Tempered Steel

[Celeste Arumen]

7th Day of Winter, 513 AV

Thank the Gods she’d dressed light.

Celeste mopped her brow as she descended into the forge, pausing just beyond the entryway to get a better grasp of her surroundings. There was lava absolutely everywhere, a substance she’d only ever heard about. Astonished, she looked about the stone catwalks, her eyes dancing from one platform to the next. It seemed the workers toiled away in silence, aided by the strange and steady rhythm of the golems alongside. What was it like, she wondered, to work so hard each day? Were they content? Or were they slaves, eternally bound to the never-ending cycle of creation?

’Why did we come here?’ The familiar asked her quietly. Celeste had been oddly silent for the better part of the day. She’d done a lot of thinking about her future, about her meeting with Amaryllis and it left her strangely abstracted. So rather than returning to her usual haunts, she pulled on a set of plain clothing and decided to pay the forge a visit instead.

Her eyes finally settled on their mark. He was a lean man, covered from head to foot in grime from long hours at the forge. Under one arm was the meal delivered to her that afternoon. She’d decided to take it with her; after all, she hadn’t been particularly hungry anyway. The fog that’d descended in her heart had shrouded those base desires.

’Because,’ Celeste replied telepathically, ’I feel like it.’

She approached quietly, holding up a hand when she drew near, so as not to startle him. He’d see the apprentice’s ring upon her finger glinting in the vermillion light. ”Hallo,” she called out. ”My name is Celeste. Can I speak with you for a moment?”

Celeste was quite obviously, a girl, no older than thirteen with auburn hair tied off to one side in a functional sort of way. She bore naked feet, cloth pants and a shirt and was flanked by a purple cat that regarded him brightly. ”And I’m Illia!” At which, she cast a tolerant smile in that familiar’s direction.

x

[Osd]

The heat didn't bother Osd anymore. Sure it was annoying at times, but having spend six long years every single day in the forge, not a single vacation toughened one to the noise and heat that was a constant here. Osd just diligently kept working on the order he had been given today. It was just a standard one, he needed to forge a few long thick copper bars. Each one having to be as thick as his hand and having to be close to four feet and eight inches. All the same lenght and thickness. There was no way that a single bar would be enough. He would need to weld a few together. First things first, lets forge a few of them into rods. As he was working on that somebody approached him, at first he didn't pay her any mind. While children didn't exist, the odd nuit did enjoy having young bodies. Highly distasteful in his opinion. But what could he do about it. Then she started talking to him, showing him her apprentice ring. The way she moved, the fact she still had a flush to her skin, the fact she was sweating. She wasn't a nuit, she was still alive. That fact alone let him pause for a few moments in pure horror as just stared at the young girl. So young and already fallen into sahova's trap? He pitied her. "Yes, you can." He replied after he got over the shock of such a young wizard existing. "I'm Osd messer." He gave the purple cat a look. Some kind of magic stuff no doubt. Better was not to give to much tought as to why it was purple and why it could talk. "Did you need anything forged?"

[Celeste Arumen]

He gaped at her and she couldn’t tell whether it was in awe or terror.

Celeste smiled, albeit ruefully. ”Sorry, but no. I actually have some questions, if you don’t mind.” She glanced around the forge for a moment. ”I’ve never been here before. What sort of things do you make down here and just how do you do it?” She watched as golemns helped to press glowing shapes into place. She knew the basic concept of forging; heating metal, shaping it and then cooling it, but what else was there to it? Everything was an artform when considered as such. Perhaps she’d learn more.

But really, she was just there because she was feeling low. Her life was changing so rapidly. The girl bit her lip. ”Here,” she said finally, offering him her wrapped meal. It was still slightly warm. Beneath the cloth, he’d find a hunk of cheese and a loaf of bread, which was the standard fare in Sahova. ”It’s all I have to give, but I figured it might buy a bit of your time.”

Perhaps she just wanted someone to talk to, other than crazy Annalisa. For all that she tried to ignore it, the madness would always resurface, and Celeste did not feel like walking on eggshells. And then of course, there was the fact she was Amaryllis’ apprentice. It was wise to be wary of her, despite whatever tentative friendship they had.

”So, what do you say? Will you show me a little of what you do here?” Illia’s tail weaved through the air. ”Yes! How do you humans build your structures? What is it that you do?”

x

[Osd]

Osd couldn't really believe a wizard would come all the way down here just to ask some questions. But then again, she was young, young children always did odd things at times. “Well, depends on the questions really.” He began, he wasn't going to give away his deepest secrets.. not that he had those, but it was the principle. When she just asked what and how they made the things down here he let out a breath of relief, nothing strange or disturbing was asked by the little girl. “Well, yes I can answer some questions about that.” He noticed the girls stare at the massive golem that was used to create leaving and plates. And the others that helped the smith's forge the larger parts. He could remember himself looking at those contraptions with wonder and awe a long time ago. But that had quickly faded when his service began. She offered him a meal as payment. It was nice to see she at least knew that. His stomach growled, his last meal had been a while ago and with all the back breaking labor did work up an appetite. “It does. Just set it down next to me. I'll finish this order before I'll think about eating anyway.” The overseers wouldn't like seeing him eating and not working. “Sure, I don't mind you looking in on me while I work.” He smiled a bit at the eagerness of the smoky cat. It was slightly infectious. He held up the two halves of the bar he was supposed to make up for both of them to see. Intending to give both of them an example. “So, I was supposed to make a metal bar of about this thick.” He showed the thickness of the bars. “They have to be a lot longer though. But I can't really elongate them with the usual methods. The bars I get just don't have enough material in them to make them that long.” He put down one part of the bar and held an end of the other in the heat of the forge. “To fix that problem we use something we call welding. We heat up the sides of the metal we want to stick together and then push them together.” He pulled the rod out of the fire and hammered it in a small point. Before cooling it off. “Unfortunately, just heating them both up and sticking them together doesn't work very well. Sooth and gets stuck in the weld then and it weakens it. That's why we shape the ends of both surfaces in such a way that soot and other crap gets pushed out of the welding surface. We give it a good cleaning in advance as well.” He did just that, pulling the iron out of the bath and cleaning it. He repeated the process with the other bar of metal. This time however he shaped the accepting end not into a point, but made an indent in it. He gave his work a look and showed it again. “Now, the ends are clean and shaped so that anything that's still on there gets pushed out of the weld when I hammer it together. It really keeps it's strength that way.” He held both prepared ends of the rod in the fire, keeping a firm eye on it's color. He couldn't let it get to hot, it would accumulate to many impurities from the heat and being in the forge. He pulled it out, pushed the two ends together and hammered them together with quick and practiced blows at the ends. He dropped the bar in the tub of water steam rising. “That's how we do a weld. For smaller and more delicate parts you usually use solder that melts at a low temperature and some kind of torch. Never worked with it though. I'm not deemed skilled enough for such work.” He simply said as he took another bar of metal and began heating it. Waiting if either the little strange cat or Celeste had any questions.

[Celeste Arumen]

She gently set the food down next to Osd. Sahova was an unforgiving place. Were he to be caught eating and not working, something bad might happen to him. Celeste didn’t want that. Her chest tightened at the thought of it. She didn’t want to be responsibility for another human’s pain. She simply couldn’t bear it.

Celeste watched with eyes alight, absorbing all she could. ”So the materials are more susceptible to getting debris in them when hot? And that debris, like soot, weakens the metal?” She blinked as he began to scrub at the iron. She didn’t realize how much thought and preparation went into smithing. But further questions sprang to mind as he moved about the forge and the more he explained, the more she wished to know.

”Why not? Are you slave?” She did not ask with pity in her eyes, nor with disgust. The girl simply asked as if she would understand if it were true. Celeste could easily have suffered the same fate. It was simply luck that stood between her fortunes and his. But he would do better. If he were worthy, the Gods would smile upon him. If he were to be powerful, that power would come to him.

”Being deemed skilled enough and being skilled enough are two different things, I’ve found.” She looked down at the ring that encircled her finger. ”I failed my judgement, you see. They deemed that I wasn’t skilled enough, either. But my Master came and saved me. Her name is Riyanna.” She smiled, though the smile seemed a little sad.

”She thought otherwise. Now everyone is surprised at what I can do, how fast I can learn. They never gave me a chance, so the fault is theirs.” She smiled at him now, with a bit more sunshine. ”You’re like me, I think. It just makes it that much better when we rise above expectations and gain power of our own.”

She looked upon Osd with all the childlike innocence, all the faith and optimism that world had ever known. Celeste would achieve because she simply didn’t know any better. Without those limitations clearly defined, she didn’t have any. And it was clear that she believed would one day stand on his own, too. To Celeste, if you were a strong person, Lhex would guide you.

”So, do you ever forge for fun? Can you? Or do you just work because you must?” She shuffled her feet a little bit. ”Is there anything you like to make?”

x

[Osd]

It was fairly strange having somebody who looked at his art with such childish and above all honest delight to his craft. Quite a few of the mages of the citadel looked down upon the blacksmiths or regarded them as just a necessary part to keep sahova running. None had ever been honestly interested in his craft. “It's more that the fire of the forge itself creates some debris that can get stuck in there. Sooth and all that. Having a lava forge like here helps a lot with it. But even then you get slag that forms on the metal. Don't really know why it does. I just know that it does.” Osd explained. Beginning to forge the bar of metal into the thickness and lenght he needed this part to be. Taking his time so that the child and her... companion could follow the process. “Yes I'm a slave.” he didn't miss a beat as he answered that question. If you weren't a wizard you were usually a slave. Unless you were an apprentice. Then she began talking about how she wasn't deemed skilled enough and failed her judgement. How being deemed skilled enough and being skilled enough were different things. At the slight sadness in her smile osd reached out and gave her a comforting pat on the head. “Well I'm glad she decided to give you a chance and pulled your arse out of the fire. You're a fresh breath of air compared to the usual people who come down here. If she ever needs something forged, tell her to go to Osd messer. I'll bump her a bit up the queue.” osd didn't really know why he did it, especially knowing when she was a mage. But he always had had a bit of a soft spot for children and she had been the first person in years that he had a nice talk with. “Well with me it's a bit of both. Using a torch for fine detail work is rather difficult and I admit I can't handle it yet. But because I'm a slave they never bother letting me actually learn how to use a torch and how to make those small welds. But that kinda feeds into each other doesn't it. I don't know how, so I can't learn how to make them. Frustrating, but that's how it is when you're a slave at times.” He admitted. The unfounded belief she seemed to have in a person who just met him kinda surprised him. She didn't really seem to try and manipulate him though. “Can't deny it won't feel good when I can shove it in some people's face that I made more of myself when everything wa s against me. Who knows, I might impress one of the people watching above and get more authority over the forge.” Osd wasn't a mage and he honestly didn't know what else a non mage could gain authority over on this dead island filled to the brim with them. He shook his head at her next questions. “Nope I can't forge for fun. I need to work whenever I'm not sleeping. I don't have time to forge things I want to forge. Else the overseers think I'm wasting their time. We both know how that ends don't we.” he shuddered. Death by golem, used as testing subject. Neither were pretty ends. “I work because I must most of the time. It's hard to enjoy something when you don't know what it's going to be used for, or what it is, or why you're putting your effort in it aside from keeping alive.” When she asked if there was anything specifically that he liked to make he just shrugged. “ I like putting my time into something that I know will help out the user a lot. Something that won't just be used once or twice and thrown away. Weither that's a piece of armor or just a tool. I don't really care. So no I don't really have anything that I like to forge over the rest. I like the process as long as I know what I'm putting effort in for.”

[Celeste Arumen]

She watched him, absorbed. ”Slag?” The girl echoed, leaning in slightly to admire the forge itself. So lava forges were better, then? Fire created by lava was perhaps in some ways, purer than fire created by wood. Maybe it was because of the extreme temperature. Fire purified, or so Tierra once had said. It made more sense to her, that way.

Celeste nodded. Her eyes were not filled with pity, as he may have expected. She seemed to understand it’d be lost on him. Slaves on Sahova had long since accepted their fate. Osd was no different, by the look of it. He’d probably been a slave as long as he could remember.

It was difficult not to get choked up, all of the sudden. Osd patted her in the same way a Father might and the girl bit her trembling lip. She’d never had someone treat her that way before, except maybe Brom. His offer didn’t go unnoticed, either. ”I’ll be sure to tell her of you. You never know. We might be able to pull some strings on your end, too. And I hunt,” she hesitated, trying to put provide the man some context. ”I’m a morpher, you see. I spend a lot of time in the Testing Grounds, which are outside. I do a bit of hunting to keep myself fed, so I could bring you food too. It may not be much,” she sighed softly, ”but it is all I have to give.”

She nodded. It was a self-perpetuating system. If you denied a slave knowledge, they could never learn enough to rise above their station. That way, they always remained a slave. It was clever, in a way, but horrible. Their system of slavery was yet another inhumanity amongst thousands that’d come to pass. The island was putrid and she had a hard time concealing her disgust. ”I hope you do,” she said suddenly. ”I hope you rub it in their faces. You deserve a chance to live better than this.”

Suddenly, her eyes darted hither and yon, afraid someone might hear her. But it was loud in the forge and she’d practically been muttering. Short of a golem, no one could have picked up on what she’d said. But golems had ears too, or so she’d learned. It was best to be careful, then, if she were to go on blaspheming.

”Sorry,” she said sheepishly. ”Trust me, I’m not here to get you in trouble.” In fact, that was the last thing she wanted to do.

As he talked about what he liked to do, she nodded. It made sense. Why care about something if you didn’t know why it was made? Better that he knew his creations would be put to use, not shoved in a surplus cabinet somewhere to be forgotten. ”If I think of anything, I’ll certainly ask. I’d be glad to give you something fun to work on. And maybe if I can master the form of the osprey, I can bring you back some really tasty fish. I’ll have to learn to clean it, though.” That, she thought, would be gross. And just like a little girl, she made a sour face about it.

x

[Osd]

Osd nodded at her question. “yeah slag, it's the impurities that you get when you melt down ores into metal. You don't find pure metal, in the ground all mixed up with soil sand and other types of sedement. Sahova's forges are good, but unless they want the best of the best for a project they usually don't bother putting in the amount of work and resources to get completely pure metal. So when you heat the metal up the slag that's trapped gets out. Some other shyte goes on with the metal as well when air and lots of heat so that debris is formed as well.” He clarified her question, at least he hoped he clarified that point and didn't muddle it up even more. He kept working as he explained. “I just give it the catchall term of slag. It's easier on the tongue and most of the time it doesn't matter.” He said. Noticing the way she was biting her lip, maybe his gesture had been a bit over the line of comfort there. The fact she just continued to act like nothing bad happenend and didn't explode or back away did mean she forgived him for the slight. Or at least he hoped so. “Feel free to pull some if you can. I can't really offer much in return, but who knows, if you have to go out in the wilderness you might need some tools for it. Or does that morphing magic you have doo that for you?” he didn't have a clue what morphing did or what it was. He didn't know much about magic to be honest. He hoped she explained a bit about it. Then he rembered what happened just a few day's ago and spoke up. “Don't give me a demonstration here though, there are golems sleeping in the lake and they react to hostile magic. I don't know what exactly sets them off though. Better safe then sorry right?” He warned the girl, not sure if she knew the law of the forge here. He just shrugged of the comment about getting him in trouble when she accidentally spoke about living better then this and rubbing it in their faces. “Eh they'll have heard worse here. As long as you don't put that into deeds they honestly don't care that much.” He dumped the ready product into the bin and rang a small bell, a golem coming to collect the order. “Sure, I'll be more then willing to take on some stuff you ask of me when you need it. Might even throw in a discount if it's something I enjoy.” He simpely said. Osprey, he hadn't heard of it, but probably was some kind of fishing form if she was talking about fishing. Sounded like an animal as well, was morphing the magic of turning yourself into animals? Osd let out a laugh as she pulled a sour face. “It could be worse. I had to eat rat one day when I was about your age, think a bit younger. The little bastard was hard to catch, tasted like crap and the fur got stuck in your teeth!” He cuckled a bit at the memory.

[Celeste Arumen]

She couldn’t help but grin at the word ‘shyte.’ It reminded her of home. ”So, even the best metal at first, is all mixed up with sand?” Now there was a metaphor if she’d ever heard one. The girl grinned knowingly at her newfound friend. Osd reminded her of the workers that would frequent the Bizarre. They were rough, even crude sometimes, but they were good men.

He seemed interested in morphing, and it was certainly no trouble to explain it. ”Imagine someone who can copy anything found in the natural world. I can study and imitate pretty much anything that can blink.” She laughed softly. ”I’m really not that good yet. But still. The possibility is there.” The word ‘possibility’ turned her thoughtful again. ”See, if I want, I can morph claws and wings without having to be the whole bird. So I have all the tools I need.”

Hostile magic? Well, she wasn’t entirely certain they’d react, but it was better safe than sorry. ”If you ever make it out of here, I’ll show you.” She watched with wary eyes as he rang the bell. Hopefully the golem was only the working sort. If there was an overseer, she didn’t want to be around when they showed up. Not to say that she wanted to leave Osd holding the bag, but rather that she didn’t want to get him in trouble.

”That’s sweet,” she replied, beaming. He truly was kind. She’d expected him to be more resentful. And at the mention of eating rat, she only laughed. ”Are you kidding? I’ve been eating rat all season! While the buggers are hard to catch, they sure are tasty.” She patted her stomach. ”Food is scarce around here, as you can imagine. I have it easy; no one else in all of Sahova has even been both an apprentice and an initiate.”

Celeste paused a moment before proceeding to clarify. ”An initiate is a part of the Wardens, the faction of humans who care for the Testing Grounds. Wizards often make mistakes in their experiments and when they do, they dump them there. I have the special privilege of cleaning up after them. But it gives me the opportunity to get out and hunt, so I can’t complain.” She winked.

Illia chimed in. ”Yup! She is a pretty good hunter, but only when she is reaaaally hungry! Celie doesn’t like to kill things.”

The apprentice shot her familiar a glare. It was embarrassing, having a companion with no filter.

x

[Osd]

Osd nodded. “Sand and other stuff, sometimes it's rocks and lime. But in the end you need to purify it before you can make anything usefull with it.” Celeste might have seen the methapor, but that fact just sailed right over osd's head. Then the roles suddenly turned around with the young girl begining to explain what that morphing magic was to him. It was rather disturbing to be honest, the idea that you could reshape your own body like clay. Or like he reshaped metal. Was that girlish form her real body or did she, was she even a she, change her body to whatever she liked? Or to make sure he let his guard down? “So you can change your shape in almost anything? Magic always has a downside doesn't it, what's morphing's downside? Can you get stuck in a form?And can blink eh, what about animals that can't blink, I know some snakes and lizards can't.” He made a small joke. 'speaking of snakes, I should check if that anna broad blinks, she's a serpent if I saw one.' “But I get what you mean, only animals and stuff what you can change yourself into, no rocks or things like that right?” At least he thought she meand that. Magic was strange. While he didn't want to learn anything of it, it couldn't hurt to know what most mages could do. Might help in staying out of the fire. “A demonstration of it sounds good enough when I'm out of here. I'll let you know if that happens.” It would be nice to be able to leave the forge again. But he didn't put to much hope on it. Especially since he managed to piss of that woman. She already tried to murder him once. He doubted a second attempt would wait long. He gave a shrug when she said she liked the taste of rats. “Might have been the hometown, the rats of sunberth ate everything they could find. Mostly trash, refuse or human corpses. That might be the reason they tasted horrible. Or the fact I ate the raw, might have had something to do with it. Like you said though, we can't complain about it anyway. This island doesn't have much food.” he listenend quietly when she explained what an initiate was. She was both an apprentice and had to clean up after the mess of others. That sounded like a lot of work, lot of responsibility as well. A part of him just curled up at the idea of such a young girl having too do such dangerous things. “That sounds dangerous. You're pulling double duty as well. You must have impressed somebody to get that done. Or really pissed one off that hoped you wouldn't survive the job long.” He let out a laugh at the familiar's comment and celestia's reaction. “Who does like killing things.” He paused. “Well what normal person likes killing things. A word of advice, as soon as killing things isn't a problem anymore you better tell somebody about it. Maybe that teacher of yours. I've seen people who didn't care about killing anymore. They're scary people.” It wasn't only that anna woman he was talking about, but he had seen merc's in sunberth look at people like they were just things or objects. Those people scared the crap out of him more then any magic could. Sure it was just animals now, but the jump was disturbingly easy to make for people with a not so solid grasp on reality. Like mages.