Felix flopped backwards onto his bed in the inn, letting the blanket billow around him. He let out a great sigh of relief at finally reaching Caelwyn. His relief was short-lived as Menium flopped backwards onto Felix, knocking out the last of his breath and briefly causing his vision to darken. Wheezing, he tried to push the monkey off of him.

  “Get off! I can’t breathe, you buffoon!”

  Felix finally managed to push Menium off, only to see the monkey looking back at him with teary eyes.

  “Ugh, I’m sorry, ok? I shouldn’t have said that. You just startled me.” Felix gently scratched the soft hair on Menium’s head until it looked like he’d been forgiven. Only for a few soft, sad chirps to make him sigh again.

  “Yes, I’ll buy you a crêpe later,” he said while rolling his eyes. Just as he’d expected, Menium instantly cheered up.

  “Let’s get cleaned up and have a look around town. We’ll need to find that golem shop, but I want to make sure we look at a few other shops as well, so it doesn’t look like we just came here for that.”

  The two made a quick trip to the communal bathing room and a stop at the dining hall before setting out to see the town. The portly innkeeper kindly confirmed that they still had a few hours before the markets closed for the day. The area’s aurora cycle had been tending towards longer days, making it hard for Felix to keep track of time. Still, they had a lot of ground to cover, especially since he didn’t know how long he’d be stuck at the golem shop.

  Menium excitedly pulled Felix towards the market as soon as they stepped out of the inn. Making sure their first stop was at the crêpe stall. Felix didn’t even try to figure out what toppings they used. He spotted something that looked like light blue lettuce leaves and a purplish cream, but he was in no mood to think about the local ingredients.

  Menium, satisfied with his treat, quickly clambered onto Felix’s back so he could eat in peace without worrying about running into anyone. The monkey didn't mind that he was pushing Felix’s head in the process, forcing him to walk with his head tilted sideways, and Felix was too distracted to care.

  The odd pair walked through the market. Occasionally, someone would stare at their antics, but most people didn’t even notice.

  To Felix, the market was nothing remarkable. He’d seen so many markets in so many different areas that they’d all started looking the same. This one had a slight lean towards ores and gems in its wares, but otherwise it was the same as any other.

  He’d come to learn that while Caelwyn wasn’t a mining town, it was one of three towns that served as commercial hubs for the Galagan pits. The pits weren’t a mine per se, the area was far too chaotic for that, with the chambers and creatures you encountered being different every time you delved into it. But the constant churning soil that ensured every delve was a fresh experience also brought enough ores and gems to the surface that every Traveller going down would bring a pickaxe down with them.

  The influence of the pits was clear in Caelwyn, with the elves’ usual love of growing living wood cities taking on a more industrial look, as many buildings were replaced with works of stone and alloy decorations. Instead of trees with glowing leaves, the streets were lit with lanterns wrought from glimmering metals, no doubt excavated from the pits.

  Felix did his best to appear interested in every stall and shop he stopped at, but his impatience mounted as he finally spotted the golem shop at the end of a nearby alley while he sat at a stall waiting for the tea he’d ordered.

  “So what brings you to Caelwyn?”

  Felix looked around, seeing the elf behind the counter looking in his direction.

  “I’m sorry, what was that?”

  She frowned a little.

  “Is everything alright? You seem a little nervous.”

  “Ah, no, sorry. I just have a lot on my mind.”

  “I see.” She nodded sagely.

  “So who's the girl?”

  “Huh? I– What?”

  “Oh, c’mon. No need to be coy with this old lady, I’ve been around long enough to know that when a young man like you is that anxious, it either means trouble with the ladies or trouble with the law. You don’t look like the type to have trouble with the law.”

  When she said ‘That anxious’, she pointedly looked down at his foot, making him realise he was rapidly tapping it on the ground. He abruptly stopped as soon as he noticed, only making him look even more guilty.

  When she saw it, she smiled as she’d just proven her point.

  “So? Spill. Is she coming here? When did you meet? Is this your first date? Are you asking her out? Oh! Is it a boy?”

  With every rapid-fire question, Felix could see the light in her eyes grow brighter, as her voice grew more conspiratorial.

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  “G–grandma?”

  The lady stared at him blankly for a moment before she burst out laughing. It was so intense that by the end of it, she was wiping a tear from her eye. Felix immediately realised his blunder, and the longer she laughed, the hotter his face grew.

  “S–sorry. For a moment there, you looked just like her.”

  His comment made her chuckle again, but in the end, she nodded.

  “It’s fine, it’s fine. Though the next time you meet, tell your Grandma to write to me, I have a feeling the two of us will get along just swell.”

  Felix felt a shiver go up his back at the thought of the two old gossips meeting, but he didn’t have the nerve to tell her no. He nodded and quickly picked up the tea she’d somehow finished preparing while questioning him. He took a sip and let the warmth soothe him. When he opened his eyes, he saw the lady staring at him with the eyes of a predator, with her arms crossed.

  “You didn’t think you’d distract me by mentioning your Grandma, did you? I’m still waiting.”

  Inwardly, Felix panicked. The lady might remind him of his grandma, but he didn’t know her. He wasn’t just going to divulge the reason for his trip. He quickly dedicated far more of his mind than what was strictly necessary towards coming up with a plausible excuse, and at the speed of thought, he found one.

  “It’s the law!” he blurted out a little too loudly.

  “We visited a library, and Menium ate their plants. I had to write home and ask my family for help. I’m just nervous about picking up my mail.”

  The old woman was practically holding her breath while he spoke, but as soon as he finished, the light vanished from her eyes and her rigid posture deflated.

  “Oh.”

  She said in a tone so flat that she suddenly felt like a completely different person. For a moment, Felix wondered if she had picked up on his lie, but he soon heard her grumbling under her breath about how he’d gotten her hopes up. Clearly, this lady’s gossip specialised in the romance genre, and his just wasn’t to her taste.

  Felix gaped for a moment at her change in demeanour, though she quickly noticed. She waved him off.

  “Just drink your tea.”

  Her voice was so thick with disappointment that he suddenly felt like he’d done something wrong by not being anxious over a girl. His memory helpfully started going over all the attractive girls he’d seen in town before he caught himself and wondered what he was doing.

  Not knowing how to handle the old elf’s disappointment, he quickly finished his tea, noticing too late that Menium had entertained himself by emptying half the sugar pot into it. Trying not to pay the taste any mind, he got up to leave.

  “I’ll uh– tell my grandma to write then. Sorry.” He said as he started digging around in his coin purse for the right amount.

  When he mentioned his grandma, her mood seemed to lift a little, and he could hear a bit of cheer return to her voice.

  “Right, right. Please do. I receive all my mail at the store. Ask her to write me. Don’t mind the coin, son.” She said, looking at him in pity.

  “You’re going to need it if your family makes you pay them back.”

  “R–Right, thank you.”

  Felix left before her mood had time to change again. Only after they left the store did Menium raise his voice in protest at the accusation Felix had levelled at him.

  “I know, I know. I’ll buy you another crêpe. Besides, you did eat the plants in the library.”

  Menium barely protested after soliciting another treat from Felix. Still, Felix didn’t immediately head to the golem shop. He was too scared the lady from the tea shop might notice if he spent a little too long there.

  He waited in a little bookshop, standing in the window he flipped through a tome he’d already memorised, mostly admiring the way the aurora cast its light through the window onto the pages. Eventually he spotted a young couple going into the tea shop.

  Knowing that there was no way the lady would pay him any mind with a young couple in her store, he set down his book. He quickly walked past the sleeping black cat and the list of the store’s rules, which twice mentioned not upsetting it, towards the exit.

  Once he left the bookstore, he headed straight to the golem shop. It sat at the end of the alley, in a stone building that looked like someone carved windows into the front of a building-sized boulder and dropped it into town.

  An ornate metal rod was bolted into the stone above the doorway, and two tiny metal figures were draped over the top of it, holding onto a sign that said ‘Kethrix’s Crafty Creations’. The letters in the sign seemed to capture the aurora’s light, shifting with the colour of the sky.

  Felix pretended to look at the sign with interest before entering the store. The room he entered looked like a hollowed-out rock. At the far end of the store, a set of stairs went down into the ground. To his left, a stone bench was carved directly into the wall. To his right, a stone counter stretched across most of the room, leaving just enough of an opening near the stairs to walk through.

  Behind the counter sat a squat, muddy-brown figure, hunched over a thin piece of metal he was slowly hammering into shape. After Felix took in the room, he approached the figure waiting for him to finish.

  The figure continued to heat the metal over a small burner before carefully hammering it into shape, slowly folding it in on itself. At some points during the process, he’d add new thin sheets or wires before continuing.

  At first, Felix watched patiently as the figure worked, but slowly his foot started tapping to the rhythmic tinging of the hammer without his notice. When the figure was about to add the piece of metal back into the burner for the fourth time, he couldn't wait anymore.

  “Excuse me, are you Kethrix?”

  The creature looked up with a start, nearly dropping the metal he’d so diligently hammered into shape.

  Its swamp-green eyes were magnified several times their normal size through the goggles it wore. He quickly set down the piece of metal he was working on, then took off his goggles. Without them, Felix could finally tell that the creature was some kind of goblinoid. Its hooked nose and watered face were far too obvious a tell, paired with the colour of its skin that could easily blend into a forest or bog, and the conclusion was an easy one to draw.

  “Ah, my sincere apologies, I was too focused on my work. I didn’t notice your arrival. Welcome to Kethirx’s Crafty Creations, I’m Grizhnahthelix Grilgolustri, the thirty-seventh. Apprentice to Kethrix, keeper of the doorway and receptionist to the customers. How may this one be of assistance to the illustrious customers on this day?”

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