Lunch was salad, fruit, and bread with milk curd. The two master smiths and I were sitting in the tent, away from the searing midday sun and enjoying our food.

"I'm sorry we don't have any meat. It's hard to find any in the market nowadays," Samus apologized for the meal.

I felt guilt. In Abil-Kisu's house, there's a diversity of meat that although didn't feel out-of-place for someone like me that could walk two blocks out and get almost any kind of vacuum-sealed meat from the supermarket, if I only were a bit more mindful of the situation, it was something extremely odd for a place like this. Remember your history lessons, Sandra. Peasants only ate meat sparingly. To what extent will the food situation push the population? Worse yet, the wholesale slaughter of livestock can be a short-term solution but it would incur long-term problems.

We had a surplus of vegetable matter. I was sure I could harvest and process the grass from the plateau but to convert it into meat... I would need herbivores to do that. An animal that had a fast turnover. What about rabbits?

"Are there rabbits or hares around here?" I asked, glad that the words had a proper translation.

"Yes, in the woods. A good source of meat if you can trap them," Aran answered.

"Is there any animal people will refrain from eating? For religious reasons or other customs?"

"I'd eat anything made of meat," Samus boasted, then reflected and added, "Except people, of course."

Aran laughed to disarm the situation and I smiled at them. The two were from different ethnical groups, Samus looked more European but still had a strong Anatolian influence. He could pass as an ancient Greek back on Earth, one with Turkish ancestors. Aran, on the other hand, had a more Egyptian or Arab feel. His face was broad and his nose was clearly middle-eastern. They had clearly different backgrounds but they behaved as brothers.

"Even the giant monster ants of the grass plateau?" I teased. He scowled but then nodded.

"Are they even edible?" Samus asked.

"No idea," I shrugged then looked toward the north. "I intend to find out soon and I'm glad you volunteered to try them with me. What about rats?"

"I've eaten rat before," He confessed, a little ashamed. "Not my first choice. People in the slums eat them when they can. But why the sudden interest?"

"A few days ago I was nominated Minister of Agriculture and Development by the Enshi. So, it kinda became my job to solve the food scarcity."

"It makes sense," Aran broke his silence, "If the Enshi is making this many weapons and armor to go to war, he will need a good supply train. The farmers that stayed behind are unable to support the army as it is now."

Odd. If Nephew was going to send the army out, who would build the damned ziggurat? Wasn't he going to invite the remnants of Marduk's army to join him?

"Where did you hear that? As far as I know, he won't send the army out."

After a pause to ponder, Aran replied, "You should know more than that, your excellency," He jokingly addressed me formally, "But yes, we didn't hear it anywhere. A large order of weapons and armor like this can only mean war, though."

"Yes, we are making weapons and armor nonstop for days now," Samus added. "The apprentices are all tired from working the forge and anvil from sunrise to sunset."

That wasn't good. "Were there too many accidents?" It was the first question that came up. Overworking would surely lead to dire consequences. And as I watched their reaction to my question, I knew I nailed it.

"Yes," Aran shook his head dejectedly. "Two apprentices. One hammered his own hand and another poured molten metal on his legs."

"They are done for, poor kids. We sent them back home with what coin we could spare," Samus completed.

No deaths so far, but that couldn't continue. I looked at my plate and finished my food in silence. Then I stood up.

"As a minister, is there anyone between the Enshi and me?" I asked more as a rhetorical question. I knew I only answered to Nephew. It was time to flex those bureaucratic muscles.

"No. The prime minister, but he was recently executed for treason," Samus shook his head.

Good that they knew that. Next, I needed to know whose bunions I'd be stepping on.

"Who placed the commission for weapons and armor? The general?"

"It came from the guard, but we don't know. We are being paid even though it is at a reduced rate, so we didn't ask."

I sighed. Standing up from my cushions, I met each of them eye to eye. They too were tired but they were strong and resilient. I didn't doubt they pulled several all-nighter forging sessions before during times of emergency. But they were dear to me. The smithy was like a second, or third home to me.

"Good. I promised you I'd clean up the smithy, and I intend to do so right now. On my authority as a minister, I am now requisitioning the entire smithy," I said. "You will be paid the standard market rate plus a fifteen percent emergency bonus. Gentlemen, go out and stop the bellows. Weapon and armor manufacture is suspended until my projects are done.

"What are you waiting for, gawking at me like that? It is a ministerial order, execute it immediately! Send anyone that objects to talk to me directly. Or to the Enshi."

The two smiths exchanged a glance and nodded at the same time. A mischievous smile crept on Aran's face, while Samus' gaze became fierce. Both smiths stood up.

"Your will be done, your Excellency!" Aran bowed. "Samus, it is time to use 'that'."

"About time we kicked those damned soldiers out!" Samus barreled out of the tent.

I saw him grabbing something on his way out but I couldn't discern what it was. It looked like a weapon sheath or...

A horn.

The sound of a horn blowing soon quenched all the hammering. The smiths stopped working and I could hear the roar of coal being burnt in the central forge. Soon the suction noises of the bellows also stopped. Everyone was looking at us. Samus shouted.

"Okay, everyone! We were requisitioned by the Minister of Agriculture and Development. All of you store your current projects for later now. Quench those ingots! We are all taking a break! Keep the forge lit though."

I could see relief in the soot-smeared faces of the smiths and apprentices. And also the outrage of the soldiers. Several of them were already coming our way. One of them had the makings of a captain on his uniform tunic, just like Brandon.

"What nonsense is that!" The captain roared from a distance at the same time he closed in. "What minister is that? I demand an answer! Get back to work!"

From the way he seemed flustered, it seemed as if there were power struggles inside the government. The guard is not under-equipped and also not recruiting if I dared say I guess there's a lot of gear left behind by the deserters. So why are these guys commandeering the smithy to make weapons and armor for themselves? And the Enshi is not that poor to resort to bullying members of the council for discounts. And this captain seemed too suspicious. Working the smiths to death?

I took a step forward and mentally called Dime. He'd be here in less than a minute. I steeled myself. Time to win an Academy Award™. Channel your inner Natalie Portman.

"The smiths stopped under my orders, Captain. I was not assigned as Minister of Agriculture and Development by the Enshi to watch the smiths suffer and die while you cart away weapons that aren't necessary right now. I'm Sandra Rinaldi, by the way."

I extended my hand with the palm and fingers pointing away and down from me and smiled at the captain. He scowled and looked at my hand as if it was dirty.

"Woman, do not test my patience. I can execute you for sedition right here," The Captain barked. The word he used could also mean treason or insurrection. He turned his head over his shoulder and shouted. "Guards. Arrest these three!"

I put my hand in my pocket and checked with the blessed sandstone tablet. This captain was not one of Tarhun's.

"This sword of yours leaves its sheath or one of you soldiers touch one of us, and you'll regret!" I uttered a subdued threat.

I'd like to say I was brave and daring but the guy was huge and I was slightly intimidated. Fortunately, that was all the time Dime needed to reach us. The presence of the mighty and rather irate bird gave me an injection of confidence.

*SCREEEECH*

The sky-lord soared over the Captain's head, forcing him to duck. The giant eagle banked over us and landed on one of the support poles of the tent behind me, with his back to us. Dime then turned his neck a full one-eighty, something birds could do that always unsettled me. And to think they had the same amount of neck vertebrae than us humans. Giraffes too.

The Captain hesitated as he took his time to analyze the new threat. A soldier approached from behind and shouted.

"Requesting to report, sir! I know this lady! She's the one that ran laps the whole morning in the garrison. She's related to Captain Al-Amir."

Related? I object... Oh, well. Whatever defuses this situation.

Fact, I really needed to sit down with Brandon and have "the talk" with him. What would we do going forward? This distancing might even be beneficial as it gave me room to breathe and think about the subject.

You see, I really didn't mind and was even looking forward to becoming his spouse, under two conditions. One, no Ishta-brothel™ for me and two, we enter marriage as equals. Three, I'm not going to be a glorified baby-making machine. I understand that they try to have as many kids as they can because children die like flies but really? It's been four months, almost two weeks since we moved into Abil-Kisu's place and I haven't even HEARD the baby cry. Not even see his wife. Or put my hands on that chubby cute cuddly little poop-making bio-machine.

Yeah. At most three kids. That's fine. I already have what, sixteen kids, under my wing? That's a bloody lot. Not one, being a single child sucks and I can say that with all the authority in the world. Worlds.

But to do that, Brandon had to return. Stupid military missions. Why couldn't Marduk's soldiers just go home? I mean, people don't think too much about armies after a war, but there's a gruesome business. They say that in some places in Europe you can't dig without finding human bones from the middle-ages. Yeah, I'd like to see some movie, even one with a medieval setting. Or any movie, to be honest. I miss the popcorn, and sitting in a cozy chair, lay back and dream of being someone else for two hours.

Movies lately either are too long or too short. It is hard to find a good balance between telling a good story and spending too much time. Peter Jackson is the greatest offender. He took a three hundred page book and turned into nine hours of movie. No, no. Even if you showed me Mr. Bloom's elven goodness for nine hours, that was too much.

I wish he returned soon.

Why were people yelling at me?

Oh.

"Is something the matter?" I asked them.

I noticed that the two smiths and the Captain were in a heated argument. The officer glared at me and rattled his jaw. He was furious.

"What are you daydreaming about, woman? I don't care who you are bedding to gain--"

My ears burned. I clenched my teeth and found a wellspring of indignation rising up like bile in my throat. I rushed forward without a second thought.

*SLAP*

I reached for the sword at his waist but he was gripping the pommel with his left hand. I overshot the crossguard and ran an open hand over the scabbard, using Decompose.

I met the fury in his eyes with the same amount of my own and both of us knew we were irreconcilable. I shouted while he digested the humiliation. "Guards, arrest this man!"

Sandra used 'bitch slap'. It's super effective. Captain's morale sharply decreased. Captain was afflicted with enrage.

The captain was enraged. Captain drew his sword.

Captain's sword has no blade. He drew only the hilt and the crossguard. I Decomposed the blade while I distracted him with the slap. He dropped the now-useless piece of metal and cursed.

"Stupid wench!"

He punched me as he spoke, a solid lightning-fast right hook to my cheek.

I saw pretty stars, the stars became black holes and then the world turned sideways and everyone became giants. I tasted blood in my mouth.

I was so impressed and smug on how I neutralized his weapon that I couldn't react. The man must be some war veteran to have such reflexes. No hesitation on his part whatsoever. , I noticed I was lying down on the ground, reeling in pain from the solid blow. I could feel a tiny amount of magic power spent to cushion the punch and the energy flowing to my recovery boon.

From the ground where I laid, I pointed a finger at him and screamed.

"Arrest the Captain or I'll accuse every single guardsmen here of treason! This man assaulted a Minister of the City!"

Nephew could even gain brownie points with the military by sparing this man from the execution. Because I was pretty sure that the penalty for his crime was death. Even with my cheek swelling from the punch, I didn't want to see him dead.

You see, they didn't have the concept of putting people in jail as a punishment. A criminal was either sold as a slave, maimed, or killed. Hooray, Hammurabi.

Around me, Aran was holding back an equally-enraged Samus. The apprentice smiths were gathered around the forges, watching. The guards were frozen with indecision as to whom they should support.

And the Captain did not sit idle. He loomed over me and drew a dagger from his belt.

*KREEEEE!*

Dime dove from his perch and raked at the Captain's eyes with his claws. The bird opened several large gashes from the man's cheeks to the eyebrows before he beat his wings and gained altitude again. I was hit with blood droplets. The man dropped his dagger next to me and brought his hands to his face. Screaming in pain, he fell to his knees. There was a lot of blood pouring out from the wounds and I hoped that the eyes themselves weren't hurt even though a dark part of me wished for him to go to hell.

I crawled away from him and climbed back on my feet.

"What are you waiting for?" I shouted at the guards. "Go fetch a healer! You two. Come here and hold him still. Someone get me a lot of water!"

Truthfully, this world was barbaric. Life, even one's own, was as cheap as what most of these people hoped for was to live long enough to leave offspring after them. Their laws and punishments reflected that. I mean, their notion of a fair trial was to tie someone to a rope and toss them in the river. Or a big gaping bottomless hole. People exposed to such things for a long period would become numb to the horror. It was like when London ate the mining town at the opening credits for the city-on-wheels flop of a book adaptation. The citizens were cheering on London's deck while fellow humans died below.

And I was afraid I was showing signs of becoming numb too. I was torn between being glad that he wouldn't be a nuisance anymore and the dread of having blinded a man.

The guards pinned the wounded officer on the ground and I used Decompose to purify the water by separating it into a different container. I washed his wounds. The eyelids were badly scratched. But the eyes themselves...

I couldn't see a thing with all the bleeding and struggling.

It was impossible to check the state of the man's eyeballs. I summoned some regrown wet wipes, no longer wet, a PET bottle and the bag with the glucose grains. I moved some of the sugar to the bottle and hold it with both hands, using Decompose to break the glucose into alcohol. I see the crystals break and become liquid, the liquid bubbling from the carbon dioxide being released. I also break some of the glucose into the water and gather the free carbon as a pellet at the bottom.

With the alcohol-soaked wet wipe, I cleaned the man's gashes, regretting that they would become terrible scars. He screamed even more as the alcohol stung his wounds, but it was better than getting an infection. I took a sip from the bottle and my head spins. Too sweet, too alcoholic. At least one masked the other.

"Lift his head, make him drink this."

Two swigs and the Captain were in dreamland. With more reconstructed dry wipes, I removed all the blood and check the eyeballs. Dime was an apex predator. If it weren't for my invulnerable eyes, he wouldn't submit to me. Unfortunately, the eagle was flawless in his execution. The man's eyeballs were torn in the middle, right over the irises. Ruined. And as far as I knew, healing magic was not a thing.

With a sigh, I pointed at the guards holding him. "Keep his face clean and four of you take him away. The others, form up. I have some news for you."

This way I can send the most loyal men with their snow-blind Captain and turn the others to my side. As expected, the two holding him and two others gathered and picked up the captain to carry him away. I looked down, shook my head. Another day where I had to either bleed or draw blood myself. Overhead, Dime circled like a vulture, beaming pride over our emotional bond.

Eyes surely have a very special meaning for him. It's his symbol of dominance. I wonder what he'd do if he had to fight against the thing with forty eyes.

"Sandra, how are you. Here, put this ointment where he punched you," Samus said with a smelly paste. I could swear it was rotten.

"I'll heal on my own, thanks? Why the sour face? Is it looking bad? Oh, it IS looking bad!"

"It looks like you were trampled by a whole chariot company," The smith said candidly. "And all of them got only your cheek and eye."

I bathed in the brine pool. I bathed in goblin blood. I slept over the carbonized remains of the lich. I can handle one ointment.

"Is it magical?" I asked, still wary of the thing.

"Ask Nanna about it. She was the one that gave me it. It is good for burns and bruises and both softens and moistens the skin."

"Sold!" I took a dab of the paste and smeared my face.

Yes, it was swollen as I'd slipped into that heavyweight champion's hotel room. Funny enough, it stopped smelling once it came into contact with my bruise.

"Thank you, Samus. I'm glad you didn't do anything to put you in trouble. Now," I summoned my tent and took a five-kilogram blanket of jerky out before I sent the tent back. "See that your apprentices all have their fair share of this, while I take care of your smithy with my new recruits..."

I looked at the soldiers that stayed behind. They were all lined up and standing at attention. I counted them. Fourteen men.

"That's a bounty!" Samus gasped. "HEY ARAN! CHECK WHAT SANDRA GOT US!"

Deo, is that you?

I left the smiths to take care of their own and inspected my new troop. Dime was still circling over their heads and cawing them into compliance.

"Gentlemen. As of now, you are working under me. I'm the Minister of Agriculture and Development, Sandra Rinaldi. And as for your first task, you are to clean up the whole smithy. I want you to sweep all the metal shavings, scraps, and dirt and pile it all right over... there!" I pointed at an open space. "One will fill barrels with well water, four of you will clear the slag pit and bring all the slag and debris to the pile. You may ask the smiths for tools and brooms to clean up. Go."

I shaped the silicon into barrels and sent the guards on their tasks.

I created a recliner and a beach umbrella out of silicon and laid down to rest while the men did their work. I mean, supervise their work. I confess I needed a break. The ointment and my recovery worked double-time to restore my face. I was sure that punch would be a concussion on anyone else. I'd probably lose a few teeth too.

I rested for one hour, and the soldiers worked like ants to prove their worth. Dime kept harassing them with surprise swoops and close calls and I let the bird do his thing. My elegant and vicious sky-lord knew how annoyed I was at them and at myself, for letting the situation escalate like that. Now that my cheek wasn't stinging and burning anymore, I thought on what I could've done to avoid blinding the Captain. I snapped and let my anger get the best of me.

One hour later, I decided to get off my recliner and rejoin all the productive members of society. The sounds of hammering were replaced by snoring as I approached the pavillion tent. Inside, on the cushions and pillows, the smiths and apprentices were sleeping, happy faces and less empty bellies. My eyes met Samus' and I called him with the universal come hither finger wiggle.

We went to Samus' private smithy, the first smithy where they began their metalworking business. It used to open at a secondary street and they bought the other lots in their block over several years to create the huge complex they used now. With Samus' fire sorcery, they dominated the market and pretty much pushed the other smiths out of town. Or hired them.

"If you wanted some cool recipe for a new metal alloy, you should've asked me, Samus," I told the master blacksmith.

He even managed to make some alloys, I mean, There's little chance to mess up catastrophically when all you are doing is melting different metals together. He made some strange combinations and some that were even very close to some known (to Earthlings) alloy, but in the end, he didn't even have the proper instruments to measure things like hardness, elasticity, tensile strength, etc.

"I got this one," He showed me a yellow metal ingot.

I picked it up and sensed the ingot's composition. Aluminum and copper. Aluminum bronze, he got one right even though there was too much aluminum.

"Pretty good!" I praised him honestly.

"If you can get me more of this 'A-L', we can make all our bronze items with it. It could be one particular trademark of our smithy. Gold bronze."

"Aluminum bronze," I corrected him, "And you used too much aluminum. We will try again, but this time let me check the right proportions."

I separated the metals. One fun thing about metalworking with Decompose is that you can always recycle a hundred percent of your materials. Shavings, swarf, scraps. I summoned my computer and checked my material properties guide.

"Try 5% Iron, 5% Nickel, and 12% Aluminum, The balance is all copper."

He had a scale. It reminded me of my broken digital scale. We measured the metals, put them in the crucible and smelted the alloy. Samus used his fire magic on the crucible.

"This gives me resistance to the heat, allows me to control the temperature and check on the metals at a distance," He explained even though I didn't ask. "I must say, it is easier to do it with you here."

"What?" That last remark confused me.

"Your magic seeps into the environment and makes it easier for us sorcerers to use our own. It is like you are a torrential rain over very dry land. There's not much ambient magic to work with normally but with you here? There's plenty."

Was that the reason Tarhun limited my magic pool to half its theoretical maximum capacity? So I would go around and magick up the environment? I reminded of the enchanted eyes, Nanna shooing me away from her liver potions, and the immediate effects of her magic-sealing cursed amulet. The amulet stopped me from leaking so the inexistent upper half of my magic pool filled up too. I remember clearly when the amulet broke that I could feel the power overflow from me.

For the next two hours, I went out to Decompose all the trash the guards gathered, purify the water from the well and seal the silicon barrels, and prepare more materials for Samus to smelt bronze with. I retrieved almost eighty kilograms of iron from the slag pits and the debris. In a pinch, they could re-smelt the slag and the debris, but it was a pain to separate all the dross. Not to mention it skewed the ratio of the alloys.

I was finishing with the dirt pile when a soldier came from the gate.

"Milady Minister, there are some craftsmen with your order at the gates. Woodworkers, I believe."

"Oh, the boxes. Please let them in, I'm eager to get to work on them. And be polite! They are doing me a favor."

The woodworkers' wagon entered and I soon had all forty of my boxes. The same man I talked with earlier today warned me.

"The resin is still drying, milady. I think it will take at least two days for the boxes to be useable."

"That's fine. Thank you, master. Is there any additional costs I should cover?"

The man quickly shook his head. "No. The lady was too generous already. I thank you for the opportunity, milady Minister."

I could only fathom at the level of abuse government officials inflicted on the population to make the master carpenter so afraid of me. I smiled and sent him on his way.

I set the boxes on a workbench and carefully placed my hand inside without touching anything. All the resin should be in the range of my power. I first spent five minutes to get the correct resonance and then used my power to speed up the natural drying and curing process of the resin. The hard part was to hold back and not overdo it and age the resin too much. I acted until I felt that the resin wasn't changing anymore. I tested and it was well-cured. I repeated the process on all boxes and moved on to the next step.

I measured the inside of the boxes and created two molds for the metal plates to fit inside out of silicon, my go-to material for pretty much everything. Too bad it was brittle or I'd have a castle built already. Using decompose, I poured copper in one mold and magnesium on the other. The thickness of the plates was different. The magnesium one was thicker. I could guarantee a smooth surface by using Decompose and a scraper to smooth the metal as if it were putty.

Next, I needed a clip to hold the plates in place. The boxes looked like cubes on the outside, twenty centimeters long. The inside was split in the middle, making two rectangles roughly twenty by ten centimeters in size. Each of these would be one voltaic cell and each box would result in a five-volt energy cell. With forty of them, I could link them in parallel or series to go from two hundred volts or keep it at five volts and get a good amperage. This setup would solve all of my energy problems. It wasn't as mobile as the solar charger as each box would weight almost ten kilograms when fully furnished but it worked regardless of the weather and time of the day. Or night.

After measuring the middle and the thickness of the plates, I made sheets of aluminum with a few millimeters of thickness. I cut and welded the pieces until I had a set of clips that would fit over the lip of the box, hold the magnesium and copper plates on each side and provide the electrical contact for the current. After testing the prototype, I made a mold out of silicon and mass-produced the clips. Then I had to make another set of clips for a single plate because the one I had wouldn't work to join two boxes together. I did make interlocking fittings to join the boxes and ensure electrical contact though.

Finally, each end clip had a convenient lip protruding up where an electrical probe could easily be attached to pull the electricity from that spot.

I had to adjust here and there using pliers but after an hour of work, I had clips and plates to fit in all the boxes. I was so absorbed in my work that I didn't notice Aran watching me work.

"Don't just stand there watching me like some creep. Come here and help me assemble this!"

He gave me a wry smile. "I just came to tell you that Samus finished your armor. He asked if you could go there and test the fit."

"Oh, perfect. Let's go."

I left the clips and plates on the workbench, stored my Earth items and went to Samus' private workshop. He had a pile of golden bronze ingots already.

"Sandra! I finished your armor while I waited for the metal to smelt. Look how beautiful it is."

My titanium mail. The ends were all with the interlocking clasps and it looked gorgeous. For a suit of armor. I could see it no longer had that square fit, looking more like a dress made of metal. I put on the arming doublet and slid the armor over my head with Aran's assistance. The finished set of armor weighed around three to four kilograms. It fit on my body like a glove. The links had some room to stretch and the mail was taut against the doublet, without any slack except around the skirt.

"Did you like it?" Aran asked.

"I loved it. It does not hinder my movements at all."

"Tie the belt around your waist to help take some of the weight off your shoulders," Samus suggested. "Also, there are some links you have to close since you didn't want any rivets on the chain."

I did the final adjustments and the armor was officially ready. Mirror polish. The skirt went a little above my knees and had two slits on the sides, a little to the back, to facilitate movement. The sleeves went up to the elbows and the neckline left my nape and solar plexus exposed. I wish they were covered but it was inevitable because my head had to go through the hole.

"Now," Aran said, "You put on this arming cap and let's try the coif."

I tied my hair and put on the woolen cap over my head. Aran then slid over my head the chain coif. It left my face and jaw open but that was it. The coif went over the hauberk and covered the nape and neckline entirely.

I summoned my phone and my first impression as I took a selfie was that I was about to go to a cosplay party. It was the real deal, however. The coif added another kilogram of weight. I was sure I could get used to the weight of the armor.

I grinned and made some poses as I snapped a dozen selfies with my new armor and the smiths. After taking the photos, I singled out one of the apprentices that used to take slag to my house.

"Hello, what is your name?"

"I'm called Sao-Akitu, milady," He replied, clearly embarrassed.

I beamed him a friendly smile. "Sao-Akitu, what a splendid name. Were you born in the new year?" His name meant 'new years' bounty'.

I could see a gleam of light caught in his eyes as he nodded. "Indeed, milady."

"Could you do something for me? Get two of your fellow apprentices and two of these guards, and go to my house. There are soldiers garrissoned there. The two guards are to stay there and I want a squad of eight soldiers to return with you," I told him as I summoned one of my regenerated no-longer-wet wipes and gave him. "This will work as proof that you are working for me. Now, go."

I folded the napkin and sent them on their way. Once they were outside the gate, I turned around and clapped my hands.

"Good. Now let's add some color to this armor, shall we?" Both smiths gave me confused looks. "Come with me, I'll show you what I mean."

"Are you going to paint the armor?" Aran asked.

"Better. I'm going to use... lightning to give it color."

"Oh, I want to see this. Can you wait just a few minutes for me to finish the last batch of bronze?"

"Last?" I asked.

"Last, latest," He dismissed the confusion. "I'll probably smelt more tomorrow, but I'm done for today."

I removed the coif and the hauberk and returned to my workbench with Aran. We put all the clips and plates in place and I filled the compartments with purified water.

"I'm adding the last material now," I warned Aran, "Once I'm done, the elec... lightning it generates can be harmful. Do not touch any of the metal parts."

I added the copper sulfate to the water and stirred to dissolve the salt.

Samus, some soldiers and a lot of curious smiths circled us. I made a silicon tub underneath the workbench and filled it with water and common table salt. This would be the bath to anodize the titanium. A wire here and a wire there and I was ready to roll.

After making sure I removed as much oxygen I could from the surface of the titanium without messing with the armor itself, I dunked the armor and coif in the tub and ran the electricity. By changing the position of the probe along with the interlocking boxes, I could change the voltage in increments of 2.69 volts.

Around twenty volts the armor became brown. Then a deep violet, royal blue, blue, light blue, yellow, orange, pink, red, and dark purple. I upped the voltage to hundred-something volts and parts of the armor became turquoise but most stayed dark purple.

The book warned that green was hard to obtain. Even stirring the armor around with the probe didn't change the results. I disconnected the probes and retrieved the armor.

I looked at the spectators that were silently watching all this time. I expected them to ask questions but it seemed it was not the case.

"This way I can obtain any color I want. Except for green. But we are not doing green."

Aran's mouth opened in an ear-to-ear grin. "That's amazing! How does it work?"

"The lightning from the boxes forces the metal to acquire a specific type of... coating. If you scrape this coating, the metal underneath is still the same dull gray as before. I guess that the armor will have to be 'anodized' after every major combat, but that's not a problem. And yes, some metals can be 'anodized' too but they are rare."

To demonstrate, I touched a part of the armor and expelled the oxygen, removing the color. I would redo the whole piece to get the color I wanted anyway. I went over the whole suit removing all the oxides from the rings and prepared to anodize again. Now that I knew the exact voltage I wanted, I placed the probes ten cells apart and dunked both the armor and coif.

I let the current run and even shifted the location of the probe until the entire armor was beautifully colored...

Royal blue.

Were you expecting pink? Oh, well. I'm not that girly. And since I can only change my voltage in increments of 2.69 volts, I couldn't get the right shade of pink. Besides it is better for... stealth purposes. Yes, let's go with that.

I went to the warehouse to don my chain armor with some privacy and found out why squires were a must. It is a pain to don the mail alone. Especially over the arming doublet. And the cap combined with the coif heated up my head like it was stuck in an oven. Not to mention the loss of hearing. Not only the cap covered the ears, the mail rings of the coif clinking on each other drowned other noises. And to think a helmet would go over the coif.

That was the reason why knights spoke so loudly. They couldn't hear each other in combat. Also the reason Roman helmets went around the ears. Good coordination won battles more than leaving that spot enclosed lost.

I went outside and felt the gaze of every soldier and smith present fall on me. I knew that my sparkling royal blue armor was a unique piece in this entire world. Look, I'm wearing titanium armor. Take that, fantasy!

"How do I look?" I dropped the ages-old compliment-fishing question.

One that men still failed to answer properly to this day. How difficult it is to just lay down proper praise, even if fake? No. They have to analyze. Formulate an opinion. Give suggestions, for crying out loud! I asked 'how do I look', not 'what can I do to improve'. C'mon, be cheesy, load up on those adjectives and metaphors. Don't dissect the outfit or the appearance like a sports commentator.

"Yes, we need to add bracers and greaves now," Samus spoke.

"Won't the helmet scratch the 'anno-dizzy" color?" Aran added.

See what I meant?

I went back inside, removed the stupid coif and stupider deafening cap, and put on the black dress over the armor. I chose this one for today exactly because it had all sorts of adjustable straps. Pulling the dress over the armor was a pain and I vowed to hire a female squire for me. In fact, I should hire all the marriable females in the city. Then Nephew wouldn't have anyone to put to work at his Ista-brothel.

I cackled like a villain.

And the dress finally slid down over the mail armor. It felt stuffy but after messing with the straps for a few minutes, it felt natural. The fabric was thick enough to hide the pattern of the links. I went back outside, wearing two skirts and trousers at the same time. I felt restrained but it was a matter of learning to walk in armor. I checked the sun's position. One or two hours of sunlight left.

I had to check on my other gifts. Time to re-visit the warehouse.