The group stood to leave the inn shortly after Manuel did. Despite the news that he wouldn’t be getting paid, Enzo was in good spirits. Learning to smith and fight with a warhammer will be good skills to have, and maybe I can talk them into letting me make some money on the side helping around town.

As they exited the inn, the first task of the day became immediately obvious. Tables and chairs still sat spread around the sparring ring, and the remnants of the fire smoldered in the center of the gravel pit. A small flock of birds circled overhead, hopeful to snag some of the food scattered across the ground.

Cleaning up the remnants of the party took priority over any other plans Gunnar and Tobias might have for him today.

“Tell you what, I’ll go warm up the forge,” said Tobias. “You help the guards clean things up. Meet me in the workshop when you’re done.”

“Sounds good, shouldn’t take too long,” replied Enzo as he followed Gunnar down the path to the sparring ring.

By this point, Oskar was up and moving around. He’d managed to get the other drunkards to either move back to their own homes or help with the mess. He looked up as Gunnar and Enzo approached.

“How ya feeling this morning?” Asked Enzo with a grin on his face. “Saw you were pretty intimate with the doorway last night, Olena was appalled. Really should do that sort of thing after the wedding.”

“You’re one to talk,” Oskar responded sharply. “We all saw you with Rena last night. She talk you into settling down?”

Enzo rolled his eyes. “Yeah after we got past that, she’s a nice girl. Wouldn’t mind spending some more time with her.”

The knowing smile on Oskar’s face portrayed the witty response he had cooked up, but Gunnar cut in first.

“Enough chatter, let’s get to work,” the Captain grumbled. “Enzo, there’s a shovel and wheelbarrow around behind the barracks. Get to cleaning out the ash and embers from the ring. Oskar, with me.”

Gunnar led Oskar over to the large logs placed around the ring and the pair lifted them and placed them back in their correct positions near the barracks. Enzo pulled the shovel and wheelbarrow around and got to work.

As he plunged the shovel into the middle of the remnants of the fire, hot embers in the center glowed. He quickly glanced around the area, but no one was paying him any attention. With a deep breath, he slowly exhaled, willing the remaining heat to flow out of the pile and into the wind.

It took two more attempts to cool the last of the embers, but Enzo was able to successfully mask his Affinity use while plunging the shovel through the ash. As the wheelbarrow filled up, he called over to Gunnar.

“Where would you like this ash dumped?”

“Take it to Cornelia, she’s always collecting it,” Gunnar replied. “Spread the gravel around and mix in the last bits you can’t shovel up. After that, you’re free to go to Tobias, we’ve got the rest handled here.”

Enzo nodded and moved the wheelbarrow out of the way. He looked around for a minute then walked back to the tool storehouse for a rake to spread the gravel more effectively. After returning with the tool, he spread the gravel around and returned the ring to more or less the original state it was in yesterday morning. With that, he returned the tools and began his haul over to Cornelia’s enchanted garden.

He entered and was met with the warmth of late summer, as a soft breeze blew through the garden. Allotments of barley and wheat danced in their rows and the outer hedges had been replaced with tall corn stalks nearing maturity.

This place is fundamentally different every time I come in here. I wonder if she takes requests, some zucchini would be amazing.

“I will consider it, human,” came Cornelia’s soft whisper on the breeze. “Have you brought me more ash? Leave it over in the pile behind my house, then.”

It’s disorienting every time she does that whisper on the wind trick.

He shook his head and pushed the wheelbarrow around to the back of the house and found the compost heap. With a quick shove, Enzo emptied the ash into the pile and turned to leave the garden. As he walked back to the entryway, he noticed a small, fresh allotment off to the side.

“They will be ready in a few days,” came Cornelia’s voice again. “Stop by then, and bring Tobias.”

“Absolutely!” Enzo replied, grinning. “Thanks again Cornelia!’ The wind swept through his hair in response, with the echoes of an old Elven song softly playing in his ears.

Enzo returned the wheelbarrow to the barracks, whistling the bits of the tune he’d managed to pick up the last couple of times he’d been to Cornelia’s garden. The rest of the area seemed to be mostly back to how it was intended to be and Enzo spotted Oskar’s scruffy figure posted at the top of the wall. He waved to his friend, then headed off to the workshop to see what Tobias was up to.

Inside, Tobias stood at the forge melting down a chunk of iron they’d collected days prior. As Enzo approached, the old man glanced up and waved him over.

“Even after our repairs the other day, this thing still takes forever,” Tobias said, nodding over at the forge. “Mind working your magic for a bit?”

“Not a problem,” Enzo replied. He focused on the flow of heat in the furnace and found no leaks or weak points. Satisfied that there weren’t any structural issues, he took a deep breath and drew in the ambient mana. As he was about to release the heat and energy, Tobias stopped him.

“Not all at once, boy,” the old smith interjected. “Bring her up slowly, let the metal coalesse evenly. Your Affinity will speed the process along plenty, but we still need to respect the metal. We just get to skip the hours of shoveling fuel and pumping bellows.”

Enzo nodded and returned to the task, this time slowly adding heat to the furnace. In minutes, the iron began to glow, molding together into a single glob of molten metal. Tobias pulled the metal from the fire, and carefully looked it over. He pointed out a few dark spots spread through the iron.

“See these dark spots? Normally, they’d either be impurities or cold spots,” Tobias explained. “With your control of the temperature though, we can rule out cold spots.” He set the metal on an anvil and pulled a hammer and chisel from his tool belt.

“Since we know they’re impurities, we can chisel them off without losing good iron in the process,” he continued as he swung the hammer down and broke off the excess rock. “This iron was pretty good stock to begin with, so there isn’t much to remove. It won’t always be this easy. Now, back into the furnace.”

Tobias carefully placed the cooling metal back into the forge and watched it begin to reheat.

“We let it do that a couple more times before we start to shape the metal,” the smith explained. “While we wait, have you thought about the shape of the hammer you want to make?”