I’ve been swinging that pickaxe down in the Minoc mines so long my arms hum like forge bellows even when I’m still. Today was one of those days where the rock fought back—four times I brought the pick down only to hear that cursed clink of it bouncing off cold stone, useless. The fifth swing finally cracked the seam, and out tumbled a fat cluster of iron, dark and promising. I filled my pack near to bursting—nearly fifty ingots by the time I was done, each one cold and heavy against my back as I hauled myself up the tunnel toward the surface. Dust clung to my sweat, gritty as ground bone, and my shoulders screamed, but you don’t stop. Not when you’re this close.
Up top, the sun nearly blinded me, but I didn’t care. I trudged straight to the mine forge near the rim of the excavation, where the heat still pulsed from yesterday’s fires. I fed the coals, got them breathing again, and started smelting. Six good melts, one ruined by damp ore that hissed and cracked like a spiteful thing. The tongs snapped halfway through the last batch—cheap things, bought from a wandering vendor in Trinsic, and I cursed loud enough to scare a gypsy chicken from the nearby coop. Had to finish the job with a pair of pliers wrapped in leather, fingers blistering even through the wrap. But the molten iron flowed, silver-hot, and I poured it careful into bars, each one a small victory.
Later, at the blacksmith in Minoc proper, I laid ten ingots on the counter just to clear weight and coin up a bit. Old Brant, the smith, didn’t haggle. Just nodded, tossed me 160 gold, and said, “You look like hammered slag.” I laughed, but he wasn’t wrong. Still, as I stood there, lighter by a stone and richer by a few coins, I felt it—the quiet pride of metal shaped by your own hands, from stone to steel.
Tomorrow, I’m making my own tongs. Proper ones. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll try that colored steel recipe Old Mara whispered about near the Yew fountain. If the ore holds, and the fire behaves, I might finally make something worth remembering.
No replies yet.