Chapter VII: The City Blacksmith

The next day I rolled over in the bed that had been provided to me. It was larger than I was used to. As I shifted, I stretched out and my hand brushed across something warm and smooth. I slid my hand up and heard a soft catch of breath. I opened my eyes and blinked a few times. Meryl was sitting cross-legged in front of me, as bare as the day she was born. Her black hair was drawn behind her back. She was somewhere in between thin and voluptuous, with nice hips and a taut, but undefined stomach, and breasts that were more than a handful but not by much. I also noted that she was completely hairless from the neck down. She was leaning back, not hiding anything. I lifted my head a bit and saw that my hand was between her legs and had brushed across her gender. I blinked and jerked my hand away. She pouted down at me, breathing deeply, sending her breasts up and down, which only caught my eye because of the angle. Honestly. She edged closer to me and murmured "You're a little more aggressive in the morning."

"I uh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! I didn't know you were there!" I sputtered, backing up. She giggled at me before putting a finger to my lips. She moved it away slowly and kissed me. I whimpered but leaned into the kiss. It was only for a moment and I wanted it to be longer. But she broke it off and started crawling out of the bed. "W-what are you doing here? I locked the door."

"Oh, Johann, you sure do know how to make a girl feel wanted." The queen said as she was pulling on her clothes. "Also, locking the door didn't work at your home, why would it work in my castle?"

"I didn't mean... I mean..." I tried to gather my thoughts. It was pretty difficult. She was taking her time getting dressed and the view was glorious. "I... Why were you naked?"

"It's how I sleep." I thought about that for a moment. I also slept naked. I also slept naked. I looked down and wrapped up tightly in the blanket and looked away. She laughed musically at that. "It's not the first time I've seen you like that, husband. And it won't be the last. Not if I have anything to do with it."

"We... W-we're not married." I had to swallow before I could get the sentence out.

"Details." She said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Are you going to join me for court today again? Emilia won't be there this time."

"Oh. No, I have some things I want to do in town today. Where's Emilia?"

"Also running errands in town. Said she had a couple of things to pick up. What are you going to do in town?" Her voice was a little strained on the question.

"Well, I can't just follow you around all day." I tried to sound nonchalant. "I-if I'm going to be here, I need to find work. I need something to do."

"You have something to do!" She all but shouted. "You are to be around here and help me with things! And Carmella. And Emilia."

I looked at her, confused. "You're a queen. She's a knight. And Emilia's a maid. I'm a blacksmith. What help could I be?"

"You helped me yesterday with that other blacksmith." She said, a little defensively.

"You already knew what to do. I just told you a little about ores. Besides, it's not like I'm going far. I'll be back tonight for dinner." Worry played on her face and she looked away. "What's this about? Do you expect me to be by your side constantly?"

She frowned at me and her face screwed up as she tried to sort her thoughts. Yesterday she was never speechless. She knew how to navigate every situation in an instant.

"I... You've been so resistant to the idea of being around me. I guess I'm just afraid tha-" I laughed. I could not help it. Her pale face flushed red as she glared at me, balling her fists. "What!? What's funny about this? I'm serious. You ran away! And you want to go work as a blacksmith instead of being an adviser! Many men would beg me for an opportunity like this! Especially with everything I-I'm offering!"

I took her in; her red face, her shouting, her trembling lip. She had crawled into my bed naked without a hint of embarrassment but this was too much for her. "Come here. I... I want to talk about this for a moment. If you have the time."

She continued to try and roast me alive with her eyes until I moved a little bit and patted the bed next to me. She stiffened her back and raised her nose into the air. "I am a queen. I have the time for everything that is necessary. If other people wait on me all the better."

I waited until she sat next to me. I took her hands in mine and looked at her. "My reticence has nothing to do with you. It's more that I just feel I don't belong here. You brought me here into this world I know nothing about. A world of politics that I don't understand. Your world is bigger than I am. And so are you."

"Are you calling me fat?" She looked at me accusingly, but I think I saw her mouth twitch as she tried not to smile.

"What? No!" I said quickly, shaking my head. "You're more important than I am. You're a queen. Lady Carmella is the First Knight. Even Emilia is this amazing cleric. And a maid, I guess. A maid who answers directly to the queen. And I'm just..."

I gestured to myself dismissively. She grabbed my hand and got closer to my face until it encapsulated my entire vision. "You are my future husband. Carmella's future husband. Emilia's... Uh, well, that's a little more... Emilia's charge. Her lord. Yeah. That's what you are."

"I'm never going to understand what you're talking about, am I?" I asked more to myself than actually to her. She responded with a shrug and a small smile. "There are two things about this that I don't think you really understand."

"Oh?" She raised a haughty eyebrow. "Please, explain."

"I- uh," I stopped at her look and started to organize my words more clearly. "I didn't mean it like that. It's just that I uh... I was never really consulted about this. You decided that I'm your husband and Carmella's husband, which I don't think she even likes me, much less... and Emilia's... Whatever. And I'm sitting here wondering why."

"Because I'm your queen. And because you're mine. That's all there is to it."

"But why me?"

"Because I chose you. There might have been others that could have done it, but I saw you and I thought to myself that you are the one. I brought in Carmella and she liked you better than anyone else we had looked at."

"What if I'm not comfortable with that? What if I don't want to be your husband?"

She leaned in and kissed me again. I returned it. We stayed like that for a moment. After the kiss broke, she muttered against my lips, "You do, though."

"I d-do" I muttered before I realized what I had said, then I cleared my throat and said, "I... I'm not opposed to the idea, but it's certainly not something I expected."

She reached under the blanket and grabbed my gender which had hardened during the kiss and grinned. She gripped it a little more roughly than I think she intended. Or maybe it was the fact that I jumped and tried to get out of her grip. She laughed and got up, adjusting her dress. "I had to get even. You touched me. Now I've touched you."

I got dressed and she asked that I accompany her to the courtroom. While walking, we passed Lady Carmella. She was out of her armor and in a dress. Not just any dress, but a rather fancy one. It was as nice as her lover's beside me. It wrapped tightly around her and opened on the midriff, revealing her strong stomach. She towered over me in heels which accentuated her strong legs, which I could see because the dress was cut halfway up her thigh. On a shorter woman, it would have been above her waist. I shifted a little bit. I was struck. I knew she was pretty but I had only ever seen her in traveling clothes and her full armor. Her chest was smaller than her queen's, but still pleasant to look at. When she caught me looking she gave me a cool, appraising look and raised her chin some. I couldn't be sure, but I thought I saw some a slight blush and a lip twitch that might've been a smirk. She entwined her fingers with Meryl's and started talking too quietly for me to hear. Meryl giggled and pointedly did not look my way.

After we arrived at the court hall, I said my goodbyes and made my way out, trying to ignore Carmella's appraising stare. I made my way into town and found a blacksmith. Which actually took me a long time. How anyone can navigate a place this large is beyond me? I thought bitterly. My village was just ten houses, two smithies, a tavern and a general shop. But when I finally did locate a smithy, I went through the door and a bell rang above my head. This forge was split into two parts. There was a shop up front with rows of swords, axes, spears, pikes, shields and some armor. I could see the actual forge in the back, where a dwarf was pounding away at his latest piece. The blacksmith looked up from his work and nodded. "Oi, how can I help ye?"

He was a dwarf, bald but with a thick red beard. He was working on a kind of blade that I had never seen before. I hesitated for a moment as he continued his pounding. I had never had to ask to use another man's forge before. Not even Daniel. "I-uh, I was wondering..."

"Spit it out, ye damned fool. Or get out of me shop," He barked. Apparently courtesy isn't universal among blacksmiths. I had never treated a potential customer like that. Nor would Daniel. I was sure of it.

"I would like to rent your forge for a few days." The dwarf stopped what he was doing and looked at me. He stomped around me, considering.

"Aye, an' what does a lordling know about bein' a blacksmith?" He said after he came to stand in front of me.

"I'm not a lordling! I'm a blacksmith!" I clenched my fists at my side.

"Aye, and I'm a jester for the queen herself. Just blacksmithing while I recover from jugglin'." The dwarf responded.

I reached behind me and grabbed the dagger I was wearing at my back and spun it around. The dwarf jumped back, his hand on a large hammer that I had not noticed before. "What d'ya think you're doin'?"

I raised a hand and offered him the dagger by the hilt. "I am a blacksmith. I made this. I want to rent your forge to make a sword for a... For a friend. And to repair another sword as an ornament for her."

The dwarf hesitantly put his hammer down, eyeing me, the dagger and the sword I had on my waist. After a moment, he took the dagger and examined it. "Ye said that ye made this?"

"That I did." He continued to consider the dagger for a while, turning it over and fingering the etching I had laid into it.

"Myrnil's a difficult metal to work with. How long have ye been a blacksmith, boy?"

I bristled at being called a boy. I'm not that much younger than he was, I thought, gritting my teeth. But I remembered reading somewhere that dwarves age differently than men do. "Uh. More than ten years, now. Almost fifteen."

He nodded absently, still considering the dagger in his hand. "And how much did ye expect to pay me for renting me forge and using me hammer and me materials?"

I had not really thought about the cost. I frowned. "I'm not sure. How much do you think would be fair, considering I'd be putting you out for a couple of days."

He considered me for a moment. "Ten gold should do it, I think."

I balked, but then considered his proposal. This was the capital. It was more expensive here. I could not expect prices to be the same as my village. Who knows how much work he was losing by letting me do that. "Alright. Ten gold."

"Tha's just for the rental. Materials will be separate." He added, turning his back to me.

"That's... That's fine." I went into my pouch and counted out fifteen of the thirty coins that I had and put them on the table. He nodded his approval.

"What's yer name, boy?"

"I'm Johann. What's yours, dwarf?"

He looked at me angrily but his eyes softened a little bit. "Don't be callin' me no dwarf. It's rude. I'm Barmion."

"I'm sorry, Sir Barmion. I've never met a dwarf before."

"Yea. We typically don't come this far out. Tend to stay to ourselves. It's better that way, for the most part," he replied contemplatively.

"Oh? That makes sense I guess." I did not really think so, but I did not want to push it. "Why'd you come out here, then?"

"I wanted to see the world. See what was out there. I traveled for a few decades. I arrived here and found that they had some food I never had before. It was delicious. Tried living in the mountains again, but I wanted more of that food, ye see. Decided I couldn't live without it."

I nodded, picking out some ores. I found some Myrnil and grabbed that and a little bit of gold. "I've only been in town for a few days, but even that short time has made me reconsider ever going back home."

"Once yer're out, ye start ta see things a bit differently." The dwarf nodded with a small smile on his face. "Little things build up and before ye know it, nothing's the same. I know tha' better than most."

"Was it just the food?" I said, loading up the metal into the crucible and looked at his billow. It was different from anything I'd ever seen before. Mine was a pump with a handle that one would just push down and pull back up. His was directly on the floor and had no handles. I hesitated for a moment, before reticently stepping on it. Surely enough, it compressed and a rush of air went through carefully crafted pipes into his more enclosed furnace. He started pounding away at the strange blade again before answering. After a while he shook his head.

"The food helped. But it was the person making the food that really changed me."

"Oh? How's that?"

The dwarf looked at me for a moment. "I met a gnome. I'd never met a gnome before. Dwarves and gnomes don't get on too well. Competing for materials and territory in the mountains. An' different philosophies. Gnomes tend ta like gems more than metals and tend to waste metal making small machines. Do things ya can do with yer hands."

I shrugged. I knew less about gnomes than I did about dwarves. And I knew next to nothing about dwarves. "Anyway, I met a gnome. We were both out exploring and he made me a meal. Twas the best thing I ever had. And I liked him. Never met anyone like him. We traveled together for a few months. And when I tried to live in the mines again, I missed him. Took me a while to track him down, but when I did, I asked him to marry me. That's not a problem with ye, is it?"

I continued to pump the billows to build up heat in the forge. "Nah. There was a couple like that back home. Didn't really understand it at first. Had them over for dinner. They're good men. They gave me a cheese basket afterwards."

The dwarf looked at me suspiciously. "Ye come from a village with two men that are married."

"Well, it took them a while to get married. They lived together for a long time. They kept pleading with the minister out there to marry them. Minister kept refusing. I sat him down and talked to him about it with them."

"Why'd ye do that?"

"Love is love. The minister didn't understand that and it was becoming a problem. His refusal fed into other people's resentment of them. It wasn't right. They're not hurting anyone. Just trying to live like anyone else."

The dwarf nodded. "And the minister married them?"

"Eventually. Took a while. Longer than they would have liked. Most of the town came. Those that didn't were noted and not invited to some of the other weddings that came after." I continued on. The metal had finally started to melt and I kept at it. "This is a nice forge you have here. Better than mine back home."

He grinned at that. "Well, ye're just a country blacksmith. I'mma dwarf. Of course I have a better forge than ye."

"What does your husband do?"

"Ah, he is a chef. Tryin' ta find a way to combine his love of gems with his love of cooking. Comes up with some strange things. Tasty, though. Most of the time."

I stopped pumping the billows for a moment and dug around for the right mold. I knew the metal was getting cold but I needed to have this ready first. I was not thinking. I had gotten distracted by Barmion's story and my own. Eventually I found a mold for a sword. It was longer and thicker than the one I had previously used, but that was also one of my goals. I set it out and worked up the heat again. After it was ready I carefully poured out the molten liquid and evened it out as much as I could.

Barmion watched me impassively and after a while said "Ye didn't make many weapons, did ye?"

"No, there was another blacksmith in the town that did that. I usually make other things. Horseshoes and the like."

"Then why're ye making a sword now?"

"Uh... Well, it's a bit complicated."

"I think we're past complicated, boy." He said dismissively. So I told him. I told him everything. And he laughed at me. "Ye got three women falling over ye and ye try to run away. Boy, I think ye might be gayer than me."

"That's not it." I shifted uncomfortably. "It's just that I'm not worthy of them."

"Love seldom has much to do with worthiness. And ye seem like a fine lad ta me. Bit of an idiot, apparently. But I'm sure the girls will set ye right."

"I've never been particularly clever. End up putting my foot in my mouth more often than I'd like to admit," I admitted. I spent a few moments beating the cooling metal with a hammer, mildly annoyed and then I stopped. "Wait. You said three."

"Well yea. Ye mentioned three women. I'm sure they know what they're doin'."

"Emilia wasn't mentioned in the marriage proposal. I'm not sure why she's involved."

"Ye're an idiot, boy. She's in it for the same as the other two. Mark me words."

I sighed and worked on it for the rest of the day. He used the time to clean up his shop. I came and went for the next few days. After her new sword was created, I went about using gold to reform her old sword. It would never be a weapon again, but I had read about this practice of fixing things with gold as a means of recreating them out in the West. I thought it was a neat concept, if a little impractical. But I also thought it would look really good. As for her new sword, I etched in patterns just as intricate as the ones I had made for the other two swords and two daggers I had made. The dwarf took his gold and looked over the work. "Ye're not bad, boy. In ten or fifteen years, ye may be up to our quality. Shame human lives are so short."