The Sun & Moon

The Obscures so often obscured, so often beset with the lingering bad air (or more frequently its shifting cousin, the Fog Obscure) it is easy for one unused to the bailiwick to become lost. This is dangerous, for one that becomes lost in the Obscures risks remaining so. Still and arguably it can be said that of anywhere in what is rarely-called Parquet there is nowhere quite so alike to home, for many. There are shops, and they are in rows. With their thick, murky windows, stout doors, and quiet little signs. And one of those is The Sun and Moon. Named for its proprietors neither one ever wore the hat of the picaroon nor the honour of the milicio, yet they are the sellers of swords. Not simply common swords, these are rapiers from the vitro to the steel, and at times even unlikely things. Whilst they repair, decorate, or work a sword not a one is made within the shop and every blade has a story. Nor do they sell to just anyone, for a sword must fit the patron, and so it is that whereas a milicio might try and save for such a sword, it is the low quality, the great noteworthies of a bailiwick, or someone of name and renown that can boast a Sun and Moon. Only one that truly suits their blade is ever considered to be rosey with it, and indeed there are many that own such a sword that are hardly rosey at all otherwise, but with this blade? Ah, it is the sun and moon to them. Not a busy shop, it is very obscure, here in the Obscures. Much of their work would seem to be in repair, or working the blade to improve it, as it and its patron become more suited to one another. So too it is believed that M. Sun and M. Moon will know a sword on seeing it, for what it has done, and for whom it is meant. Far from unpleasant, the pair are studious when sizing a blade to a patron, and amused if that patron is upon urgent need of a blade having been challenged to the duello and found themselves with nothing with which to answer it. It is widely thought that a blade, is a blade, and that rapier will serve in either the French or the Italian style of fencing. Sun and Moon disagree. It is never the sword that is given wrongly to the style, only that the fencer that is in error to the style they have chosen. And it is fencing to which the pair attend, never the sabre work of the Junker, and certainly never the hacking English fighting that they abhor. M. Sun, and M. Moon are craftsmen, but more than that they are connoisseurs. Their services are not cheap, certainly beyond the simply percey, and they rarely care for the grubby coins of the parvenu. Yet, visited by one of some fame, talent, or quality and they will certainly discuss what it is that can be used to purchase the right to take patronage of the blade that will be, without a doubt, absolutely right for the visitor. To call upon Sun and Moon is already to have committed to their wise advice. One rarely visits in company, and always in the understanding that the blade chooses the patron, not the other rather common way around. And chosen, the patron should meet the price. For it will be the right price, for the right blade, for the right patron. One should certainly avoid finding out they are the wrong patron. Word spreads, and in company with other words, and none of them flattering.