Closed [Dagwood Metal] Not Everything That Glitters Is Gold (Dae)

[Kelski]

Timestamp: The 5th of Winter, 517 AV

Kelski had only ever worked for Master Li in Lhavit who had provided her materials from his own stores. Being a jeweler, the lovely old man had always known what she needed and had ample supplies on hand. With Jaren, things were different. He was clueless on what was needed. She’d quietly asked for supplies when he was in a more receptive mood. She had to after she’d made a list based on the items he wanted made for gifts and favors he was intending to pass out, and discovered her materials were sorely lacking. It had forced her to go directly to him and quietly ask. It was one of her biggest fears…. that he’d asked her to work and then give her no materials to work with.

But one of Jaren’s shortcomings wasn’t intelligence. He might have been lazy and utterly self-centered, but he wasn’t unreasonable of his demands. Kelski had bided her time, waiting for him to return from one of his many sorties to a local brothel, satiated and self-satisfied, and feeling somewhat generous. She’d presented him with one of his early demands – a lovely silver bracelet made of interlocking links – to gift to a brothel madam. She’d etched it with tiny bluebirds (the madam’s favorite) flying in and out of the links. It was a simple design, one that would buy Jaren immediate attention at any time with any of the working girls in the madam’s stable.

Impressed by what Kelski thought was a super simple design, he’d read over her list and nodded. Then he’d called one of his bruiser guards over – a big one she hadn’t recognized – and made some arrangement with him to carry coin and escort the Kelvic to one of the supply houses in Sunberth. Honestly, Kelski was surprised there were places she could get basic stock – namely gold and silver – but she did not question the fact. The Sea Eagle had assumed to get the materials needed, she would have to place an order with some merchant and wait for an import or two. It was, in a way, a relief because it meant she wouldn’t be hanging around The Barracks without work to do because of supplies lacking. She could get to work immediately on Jaren’s wish list and supply him with things daily he decided he wanted.

The guard set a brutal pace across the city, heading towards a place that actually wasn’t that far from The Barracks. It was a slightly nicer section of the city, though it was closer to the Slag Heap than Kelski liked. The guard lead her to a door, waited while she entered, and then lurked by the entrance as the young woman paced the length of the shop.

Her sharp grey eyes took a moment to adjust to the interior. She noted the pretty young woman behind the counter towards the back. Kelski ignored her, after offering her a simple smile, in favor of wandering on her own. The shop seemed to spill out into a foundary to the west while a door lead to the north leading who knew where. Kelski glanced around, slowly moving through the main body of the shop, letting her eyes linger on the shadows and quietly nodding into the darkest of them, as if acknowledging something there that was not.

She passed the small selection of weapons. Her eyes ran over their plain but very functional designs. Long slim fingers reached up to run admiringly across a dagger, or the sleek smooth line of a greatsword in its rack. She picked none of them up, but instead seemed to be interested in touching the metal itself, as if it were a comfort to her. Moving on, her sharp eyes missed nothing. She lingered on the sign that said Metalsmithing Lessons and reached out to touch it as well. Kelski was a tactile creature and it was almost as if she looked as much with her fingers as she did with her eyes.

The guard remained by the door, bored, watching his Master’s Pet make a fool out of herself by lingering by weapons his master would never allow her to own. No, the coin in the bruiser’s pocket was designated carefully for one thing and one thing only… ingots.

The Kelvic moved on, reaching the section of holy symbols and oddities ranging from cooking utensils to heavy duty pots. These she touched too, though she staunchly avoided the Branding Irons whose cold touch she’d already felt against her hand in threat. Instead she reached up and fingered the slave collar that had the Sun Birth’s symbol dangling prominently from it like a dog’s identification tag. It had been the heavy thing or a harsh burn on her hand. Kelski valued her hands too much to ever risk them with a burn. So she’d taken the collar and now wore it like an animal… like the pet the guards cruelly called her.

Moving on, she came to what she was seeking. Pound bars of metals. Fingers gingerly reached out and touched, not hesitating, as she passed her touch across first silver then gold. Small strong hands reached out and lifted gold and silver, liberating them from their shelves, then adding copper and bronze to her arms as well. Cradling the ingot bars to her chest like most women would cradle a child, the slave glanced up at the guard at the door and started towards the front counter.

Two pounds of gold, four pounds of silver, a pound of copper and a pound of bronze were all gingerly laid on the counter. Long lean fingers tipped in dark sharp nails that almost looked like claws danced across the bars, as if she were unwilling to release the treasures to the attentions of the clerk. One of the gold bars were lifted, and the girl examined it closer under the better light of the counter.

She quietly waited for the total to be given and the guard to pay.

[Daedalus Dagwood]

05th Day of Winter, 517 A.V.

“Once more Into the fray.” It was a phrase Daedalus mused softly to himself as he walked towards where his blast furnace stood at the center of the foundry. The elaborate foundry of Dagwood Metal was one of a far higher caliber than Sunberth deserved, but it was Daedalus's pride and joy. The entire complex consisted of brick walls and stone floors, with a variety of metalworking molds stacked along the grounds again the walls, and all of his metal working tools hanging from hooks along the western wall were his work desk resided.

He stopped at the base of the blast furnace which looked as if it were a massive hearth with a brick outer shell wrapping around it and protruded up from it like a chimney. The brick frame protected everyone from the volcano of flames within that were tended to by its Metalsmith. He held his hand out towards the open mouth of the hearth to gauge the ambient heat emanating from it. He was a smith with enough skill to know how hot things should be to create beginning alloy, however now he was cautiously trying to make a more complex metal today.

He acted like a loving father that coddled a beloved fiery daughter. Daedalus knew nothing of Ivak, save for that the god was one of Volcanism, but assumed the god felt the same way he did about furnaces that the god did about volcanoes. It was at that moment that Daedalus realized that he had never seen a true volcano. "Add that to the list of things to see someday." He spoke as he pulled his hand back to walk towards the shop to find his brother Darik.

Daedalus was dressed in simple attire that made up his work clothes. A black linen long sleeved shirt that matched his black linen pants. The sleeves of his shirt were covered in a patchwork of burn holes from where he'd lit himself on fire sometime in the past. The only thing he wore on his person that seemed out of place was the scabbard which held a rapier on the belt of his left hip.

"Darik." He called out to his brother as he glanced towards the customer roaming the shop. But Kelski soon became insignificant to him when he spotted a Dragoon lurking by the entrance to his shop. The metalsmith made a sharp whistle which proved to be enough of a motivating force for Darik to appear from the door right behind where Gwendoline was dealing with the customer.

"What, Dalus?" The younger sibling said as he approached Daedalus. The Metalsmith held up a hand to pat Darik twice on the shoulder. He then leaned in to speak in his brother ear in a tone hardly above a whisper. "Keep a look out for the rest of the day. Sun's Birth might be up to something." The two brothers then shared a nod before Darik, armed with two rapiers on his belt, started to lurk around the shop in a very obvious way to appear to be like a threat to the Dragoon at the door.

That was when Daedalus made his way over to Gwendoline, standing on the other side of the table next to Kelski. "After you finish helping our customer, I'll need about ten bars worth of iron and a half bars weight of coal brought to the foundry." Gwendoline smiled as she reached over to write down what her brother needed on a piece of parchment with a charcoal stick. "Sure thing Dae. What are you going to be making? And do you need any help?"

Daedalus shook his head at her offer to help. "Karos at The Knight's Armoury needs a resupply of steel. Its a little more than what you're used to working with, so I'll work on this one alone. However, I will need more bronze later which you can defiantly help me out with."

He ran his eyes over the items being bought by the woman standing next to him and quickly calculated their prices. "Ten gold miza for the gold ingots, twelve gold miza for the silver ingots, five silver miza for the copper, and six silver miza for the bronze. In total, it all costs twenty three gold miza and one copper miza."

It was at that moment that he set his full attention onto Kelski. "You? I don't know you. I would have remembered If I'd seen you before. I'm Daedalus and this is my sister, Gwendoline." He both questioned her while introducing himself to and eyeing over her entire body.

The first thing he always looked for was any type of gang insignia which he found on the collar around her neck. Without even needing to ask, Daedalus reached up to check on her tags as if she were a lost puppy. He held onto the Sun Birth’s symbol before glancing up to look Kelski in the eyes.

"At least the Sun's Birth has good taste in slaves." That was when he lowered his voice to speak to her privately out of earshot of the guard. "Would you be so kind as to show me the back of your hands?" His hand still clutching onto the symbol around her neck. Not with any strength. No, she could remove herself from his grasp with a simple step backwards. "And also, who do you belong too? And why do they need my alloy?" He just wanted to gauge how the Sun's Birth slave acted and to check on if she was technically a full member of the gang.

[Kelski]

Kelski nodded at the tally given to her by the stranger who had quickly yet subtly moved to intercept the woman at the counter. She hadn’t missed his sharp look to the Dragoon lurking at the door. A tilt of her head noted the guard moved deeper into the store, pulled out a bag of jingling gold-rimmed mizas, and laid the amount on the counter the man had stated. He didn’t bother to pick up the Kelvic’s purchases. He wasn’t there to be a packhorse.

He was only there to watch her and make sure nothing Jaren didn’t want to happen occurred. So his movement was fast, steady, with his hands off his weapons and his intent clear. He had the coin. She didn’t. But that was as far as it went. All to soon he was back at the entrance leaving Kelski alone at the counter with the man.

He spoke but she was only half listening. Instead she was looking at him. Her eyesight was sharper than most would know and she lingered on the patchwork on his clothing and the subtle burns and scars on his hands and arms. He smelled like the metal she was purchasing as well. It was a comforting scent overridden with the subtlety of human masculine sweat.

Kelski snapped her grey eyes up and met his as he reached out and took her Sun Birth tag at her throat. The tag had been made at Jaren’s request when he had handed her a thick leather slave collar and told her to pretty it up with a silver band, and add gemstones to it. The collar hadn’t turned out garish because she had suspected deep down that he was going to make her wear it. So instead she’d cut triangles of semi-precious gemstones and had inlaid them in place along it making an eye-catching pattern in agate that encircled her throat. The tag had been an afterthought, one he had made her construct twice – the first one not being big enough – until it had suited his taste.

And so while he did hold it like a puppy’s tags, that was exactly what it resembled.

Her gaze was sharp, briefly hinting at rage, before it was carefully masked itself into a blankness she was used to wearing like an old worn cloak thrown over a lovely glittering dress. The Kelvic didn’t try to jerk away, freeing herself from his hold. Had she been wearing her feathers he’d have likely lost an eye to a wicked beak that his crowding her space would put him in range of. Instead, her chin tilted up at a proud angle and she viciously whispered back.

“He might have collared me, but he does not own me, not really and he certainly didn’t brand my hands.” She hissed without showing him the backs of her hands. There were no gloves over her fingers to conceal anything and she still clutched the gold ingot in her right hand, thumb casually and comfortingly rubbing along its length. She didn’t like this man whispering orders to her or demanding an introduction with rudeness. But he wasn’t completely unkind.

“I belong to no one but myself, not really. And The Sun’s Birth doesn’t need your metals.” She brought the gold ingot up to her eye level, still running a thumb across it. “Your metals need me. They need a careful practiced hand to help them realize what they can ultimately be… something beautiful.” Kelski replied quietly, still almost hissing under her breath. There was something about this man that irritated her, and at the same time he smelled almost delicious. Metal, fire from the forge, and oil all mingled with his natural scent and it soothed her bestial nature in a way she didn’t quite understand. The whole atmosphere soothed her, even the gold in her hand. It emboldened her and made her come alive in a way her little workshop could not. This place reminded her of Master’ Li’s workshop, somewhere she’d came really close to calling home.

“I go by Kelski. Jaren Joander made me line this collar with silver and embellish it until it was almost too heavy to wear and then he hung it around my neck after a Svefra pirate traded me to him in exchange for repairs to his ship.” Kelski said plainly, knowing people had already been talking about Jaren’s new pet and this man was possibly someone who might have heard.

She inhaled deeply then, not caring what the man thought of it. A smile flickered across her face. “You smell good. Like a hot forge and alloys melting together. Do you hear it too? When you work them.. sweat trickling down between your shoulder blades?” Kelski let her eyes drift closed.

She hefted the gold ingot again, reaching out past him and placing it back in the pile with the others splaying her fingers of that hand across the whole of the little pile of material on his counter. “They each sing to me... a different song for each kind… and I feel it so deeply that I know… even if I never open my eyes… which kind is which… and that they long to become something…. more.” The Kelvic said, slowly opening her eyes once more and meeting his gaze.

She smiled at him then, almost apologetically, and offered Gwen one as well.

The Dragoon at the door looked bored. He hadn’t yet moved from his spot and seemed unworried about Kelski or Dalus’ hands on her collar. He didn’t give a shit about Jaren’s new pet.

[Daedalus Dagwood]

As he stood there with his hand holding the tag of her collar, It did not escape Daedalus’s notice that the interior pigmentation of the woman’s mouth held a distinctly blue coloration. The realization of learning that the woman was a kelvic was interesting, but wasn't of any importance to know. What the Metalsmith did quirk a brow at was at the way Kelski's eyes glazed over with hints of resentment.

At the mention of Kelski’s master, Daedalus canted his head to one side to look towards his sister. “Owned by a Joander... Which one was Jaren again?” The Metalsmith absently asked Gwen before turning back to look at Kelski.

“Jaren is Jardeg’s son. You know, the one who tried to flirt with me that one time at Deu's Vestments when I was trying to buy new clothes.” She stated in a tone befitting the secretive whispers floating around the conversation. Gwen knew her brother was one to pry into other peoples business, so retreated from the conversation after picking up the money the had Dragoon laid on the counter. She then returned a fleeting smile back at the slave before turning around to leave the shop to vanish behind the door leading to the office.

"So, Kelski. You alone are the reason why I have a Dragoon at my doorstep. " His gaze glanced over towards his brother Darik who appeared to be on guard patrolling closely around the entrance. Daedalus managed to lock eyes with his younger sibling for a moment then gave him a nod of approval. It was a sign that meant things were all clear. It was clear that Sunberth was a dangerous place for a merchant. And the Metalsmith treated any sign of gang activity near the foundry was with extreme caution. His brother Darik still kept an eye on the Dragoon, but it now no longer felt like a brawl was going to break out.

When he did finally decided to let go of Kelski's tag, his entire body language shifted towards something more effervescent. "From a Svefran pirate to Jaren Joander. You've appeared to have lived a wildly interesting life so far... and you are unbranded? Mening you'll be up for sell someday?" Daedalus then reached up to poke Kelski on the tip of her nose with his index finger. "And if you like my smell, you're going to enjoy this. Follow me."

As he walked from the shop towards the entrance that led into the foundry, he spoke over his shoulder towards the slave. "Other than a small unsuccessful stint in Syliras where I joined and dropped out of being one of their squires in my youth... I was born and raised here in Sunberth. Metalwork is my life."

Upon entering the Foundry, the sounds of a hyper white-red blazing fire could be heard from within the bowels of the blast furnace. Each of the roaring flames sang to him like a worshiping choir. "If the metals sing to you to become something... more. They sing praises of thanks to me for removing their Impurities. They thank me, like an injured person thanks a healer for saving their lives. Its because I take my time to avoid improper smelting procedures that they can become something far more beautiful at the hands of people like you."

He walked over to the large hearthfire at the base of the furnace to let the woman look into the mouth of the large roaring flames. "Should you wish to learn more about metalworking, tell your master that I give lessons for a single gold miza per day. Besides, teaching you is the least I can offer after you've told me I smell nice. I'm not going to lie, that did make my day a fair bit better. Also, I'd not mind having someone as pretty as you to look at as I work." He said with a halfhearted chuckle.

"The Dragoon paid for your metals, which means that you have no money... how about this? If you tell me a story, I'll teach you something about metalsmithing right now?" He slowly started to walk around the woman until he was standing behind her. "What do you say?"

[Kelski]

The jeweler listened to the two speak, the siblings, and noted the similarities and differences between them. She glanced at the other younger man wandering the store and assumed he was somehow related as well. They were working in unison. They were working as a team. The Kelvic was fascinated.

This was a family.

She’d seen families before, on the streets of Lhavit, but not up close. The ones she had witnessed had a unity about them, a togetherness, and definitely a cohesion of joy the Kelvic somewhere deep inside of her longed for. Kelski ducked her head slightly, not wanting to be caught staring and certainly not wanting the man before her to see she was curious about one. A family? What would that be like? She wanted to watch more, unobstructed, unhindered by a stranger’s judgement.

Her chin came up as Daedalus addressed her again about the Dragoon at his door. A black eyebrow raised and she glanced at Darvin long enough to catch his return scowl. “Sir, he was not my idea. None of this was.” She replied simply, understanding inherently the question was actually rhetorical.

Kelski dropped her voice significantly. Grey eyes met the metalsmith’s richer tones. “The other one, Darik… you called out his name earlier… is he your family too? Your brother?” She asked in an almost silent whisper as she watched Daedalus call off the young man with his eyes. “Be careful of him if you care for him. The man with me is pumped full of liquor and probably two or three kinds of powders that make him see things and relax, but he is good with daggers. He’ll put one through your brother’s heart before you see him twitch. And his weapons smell off, as if they are tainted.” The Kelvic said, worry for the younger version of the man before her showing briefly in her gaze. Had she a brother, the Kelvic would have guarded him fiercely.

He released her tag, a question on his lips, which Kelski started to answer when he poked her nose causing her to blink and surge back. It was a gesture that almost looked playful to the Kelvic, but it confused her even as her feet turned and followed him.

“Like all men of his caliber, Jaren will sell me when he’s tired of me and I’ve served my purpose with him. Do you have need of a jeweler?” What she didn’t say was that Jaren was already a bit uncomfortable around her. Her exotic coloring and piercing grey eyes made him uneasy. Her disinterested cold demeanor in front of her master was off putting when he was so used to warm well-paid welcomes. That didn’t mean it was her true nature. But she was not likely to show Jaren Joander her true nature.

Daedalus began to speak of himself and Kelski followed on his heels. They crossed a boundary that delineated one space from another and walked into what Kelski could only think of as paradise. Her eyes roamed everywhere, trying to take it all in at once. The sounds overwhelmed her senses and the smells filled her nose. Not paying attention, she walked square into Daedalus’ back, which felt like a heavily muscled brick wall. The Kelvic surged backwards, an apology forgetfully dying on her lips even as she involuntarily spun, getting a better look at everything.

Her dragoon guard had drifted inward, passing through the shop to now linger at the foundry line where he could still see his charge.

Kelski was speechless. She heard Daedalus’ words and nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly with what the man said, even though his words dripped with self-confidence and pride. It was a different sort of arrogance than what she was used to among the gangs. She followed him on his heels like that puppy her tag so clearly resembled. Her hands ran across anything within her reach until she was standing beside him in front of the furnace seemingly soaking up the heat. His setup was massive compared to what she used and needed. It was a delight though, to see it all here, from this perspective. It was like a nursery where true metals came to be born. Kelski even looked up studying the ceiling and how the behemoth before them was vented. Her eyes followed pipes, ran across racking, even took in the details of the floor. It was hard to look everywhere at once, but she tried.

She vaguely heard Daedalus’ words and it took a moment for them to pull her attention back to him. The Kelvic had coin enough to pay him, on her own, but it was free time she’d have to earn to be able to come here. Kelski glanced over her shoulder at Darvin. He was busy slipping something into his mouth that no doubt would take some perceived edge off and make the boring duty of babysitting almost bearable.

“I have coin enough, just not on me, and with none forthcoming in the foreseeable future my lessons would be limited. I just am not sure I have time enough to accept your generous offer. It might be easy to slip away, but it might also cost dearly. There are some things even I won’t do to buy free time.” She said softly, giving herself a shake almost like a bird ruffling its feathers. She tried to hide it but to anyone watching, even those that had known her less than a few chimes, it was obvious her body vibrated with excitement. Her curled fists clenched and unclenched. “I would not be able to keep a regular schedule… because none of them do. Their whims come and go like the horribly bad weather here.” Then her head jerked up and she met his gaze, realizing he’d called her pretty.

Narrowing her eyes, she responded immediately. “I’d take lessons in exchange for coin or knowledge only. Nothing more.” She said firmly, then winced, meeting his gaze. Kelski was letting too much of herself out in front of this man who was nothing but a stranger. She needed to stop that before something she did angered him. Humans were unpredictable. Even in Lhavit there were dangers. In Sunberth they were a hundredfold.

He hadn’t minded that she’d confessed how good he smelled. Kelski was slightly relieved.

“I should mind my words better. I often say what I am thinking when I should not. I have not been what I am now long. I forget my place…” The Kelvic replied, needing to do something with her hands. She reached up and absently yanked at the collar around her throat, pulling it one way and twisting her neck another. It looked like a recently picked up habit, one that she didn’t openly think about.

Daedalus’ offer was tempting. Kelski wanted to stay and Darvin looked like his eyes were glazing just enough to let her remain for a while. She met the man’s gaze and then glanced around the Foundry again, not noticing the man circling behind her slowly. Kelski didn’t mind his actions, not really, for there was a warmth and kinship she already felt to him regardless if he was still a stranger. He loved metals. He understood their voices. The Kelvic would do anything in that moment to linger a bit longer, even tell him a story.

Her voice dropped, her rich alto clear but intense. Darvin may or may not have heard her, but she didn’t care. The story was for Daedalus and Daedalus alone. “People think the night stretches across the land, dependable and unstoppable, but that is not always true. Her power ebbs and flows like the tides, but She is not infallible. Like others of Her kind, She came from another place and assumed Her role because there was a need. But She, like me, was not always free. There was a time trickery caught Her unaware when She was weakest and She fell into a trap that was vicious and unyielding. Night never fell in those times. Humans were underground and did not witness it. But I know about it. Others do too. The living breathing thing that was darkness incarnate ceased stretching across the land. Her powers were restrained in Her prison, and they were terrifying and dangerous so carefully confined.” Kelski said, her voice rolling like sweet dark chocolate.

Something strange started to happen in the Foundry. The blast furnace’s light seemed to amplify the shadows, drawing them longer, and even though it was in the middle of the day, the whole place darkened slightly, as if they were converging and moving like living things… drawing closer to listen. It was as if they craved the story… their story… and loved that it was being told out loud among the living.

“The Night went mad there. Her powers washed over Her, withheld, and drove Her to the brink of insanity. They infused the place She was in, taking on a life of their own. She turned inward upon Herself, still cycling as She’d done for years untold when She came to this place. Darkness could not fall, so it concentrated, rolling back and forth inside Her and inside Her prison. The shadows around Her, created by Her, became something else, taking on a sentience of their own. They were not confined as She was, being something new and not entirely of the night. Her powers broadened and over and over again, in secret, She birthed these living things that fled from Her and began to populate the entire world.” Kelski whispered, her voice having dropped, her face oddly half in shadow now as if they clung around her, exiting where none had before.

“It further weakened her. But it was a beautiful terrible happening.” Kelski added, pausing, closing her eyes as if imagining the rest of the story.

“You see it was a time so not very long ago. It was a time where the world was drenched in magic and wrecked by it. People were hiding below, beneath the world, and not yet in it. The shadows took on purpose as they fled The Night and Her confinement. They sought someone to help their Mistress, their Mother, break the prison She was in. It was a prison no one knew about and one that is still not spoken of because it happened away from everyone, in secret treachery.” Kelski said, opening her eyes and taking a moment to roam around her, noting how the shadows had gathered. They loved stories too, even The First Story, and evidently were in good company having picked Daedalus’ business to inhabit.

“Eventually they found someone, a warrior of some renown, Godborn and bright with power. They gathered around Him, still drenched in magic, and whispered to Him in their new language… the language they created from the wild unhinged power all around them. They whispered Makath to Him so much that He learned it, and His skin deepened to blue so dark that He was almost black as He took in some of their power which was ultimately Hers. Their persistence paid off, for He followed them, full to near bursting with Integrity, Discipline, and a whole lot more that did not belong to Him.” The Kelvic whispered, continuing her story after taking a soft deep breath. She didn’t continue in Common though… as if she were remembering it in another language.

The language she spoke was foreign and she carried on with it for a few breaths before she blinked, shook her head, and started over again only this time in Common. The Kelvic closed her eyes again, the story coming straight from her heart.

“That warrior freed Her by His own power, doing for Her what She could not do for Herself because so much of Her had been lost in that confinement.” Kelski would have told that part of the story, but it was oh so long and dark and something she would save for later… for buying future lessons if he would deal in this sort of currency again.

The lack of that part of the story didn’t stop her from telling him how it ended. That was as important as how it began. “She had been bound too long and too much of Her power had been drained in Her loss of sanity and in the creation of The Shadows. He did not see Her weakness though. He was too full of Her strength. He saw only Her potential and He loved Her for it, and in that love gave back to her that which did not belong to Him. The giving helped Her find Herself again until Night began to fall once more across Mizahar… slowly, steadily, and certainly. And because night began to fall once more, people were able to come up from the ground, the darkness and its creatures having finished draining most of the wild magic left in the world. The world healed. She’s never taken for granted that She would always be dependable since then. And She’s changed… now She’s not only The Darkness of Night, but She is the shadows, secrets and stealth. Akajia lives with all of us, not just Her dark warrior Wysar. Her shadows are all around, as sentient as you and I are. They gather for Her the tools he needs… knowledge really… to walk forward in the world and to be what She was meant to be but also so much more…” The young woman finished out the tale, taking a deep breath and opening her eyes again, just fast enough to see the shadows growing small again, retreating back to where they lived in the light of the day. Kelski hadn’t realized she’d closed her eyes again. She wondered if Akajia’s Tale would be enough to buy her a lesson. She wanted to be by the hot forge working with her hands.

But even if he didn’t let her… if he decided her story was not a currency he could barter with… seeing the Foundry in a way was more than payment enough.

[Daedalus Dagwood]

Daedalus was a welcoming man. That was just in his nature whenever he met someone who posed no immediate threat to him. It was shortly after the moment when the woman questioned him about his brother that Daedalus’s voice only rose high enough to be heard by Kelski the closer they were to the roaring furnace.

He turned around to look at her with a smirk when she just walked right into his back. “Don’t worry about my brother. Sometimes, its better to ‘seem’ like you are more trouble than worth pursuing to keep most thugs at bay. No doubt, the Goon's eyes possibly sway towards Darik during moments of ambient thought. And that’s all that really matters… if you can’t grasp the importance of that, then this city will eat you alive.” He made the quick comment before posing his previous offer of a story and circling around her.

Even though Daedalus had asked for her to tell him a story, that did not mean the Metalsmith was just going to stand there as she told it. No, he went about his usual business all while keeping a keen ear focused on her voice. At the start of her story, he was met by Gwen who entered the Foundry carrying a heavy wooden crate filled with the metals he had asked for.

The process that Daedalus went through to pour the metals into the top of the tall furnace was a mildly arduous one. It was the main reason why his body held a modicum of useful muscle. He alone had to dump the metals into the furnace. And the way he did so was through a large smelting bucket hooked to a metal crafted axle and pulley attached to roll on along a steel bar running vertically along the ceiling over the center of the furnace.

Daedalus dumped all of the metals into the bucket, then gripped one of the chains dangling from the ceiling to start pulling hand-over-hand on it. In response to his actions, the bucket started to raise upwards.

The sounds of rolling chain links echoed out like buzzing bees, pulling until his biceps met with his forearms to preform a full range of motion that cause his arms to tingle with the sensation of strained effort. Once the bucket was high enough, he pulled the chains forward which gave it enough motion to roll the bucket over the top of the furnace. And with a simple backwards pull of the chain while giving it a bit of slack, the bucket tipped all of its contents of iron and coal into the furnace. Once it was done, he pulled back on the chain to lower the bucket back down to the ground.

It was at that moment that his attention turned to the massive furnaces forge. Daedalus would have missed it, if not for the drastic change in lighting that dimmed the foundry with darkness. It caused him to look over his shoulder at Kelski as he set one hand onto the handle of a large bellow to pump it two times. Each press injected a fresh blast of air right into a pipe leading into the fire that caused the furnace fire to grow brighter. And yet the room stayed dim.

Daedalus glanced over at the woman with questioning eyes, wondering if she also noticed how dark it had gotten. His eyes narrowed at her with some manner of suspicion. He was a man of magic who's dire secret was that he practiced Animation. And yet, he was still a man of Sunberth who treated such occult dark practices with extreme levels of caution.

He kept his gaze on her until the woman's story ended.

"Akajia was locked away. Saved by Wysar after her shadows taught him, Makath." Daedalus summed up her entire story in a curt sentence. "Your delivery of the story was lackluster, only because you yourself were completely swept away by it which kept you from projecting that emotion onto me, the listener. That much was obvious from the way you closed your eyes. Or in the way you stopped speaking in a language I could understand," He paused for a moment to watch the shadows retreat.

"that pulled me out of the story. However, on the merit of the story alone... it was worth the price of a lesson. But, your theurgy may be seen as dangerous to some. I am not so, twitchy to see that you have some love for Akajia." He let the end of that linger in the air, not quite sure if the slave had some connection to Akajia or if he was just being paranoid from his time chased by hostile ghosts. "As far as payment goes in the future, I'd like to here more of that story. And don't worry, I'll only take coin or knowledge. If and when you ever want to give more, it won't be as payment for something...” Daedalus said with a slight chuckle.

"Follow me." He said as he walked passed her around the furnace towards the back of the building. He guided her from the foundry to the back room that had his smithy. A brick forge was made along the back western wall with an anvil and a barrel of water right in front of it. He moved to a table on the eastern wall that had a scattered amount of metals and metal working items on it.

"As an initiate to metalsmithing, you won't have to deal with a massive amount of metal or a furnace. All you need is one of these," Daedalus picked up a medium sized metal bowl that had to holes near the top of it. "This is a crucible. Its an item that every smith worth their metals should known how to use." He then picked up a pair of tongs to clamp the teeth into the holes on the bowl to show her how he carried it around before setting both items onto the table.

He then picked up a random half pound piece of metal that was on the table. "This is your basic copper. To smelt it, you simply put the metal in the crucible, and the crucible into the fires then wait for it to become a liquid. Given that you are a jeweler, you should know that with a wood fire is enough to melt copper, gold, and sliver. Not a campfire, but a constantly well fed high heat fire. I'm not sure what your station is like, but I use coal fires since I keep coal around for my furnace."

The Metalsmith motioned a hand towards the vibrantly blazing orange coals in the smithy's forge. He then pointed to a pair of gloves. "Use those with the tongs to go put the crucible into the forge. We'll let it heat up as I show you how to make a mold... and don't burn yourself, slave." He added with a wink. "If you break, I'm not going to buy you... yet."

[Kelski]

The slave stood quietly, watching Daedalus, not trusting him one bit. She’d learned hard lessons in Sunberth and even harder ones among the people here. Even warnings were brushed off and turned about, ending up in threats to her own person. Kelski would keep quiet from now on. Even as she glanced around the Foundary looked less welcoming, less exciting, as time moved forward.

The man didn’t give her the courtesy of his whole attention when he’d asked for his payment for lessons. He’d gotten busy and let her stand there, feeling silly, telling her story as he judged her like all people judged each other in this midden pit of a city. He worked and she slowly realized it was one of those things where the man most likely enjoyed a bit of barding or entertainment as he worked. Some people were like that.

The worst part was that he made noise as he worked, forcing her to raise her voice above a level she was comfortable with, afraid he would not hear. The chains rattling and moving heavy metal grated and ground, and Kelski’s imagination painted the metal scraps in the bucket rebelling, fighting what the Metalsmith wanted to make of them. She felt akin to them in that moment, loaded into a bucket and forced to do as some giant puppet wielder demanded.

She was glad for the Shadows being there, comforting, drawing closer and retreating… and she decided the story would be for them anyhow, not for him. He wasn’t worth it if his whole attention couldn’t be on her…. and her tale. Kelski had no allusions that she was a good storyteller. She barely talked to people long enough to carry a conversation. Her tale would be full of staggered starts and stops and a voice that trembled with nervousness and uncertainty.

But she wasn’t ready for him to blatantly tell her how badly she did, and to sum up her story in one line. One line. The making of the Shadows and the birth of Makath…. one sentence. The Kelvic burned with shame that she’d done Akajia so little justice. It wasn’t about what Daedalus thought. When he’d turned from her and proceeded with his work despite asking her for a story – which in truth took lots of courage for her to tell – she’d stopped caring. She’d stopped looking for a friend and maybe someone who she could feel kinship with because of a mutual love of metal. There would be none of that here. He was as hard and encrusted over with rot as the city he inhabited. And she was a wild thing with wings who needed no one and nothing but her art and her flight.

She barely heard his advice. There would be no more stories from her for him. She did color slightly at his remark about the language, but in the end she just took a deep breath and willed all her feelings away, locking them into a tiny space inside herself. Jaren was fast teaching her not to care and had fast tracked her on the way to not caring about anyone or anything anyhow. Akajia knew she’d given up on trying to find the good in anyone. Thorne aside… The only beauty left in Kelski’s life was her tiny subpar forge and the work she could loose herself in.

She certainly didn’t care that Daedalus wasn’t entertained by her story or that he couldn’t loose himself into it. That’s what one got when one didn’t give one’s full attention to a tale, regardless of how piss poor the storyteller was. Rage rose in her again, but she tamped it down, not welcoming it in any way shape or form. It served no purpose. Daedalus wasn’t going to be allowed to hurt her with his words. But it did reveal a truer nature to her, that he lacked a kindness or a consideration for someone doing something she’d never done before…. Like tell a simple story.

“I’ve never told a story before. Thank you for the advice.” She said politely. Kelski believed, even after everything Sunberth had taught her, that politeness had a place. Master Li would be proud of her, rejecting her anger in place of being calm.

She ignored his comment about only taking coin or knowledge. Kelski was certain she wouldn’t be back to learn from him unless she could give him coin just to stand by the forge and listen to its throaty voice wash away some of her troubles for a time. But then, she doubted Daedalus would understand a need like that or a desire to hear such a creature of Ivak burn Semele’s flesh to mold metal.

Kelski followed him. Walking out at this point would be rude. She didn’t like moving deeper into his territory with him, but was in a weird way grateful that Darvin calmly followed, giving them lots of space. She could tell he was lost by his slightly staggered steps and the fact that his eyes were bright and slightly unfocused. Did Jaren really know the guard would be useless when it came to any serious intervention anywhere? No… he wouldn’t know and if he did know, he wouldn’t care. Kelski gritted her teeth and focused on what Daedalus was saying.

She nodded to his words, politely giving him her entire attention as he launched into her lesson. She was well familiar with crucibles, though on a far smaller scale. She had her own gloves and tongs and certainly her tiny unimpressive forge that he’d most likely laugh himself hysterical at if he ever set eyes on it. He’d never see it. She’d make sure of that. It was her own and it functioned well enough, even if it wasn’t what a real metalsmith would find impressive.

Kelski watched him carefully handle the crucible with the tongs, making sure that the teeth fit where the bite was supposed to go. When he asked, she slipped her hands into the gloves and took up the tongs, slipping them around the crucible and placed it into the forge where it was supposed to go. She waited for the critique to come, sure this would be another way to belittle her. Humans thrived on the behavior, feeding off the negativity they spouted towards one another to build up their own identity. Kelski would not participate. But she’d learn if she could, while she was here, then somehow try to get her and her guard home without incident afterwards.

The negativity started as soon as he called her slave, but she wasn’t willing to let it affect her in a way that caused her to make a mistake or perhaps set her hands to shaking. He made another comment, one she refused to acknowledge because she wasn’t going to be passed from human to human if she could help it. She’d work hard for Jaren, free herself, and have her life back if she could manage it. She’d not be owned by another, not after the Svefra, and certainly not after the Sun’s Birth.

“What sort of metal are we going to liquify and what are we going to mold?” She asked carefully, changing the subject immediately. “Do you use oil sand in your work of making molds? I’ve done quite a bit of molding with it in mine.” She offered, then could have kicked herself for volunteering information that he didn’t need to know. “I hoped there’d be something new… tongs and gloves and crucibles are all familiar.” She said, narrowing her eyes, a bit of her temper finally showing. The man was insufferable at best, arrogant at worse.

“I’m not for sale.” She said firmly then, her eyes hardening as she realized what she’d said. Hadn’t she pushed that deep enough? The Kelvic cursed a thousand ways in her mind, using all of her beloved Master Li’s favorite swears in her mind.

[Daedalus Dagwood]

Daedalus enjoyed loosing himself in his work. His family, his friends, his entire life revolved around metalworking. And as he watched the woman set the crucible to the force, he thought of the many times his own parents watched him do that very same task. There was no reason for this thought, but memories like all things, were often by the most fleeting of thoughts. When she was finished he ignored her immediate question for the moment. "Do you know how to play an instrument? Or sing?" He asked his own questions as he reached under the table to grab the cope and drag sand cast frame that he stored under it.

It was one foot by one foot frame, obviously used to form some type of mold in a sand cast, and placed it onto the table. "I think you'd have a love singing voice. You should think about turning your story into a musical endeavor. Or at least have the sounds of a mandolin as an accompaniment." He said as he separated the cope from the drag to lay both pieces of the frame on the worktable.

"I didn't plan on making this tonight, but... Tall Johnny often requests that items be crafted as the runner up prizes for his combat tournaments. Things like gold amulets, brass belt buckles, and whatever else. Today, I'll be showing you how to create a bell bronze alloy. I don't expect you to make truly pure bell bronz, but its an advanced alloy to try to make to improve your smelting abilities. To craft bell bronze you need three times the amount of copper to one equal size of tin. However, crafting plain bronze should be easier for you to make on your own time. Bronze is nine copper to one tin. And while it takes less bronze to make the bell variety, it requires a far more practiced eye to gauge the correct heat."

Daedalus then began to motion a hand towards all of the objects on his table. Three bars worth of copper were stacked on top of each other next to one bar of tin. And next to those were two halves of a wooden pattern of a dagger design. He then leaned down to pull out a small crate filled to the brim with oil sands. "Yes, I use them in my work. However, I tend to use clay casting since its generally faster. You'll no doubt learn to use them someday.... but beware of Pycon, they love eating this stuff. I tend to run out of clay because of them little things." He gave a halfhearted chuckle before turning round to lean against the edge of the table.

"You should learn to love the proper use of tongs and proper safety by wearing gloves. Even if you are familiar with a, crucibles you can still get burned by one nonetheless if you aren't careful. They will never be new, but you will always need to use them... now then, because you already know this, I'll do this very fast so I can move on to the venting process." The Metalsmith got right to work the moment he turned back around.

He moved with well practiced ease as he set placed the first half of the wooden dagger pattern into the center of the drag-frame. He then reached down to grab a small hand garden shovel inside of the crate that held his oil sands to scope some up, then began to sift it over the dagger pattern.

He continued that same process until the wood half was completely covered in the oil sands. "Never just pack in the sands onto the pattern, make sure the sand is initially sifted over your mold pattern. This way the mold will be sure to set a nice surface finish when your metals are cooled within." Once the dagger model was covered by a few inches of sand in the drag-frame, he then started to simply dump sand onto the top of the shifted sand. "Now we just use a simple wooden stick to remove any excess sands. I also use this mallet to pack down the remaining sand down"

He started to run the flat of a long stick along the surface of the sands until all the excess was removed from the top. And just like he said, he picked up a small hand mallet to softly pack in the oil sands by patting it down. After everything appeared to be smooth, he grasped both sides of the frame to pick it an inch off of the table. Daedalus waited a moment to see if anything would fall out from the bottom before flipping it over to reveal the flat side of the dagger pattern.

As he placed the cope-frame on top of the drag, he then started to lock both the frames together by attaching metal clamps to the ridges on the sides of the frames. "Ah, right. I've done this a lot so I tend to just flip it over. You may want to put a wooden board over it before you flip drag to start working on a cope." He spoke as he started to repeat the exact same process as before but with a few more items rather than just the dagger pattern.

While it was true that he placed the second half of the wooden pattern perfectly onto of the other. He also retrieved a solid wood cylinder that was an inch in circumference and a foot in length from a shelf above the table. "This will act as the riser where the excess metals will escape once they are poured. Given we are making a blade, I want the metals to escape near the hilt rather than the blade itself."

He then retrieved a smaller solid wooden cylinder for the spruce mold that had a wider top to form the area where the pouring of metals would occur. As he said before, the Metalsmith then placed that pattern on the opposite side of the hilt before filling the cope-frame to encase each of those wooden patterns in the sand.

Once both the halves were complete reached to grab a long nail on the table to stick the pointed end into one of the many small holes along the backs of the wood patterns. He wiggled the nail around before using a scooping motion to pull the dagger partners from each of the molds leaving only a negative imprint of the dagger patterns in the sands as he set the patterns aside. He used that same method to remove the spruce and runner as well.

"The only thing left is to connect the spruce and riser to the mold cavity with runner trails, which is easy to do. Just carve out an appropriately side trail in the sands." He said as he used that very same long nail to carve a trail in the sand leading from the spruce to the hilt, then a second runner leading from hilt cavity to the runner cavity. He made sure to make sure that each runner vent was about the size of his thumb before turning back to the woman.

"Now. Show me how much you followed along. There is another cope and drag under the table, use them and the pattern to make your own sand cast following the steps I showed you. But first, go place the copper and tin into the crucible."

[Kelski]

Kelski watched Daedalus as he moved about his workshop. She wasn’t one of those types that would stand back and watch from a distance. She followed him like a shadow and moved when he moved so she missed nothing from a space somewhere to the right of his right elbow. The Kelvic did as Daedalus asked, but otherwise stayed out of his way even in her close proximity. His question, though, caused her to pause to think as he bent over and pulled forth the equipment from beneath the table.

Her eyes followed the line of his back where the muscles stretched under his shirt as he leaned over. Working the forge had been good to his form. He looked strong and fit. She thought him beautiful when he moved, though it wasn’t a thing she’d ever voice to him. Daedalus didn’t strike her as the type that would enjoy such a compliment.

Her guard looked exceedingly bored but kept watching her from across the room.

The frame she was familiar with, so too was the cope. They were comforting things, and the familiarity of them washed over her bringing her a peace that she hadn’t felt in the chimes before. He complimented her in his own stern almost absent way and she understood maybe he was trying to settle her earlier anger. She hated the fact her face gave her thoughts away. And though she didn’t believe him about her voice, Kelski thought it was a nice gesture… a sort of peace offering between them.

“I do not play because I’ve never held an instrument. I sing, but only for the wind when it holds me in its arms, safe above the world. It’s not a sound I think humans would consider pleasant.” She did indeed cry as she flew – all eagles did - thanking the winds and the world and sometimes even the Storm God for lofting her high. It was an expression of joy, one showing their fierce love of flying free. Kelski as a human and as an eagle could make a wide range of trills and whistles that seemed to always surprise humans. It was the language of eagles and one she spoke well, just not to humans especially in this place. “Or at least I used too. Jaren does not let me fly. It’s been too long. Maybe I can’t anymore. I don’t know.” She said softly, her wide grey eyes flashed with a desperate sorrow for a moment and then the expression was gone.

When his words turned to work, she closed the gap and listened intently, resuming her spot at his right hand. It was a comforting place for her, having spent many hours at Master Li’s side working with him when his trembling hands got too much for him to do his work, but her knowledge wasn’t enough to fill in on her own. She missed her beloved Master. She was proud to be his apprentice and never felt like a lessor creature within his training. He’d sent her to fly too when she got overly tired or had been inside too much. And that was something she missed fiercely here.

Kelski nodded at the list, carefully listening to Daedalus. Awards were not uncommon, and she’d made belt buckles and amulets before too, mostly decorating them with cabochons or etchings. But she’d never created alloy. A slight flare of excitement crossed her expression. It impressed her that he seemed to have so many recipes in his head. There was a sort of joy in knowledge for her. And new knowledge was a new joy, one she felt very seldom in Sunberth. She clung to it like an addict spotting the source of their addiction after a long dry spell.

She committed the recipe to memory. Three units of copper to one unit tin. The formula for bronze was also given and she nodded. Nine units of copper to one unit of tin. So the issue was gauging heat. “Temperatures are tricky. It’s hard to teach cold. Its something that usually just comes from experience.” She said softly, knowing she had no experience making alloys… thus none making bell bronze or bronze itself.

She noted the dagger blank, and wondered what the strength of a cast dagger was verses one that was forged. “Aren’t these inferior weapons if they are cast from molds? Wouldn’t it be better to forge them by folding metal for strength?” She only knew that because Kelski had made a blacksmith friend in Lhavit that often talked about forging and how well it worked for weapons. Did Daedalus have the same opinion? The Kelvic was curious.

Daedalus continued his instruction and Kelski listened carefully. She wondered why he didn’t lay a bed of sand before he set the pattern down, but she didn’t comment on it. Before she cast jewelry, she’d always laid a bed down to pad it from the bottom up before she pounded her sand into place. She’d never sifted and listened closely because she was learning new things. When he filled the frame and pounded down, Kelski was following him closely.

Darvin, watching from a distance, pulled something rolled into what looked like thin paper, and lit it up quietly halfway across the room. He smoked quietly, relaxing even further as he watched his charge get more animated than he’d seen her all season.

It was clear to Kelski when Daedalus flipped the frame why he didn’t pad the bottom. The bottom had been what they were working on. She nodded to herself and leaned closer, watching him work. She noted how he held the mallet, how his sifter was constructed, and she even leaned forward to pinch at the sand and sniff it to judge what it was oiled with and how much oil the actual sand was holding.

“You use terms I don’t know. Riser? Is that the thing you use to cut the pathway for the metal to come and fill the frame? We don’t do that, but you use far more significant quantities of metal than jewelers do. We make our blanks from carved wax and leave it in the frame. When you pour the molten metal in, it vaporizes the wax and burns it off leaving the metal to fill the void. This is different… using a pattern that’s clay or wood… and nice because you don’t have to carve a lost wax casting over and over again. That’s labor intensive.” She added, glancing up at him and then back down to where he was completing the other half. When he pulled the patterns and runner, she was impressed. She watched him connect all the metal pathways together and nodded, leaning half over the table for a good view.

She looked delighted when he told her to set another one up. She paused though when he said to go start the alloy. “We’re making bell bronze right? Three copper to one tin? Not true bronze which is nine to one?” She said half to herself, already moving to the ingots and gloving up to place them in the crucible. She laid them in and then glanced at where it hung on the forge. Was this a test? She wanted to go ahead and put them over the heat, but he hadn’t said to do so. “I can start heating them right?” She double checked and if he nodded she’d put them to heating carefully using the tongs. Kelski’s hands were scarred from her craft, but they were the good kind of scars she’d earned learning and making mistakes. Gloves interfered with fine work and so she rarely wore them. The ones he had for her were designed for bigger hands so they fit her hard dark nails which were more like talons than actual fingernails. The truth be told her unique nails had saved her more than once in her own workshop.

Once that was accomplished, she retrieved the second frame set, cop, and drag… pulling them out and setting them up the way he’d showed her. She laid the pattern in the frame after taking the time to give the pattern a good look to see how it was made. If she could make one at her own forge, she might be able to make small weapons for herself. They wouldn’t be quality, but it would be something to carry with her to protect herself around town if she could save or scrounge the metal. There was a lot of scrap in the ruins, but gathering or scrounging would be difficult with a guard shadowing her all the time. Kelski would have to give it further thought. It would be far easier to just buy a dagger or two somewhere like here. She wondered if Daedalus would sell her one?

Her pattern was laid out and Kelski grabbed the sifter and loaded it with sand. She sifted sand over the top of the pattern until it was two inches thick and then set the sifter aside. Kelski shoveled in enough sand to fill the rest of the frame and then pounded it gently down until it was firm. She lifted, checking the tighteness of the fit, and then inverted it and repeated his steps to get the top full. She started to put the riser in near the blade and then remembered what he said about the metals overflowing near the hilt not the blade and changed the position. Carefully the riser was placed and then she used what he called the spruce mold cylinder to make the pouring area. It took her a moment to find his nail. She grinned when she spotted it, plucked it up off the counter, and then carefully began to remove the patterns.

Once they were carefully set aside, she copied his actions of a chime before as she used the nail to carefully – and a lot slower than he had – carve channels linking everything together in the exact places he had on his mold. She tested the size of the runner vent by inserting her thumb carefully then stepped back, thinking both molds were ready.

She turned then and nibbled at his arm, excited, her white teeth gentle on the space between his elbow and shoulder. Her features were lit with pleasure and as she preened his arm instinctually, drawing in his scent before she glanced over at where the metals were melting together and took a step in that direction. “Do we need to do anything to the metals? Stir them or …?” She honestly had no idea if she needed to stir the alloys as they blended together or if the fire would do all the work for them. Kelski didn’t seem to realize she’d laid her teeth into him. In her mind it was her beak and perfectly normal.

The Kelvic had questions too. “How long can you leave the molds unfilled? How do you calculate how much metal you’ll need for each project? I can’t seem to picture how much will be needed just by the mold. Is there math you can do or do you just get a feel for it… I would think the pattern would be ruined if you only had enough for a partial fill and had to do it more than once? Do you make more than you need then have overages? Where do you put the overage after you pour and the mold is full?” She asked in rapid fire succession, reaching out to take a pinch of the oil sand again from its crate… “What do you oil this with?” She asked, knowing it was a different consistency than her own sand was. Did that matter? She suspected it did.

The Kelvic found herself staring up at him, waiting the answers, eyes wide and expression happy.

[Daedalus Dagwood]

Violence. Art. Sometimes the line was a hard one to draw. They came so close to one another; and it was so often that art was crafted with blood. Daedalus had survived her onslaught of questions with supreme confidence, just turning to look the woman in the eyes as she stood there gleaming at him. He wasn't sure why she suddenly started to nibble at him, but he enjoyed it so had no reason to tell her to stop. In fact, as she stared up at him Daedalus leaned in to steal a kiss. It was a stolen kiss, but not a quick peck. Letting his lips firmly press with her lush 'beak' before leaning back to continue the lesson.

“Inferior only in quality when pitted against steel, not in design. A piece of decorative quality can still kill like any other weapon.”

The Metalsmith tapped the hilt of the rapier on his hip. “Once the dagger is cast, I plan on having you heat it in the forge to quench harden it which will give it some better durability should its new owner wish to fight with it. I was asked to make a prize, not a weapon. And so I chose to cast a gleaming bell bronze dagger which will be very pleasing to the eye...Also, yes. Start cooking the metals. You just need to leave them be and let the heat bind the alloy together. Any impurities will rise to the top of the crucible in the form of a thick layer of slag waste; which will need to be removed so always pour the slag off into your waste-bin crucible before making your initial pour into your molds.

The oils in the sand are nothing special, we just use the oil as a binding agent to keep the sands together. If you bind the sands correctly, you can leave it be for as long as you like until you make your pour. I also use wooden patterns because I just can't make wax... I like cutting out the middle man and making them myself. So practice carving to better what type of things you can form in a mold.”

He glanced to the side to the Dragoon before looking past the man to his sister Gwen who seemed to be gesturing towards him. A wry smile touched at the corners of his lips as he walked over towards her. “What?” The wry smile quickly finding itself to a grin as he listened to her regale him with a surprising tale.

“Can you repeat that?” Daedalus mused as he started walking towards the shop. “Its true, there is a new gang calling themselves The Vino active in Sunberth… one of them is in the shop.” The walk to the shop was quickly made until he found himself looking at two men wandering his wears.

He first let his eyes take in the sight of an older looking human adorned in fine black attire. Daedalus only spotted him first because the man appeared to be using a large glaive as a walking stick who held up one of the Merchant scales he had in stock. When the man turned to look at him, he notice the odd tattoo dancing up the side of the mans neck out from the side of his collared jacket.

When the first man turned to look at him, the second man did so as well. He also appeared to be human, but his thick brow hinted at a half-isurian parentage. He appeared to be wearing a very high collared sun-bleached coat, with a mace hanging from a weapons harness on his back. The mace wielder seemed to be holding several branding irons and manacles. “Hello gentlemen, my name is Daedalus Dagwood. Owner of this fine foundry. What can I do for you today?” Daedalus’s voice dropped an octave as his body language filled with hints of professionalism.

The man in the high collared coat spoke up first.“We represent the newest slave organization here in Sunberth. And we are here because we require branding irons and manacles... As many as you currently have in stock." Daedalus gave the man a soft nod of acknowledgment. "We have several in stock at the moment. When it comes to the Irons, I've crafted many with singular letters. What is the name of you organization?"

The human with the neck tattoo responded in a curt monotone which seemed eerily creepy. "We are the Vino." Daedalus turned his head to look towards the front door where he heard the sounds of a horse absently neighing outside.

"Gwen, get Darik and gather all of the manacles and any branding irons we have in stock that spell out Vino for our newest costumers. I'll also be sure to keep horseshoes in stock for all your mount related needs." He took up his place behind the shop counter to manage the payment of the transaction as the items were gathered. " I didn't catch your names?"

The high collard man gave Daedalus a nod before they introduced themselves. " Rictor Vino. And this is my brother, Zsavin Vino." Rictor spoke while motioning a hand towards Zsavin who seemed to be taking a peek into the foundry where he spotted the member of the Sun's Birth and a woman who seemed to be wearing their mark. "You allied with the Birth."

Daedalus walked from around the counter to walk past Zsavin to head back into the foundry. "I'm a legitimate merchant. That being said, I do have work to do so I'll let my sister Gwen handle your transaction." The members of The Vino each glanced pointedly at Darvin and Kelski before taking their leave from the foundry to await their transactions in the shop.

The Metalsmith walked back into the Smithy while in deep thought about how to deal with what just transpired. It was a simple interaction like two boats passing in the night. He didn't feel threatened and they only seemed slightly annoyed by the presence of the Sun's Birth. "That went better than expected." He thought to himself before taking his place back at his workstation.

"Now, where were we? Oh about Risers..." He continued where he left off with their conversation once Kelski found her way back over to him should she have wondered away during the momentary distraction.

"A riser can be a secondary cavity or an open riser tunnel leading to the surface of the mold. The riser fills with molten martial that has already flowed through the mold cavity. In the case of a cavity, the extra metal would cool within it to form a random piece of metal attached to the end product that we'd need to remove. An open tunnel means all that backdraft would 'Rise up' to over flow out the top of the sandcast."

He pointed to the riser he added to his sandcast. "On the topic of excess metals being made. I always make overages. That way I can just turn the extra into their own bars of ingots for latter use. Its way better to have more metal than you need than to have far too little. As an example, if any extra comes out the top of the rise, when it cools I just smelt it down into a liquid then pour it into an ingot mold."