll teach me, right?" While Reina’s enthusiasm was commendable, Raven couldn’t justify the general wasting his time in the middle of a war to teach magic to a blacksmith. Thus, turning his head to Erika, he passed on that responsibility.
"Sure, I’ll get someone in order to help her with it," the priestess replied, and that was the end of that conversation.
Moving to the workbench, the party stood idle while Reina followed Mei all around the rock-carved shelves, as well as around the equipment lying around the anvil. Watching the woman closely, Reina kept trying to discern what she could learn and implement in her own work and even though there was a hint of jealousy in her heart, that very same feeling made her wanna chase her curiosity about Mei’s methods.
Grabbing vials while ignoring the blacksmith, Mei turned to the party and handed each of them their own vial. Requesting them to fill it with their blood so she could mark them as the only users of the equipment that she was forging, she quickly returned to work.
As the hammer struck the metal, everyone did as they were advised, and before long, the vials were corked. Bringing them to her workbench, Mei laid them across the table and looked at Raven once again.
"That would be it, thanks for coming all the way down here. I’ll send a message to you in a few days; everything should be done by then." It was her way to tell them that they could leave, and although everyone got the hint, Reina decided to stick around.
"I’ll send the soldier that’s gonna teach her down here," Erika said to Melenai, making sure that she would expect someone to seek her out so they could be brought down here.
On their way out of the mansion, the party was reminded of something–or rather someone. Flitza, they hadn’t seen her in a while. After her tirade against the people of the sunken city, she’d never shown them her face, making the hero question the advisor while walking and looking straight ahead.
"Could Flitza have done this? The poisoning, I mean."
"What?!" Melenai gasped, her eyes blinking with disbelief.
But as Raven’s gaze turned to her, she was made to ponder the possibility herself. Could the upset paladin have poisoned the water? Not just for the army, but for the citizens as well?
"No way she would do that! She’s a paladin of her people, for god’s sake, what good is her vow if she poisons them herself?!" Melenai shot back, expecting some retort, but the general remained quiet.
Raven was simply speaking his mind. The bard’s frustrations, complaints or whatever they may have been were irrelevant in the face of what he stands to lose if the poisoner isn’t found. For now, the Dryad, the giants, and even Flitza were on his radar, although his suspicion was heavily leaning toward the first two since the third was too much of a simpleton to try something indirect as poisoning the army.
"Have her come to my tent in a bit, I have some questions for her," Raven said, right as the party walked out of the castle’s main door.
Standing behind the doorframe, Melenai glared at his back, pondering what the hell was going on in his head and whether he still suspected her of being involved in the matter.
’Should I tell him the truth after all?’ The question plagued her mind, however, with her own life hanging in the balance, the answer in the end...was quite simple. ’No, I shouldn’t. Where the hell would I hide after that? I’ve lived all my life in this mansion, I don’t have any other place to go.’
Talking herself out of it, the woman turned around and began her search for Flitza. She had no doubts that the paladin was in any way involved with what Frazer and his group were doing, but just to confirm Raven’s doubts, she had to play along or risk being a major suspect in the matter alongside the giants.
’Once this is over, I’m leaving this fucking place!’ She thought, promising the one thing that she owed to herself. Getting the hell away from these morons who ruled the kingdom. Ancestry be damned, she didn’t wanna die serving a bunch of idiots until the end of her days.