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It did not immediately occur to Teslaron to complain about his failures. Not to Dris'rynne, not to Malila, and not to the scumbag merchant who'd sold him faulty wares and equipment in the first place. He was pretty sure that was what swindling peddlers expected, anyway: for him to screw up, come crawling back to complain and grouse, and then get tricked into purchasing more or 'better' supplies. Again, he though that he wasn't a fool, and he wasn't going to fall for it.
A handful of days passed. Tes went about his business as he usually would. He cleaned house, tended to his daughters, prepared dinner, doted on his women. It wasn't until he spent the afternoon with Lila that the thought of 'curing' her poor eyesight returned to him again.
He sat in a chair, making cooing noises at his daughter in her highchair while Malila mashed up a peculiar smelling mixture that somehow passed for infant food. She'd assured him time and time again that it was what babies were supposed to eat, but Teslaron was of the firm belief that you shouldn't put anything in your mouth that didn't smell right, and he thought it was a good lesson to pass down.
But that wasn't what made him think of returning to the merchant. During the vigorous mashing process, Malila smacked the tip of her spoon down hard enough on the edge of the bowl to make it skid against the edge of the counter and upend. The utensils and food-slop dropped from the counter, and Lila dove out of instinct to catch... nothing. Rather than stop the mess from happening, she cracked her forehead to the edge of the counter and promptly plopped flat to the ground, herself.
In the following moments, when Teslaron rushed to her side, she informed him that 'she was fine, she was fine. Don't look at her like that.' But he couldn't help but think that if she hadn't been scarred, as she was, or if she had better depth perception, that wouldn't have happened. What if something similar happened while she was laying Talori down for a nap? Or bathing her? Tes wasn't here all the time. He couldn't possibly know...
It was a matter of safety that brought him back to the Yaeli merchant.
"Why don't you make them?" Tes grunted stiffly after he'd paid for another small handful of uncut glass. "I clearly don't know what I'm doing, but you do, or at least someone you know does," he retorted as he eyed the man's glasses.
As if waiting for that very question, the man held up his arm and showed what was only a stump for a hand. "Would, but one of your desert beasts got to me, and the other crafters are long off in Yael. You're on your own." When Tes glowered, grimaced, and then looked on the very verge of eruption, the man held up his good hand. "But maybe you can work here, and I'll give you some tips. For a fee."
The day's lessons hardly went better than the first, and by the end of it, Teslaron was sure the whole thing was just a scam. A scam for turning crystals into thousands f shards of glass and nothing more.
But by this point, he'd wasted enough coin on it that he wanted something in return. He couldn't just give up, and the merchant said that 'next time,' he might be prepared to give a little discount of the goods.
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