Private The First Spark

[Veyla Krinn]

Morning light spilled through the high windows of the forge, catching suspended motes of dust that drifted lazily through the warm air. The heart of the furnace already glowed a deep orange, filling the workshop with a familiar heat that settled comfortably against Veyla's skin. It smelled of coal, hot steel, and well-used oil, scents she had known since childhood.

The forge had always been a place where the rest of the galaxy faded away. Today, however, it felt different.

Upon the central workbench rested two small cloth bundles. Veyla unfolded them with deliberate care, revealing the kyber crystals they had recovered from Oralis Prime. Morning sunlight caught their facets, scattering tiny fragments of color across the scarred wood beneath them. Even after the journey home, she found herself pausing every time she looked at them. They still felt almost unreal.

Around the crystals lay the beginnings of another kind of puzzle. Sheets of flimsi covered with hand-drawn sketches. Measurements written and rewritten in neat script. Cross-sections of locking mechanisms. Telescoping sections for a collapsible haft. Emitter assemblies. Power routing. Balance calculations. She had spent more than one evening refining the design, determined that the weapon should feel less like a conventional lightsaber and more like an evolution of the pike she had carried for years.

Nothing had been built yet. Today was for decisions.

Lengths of phrik and beskar alloys rested neatly beside the anvil, each carefully selected for its purpose. Precision tools waited where she had arranged them the night before. Nothing had been left to chance. If they chose to begin, everything they needed was within reach.

Her fingertips brushed lightly against the larger crystal before she withdrew her hand again.

"Not yet," she murmured with a faint smile.

Some things deserved patience.

Stepping back from the bench, Veyla crossed to the peg beside the forge door where her well-worn leather apron hung waiting. Today she had chosen comfort over ceremony, dressed in a simple linen shirt with the sleeves rolled neatly to her forearms, sturdy dark trousers, and worn leather boots marked by years spent beside a hot forge. It was clothing made for long hours of work rather than battle.

She slipped the apron over her head and fastened it securely behind her waist before taking one final look around the workshop. The furnace burned steadily. The tools were laid out in careful order. Metal waited beside the anvil, and the two kyber crystals rested quietly upon the bench.

Everything was ready.

Now all that remained was waiting for Kallous to arrive.

Kallous

 

[Kallous]

Kallous had been curious to see the process of making the saber in this manner. Most often, in his experience, the components had been made ahead of time by another craftsman, or specially ordered and then assembled by the practitioner. This would be the first time that he'd ever see anyone take hammer to anvil to craft the entire thing from scratch. It would be a curious thing to witness.

He would be there more to observe than anything. He wasn't going to be instructing much, more likely he would be doing most of the learning here. He wasn't a metalworker, and he'd never done anything of the sort before. But, his curiosity had been piqued, and he considered this an opportunity to practice the enchanting arts he'd learned from his friend Seren Gwyn some time ago. He'd practiced the theory every so often with small carved trinkets, though he hadn't actually had the opportunity to do anything real with it. Everything he'd made thus far only made ripples in the force, presences that could be sensed, they didn't actually do anything. But if he could learn to craft from steel like the mandalorians did... well... that would be a good start.

He allowed his mind to ponder the possibilities as he strode through the streets towards his friend's forge. What sort of weapon might he craft? What would it look like? How would it compare to fighting with a lightsaber? He doubted it would be as utilitarian, but it had its own kind of appeal. For one... he could put some serious weight behind his swings with a weapon crafted from steel, rather than a blade of weightless plasma which was little more than his strength mixed with leverage. But a top-heavy steelwrought sword? Now that could hit with some force.

These were mere speculations for now, he would have to experiment some, optimize, practice, theorize and do a great deal more work before he did anything. For now, it was his apprentice and friend's turn to craft her weapon.

He would approach the forge, and politely knock on the door to be let in.

Veyla Krinn

 

[Veyla Krinn]

The knock drew Veyla's attention away from the workbench. A smile found her face almost immediately.

"Come in."

The heavy door swung inward, allowing the familiar silhouette of Kallous to step into the warmth of the forge. Heat rolled gently through the workshop while the steady crackle of the furnace filled the brief silence between them. Veyla wiped her hands on the front of her leather apron before walking over to greet him.

"Welcome to my workshop." There was a quiet pride in her voice as she gestured around the room. "It isn't the largest forge on Concordia, but it's mine."

She stepped aside, inviting him farther in.

The workshop had been arranged with almost obsessive care. Every hammer hung in its proper place. Tongs of different sizes rested within easy reach of the anvil. Bars of phrik and beskar alloys occupied orderly racks along one wall, separated by material and purpose. On the central workbench, the two kyber crystals rested beside carefully drafted plans, measurements, and partially completed mechanical sketches.

Veyla noticed his attention settle on the drawings and smiled.

"I've been refining it since we got back."

She lifted one of the sketches, revealing the design from several angles. A single emitter crowned the hilt while, beneath it, a telescoping haft would extend and lock into place. Collapsed, it would ride comfortably at her belt. Extended, it would become the natural successor to the pike she had carried for years.

"I didn't want to abandon everything I've spent years learning." She set the drawing back among the others. "This lets me fight the way I always have while still giving me the option of carrying it like a more conventional lightsaber when I need to."

Her hand rested lightly against the anvil.

"I've forged plenty of weapons." A quiet chuckle escaped her. "Just...never one that would become something like this."

She looked back to Kallous, her smile warm and welcoming.

"If you're curious about anything, just ask." She gestured around the forge. "Most people only ever see the finished weapon. You get to see how it's born."

Kallous

 

[Kallous]

Stepping into the workspace his eyes immediately began to scan the environment with unmasked curiosity. Kallous was as new to this as he was to normal life, and his desire to know more and learn was impossible to contain. He scanned the racks of tools, the larger implements and the smaller. Wondering how some of the, frankly dainty, looking implements could possibly be used for shaping metal even when hot. And simultaneously wondering how the process from the heating to the shaping to the tempering.

He had only a cursory understanding of metallurgy, heat to soften, hit to shape, quench to harden. The kind of knowledge that the average layman knew from simple conversation and answer. Though he didn't really understand anything beyond that, and he doubted it was so simple as that even for the simplest of projects.

"It's quite the place." He commented, a mix of approval and wonder in his tone as he took it all in. "And it's apparrent that you take very good care of it all. Not bad at all. An impressive collection of tools by my unprofessional reckoning."

Kallous didn't have much by way of work or forge clothes. He wore his usual attire, though he'd gathered his sleeves up toward his shoulders and secured them with a cord wrapped around his torso, leaving his arms bare but removing any danger that his shirt would catch fire while he was there. And as he secured the cord at his left shoulder he approached the plans she drawn up to give them a look over. Which he did with a nod of approval.

"Looks like you've got all the mechanics figured out." He said with a nod. "Do you know what length of blade you're going to want? And have you gotten yourself any focusing crystals to refine the blade any further? Or do you just plan to start with whatever the blade turns out to be and tinker with it later?"

His questions were born out of his own curiosity. He had assembled his saber, but he hadn't actually customized it much. So he wondered what a professional smith would end up doing with their expertise.

Veyla Krinn

 

[Veyla Krinn]

Veyla couldn't help but smile as Kallous wandered through the forge. There was something almost refreshing about watching someone so openly fascinated by a craft they didn't understand. His eyes lingered on every tool, every rack, every carefully organized space. She had grown so accustomed to the forge that she rarely stopped to appreciate it herself anymore.

"Thank you." There was genuine pride in her voice. "My father always said a smith's forge tells you more about them than their words ever will." She brushed a hand over the edge of the workbench. "If I can't trust where my tools are, I can't trust my work."

As he rolled his sleeves higher, her smile became just a touch more amused. They stood nearly eye to eye, close enough that she only had to glance down the length of his shirt before looking back up at him.

"That will help," she said, nodding toward the cord holding his sleeves back, "but I'd still rather not explain how my Master caught his shirt on fire."

A quiet laugh escaped her.

"Give me a minute."

She disappeared through a doorway into the adjoining room before returning carrying a folded leather apron and a well-worn smith's jacket. The sleeves had been rolled neatly, and although it was clearly one of hers, their similar height meant it would fit him surprisingly well.

"Try these." She held them out. "The leather will shrug off sparks a lot better than linen." Her grin widened just enough to reveal she was teasing. "Besides, I'd rather your first lesson in a forge wasn't learning how quickly clothing burns."

Only after he had the garments in hand did she turn her attention back to the drawings.

"I think so." She rested a fingertip on the larger design. "The larger crystal is going into the saber pike." Her finger traced the telescoping haft sketched beneath the emitter. "Collapsed it'll wear on my belt like an ordinary lightsaber. Extended, it'll become a full-length pike."

Her expression softened.

"I've carried a spear for too many years to fight any other way."

Then she tapped the smaller crystal.

"This one deserves a home too." Another smile appeared. "I'm building a blaster around it. Something dependable that complements the pike instead of replacing it."

She looked back toward him, genuinely interested in his thoughts.

"As for focusing crystals..." She gave a thoughtful shrug. "I've been considering them, but I think I'd rather see how the kyber wants to behave first. I can always refine it later, but I'd like the weapon's first breath to be its own."

Kallous

 

[Kallous]

"It sounds like you father was a man who took his craft seriously." Kallous said with a tone of respect. "The makings of a good craftsman, if I am at liberty to say so. I've not done much crafting myself, throughout my whole life. Most I've ever done was construct a blaster. It became Regulated-Issue, so it was a success, but other than that I've done nothing insofar as crafting is concerned. So this is... well... a whole new world, something of great interest."

Indeed he took a decent amount of time simply taking it all in. Observing the various tools, where they were, speculating about their purpose if it wasn't clear straightaway. Even to his uneducated eye, he could tell that this was an excellent forge. Not only because all the equipment looked as pristine as it was used, meaning it was cared for on top of seeing near constant use. But also because he knew Veyla well enough by this point to know that she wasn't one to take half measures, nor was she one to neglect her equipment. So he knew simply by virtue of who she was that this place was more than just up to standard.

Her comment about his shirt catching fire earned a chuckle from the man, who was shaken from his inspections by the comment. He dicided not to mention that he knew exactly how fast clothing could catch on fire, since it would probably be best to evade her teasing should she be told the story.

He would gratefully take the smith's jacket and apron when offered to him. Slipping the jacket over his shoulders, finding that it fit well enough to be reasonable. He wouldn't be overly restricted in terms of movement, so it was more than sufficient. And the apron on top of that would also help keep his pants intact, which was arguably more important than the shirt that Veyla seemed worried about.

"Thank you. This should prove more than helpful." He told her.

He then listened to her explain her plan for the weapon. It was as philosophical as it was practical, and it earned a nod from him. He was quite interested to see her fight with the pike, it would certainly be better suited to duelling than the spear she'd been carrying up until that point, while still more than capable of fulfilling the role of the latter weapon. He was curious to see how her fighting style would adapt and change once she had the lightsaber pike in hand, since she would have much more cutting surface to work with, she would have a lot more available to her. He had a feeling that once it was in her hands, he would have a much tougher time in their sparring matches.

Something he looked forward to quite a bit.

"A blaster huh? I wonder what sort of effect a kyber crystal would have on a blasters efficacy..." He mused aloud. "There was, once upon a time, a rifle that utilized lightsabers as a power source. It drained each one with each shot, meaning a new lightsaber needed to be inserted into the chamber after each pull of the trigger. And if the stories are to be believed it was verging on being a weapon of mass destruction. I wonder how your blaster will compare, I'm sure you'll want more than just one shot in it though, so I'm sure I don't have to worry too much about planetary devastation. But still, I'll err on the side of caution and advise that you not get too overzealous."

Veyla Krinn

 

[Veyla Krinn]

Veyla listened carefully, her brow furrowing just a little as Kallous spoke of the ancient weapon. It wasn't the destructive potential that caught her attention so much as the cost of using it. She reached for the smaller kyber crystal, lifting it carefully between thumb and forefinger until it caught the light spilling through the forge windows.

She held it up in front of one emerald eye, slowly turning it to watch the light dance through its facets.

"You mean these have a limited lifetime?" she asked, genuine curiosity in her voice. "I didn't know that."

Her gaze lingered on the crystal for another moment before lowering it back toward the workbench.

"Not that I'd mind finding another one someday..." A faint smile crossed her face before she shook her head. "Actually, I think I would." Her fingers curled protectively around the crystal. "We searched for these together. I'd rather not build something that burns one away after a single shot."

She carefully returned the crystal to its cloth before looking back at Kallous.

"If you think that's a real possibility, then I'll figure out something else for it." She gave a small shrug. "I'm a smith before I'm anything else. Every material has a purpose. If this one isn't meant for a blaster, then we'll find what it is meant for."

Kallous

 

[Kallous]

"Oh, no. It's more like the weapon overdrew on the sabers and fried the circuitry. Don't worry, your lightsaber won't run out on you." He said, rushing to reassure her and correct the largely incorrect implication. "That was specific to that particular weapon, and it didn't draw from a kyber crystal, it drew from an existing lightsaber. It was very much a unique case. I'm sure that if you design around it your blaster will last you just about forever. Though I'm not certain of the specifics of how a kyber crystal would be used for that purpose, I doubt it would be hard to figure out. Please, don't think I'm trying to discourage the idea. I was simply remembering something I'd read from a while ago of a similar item. Besides, this weapon was used by a jedi to attempt to bring down Darth Vader during the early years of the Galactic Empire. It was less that the kyber gave out, and more that the destructive force that it produced created so much heat that it melted the lightsaber that was loaded into it, thereby making the weapon, not the crystal, useless. I'm sure that if you dialed back the power a little, added some heat sinks or a sufficiently intensive internal cooling system, it would work just fine."

He actually got to thinking on this. "In truth, the fact that the crystal is smaller might actually make that easier. Because the rifle that was used used full-sized crystals that were housed in existing lightsaber hilts. So a smaller crystal, with less intensive power put behind it plus a few extra safeguards will likely mean it's of no real issue. It might be limited by the amount of shots it can put out in a certain amount of time in order to allow for heat dissipation, but otherwise..."

He trailed off, thinking about how this could be put into actual practice. The idea of a kyber-powered blaster was an interesting one. The Hollenbrenner blasters that he'd designed for use by his personal battallion, when he served the Diarchy, were the first things that came to his mind. He imagined that a kyber-powered blaster would be capable of even greater power than those given its source. He was quite curious to see what that kind of weapon would turn out to be.

Veyla Krinn

 

[Veyla Krinn]

Relief visibly settled across Veyla's features as Kallous clarified what he had meant. She hadn't realized how tightly she'd been holding the smaller crystal until her fingers relaxed around it. A quiet breath escaped her, followed by a small shake of her head.

"Good." She smiled, carefully returning the crystal to its place upon the workbench. "I'd grown rather attached to them already."

She listened as he continued, explaining the ancient rifle in greater detail. Her attention drifted to one of the sketches lying nearby as her mind immediately began approaching the problem the way any smith would. Heat. Containment. Dissipation. Material fatigue. They weren't unfamiliar concepts, only a different application of them.

Picking up a charcoal pencil, she added a few quick notes to the margin of one of her drawings.

"Then perhaps I don't need overwhelming power." She glanced toward him. "A sidearm isn't meant to replace the pike. It's meant to complement it."

The pencil tapped thoughtfully against the page.

"If the crystal gives me a cleaner, more efficient shot, that's enough." She drew another small line across the sketch where additional cooling fins might be housed within the frame. "I'd rather have something reliable than something capable of melting itself."

A quiet chuckle escaped her before she looked back up at Kallous.

"Besides..." Her smile carried just a hint of mischief. "If I somehow manage to build a blaster capable of leveling part of Concordia, I'm fairly certain someone would politely ask me not to do it again."

She set the pencil down and rested both hands on the edge of the workbench.

"No." Her voice softened with quiet certainty. "I think these deserve better than becoming curiosities." Her eyes drifted briefly toward the two kyber crystals. "They're meant to become tools I'll carry every day."

Kallous

 

[Kallous]

He let out his own sigh as the course was corrected, glad to have cleaned up that mess before it became irreparable. Waiting to speak again until Veyla was done writing down her notes.

"Honestly a Death-Star Sidearm sound rather interesting." Kallous said with a hint of less michievious and more genuine consideration. It was only halfway serious as a possibility, but Kyber had been used a power source for several doomsday weapons up to that point. So even if a pistol like that wouldn't laser a planet clean in half, it would certainly have a staggering destructive potential for something of its size. Lightsabers were capable of cutting through just about anything, put that sort of power behind a blaster bolt and it would likely be able to give even Beskar a decent stress test.

"Oh I can guarantee that your shots will be cleaner and more efficient. I can likewise guarantee that you will be hard pressed to reduce its power to be comparable to a regular blaster. Armor plating too thick for blasters wouldn't be able to withstand what that weapon puts out. I'd also suggest you also consider attachments to the weapon to allow it to be used as a rifle. I'm not much of a gunsmith, but I know that's a possibility for some blasters. That way you can engage at longer ranges if you need to."

He shook his head. "Anyway, that's a conversation for another time. I'm not here to bore you with ideas or irrelevant information. I'm here to learn, not teach. So... where do we begin?"

Veyla Krinn

 

[Veyla Krinn]

Veyla listened as Kallous thought aloud, his mind already racing ahead to possibilities that had not yet been built. She could almost picture the mechanisms taking shape behind his eyes, each idea branching into another before the first had fully settled. It made her smile, though she shook her head ever so slightly.

"Every project deserves its own time."

She carefully returned the smaller crystal to the cloth beside its larger companion, lingering for just a moment before withdrawing her hand. "If I start thinking about the blaster now, I'll end up making mistakes on the other. I'd rather give each one the attention it deserves than rush both of them and be disappointed with the result."

Leaving the crystals where they rested, she crossed the workshop to the forge. Several lengths of alloy leaned neatly against the wall, each marked for a different purpose. After a brief moment of consideration, she selected one of the smaller bars, carried it to the anvil, and laid it across the worn face of the steel before turning back toward Kallous.

"You asked where we begin." A faint smile crossed her face. "Most people would probably expect me to start heating metal straight away, but that really isn't the first lesson." Her fingertips rested lightly against the cool alloy. "The first thing a smith learns isn't how to make a weapon. It's how to understand the material they're working with."

She moved back to the forge and adjusted the bellows with practiced ease until the bed of coals brightened from a steady orange to a brilliant yellow. Waves of heat rolled outward as she slid the bar into the heart of the fire, though her attention never left it for long.

"A forge teaches patience before it teaches anything else," she explained. "Steel doesn't care how eager you are or how experienced you think you are. You can't force it to move before it's ready, because if you try, the only thing you'll accomplish is ruining your work. The fire softens the metal, but only if you're willing to let it do its job."

While the alloy slowly absorbed the heat, she walked to the wall where several hammers hung in careful order. Rather than reaching for the largest, she selected three of them and laid them across the workbench between them.

"People who haven't spent time in a forge usually think these are just different weights of the same tool," she said, picking up the heaviest first. "This one moves metal. When something needs to change dramatically, this is the hammer you reach for." She exchanged it for the medium hammer. "Once you've done that, this one begins refining the shape." Finally she lifted the smallest, its face polished smooth from years of careful use. "And this one..." A fond smile appeared. "This is the hammer my father always insisted I learn first, because it corrects mistakes without creating new ones."

She turned the tool over once in her hand before hanging it back in its place.

"He used to tell me that anyone could swing the biggest hammer in the forge. That wasn't what made someone a smith." Her eyes drifted back toward the glowing steel waiting in the fire. "Knowing which hammer to pick up, when the metal was ready to be worked, and when to stop striking before you undid your own progress...that was the craft. Swinging the hammer is the easy part. Learning to listen before you do is what takes years."

Kallous

 

[Kallous]

He chuckled with a slight shake of his head. "Sometimes I wonder if I should be relieved or disappointed at your existing wisdom. On the one hand it makes teaching you easier. On the other it means that I have less to teach. It's a perspective that never occurred to me until recently."

With that absentminded comment out of the way he would return his attention to the instruction she was giving him. Teaching him about the purposes of the different hammer sizes, and the reason why the smallest was the one she'd been required to learn first. It made sense, learning control before learning power. That was something he wish he'd had in his youth.

Power was emphasized so much by the Sith, and they often encouraged using more than was strictly necessary. Precision wasn't on the mind of every dark sider, it existed to be sure. But it was not the focus. The focus was the accumulation of greater strength, greater power, greater influence and prestige. It was a matter of destroying the obstacles in one's way, and to do so they needed all the power they could get, and if they used too much it didn't hurt them much, it just did more harm to whatever was standing between them and their ambitions. Which in that context, was a good thing.

He could see more clearly why she was having an easier time learning the Force than he'd had, she had the baseline already. While he had been required to pour a new foundation for an existing structure. And frankly he was glad for it, it meant she was less likely to make the mistakes that he had made.

But that wasn't the here and now, he shook these thoughts from his head. Letting his mind wander was another shortcoming he had yet to banish. His attention returned to the lesson she was giving.

"The hammer sizes and purposes make sense. And I'm assuming the different shapes on the back end of each are likewise for differing purposes? That rounded one strikes me as the most obvious. For rounding sheets of metal I presume?" He asked, seeking to sate his curiosity without getting too far off topic.

Veyla Krinn

 

[Veyla Krinn]

Veyla's smile warmed at his first comment, though she gave a small shake of her head as she returned her attention to the hammers laid out before them. "I wouldn't worry too much. I think there's still plenty you can teach me." Considering how much of the Force remained unfamiliar to her, she certainly wasn't concerned about exhausting his knowledge anytime soon. "Besides, I'd rather make your job easier occasionally. You've had to watch me struggle with enough things already."

His question brought her attention down to the hammer he had indicated, and she picked it up so he could get a better look at the rounded face. "You're close. It's a ball-peen hammer, and the rounded end can help form curves, but it isn't limited to sheets." She turned it slowly in her hand before running a thumb across the polished surface. "You can use it to spread metal in different directions, shape curves, work around contours, peen rivets, or refine areas where a flat face isn't going to give you the shape you want. The important part is understanding how the shape of the hammer changes the way the force of your strike moves through the metal."

She set it down and reached for another hammer whose rear face narrowed into a wedge. "Same principle here. A cross-peen concentrates the strike along a narrower line, so instead of spreading the metal evenly in every direction, you can encourage it to move where you want it. Turn the peen and change your angle, and you're changing how the material stretches." Veyla glanced toward him with a faint smile before adding, "That's why having twenty hammers isn't excessive, no matter what anyone tells you. They may all hit things, but they don't all hit things the same way."

Her gaze shifted toward the forge, checking the color of the metal heating within before she returned the hammer to its proper place. The alloy was approaching the temperature she wanted, which meant the explanation was about to become considerably more practical. "You'll understand it faster once you actually feel the difference. I can explain what every hammer in here does, but the first time you strike hot metal with the wrong face or at the wrong angle, you'll see immediately why the choice matters." There was no warning in her tone, only the confidence of someone who had learned the same lesson through countless hours at an anvil.

Veyla reached for her tongs and drew the heated metal from the forge, its glow casting warm light across her features as she carried it to the anvil. "Watch the first few strikes. Pay attention to what happens to the metal rather than the hammer itself. Then I'll give it to you and you can try." She settled the piece into position and looked toward Kallous with a slight grin. "You said you came here to learn. I'm not going to let you spend the whole day watching me do the work."

Kallous

 

[Kallous]

"Struggle is part of it. It must be said though, you overcome these obstacles with remarkable swiftness. Certainly above average at the least from what I know." He mused, halfway to himself as he admired her collection of tools. Her array of hammers along with tongs, anvils, chisels and other tools that he never would have thought would go into smithing. Truth be told he never really thought about it too much at all, but he doubted some of these tools he was seeing now would have come to mind if he were to consider what would be needed.

"Makes sense. It's one thing to hammer an ingot into a flat bar, another to shape it into an actual blade and tang, or chestplate or whatever it is that's being made. I suppose also with the actual edge, the thinner material would be more sensitive to being struck so a lighter touch is needed." There he went again, the gears in his brain turning. running through the logic in his head of how thing worked from what he saw, instead of just waiting for answers. It was both a blessing and a curse. He liked to figure things out on his own, to learn through trial and error and practical exercise. However that sometimes made him forget that there was a font of wisdom right next to him that he could simply ask.

He nodded when she pulled the hot material from the furnace, though her words made him hesitate.

"I appreciate the thought... though isn't this for your weapon? As much as I'd love to learn hands-on, I don't think it would be so wise to either distract yourself by teaching me instead of crafting your saber or allow a fresh novice to handle the materials." He said cautiously. Ordinarily he would be thrilled to have a go, but considering what they were actually supposed to be making that day, he had assumed that he would only observe.

Veyla Krinn

 

[Veyla Krinn]

Veyla paused with the heated metal held securely in the tongs, then glanced from it to Kallous as he voiced his concern. A moment later, understanding crossed her features and she gave a quiet laugh. He was right about one thing. She had invited him here to watch her construct the weapon that would eventually hold the crystal they had found together, and handing any critical portion of it to someone who had never stood at an anvil before would be an interesting exercise in poor judgment.

"You know, for someone who came here claiming to know nothing about smithing, you have remarkably good instincts." The warmth in her voice made it clear she was teasing him rather than conceding any great mistake. She settled the heated piece onto the anvil and adjusted it with the tongs before looking back toward him. "You're right. I'm not giving you part of my weapon for your first attempt. I trust you, Kallous, but I don't trust you quite that much with a hammer yet."

Her smile lingered as she nodded toward the racks of raw material nearby. "What I meant was that once you've watched me work this for a little while, we'll heat another piece of scrap and you can follow along beside me. You can learn the same strikes without either of us having to wonder whether your first lesson is going to leave me carrying a crooked pike." There was an easy familiarity to the exchange now, Veyla clearly enjoying the unusual reversal of their normal roles. Most days she was the one asking questions while Kallous patiently explained some new aspect of the Force. Here, surrounded by the tools and heat she had known for most of her life, she was finally standing on familiar ground.

She turned her attention back to the glowing metal and positioned it carefully against the anvil before taking up her hammer. "And you're thinking about it correctly. The farther you refine a piece, the less forgiving it becomes. Early on, I'm trying to move material and establish the general shape, so I can afford heavier strikes. Later, I'm refining dimensions and surfaces, and every unnecessary blow gives me another problem to correct." Her first strike rang sharply through the forge, followed by another at nearly the same strength and angle, each one deliberate rather than hurried. "That's when control matters more than strength, although you'll find that knowing where to hit is usually more important than either."

Veyla worked several more strikes before turning the piece with her tongs, allowing Kallous a clear view of how the metal had begun to change beneath the hammer. She glanced toward him with a small smile before returning her attention to her work. "So watch this one, and when it goes back into the fire, we'll find you something you can't ruin." Her smile widened just slightly. "Then we'll see whether my apprentice is as quick a study at the forge as I've apparently been with the Force."

Kallous

 

[Kallous]

"I may not seem it, but I do have a functioning adult brain half the time." He jested at her comment about having good instincts. Her following statment making him chuckle nervously, realizing that he'd made a rather silly assumption. So much for having good instincts. "Right... that sounds like the best place to start. Learn to be careful with how I apply force and where to do it on something that ultimately doesn't matter that much. Certainly something I look forward to doing."

Kallous watched closely as Veyla worked the metal, observing the color of the material as she hammered it, and how cool it seemed to get before she returned it to the furnace for reheating. It was a fascinating process, one he was utterly rapt by.

"I think I'm starting to see why this is the kind of thing that helps you focus when you touch the force deeply. It's not quite the same as the ocean I see, but control over power is an important aspect for both." He mused as he watched her work. "Especially when working one piece of metal for several hours out of the day."

Veyla Krinn

 

[Veyla Krinn]

Veyla laughed softly at his defense of his supposedly functional adult brain, though she spared him any further teasing as she returned the metal to the furnace. "Half the time? I'll keep that in mind the next time you're explaining the Force to me." She adjusted the piece within the heat before glancing back toward him. "But that's exactly why we'll start with scrap. You should be thinking about where the hammer lands and what you want that strike to accomplish, not worrying that one mistake is going to ruin something important."

His comparison to the ocean caught her attention more than the observation about spending hours working the same piece. Veyla considered it while watching the metal slowly regain its color, finding herself turning his words around much as he had been doing with everything she taught him. "Maybe they're not as different as they seem." She rested the hammer loosely against her thigh. "You taught me that feeling the Force isn't about reaching for as much power as I can and trying to control all of it. The forge isn't either. I have heat, metal, and enough strength to swing a hammer all day, but none of those matter if I don't know when or how to use them."

She smiled slightly, realizing that she had never needed to put the thought into words before. Smithing had been part of her life for so long that much of it existed as instinct rather than philosophy. "And you're right about the focus. When I'm working, everything else eventually gets quiet. I'm not thinking about what happened yesterday or what needs to be done tomorrow. I'm thinking about the metal in front of me, how it feels beneath the hammer, whether it's cooling, where it needs to move next." Her gaze shifted toward Kallous and lingered there as she found him watching her work with the same intensity he brought to their lessons together. There was something unexpectedly pleasant about having him here, not because she needed the company, but because this was a part of herself she rarely thought to share. He had opened an entirely new world to her through the Force, and now she had invited him into one that had belonged to her for most of her life. The warmth that realization brought was easy enough to blame on the forge.

"It probably explains why some of what you've been teaching me feels familiar even when the Force itself doesn't." Veyla finally turned back toward the furnace, although the faint smile remained as she drew the metal from the heat and returned it to the anvil. After several deliberate strikes, she nodded toward the scrap she had set aside for him. "I think you've watched long enough to understand what I'm doing. Let's see how it feels when you're the one holding the hammer." She shifted aside to make room for him beside her at the anvil, perhaps not quite as much room as she ordinarily would have given someone during their first lesson, though Veyla gave no thought at all to why.

Kallous