Blacksmith's conundrum
The half-gnome woman hefted the bar of heated iron onto the anvil, and began to draw it out with heavy, deliberate blows. These were her favourite orders to fill. Though she didn’t make as much money with them, they were easy, and ease meant she could fill the order quickly. Especially so since the man who ordered the blade only had three requests, long sword, sharp and cheap. Strange for a knight for the church, but a request is a request so she didn’t ask many questions, though she’d inquired at one point and his answer just gave her more questions.
The man had told her “If I die, I want to leave nothing that could kill easily behind.” Which made her wonder if it was so hard to kill with the cheap blade she made why he would choose to use it over something else. Maybe he was just skilled enough with the cheap arms it didn’t matter. She’d seen his strength in action once before, and heard tales of other times but the most outlandish story was that he was just a normal human man.
She’d seen plenty of strong men almost inhumanly so, Teffney thought but if even half the stories were true the man would be dead by now. The stories fall just short of him slaying a dragon, no doubt with his indomitable will he could accomplish such a task if dragons still existed. Still even a non believer had to take some stock in the fact The Mother’s Holy Knight has survived impossible odds.
Teffney stopped hammering a moment and wiped some sweat from her brow, before returning the metal to the forge. A part of her wanted to try again to give the man protecting the city, Hells the country something better than a sword made of scraps and flawed iron, but the last time she’d attempted he refused the blade. She’d managed to sell it later but she wasted the effort, and it was disheartening that he didn’t want something worthy of his station and to help him better protect people.
He hadn’t even let her fix the broken horns on his helmet. It would have only taken her a few minutes after she forged the new horns but he never seemed to take the armour off. To her knowledge none of the other knights of the church followed that rule. In fact he was the only one to wear a helmet. Which she found strange. Teffney guessed it was because he was probably a mass of scars by now, and hid his face to not scare people. It was the only thing that made sense. Teffney laughed to herself slightly as she pulled the iron from the forge again. Not likely he’s as handsome as a prince in a story book. She went back to working the metal, checking it with the chalk sketch making sure it was getting to the proper size.
Once she’d managed to pull the metal into shape, she took the blade in a pair of tongs and quenched it, making the iron hard. She leaned in close as she ran a file over the blades edges as she listened for flaws in the quench. Cheap or not she didn’t want a blade that shattered after two uses. The knight was a good customer and he’d get quality even though it wasn’t what she’d want to sell him. She grabbed a piece of black walnut that was pre-drilled with a starter hole, though it was much, much smaller. She placed the tang of the blade in the forge until it almost started to glow, and immediately moved it to a vice, and worked the piece of wood down, using the heated metal to burn the hole to fit snuggly. Once it was fit she quickly pulled it off before it fully cooled and moved over to the station with wood working tools and began to carve the handle into an ergonomic shape. Before fitting it back on the tang of the blade, sticking it with glue and a pommel, placing it to the side for him to pick up.
She finished in record time, she’d made about as many of these as her smithing teacher made her make knives. So it only makes sense she could do it in her sleep. Teffney wished he’d bring more of the broken swords back so she could salvage something, but she knew that knight probably never had it cross his mind.
She wiped the sweat from her forehead and fanned herself a bit before getting a drink of water and taking a seat to rest. She closed her eyes a minute, and nearly jumped out of her skin, when she heard the clatter of armour moving and nearly jumped. When she saw the figure of the knight standing in the shadow of the doorway. When he stepped in, her eyes adjusted to the change in light and saw the church's knight.
“Do you have my blade?” Sunder asked.
Teffney nodded quickly. “I just finished.” she said getting up from her stool and took quick hurried steps over to the workbench and lifted the sword, she held it out to him so he could take it by the handle and when they exchanged hands the size difference of the two was even more clear. The sword went from looking like a massive broadsword in her hands to a short sword in Sunders hand. Teffney took a few quick steps back because she knew he would not harm her, but he would always take a few practice swings.
Once she was backed away and clear Sunder swung the blade hard enough she could hear it cutting the air with a little ‘woosh, woosh’ “No way he’s just a human.” she thought, as he went through a series of sword forms. “Those knights are given boons by ‘The Fair Lady’ right?” she thought, “He’s probably nearly a god himself to be able to protect ‘The Mother’.”
Sunder went from a powerful looking slash straight to sheathing the blade. “Fine work.” he said, as he reached for the coin pouch on his belt.
“Are you certain…” she watched him count out too many coins again, he always over paid. “I know you will decline but I would feel heartbroken and at fault if you died because you were ill equipped.”
Sunder placed the coins on the table and slapped the sheathed blade. “This will more than suffice. Should it break I will take a blade from a fallen combatant.” he said.
Teffney forced a smile and nodded. “I will be here if you require another blade.”
Sunder nodded, and took his leave.
She let out a breath, he was kind and had done nothing in any encounter to make her believe him a danger, aside from his stories but when he was around there was a power to his presence she couldn’t ignore and it felt heavy.