Six days later.

“They are here, Master Uklag.” It’s the first words Uklag has heard in three days. After some initial fun with his ‘new’ wives and equipping Droy with everything he needs he had walked into his enchantment room. At the first two days he still had left his room to eat and sleep but eventually he simply stayed at his crafting table, only stopping his work when he was close to collapsing or Zal brought him food.

“Here as in in front of our door or here like in the woods?” Uklag asks and hammers another rune into the plate that lies before him. It is a square with seals and runes all over it and easily big enough for three persons to stand on. “The later, I found the group of 11 an hour ago.”

“11 you say? I had predicted 10 though.” Uklag muses and blows away a couple of iron shavings. “It seems the mage has brought her apprentice.” Alratha says and laughs, “Such a cute little thing, she has black hair like me.” Uklag turns away from his work for the first time.

“Oh.” He looks at the beauty with the amber eyes. “You are still wearing that? I Must have forgotten to tell you about your new uniform.” Alratha looks down at the brown prisoners clothing. “It is rather tasteless. Where is that uniform you speak off, Master Uklag?”

The mage waves at another crafting table in the room. On it there are several things. A full leather uniform, including boots and gloves, two stilettos with sheathes, a holder with throwing needles, a singular dagger, a bow and a quiver. All of it is either black or tinted very dark, fitting of someone who is supposed to move around at night. On each piece of gear there is also the symbol of three eyes that Uklag uses to mark his work.

Alratha doesn’t lose a second and strips out of her old clothes. Putting everything on takes a bit but she is in no rush. At the end Alratha stands in the room in her new outfit. The dark leather seems to eat away at the light, putting her at sharp contrast in the well-lit room but would surely hide her in even the hint of darkness. The uniform hugs tightly at her curves leaving not an inch of skin exposed and nothing to the imagination. The only exception is her face but an unused mask is still lying on the table. The mask is made out of cloth and another unknown material and would cover the lower part of her face if put on.

The assassin looks at the weapon and soon finds out that the stilettos, the needles and the blade of the dagger are all made from the same unknown material. “Master Uklag, what is this? I have never heard of a material that light.” She takes a stab at the table, the dagger sinks in halfway before coming to a stop. “Or that sharp for that matter.”

“It’s stained glass.” Uklag says without paying much attention, he is completely concentrated on the iron plate. “Glass?” Alratha laughs, “That can’t be, glass would have shattered.” “Because I am not some kind of master-enchanter or something. Look, my dear blood-whore: Making glass near indestructible is one of the most annoying things and I would rather not do it again, so never ever lose any of these things. Also don’t use the needless unless you have too, they are really dangerous.”

He says all of that while looking at his work again, but a shy laugh makes him fairly certain that Alratha was about to test one of them on herself. “Why go through that progress in the first place then?” She asks while hooking in the weapons at their designated places on her belt. “Because I can’t have any metal around for the next part.” He brings down the hammer one final time and nods to himself. “Done.”

The tools put aside he looks at the prisoner’s gown at the ground with a frown. With a quick fireball it gets incinerated. “Hey, I wanted to keep that.” Alratha says laughingly. Uklag smiles in response, “I doubt that.” He looks at the metal plate. “Get me Droy, I will need to relocate this thing.”

“I do fear that he is currently doing something, or more specific someone.” The harsh voice of Aelana echoes through the room as the demon enters. “Do tell? Let me guess: Your sister?” “How did you know?” Uklag gives her a stern look, “Like you two wouldn’t run around together otherwise. Is she still sulky about the whole getting tormented thing?”

Aelana sighs, “Yeah, pretty much. I can help you carry that thing though.” They do exactly that and a few minutes later the plate is lowered into a square depression at the entrance door Uklag had made a few days earlier. From there two metal lines went under the door and connected the rune covered plate with a bigger, blank one in front of the entrance.

“What does that do anyway?” Aelana asks, “Like I would ruin the surprise.” Uklag winks and walks off. “I will take a bath now, get everyone to gather in the dining hall by the time I am done.” As Aelana is following Uklag so the only one to act on the order is Alratha, who smiles at the opportunity to show of her new outfit.