Being a a bit put off by Zanes reaction, Jericho pulled out his pipe and filled it with tobacco. he turned, walked to a lamp, pulled some flame out of the lamp, lit his pipe, then shook the flame on his finger out and strolled out the door. He walked through the town, looking for either a weapons shop or an Enchanters shop.
While he didn't show it, Swiftaxe was furious. Now this mercenary was demanding things of him after he offered his home and gave him gold. He could see that this doctor was going to be persistent, however, and he wanted nothing more than to just rest in his room and apply ointment over his scar.
He watched as Jericho left them in peace, now he had to deal with Zane alone,
"My word is law in my town and none else can say so otherwise. Now spit out your peace so that I may rest."
"Now, The reason I don't want this getting out, is that I do have another skills besides being a doctor. I'm actually quite a powerful mage, however, I practice and interesting type of magic."
Zane suddenly plunges the scalpel into his palm, and then pulls it back out, a razor thin sword made purely of blood attached to it. He then slices a small cut into the bricks of the floor, before holding the sword out to the wall and firing it off, watching it stick into the wall. He then walks over to it, and coaxes the blood back into the wound, and then seals it with healing magic.
"So there you have it. I am a blood mage, but do not be alarmed, I have never used my skills to kill the innocent. I use it to aid in my medicine, and kill only those who deserve it. Now, I wanted you to know this, so that you may put my skills to use in your planning. I wanted the writ, because, as you know, blood magic is illegal. So what say you, do you wish to make use of my skills?"
He then looks Swiftaxe right in the eyes and grins
"Or will you allow a powerful advantage to slip between your fingers, and make your chances of taking down this beast just that less likely?"
The town was a miserable place indeed, nearly as ghastly as the Whiters the dragon faced earlier. The town's folk that were outside became wary of him, rarely having an encounter with a beast man, much less a humanoid dragon. The place was small though, so word traveled fast about a group of mercenaries here to hunt down the creature their lord had encountered.
As Jericho waltzed through the town, he saw the dusty sign of a black smith attached to a two story wooden building. Outside were a barrel of various blades, a metal and wood bench, and a pile of rusted garbage.
Should he investigate further the dragon would find that this be the only black smith in town.
_____
Lord Swiftaxe clutched at his wound, outraged at what he had just seen.
"Urgh! Damn you, my word is law but I share the one that the rest of this land enforces," he spit out the next few words with much venom, "How dare you walk into my home blood mage, I don't care what you do with it, but to openly display that cursed magic before me, IN MY OWN HOUSE."
He shouted so loud that nearly all the servants within heard. The guards waiting at the door rushed in, but were halted by the noble.
"OUT!"
The guards were unsure at first but they obeyed and left as quickly as they came.
"I don't ever want you to return when this business is done. If it weren't for the demon I'd have you thrown to the Whiters."
He began to walk away from Zane, on his way up the spiral staircase, "I'll keep your damned secret, just help me kill that monster. Then you'll take your money and leave."
The smith's home and shop was a mess of a place, not as bad as the outside though. The floors were caked in various layers of dust and other grounded materials. Several more barrels of weapons could be seen but they didn't look to be of very high quality. Yet they weren't entirely poor either, why so many of them were just stuffed into barrels seemed odd.
Behind a counter hanging on the wall were some nicer looking blades of varying size and build.
Coming over from the next room came a rather fat man in brown leather overalls, his head was bald and his face was smudged a little, perhaps from working earlier.
"I wasn' expecting a customer today, much less a dragon. Heard about you through gossip. Somethin you need that Swiftaxe ain't already given up?"
Sorry for surprising you, i was just wondering if you could look at something for me. the only thing Swiftaxe could do would be to pay for it, but he was in a meeting and i didnt want to disturb him.
The man held the blade in his hand and then put it on the counter, "Well I dun rightly know, looks a bit damaged and what not. I'll get the black smith for you then, OI! Duncan! Customer!"
Coming from behind the wall, a series of large and loud steps could be heard. A great, muscular arm was the first to come through the door way, followed by a massive bear of a man. He looked nearly twice as big as the bald one, with muscles near breaking through his smith's clothes. His skin was tan and he had long hair tied into a short knot.
His gaze was fierce looking, more so than Swiftaxe's, "This 'ere lizard wanted you to check his sword, said it was on fire, probably blew on it or somethin."
The large man didn't say a word, but took the sword in hand. He flared his nostrils and took in some air through his nose. Finally he returned to the back room where soon after the sound of a roaring fire could be heard.
"Yea, he goin look at it, not a very tuf job. You'd know if it were."
About an hour or so later, the large man came back with the sword. At a distance Jericho could notice a difference, the blade wasn't just repaired. In fact it looked a tad better than before.
He handed it back to Jericho so he could try it out. The blade felt lighter, not to a large degree but the difference was noticeable. It looked sharper as well, like he could cut through bone with a single swing and not tire from the effort.
"There ya go then lizard, good as new, and better than before! That'll be 50 gold pieces then!"