"So what’s your plan here... Matthew?" Thomas leaned against the anvil. "You won’t be able to do much from the position of a teenage recruit."
"I wanted to get some information first, but it might be a bit difficult considering Ben knows shit."
"That’s because Ben is an idiot - the boy wants to do good, don’t get me wrong, but he ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed." The blacksmith shrugged. "If you listen carefully you’ll quickly learn what people think about the coup."
"And how do you know that? Did people suddenly start talking with you?"
"Oh they did, but probably not in the way you’re thinking." Thomas chuckled. "Nickolas never hid the fact that he was friends me, after he was thrown into a dungeon a few assholes came to gloat about it."
"My hand was terribly tired because of my job, and they unfortunately found themselves in my hammer’s way - I was unable to stop it from hitting them."
"You get away with really crazy shit because you’re the only blacksmith we have - is that why you never took an apprentice?"
Alfred looked at his armour.
"...Do you need to actually take my measurements?"
"Of course not." Thomas scoffed. "I’ll just reuse parts from your original armour, it’s still lying somewhere in my storage. Go back to your room young man."
"Don’t stay up too late old man."
"Did you find what you were looking for?" Calen asked Elita.
"Most of it, they didn’t have a few niche ingredients, but I can do without them for the most part - just don’t get bitten by anything snake adjacent or we’ll have a problem."
"Noted." Calen nodded. "As for our task, we managed to leave our armour for repair, and met Alfred - or Matthew as he calls himself now - surprisingly Thomas recognised him right away."
"His armour, apparently he leaves some sort of signature on his creations. At least thanks to that he agreed to act as an intermediary for the information exchange."
"That’s good, we’ll have a lot of excuses to meet him." Isara commented."Cass, you’re still planning on reforging your sword and combining it with the artifact, right?"
"Correct." Cassian nodded. "I’ll ask the blacksmith for permission to use the forge when we pick up the armour tomorrow."
"Permission to use?" Calen raised an eyebrow. "Neither of us knows shit about forging weapons, I can help with merging, but we need Thomas for the process - unless you’ve been learning in secret?"
"No, I suppose we do need his help."
"Indeed we do. Now, does anyone know where can we get some food?"
"Way ahead of you." Isara grinned. "I asked the medic while Ellie was getting supplies, apparently there’s a mess hall available to everyone at all times."
"What are we waiting for then? Let’s go eat."
"... it’s empty." Isara frowned.
"Obviously, we missed all meals." Cassian pointed out.
The mess hall was exactly what one would expect from a castle full of knights - dozens of long tables and benches stretching across the massive chamber, and not much else. The only notable thing in the entire room was a large statue of a sleeping dragon placed on the far end.
"A weird thing to place a sculpture like that." Isara commented. "And where do you get food?"
"I think that statue is how you get food." Calen stated.
"It’s chock-full of divine power - so far sustinence is the main thing this type of energy was used for."
"Okay, but how does one get food from a statue?"
"The same way you get it from a giant ancient tree, obviously"
"I have no clue." Calen shrugged. "But we can find out, come on."
The statue was quite impressive from up close - just the head was taller than Cassian, if the dragon was real it would be able to eat humans whole.
"Is this to scale? Will Auren get this big?" Calen inspected the statue.
"Dragons grow for their entire lives, albeit very slowly after reaching maturity." Elira explained. "To get this big Auren would have to become a full dragon, and then live for another hundred years, but yes, it’s possible."
"Yes yes, it fascinating - but how do we get food?" Isara interjected.
"Really? Ask the magic statue for food?"
"Do you have a better idea?"
Calen placed a hand on the statue and said:
Predictably, nothing happened.
"That’s not how you use it." A chuckle came from behind the group.
They all turned around and saw Harold standing in the door.
"You were close to the solution though."
"How did you know we’ll be here?" Calen questioned.
"You weren’t in your rooms, so I came to the next logical place." The knight shrugged. "I can show you how to use it if you want."
Harold walked up to the dragon’s head and placed his hand on the stone.
"It works quite similar to the tree in Greenheart, but our statue can only make food and has to be recharged from time to time."
"Recharged how?" Cassian prompted.
"We need to make an offering to the statue - any corrupted beast will do, but the bigger the offering the more power it will restore." The knight explained. "But coming back to food, you just need to place your hand on the statue and think of the food you want - ."
Suddenly the dragon’s maw opened - Harold calmly reached inside and pulled something out: a steaming cup of tea.
"How did you come to get your food from a stone dragon?" Elira asked.
"I’m not exactly sure to be honest." He scratched his beard. "I was never particularly interested in history, including that of the castle we reside in - you’d have better luck asking someone from the round table."
"And when will we be able to ask them? Cassian questions how soon they will be free of their duties, as the Serakhiin army isn’t going anywhere anytime soon."
"I’m afraid your friend is correct." The knight sighed. "The situation is a bit... complicated. Get your food and I’ll explain everything while you eat."