Alaira Taenn & Grey Onyx
Fwoosh. Fwoosh.
...
Hiss.
Fwoosh. Fwoosh.
...
Hiss. "You're going too fast, you need to slow down." Came the gruff voice of the guardsman, frowning at the woman as she worked the bellows.
"I've been doing this for fuckin' decades, I know how to do it..." the woman replied, wiping the sweat from her brow as she slid the blade into the forge again, stepping at the bellows exactly twice and waiting, and then removing it and cooling it with water. She was tempering the blade, heating and cooling it repeatedly to give the weapon the flexibility it needed to be durable. the final step in the process.
Grey held his hands up, shaking his head as he went back to polishing the set of armor he'd been working on. The upper half was beautifully designed, lightly engraved and adorned and polished to a shine, brass plating decorated the trim. The greaves were comparatively simple, leather boots making up the feet as opposed to the sabatons he normally made, owing to the fact that the lower segment had been rushed. Still, it was as sturdy as the rest. He frowned, sighing as he rolled his eyes.
Alaira looked over her shoulder as she finished cooling the blade a fifth time, clicking her tongue.
"you can stop worrying about the legs. She's gonna like it or hate it regardless." She said, shaking her head as she went back to work. Grey looked up, and then simply sighed again.
"I know, but... it just doesn't feel right." He said, shaking his head some again as he got back to polishing it. He felt that it made him look... lazy or something, part of it was simply worry for his reputation. How could he have ever expected that what had happened with Mar had... well, happened?
"So... remind me again why you're doing this? I didn't think you were close to them." Alaira chimed in, stepping at the bellows. Grey looked up for a moment, humming.
"Remember way back when Athalus lost his hand?" He said, stroking his chin.
"Yeah?" "Well, at the time I had felt like it was my fault, that I hadn't done enough to protect him or Mar. I got over that little bit of despair, but at the time I felt like I needed to make it up to them, somehow. I tried to think of something I could do for them, and I realized that all I could do was make something." He said, Alaira nodding along.
"So I noticed-" "right, right. You noticed that Mar didn't wear any armor and that Athalus couldn't really do it so you started working on something for her." Grey nodded, tapping at the armor and smiling at the sound.
"Exactly. I figured that she'd get hurt a lot less if she stopped going into fights with just a tunic on." He said, looking over to Alaira to find that she'd been polishing her blade now, as well as slotting the blade itself into the guard and the grip.
"And yours?" He asked. She smiled, wiping at the blade some with a soft cloth before she took out her engraving tools and got to work.
"It's for Lyn. She's a big girl now, she can't just use that stick forever." She said cheerfully, referring to a wooden practice sword. She had made her a 'Hand-and-a-Half' sword, better known as a Bastard sword. It was a weapon sized so that it could be comfortably wielded one-handed or two-handed, as needed. Lyn was stronger than most so Alaira felt that a lighter weapon was wasted on her, but she was no brute so a big old greatsword wouldn't be able to take advantage of the girl's quickness very well. So she found that a middle ground was necessary. Even if she didn't use it, she'd made sure that the sword was pretty enough to be put on display, at least. She blew at the blade once she was done, polishing the segment now that the girl's name had been engraved into it, along with a few words. Grey stepped over, arching his brow.
"Per aspera ad astra?" He asked.
"Through hardship, to the Stars." She said, gingerly sliding the weapon into its sheath.
She said nothing more as she cooled the forge, watching Grey load up a small cart.
"Ready then?" She asked, the man giving her a thumbs up and a nod as he placed a boot on the cart.
"Ready as I'll ever be." He said, grumbling some to himself.
{I hope those measurements Athalus got me were right... It'd be pretty embarrassing to give a gift that doesn't even fit.} He thought to himself. They walked through the halls, agreeing to stop by their room to deliver the armor, and they'd go their separate ways after.
Once they arrived, they found Leith standing in the doorway, prompting the two to look to eachother for a moment as they drew in closer, only catching the last bits of his words.
"What's goin' on? What are we dealin' with?" Alaira asked, crossing her arms and arching a brow to him. Her tone was curious, not accusatory. Grey simply wheeled the cart to the wall and waved to Leith.
"Hey there." He said quietly, leaning against the wall and simply standing by.
The Irish Tree