The pickaxe bit into the rock with a dull clink, not the clean crack I was hoping for. Down in the mines near Minoc, the air thick with dust and the echo of distant strikes, I’d been at it nearly an hour—twenty good hits, maybe more, but half of them glancing off stubborn stone or meeting empty space where ore should’ve been. My arms ached, and the weight of nearly fifty ingots in my pack pressed into my shoulders like old regrets. Still, I kept at it. There’s a rhythm to mining, a kind of stubborn prayer: swing, breathe, swing again. You start to feel the mountain’s moods—the soft seams, the false promises, the deep veins that hum under your fingers if you’re patient enough to listen.
Later, at the mine forge just outside the tunnels, I fed the ore into the flames. The heat slapped my face, and I leaned into it, stoking the coals until they roared like a caged beast. Smelted three batches right there, the molten metal pooling like liquid sunset. But when I reached for the tongs—old, pitted things I’ve been meaning to replace—they snapped mid-lift. One jaw gave way, and a bar of iron clattered into the dirt, glowing red, hissing like it was angry at being dropped. I just stood there, sweat stinging my eyes, watching it cool. Felt like the whole day had come down to that one broken tool. Forty-two pounds of ore in my pack, and I couldn’t even hold a bar right.
I hauled myself into Minoc, past the Carpenter’s shop where the scent of pine cut through the city stink, and tried Veda at the Provisioner first. She shook her head before I even spoke. “No need today, Grimm.” So I walked the extra blocks to Minoc Arms, my boots grinding dust into the stone. The smith there took the cutlass I’d forged that morning—good weight, balanced well—and tossed me a small pouch. Not much, but enough to eat tonight. Maybe buy new tongs tomorrow.
Still, as I stood outside the bank, counting copper in the fading light, I thought about that broken jaw of the tongs. Tools wear down. Men do too. But the mountain’s still there. I’ll be back.
No replies yet.