Then they can head back gatewards to begin their search for Lace's dream knives and/or other bladed weapon.

This blacksmith is way more up to Lace's standards! He's guarded, at first, but Lace quickly gets him chattering - the vast majority of what he sells is iron or steel, mostly to Nord warriors, mostly in traditional styles, but, well, he's been experimenting with stranger ores and even with laying enchantments into the metal. He shows Lace a dagger of a metal he calls 'ebony' - the blade is a deep, polished black, the hilt made of a dark wood, with scroll work etched into it that shimmers with fire hues - it sets anything it hits on fire, and is the finest piece he's made so far. He's been working on a magnum opus - he thinks ebony is the future of fine weapons - but the High King's court is uninterested in the strange metal, so he has a lot of practice pieces he hasn't off loaded yet. The dagger's the only ebony weapon with an enchantment he considers up to his standards - most of the rest run down too quickly and need to be recharged every few uses, or work only irregularly - but Lace can pretty easily get a very fine ebony sword in a similar style, backup daggers, an ebony bow and a set of arrows, and a much better set of leather accessories - nicer boots, archery gauntlets, sheathes, a sturdy bag, a fur-lined cloak with extra dagger sheaths.

Lace's clothes end up very, very full of sharp pointy things. She doesn't sheathe the fire dagger right away, instead turning it every which way, admiring the play of light across it.

She's so pointy now!

Elana has fewer opinions on the technical merits of the various weapons, though she can contribute thoughts on their enchantment.

She walks away bristling with very nice points.

"Thank you so much," she says, giving Elana a quick kiss on the cheek.

Smile.

"A trip well worth it."

Heee. "You should tell me about weapons enchantments more..."

She is happy to expound further on possible effects and her personal theories of optimizing strength-to-magicka ratios, with digressions into soul gem mechanics and conjuration more generally as warranted.

Lace's main contributions here are a handful of insightful questions and a lot of staring dreamily.

Elana can quite easily talk them all around Solitude and back up to their room.

She tugs Elana into bed for cuddles during an explanation pause.

The explanations can resume with added diagrams helpfully traced on Lace's skin.

Very excellent explanatory aids. Exceptionally memorable. (Elana is so pretty in general, but especially when she's talking about magic.)

"You're paying very close attention."

"It's an interesting topic, with very interesting presentation."

"Perhaps next you'd like to hear about the lifecycle of common ragweed?"

"Only if it interests you."

"I can think of better things."

Kiss.

Kiss!

She can expound on this new topic of discussion for just as long, and in greater depth.

And Lace has plenty of rather erudite opinions, here.

Then they can both enjoy a fruitful exchange of... ideas.

Mmm yes, pretty late into the night, even. An academic tradition, that.

A most sensible one.

A bit after midnight Elana ends up with a cuddly sleepy Lace yawning in the middle of a very clever point.

Aw. Poor tired baby.