Terry found the next several days to be incredibly boring. Nari was used to working alone, which meant she had no use for a bumbling idiot with no smithing experience in her forge. She hadn't quite banished him from her workspace. He was still a customer. One who got her an objectively absurd amount of a very valuable ore. That didn't mean she'd kept her preferences to herself. In the end, he just got out of her way. He was going to get better stuff if he just let her work the way she wanted to work. Plus, it was clear that she was angry with him for not telling her whether he had more orichalcum or not.

Not that he thought it was a secret. She knew he had more. She just didn't know how much more, and she really wanted to know. Terry wasn't keeping that secret out of pettiness. He already had plenty of people out there who didn't like him for things he'd actually done. The last thing he needed to do was make himself a target for people who didn't mind spilling and were looking to get rich quick. Having people like that descend on Miner's Mark like a swarm of homicidal locusts might be worse in the long run than the monster army. He could mercilessly slaughter the monsters with no one batting an eye. Hell, he might even get a reward. If he started mercilessly slaughtering strangers, his life would get difficult in a hurry.

That orichalcum was a valuable resource, but only as long as he could keep it. Keeping it meant keeping the circle of knowledge small. If word got out, those locusts would come. That was assuming that the kingdom itself didn't come looking to "take possession of it for the good of the nation," or some other euphemism for government-sanctioned stealing. Terry did not like his odds if the kingdom decided to pull out all of the stops. He remembered that guild master he'd bumped into. Terry might be able to briefly fend off someone like that, but it would be a losing battle for him. That was going up against one person. What if the kingdom secured the services of two or three people who possessed that level of strength and power? They could just take the ring from him, and there would be precisely fuck and all he could do about it.

He needed to keep the people who knew confined to himself, Kelima, and Nari. He was pretty sure he could just ask Kelima not to tell anyone. If push came to shove, he could maybe bribe her with some source stones. He had the feeling that she wouldn't need to sell very many of those to solve every financial hurdle her parents were likely to have for several years. As for explaining the swords and hat, he and Kelima had survived a dungeon. They could even tell people where it was and how to get in. He could just say that they were relics or prizes from the dungeon. The hat might be a hard sell, but dungeons were mysterious things. Who knew why they gave what they gave?

Keeping Nari quiet, on the other hand, was a problem he wasn't sure how to fix. Unlike Kelima, he didn't know anything about Nari. He didn't have the slightest clue what motivated her. That made finding a suitable bribe a tricky thing. Sure, he could give her a bunch of orichalcum, but that struck him as a particularly terrible and dangerous idea. Once word got out that she had it, it would just be a matter of time before someone came to take it from her. And word would get out, because she was a blacksmith. Even an antisocial blacksmith would want to show off the masterwork they made with the impossible-to-get, absurdly expensive metal. That would kick off countless questions that she wouldn't want to answer. Unfortunately, she was almost certainly going to get asked those questions by people who wouldn't gracefully accept her unwillingness to answer.

It was a problem he kept poking at in his head, but it remained obstinately unsolved. He was going to have to do something he really hated. He was going to have to talk to her. That was how he found himself outside the forge, waiting for her to wrap up for the day. When she came out and saw him, she sighed.

"We need to talk," he said.

"We don't," she objected.

"We do. And you clearly know why we do."

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"I can't tell anyone about you. Or the ore. Or where you got it. Or that you have more. Or even what I made for you with it."

"Yeah, that's part of it."

"What's the other part?"

"You either need a very good story about where you got the ore that doesn't involve me, or you can't show anyone what you make with it. I assume you realize that nobody will believe that you could afford to just buy it."

Nari shook her head in frustration.

"I didn't think about any of this when I asked you to go get the orichalcum. I honestly didn't think you'd get any, let alone come back with so much. Now, I'm living every smith's dream. I have orichalcum to work with, except that I have to keep it secret. So, even if I make the greatest sword in history with my part of the ore, I can never show it to anyone. So, it'll be like I never made it."

"I understand your frustration, but—" started Terry before Nari cut him off.

"But you don't want to be hunted by every noble, royal, and cutthroat adventurer in this and every nearby kingdom."

"Yeah," agreed Terry. "That. I don't want to downplay the value of your craft, but if we're listing things I value, my life comes a lot higher on that list. I'm very selfish that way."

"So selfish. But you are a man. I suppose it's to be expected."

"I'm just going to go ahead and pretend that was a joke," said Terry.

"It was," sighed Nari. "A bitter joke, but a joke. Look, it's going to be at least another day until I'm done with your swords and your hats. Give me until then to try to come up with some plausible story about where I got the ore."

"Hats? Plural?"

"Your friend told me that I should make two. Just in case. I have no idea what she thinks is going to damage a hat made out of a metal that durable, but she seemed convinced it would happen. Plus, it's not like I'm short of material."

"Fair enough. I won't say no to a spare hat."

"I assume that there's a story behind that. Something that would make crafting these hats make sense to me."

Terry thought that over before he said, "There's almost no chance of that. There is a story, but it definitely wouldn't make sense of anything for you. You really had to be there. As for the other thing, yeah, see what you can come up with. I just don't have the right experience to come up with the right kind of story for you."

The next evening, Nari came out of the forge and called over Terry and Kelima.

"They're done," she announced.

Terry felt like he ought to feel a lot of excitement about the new swords, but he was mostly just relieved that they were done. Sitting around for days and days with nothing to do but talk to other-Terry had started wearing on his nerves. His thoughts kept drifting back to the camp of monsters and what they might be doing. Shaking that off, he followed Nari into the forge. He forced himself to look at the swords first because he could tell they were the things Nari cared about. They were nice. They felt good in his hands. When he swung them, he didn't get that sense of impending failure from them the way he had with other swords. For the first time, he felt like he had what he needed to face the monster army on equal footing. If, that is, hundreds to one could be considered equal footing. He nodded to Nari.

"These are excellent. Exactly what I need. Thank you."

Then, he looked at the hats. They were perfect. Just the right shape, and they fit on his head perfectly. He looked inside and saw that Nari had even managed to work in the one addition he'd asked for. They had cunning handles inside that he could fold down. That would let him use the hats as more than just hats. That would be a nasty surprise for any foe.

"These are great!" he shouted. "Perfect! I love them!"

"I feel like he's excited about the wrong thing," said Nari, looking over at Kelima.

Shaking her head, Kelima said, "He's definitely excited about the wrong thing, but it's the thing I expected him to be excited about."

"Really?"

"I've never seen anyone who loves their hats as much as he does. It's bizarre."

"Don't listen to her," Terry said to the hats. "She just doesn't understand."

"Is he being serious?"

Kelima shrugged and said, "It could go either way, but he's probably just mocking me right now."

"Oh, I'm definitely mocking you," said Terry, as he started belting on the new swords and stored one of the hats in his storage ring. "But I think this mostly wraps up our business here."

Terry directed a significant look at Nari.

"I didn't come up with a good story. Not one that will stand up to scrutiny. So, I came up with a better idea."

"Okay? And that is?" asked Terry.

"I'll just come with you. Then, you can protect me. Problem solved."

"What?" asked Terry and Kelima at the same time.

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