a royal invitation

Zain was in his shop on the day after his excursion when a young lady, no older than twenty-five, with blonde hair in a white dress walked in. She looked almost expecting there to be something that would catch her eye when Zain approached. "How may I help you today miss?" Zain asked politely knowing there were plenty of nobles in the capital who love to roam and shop without announcements.

"Ah I see you are a weapon and alchemical salesperson; I was looking to see if you had anything that might suite the Knights order." The lady responded with one of those I bet you don't have anything that meets my criteria.

"Well what sort for items were you looking for? Short swords, long swords, a sword with a recurve, a great sword maybe? Maybe you would like to order a sword that has had an acid polish on it or even one that has some different properties, or even yet you might just want some swords that are ceremonious." What Zain just said maid the lady kind of on edge. There were so many options to choose from and furthermore, he stuck with mostly ceremony and sword and shield styled swords.

"Do you have glaives for sale?" The lady asked.

"I do, you said you wanted them for the knights so I figured you would want something that could be used with a shield. I apologize for my imprudence." Zain spoke these words as he went to retrieve a glaive he had made recently. As he returned with it and sat it on the counter on a cloth you could see that it had a refined craftsman behind it. The body of the blade was black as night with the edge curved and sharpened and polished to almost have a mirror on its edge. The hilt was made of black wood and had red leather banding around it to stabilize grip patterns.

The lady impressed but trying not to show it quickly grabbed it and tested its balance and Zain smirked slightly and then spoke softly. "There is a training area out back if you would like to test it out for comfortability and maneuverability." This spoke as his curiosity was peaked on how she would handle the weapon but also, so she felt comfortable if she was to buy it.

"Very well, please show the way." The lady spoke as a matter of fact like as possible without showing excitement. So, Zain showed the way and stood by the door as she started using it almost as an extension of herself. Her movements flowed like a river that was going down a mountain, smooth yet effective. The only hiccup he saw was the delay between an arm thrust pressingly from an imitated magic attack and the next strike.

"Alright give me a second if I may." Zain spoke as he headed over. Once he was beside her the lady looked irritated at his imprudence but seemed to tolerate it for now. "Your main hand is too far back for you to effectively cast magic in combat. Try sliding it up a little since the blade is heavier than the hilt and pommel on it. This should counter the weight discrepancy and allow better movement and transition from your casting to your next slash or stab. If you don't find this satisfactory, I can grab a spear or javelin with a more eccentric head that is blade like for you." The lady stunned at this merchant's knowledge of martial combat tried this and the transition improved greatly.

Once back in the shop, the lady spoke this time with less reserve. "To be honest, my weapon of choice is usually a spear with a bladed head so I figured a glaive would be easier to translate what I wanted. I see now that you are not the average merchant of alchemy and weapons."

Zain smiled and retorted, "Well I did graduate from the royal academy for both alchemy and smithing. They don't let you skip martial training no matter who you are there."

This made the lady audibly laugh. Zain smiled a little, feeling some relief. "Well, I went there too, and I went through the magic knight's course. I've gotten into the Knights core recently and my original spear recently broke. I was told there was a master smith here but never expected them to have also graduated from the academy."

The two of them started talking about the times at the academy and she then asked, "Would you ever consider joining with the royal knights to be their specified smith?"

Zain not usually one to receive these types of offers responded with a softened demeanor, "I am currently waiting on the adventurer's guild to come to a verdict regarding another matter currently, and while I do find something of the sort appealing, I also do apothecary work here so it's not as if it would be easy to just uproot at the drop of a hat. If I had time to plan this sort or move, I would strongly consider it but it just doesn't seem to be in the cards at the moment. I'm sorry."