2

Glass Sun

Calista

What would a rousing revenge quest be without an awesomely agonising armament with which to massively mutilate a malicious meanie?

To that end I was at a local weapons store, hoping to find such an armament. My skill with a blade is roughly zero but I figured having a weapon would be better than not. I’d acquired a few weapons over my years of conquest but they were far too elaborate—I just needed a stick with painful bits on it.

I peeked inside, just one person staring at the ceiling; —probably a bored employee.

Heh, too easy. I’ll grab something and get out—would’ve been easier with a magic arm but whatever. I crept inside and over to an area of wall mounted items; shooting a glance or two at the employee as I went. A particular sword caught my eye, it looked like the sort of thing that you could stab someone a couple times with and they’d regret becoming an arm thief; it was also small enough to sneak out.

As I reached out towards the sword I heard a sound behind me:

“Ahem.”

I spun around; it was the employee.

“Ask before touching the stock. Valued customer.”

Deep orange eyes gazed into me.

She had black hair tied in a bun, wore a brown flat cap and gloves on both hands.

Hmm, she’s kind of cute.

“_A^ha_ha my bad I didn’t realise, it looked neat is all.” I said.

The girl pointed silently to a sign beside her on the wall.

I read the sign. ‘Please ask our friendly staff before touching store items.’ “Oh_hhh, oopsie whoopsie huh, ehe_hehe...”

"Were you looking to purchase a weapon today?" She said.

‘Purchase’, heh, I should probably play along though.

"Hm yes certainly a weapon would be wonderful."

"Please tell me the use-case such that I may assist in finding something appropriate."

Bitter, violent revenge, but I suppose I shouldn't say that.

"Oh you know, I want one that stabs good.”

“...”

The girl stared at my severed right arm.

“...”

“I could do something for your arm.”

I looked at what remained of my right arm, was she planning to strap a sword to it or something?

“Look.” The girl took the glove off her left hand. Woah, she’s got two metal fingers.

She wiggled the metal fingers. “My hand is like this, so I do prosthetics. As a hobby.”

She can even move them?! Something like that’d be neat...

“It would cost you.”

Is she a mind reader or something?? Ughh. Really don’t have money at the minute. Do I even need a prosthetic? The plan is to get my arm back after all—though that’d take at least a couple months...

“Alright well I did say I was looking for a weapon so...”

“The prosthetic would be modular. You’ll be able to replace the hand with various weapons: casting source, blade, buzzsaw-”

U h w a h, so cool! Mate you’re hired! gotta play it cool though, I’m sure I can’t afford the thing.

“Well um, how much will it cost?”

“It’d take me a few months to build. So fifteen thousand.”

Quite the unholy number. Ugh_hhhhhhhhhhh not happening. And months? I’m not gonna hang around Puldark that long; I’ve already wasted a week.

“Hmm, Hey pal do you like guns?” I said.

The girl’s face twitched.

“Yes.” She said.

To most Puldark residents ‘a gun’ was a thing of rumour; another weird contraption of the rich cities.

I began to formulate a plan.

“Heh, heh, heh... nice nice nice... Alright! we’ll discuss payment over dinner!” I named a restaurant for us to meet at tonight.

“......Ok...”

“Sweet as. I’m Calista by the way, you?”

“Noel.”

With that I booked it out of the store, I’d have to get home then back to Aikaterini before she finishes at the council.