This Torsten was a pampered prick! He kept finding trouble with me, while I mostly ignored him. He is older at nine years of age. About a year back he tried to give me a beating but hurt himself in the process. He hit me with all his strength… I was six and he was eight. He aimed for my belly. But I was training my body ever since I became three and had strong aether from my first year of life. His fist was met with a rock-hard surface as a result and his fist got bloodied… I have to say that he was strong for his age, but I was an anomaly with the determination of an adult in the body of a kid. With my aim to forge an outstanding apex body naturally I never thought about how others would feel by hitting me.
That incident however reminded me of my roots. Within the martial arts concepts I studied, there was the concept of catching and dispersing the power of others. Similarly, there was an advanced version that was basically a return to the sender. But those were in the realm of movement awareness not inner awareness and to me… It was clear which one came more easily. In fact, this event is what triggered my training of the wiping spine movement.
Until that try to beat me, I was facing a great delusion. It didn't quite click in my mind that in this world where so many people were kind and willingly helped me there would be the threat of death. But that outburst from Torsten woke me to the cruel reality. This world was far more primal than the Earth I came from. Heck even Earth had constant killings and conflicts. This power-driven world was bound to be even more cruel than that. After all, back there it took skill, money, time, charisma and understanding of the police system to grow strong as strength was dependent on 'influence'. Here strength is far more literal and personal. As long as one had the talent silently bidding your time and growing stronger was enough to suddenly pop out and kill others to establish your authority.
I lacked power still. There were 3 more realms to go until the limit of what the normal people knew, but after that?
Torsten was looking at me with venom. The guy just can't give me a break…
"Good you're here! Go bring master Fjorn. There are important matters I must discuss with him!" He said haughtily. He had guts, gotta admit it. If I punched someone in the abdomen and my fist got bloodied, I'd be treating the guy as my ancestor and wouldn't dare to speak up like this… But then again he was a child… A very annoying... child… Let's troll him a little…
"So, what if I don't?" I ask lazily. By this time the forge was hot and hammer strikes were sounding out. Even if we shouted those inside would hardly hear us. So, Torsten, who could not reinforce his body, was to either wait, be nicer to me to convince me or brave the heat, that even I didn't dare to, directly. And he knew it!
"Youu!" He's word was filled with so much rage that it sounded low and strained. Sometimes I wondered how so much tension could exist in a kid. "Fine!" I could hear the venom in his words from a mile away "Please go in and call master Fjorn. I can't do it myself…" His last sentence was filled with the bitterness of inferiority. I really felt that this guy did not really hate me at first. He might be worried about losing his inheritance of the chief position. Too bad he couldn't see I was too anomalous to stay here. I'd definitely be taken to a magic school once the 5 years recruits sweep came.
"See? It wasn't so hard! Sure, I'll be right back with master Fjorn." I said with a bit of smugness. Looking back my infantile body was definitely making me too childish… There was no reason to gloat over being superior to an actual kid… But a big part of me couldn't hold back. It took so long to grow… I was still treated like a kid at times… This little victories over the other kids were really gratifying and besides I was teaching him a lesson he had to learn sooner or later anyway.
I turned around and entered the forge. Good thing that unlike my stamina my aether was something I hardly could run out of. Otherwise, my little practice from before would have stranded me outside as much as Torsten was… Way to lose face that would have been. I thought chuckling internally. I navigated the forge and went to the back where the main furnace was. I avoided the rest of the forges and didn't pay much about them. Master Fjord usually oversaw the ore smelting so he was there. The other furnaces that were used for forging were less visited by him.
Soon I saw him. He was not reinforcing his skin and body to dissipate the heat. I wondered how he wasn't sweating or his face drying up, but I gave up on the thought. He was a dwarf, of course he'd be fine here. I even felt that he was enjoying the temperature. Sometimes I wondered if the conditions in which one lived influenced the core formation process and that led to affinities… I wondered this because master Fjorn had a great fire affinity.
"Master! Torsten is outside and calling for you. He said he has some important news."
"I'll go later, tell him to wait. This batch is almost ready to pour into casts." He said dismissively. "Boy what took you so long? We couldn't wait anymore and had to start up work here."
"About that… I was immersed in wood splitting… I finally did that thing I told you about. I'm not yet capable of doing it on command but… It's progress."
"Good for you, little rascal, but what about your promise to me? Hm?" He asked shouting over the sound of hammers. "Do you think that I'm someone you can lie to as you please?"
"Old man don't take me like this. You know that sometimes you just lose yourself in your work. How is it my fault that I had the luck of such a state today? If you were forging something, would you have moved away just for a promise made in passing or would you have finished hammering?"
"Damn little fuckin mouth you have. Been nice to yer and this is how ya responds? I'll remember this little fucker." It seems I touched a sore spot. Well, I guess someone would go out of their way to point something out like this only if it was something they wished could change about themselves. Who knows what happened to this grumpy dwarf to react like this… I saw his eyes flicker to a small golden chain on his wrist. It was the only form of jewelry or expensive body wear he ever showed up with… Similarly, a mystery to me, but it seems he was scolding me out of a personal regret he didn't wish for me.
"Let's go see what that snot bag outside wants" he said after he emptied the large smelting cauldron into the casts.
I followed after Fjorn outside.
"Oi little bone bag why are yer here? We are busy!" He asked Torsten.
"Grampa said he'd like to bring the plows here for maintenance…"
"Those things? I understand he can bring 'em. Now hurry off I got some work for this little tough bones next to me."
My ears perked up as usually he'd only keep me looking, carrying coal, fanning flames or controlling and keeping an eye on temperatures. Torsten left quickly while master Fjorn entered the forge with me in tow.
"Finn! Come her' quick, you buffoon!"
A red-faced youth quickly came from the side of the forge. No… He wasn't red faced. His face was red from the heat… How pitiable…
"Go with this scrawny bones to the pit. He'll introduce you to how things stand around here and hopefully teach you to stand the heat like a man. You look like a love smitten missy right now! Go before I'm disappointed further by ye."
I said nothing examining the newcomer. He was someone from outside the city that would stay at the dormitory in the forge. He'll be cooked day and night… Rare are the days when the smelting furnaces stop as its simply a waste of the coal used to heat them. It only happened when we ran out of ore, which happened rarely as the Aethelgard kingdom always ensured that master Fjorn would be busy. Having an elder Dwarf and a bored one at that available was a boon they couldn't pass. However, they also didn't dare force him to work. It was all up to his want and the process produce lots of coin. In fact, it was because of master Fjorn that we all had metal tableware. He was the kind of man that couldn't stop working.
Finn was a medium height guy. I think he was a bit more than twice my age at about 14-16 years of age. He looked robust, in the muscular sense, not the round sense… His face was a bit swelled from the heat, small tears were at the side of his eyes, probably an involuntary reaction of the body. He greeted me and didn't dare comment about my age, which in my books made him a good guy. Despite the swelling and the small tears, he was wearing a resolute expression.
"Understood!" I went out of the forge and headed back towards the pit. Finn followed me.
"Man… I don't understand how you and that man manage to stand in that heat looking unnafected…"
"I use aether… He… He's just a devil from hell at this point. Or at least he sure swears like one when mad…" I was walking ahead. "Don't worry I didn't fare much better at first. Can you use aether?"
"I can but I'm only in the awakening process…" he said with a hint of pride. Since most never even reached that. An aether blacksmith was a rare and respected occupation so it was natural he held pride in his heart.
"Ahh that's too bad you'll be struggling for quite a while longer…"
"What do you mean?"
"You see, you need to be at the gathering stage in order to control this technique with not too much effort so you can still do your work. That is not mentioning you need to use aether to fan, read and control the flames at the same time and that you also need to reinforce your hand to strike well and hold the metal firmly in its pincers…"
I explained Finn the details to the best of my abilities. It wasn't too complicated to explain in words, but the actual application was complex and required one to split his focus in multiple places. We continued talking even as we reached the pit and met Hale again. I introduced the two and proceeded to check on the insides of the pit by sensing the state of aether within. The temperature was still high and it seemed stable so aside from waiting we could only start early on emptying the other pit. However, since my muscles were still aching I wasn't eager for it.
In the meantime, we discussed and Finn asked about the split snag at which I laughed weakly while Hale explained what happened. Useless to say that now there was another that considered me a monster… Soon however we still had to do it since the furnaces were not interested of my pains and were hungry for fuel. With all three of us there it did not take long for the coal to be taken out, loaded into carts and be ready for delivery. Finns' contribution was small as he spent half the time figuring out how to reinforce his palms to disperse the heat while holding a piece of hot coal.
Needless to say, that he would not be able to work at all tomorrow, but at least he had the will and stubbornness to help us after he figured it out, despite his existing burns. Afterwards we tied the two carts of coal together and started pulling them to the forge. With aether reinforcement it wasn't too hard and this time Finn proved his worth as strength increase was something he was used to.
Soon we were back at the forge.
"Cato! Come here you little scourge. I have something for ye." Master Fjorn called for me.
"Finn, please help Hale deposit the charcoal." Finn nodded and I ran to master Fjorn.
The old dwarf led me in the forge and to the left side where he kept the items he himself forged.
"Boy, three years ago you pestered me to teach you how to forge. In these three years you left me wordless more times than I can count. It won't be long until you'll be swooped up and away by the magic schools. And so, it's time I start letting you gain experience with the iron." He looked down at me with a prideful gaze. "When I left my home, I've been told there's no way I'd find a disciple worthy of my name among the rest of the humans and yet I'm happy to say that those stone brained fools've been wrong! Until now you couldn't be called my disciple, but now this situation changes!" He picked up a hammer from the table. An exquisite design adorned its sides. An anvil stricken by a hammer light represented by changes in polish showing that the object on the anvil was hot and illuminated the darkness around to barely reveal the head of a man holding the hammer.
He held the hammer out to me.
"With this hammer I accept you as my disciple. I hope you won't make a fool out of yourself outside and shame this hammer or my name!"
I was surprised and didn't know what to do. Was I supposed to say a vow or something? Simply take it? This old man made this moment so solemn I had no idea what to do… So I took the hammer. And it's weight instantly made me curse under my breath. It was relatively small yet weighted more than ten kilograms. If I hadn't reinforced myself with aether beforehand, expecting unusual weight I'd have made a fool of myself by dropping it.
Regardless I took it and moved to a nearby anvil. I raised the hammer above my head and struck down with all the force I could without loosing control of it. The flat head of the hammer perfectly aligned itself with the anvil and a loud, deep clang resounded, reverberating through the forge. This sort of flat strike was the hail mark of a blacksmith. Any other sort of strike would damage the hammer and create a piercing sound. It would also result in a decentered product.
"I'll do my best to live up to your expectations!"
Suddenly applause sounded out. Without me realizing Stig, the actual blacksmith of Rovandel, Erland, Brynjar and Oskar, the three apprentices under the tutelage of, in name Stig, in fact Fjorn, showed up. They were all clapping for me, but I honestly felt that Stig's gaze at me stung. The strike I just performed was a hard feat and as far as he knew I never touched a hammer in this smithy.
Then Fjorn continued by saying:
"Tomorrow you will join us in the maintenance job on the plows."
Finally! I will be taking the first real steps towards truly learning to forge!