The workshop was made of dark stone walls and floor. The darker side of the room was lit by torches, and from the half-open side, soft daylight flowed in.
Tap
Tap
Clak
Aegon, meanwhile, was sitting at the table, inspecting it, but it was not stretched to his liking, so he put it again on the ring mandrel and picked up the hammer he had just put down.
Tap
Tap
He adjusted the other side and hammered from different angles again.
After doing it a few times, he removed the ring and saw that it was of acceptable size.
The ring itself was ordinary—it was silver with deep floral patterns on it. It was a woman's wedding ring that was being passed on to her new daughter-in-law. Her hands were small and old, so she had come to Aegon to have him make it a size larger.
Aegon had already cleaned it and now he had resized it, but the floral engravings on it were slightly damaged and partially erased by him while resizing.
But that was alright—he had already memorized the simple design, so now he would only have to re-engrave it.
He adjusted and moved his chair to a different side of the table where a small engraving clamp was fixed into it.
He took the ring and placed it into the jaws of the clamp, and with his other hand, he adjusted the grip and tightened it to hold the ring firmly.
Then he looked around. Getting up, he saw a few small tools—fine chisels and engraving burins—and picked them up.
He started working with focus and nimble hands to engrave the design.
When he was done, the sun was already low, with only a little golden light entering the small workshop.
'Only polishing...' he thought.
Polishing it would complete the work, whereas leaving it would only mean working on it again tomorrow.
He got up and brought a torch from nearby that was already lit, but while bringing it to the table, it was extinguished by a passing breeze from the open side.
He could go back and light it from another torch, but instead he looked out of the workshop and saw that no one was in the vicinity.
So he looked at the torch in his hand and said—
Agni!
A flame burst open as it lit the torch completely.
It was a surprising feat, but there was no particular expression on Aegon's face. He only looked at it without emotion for a moment.
Then he fitted it into a holder on the table nearby and started working on the polishing.
Polishing was different from the other processes. He took a leather pouch filled with coarse abrasive sand. He took a linen cloth and the ring.
The cloth lay sprawled across one hand; with the other, he poured the sand onto it, then took the ring and started rubbing it with the sand through the cloth.
The polishing process didn't take much time.
He adjusted the ring in the cloth and polished every nook and cranny.
He washed the ring thoroughly in water that was kept in a small bowl nearby and wiped it with a clean cloth.
It revealed a ring that was shiny and even in texture, with simple floral patterns.
Looking at the ring, he sighed deeply.
He closed the opening of the workshop with a wooden gate and locked it from the inside.
Taking the torch and extinguishing the others, he walked to the end of the workshop and opened a door, which led him to another workshop—one that was three times bigger than the one he worked in, and it even had a basement for storage.
This was the workshop his uncle and cousins worked in. They were full-fledged blacksmiths—or at least his uncle and eldest cousin were. His younger cousin was still an apprentice.
His uncle's health was in decline from working for decades as a town blacksmith, so nowadays he only advised and guided his cousins and him.
As for why he was not a blacksmith but a jeweler—that was because he, unlike his cousins who were built like oxen, did not have the constitution for it. Not that he liked it anyway—it was too tiring and extremely hot, and he did not like heat.
So he preferred doing intricate work that required a softer hand.
In the blacksmithing workshop, he went to a table with drawers and kept the resized ring in it.
He exited the workshop from the back door and entered a room that was at the rear of his house.
As a family of blacksmiths, they were among the richest people in the town, so their house was well-built. They also had two people who worked as housekeepers.
He went straight to the yard outside the house. The outer walls were built a little far from the house, leaving space for light farming and a garden, but their family had no women, so there was only wild grass and a few scattered plants growing under the dim evening sky.
There was also a well. He went up to it and tied the empty bucket to the rope of the pulley.
After lowering it into the well, he began turning the pulley and brought the bucket of water up.
With the water, he started washing his face, hands, and body, removing his shirt.
A few moments later, his cousin Raywin came out of the door and saw Aegon washing himself.
"You are late!" he called out.
Aegon turned to him and said, "I was working on the ring of the potter's family. I kept it in the right drawer," and continued washing himself.
"You should have started earlier, cus," Raywin said.
"I know," Aegon replied.
Raywin shook his head and went back into the house.
After washing himself, Aegon went to the kitchen and served himself supper. Since he was working late, his uncle and cousins must have already had dinner, so it was only him tonight.
It was lamb chop with some garlic bread—a hearty meal. As a magic user, it was important for him to eat well and keep his body strong, even if his constitution was weak.
He took his time with the meal. After finishing, just as he was about to leave, he looked at the two lamps that lit the room.
He looked at one lamp and said, "Nirvāṇa."
The flame in the lamp obeyed and, with a soft 'zhup', extinguished itself.
He looked at the other and said, "Śāmayati."
The flame was influenced—it calmed down and extinguished itself gently.
This was the ancient language—Sanskrit.
With that, he turned and began walking toward his room, which was on the upper floor.
Whatever he had learned of magic, he had learned from the books written by his mother.
His mother was a mage. When she was pregnant with Aegon, she found out that she would likely die in childbirth, and magic was the love of her life, so she wrote four books to pass down her knowledge—everything she had learned—and left them for him.
Aegon entered his room, which was quite simple, with a window, a bed, a table for studying, and a cupboard for his things.
On the table there was a lamp and four books—three books and one diary, to be precise.
He walked to the table and picked up the lamp, which was unlit.
He muttered the word for fire—'Agni'—and lit the lamp, which brought light to his dark room.
He looked at the books.
One book was for the history of their continent and information about races and animals.
One was about the languages of magic and other history and information about magic.
The third was for practicing magic.
The last one was her own personal diary, which she had written especially for Aegon during her days of pregnancy.
This was his inheritance.
His mother's legacy.