The two men both focused intently on writing out their notes, then hid them from each other with hateful glares as they passed them to Dominic, to give to Pops.
The Palace Guard medics came in to use their healing spells, and then patch up the two wounded craftsmen while Pops examined the letters that both had given him. Dominic could tell that the master smith already had a pretty good idea who had actually made the weapon, but he was keeping to his word, so nobody thought he was playing favourites.
Then, he nodded to himself, and began the questioning.
"As you believe that this weapon was stolen from you. I will start on your side. The hilt socket on the sword has an imperfection from a misplaced chisel. True or false?"
"True. A wedge chisel."
Pops turned to the other man. "The fuller is off-centre by one millimetre. True or false?"
"True. In opposite directions on either side, but only at the base. They match perfectly at the tip."
"The magitech circuitry for the energy barrier has three repair marks in it." He asked the first smith.
"False. They were perfect when I installed them."
"The knot work carved into the wood of the handle has an imperfection in the pattern."
"False. It’s deliberate, and it’s on all four edges."
Pops nodded and then took the bag off the blade.
"Now, for the last question. Where is the maker’s mark?" Pops asked, directing it at both of them.
"I didn’t have one on it because the work wasn’t finished yet when it was stolen."
"The maker’s mark is actually inside the hilt. If you take the wood off the grip, you will see it."
Pops took out a punch and knocked the pins free of the handle, then turned the handle of the sword toward the pair.
The man who had been accused of stealing looked smug as the other smith realized that this was not the sword he had made.
It looked like his missing blade, but in tiny letters, carved in the gap between the magitech circuitry and the gem socket, where it couldn’t have been placed after the blade was assembled, was a short phrase.
{James Jacob Meyers 8/12/439 Over the counter at Fizzle’s Tavern}
One man was smirking, while the accuser looked completely perplexed.
He mouthed the words once, then a second time.
"Have you figured it out yet? It’s the date your oldest son was conceived. Shame you couldn’t be there for it."
The man who believed this was his stolen blade launched himself at the other smith, dagger in his hand. But his opponent wasn’t dumb enough to taunt someone like that without expecting violent retaliation.
He stepped forward to grab his hand, stopping the strike until the Palace Guards could pull them apart again.
"Take their storage devices." Pops ordered.
Both men turned over their storage items, which Pops looked through, then handed back.
"The missing blade is not in either item. I want the entire forge searched. Find the missing blade. If anyone knows where it went, you had better tell me now." Pops ordered.
The apprentices scattered, searching the forge for the missing weapon, while Pops looked at the other Journeymen who would have been working in the same area as these two.
"While we may have sorted the origin of the blade that Journeyman Jacobs turned in, we are still missing one nearly complete weapon, that is virtually identical to this one. I want to know where it went, and everything that happened in the forge in the hours leading up to this incident." Pops demanded, then he smiled.
"Fortunately for us all, we have a council present if we need to make this a criminal matter.
Two masters of the Forge, a Royal Advisor, and two Royal Guards.
We will get to the bottom of this nonsense before my coffee gets cold, and I’m not afraid to clean house and start over with a fresh batch of apprentices." Pops insisted.
There was a long moment of silence, punctuated by the apprentices searching the most improbable spots, looking for the missing blade.
Finally, one of the Journeymen spoke up.
"It’s on top of the forge vent. Those two have been messing with each other for years. I admit, today they took it way too far, but it’s far from the first time that they’ve played pranks on each other."
A pair of apprentices brought over a ladder and pulled down a mostly complete sword from the top of the vent cover.
To Dominic, it looked just like the other one, but just a few steps from completed.
The level of mimicry shown by the first blade was astonishing.
Pops sighed as he looked at the weapon, then at the two wounded Journeymen, who were being restrained by the Palace Guards.
Dominic couldn’t blame James for that particular necessity. Jacob had just publicly announced that he had been having an affair with the man’s wife, and had fathered the man’s oldest son.
That was absolutely brutal.
And he should probably sleep with one eye open and an extra lock on the door.
"What am I going to do with you two? Obviously, you can’t be trusted to behave. So, for the next month, your pay will be docked to cover the damages caused by your fight, and you will both be on probation.
Journeyman James, you will remain on the late morning shift start time.
Journeyman Jacob, you will be moved to the graveyard shift, eleven to seven.
If there are any more complaints about either of you, you are gone. And I mean gone, without a Royal Referral for your time here." Pops informed them.
That looked like it was enough to get them to behave. At least for a little while.
"But first, you have both earned a written reprimand and an evening in the brig to cool your heads before you go back to your duties."
Then Pops turned to the crowd. "I expect better out of all of you. This incident should never have been allowed to get so out of hand. You are Journeymen, not Apprentices. You are expected to be able to keep your workplace operating smoothly without a master looking over your shoulder."