I feel a lot better the next morning, even after a somewhat rough night. On the way to work, I'm glad to see that John is better, no more coughing. When Claire arrives for my lessons, we switch topics again, to math this time. Is she trying to at least cover a little of every subject?

It's... kind of weird, learning math again. Since it was the only thing I learned back in the program, I'm used to the way they taught it, which was all memorization and just doing tons of math problems either when they said them aloud, or by looking at them written down.

Claire is completely different. Especially because she isn't just teaching basic math, she goes over geometry and algebra, all the rules and formulas, and how everything should work. And of course, how to write it. It's only after all of that, when I understand the ideas, that she finally starts me on a good number of problems. She sticks to the topic all the way through the morning and afternoon, and before I know it, we're done for the day.

It's kind of amazing. I'm used to Claire's lessons being a huge rush of new information that I have to fight to understand. But math, math is so easy. I suck up every bit of information instantly.

It's like breathing.

After class, I have free time. I wave goodbye and walk out into the city.

Like Eryk said, I'm supposed to go play, but again, I do not have time for that. Even last night, I should have gotten to work on something at least, but I spent the time working through my feelings instead.

Ok fine, I feel so much better today because of it, and Reena even taught me a way to help deal with things when I get overwhelmed, but it doesn't matter if I'm dead!

No, no, calm. Deep breaths. I'm panicking. I've been putting this off, too busy with other less important things for so long that I have so little time that even thinking about this is freaking me out!

Calm, calm, calm, I keep telling myself.

There are some things I can do. There are some ideas I've had. I can work on those.

But will they really help at all?

I have no idea! That's why I'm doing it!

Alright, first, have to get home. Get some money.

It's Venaday. I have today, Hureday, and Nuvoday to prepare. And the bits of time after work on Saraday and Firoday, but not enough to do more than just practice with my mana or something.

I rush through the northeast district, into the orphanage, up to my room where I grab some of the money that's piled up under my bed from our hunting. Since the forest got stirred up, it's been too dangerous for the hobins or Emily to go out, so I haven't earned any money for a few weeks, but there's still plenty from before that.

Actually, now that Emily can sort of control mana, would it be safe for her?

No, because she doesn't actually have enough to pull mana out of animals. If she tried too hard, it would be like when I did it with Myra and knocked myself out too. Or she might just knock herself out with no effect on the animal and get eaten.

I definitely have to warn her not to do that if she's in danger...

But I'm getting sidetracked. I pull my thoughts back on topic as I make my way down North Main Street. I want to go to the blacksmith. I convert some fire and lightning mana so I can get around as fast as possible, and reach Gremory's shop.

I give a quick knock on the door, and he opens it soon after.

"Why, hello there," he greets me. "Been a while, hasn't it?"

"Yeah, it has," I agree.

"How have you been? You look kinda..." he trails off, rubbing his chin with an odd expression. What do I look like? I feel like I'm, what, determined? With my terrifying panic just underneath, driving me forward. "Well, come on in," he waves, and I walk into his workshop. Gremory falls heavily into his seat near the forge, and I notice something sitting inside. It's an ingot, still silvery gray, so it probably has a while left before it's hot enough for him to work with.

"So, what can I do for you today, little one?" he asks pleasantly.

I smile a little. "I actually wanted to put in an order."

"Oh really?" His eyebrows shoot up. "Not just here to talk for once?" He chuckles as he stands, waving me to follow again.

Halfway across the workshop, he suddenly stops, and I almost run into the back of his legs. "Oops, one moment." He turns back around and I dodge out of the way while he grabs up some tongs and slides the metal ingot out of the middle of the forge.

"Alright," he says shortly, and we head out of the room for real this time.

I follow into the front area where he had those grinding stones the first time I came here. Gremory leads me through the narrow room, a counter on the right and low tables on the left. I look up and see someone... familiar? Maybe? I don't know, he looks extremely plain, so it's hard to recall if I've met him before.

The average man eyes me, from my clean skin and hair, to my dirty clothing, with a slightly puzzled expression. I just pass by him, returning my attention to Gremory's enormous back. People watching me still bothers me...

I try to ignore the feeling, turning to follow as Gremory circles the counter, but he puts a hand up to stop me. I blink at it, and he chuckles. "That side." He sounds a bit amused, and I finally realize, if I'm here to order something, it's normal for the shopkeeper to stand on the other side of the counter... Fighting down the heat in my cheeks, I scurry over to stand in front of the counter while he stands behind it.

Of course, Gremory leans his massive body most of the way over the counter to look down at me. I can't even see over the top of the counter much anyway. Then he speaks up. "So, what are you here for?"

I quickly clear my throat and refocus. "Sorry, it's a little hard to describe." And I'm not completely sure what I want. After considering for a few moments, I decide to just admit it. "Ok, actually, I'm not sure." That gets an amused look again. "So basically, I want smaller pieces of metal."

As I speak, I draw one of my ingots, the iron, out of my bag and show it to him. "I'm not completely sure what shape or anything, but I wanted smaller pieces of some different types of metal. Like, just this much," and I use a hand visually show him just taking the end of the ingot off, maybe ten percent of the total length.

"Alright, just cutting off the end isn't too hard," he says, "but that's it?"

"Well, just cutting the end off might not be a good shape, so probably kind of round?" Yeah, if it's round, it won't have any points. Nothing to accidentally stab myself with. "Actually yeah. Could you make them round? And sort of flat? Or, actually, sort of a similar shape to coins? Like a flat circle?" I kind of just ramble out my thoughts as they come.

"Mm, that's fine," he agrees. "So what kind of metals are you looking for, and are you supplying them, or buying?" he adds, gesturing toward the iron ingot in my hand.

"I'll give you the metal," I say pretty much immediately, I hardly need to think about it. My goal is making it easier to carry around the metal I need, so I won't really need the larger ingots afterward anyway. Well, except mollite and durite for things like making powerful magnets.

So I dig through my bag, retrieving each of the ingots I need. "So, I would like one small piece of... tin, ignium, durite," placing each ingot on the counter as I go. "...nickel, iron, azrium, and chromium." At the last one, Gremory stands up straighter.

"Where did you get that?" he asks incredulously. I blink, then remember. This chromium ingot cost four irons, which should take an orphan like me the better part of a year to afford normally.

"Ahh, I bought it," I quickly try to clarify, remembering with a dull terror what happened in the clothing store. "The owner of the refinery was really interested in what I've been learning about metals, so I've been helping him out, and I'm making a whole lot more money now." I quickly throw out a whole bunch of things that are... true, if not actually related to one another.

"Huh, good for you," Gremory nods appreciatively, "I knew you had it in you. So you just want me to cut off some of these, and flatten them into circles?" He gazes down at the metals on the counter, a hand to his chin as he speaks. "That's fine, except for the chromium. My forge isn't really hot enough for the stuff. I'm sure I could get it done eventually, but you're better off taking it somewhere else."

"Alright, thanks," I nod and take back the chromium ingot. That's right, even the furnaces at the refinery can't actually melt it. I still remember how they pulled it out and had a team of men pound it down into shape before... "Oh, one more thing. Can you do the same with nuvrite, but make seven of them? And, uhh, can I buy the ingot for that?" I only have one nuvrite ingot of my own which I might need, and it would take most of it to make all of the pieces, so I'd rather buy a new one.

"Sure, that's fine. Is that all?" I nod, and he grabs a small piece of wood, then a pen and a bottle of ink from somewhere behind the counter. "So, flat circles, one each of tin, ignium, durite..." He continues reading off the order as he presumably writes it down. I lean up over the edge of the counter to watch. Since I'm working at the refinery, I made sure to learn all of the metals, but I can't actually read any of it because it's upside down from this side of the counter.

"...And one ingot of nuvrite, forged into seven flat circles," he eventually finishes. Gremory picks up the order and stares at it. "Hmm, they're real simple, but there are thirteen pieces..." he says like he's thinking to himself. Then he looks down at me. "You care who makes it?" I blink. Is there anyone but him?

"Sorry, I thought you were the blacksmith here?" I say, confused.

"Hah," he laughs. "I'm the head smith, it's my shop. We do have trainees and a few other smiths that work here too though. Like Bob." He tosses his head to the side toward the other man at the counter. Wait, he's actually a blacksmith? I squint at him suspiciously. I guess he's sort of muscular, but not really much more than an average adult man...

"Anyway, do you care who makes it? It'll be more expensive if you want me to do it myself. A normal smith would be cheaper, and trainees would be real cheap. Their work might not be as good, but this is a pretty simple order. Up to you."

I take some time to think it over. Like he said, they're just metal circles. Still, I have plenty of money and there's no reason to be cheap on this, is there? Unless I could use the money I save better somewhere else... "How much would it be for you to do it? Compared to the others?" I ask.

"That depends, when do you need these by?" he asks back.

"Uhh, is the end of the week fine? I can come back on Nuvoday?" I answer uncertainly.

"Pfff," he waves a hand dismissively. "Was wondering if you needed it by the end of the day or something. Order like this will be easy to hammer out, it'll be done sometime tomorrow."

"Oh." I'm surprised, that's faster than I expected.

"In that case, I'll do it for..." He leans down, the wooden counter creaking faintly under his weight as he thinks. "Four irons. Plus four coppers for the nuvrite ingot. Another smith is half, two irons. Trainee will be one iron. How does that sound?"

"Huh," I breathe out, considering the options. It's hard to say whether that's cheap or expensive. He did say making thirteen pieces was kind of a lot. I mean, I can afford something like this, but it is still a lot of money that I could spend on other things.

Then... let's go with the middle option. Not as expensive, but I probably don't need to worry about the quality since he says it's an easy job. "I'll go with one of the other smiths," I answer. Then I search around in my bag of money. I still don't really have any iron coins, so I have to pull out twenty four coppers to pay.

Gremory shows a big smile. "Good doing business with you." We share a nod. "Now, is that all today?"

"Yeah, that's it. Thanks a lot, Gremory."

"You're welcome. And if you don't mind me asking, what do you need a bunch of metal disks for?" he asks, with a curious look.

"Ahh, well," I scratch the back of my head awkwardly when he asks. "I can't really talk about exactly what they're for, but I mostly just want smaller pieces so they're lighter and easier to carry around."

Gremory nods with a shrug and says, "Fair enough. Also, how's that knife treating your friend?"

"Knife?" Uhh... "Oh, do you mean Emily's cooking knife?" I realize aloud, and he nods. "Yeah, she really likes it. It works really well," I answer. Wait, I didn't actually get a chance to watch her use it, did I?

"Good to hear," he chuckles. "Well, your order will be finished by the end of the day tomorrow. Drop by whenever to pick it up."

"Sure, thanks."

With business done, he points out the door to the street, over near the grinding stones. I didn't really realize there was one there, but it makes a lot of sense. Why would the only door into a shop be into the workshop...? With a wave, I head out.