Hope in the Shadows by Umut Ersezer

Author:Umut Ersezer [Ersezer, Umut]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-08-07T22:00:00+00:00

** Chapter 17 **

The Sighting

Faber worked tirelessly, beating hammer to glowing red hot metal. He usually got a thrill out of shaping blank metal into something useful, but that was when he had the freedom to hammer what he wished. Now he was forced into hammering an endless supply of generic swords and spear tips.

He had been taken to Honour Haven, given a space to establish a new workshop within the depths of the garrison town. He was in the metalworking district, but his assigned task was weapons specifically.

Word had spread of his skill for weapon forgery from the quality products he sold to visiting soldiers, captains and commanders back in Vicus.

He didn’t particularly like the idea of selling weapons, but he couldn’t deny the satisfaction of charging ample gold for weapons forged with enough skill and attention to detail to also be considered art. That skill, however, led him into the forced labour he now endured. His forge was hot, amplified by the searing sun above. He couldn’t wait for winter where his forge would be a place of comforting warmth rather than oppression.

His young new young apprentice Porro, a boy of 12 years and dark features, worked the bellows, blowing vital oxygen soaked air into the glowing coals of the forge. The shutters of the forge were shut tight, the forge needed to be dark in order for Faber to see the temperature of the metal. The swords he forged now were made of simple iron rather than the alloy weapons he made in Vicus.

“Harder boy!” Faber called out to his apprentice.

“I’m blowing as hard as I can!” Porro cried in return.

“Just a few more pumps! There!” Faber said as he pulled out the rod of glowing iron from his forge, transferring it over to his anvil so he can begin hammering shape into it.

He started by flattening the metal, Porro assisting with metal tongs by helping Faber position the iron on the anvil correctly. Faber’s great hammer slammed down hard against the metal, he was a skilled and robust dwarf making short work of iron sword crafting, a trivial task underutilizing his talents. His role in this war was to produce a countless number of swords, taking priority over quality like the steel alloys he could produce.

“Good, good! Return to the bellows boy!” Faber instructed.

“I have a name, you know!” Porro called back.

“I’m wel’aware o’yur name, boy! Now stop your yammering and blow the damn bellows!”

Porro bit his tongue to hold himself back from insulting the dwarf. He was worked hard in Faber’s forge, harder than most apprentices he felt. But Faber also paid him a portion of his meagre salary, an act the other trade masters resented as they preferred not to pay their apprentices. Especially when they were earning a pittance of what they used to before being dragged into the garrison town.

He also respected Faber’s skill with the hammer and saw an opportunity to learn the trade from him. Porro had never considered becoming a blacksmith, he had never considered becoming much of anything.

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