[Haven] The Spaces Between

[Elisabeth Black]

Vhalar 55, Arc 722

It was past midtrial when Elisabeth realized that she hadn't seen Balthazar since the morning meal. She felt him, as always, within her mind. It was hard to admit how much she relied on being able to sense him through that connection and their magic. Regardless of distance, he was always with her, providing calm and an anchor.

Luckily, Balthazar just happened to be home in Haven, so seeing him was something Elisabeth was soaking up every moment of. Occasionally, she'd wake in the dead of night and watch him sleep, noting how young he looked when, for those moments, the weight he carried with him every trial was lifted. She tried her best to help him bear the pressure, but she wasn't sure how good a job she did, so her focus often centered on being a supportive, positive force in his life - his safe place.

Lingering far longer than she wished, Elisabeth decided to banish the melancholy mood by finding her husband and, hopefully, spending some time with him – something that always cheered her up. Setting down the pen on the desk, she rose and went to do just that.

She stepped out of Haven House and immediately heard noise from the workshop, prompting a soft smile. It seemed he hadn't gone far from her - the noise she could hear meant he was in the attached forge. For safety purposes, Elisabeth never bothered him while he was in the workshop proper, but the forge was a different situation.

Walking around the side of the workshop, the settlement leader stopped at the corner. He was there, obviously, collecting some tools and generally lost in his thoughts, as Balthazar often was. Elisabeth thought to call over to him, but something made her hold her tongue for the moment.

Leaning against the building, she mused about the fact that whenever she saw Balthazar, her heart raced a bit. Being married hadn't changed that. Well, at least it hadn't diminished the feeling. Trial after trial, Elisabeth only felt her feelings grow and strengthen, and she hoped that would always be the case. For as long as they graced each others' lives, she wanted to feel that jolt of energy, reminding her of their first trials and the butterflies in the belly that would always be associated with him.

Catching herself getting lost in thought, Elisabeth finally spoke, drawing her long dark locks into a high ponytail to keep them out of her way, moving into the room with a smile that only being with her husband produced. "Need an extra set of hands? I find myself with some spare time...."

[Balthazar Black]

55 Vhalar 722

Balthazar was humming. It didn't sound particularly good or rhythmic but he did find himself humming as he worked away in the forge- shaping metal into nails. Nails were easy. You made a sharp end and a flat end for striking. You tempered them so they would be strong. Haven could always use more nails and the metal, iron, was fairly cheap. He could get the raw metal cheaper than buying a bundle of nails from other smiths and then he could forge them himself. He got practice and Haven got nails. He didn't spend all of his time in Haven working in the forge but he did enjoy the time that he spent there. In the forge he could escape everything else. He could take the time to focus on something that wasn't doomed to end in violence. He didn't have to think about the company or the people in Almund. He didn't have to think about the Merchant Guild or the businesses he provided security for. He got to think about the things he wanted to think about. He got to look out into the open air at the home he'd helped build for Elisabeth and himself.

It was a good feeling but it was one he could never indulge forever.

The humming would have been difficult to hear over the sound of his hammer banging against the iron rod he was holding and the anvil. Each iron rod he had could be cut down into four different nails before he needed to hold it with tongs rather than his hands to hold it properly. Then again that was only because he wasn't using defiance to heat the metal. He let the elements advise him when the fire was hot enough or when the iron was prepared to be moved off the flames, but he didn't coax them to caress the iron and he didn't coax them to burn hotter. He just listened to them. Slowly but surely, the end of the rod was hammer into a sort of triangular point. It was faster than it would have been if he'd used another metal like steel. Steel was stronger. It took longer to heat up. It took longer to shape.

The problem with faster and softer metal was that he was still hitting it with the same level of force. The iron flattened faster and he wasn't quite turning it enough to taper the point he wanted. He did notice though and so he made a mental note about how to rotate it correctly before adjusting and refining the tip of the nail. When the tip was ready the more difficult step began. Smashing a head into the nail.

What a strange series of words. Arcs ago it would have meant something entirely different for Balthazar but now it was a task to create rather than to destroy.

He brought the nail back to the flames and submerged it so that it could begin to heat up again. Hammering the metal, as well as time, pushed the heat out. The cooler the metal got, the harder it was to shape... unless it was faldrunium. That metal worked under the opposite rules but it became brittle when it cooled. It was a strange metal which Balthazar did not look forward to experimenting with.

He was watching the iron rod begin to change color when Elisabeth arrived. She didn't manage to startle him because he could sense her moving closer. He always had a general sense of where the things he had attuned to were and her's was a frequency he never willingly let go of. It was one of the first he had learned again when the paradigm was removed and it would be the first he learned if it ever happened again.

Paradigm... that was a metal he wanted to learn to forge. What gave it the property which took magic from mages but not their marks? If he held a sword made of it, would he suffer the same effect as the shackles? If he impaled someone on the sword, would they suffer that effect? That was a mysterious metal, not a difficult one. It sparked his curiosity more than faldrunium which simply defied his conventional smithing knowledge.

He noticed when Elisabeth stopped and began to stare but he said nothing. Why ruin her fun? He kept his eyes on the changing color of the iron even though he wanted to look at her. He knew better than to leave the metal unattended. He'd burnt and wasted steel before. He did turn his head slightly towards her to indicate that he knew she was there, but he said nothing until she spoke to him.

"I'm making nails. It isn't really a job for two but I have some extra iron rods. We could share the anvils." Balthazar replied as he pulled the orange-hot nail from the flames and brought it over to the a raised tool he could not figure out the name for. It had a sharp edge for him to place the metal and cut about half way to three quarter through it. Balthazar put the hot iron against the sharp blade and hammered it a few times, cutting into the metal just enough before bringing it back over to the anvil and setting the cut end to dangle over the side. He hit it a few more times, bending the thin rod before moving it back into the flames. "Grab one of those rods," he said with a gesture to the pile, "Put it in the fire and I'll walk you through it once I'm done with this nail."

[Elisabeth Black]

Vhalar 55, Arc 722

Of course, he knew she was there, but that wasn’t the point. Instead, Elisabeth chose the path of life that allowed her to stop and smell the proverbial roses now and then. For as often as the pair managed to get thrust into danger, being able to appreciate all that one had was a gift. From the moment they met, her husband had been the unexpected treasure she would be forever thankful for.

The humming caught her slightly off guard but in the most wonderful of ways. Balthazar didn’t indulge in the act often, and the quality was irrelevant to her. The sound was beautiful because it meant that, for lack of a better way to describe it, he was in his happy place with little to distract. His way of appreciating the moment, she assumed.

After being invited into the space, the young mage smiled, doing precisely as he instructed, remembering a time that felt far too long ago. “You know, right around the same time we met, I met someone else in Rharne that gave me a few metalworking lessons. I found out later he was Vega’s brother, Varlum. He helped me make a terrible sword.” The last part was said with a soft laugh. She was skilled in many, many, many things, but metalworking wasn’t one of them. Still, the love of learning burned within her, so Elisabeth jumped when opportunities arose to expand her knowledge of...well, most anything.

Thoughts of Rharne were filled with mixed emotions. There, within her, a great love of the city was harbored for apparent reasons, but some darker emotions were still attached. Elisabeth doubted she could ever shed them, but one always held out hope for such things. One thing she had learned throughout the past few years was good or bad, everything helped shape who one became, so in that sense, Rharne had done a little of both.

Glancing at the metal rod in the fire, she inferred that they would form that, once malleable, into a slenderer version of itself before cutting lengths off to make the nails themselves. Nails were something that there would always be a need for, so it made sense as a starter lesson.

Learning from or with Balthazar was a unique affair. The mage had a way of looking at the world that fascinated her, often unlike most others. Framed and formed by his own experiences in life, he shared with her what he knew, and wisdom learned - primarily through trial and error. Mistakes made in the past were freely admitted in hopes of keeping her from making the same, but then again, she had made her own share of missteps.

A synergy between them, learning and growing together, constantly motivated and inspired her. Each lesson was a chance for them to evolve individually and as a married couple, and that was something Elisabeth relished.

Waiting for him to finish, she glanced over, watching what he was doing intently, hoping to pick up something of what he was doing before she set off doing it herself.

[Balthazar Black]

55 Vhalar 722

Balthazar continued to work the metal rods as Elisabeth spoke but he did listen. He broke off a section of the bent rod and picked it up with tongs before beginning to hammer one end into a sharper point. The process would be repeated over and over. One end sharpened and one end flattened to make the nail. He quenched them in oil to strengthen the nail rather than water. Both worked but he had discovered earlier in the trial that when he quenched in the water the nails became more brittle. He hadn't intentionally snapped one of his earlier nails in half but he was testing the durability with a hammer and his magic so... it didn't hold up for long.

Fortunately he had the oil which was now sitting in his quenching tank. He had to keep the nails in the oil longer but they came out strong as far as his spark could tell him. Once he had the nail hammered into a decent shape, he put it back in the fire to heat it up again for the last quench. A final quench seemed to seal in the strength of whatever he put through the force.

It was about this time that Elisabeth mentioned Varlum. Oddly enough the part that caught his attention wasn't the sword. "The big ithecal is Vega's brother?" Balthazar repeated it quietly, more so to himself than to Elisabeth. He moved on quickly, "I'm sure it wasn't that bad. My first sword broke- well I broke it." He had always been more skilled using his hands in combat. "I first started learning this when I was a private investigator. I traded a trial of work with a smith for information." As he said that, he pulled the nail from the fire with the tongs and quenched it in the oil- causing a small plume of flame to shoot up before the nail was completely submerged.

He didn't flinch and the flame didn't reach him, despite it's best efforts. He smiled at the small and sudden flame but he knew he should have submerged the nail in the oil faster.

"Lesson one, how to hold a hammer." Balthazar said as he began moving the nail around in the oil. After a few more trills he pulled it out and set it aside with the other nails he'd finished already. Then he set aside his tongs and picked up two of the hammers he used for forging. He held out the one in his left hand for Elisabeth. "I'll assume you know because you made a sword, but hold it from the bottom not near the head, you'll lose force and might hit your fingers." Assuming she took the hammer he'd continue the lesson by picking up his tongs again and pulling the iron rod out of the fire. As he moved over to the anvil he said, "I'll hold and rotate it, you start striking the end to try and form a point. Then we cut it and flatten the top. Then quench. Then do it again."

[Balthazar Black]

Rewards Requested

Notes/Warnings: I am unfortunately going through and submitting old, unfinished threads with Balthazar and Elisabeth. This is just a small moment where they were going to practice blacksmithing together.

Thread: [Haven] The Spaces Between
City/Area: Faldrass Island

Renown: If applicable?
Wealth Points: None
Collaboration: Yes
Local Language Thread? No

!	Message from: Pig Boy
	Done!

[Pig Boy]

Elisabeth Black

Feedback

I really love the template you used here. Quite pretty.

Come back.

Also, as always your writing contains great characterization and shows the consistency of Elisabeth's feelings toward everything surrounding Haven and Balthazar. It was also neat to hear her name drop Praetorum.

Great writing, a shame it was not finished, but hopefully you'll be back for more lessons from Balthazar.

Rewards

• XP: 15

Balthazar Black

Feedback

Smithing is a relaxing activity to write about. Something about the simplicity and repetitiveness of the tasks, one like hammering out nail after nail is just one of those tasks one can just write about for pages.

You wrote 1500 words minimum, but you didn't write out 3 posts in total. Try to go for 3 posts if claiming full knowledge in the future.

Too bad this thread was abandoned.

It was well written by both of you.

Rewards

• XP: 15

Knowledges

• Smithing: How to taper the end of an iron nail from a rod
• Smithing: How to cut and flatten to form a nail's head
• Smithing: Iron is softer than steel
• Smithing: Rotation is important when forging from a rod
• Smithing: Hammering causes heat to leave the metal over time
• Smithing: Quenching in water is faster but can make metal brittle
• Smithing: Quenching in oil is slower but hardens metal better
• Teaching: Don't assume competency in your students, show them everything