7. Enchantress

It's been a few days now since the Hiryute twins joined the familia:

Firstly: the twins, Aiz, Lefiya and Marlet formed a sort of group that always interacted together.

Secondly: the whole familia now knows why Bete got cursed and what he needs to do to break said curse, suffice to say that he still eats with a dagger and curved saucer much to the amusement of everyone else.

Thirdly: Marlet could now fly comfortably after much convincing and practice, nothing too professional but enough to be air support with her bow once her accuracy increases enough to avoid friendly fire.

Fourthly: different parts of a table made of tree-labyrinth bark had finally arrived. Being commissioned at 4 different carpentries who were all in competition against the other so that no copies could be made (Loki's suggestion). Marlet wants to start trying to enchanting different weapons and armour much to Loki and Riveria's encouragement.

Fifthly: the twins had both levelled up to 3 after tag-teaming the Goliath, thus lighting the competitive spirit in Aiz and doubling down on her dungeon runs. The twins and Lefiya naturally joined and they were slowly growing accustomed to having the other provide aid amongst themselves.

Starting to get a little cabin fever Marlet wanted to get permission from Loki to change the garden's landscape a little. Just so that she could move around a bit more freely without prying eyes peeping in on her. Telling Loki that she would grow a hedge around the property at night with her own magic and a little section of the garden for herself Marlet explained how a Fey was connected with nature and how this could have added benefits to the property. Loki agreed that she made some valid points and that some privacy would do everyone some good. That's how she posted her very first commission to the members of her own familia at the front door with a self made notice board, detailing her plans for the changes she was going to make and what she required. All the requests were split into different parts and a mystery reward, the members of the familia found this very amusing and decided to try and help out whenever they could. Knowing she was still being kept out of the public eye until she could defend herself, the familia members slowly but surely collected seeds for different plants from the middle floors that would help her in her gardening ventures. Loki even submitted a report to the guild stating that they were going to be doing some changes to the property but that everything will be safe.

Within 2 days a brand new thorn hedge was blocking off the view of the Twilight Manor anyone may have from the outside, with thorns weaving around the entrance in a way that didn't interfere with the metalwork. Between the thorns green flowers were grown that when someone got close enough would spit a mouthful of sleeping spores into the intruder's face. This has became so effective that even Finn, who was a peak level 4 at the time with the abnormal resistance development ability fell asleep. This made guard duty a lot easier and as an extra bonus, Marlet made the hedge to produce some apples every now and then around the guard station, which was highly appreciated. Next Marlet claimed the training ground closest to the gardens for herself which did annoy some members of the familia a little but no one raised any objections. What Marlet did next had to be done in sections, she measured off half the training ground (approximately 30 x 20 meters squared) with chalk and then planted five tree seeds in a circle in the centre. Everyday she would come out after every meal time to pour some magic into the seeds and whenever asked what she was doing her response was "planning big things."

After the hedge was complete Marlet got to assembling her enchanting table that took a good 2 days due to the intricacy of its broken up design. Once completed, she asked Aiz to bring her different stones for all the upper level monsters and to buy a dagger for every stone she may have. Receiving only a nod as confirmation Aiz returned the very next day with a backpack filled with stones and daggers. The twins got curious due to the strange request and Lefiya had heard what she was going to attempt from Riveria. All convened in a larger room to accommodate the spectators Loki thought out loud "maybe we should put the same thing on all the daggers and mark what stone was used for which ones, that way we can test the effects the stone has." Everyone else agreed and waited for Marlet to begin. Placing a dagger in the centre of the circle and the stone above it in the space indicated, Marlet put both her hands on the circle edge and closed her eyes with the intention of going to her mind's compass. Only this time the dagger manifested before her and a list next to it with a list of possible enchantments she could add.

Deciding to go with something visible, she applied the burn enchantment to the dagger. To the onlookers they saw her close her eyes and the magic circle lit up for a few seconds before turning an orange colour and moved inwards to concentrate on the dagger that took on a similar hue. The circle's glow ended before Marlet could open her eyes and admire the spectacle that everyone else just saw. "Well, did it work? What did you do?" asked Riveria already holding the dagger in hand and scrutinising it in detail. "I put a burn enchantment on it but looking at the stone used it might just be minor" explained Marlet. She then continued to do it for half the remaining daggers before she got close to mind down again, with the rest of the familia marking which dagger was used with which stone. "To everyone currently here, when we come back from the deeper floors in our next expedition, we'll start releasing the enchanted weapons. We'll say we have an item that helps with the process, which is true, and that we are the only familia capable of doing it, which is also true" Loki said with a mischievous grin. Everyone agreed and went there separate ways, Riveria wanted to study the daggers a little more in-depth before going to test them in the dungeon.

"Well Mamma, what can you tell me about pointy little things?" Loki was in Riveria's room waiting for her report on her findings. "It's all really fascinating, what you have there isn't a a magic weapon in the traditional sense. It's more like a magic coated weapon, it will have a set number of uses depending on the stone used in its enchantment but once that finishes, the magic leaves and you are left with an ordinary dagger" this got a very mischievous smile from the trickster goddess. "What about replication?" she asked, only to receive a firm head shake from Riveria, "it's impossible to do through smithing and alchemy. The closest would maybe be if someone had the mystery development ability but we both know that's too unreliable to make it a constantly occurring product. To further make it unique, it can't be copied or done by another mage!" Loki now realised she had the only person in the mortal realm that could give her such services. Both women marvelled at the little orange glowing dagger for different reasons. "We'll keep a tight control on the enchanted weapons, owner of the weapon, familia and which weapon was enchanted will be recorded. We don't want to flood the market and empower the more questionable adventurers" Loki said full of seriousness, receiving a nod of approval from Riveria.

Whilst Loki and Riveria were having their discussion, Marlet could be seen in the training ground she had claimed for herself making some strange movements around the five tree seeds she had planted. Every so often a pulse of golden magic could be seen leaving the grounds border and then the girl would go right back to doing her strange movements. "Hey! Marlet!" came the enthusiastic shouts from Tiona, "why are you dancing so weirdly?" she asked with a tilt of her head. "How do I explain this?" Marlet asked more to herself, "you know how before anyone has to build a building, they need to make plans before that happens so that you know what's gonna happen?" she asked the overenthusiastic amazoness before her. Seeing her nod in reply she continued, "well that's sorta what I'm doing at the moment. These seeds need to grow in a certain way and I'm helping them understand that I need them to form certain designs" Marlet finished explaining with confidence. Both Hiryute sisters, Aiz and even Lefiya looked confused at her explanation causing her to only sigh and follow up with "I should be done by tomorrow, you'll understand then."

After Loki and Riveria were done discussing all they could about the potential the enchantments had the daggers were handed over to Aiz and the twins so they can go and test the effectiveness and differences they may have whilst in the dungeon. Finding some interesting results they went through all of them and had Lefiya record their findings. Reading through this Finn also got excited at a potentially new income for the familia and gave his approval to Loki's plan. This caused Loki to speed up her plans to have an expedition to the deeper floors in order to introduce her winged child to Orario sooner. Loki wanted to establish early in everyone's mind that Marlet is not some escapes monster the Loki familia are keeping as a pet or tamed monster and seeing all the positive changes that was being made around the manor, Loki could only smile happily.

Bete seemed to be the only person not having enjoyed the arrival of the winged girl. Though having to eat with a special saucer he had to commission from a pottery did cause some strange looks from the artisan but Bete just had to pay a little extra for them to shrug it off as one of the eccentric ideas of a member from the Loki familia. This however did cause Bete to avoid Marlet and if it was unavoidable he would keep the interaction short and ever so slightly look over her head, not making eye contact. He had already gone to every magic caster within the familia to try and rid himself of this petty curse and got the same response from all of them, "If Riveria can't help you, there is almost nothing we can do." Suffice to say that Bete was endlessly frustrated. It also didn't help that now he couldn't go out to the up and coming Hostess of Fertility that everyone else was talking about. He could only imagine how we would become the talk of Oriario if everyone in the city knew that utensils avoided him.

Frustratingly, Bete was pacing up and down before the main door looking as though he would pounce on anyone who so much as looked at him wrong. He had been doing this for a few days now after coming back from the dungeon and would slowly mutter things under his breath. "I'll just have to apologise to the weakling, it should show true strength to confront the little devil" Bete was trying to convince himself. Having resolved his will and gaining a determined look in his eyes the werewolf made his way towards Marlet's claimed training ground.