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The Northern Gate-
A gentle rain had begun to fall outside the cities main gate not long after the sun had set. A small group of merchants too late to seek shelter inside the cities wall now huddled close to the old stonewall outside of Latent for security and shelter. With the recent attacks by undead against the regions cities it was no surprise that the merchants had no misconceptions of how alone and exposed they were as the moon failed to peek through the night’s storm clouds leaving little but unbroken black ichor to surround them. The small group of merchants and travelers along with what few guards remained outside the city walls had formed an impromptu watch group manning points along and around the small tent outpost that filled the small sheltered lots just outside the North Gate.

Illuminated by a small oil pot lamps and a large wooden fire in the center of one of the camp sites Dante Decker along with several other travelers who had chosen not to pack their own shelter stayed out in the rain clustered close to the large fire praying its warmth would keep them comfortable in the miserable endless piddle of a rainstorm. Though he was glad it wasn’t a true downpour the continuous pitter-patter of rain off the rim of his hat was maddeningly constant. The merchants and travelers around him were all loudly boasting about their misfortune and who was the unluckiest b*****d to have to sit out this night exposed on Latents arse with all the recent attacks going on. The general consensus it seems was they were all doomed to die that night and should drink until they could no longer feel the cold piercing glare of their certain to arrive slaughterers. Dante sat aloof of the merriment and usual bar antics that raged in the presence of alcohol even in the pissing rain. He never spoke to anyone, never mentioned his name to the guards or signed any number of the special request to enter forms that sat outside the gate.

He had spent the majority of the trip to Latent recanting what he had learned in his journeys around Barthavos, and when he had reached Latents gate he still didn’t feel he had come to the epiphany he sought, and so he had ignored the last calls and annoyances of the evening guard shift as they tried to cajole him to enter the city before the sun set. They had been unsuccessful however and Dante had chosen to stay outside the gate in his own temporary purgatory until he came to the realization he sought. The constant rain had made this no easy task at first their endless patter and the rivulets that poured off the brim of his hat left him a distorted view of the revelry in front of him, people spun and sang, danced and yelled into the night their forms changing from normal familiar shapes to increasingly distorted monstrous forms their clothes soaked with rain and their spirits leavened with spirits of a different kind.

At some point in the night he had succumb to the visions in his head as he sat silently around the fire the men began to drop to the ground as they were overcome by the chemical prowess of fermentation, their bodies now limp around the fire Dante finally encountered peace in the chaos around the fire. The rain quickly overcame his senses as it fell harder around him, his vision obscured, his hearing muffled it was as if he was standing under a waterfall, and in the silence of the night as the light danced on his face through the waters prisms he finally found what he was seeking. Just as soon as it had come to him however, his mind closed and he entered a quiet dreamless sleep. When the morning sound of birds woke him the next morning he had originally assumed one of the revelers had awoken next to him for some nocturnal harassment. He was however alone on the log surrounding the fire, the rest of the group was unconscious on the group around him, Having not moved from where they’d fallen the night before. The fire that had once roared in front of him was now little more than smoldering ash and smoke rising into the gray morning sky when he fully regained control of his senses.

Taking the initiative Dante stood up and carefully stepped over the sleeping revelers as he approached the now opening gate of the city. Dante’s rawhide clothing was soaked but he remained for the most part dry underneath the leathers natural waterproofing having protected him through the night’s squalor. And he now entered Latent a new man, refreshed finally ready to do something he should have completed a long time ago. Though he had not considered it much last night, he still found it odd to call it the Northern Gate yet situate it to the south of the town.


The Outer City-
It had taken some time for Dante to find his bearings in Latent, the constantly shifting and growing trade city had changed a lot, since he had last been in town, and now after all this time the place he was looking for was barely recognizable for what it had once been. Above the door hung a weathered wood plaque with the feint remains of what appeared to be a white sunburst. The door was locked but it did not take long for Dante to produce an old iron key and unlock the door. The mechanism groaned and complained at its treatment after so much time, and so little maintenance but it opened regardless, now the door joints chiming in their own complaint as Dante forced the heavy wooden door open to the morning air. The dust in the room instantly came to life as cyclones of dust bunnies and forsaken cobwebs filled the air of the shop forcing Dante to cover his mouth with his hand as he entered the main showroom. Empty display cases filled the walls the impressions of long since looted items still clinging to the felt backing.

Pushing forward he took careful steps so as to not stir up more dusts, it was hard to believe in only two years the store had gotten to this point, but it here it was still standing and sturdy, if in need of some serious TLC. At the rear of the Showroom Dante stopped before another wooden door and pushed it open slowly, though not locked he knew it held other secrets that would bar him if he was not a former partner at this shop. His other partner by the name of Lady Sienna now long since departed for parts unknown had technically left it in his possession to sit unused for so long, a sad note in Dante’s mind as she was such a pleasure to work with. Delving into the darkened interior beyond the rear door he could smell the ash from the forge, its flame and embers having long since been abandoned. Though normally Dante would be touched by such a death (a dead forge was after all a very bad thing ™ in his culture) he had returned to resurrect it in due time. For now though, finding the circuit breaker was the first priority and Dante knew that to be somewhere beyond the forge on the other end of the workshop, stumbling a bit as he tripped over a set of small tools that covered the gray dusty floor. Cascading him forward into the opposite wall. Dante caught himself on something metallic and as he fell he pulled as well as he could trying to prevent him from falling face first to the floor. Instantly Dante saw a bright flash of light then darkness and the sound of a loud pop echoed in his ears as he stopped falling and tried to ascertain his position.

He wasn’t unconscious otherwise he would not be able to rationalize all this as well as he was, however he was almost certain he had hit his head, how else did he explain the sound and the flash of light? When he fully opened his eyes, in the dim light he saw he was not totally on the floor and was actually propped up holding onto what appeared to be a larger metal box. Finding his feet under him he stood up and felt his head, no wet warmth or trickle of blood, so he was as far as he could tell unharmed. As he investigated the scene the floor began to shake as a breeze drifted through the room as the massive air handlers in the forge room slowly creaked to life. Under the counter tops secondary lights came online one at a time illuminating the dusty forge and that’s when he realized the bright flash and pop had been caused by the main overhead breaking after so much time unused… he shook his head at his silliness and watched as the electronics in the forge came online, trip hammers began to pound rhythmically, bellows began to pump in rhythm and the forge itself began to stir slightly as a gas powered pilot light began to slowly ignite the coke deep inside giving rebirth to the forge.

Dante took a deep breath in relief that everything was coming back online, but found himself hacking as he inhaled far too much dust than should be healthy for anyone. He covered his month with a bandana and pulled an old broom from the corner, shook loose the cobwebs and began to move the shops unwanted tenants towards the front door and out onto the street. After all these years he had returned to a place he never thought hed come back to, but now it seemed he might find some use for it…

The Shop-
Dante had finally oiled all of the hangs and opened several windows in order to let some more cross ventilation remove some of the excess dust. The back loading gate seemed to be in decent enough shape, certainly secure enough for keeping the forge area secure, and the rear loading yard though empty was still in good condition that spiked masonry wall that surrounded the side lot next to the shop difficult to enter without some major tools. Speaking of tools, under the blanket of dust he was surprised at how many tools he found ready to be used. Though unorganized and scattered along most of the stone floor once assembled were pretty much ready to work with once everything was clean. Hammers, snips, tongs and crucibles were all salvageable and would make the start up time to actually use the forge again remarkably short it could be said he could even start helping customers now.

When the knock at the door came Dante wasn’t quite sure what to make of it, surely no one remembered what this shop was for, and even if they did the current outside appearance still stunk of abandonment. Knowing fairly surely that it wasn’t a customer he placed the broom aside and walked towards the front door his bandanna still covering his face as he peeked out the front door and observed the street around him, seeing the town officials nailing up the posters he turned to his own door and began to read the notice.

‘To all Engineer's, Mechanics, Builders, and other assorted Creators’

Dante thought it was odd they didn’t reference ‘Craftsmen’, but instead ‘Creators’, that implied it wasn’t just arms they were looking for they were looking for inventions, something to use in the defense of the town greater than the sum of its parts… It also meant they were looking for crazies and those with a slight spark of madness to willingly come forward in such a situation. Not that Dante was exactly the most sane of inventors he did after all get no small amount of pleasure from designing things that often time went boom. Thankfully his success rate was high enough they rarely went boom in his face. He pondered whether joining such a folly would be worth his time. He reached to rub his chin and disturbed the bandanna blowing dust up into his nose by accident forcing his face to tighten up as he sneezed loudly and forcefully his body trying to force the intruders out from whence they came. When he opened his eyes he excused himself as he noticed several people on the street had looked up at him in confusion, they were obviously more than a bit jumpy about such loud noises.

The one person who didn’t seem interested was the boy that stood outside his door still sneering at the poster; surely it couldn’t be THAT offensive to him could it? Latent wanting to defend its-self seemed noble enough, after all no one wanted a repeat of what had happened at Barton. Perhaps the developments could even be used to purify some of the other towns… and that he thought would be more than a bit attractive to any refugee or glory hunter.

“What’s the matter boy, did they misspell something?” Dante asked the boy outside his shop and punctuated it with a short hard cough as he tried to clear the remaining fluff from his lungs. Apparently this dust was much more aggressive than he had first given it credit for, and though the shop was now almost clean, he was still covered from head to toe in a fine mist of dust. Such was to be expected after fighting two years of lack of maintenance and god knows how many long since deceased barn spiders.

The Shop, Front Steps-
Dante looked up at the sign overhanging the door and considered taking ii down, at least for the time being. Sienna was long since gone, he assistants and Travis were also absent so really he had no right to keep her symbol above the door. Besides the last thing he needed right now was to get orders for items and other work that might distract him from a city council job. Depending on if the council was willing to pay of course. He brought his attention back to the boy as his thoughts of money and potential designs flushed through his head.

“Something like that.” Dante said as he pulled the bandana down to uncover his mouth. Dante pulled the poster from his door and placed it and the broom inside the doorway before returning the to stoop to smack the dust off his clothes, lest he drag it all back into the shop, hacking and wheezing as he attempted to breath through the growing minor dust storm around him.

“Sorry about that, its mostly clean inside, but after two years without so much as seeing a feather duster its been quite the ordeal getting it habitable again.”

Dante smiled amiably at the boy and blew a rather large dust bunny that drifted into his field of view into a near by bush. This dust was more than just persistent it was irritatingly clingy and even outside; distant from the dusty showroom it still clung around him like a swarm of moths. He could hear in the shop behind him the large air handlers finally coming to life sucking out all the airborne dust that drifted through the levels. He had no yet checked the upstairs or the workshop but for now it would be sufficient to cut down the dust in the main floor first before moving onto the rest of the building. Hed gone and distracted himself again it seemed, he was ignoring the boy, though no intentionally as he went through the list of things that still needed to be done. He apologized briefly with a muffled mumble and wiped his hands together to clean them off.

“It seems though we are both pondering the same questions though, why don’t you join me for a snack and we can ponder together? I’m considering whether such a folly is worth my time.” Dante stepped down from the stores front steps towards the boy and held out his clean right hand to shake the boys.

“The name is Dante by the way, Dante Decker. I’m a Weapon Smith of sorts by trade, though I make most of my money in security and consulting jobs in any number of cities. To answer your question though I would assume though that should you prove useful to them they’d provide quite a bit more than a few meager meals”

Dante smiled again and walked back up the steps and into the shops empty showroom once again. The air handlers had obviously done their job because it now felt much more cozy, and less toxic He couldn’t imagine how he would have survived had he come in the night before and been forced to sleep on the dusty floor.

The Shop-
“Well I can’t say I have a feast ready, I literally just got off the road this morning but I have a few tidbits. We can munch on. You are right though, I probably should start stocking up some food.”

Dante said as he picked up his travel satchel off the floor and pulled out a small linen bag setting it on the shops front counter. And pulled out a few cans, some were the expensive self-heating kind you got from some of the traveling merchants; others were common traveling food like Vienna Sausages but there was obviously a decent selection and at least a few days worth of food available for the pair.

“Lets see here, what I’ve got here… Vienna Sausages, Steak and Vegetables in Sauce, Pulled pork, Self Steaming vegetables with tofu… That one must have been a mistake… and what’s this? Chicken Soup? ah okay well pick your poison kid, its not much but its something at least”

Dante grabbed one of the steaks in sauce cans, and took a seat with his back to the front of the counter. And Screwed the bottom of the can till he heard a pop knowing that inside the can was starting to heat up to comfortable eating level. He quickly placed it on the ground next to him though as the can itself began to heat up and pulled a hip flask out of his back pocket to take a quick sip. Remembering he had a guest he considered offering the flask to the boy but hesitated.

“ I can never tell with Metas, but do you imbibe per chance? Its fairly strong stuff though I must warn you.”

He kept the flask ready incase the boy did and was thirsty and touched the side of the can to feel if it was done heating, sadly it was not and he pulled his finger back as a stab of pain shot up his finger. Obviously heat still hurt occasionally, even the tired and the weary.

“Im sorry I don’t have better accompaniments such as plates but there should be a second clean fork in the bag, I’m always worried I’ll loose one in a stream when on the road.”

The Shop-
“Like I said I just reached town today so I m sorry I don’t have something proper but I’m somewhat uncertain if this place even has a kitchen.” Dante tested the can again and found it warm but no scorching and picked it up and pulled his clean fork from his vest pocket and began to stir the can a bit to cool it and mix the sauce and meat a bit better. He often wondered sometimes if the Quality of canned food had gone down or if the quality of dog food had gotten so good that a lot of the names given to canned food was essentially of the same style as dog food.

Dante laughed as he watched the boy take a long sip from the flask, obviously Anchrish Liquor was not something the boy had tasted before, otherwise he’d know that such a liquid actively oxidizes iron… but that was irrelevant, or it would have been if the conversation would have been with anyone but Dante.

“Stainless steel actually, Iron corrodes to quickly in this case.” Dante smirked and took the flask back from the boy, err correction man. Some Metas truly were hard to read, but he doubted Latent had very strict control over alcohol consumption to begin with… trade towns rarely did.

“So tell me a bit about what your capable of, I’ve got a few rough designs in mind that we might be able to utilize but I don’t have much or any experience with light magic. In fact if you can manifest it I can probably contain it or bottle it, but I couldn’t reproduce it if I tried.”

Dante satisfied his food was thoroughly ready pierced a chunk of steak with his fork and placed it in his mouth chewing slowly so as to not distract Maer. The food was decent considering it could be prepared at anytime, but it certainly would not replace restaurants anytime soon, he probably could make some decent profit developing a new cooking package for it that wouldn’t make the flavor run like a scared little girl. Considering the current atmosphere that probably would sell as well as weapons would, but he would have to consider that for later. With all the refugees and adventurers on the trail, self-cooking meals would be a pretty major boon especially if they didn’t taste like shoe leather. He ate his meal as Maer explained a bit and waited till he was done before interrupting.

“When you’re done eating, I do need to get some regular food to stock up here. That and I need to finish cleaning up around here and Id rather do it while there’s sunlight. Think you could run to the store and pick up enough rations for awhile, something better than this instant stuff.”

Dante pulled out three Fifty Gold coins and handed them to him. “150 gold should handle it Id think, though it will have to be non-perishable since I don’t think we have a freezer here. You can keep what ever is left over”

The Shop-
Dante stood up from his seat against the front counter and walked over to a trash barrel in the corner of the room licking the back of the spoon to get the excess sauce off it so as to not make his vest y dirtier, he would clean it more thoroughly later. For not though he shuffled the travel food back into the satchel so as to keep it for his next journey or for emergency use later. Finishing up he Turned back to Maer listening to him describe one of the traps.

“Well, traps would certainly put a damper in their advance, always a good thing.” Dante smiled to reassure Maer. “…Besides anything that goes boom would help and anything n hat goes boom and counteracts the undead is an even better thing, and at this point I think they will take whatever they can get.”

Dante dropped the satchel of food on the other side of the counter with the rest of his travel supplies and walked over to Maer to address his question on what else he might need. It was an odd

“That’s all I can think of… maybe some cleaning supplies.” Dante did a quick inventory in his head; He had metal he had basic tools for now, and he had access to clean hot and cold water… yeah food seemed about the only things he could think of at the moment. “Maybe keep an eye out for some enchanting or area effect scrolls or potions we might be able to weaponize. Holy Light or something like that…”

Dante thought for a second and pondered on what hed asked.

“More? Do you think you’ll need more?” Dante punctuated that question by reaching into his pocket and pulling out another ten or so fifty gold coins and offered them to him.

The Shop-
Dante returned the crazy look at Maer wondering what his issue with money was, that six-hundred and fifty gold was pocket change (almost literally) to him he still had another million in certificates in his satchel from his last custom weapon job during the Heaven-or-Hell tournament and though he knew he had probably need most of it for supplies he had no issue spending some of it to make this place more comfortable. Shrugging as Maer left he pulled an old Latent City Directory off of a shelf behind the counter and picked up the front desk phone to make a few phone calls. Obviously he wasn’t going to get everything done around here by himself he’d need a few more helping hands, and at least a few more supplies.

Dialing the number for a cleaning company he wondered just how many people would be needed for the five no doubt horribly dusty, he feared he would have to deny Maer his wish because certainly they would need a good portion of that money for cleaning that pig sty up. When the phone finally rang his thoughts were snapped back to the problem at hand. After two rings the phone was answered by a cheery female voice, which Dante was almost certainly was a forced enthusiasm but he couldn’t blame her working for someone lese is quite hard at times.

‘Williams Maid and Laundry Service, how may I help you?’

“Yes” Dante responded with his usual gruffness. “ I don’t think you can help me, I recently returned to my old business location and have found it more than tad dusty, I was wondering if I could hire your company to send over some help so I can move on with restocking my store.”

‘We would be happy to sir, how many floors is your business?’ the cheery voice didn’t miss a beat, shed obviously been with the company for a while, Dante appreciated that kind of experience.

“Three stories, a basement store room, the show and work room areas on the main floor, and the top floor is residential.” Dante wondered how long it would take for them to get here as he had quite enough of the dust and dirt in this place he had things to do, people to kill money to make.

‘Alright sir we should have a crew of five out there in under and hour, cost is going to be seventy-five gold an hour for the whole crew and I would estimate about two hours, though it may be more or less. Is there anything else we need to know about your location?’

“Well don’t you need to know the address? And yes bring filter masks, the dust is quite bad,” Dante thought this was quite odd had the phone system changed since he had last been here?

‘No Sir our system shows your address when you call, since your calling from a land line its much simpler.’

“oh…” Dante responded and thanked the woman on the phone before hanging up, more expensive than he had expected but still worth it for getting the whole place back into working order. Flipping a few more pages in the directory he found a metal supply storehouse and began to tabulate what he would need. Dante gritted his teeth as he started making a mental list, and decided to hold off for a bit before he started ordering monolithic sheets of steels.

Dante removed his hipflask and took another sip letting it burn as it slid down his throat destroying whatever traces of dust might still be lurking in his throat. One thing was for sure he would be glad when it was all clean and ready to roll. Speaking of rolling Dante walked out of the show room and into the workshop and opened the side loading door that went out to the side yard which was no entirely overgrown with grass and weeds but at least it was empty of jagged metal, for now at least. Walking over the masonry wall he considered its construction the iron spikes on the top were designed to men out, and its height of nearly three meters would definitely encourage people not to try…. But was it secure? It was odd that Dante would worry so much about security but he also knew if something were to go wrong and Latent be attacked before he could finish, he would have to try and hold here with what he had till he could find a means of egress.

Not a happy thought of course, ideally Latent would hold strong and force back all foes but if something were to go wrong he doubted he would have time to get himself out let alone all the innocent people in the business district, as such he would have to use this section as both testing ground and temporary fortress should the urban sprawl become a war zone. Dante took a deep breath and let it come out quite fast as he wandered around the side yard taking rough measurements in his head for how much space they had available.

“ It will have to do.” Dante said as he made his way back inside the workshop pulling the warehouse style rolling door to the ground and locking it again. He would get around to changing all the locks to something more secure soon enough, but for now he desperately needed to order some supplies. As much as he knew he would flinch upon hearing the final bill he knew he needed it and with everything around latent in chaos he doubted he would have another chance to try this again. Picking up the phone he began dialing but hung up the phone again. A knock on his open front door had interrupted him and he looked up to see a group of men and women wearing white clothes and carrying cleaning supplies.

Dante didn’t hesitate he needed this place scrubbed down and preferably waxed too, so he was glad to see they were well equipped.

“This way if you will. Right through here is the stairwell to your right and access to the basement and the residential floor.” The Group nodded silently guessing the man wasn’t much for conversation and made their way in teams of two upstairs and downstairs while the fifth man began cleaning the shop area with a high power dryvac. Dante walked out of the workshop and back to the main room to make the call for his required supplies, with any luck he would have everything he needed by the time Maer returned.