She shrugged. “I thought it was an easier explanation than ‘we sprinted the entire journey back in a few hours, slept all afternoon, and fought through some weird magic issues we don’t really understand.’”
“That’s true,” I chuckled, pulling her tighter against me as we walked. “Do you have any new plans for Marin’s training?”
“I’m not sure,” she said, tilting her head to the side. “I think I want to do more strength training with her, without any enhancements. She should probably learn some basic magic that isn’t enhancements, too.”
“I think we could all use some practice on that front,” I agreed. “But if that’s the case, we’re going to need a place to train that isn’t our front yard. I don’t want to have to rebuild our house because I sneezed during Fire practice.”
She giggled. “We’ll have to finally make that sparring ring you wanted.”
“You know, that wouldn’t be a bad way to kill two birds with one stone: You could get some good strength training done by clearing all those trees up north, and it would be a great opportunity to teach Marin how to use Shatter,” I suggested.
“That’s exactly what we’ll do,” she said, clapping her hands together.
“And, while you two work on that, I can finally build my forge,” I added as a grin spread across my face. Lia giggled again, and I looked down to find her smirking at me. “What? What’s so funny?”
“You really want that forge, don’t you?”
“Well...yeah!” I answered, feeling defensive. “What’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing’s wrong with that!” she laughed, patting me on the back. “You don’t get this excited about most things, is all. It’s cute.”
I let out an exasperated sigh and hung my head. “I’m not trying to be cute. It’s just...I’m good at being a blacksmith, and I haven’t had a chance to work at it for a long time. All I’ve been doing for so long is fighting. I’m good at that, too, but I don’t want to be good at just that. I can do more than just fight.” I paused for a moment, surprised by the honesty of my statement. “Besides, Layne got me all excited about working on some projects with him. I want to start some of those, even if he can’t be there with me.”
“I get it,” she said quietly. “What were you two planning on making?”
My free hand shifted up to rest on the pommel of my sword, and my thumb circled slowly around the band at its base. “Nothing in particular,” I lied. “I wanted to make a sword for him, seeing as he said he never had one. I’m sure he wanted my help on some of his projects, too.” I took a deep breath and sighed out through my nose. “I think I’ll still make that sword for him.”
Our house came into view ahead of us, and the thought of our awaiting bed pulled a yawn out of both of us. “I think that’s a great idea,” Lia said, wiping her eyes. “An idea for tomorrow, though. All that talking about being tired made me pretty tired.”
I yawned again. “That’s for sure. We’ve got some busy days ahead of us, too.”
Lia smiled as we entered the house and made our way to the bedroom. “I can’t wait.”
***
15. PEACE, AT LAST
I wiped the sweat from my brow and stepped back to admire my work. It had been an extremely productive start to the day; Elise had been more than true to her word, having the supplies delivered to the Corells’ house before Lia and I had woken up, which gave me ample time to ferry the materials back to our house while the morning sun was still low in the sky. Having already prepared the building site weeks prior, I was able to get right to work laying the foundation of my furnace.
Between my years of maintenance on Ashedown’s forge and my new magic abilities, I was able to finish the basin and air ducts of the furnace all before noon. The beginnings of a chimney were formed at the back of the structure, but the act of stacking the bricks would take an additional few hours, regardless of my enhanced speed. I grinned as I imagined showing my work to Amaya’s father; he would no doubt critique my use of magic “shortcuts” in the base work and grumble about a lack of respect for the process, while Amaya would reassure me he was more than impressed. Although we were separated by more than a century’s worth of memories, I could hear them perfectly in my head.
We’re coming back for lunch, Lia’s voice chimed between my ears, adding to the voices from my memories. Be forewarned; Marin is VERY cranky today.
Perfect timing, I chuckled in return. I’ll start getting things ready. I left my brick-stacking behind me as I made my way into the house and retrieved our sparse lunch supplies. While I sliced our last loaf of bread up for sandwiches, my mind wandered out through the forest along my extended mana, passing Marin and Lia on their return trip.
The site of our future training arena sat a half dozen miles to the north, beyond the marked boundaries of any logging companies or parceled land. What was once a flat, densely packed corner of forest was now a sprawling field, littered with uprooted stumps, weeds, and broken branches. The center of the space was dominated by a massive pile of neatly trimmed logs, stacked six high and over a dozen across. After marking a few logs in my mind for use in my upcoming afternoon of work, I returned my attention to the task at hand, plating up the fresh greens and cured bihorn meat Hana had sent along with Marin earlier
