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Love at First Bench

February 20, 2026

There is no greater adversary to a magazine than the cinnamon bun.

Bram, my favorite baker in the entire town, has effectively weaponized frosting.

And I am currently engaged in a smear campaign.

The back issue of Arcane Monthly was no match for my frosting-coated fingers.

I grimaced, glancing around as each page announced its surrender with a loud rip.

Honestly, it’s Arcane Monthly’s fault.
They really should make their pages frosting-resistant.
I can’t help it if they fail to recognize that their readers enjoy a good pastry.

I picked up this issue because Archmage Archibald Renfield is on the cover.

They were doing a feature on him as “Arch Wizard of the Sapphire Conclave.”

Gag.

He created and patented the Renfield Rune Synchronization standard. He didn’t even revolutionize anything. He just created a reusable process.

I sighed.

I use it all the freaking time though.

The piece was like “Blah, blah, Arch Wizard is so great. Blah, unmatched genius. Blah, blah…”

Again… Gag.

I reached for my coffee, where my fingers immediately stuck to the mug.

“What is going on here? Why is this so messy today?”

Sighing, I flipped the page with my other hand.

“What the…”

My coffee stopped halfway to my face.

For the first time in my life, I was in love.

The broad shape. Thick, sturdy legs.
The color of chocolate, perfectly aged.

And a trunk I could use for…

It’s everything I ever wanted.

As a gnome who grew up in a tinker’s shop, you can’t imagine how easy it is to lust over a good workbench.

It’s almost exactly like Pops.

As much as I loved that workbench, I don’t love the placement. Archmage Archie’s workshop just does not have good flow.

But I’ve gotta hand it to the guy…

He did not skimp on bookshelves.

As a member of the Hunter’s Guild and the daughter of a professional tinker, I own a truly unreasonable number of tomes and guides. Field manuals. Rune matrices. Specifications. Schematics. And more. I could truly use the bookshelves.

Finally taking a sip of my coffee, I wondered how many bounties I would have to clear to get a place like that.

Unfortunately, it looks like the workshop is bigger than my apartment.

Oh well. A girl can dream, right?

#Goals

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