A week after his unfortunate encounter at the docks, Kir was pretty sure he was in the clear.
He’d checked in on Enumasam about the enchanter, and so today was the day set to et with her. According to Enumasam, she was sothing of a recluse who never left her ho except at night.
Kir had to ask Kordia for a few silvers, because Enumasam had arranged their eting at the woman’s favorite restaurant, The Mouse’s Portion, which was a little hole in the wall run by a pair of mousekin who specialized in tiny versions of food, even for their diminutive stature.
There were tiny pies and tiny sandwiches and tiny cakes. All the drinks were served in cups the size of shot glasses, and Kir could barely hold the cup of water he’d been given, using his thumb and foreclaws.
The mouse beastkin serving him barely ca up to his shin, but at least there were normal-sized tables outside, and it was at one of these that Kir waited, the only ’large’ custor, while the waitress chatted him up from the top of a stepstool.
He was beginning to think the enchanter wouldn’t show when a familiar, nasally voice sounded from behind him.
"Sorry, I’m late! I got held up by an elf who wanted a tattoo but couldn’t stand needles," Moshui took the seat across from Kir.
"Moshi!" the mousekin waitress said excitedly.
"Hi, Tene!" Moshui greeted.
"Everything on the nu tonight?" she asked.
"Yep! He’s paying," she pointed a thumb at Kir. "You’re Mr. Nasalbee, right?"
Kir was glad he’d already knocked back the water, otherwise he might have spit as soon as Moshui arrived.
"Nasumi," Kir said.
"Huh... you sound familiar... have we t?" Moshui tilted her head.
"Perhaps..." Kir’s mind was racing as Kiryu chuckled inside his head. "Or maybe I just have one of those voices."
"Eh, that’s probably it. You’re unusually tall. Mind if I asure you?"
"I... guess?" Kir replied. He was about to stand when Moshui appeared at his side with a asuring tape, already stretching it along his digitigrade legs, his thighs, and then his torso and head.
"Huh. You’re at least three asures tall. Unusual for wolf beastkin, but I guess people co in all sorts of sizes." She sat down. "I knew soone about that tall. Weird guy. Demonkin. Thought we had a rapport and then he just up and disappeared! I didn’t even get to do one experint on him!"
Kir flinched. It wasn’t just the pot calling the kettle black; Moshui had agreed to keep his presence in the city secret in exchange for getting a look at his demon-wrought tattoo. He’d also volunteered to be her guinea pig. But after the incident at the Academy...
"If you tell her instead of letting her figure it out, I swear I’ll keep you awake for a month."Kiryu threatened.
"Why?!" Kir thought loudly at him.
"You know how boring it is being a passenger in your head after, what, eighteen and a half Earth-years? Making your own entertainnt isn’t as exciting once you’ve done it enough tis."
"And here I thought you’d actually be helpful."
"I’m helping you help . Co on, kid."
"Uh... Does he often stare off like that?" Moshui asked, breaking Kir out of his thoughts.
He was just in ti to see the mousekin waitress shrug. "Will you be ordering now?" she asked, probably for the second ti.
"Oh, um... I’ll try the at pies." Kir slid his nu along the table to her.
Tene departed, leaving the stepladder and an awkward silence stretching between Kir and Moshui.
"So..." Moshui clicked her tongue. "Enny says you need an enchanter?"
"Enny? Oh." It took Kir a second to realize she ant Enumasam. "Yes, I do... Are you sure you’re an enchanter?"
"Yep! I also do enchantnt fixing, scrimshaw, catalyst crafting, spell focuses, a bit of alchemy on the side, but mostly for ink. But for enchantnts, I can do skin, tal, leather, stone, and mana crystals if they’re big enough... Oh, and I tried ice once but it exploded right away. Got a schematic for or are we going on words and wishes here?" Moshui asked, having spoken entirely in one breath.
Kir took the mont it took Moshui to speak to regather himself. "Well, first I want to ask if you happen to know a ans of stacking enchantnt circles on top of each other. It’s essential for what I want to produce."
"And that is..."
"A secret, I’m afraid," Kir replied. "I an to provide you with one part of the magic tool that needs precise replication, and I need it to fit on many copies of this." Kir removed a small, perfectly circular and completely uniform disc of silver, exactly 12 milliters in diater and half a milliter thick.
"Uh-huh... Silver. Very magically conductive, when it’s not tarnished. What are you wanting to be put on these?"
"Sothing like this," Kir said, presenting her with a diagram of a basic amplification rune. "But stacked one on top of the other, and perhaps with so sort of separator to allow scalable use."
"A lot of little amplifiers, eh? Oh! Are you trying to make a very tiny spell get big? I suppose one could stack these... but you’d want sothing like a thin disc of iron... With a hole... Maybe mythril? But I’m guessing you’re on a budget if you’re using silver instead of gold..."
"Silver suits my needs," Kir said. Gold had more staying power than silver for long-term enchantnts, but what Kir intended would be a test to see if perfectly contained silver would serve just as well. "I would need six-hundred copies, grouped by the hundred." That would leave him roughly 20 milliters to work with as far as spacers and the final compression rune. If his theory was right...
"And you want the sa amplification for every circle? I can try to work out sothing exponential... You’re not trying to blow up the city are you?"
"No," Kir replied instantly. "And exponential sounds fine, if we can work out a good rate."
"I can have this done in a week, assuming I don’t get swamped by all the adventurers returning to the city. I also do tattoos by the way, want one?"
"Maybe later," Kir said, scratching behind his ear. Trying to get a tattoo was a surefire way to have his glamour figured out. "How much are you willing to work for?"
"Depends. If they’re all identical, I can just use sympathetic resonance to make them all the sa, assuming my mana holds out. If you want six groups of exponential... Eh, let’s go with eight gold for all the sa, and an orichalc for exponential."
"Deal," Kir agreed. In truth, he’d expected it to cost more, but if she could really do it in one week...
"We should look into this sympathetic resonance thing she’s talking about," Kiryu advised. "Sounds like it could be useful."
"One thing at a ti," Kir shot back. He needed to figure out how to get an orichalc in only one week. Lumin was definitely an option but he’d already asked her to fund his projects with Enumasam... But wasn’t this just an extension of that?
"Wow, not even going to haggle ?" Moshui raised an eyebrow. "This is probably the fastest deal I’ve ever worked out for enchanting."
"I have my reasons," Kir said, right as the mousekin waitress returned, wearing the normal-sized serving tray like a hat.
"Here you are!" Tene said.
A high-pitched squeal suddenly put Kir on edge.
A mont later he realized it was Moshui. She clapped her hands rapidly with excitent. "It’s all so tiny! I love it!"
Tene was quickly seized in a hug that took the mousekin off her stepstool. "Enjoy your al," she said in a slightly strained voice from being squeezed, but with a genuine smile.
Feeling a little like a bull in a china shop, Kir poked a claw into the topmost micro-at pie that had been stacked into a pyramid on his plate.
It was very, very good.
At least, that’s what he told himself to justify the bill he got after dinner.
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