Shadara’s hands were still lightly caked with dried clay as she struggled to keep a pleasant expression on her face.
Looming in front of her, stark against the afternoon light coming in from the open doors to her Arcane Ceramics and Stoneware workshop, were 7 huge, dusty, leather clad enforcers, here for their monthly protection fee to the SunderCall gang.
This was nothing new, she had been paying them ever since she had set up her business here in the south side of the Sun Cut Bazaar, 3 years ago.
The problem was that this time around she had a scout from a rival gang, the EmberHawks, hiding within her workshop.
Eskarill was a good friend and she couldn’t just hand him over to SunderCall’s, knowing full well that he wouldn’t survive the ordeal in one piece.
Counting out the Coppers and Irons as quickly as possible into a pouch, she handed it promptly to the waiting hands of the leader, A heavily scarred and muscled woman with her sandy blonde hair pulled back into a tight braid.
Nodding slowly, the woman silently beckoned the rest of the enforcers to follow her out of the workshop. Shadara leaned against a table and let herself relax a little once every one of the enforcers had left her workshop.
Unbeknownst to Shadara, two streets down from her workshop, the leader of the enforcers stopped and called over two of her subordinates, commanding them once they stood facing her
“I want the two of you to head back to that workshop and look around a bit, something isn’t sitting right with me…”
The two Enforcers, A lanky man with green eyes and a woman with short hair and spikes on her leathers, looked at each other and back, confusion clear on their faces.
“She was acting too pleasant, to ready when she handed over the money, I’m not sure, just go and look around a bit, If you find something interesting, at least we can report that to the boss”
The two of them nodded in unison and set off, back towards the Arcanist Potters workshop.
Shadara was just about to help Eskaril out of his hiding spot when two of the enforcers appeared at her door again and entered while looking around at the corners of her workshop, In a manner oddly reminiscent of the street dogs sniffing scraps.
One of them, a man with green eyes and wild red hair, smiled with amusement, almost as if he could sense her desire to throw a pot at his head. “Relax Miss, we are just taking a look around at your fine wares, might even make a purchase we find something interesting” At which the woman with short hair and an alarming number of spikes on her clothes sneered.
Stealing herself a little, she plastered a smile onto her face and said “Well then how about I show you the enchantments built into some of the Pots?, I feel that could let you make more of an informed decision!”
The man simply nodded and to her horror began walking towards the giant black stone pot sitting near the back wall, the one in which Eskaril was hiding!
Nearly falling over one of the stools, Shadara raced towards the pot before the two enforcers could and tried to look as casual about it as possible. “Oh, this one? Well its still a work in progress…Um how about I do some enchanting for you two? That’s not something you see everyday right?
She began to use a steady spectral blue frame manifested at the tip of her fingers to carve the outside of the stone pot, creating intricate designs and symbols with surprising speed and dexterity. Even the enforcers seemed impressed as they watched her work, while in the back of mind, in her spirit space she was desperately cobbling up the spell construct she needed, a slightly altered version of one she had already created for a different project, reaching out to the spirit of that project she managed to connect her new spell construct to it and then proceeded to anchor the whole thing to the spirit of the stone pot in front of her.
In a weak semblance of show-manship she asked for one of their pouches tied to their belt, curious to see where this was going, the man shrugged and handed her what looked like a pouch filled with what seemed like a collection of teeth and fangs. Shuddering a little she dropped the pouch into the pot, making sure to angle it in a way that the enforcers couldn’t see what was inside of it.
Hoping that they didn’t hear the muffled Yelp as the Pouch of teeth landed on Eskaril’s head, Shadara activated her enchantment; The symbols and carvings on the pot began to glow a bright white and after a solid 6 seconds faded to normal.
Breathing hard, she tilted the large pot for the two enforcers to peer inside, it was empty, neither the pouch, nor Eskaril were in there.
Before they said anything, she tilted the pot back upright and held one finger in her best imitation of a dramatic pause. When she felt a certain weight shift in the back of her mind, she activated the pot again. Light burst out from the pot and once it died down, Shadara tilted the pot, revealing a lone pouch lying within.
The two enforcers stood silent for a while
“So…what exactly does it do then?” The woman asked.
“It turns anything within it invisible!!!” She said with a cheer.
“It can create multiple invisible objects?” The man said, his eye brows rising in surprise.
“Uh, no the objects just become invisible while inside the pot… they turn back to normal once they are outside…”
The woman sighed and turned around, already making her way to the door. The man soon joined her after taking back his pouch of teeth, grumbling something about ‘amateurs wasting their time’ as they left her workshop.
About half an hour later, once her heart stopped beating wildly, she decided to write a letter to the owner and hostess of the Vermillion Palace theatre, as she felt she owed an explanation to the lady, for the stunt she had just pulled.
1 hour later, Lady Diana Blackheart, prime diva, hostess and the owner of the Vermillion Palace theatre, leaned back on her soft velvet divan as she read one of the most amusing letters she had received in recent months.
She was surprised to receive that letter from her local Ceramic Enchanter but not nearly as surprised as she had been when a young bewildered man tumbled out of a showpiece she had commissioned from the Potter.
Shadara had seemed pretty skilled of course but seemed too meek and bland to pique her interest.
But apparently there was more to this young pottery enchantress than met the eye.
She let go of the letter and watched it float away on a river of Mist passing through her room.
Manifesting a violet feathered quill from within her spirit, Diana decided to stay in touch with Shadara and maybe commission some more of her artwork.
Who knows what else could tumble out of them, she was excited to find out.
