Chapter 17. Breaking the Ice

"It was just another day after talking with that Axelon guy, I picked up the materials I needed for my shop, and then a little bit extra for my project I was working on whenever this weeks orders were fulfilled.  After that I went to bar and had a two or three strong brews before paying for my tab and heading back here. After which I to start working on some orders.  Now can you tell me what the heck you need? This early in the fucking morning? I got a lot of work to do, and you're ass is gonna keep me from getting anything done."

I crossed my arms as I thought back to a few minutes prior and Randelous came to my room and woke me up. He proceeded to go on about someone from the castle wanted to speak with me. I slowly sat up on my bed and rubbed my eyes before letting out a sigh of annoyance before telling him. 

"This has happened so many times before dad. It's always someone trying to sell us something or get us to voice an option about something else. It's the same pointless bullshit so can you please get out and let me get some fucking sleep. It's too damn early for this nonsense."

He replied to my comments with a bit of nervousness.

"Alice, I know how you feel about these things. However this is uh, not the usual guest at our door step, and he's VERY insistent on talking with you."

After hearing the nervous tone in his voice, I finally gave in and told him to get out and inform the whoever it was that I'd be down there momentarily. After he left, I got ready to see whomever was bothering me. I carefully applied the ointment one my eye patch, and started to change my clothes. I stripped out of my sleeping attire, and put on a pair of black undergarments, some black pants and a deep red shirt. After then I put on some black boots and proceeded to come down the stairs to see who the hell wanted to waste my time. Only after coming down did I see why Randelous was a bit nervous, I saw this tall cloaked man at the door. 

 I rolled my eyed and time him I wasn't interested in anything that he had to say and proceeded to close the door, but he then gripped the door with vice grip; yanking it from my grasp. Obviously shocked I looked up at him, as he look down at me. It intense feeling surrounding this person was a bit much for me, so I asked him what he wanted. He then asked about Axelon and if I'd done anything to him.  I shake my head in disgust as if I'd even sully my pallet of taste for some foreigner, just because he was nice to me. After that, well here we are. 

Right as I was going to turn around I hear him say in a stern tone.

"I know that Ms. Smith, your grandfather told me a bit about you in preparation for this very conversation. However you see, Axelon said that he trusts you and requires your expertise and craftsmanship."

I hate to admit it, but I was a bit flattered by the man's words, since no one before now came to my specifically for a special request. I mean sure money is money at the end of the day, but ever since I took over this shop; people still think Randelius is responsible for the works coming out of the shop, but maybe with this I can finally show the people that I am one making the wares and not my old man. So I pry for more information and ask the stranger.

"First off my name is Alice Kelm, not Ms. Smith . Secondly, lets say I'm interested in this job. I'll need you fill me in on what exactly happened before I make any final decisions."

The hooded man lowered his head down before speaking to me in a disheartened tone.

"A few days ago, him and your grandfather got into a confrontation on the roof of the castle. I can't exactly say for certain how heated it was, but by the time I arrived. Axelon was laying down in his own vomit. Ever since then he's been training in the basement relentlessly, and refused to speak to anyone ever since. However last night was the first time he spoke to anyone since the confrontation, his voice seemed to lack any personality. He just simply asked for your presence, saying it was critical to his endeavor."

I thought about the hooded man's words and took a deep breath before agreeing to go with him. 

"Fine let me grab my writing stuff, so I can take notes on this. Seems like a pretty serious and complex order after all and I wouldn't want to mess up any details."

The hooded man nods and responded with.

"Very well, I shall wait out here then."

After that I back inside and into my forge to grab my note pad and pencil. While doing so I heard Randelious calling for me before stumbling into the forge.

"Alice? What's going on? Why are you in the forge this early?"

I turned around and started to explain the situation to him.

"Well you see, I met this foreigner the other day and he said he needs me to help him out with something important. So I figured I'd take the chance to make a name for myself and finally yearn some respect."

Randelious nodded while listening to my words before saying something I didn't expect.

"Oh I see, erm well if you insist on going. However your still in your prime dear. Don't come back here with news that your carrying a kid. Especially with a foreigner you just met not too long ago." 

He gave me a stern look while I almost immediately started to become flustered by what he was suggesting. Immediately retaliated by punching him on top of his head, and watched as he grabbed it and cried out.

"What the hell was that for?!"

"I should be asking you that, you senile old bastard! How the hell do you get that out of this situation?"

I shouted at him before storming off to the front door, with him shouting as I left.

"It was just a joke."

I shook my head and put my pencil note pad in my back pocket before heading out the front door and closing it as I stepped out to meet back up with the cloaked figure. I looked up at him as he moved his head to look towards me as I came out and asked in slightly impatient tone.

"Now that you have your things, shall we start walking back to the castle?"

I picked up on his impatience before rolling my eye and nodding.

"Yes we can go now, I just hope this is worth my time."

The cloaked man nodded and began to escort me to the dark castle. On the way there I looked up to enjoy the view of the dark dawn sky. As I gazed upon it, I recalled a faint memory of my mother or at least who I think was her. I couldn't exactly recall her appearance but I remember her wearing a dark red dress with, her charcoal black hair that had covered her eyes, and veil to cover up the rest of her face. However before I knew it, I had stopped in my tracks gazing upon the many stars in the heavens.

The man looked back at me while I wasn't paying attention and chuckled at my fascination before calling over to me.

"Hey Alice, you gonna go star gazing or help out? Either one is fine, but I thought I'd ask before continuing this walk of ours."

My mind immediately snapped out of it, bringing me back to the present as I rub the side of my head and nod. 

"Y-yeah, of course. Just got caught in a memory, was all. It was faint but fir some reason my mind just wouldn't let it go.."

The turned around and started to walk again but he uttered something to me that shook me a bit upon hearing it. He simply said to me that.

"Sometimes it's better to not look behind the closed doors of our minds. You might not like the truth that'll be waiting their for you on the other side; once you open the door."

I thought about it for a moment and swallowed whatever I was thinking about for now and continued to follow the man to the castle. Upon entering through the main entrance, I was a bit surprised to see that my father wasn't on his throne, but instead the room was filled with the foreigners I saw the day when I came back from my meeting Andrea. 

"What are they doing here?" 

A thought that would soon be answered as the cloaked man took off his disguise to reveal a massive man in white armor. He looked like he wanted to say something to say, and he could tell I had even more questions now. We were cut off however, by q man a bit taller than me in a duller set of armor spoke up before making his way towards me in the big guy.  

"So is this the girl that's suppose to help us out? I mean I trust Avorion with my life, but how do we even know if this one eyed girl can even help. By the looks of it, she's probably more harmful then helpful given the state of her other eye; don't you think? And besides, having a body like that and using "

The girl within their group called him by his name, saying that he was being rude but I simply smirked. Before slowly walking to him, knowing exactly how to deal with men like him.  I clenched my fist and uttered the phrase.

 "Caliente Guantes. [Hot Gloves in Spanish]" 

The moment I finished the phrase fire began to cover my hands before splitting off and swirling around half of my forearms.  The fire then vanished, to reveal a pair of sleek metallic knuckle duster gloves appear with straps form on the half of my forearms where the parted and swirled around. This Jeremy guy didn't even notice until last second when I spun to deliver a powerful left hook to the side of his helmet. Now usually the guys around here depending on his they were soldiers or not would either get a huge dent in their helmets or a broken jaw at worse. So needless to say I was very surprised when this guy only took a few steps back before falling on his rear and said in a condescending tone.

"Oh wow, that actually hurt just a bit."

Like what in the First Lord's Fire is that armor made from?! I watched as the man just sat there for a moment before he took off his helmet to rub the side of his face, where my knuckle dusters had hit him. Once the helmet was taken off, I was a bit surprised that the guy under that helmet was actually mildly attractive. He had a nice tan, short hazel like hair that dropped slightly over his brown eyes, honestly most of the women in around him would consider him very desirable. However despite that, his words cancelled out whatever charm he has at first glance and made his face a lot more punch able; so I really don't regret knocking him on his ass. What caught my eye after that was when I glanced at his dull white armor, only to see that helmet suffered a very minor dent. 

Seeing this first hand and being the one that struck the blow; I couldn't help but be dumbstruck by this. I looked back at my knuckle dusters and look at the armor once again, I just couldn't wrap my head around how something that dense can even exist in a wearable form. He should've been crushed under the sheer weight of whatever the hell that material is, maybe even stuck in place at the very least. Before I was able to ask anything about the tough material that this Jeremy guy was wearing, I heard someone who must've been the guy that had this hulking man come out to fetch me. 

"Jeremy, knock it off before I have to discipline you. We're guests in this nation, and of the royal family no less. So we shouldn't cause trouble with someone from said family, especially the one person we need help from. Right?"

I could hardly hold in my laughter as Jeremy immediately got on his knee and lowered his head as the source of the voice came from the right hallway of the throne room. The individual revealed himself encased in his white armor, it made Jeremy's look even duller in comparison. The helmet was in the shape of some feline, as to which one specifically, well I couldn't exactly put my finger on it. However the tower man that escorted me here as well removed the cloak to his set of dazzling white armor, it also had a feline shaped helmet but again, I couldn't figure it out. The man also kneeled beside Jeremy as the women also kneeled in front of me. I looked confused for a second before the man that spoke to Jeremy, walked between me and three kneeling individuals.

"What exquisite craftsmanship.."

I thought to myself as I just couldn't help but admire the work of functional pieces art that stood before my very eye. As curiosity took a hold of my thoughts with a vice unlike any other subject I've studied. I just simply had to know the technique of the smith that worked on this dense material and brought it life in the form of armor. I'm certain special tools were needed for sure since all the designs were all flawless.

Meanwhile the man then looked down to meet my eye before snapping his fingers to release me from my thoughts and brought me back to reality. I shook my head for a second for a moment before could see his, through his helmet. The moments after this was silent, as he was looking me over to see if I was right for whatever they dragged me out of my bed for; but I'm sure he knew I was doing the same to him. Whoever this guy was, I wanted to make sure that he wouldn't waste my time. Finally the silence was broken as he asked me in in his deep voice.

"How was the walk here?"

I looked a bit surprised as I gave a short reply.

"It was good...Didn't have to wake me up so damn early though.."

"My apologies about that, I needed to make sure this was the sole thing you'll be working on. I was made aware by King Haco that you have had a previous orders to work on from the Sand Combative Division. The King has notified the commander of the division and told them to cancel their orders and to go to a different Blacksmith until this one order is completed."

I looked at the man in the armor as my blood began to boil. I clenched my first and shouted at him saying.

"All of those orders were supposed to help me pay for new tools and repairs! How is one order going to make up for the thirty seven that I lost huh?! Think wisely about what you say next, because if you piss me off enough, I going to kick your shiny ass!"

The man slowly put his hands up, obviously not even phased by my threat before speaking to me in a calm manner.

"No need for you to get all worked up. The King said once this order is complete, you be paid seven times the amount for your troubles. Considering that this project will be extremely difficult, I'd say it's fair compensation to make up for the cancelled orders."  

I sigh and take a deep breath before looking at him with a more composed face, while hearing the snickering of Jeremy. I roll my eye and due my best to ignore it as I crossed my arms. I then began to ask my questions about this order, as per my rights as a professional smith. Honestly it was a mute point, considering now I needed this order..

"First off I want to make this clear. I know that since you guys are new around here, that you might not be aware that us smiths get to ask three questions about our order if we so choose. However, since you woke me up so early. I'll ask one more as verbal compensation."

The armored man nod, acknowledging my request and signal with a roll of his wrist that I am to proceed with my questions.

"My first and most obvious question is, what am I doing exactly? Because I need to know if what your asking of me is even possible. Secondly are there any special instructions on how to deal with whatever material I'll be working with? Also what am I to do with whatever is left over scarps of material? Then lastly and this one may be slightly off topic, but...Is Axelon okay? It's just he seemed like a nice guy so it'd be disappointing if he got himself messed up y'know?"

The man sighed under his helmet and nodded. Obviously answering my last question before he started to give answers to my other questions.

"Yes he's okay, he's just really deep into his training right now..or so I would like to think. However to answer your other questions in order. What you'll be doing is melting down a weapon and forging the melted material into a new tool for Axelon to use. There was just something about that weapon that doesn't feel quite right to him, so he wanted it remade. As for the special instructions, well that's where Navis will come in handy."

I looked confused before looking behind him, narrowing my gaze at the bowing women that was beside Jeremy and the huge armored man beside them. Before looking back at the standing feline helmed man, with a bit of confusion. 

"How could she possibly be of assistance? I'm a trained professional, who spent years of my life, mastering my craft.  So please explain to me, why would I require her help for this?"

The man simply replied to my query with.

"Well to put it simply. The material you'll be handling is known as Frost Iron, a rare material that could've only been found within the land of Fortis Gelu. You see Alice, if you were to try and smelt down this weapon by yourself, you'd catch frostbite within minutes of handling it. Since Navis is a cryomancer, she'll be able to cast protection spells on your hands ton held ward off any negative effects of handling this material. "

I look a bit surprised, never in my years of research have I ever heard of this elegit "Frost Iron". Sure I've heard that all the Kingdoms had one type of material known for them. The lands' of Ignis, were blessed with a the ores of red and black obsidian, along with a plentiful bounty of other ores. While Regnum is a place known for its yellow and white gold, the only reason my father has a throne room of the stuff. Is due to dealings involving the first lords of of both Ignis and Regnum. However, while I know that my homeland and those of the priests were blessed with ores of various precious metals. The people of Arcanum were blessed with the Azure Cobalt, a deep blue metal and a plentiful amount of gems of every kind. Each one capable of channeling the Gift of Magic in myriad of ways. Now suddenly this stranger is telling me that there's a material I haven't ever heard of despite my years of studying and learning my craft?! And on top of that, it's also hazardous enough to give me frostbite if handled improperly?!  

I hide my growing frustration at the thought of how hard this job will be. To think that my biggest job yet, might cost me my fingers ugh. However fortify my poker face and give the man a nod, and gave him a monotone response.

"Fine, if it can't be helped, I guess I have no real choice. So where is this supposed weapon I'm suppose to reforge anyway?"

The Stranger pointed to the wall near the entrance of the castle, I looked to see where it was he was pointing to and there it was. Though I wasn't expecting the weapon to be all tightly wrapped up in fine white cloth. The shape of the item wrapped immediately gave away the fact that it was a long sword. I started to walk to the wrapped up blade as I shook my left hand in a loose manner; having my gauntlet disburse itself in a fiery display, and returning to the storage of items I've forged under my shop. 

Everybody watched as I try to grab the sword by it's handle and lift it up, but it wouldn't budge for the lift of me. After multiple attempts with one hand, I then try it with two to no avail. That stranger must've known what I was thinking at that moment because the moment I turned around, Navis was already there to assist me. I stood there arms crossed thinking there's no way this slim looking women could lift this thing, when I couldn't. Yet despite all reasonable logic. She picked it up, just like that; as if it was some kind of paperweight. I was so startled by this that I shook my head in disbelief while taking multiple looks at her to see if I was really seeing this. 

Before I could say anything about this absurdity the man spoke, as if he was once again reading my mind. 

"The people of Fortis Gelu lived in much harsher conditions so over time we grew accustomed to wielding this unnaturally heavy material. Our former King had also found out it's protection against the bitter unforgiving cold, once forged into armor and weaponry. So don't be dismissive of Navis. Sure she may look meek, but she can punch with the force of at least two average grown men."

I stood there shocked beyond belief as this slender women who apparently had the ability to snap my into two with what I'm thinking is no effort. Carried this wrapped up blade that must've been at least a hundred pounds or so, simply looked towards me and simply asked.

"Are you ready to go Ms. blacksmith?"