The Tavern minstrels were in the middle of a song when the pair entered. The Tinrith candles lit up the room and it was bustling with a small crowd.

“Where do you want to sit?” Nick offered.

“Somewhere we won’t be disturbed.” Zach pointed, “over there in the corner.”

Nick nodded and led the way to the semi dark corner booth and sat down.

As they sat down an attractive bar maiden walked up to them, “what can I get for the two of you? Our morning special is the clam chowder.” She said,

“I will have a dish of biscuits and gravy ma’am.” Nick said.

“And what would you like?” She asked Zach with a smile.

“Oh I will have the special with some beef.” Zach said to the maiden, 

“Very well, and what would both of you like to drink?” She asked.

“I will have an ale, and he will have-“ Nick said looking at Zach.

“Oh just some water please” Zach asked.

“Ok, it will just be about ten minutes for your food, and I will have your drinks out right away.” The maiden said, winking at Zach as she left.

“Ok if I am going to make the weapon you desire I am going to need a detailed construction from you.” Zach said, opening his satchel.

“I don’t need anything special, just use your imagination.” Nick said.

Pulling out a set of papers and a pencil, Zach looked up at Nick and sighed, “it doesn’t work like that”.

“If I do that I am making a weapon meant for me not you.”Zach remarked. 

“What does it matter? It is just a sword.” Nick said, a little irritated.

The maiden walked up to the table with their drinks and she set them down. Looking nervous she hesitated when putting down Zach’s water and said “Sorry for the quality of the water, our well is not working right now so we have to get our water from the pond.”

“Oh no worries ma’am, I’m a blacksmith, we tend to find slag in our drinks every now and again.” Zach said with a smile.

When she left Zach looked back at Nick.

“Nick, my custom weapons are an extension of your body. I can’t just strap my arm in place of yours, it just wouldn’t work.” 

“Oh… can you explain further?” Nick asked.

“Ok, so every weapon you have is your life line. If you don’t use it properly in a battle, it could snap. So you, Nick will Cease to exist.”

“Well that kinda makes sense. But what does a specific construction from me have to do with this?” Nick said, “I’m already proficient in sword combat.” 

“Yes you are proficient in combat but when the specific construction comes from your mind you already know it inside and out.” Zach said.

He went to take a drink but stopped, he looked down into the cup and shuttered,

“What’s wrong?” Nick asked,

Zach looked at Nick and said, “I don’t think water should be this brown,” “hold on, let me get something.”

Zach opened his satchel and retrieved a small vial of a white crystalline powder.

He opened the vial and poured a small amount of the substance into his hand.

“What’s that?” Nick asked.

“It’s a safe crystallized form of the power I use to form strong welds during the smithing process.” Zach said.

Zach sprinkled the power into his water and to Nick’s amazement, the powder started to stick to the disgusting stuff in the water.

“Watch closely” Zach said to Nick, he picked up a spoon and stirred the water and almost immediately the pollutants in the water clumped together and sunk to the bottom of the cup.

“Oh wow!” Nick said. 

“Yea cool right?” Zach said, “I accidentally created it when I was experimenting with different compounds of the borax I use in smithing. The experiment didn’t work out so well but it works just finely with filtering out icky stuff in water.”

Zach took a sip and smiled at Nick.

“Anyway, This sword is going to be a big project.” Zach said.

He scribbled a quick rudimentary sketch of how a normal sword looks and shifted it to be in front of Nick.

“Start with how you want it to look, I’m going to go take a look at the well this tavern is having trouble with.” Zach said, getting up.

Zach weaved through the tables, dodging the drunken arms that had mugs filled to the brim, a little bit of ale sloshed out of one of the mugs and it landed on Zach’s cloak. Frowning he bunched his cloak closer to his body and continued to weave. He overheard conversations mostly consisting of drunk bableing, but there was one conversation that piqued his interest.

“Yea, they promise money and land.”

“Not only that, but they will give you a job.”

A steady paying job, land, and a possible education. In this day and age It was too good to be true. Zach arrived at the bar, there was a short stocky middle aged woman standing behind it. Her hair was starting to gray and her clothes were patched and stitched together, indicating that she was a hard worker and couldn't afford to get new clothes.

“Excuse me ma'am, I heard that your well has stopped working.” Zach said. 

“Yea, what’s it to you?” She said, a bit irritated.

“Oh well my cup of water was a little dirty and—” 

“Here we go again, another customer complaint. Well I have news for yea, the Blacksmith hasn't come yet so our well can't be fixed.” She said, Zach took a deep breath and let it out.

“I happen to BE a blacksmith, and am gracious enough to offer my services to you.” Zach said sternly.

“And how much will that be?” She said, challenging Zach.

“Nothing.” He responded.

The woman was taken aback, she blinked and opened her mouth but no words came out.

“Look here, I can tell that you are saving your money. For what I don’t know and don’t care to know. But I am an honest man, I know the feeling of not having enough money to get new clothes, I've been in your shoes. I struggled to pull myself from the brink. Let me just say… it will get better for you, but you need to meet it halfway and do your best.” Zach said with a soft tone.

A tear welled up in her eye and she quickly wiped it away.

“Oh dear, I’m so sorry. You were right, it has been rough on me; on all of us… follow me and I will take you to the well.” She said, sniffling along the way.