Planting Seeds I: Executing a Request

[Aedifalse]

514-WINTER-01

The first day of Morwen graced the land as gentle snowflakes floated lazily throughout. The ground was still mostly dry, but the hints of the chilling wind could be felt as Mizahar prepared itself for the full-blown force of Winter. A lone Isur who made the trek from Stormhold Castle arrived at the gates of the small outpost, only to be halted for a customary check.

"What is your business here, traveler?" The guard asked amicably, his eyes scanning the new arrival's body quickly. "You don't seem to be a merchant, knight nor citizen."

"I am a passer-by, my good guardsman," He replied easily. "I come from Sultros and am on my way to Zeltiva, but I figured that not taking the time to visit the Outpost while passing by Syliras woud be quite a waste."

The guard's ears perked up as he glanced again at the hints of the man's obsidian arms peeking out of his travel-worn cloak, "An Isur, then? We don't get many of your folks around these parts. If you plan on staying for more than a few bells you might want to take a look at the Bulletin Board. I hear there's been a recent request that couldn't be fulfilled by ol' Blackburn."

"Will do, good sir. Appreciate the tip."

With that, the son of Sultros entered the Mithryn Outpost, a small population a day's distance from Syliras. Heading straight to the Bulletin Board which was situated quite visibly in the clearing of the town square, he scanned through the various pieces of parchment pinned up until he found the one the guard was talking about.

To Whom It May Concern:

I request a commission of a blade that is known as an Executioner's Sword. However, it must be able to be functional in combat, of steel make, and must be Isurian forged. The blade will be made according to the specifications attached below. Compensation will be a reasonable barter trade for goods or services.

Signed,
Dargus Hilckle

PS: The local forge have kindly agreed to the use of its facilities for my request. The necessary payments in this case will be handled directly by me.

Attached :

Aedi hummed thoughtfully as he glanced over the blueprint. It was evidently a sword, but it was of a make that he had not seen before. This would be very interesting indeed. Mentally reviewing his schedule, he decided that he had the capacity to spend a little time in the Outpost. Tearing the picture from the board and pocketing it for further reference, he immediately headed off to the local smithy. Or more accurately, he asked around until he managed to get directions at every turn of the street until he found it.

Blackburn Arms.

The sign declared proudly as it ushered the way into the bustling shop. Despite the settling snow around, the forge was still blazing with activity as the blacksmith family hurried about their business.

"Excuse me?" Aedi inquired as he stepped into the roaring forge. A really tall man with dirty blonde hair with an air of importance strode over quickly.

"I am here to fulfill a request by a Mister Dargus Hilckle?"

The man smirked and nodded, turning his head to shout at his apprentices, "Boys! Dargus managed to find someone! Clear a spot for...?"

"Aedifex Aghanim, at your service."

"... Mister Aghanim!" The man extended his hand for a shake, "I am Richard Blackburn, the owner of this humble forge. Do make yourself at home, and please do not mind the curious eyes of my boys."

"It'll be a pleasure, Goodsmith Blackburn," Aedi replied, firmly shaking his hand.

[Aedifalse]

The first thing in order was to clarify the dimensions of the commission. Taking a glance at the note, he mentally etched the following numbers in his mind so that he would constantly be aware of them. The blade would be of a staggering length of 35" with an approximate 3" width, the hilt would consist of a 10" guard, a rounded 8" grip, and a rough 2" by 2" spherical pommel.

From the blueprints, he could fashion a guess that the entirety of the blade would be made of steel, and the grip was simply a comfortable leather strap around a slimmer steel base. The biggest problem with steel would be his inability to gain the benefits of his Isurian Arm, unlike that with brass or iron, and it offered less flexibility in its creation.

Another big problem would be the effective conjoining of the blade from several bars of steel due to its immense size, while keeping its structural integrity using only mundane forging methods.

He decided that he would create the basic frame of the sword directly with its hilt sans guard. That meant that the first foundation would be a rod that spanned the entire length of the weapon from hilt to edge. The smith began by locating several bars of steel of similar sizes, and then began the process of heating them.

Steel took longer than iron to heat up, and he facilitated the process by sparking his vision with a tiny bit of magic. Since leaving the metal in the furnace did not require that much concentration, the majority of his focus lay within his body as he casually directed his arcane perspective upon the metal. The world burst into color and he continued zooming his focus on the bar of steel until the background became a murmured blur.

The additional information provided by the aura gave the hint when it was ready to be smelted, and he repeated the process for the next four bars of steel, each time heat-welding the next bar of steel into the previous one to make a long train of metal.

As he did so, he took advantage of the melting heat to hammer the conjoining bits of the bar to encourage the material to flow and combine into each other, preventing the structural weakness of having a single fault line.

Shutting off his magical vision, he used a combination of his tongs and his blessed arm to shift the huge bar of combined steel onto the anvil. Since the anvil was not large enough to accommodate its entire size, he balanced it by grasping the end of it that was not on the anvil, against the resting parts that were able to be placed on the anvil.

His mortal arm held a medium-sized hammer, and he began the tedious process of drawing out the steel. This was done by starting at one end, and striking one face of the steel bar several times, then flipping it over by a side and continuing the process.

When all the sides were struck, the bar was pushed forward, and he struck the metal in descending length. His blessed arm, impervious to heat, essentially acted as if the bar of iron were a satay stick at a barbeque, and shoved the "barbeque stick" up and down the anvil as he hammered at it furiously.

[Aedifalse]

"That is quite a lot of steel you're using!" Blackburn commented as passed by Aedi's anvil. "What sizes are you looking at?"

"About a 43" rod as a foundational base," The Isur shouted over the clashing sounds of his hammer.

The towering blacksmith observed the unique style of forging that the Isur was using that would fit a barbeque pit more than a smithy with envy, and remarked, "Do you need a striker though? Some of my boys would be free."

Aedi continued pushing the rod forward on the anvil as his hammer made its way down the length of the metal, and shook his head emphatically, "Don't let me impose on your boys, Mister Blackburn! Maybe later!"

He refused to admit, but it was indeed quite tiring to continually adjust the huge bar of steel with one hand, and repeatedly smashing upon it with great force with his other. Still, he had to take the opportunity while the steel was hot to draw it out in one sitting, since he did not have the benefit of his blessed arm to smooth over any structural defects.

The world around him blurred as he focused only on the raw material before him, and his burning biceps only served to propel his motivations forward. His left arm flipped and rotated the bar of iron almost automatically just in time for his right-gripped hammer to come down hard mechanically, and the whole process almost seemed robot-like in its efficiency.

The steel finally drawn out to its proper length with its width and depth suitable reduced, he visually inspected it and use his left thumbnail to make a tiny indentation to mark the separation of the blade and hilt. From there, he would split up his treatment of the two parts, but for now he would work on the slightly easier task.

Shifting the bar around so that the hilt part would be on the anvil, he adjusted his grip on the forging hammer and began tapping it with a much reduced force than before. His goal now was not to draw out the metal, which was done so in large sweeping strikes, but to round its edges so that it would be a circular rod rather than a long, rectangular stick.

Similarly, instead of rotating the bar by only four sides, he rotated it by micro-angles, taking great care to use a little more force than usual when tapping the sharp edges, and adjusting his force accordingly to ensure a smoother surface.

"What are you doing, sir?" The cracking voice of an adolescent piped up behind him. It seemed that one of the younger apprentices had taken an curiosity to his work.

"Rounding the hilt, young man," Aedi explained as he continued his tapping. Purposefully slowing down his tapping in order to exaggerate his actions, he did so for the next few taps as he demonstrated, "The corner here is sharper, so I have to hit it harder to push it back. Doing so makes sides bump up, so when I rotate over here, I need to hit it again. However, this causes its sides to bump up. So what does that mean?"

"If you keep hitting using the same force you'll never be done?" The boy ventured.

Aedi laughed and agreed, "Exactly. So you must adjust your force to reduce the bumping, and keep doing it as you go round and round the bar until everything is one smooth surface."

[Aedifalse]

"Your boy is rather observant, Mister Blackburn!" Aedi called out as he finally finished rounding the base hilt.

"My boys tend to be quite bright, if I may say so at the risk of bragging," Blackburn laughed in response.

The Isur took another glance at the blueprint, then squinted at the hilt as he tried to mentally overlay the image of a completed product over the currently bare rod. In order for the leather grip to wrap comfortably around the base metal, the entire grip had to be even. That meant that he would have to create the indentations for the leather grip to sit in so that it would not protrude out.

Deciding that half an inch of depth would be enough, Aedi roughly measured out the length of the leather grip, and used his left thumbnail to mark the portion of the rod that would be thinned. In this case since the general shape of the hilt had been created, he had to remove the outer parts of the rod so as to thin it instead of striking it with the hammer which would simply move the steel around.

Deciding to give something for the boy to do, he handed the boy a pair of tongs, and directed him to hold the entire rod in place. The weaponsmith took a chisel and its accompanying hammer, and began to lightly tap out the areas to dig in before peeling out the chunk of steel around the rod.

"Why do you think I want to skin this grip?" Aedi asked in order to provoke the boy's thoughts.

"To make space for the grip, sir," He immediately replied.

Blackburn whistled proudly.

"Normally it would be easy to cut hole in steel by just punching them out," Aedi carried on with his explanation as he gently tapped a few holes into the marked area of the hilt. "But since now I am trying to thin the rod layer, I must make entrance."

After he created a straight incision as a point of entry, he began to use the chisel to dig sidewards to peel out the material's flesh.

"It's a little like skinning animal, except that you must be careful since the "flesh" and "bone" are same material and will give no hint of the point of separation," He continued as he worked on the hilt carefully. His explanation was probably not very well-suited for the situation at hand, but he was less focused on teaching and more focused on doing his job, and the explanations he gave were merely words to pass the time with.

"There you go, and now we will have space for the leather wrap to sit in," He declared with triumph when the challenging work of "deboning" the rod was done, and he shifted the metal scraps in a corner.

[Aedifalse]

"Here, let me take over," Aedi said as he uses his left arm to resume the duties of the tongs.

Switching the position of the rod, he now held the hilt part with his fist and laid the blade part upon the anvil. This part of the rod was still a rough metallic rectangular beam, and unlike the hilt his goal was not to round it into a circular rod, but to flatten it into a shape that more resembled a blade.

"Would you want to be my striker?" He asked the apprentice, and the boy enthusiastically brought the sledgehammer over after quietly asking permission from Blackburn.

"Alright, I will give instructions, so try to be accurate with the area," Aedi began, and he grabbed a smaller hammer to be used as an indicator.

"Here," He stated, lightly clanging on the edge of the unfinished blade, "We want to flatten this area so that the sides would spread out."

As soon as his hammer moved out of the way the sledgehammer was swung heavily onto the anvil, and the metallic beam was widened by a tiny fragment.

"Good strength," The weaponsmith noted as encouragement.

In this way, the duo acted in unison, with Aedi giving instructions and brief explanations for his decisions, and the apprentice listening silently and proceeding with the action. The forging was slow at first, for time was needed to explain certain intricacies in the striking, and the two were still unfamiliar with each other's motions.

However, as they continued to cooperate, their actions became faster, and the amount of words required for explanations and clarification shortened dramatically. The majority of the day passed by as the two worked on forging the blade, which was arguably the most important part of the weapon, and also the biggest part of it, having been drawn out to span a huge length of 35".

The other apprentices had already completed their own obligations, and some were helping Blackburn to pack up while others were watching the duo in earnest. The finishing slams of the sledgehammer were performed on the last part of the rod, and it flattened out nicely.

Aedi consulted the blueprint again, comparing it to the steel frame before him, and he swore.

"What's wrong?" One of the other apprentices asked curiously.

"There's not enough steel," The Isur stated curtly, more angry with himself than anything. "The blade could not flatten out properly without being too thin, and if it's too thin it would be too brittle to strike anything. This weapon currently is only good for decoration."

Glancing at the tiny crowd around him, he gestured towards the furnace and said, "Bring me about... two more bars of steel. I want them to be in a semi-liquid state. You might need to heat them longer than usual."

With that, he continued to inspect the blade, mentally marking the areas that would require material reinforcement to strengthen its depth.

[Aedifalse]

The other apprentices brought over the highly molten nuggets of steel, and Aedi took advantage of the heat and extremely malleable states of the steel to weld them together. Having the first apprentice to hold the blade in place with tongs, he used his blessed arm to scatter the dripping steel onto the blade like a cook scattering spices. He split the additional nuggets of steel into portions and applied them to the parts of the blade that needed the reinforcement, letting them congeal into an unsightly crimson mass of tangled material for the time being.

With the help of holding the blade in place, he was able to more securely focus his attention on the reinforced parts of the blade, striking it to distribute the bulging steel into its surrounding width and evening out of the structure. Giving basic instructions to the to other apprentices, with their aid he was able to correct his mistake fairly quickly, finally giving the blade a shape more befitting of its status as a weapon.

Pushing the tip of the entire 35" against the raised side-wall of the anvil, he continued striking it as he pushed in order to give it a squarish finish, then applied shrinking as he hammered the pointy edges at the side to round it into the shape specified by the blueprints.

"Quite the crowd here!" A voice boomed from behind, and everyone turned around to find a rather amused middle-aged man with several scars throughout his body. Despite his age, his folded arms betrayed the knotty muscles that marked a past of adventuring.

"And what brings Dargus Hilckle himself to my humble forge?" Richard Blackburn strode forward to clasp the man's hands in greetings. "Mister Aghanim is far from done."

"I came because I heard that an Isur has decided to do this little favor for me," Hilckle replied easily, turning his attention onto the working Isur.

Hilckle and Blackburn both watched silently for several moments as Aedi worked with the apprentices, gradually turning the formless steel bars into the more familiar shape of a sword.

"Mister Aghanim?" Hilckle ventured, as he moved closer to the anvil. "Did you understand what I meant by 'Isurian forged'? I don't just mean crafting by an Isur. I heard that children of Izurdin are able to impart a little of their gods into their crafts?"

Aedi stopped immediately even as the tinkering continued as the apprentices carried on with their instructions. Turning to face the man dead in the eye, he asked simply, "Why?"

All Isurs had the innate ability to impart a bit of their soul into a product of their labors. The item would become eternally bound and linked to them, and it was an extremely laboring process that few Isurs would care to recklessly make.

Hilckle faltered, then took a deep breath and said, "I want it to last through its use on the field and to pass it on to my remaining son and still have it remain functional."

He took the Isur's gaze head-on and plowed on. "The rest of my family... I lost them in the chaos of the Djed Storm. All because my previous sword could not handle the rigors of combat and chose that precise moment to break."

Aedi was silent as he considered the man's wishes, but he did not overtly confirm or agree to anything.

"Leave me to my work, Mister Hilckle, and I will bring you the weapon when it's ready," He simply replied, and turned his back on his client.

With that, he continued issuing commands to the remaining apprentices who had not yet left the smithy, and forged until the sun went down.

[Sayana]

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