Location: Tardide - Master Whitestone's Smithy
Time: Days 528-532 | Telia: Days 19-23
Realm: Telia (Mission World)
Master Whitestone's smithy smelled of charcoal, hot metal, and possibility. Jayde stood in the doorway watching the blacksmith work, fascinated by the precision of his hammer strikes, the way he read the steel's color to judge its temperature.
Behind him, seven boys clustered around the forge. War orphans all—ages, ranging from maybe eight to fourteen. Their faces bore the hollow-eyed look of children who'd seen too much, lost too much. But right now, watching molten steel glow in the forge's heart, something else flickered in their expressions.
Hope. Interest. The first stirrings of purpose.
"This," Master Whitestone announced, pulling a length of orange-hot steel from the forge, "is the blade assembly. The heart of our mechanical plow. Everything else supports this."
The oldest boy—Torin, his name was—leaned closer. "How hot does it need to be?"
