Chapter 74

Year 163 – Fall – Sextus Mensis – 22nd day

Avem, town of House Kalator, land of the Vale

Vatra had woken up early that day and went to the forge at sunrise with a bag filled with arrowheads, a wire brush, and a bottle of old vinegar. The furnace had heated up the whole night, and the fire was blazing. The temperature inside the forge was like the night of a hot summer. Vatra filled the bucket and the cup from the last day with snow. Using a pair of gloves and a large tong, she added a slug of pig iron and the bucket to the furnace before storing her tools away.

She grabbed some limestone, and using a small hammer, she powdered it down. When the snow inside the bucket finally melted and the water boiled, she grabbed the gloves and tong and pulled it away. The bucket was now filled halfway with water. Adding the powdered limestone to the bucket, Vatra used a ladle to blend the mixture until it had the consistency of mud.

Drinking a bit of the melting snow from her own wooden cup, she waited until the iron was red. She pulled it out and dipped it into the mixture to use it as a flux. She then hammered it down, reheated it, and repeated the process until it became a thin and long rectangle-shaped sheet of purified iron. An hour later, she had finally made four highly similar rectangles, with one slightly longer than the other.

She heated up the four pieces and used the pair of pressing tongs to stick them together in a long and steep square compartment. She folded the longer iron rectangle to close one side of the compartment. Once it could hold itself together, she dipped it into the flux and let it heat up again inside the forge so that each piece of iron could fuse together.

Vatra drank a few more sips of melting snow from her small wooden cup and cleaned the bucket of the limestone mud. Once it was finally clean, she placed her arrowheads inside the bucket and poured the whole bottle of old vinegar inside. While letting them rest, she took a look inside the forge. The iron wasn’t entirely red. Vatra added another shovel of charcoal and pushed some air through the bellow to maintain the upcoming heat.

She pulled the red iron compartment she had made from the forge and plunged it into the snow outside the forge. Cleaning the inside of her compartment from any remaining flux, she was now ready to create wootz steel.

Using the wire brush and the vinegar, she cleaned and brushed away any imperfection from both her iron container and each arrowhead. Once they were all perfectly clean, she fit in as many as she could into the container. As she was doing it, she cut herself with an arrowhead and spilt blood inside the container.

Vatra – “Ouch! Shit!”

Vatra then cleaned her finger, the container, and each arrowhead one by one using the vinegar. The second time, she carefully placed them inside the container until the container was entirely filled with clean arrowheads. Vatra then placed the container inside the furnace and added a lot more charcoal before blasting the bellow many times. When the container turned a deep red, she used a long tong and folded the remaining opening of the container to fully close it.

She kept heating the furnace by blasting air until the iron turned a bright yellow. Using two large tongs, she carefully moved the container over the anvil before grabbing two large hammers. Without striking the melting iron, she pressed the container together to close any remaining space between the arrowheads. As the iron was slowly becoming red, she grabbed the tongs and moved it back into the furnace.

She added more charcoal and blew the bellow until the iron went back to its bright yellowish tones. Vatra then drank the remaining water from her cup and took a few deep breaths. She could feel her energy run low, but she was now at the most important part of her work. She pulled her ember amulet and looked at it for a moment.

I wish you could see what I’m doing. You’d be so proud.

She put on the smiting gloves, grabbed the two large tongs, pulled the bright iron from the furnace, and placed it on the anvil again. She then took a medium-sized hammer and a small tong. Holding the iron in place, she strongly hammered it down into the shape of a long and flat piece of iron. When it was finally flat, she grabbed a chisel and a small hammer. She carefully pushed the chisel in each corner of the container to split it apart.

Inside of it, an orange-toned metal was fused into a long and thin rod of wootz steel. She cleaned the area from any unwanted tools and materials, leaving solely the rod of wootz steel, a small tong, and the small hammer. Carefully, she kept flattening the rod, and as it turned red, she moved it back to the furnace again.

Flattening it further in the shape of a blade, heating it up to a bright yellow. Vatra kept working for another hour. When the wootz steel had the shape of a dull blade, she sank it in the snow to cool it down, revealing a unique and marvellous pattern.

I did it! You’d be so proud of me! It’s beautiful!

Vatra went back inside the forge and sat on the chair while looking at her work. She grabbed her cup to drink another sip, but it was empty. She walked to the door and opened it to dip the wooden cup in the snow when she noticed Nelis coming toward the forge.

Oh . . . Right.

Nelis – “Hey! You seem to be doing well!”

Vatra – “Yes! I am.”

Nelis – “I’ve brought some tea.”

Vatra – “Sweet!”

As the two of them entered the forge, Vatra looked at Nelis, embarrassed.

Vatra – “I’m sorry, I completely forgot about your teaching. I was just thinking about the forge and–”

Nelis – “It’s fine, we’ve got time. Besides, I didn’t come for that.”

Vatra – “Oh, we cannot use the bucket for tea. I filled it with vinegar to clean the steel.”

Nelis – “Vatra, listen.”

Vatra – “Yes?”

Nelis – “I came to talk about yesterday.”

Vatra – “Right. I’m sorry, I don’t know what went through my mind.”

Nelis – “Don’t be sorry. You’ve done no wrong. It’s the opposite. You’ve enlightened me.”

Vatra – “How so?”

Nelis – “I’ve always felt like a part of me was empty, but I couldn’t pin down what it was. Yesterday, I found that lost piece. I had trouble sleeping last night, and I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

Nelis pulled a small bag from his pocket.

Nelis – “I thought it would be strange to ask you to forge this and I didn’t have any, so I thought I’d make them using flowers but the only flowers I have that are not dry in winter are hellebore. Now, they’re poisonous, but since we won’t eat them, it should be fine until we get the real one. So . . .”

Nelis pulled two beautiful living flowers that had been strung to a small cloth ring made of twisted linen.

Nelis – “Vatra . . .”

Vatra – “No, listen, Nelis.”

Nelis froze while looking at her.

Vatra – “I . . . I did feel something yesterday and I still do, but I’m not ready to lock my life away. I’m not meant to be a bride. I’m a smith, and in this world, I just can’t see myself ever being able to settle down.”

Nelis – “I’m not asking you to be a bride. If I wanted one, I would have settled long ago. I’m asking you to be my partner in this life and the other, to live and travel by my side.”

Why now? Can’t I have more time to think? Everything is just so unstable. What about my promise to Ethen? He didn’t say it directly, but he’s not waiting in the otherworld just to show me his sister. There’s more to it. I know what I felt but . . . Why can’t it be simple and quiet for once?

Nelis – “Can’t you at least say something? I’ve opened up my heart for you. I’ve never done that to anyone else before.”

Vatra’s blood was boiling. Her sweaty hair was sticking on her forehead, drops of salted sweat flowing onto her nose until they set a burning feeling in her anxious eyes. Vatra tried to breathe in, but the air felt too hot.

Vatra – “I . . . I can’t breathe.”

Vatra ran to the window and pushed it wide open, letting the heat out.

Nelis – “Are you alright?”

Vatra was trying to catch her breath when Nelis hugged her from behind and whispered in her ear.

Nelis – “I’ll wait. Take your time. You’ve been through a lot lately. If you feel something for me, I’ll wait. But if you don’t . . .”

Vatra – “I do! I do feel something . . .”

Nelis smiled and gently kissed her on the side of her neck before leaving. Vatra looked at him walk away from the forge. As he turned the corner of the street, she exhaled, closed the windows, and sat back against the wall, exhausted. She looked around and saw that Nelis had left the tea leaves on the table. She placed her hand on her forehead and looked at the furnace in silence.