Chapter 42: A New Life, An Old Legacy

Chapter 42: A New Life, An Old Legacy

Landar

As the family was cooking and putting the finishing touches on dinner, I found myself absorbed in my work.

The forge fire burned hot as I pushed the billowes as hard as I could. The metal on the antlers was heavily infused with mana, and it would require more than mere flames to make them melt into a usable form.

The forge wasnt large by any means, with just enough room inside for a small iron anvil, the billows, a sand pit, and a workbench that held all the tools I had painstakingly recreated over the last four years. Largely through trial and error, but also through careful questioning of the dwarven smiths the Farmer had business with from time to time.

His land was rocky, filled with flinty ore of various kinds. It wasnt high enough quality for most human smiths to touch, but for some reason the dwarves found the stuff useful from time to time. Trading pelts, leather, and tools for it on multiple occasions during the last five years id been here.

As soon as the fire was hot enough to where I thought it had a good chance of melting the metal, I grabbed my tongues and shoved the antlers into the burning red hot coals at the small furnaces heart. Then, I stared into the flames watching for the color in the antlers to shift. Its been a long time. I said to the crackling coals. Ive gotten stronger since then, grown a lot.

The antlers were reaching a fine orange coloring, and I saw small sparks of multi-colored mana leap off the hottest parts of the fire.

Perfect.

I pulled the antlers out, and lifted the small rune inscribed hammer I had created. It wasnt heavy, but it was solid. As it landed on the antlers, the bone broke like glass. Turning to ash. While the metal took on a new flattened shape.

As the color began shifting to a darker hue, I shoved the metal back into the coals and reheated it. Then, back onto the small anvil, and more time with the hammer.

Finally, after three or four passes the impurities were gone, and the metal was in the correct shape. A long thin chisel bit. I added some mana into the mixture as I doused it in oil. Allowing the metal to absorb the mana infused minerals.

I then took it to the work bench, and sat at the small stone seat. Then, with my feet moving rhythmically, I got the grindstone moving faster and faster. I brought the would be tool, little more then a general shape at this point, down onto the stone and began shaping it.

Sparks flew everywhere, and the thick gloves I had put on protected my skin from the worst of it. Not that such weak sparks could leave permanent scars on me anymore. Not after so much had happened.

Finally, it was shaped, infused, and ready for the last stage of the work. I slowed the grined stone and retrieved my own set of small chisels. Much like the ones the Smith back home had helped me craft, but these were much better quality given the time and opportunity to refine the design I had had over the last five years.

Lets see, I pulled a small leather booklet from off a shelf and began pursuing my rune designs. I had them in my journal wiki, but I always felt looking at the actual designs somehow more informative.

I had picked up several more runes from the dwarves over the years. Without their knowledge of course. Learning the physical and magical properties of them through small glimpses, and ogling their wears at the yearly market the few times they had set up stalls. I had also almost blown myself and the house up more than once trying to painstakingly recreate each one.

I smiled at the memories, and just how close I had come to killing myself over the years.

Instead of just three or four runes that I had been given by the Woodcutters clan when I was twelve, I now had nearly twenty. I pulled out a small piece of parchment, scraps I had picked up from town here and there as people threw away what they thought couldnt be used anymore, and began drawing with a white chalk pencil my intended design.

A knock came at the door and I stopped what I was doing and looked up. I found an older woman, medium height with a face and beauty that had long abandoned true youth, and instead embraced a more mature aspect.

Hello love.

Hi Wilma, I smiled and wiped the sweat from my brow.

Working hard are we? I nodded. Good. Well, I hope youve worked up an apatite. The family has made a right feast of it tonight. I even broke out the sweets for the littles. The darlings are beside themselves, and just dying to start digging in. So, when do you think youll join us love?

Her accent was thicker than most others from the area, probably due to her family being one of the more well established.

The boy and me will be going to the capital for a few days, he said over a mug of watered down ale. A rare luxury out here in the middle of nowhere. Some of the kids began complaining, asking or demanding to go but he raised a hand and brought it down on the table with a hard thump. Silencing the dissent. I wont be haven no belly aching or gain saying! Not in my house! Now, the boy and me will be leaving tomorrow morning, bright and early just as I said. Well be traveling in rough weather, over broken road. Its dangerous, and treacherous, and I aint haven none of you little ones along. Understand me?

Heads nodded all along the childrens table, and I saw smiles from the mothers and fathers in the room. They all knew Farmer was all bark and very little bite. The smile he gave the room when they finally settled down reassured them all he was proud of all of them.

Good. Now, im told that our little Landar has cooked up another of his little metal work gadgets. Is that right boy? He looked at me, and I smiled.

Yes sir.

Well, dont hold us in suspense. What did you make this time?

And how long will it last? asked one of the teenage children. The jibe elicited snickers from almost everyone, including most of the adults. I smiled myself. I had after all had many failures in my early rune carving days on the farm. Over heating pots, pans that shattered rather then hardened, knives with a perpetually dull edge rather then a sharp one, and so on.

But with each experiment I had kept the finished products for myself. Now that I was leaving, and probably wouldnt be returning if things went according to plan, I felt it was the perfect time to leave the working trinkets to those that could use them.

I stood, and pulled the small cloth aside revealing my latest work. It was a long blade, with a hook on one end. The family wooed and awed at it, as it was a bright and polished brass color thanks to the minerals and mana I had inlaid it with.

That is a beautiful cooking knife, Wilma said, as I handed it over. But will it hold up long? My last one was good steel and it only lasted me three years.

I smirked and turned the blade over, revealing the delicately cut runes inlaid with tin that was polished to an almost silver like shine. Shell hold an edge for a long while. Youll probably be able to gift her to your great grand daughters and sons one day.

Wilma was greatful clearly, but the skeptical look she gave me only made the reality of the situation that much better. Looks like dwarven work. But pretty symbols dont mean spit if it wasnt done with dwarven skill.

She wasnt being mean, this was a lesson. Weather to me, or to her other kids I wasnt sure. But from her tone she was still skeptical. More than one scoundrel copied their pretty designs, and they didnt work half as well as plane steel. You have to watch out for hucksters. She met my eyes then. Not that I think youre one of those louts. Thank you for the gift boy. It means a lot, even if it wont last too long.

I couldnt help but smile as I handed over the blade, and pressed my thumb against the central rune. That little pressure created enough static energy to activate the rune, and pull the natural reserves of mana that the deer antlers held to the surface.

The blade glowed a slight white in the candle and fire light.

Oh, boy. This . . . what does it do? Everyone, including the adults clamored for a better view of the kitchen utensil. This glow I mean?

When active it sharpens the edge all on its own. Now, it needs a bit of energy from say, the sun and other natural elements to recharge. But once a day you just press this button, and itll sharpen and repair itself of any minor nicks or bends. Everyone was enthralled by it. Press this other design when the first is active, and the blade heats up. I put my finger on the lower rune and suddenly the very cutting edge of the blade visibly heated to a faintly brighter color. Perfect for cutting bread for breakfast. This you can do for about five minutes a day.

Wilmas expression shifted from confused, to awestruck, to mildly annoyed, and then finally some realization hit her and tears filled her eyes. She gook the blade and walked it into the kitchen. While she was gone the other family members all asked me questions and if I could make them something similar, or some variation on the item.

When she returned, she pulled me into a hug and whispered into my ear. Thank you boy. But this better not be the last time I see you.

My heart swelled, and the pain of my decision hit me like a ton of bricks. She didnt know what I was doing, or why. But she had clearly put enough together to know I wasnt planning on coming back soon. For a moment, I almost reconsidered.

Perhaps going peacefully, letting the Farmer introduce me as an eligible bachelor, and embracing the true purpose of the trip would be enough. Perhaps, I could finally fully embrace the new life I had built out here in the middle of nowhere with this hard working family.

But the memory of my mother and father fighting desperately to keep the blue knight and his goons from getting to me, of them sacrificing themselves for my sake was seared into my mind. The thought of Tabitha, and her inevitable fate and the injustice of it had my rage simmering even here.

I remembered the bag I had hidden in my workshop, filled with what I hoped would be the instruments of my vengeance, and my heart stilled.

Ill do my best. Dont worry, well be as safe as we can be, I lied and returned the hug as genuinely as I could. I couldnt help but feel like a liar.