Burning City Chapter 3
If it weren't for the dream he would have an entire week of trading to enjoy himself. And an entire week to prepare himself for making the final piece. The sword that would make him a blacksmith. Sadly for Max, he found Nja's suspicions to align with his own superstition. It was too late to back out now, he had promised her she could go on the Ikro with him. Plus, he had already started setting everything up to make the last piece the previous night.
Today was the final day of walking back into the village. He would be a full blacksmith after today, which meant living in his own house inside the village. His time of supposed growth in isolation and learning to be independent was over. He carefully wrapped up his possessions, and put them at the back of the sled. Now came the hard part: disassembling his tent. Supposedly, every member of Southern Haven could carry everything they needed on their back. This included the material for the tent. This was of course only a theoretical reality, that Maximilian didn't enjoy turning into actual reality. He was struggling to roll up the canvas when suddenly he saw someone out of the corner of his eye. It was Nja. Embarrassed by his lack of skill at packing up the tent, the avian turned to face her.
She immediately went about helping him pack up the tent. "Where will we be going for the Ikro?" She asked him. "Well," he began, "I was thinking we could go East, to Polonia. I've always wanted to see the hot springs there. Oh and the food there! I've heard about how the fish there are the freshest, and how they bring in spices from around the world to season them," his stomach growled, interrupting his speech, "well, anyways, I've always wanted to go there."
Nja nodded, as if considering this as an option despite having no actual choice in the matter. "We cannot tell Mitro." She said at last. He looked up at her in shock, "What do you mean we can't tell Mitro?"
"Max, we cannot tell Mitro where we are planning on going. I don't even want him going along at all, but I know you wouldn't hear of it. So the best we can do is keep him in the dark until we get there."
"Why wouldn't we tell him Nja? I've known Mitro for years. He's totally trustworthy. If we tell him to not tell anyone else where we are going I know he'd keep it secret for us."
"Look, that silver fox came with the trading caravan. Mitro only comes to Southern Haven to trade. We don't know how connected he is to the silver fox."
Max sighed in exasperation, "I'm sorry but Mitro is my friend. I know we can trust him. He trusts me too, I know that for sure."
"Max, you're always thinking with your heart. Right now it's time to think with your brain. We need to be smart about this."
"Don't think with my heart? Nja the entire reason I'm agreeing to all of this is because I'm thinking with my heart. I have a bad feeling about this, and I don't want you to get hurt. Plus, you also have a bad feeling about this. We're both thinking with our hearts, and that's a good thing. Please, just trust my judgment on this Nja."
She stood motionless for a second, thinking it through. Finally, she answered, "Fine, we will tell him. But he needs to promise not to tell anyone else." They finished packing up the tent, and walked into town.
The forge was as always the hottest building in the entire town. It would probably still be hot inside the building even during a snowstorm. His teacher was already there. The elderly owl was stoking the bellows, making sure the coals would already be warm for him. Max walked over to where the sword was. Making the final piece took weeks, and he had been working for weeks on the sword. If he wanted to finish it today, he would have to do the work of three whole days in one day. He was not looking forward to it. Nja would definitely owe him after this. Max set to work.
"Max?" His teacher said. "Yeah?" Max answered without even looking up from his work. The elderly owl moved over to his student, "Your skills at being a blacksmith are certainly proficient, but, there are some other things I need to talk to you about. I made a big decision choosing a raven to succeed me instead of an owl." Max looked up in surprise, "What do you mean?" The owl shook his head, "Our village is not as unified as it may appear on the surface Max. Especially among my older generation." They fell silent for a moment, as Max considered this.
"Anyways," his teacher continued, "I am putting a lot of trust in you, and I need to ask you about something." Max shrugged, "Ask away."
"Well, I want you to tell me about the pickles." The unexpected tangent made Max burst out laughing, "What do you mean the pickles? The pickle jar Mitro gave me?" The older owl smoothed out his feathers, "Gave is the wrong word. Traded is the word you're looking for Max. Traded. You were supposed to give away your old weapon, your old ax, as a gift. But instead, I hear that you traded it!" Max shrugged, "I don't really see what the big deal is." The owl put a hand on his shoulder, "Max, you chose to give your ax to Mitro. You're loyal to your friends, and that's wonderful. But, I'm worried there is also a selfish side to you. You chose to take advantage of your friend, and make him trade for something that should have been given freely. Loyalty and selfishness cannot coexist, and eventually you're going to have to choose one to win out over the other. Max, I am sure I know which one you will choose, and I am hoping that you know which one to choose as well." The owl took his hand off of the raven's shoulder, and left him to his task.
Mitroszek was bored. Of course this wasn't unusual for him, sometimes it seemed like he would die if he didn't keep moving. But today was a special kind of boredom. Usually trading week meant tons of stimulation for the fox. All sorts of sights and smells and weird things that he had never seen before. The residents of Southern Haven had once made a small statue out of shells! However, he was finding that trading week wasn't fun if he couldn't force Max to do things with him. And of course, the Max surrogate was not at all helping. Alkr didn't even blink when Mitro managed to eat an entire ham by himself, which was something that Mitro was immensely proud of. Plus, Alkr was just simply scary. He loomed over everything and everyone with a strange intensity. And he always carried that ax with him. Of course, everyone carried axes, but this ax was somehow just as scary as its owner. Mitro's solution: find someone else to help lighten the mood.
Mitro decided that person was Nja. And so, the fox and the owl made their way through the numerous houses and buildings to find her. Eventually they came upon a building that didn't hug the ground like most buildings did. It wasn't anywhere close to challenging a tallhouse, but it was still a noticeable amount above the ground. The library. Nja was an avid scholar, and so Mitro was betting that he could find her here. Sure enough, the two men entered the building and found her looking over a scroll with a look of intense concentration on her face. He did not at all understand what Max saw in her. She wasn't the person for whom "fun" was in their vocabulary. Or more accurately, fun was in her vocabulary, but not to actually describe or mean anything fun.
Mitro looked over her shoulder at the scroll. It was talking about how to block out dreams from The Lord of the Night. "YOU'RE reading that?" he asked. She jumped in surprise, and he laughed. "The rebel has given in to tradition at last!" he said mockingly. "Shut up Mitro," she half said half growled. Her temper and rebellious attitude were known even back west in Arnist. Of course, he and the other traders had been partially responsible for that. "This," she said, holding up the religious scroll, "this is nothing. I'm reading it purely from a scholarly perspective." She folded it back up and put it back with the other scrolls. "I'm relieved," he mocked wiping his brow, "for a second there I thought you had converted." He changed his voice to an absurdly high pitch, "OH! Of course I'll say my sufferings!" The fox snickered.
Alkr put a strong hand on Mitro's shoulder. He had forgotten the owl was standing behind him, and his grip hurt. "Mitro," the owl explained calmly, "the sufferings may not seem like something to be taken seriously to you. But here in Southern Haven, they very much are. We live our lives by these principles. I would not mock your belief in The Divine One, so do not mock my belief in my religion. Do you understand?" The fox nodded, and the owl released his grip. By Divinity he was scary!
"Have either of you managed to get the answer out of Max yet?" Nja asked suddenly. Mitro blinked, obviously confused, "Get what answer?" Nja laughed, something Mitro wasn't sure she was capable of, "Max isn't telling me where we're going. He keeps saying that we have to guess it correctly." Mitro perked up at this, "What have you guessed so far?" Nja stopped for a moment, thinking, "Um, well, I'm not really sure what I guessed, but I didn't get it right." Mitro started going through all the possibilities in his head, determined to beat Max at this new game.
Behind him, Alkr scoffed, "Why play this silly game with us? We need to know where we are going in order to properly prepare?"
"Just bring whatever you think you'd need to be prepared I guess," Mitro said, waving the owl away. He was determined to beat Max.
Max had finished the sword. Sort-of. All of the metalworking was finished. The last piece he had added was a few runes on the side of the blade. Those runes were the most vital part of the sword. It was the runes that allowed it to be infused. Max himself had never infused something. Neither had he watched his teacher infuse something. As the owl had explained to him, infusors had limits on their power. Once they infused something, they had to wait until they could infuse something else. The amount of time between infusions varied from person to person. His teacher could only infuse every twenty years, and so it was still two years until the owl could try his hand at making a new infused weapon. All Max had received was information about what it felt like, and what he should be trying to do.
Max set the sword down on the workbench. He could only infuse it while the runes were still burning. The runes on the sword read "Sun," "Fire," and "Warmth." Technically any number of runes could be chosen, but tradition said three was best. It was totally unknown if runes actually had to say something connected to the intended purpose, but Max wasn't going to take any chances, and as with the choice of the number of runes he stuck to tradition.
He put his hands on either side of the weapon, as his teacher had done creating Reacher so many years ago. Closed his eyes, and focused all his willpower towards the weapon. He pictured in his mind what he wanted it to do. He made his intent very clear. Suddenly, it worked. He wasn't sure how he knew it worked, but he just knew. He laughed through his arms up in the air, and unfolded his wings. He was a blacksmith now. A full blacksmith. "I'm proud of you," the owl said from behind him. All the time he had spent learning his craft had paid off. "Can I see my house now?" Max asked.
While one was proving themselves worthy of their coming of age ceremony by living outside of the village for four moons, the villagers worked on their house. That way, no one would simply go on Ikros and never come back. They would have their house, their new profession, their coming of age ceremony itself, and usually someone they wanted to ask to marry them. Max had all of those, and he was certainly proud of it. And why shouldn't I be proud? He thought to himself, I deserve this.
He left the forge, and found people had been lounging around outside. A small crowd began to form around him, as they made their way down to where the new house was. As they passed the library, Mitro, Alkr, and Nja filed out and joined the crowd. "I think I've figured it out." Mitro said to him. Max was confused, "Figured what out?"
"Nja explained to me that you're making our destination for the Ikro a secret that we have to guess, and I've come up with what I think is the perfect answer." Nja explained? Nja explained! Max sighed to himself. What was he thinking falling for a woman who was even smarter than he was? He couldn't tell Mitro they were going to Polonia anymore. Now it was a game. For some reason, this annoyed him a lot. He tried to put it out of his mind. "What do you think it is?" Max asked. "Coravad!" Mitro proudly proclaimed. "Keep guessing," Max told him. Coravad sounded nice. Maybe after Polonia.
Max's house was a very small building. It was made of mostly stone, only more important buildings were made out of wood and bone. He walked inside. Alkr following behind had to duck his head to get through the door frame. The house consisted of only two rooms, the norm for houses in Southern Haven. However, two rooms was certainly enough. All of his belongings had been moved into the house while he had been working on the final piece. His harp rested against one of the walls. His fishing rod was also there. Even the jar of pickles had been moved into the house. Max went over to the bed and layed on it.
After a few hours of people poking around the new house, the crowd dispersed. Eventually, only Max, Alkr, Mitro, and Nja were left. "Are all of you ready to go?" Nja asked the group, "I want us to leave as early as possible tomorrow." Max got out of his bed, "We don't need to leave early, all of you can sleep in if you want and then we can just leave when everyone is ready." Nja glared at Max, but he ignored the glare. This was certainly going to be an interesting trip.