CH185

Going through the gate, they arrived in Anailia a few hours earlier than the last time, the immediate change in time zones still managing to be disorientating, but Ben did his best to ignore it in favour of doing the same thing he’d done before, dragging Thera to every blacksmith and enchanters shop he could get to before they started closing for the night. It wasn’t like Thera’s parents had been expecting them at a certain time, they’d given them a small range of days they might arrive at in consideration for their quest, and Ben didn’t want to waste a moment when he expected he’d be quite busy when the time came for him to begin on anyone who’d come to have a brace made.

Unfortunately for him, he felt just as unimpressed by the various wares he’d managed to see in this city as well. He knew he wasn’t visiting every shop, and without being at the ninth level he couldn’t be certain of an object’s rating, but he was confident he wasn’t misjudging anything, everything here was within his skill level. That wasn’t to say he hadn’t seen anything that would be tough to make, but he was certain he could manage to reproduce most items.

Feeling dejected, Thera gave him a small pat on the back to try and cheer him up. “Come on, I’m sure we can find a shop in town that will impress you sometime this week. Besides, isn’t it a little nice to see you’re good at your job?”

“Mmh, I guess. I just know I still have so much to learn, it would be nice to see more examples beyond what Falk’s made to give me an idea on how I might improve.”

“Well, when we see my parents we can ask my mom about seeing any of our nation’s artifacts, since she seems to like you I’m sure she’ll agree easily enough.”

“Artifacts?” He asked, perking up at the tantalizing word.

“It just means anything ultra-rare or higher, nations tend to hoard a few when they can. I’m not really sure what we have here, but there should be a few.”

His spirits immediately lifted at the thought. “Okay, yes absolutely. I’m going to need to give your mom the full son-in-law experience to butter her up.”

Thera couldn’t help but groan at the prospect, Ben had been so good recently at ignoring it that she could almost forget that as far as her nation was concerned they were engaged, she could only hope that her parents hadn’t decided to do anything to make it worse while they were there.

When they got to Thera’s home one of the staff informed them that Pelenia had requested she stop wearing her cloak upon arriving to be able to properly see her daughter’s face, and while it left her a little suspicious of her mother she agreed easily enough. Everyone that worked there had an amulet in preparation for her arrival, so there was no harm done as they made their way to the main hall and opened the door to where her family supposedly waited.

Upon entering, instead of seeing the throne they were greeted with the first time they’d come they instead found the hall draped in purple and green banners, empty seats all around them, bar the ones her parents were in and an altar in the middle of the room with a powerful flame burning on top of it.

He turned to Thera, meaning to ask what all of it was about, but her face was a stronger shade of gold than he’d ever seen on her before and was willing to make an educated guess from that as she grabbed her staff and ripped out the stone flooring with a spell before bringing chaos to the room.

Her mother only chuckled in her seat as Abrus kept them both safe, and by the time Thera had managed to work out enough stress and stopped he used his powerful magic to change the room back to the state it had been in when Ben had first arrived in the country, with the exception of some thoroughly destroyed banners.

“A wedding ceremony? Seriously?” She asked her parents coldly. “We only just got here.”

“Oh come now Thera, I was just having a bit of fun,” Her mother told her as she walked up to give her daughter a hug, getting nothing in return.

“I’d believe that a bit more if you didn’t have the authority to carry it out. Why do you have to show me what a mistake it is to come home every time?”

“Alright, maybe I was hoping you’d just go with the mood, I even prepared such nice wedding gifts too. I’m sure Ben especially wouldn’t mind some more magic materials?”

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Hearing that Ben turned to her, thinking that maybe it wouldn’t be so bad for her to put up with him for a few short decades of the very long life she would lead, but she could tell what was going through his mind and shot him a look that made him hold his tongue.

“Anyway,” She said, knowing there was no point in continuing on. “I’ve got some letters for you from aunty and uncle.”