Forge of the Gods 2

by Simon Archer

  I was sure I looked ridiculous. I didn’t have an apron on and was covered in soot and sweat. My hands were red from the exertion, and piles of random blades littered the ground, each project only semi-finished and promptly abandoned for the next one. I had a hammer in one hand and a curved blade, waiting to be quenched in the other.

  Sarah wore loose jeans and a long sleeve gray shirt with holes for her thumbs so she could keep the sleeves at her wrists. She pushed herself up off the door frame and sauntered towards me. With a steel-toed boot, Sarah kicked a stray blade and let it skitter across the floor with the sound of nails on a chalkboard.

  I winced at the sound and finally took a real look at my carnage. At least twenty blades littered the floor. All of them were curved, some at different lengths than others, but they all shared the same shape. It was one I was all too familiar with. It was the weapon I worked on relentlessly last year: a scythe.

  I had never been told what the Ultimate Weapon was supposed to be. From the vague prophecy I’d received, I had a couple of guesses as to what it was. Unfortunately, there wasn’t really a way to confirm my suspicions, but the scythe was my first thought. I hadn’t made any since Christmas break last year, but here I was, with twenty rough prototypes.

  “I didn’t mean…” I started, the words spilling from my mouth, but then they trailed off like a puff of smoke.

  Sarah’s eyebrows perked up at my admission. She crouched down and picked up a longer blade. She put the tang in her hand and twirled it around lazily. My mentor straightened her legs and refused to meet my eye. As if she were grading my work, she ventured around the room to the scattered piles of scythes and gazed down at all of them. Sarah’s face remained still and stoic, giving away nothing as she examined my work.

  Nerves prickled up my arms. I didn’t know why I was so nervous. It wasn’t as though I had tried on these weapons. Maybe that was the reason. I hadn’t expected anyone to see these. They weren’t my best work, not by a long shot, and I didn’t want to show anyone anything other than my best. These messy, lopsided, cracked scythes were definitely not it.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, my voice weak.

  “For what?” Sarah asked. She stuck her hands in her front pockets and looked at me quizzically.

  “For wasting materials,” I murmured, unable to come up with another reason I should apologize.

  Sarah pushed air out of her lips, making them flutter. She waved her wrist at me, like the two dozen types of metal on the floor was no big deal.

  “Do you know what time it is?” Sarah asked though I could tell from her tone that she already knew my answer.

  “No,” I said slowly, dragging out the word into two syllables.

  “It’s ten forty-two,” Sarah recited.

  “It’s what?” I blabbered. I rushed to the window and flicked down the blinds. Sure enough, it was dark outside, near pitch black in the fall evening. There was a faint glow from the Eternal Flame lanterns, but most everything else was indistinguishable in the dark.

  “Oh gods,” I groaned. I rubbed a soot-stained hand over my face and then spat out the taste as it got on my lips. Sarah passed me a tissue, and I used it to get the rest of the dirt off my face. “I didn’t even realize…”

  “Clearly not,” Sarah said as she gestured around at my mess. “You were distracted.”

  “Yeah,” I admitted.

  “What did you need distracting from?” Sarah asked, her voice tentative and testing the waters.

  “I don’t want to--” I began, but Sarah cut me off with a stern look and a sharp finger.

  “Don’t tell me that,” Sarah said sharply. “I’m not going to let you keep this all bottled up. Pushing it out through half-assed scythes.”

  “Hey!” I said defensively. “They’re not that… okay yeah, they’re terrible. But I just needed to… I don’t know what I needed to do.”

  Sarah ventured to one of the stools by a workbench. She patted the stool next to her and invited me to sit next to her. I slumped over to the spot. My butt hit the metal stool, and I swiveled lazily. I stalled as I waited for Sarah to begin the conversation with questions. When she didn’t speak, I realized she was waiting for me. I was still such a mess. I didn’t even know where to begin.

  “I don’t really want to sit and talk,” I said honestly. “Can we make something and talk?”

  “I think you’ve been making plenty of things,” Sarah commented with a stank eye towards the scythes.

  “I know,” I said as I rolled my eyes. “I want to make something worthwhile. I have to work on these stupid rapiers for Sasha and this stupid show. Do you want to help?”

  Sarah slapped her thighs and rubbed her palms up and down on them. She popped her lips, making a slippery noise. My mentor pushed herself off the stool with a tisk against her tongue. I couldn’t read her face, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what she was thinking. It wasn’t until she turned on the forge next to mine, letting it come to a full blaze before I realized she’d agreed to let me talk while we worked on the rapiers.

  With more excitement than I expected out of myself, I hopped off the stool and stationed myself at the forge next to hers. First, though, I cleaned up the scythe blades littering the floor. I stacked them up on the unfinished blades shelf, with a hint of shame flaring up in my cheeks.

  “I guess I can teach a unit on grinding,” Sarah suggested as she gestured to the scythe blades. “They can treat the finish on the rest of those and then make handles. Would save me some time making all the samples.”

  “Glad I could help,” I muttered as I returned to my station.

  “Now,” Sarah said, “let me help you. Start talking.”

  “I’m stressed out, Sarah,” I began, finally finding the appropriate words. “I don’t know how all of this landed in my lap, but it did. The dance is something I never thought I would do. I mean, I didn’t join any committees like this in high school for a reason. It’s a lot of work for a dumb thing.”

  “A dumb thing that was your idea,” Sarah pointed out as she slipped her hands in her large, sturdy gloves.

  “I know,” I said with a sigh. “I know the whole point is to get Aphrodite to come, but sometimes, I just feel like a giant orgy would have been easier.”

  “Maybe,” Sarah said, her lips falling into a frown as she considered the possibility, “but a dance is a lot safer when it comes to STDs.”

  I tried not to roll my eyes at the comment. But Sarah cut me off. “That’s not really what’s bothering you. Yes, it’s contributing, but that’s not the main thing.”

  I bit my lip. “It’s Hailey.”

  “Of course it is,” Sarah said as she shook her head. “Always the girls. What did she do this time?”

  “Nothing, I mean, nothing bad,” I was quick to say. If Sarah suspected that Hailey had hurt me in any way, she would be the first in line to beat her to a pulp. “I just don’t think she is in control of her affection right now,” I said grimly.

  “Cameron, you told me about her being affectionate,” Sarah said with her own eye roll. “before this whole Tainted Love thing.”

  “But we don’t know that she’s not infected with Tainted Love,” I argued, finally voicing all the doubts in my head.

  “What if she is infected with Tainted Love?” Sarah shrugged. “Why should that matter?”

  “Because I don’t want to take advantage of her and then have her angry or feel ashamed,” I countered. “It’s the result of this disease, and the minute we get Aphrodite here to cure it, then it will go away.”

  “Oh, this is fear talking,” Sarah said with a slow nod. “I see what we’re dealing with now.”

  “It’s not fear,” I said defensively. I spoke in between my hammering. The steel flattened against my hammer and the anvil. I stretched it out into something thinner than I normally would have lived, but I knew that’s how rapiers were built.

  “It is fear, Cameron,” Sarah argued, her voice firm. “You’re afraid of losin
g her, and your other girls.”

  She ventured over to my anvil while her piece of steel cooked longer in her forge. “You’re making it complicated.”

  I stopped moving and slammed my hands down against the steel. I stuck my neck out and spoke directly in Sarah’s face, not holding back my frustration.

  “That’s because it is complicated,” I snapped. “There're gods and love potions and branches and magic powers. The whole thing is complicated and messy.”

  “No, it’s not,” Sarah said as she took my hands, now free of the steel and the tools. “Hailey likes you and wants to be with you, regardless of this infection or not. You like her and want to be with her and Jade and Daniella.”

  “I--”

  Sarah barreled over me, not giving me a millisecond to speak. “You do. Don’t try and tell me otherwise. If it weren’t for all of this hullabaloo, you would be with them right now, right?”

  I didn’t reply. Instead, I lowered my eyes and glanced down at the blade of the rapier. Sarah took my chin in her hand and lifted my face to meet her gaze.

  “I’m right,” Sarah said automatically, not waiting for my verbal confirmation. Apparently, the look on my face said enough. “Even if all of this magic stuff wasn’t in the way, you still could lose them. Just like you could lose any other relationship. That’s the risk we take every single time we trust someone with our heart. Whether it’s romantic or friendship-based, we put ourselves out there. That’s scary.”

  Sarah released my chin and my hands. She leaned back on one leg and put her hands on her hips. “The point is to enjoy the time you have together. You never know what’s going to happen. Rejection. Illness. Death. Who knows? Save for the Fates, no one does. We mortals just have to live life day by day.”

  “I never took you for a cliche, Sarah,” I said, trying to insert a joke to this serious moment.

  “Cliches are based in truth,” Sarah said wisely. “You have several good women willing to be with you. What’s stopping you from enjoying this time with them while you have it?”

  “I just think it’s better if I don’t get involved at all, until this is all over” I said, my voice lowering to almost a whisper.

  Sarah’s face fell. She looked understanding, but also disappointed. “Look, I know I’m older, and you have a tendency to disrespect your elders,” Sarah said as she held up a hand like a crossing guard.

  “That’s not true,” I countered quickly.

  “Which part?” Sarah said with an arched eyebrow. “The part where I’m old or the part where you disrespect your elders? Because I know how old I am, and it’s rather old.”

  I grumbled and thought back to the times I snapped at the Stratego and other authority figures. I relented by not saying anything, but Sarah nodded knowingly.

  “That’s what I thought,” my mentor said, a half-smile curling on her lips. “So think about what this old lady said, this one who’s been around the block a couple of times, who’s had the love of her life and lost it. Every single second you get with them is worth it.”

  Sarah patted my shoulder and headed back to her station. She slid out the blade with the grace of a warrior and placed it on her anvil.

  We worked in silence for a few minutes. I didn’t lose myself in the work like I had before when I slammed through the two dozen scythes. But the detailed nature of the rapiers kept me focused enough. I managed to maintain the triangular shape of the blade, subtle but with a bendable tip. It was important for a rapier to be flexible and maintain its blade in the face of such quick and sharp movements.

  Sarah quickly realized that her skills were not made for the intricacies of the rapier. She was used to making thick horseshoes and heavy broad swords or spearheads. So she observed as I pounded the steel she started into a thinner piece. I managed to get two of the blades complete by one that morning.

  It was the yawn from my mentor’s mouth that brought me to a stopping point. While I technically had keys and could lock up, I knew Sarah didn’t want to leave me alone. So I reached a stopping point so that both of us could end this day.

  When we walked out of the forge, Sarah bid me goodnight. But I couldn’t let her go without saying something important.

  “Sarah,” I said.

  “Hm?” she muttered through tired eyes. “What’s up, boy?”

  “Thank you for your advice,” I said sheepishly. “And for your listening ear.”

  “Oh,” Sarah said as she waved a hand at me, brushing me off. “Don’t be so mushy. I’m just glad I can help you with something since you’ve gone beyond my level in blacksmithing.”

  “That’s not true,” I said, even though the evidence suggested otherwise.

  “Don’t placate me,” Sarah scolded. “You were the better blacksmith the minute you walked on this campus. Even in my heyday, I never could have made twenty scythes and two rapier blades in the matter of one afternoon.”

  I scoffed and tried to play down her compliment. But she wasn’t wrong. The speed at which I had blasted through those blades was impressive. She and I both knew it.

  “Don’t spend too much time thinking up here,” Sarah said as she reached over and touched my temple. “Spend a little more time down here.” Predictably, she pointed to my chest, to the left of my sternum, right above my heart.

  “I’ll try,” I promised. “But I don’t think I can be with them right now.”

  Sarah sighed. “I hope you can find it in you to change your mind, but we’re different people.”

  “That we are,” I chuckled.

  “Try to get some sleep, Cameron,” Sarah advised. “You’ve got a big tomorrow.”

  “What’s tomorrow?” I said, burying down in my memory and not finding anything special.

  “Don’t you get to go off campus to go shopping?” Sarah asked. “Though I’m the old fart who could be mixing up the day.”

  “Oh no, that’s right, you’re right,” I said with a groan. I closed my eyes and tried to picture my calendar in my head. We were only two weeks from the dance, and tomorrow was the second of the two trips into the mortal world to get outfits and supplies.

  “Sorry to put another thing on your plate, kiddo,” Sarah winced. “But if anyone can do it, you can.”

  As my mentor walked away, it was nice to know that someone believed in me. But at that moment, I sure as hell didn’t.

  21

  Jade and I were hopelessly lost.

  I didn’t know why I thought we could do this whole dress and suit shopping extravaganza by ourselves. We weren’t exactly the most fashionable people. Thank goodness the Academy made us all wear the same things. Even on the weekends, when we didn’t have to be in uniform, I kept my outfits simple.

  My wardrobe was ordinary, and mostly from local thrift stores. And not the hipster, cute vintage thrifting. Like the local Goodwill or ARC, depending on who had a sale that day. My style consisted of clothes that were easy to move in, and that I wasn’t particularly attached to since most of them got ripped, burnt, or covered in ash.

  I didn’t go to my high school dances, so shopping for something that level of fancy was entirely outside of my realm of know-how. Mom and I did go to a couple of weddings, but I always ended up wearing this one white dress shirt and plain black slacks. The ensemble was easy and always looked good. Plus, I’d stopped growing in the eighth grade, so I stayed the same size. There was no need to get anything else.

  It wasn’t as though my mom was particularly fashionable either. She had her Ren Faire costumes, which were her most prized clothing, but everything else was sweats, some long sundresses, and the same two pairs of jeans that she switched off wearing depending on what was clean. And she was a teacher. It wasn’t as though we ever had the budget for more than the Salvation Army.

  Jade wasn’t much better. Her clothes were covered in flour and sauces of all kinds. She focused more on her makeup and hairstyling than her fashion sense. I still argued that she had more of one than I did because she at least knew
what coloring looked best on her. With my bright blue eyes and violent red hair, it was difficult for anything but black to not wash me out.

  As I stood in front of the boutique mirror in an odd green felt suit I cursed myself and my physique. I wasn’t the same size anymore, thanks to my time at the Academy I had broad shoulders and a muscular upper body. It was noticeable in the suit I was wearing as it strained at the seams.

  I put my hands on my hips and pressed my fists into my skin. “I look like I’m about to hulk out of this suit.”

  Jade walked out of the dressing room in a purple floor-length gown with one shoulder strap. It hung off her awkwardly and engulfed her small frame. She hoisted it up so she could shuffle forward and share the mirror with me. It was a three-paneled mirror, so we could see multiple sides of ourselves.

  My girl flapped her arms up and down like a bird, moving the excess fabric in her hands.

  “At least your suit doesn’t look like it’s eating you,” Jade commented. “Om nom nom,” she joked as she swirled the purple dress around her.

  I chuckled, but my reprieve was brief. I caught another glimpse of myself in the mirror and groaned. “I don’t think I’m going to find anything I like.”

  “This is why I don’t wear dresses,” Jade said in defeat. “They never fit me.”

  “You could go butch and wear a tux, like me,” I said as I turned my head from side to side.

  “I don’t know if they make tuxedos for short women with big butts,” Jade said as she turned her back to the mirror so she could examine her backside.

  Jade released a laugh at a sudden thought she had, though she tried to cover it with her hand. “It’s really not fair that the standards are so different.”

  “We should do something about it,” I said defiantly, deciding to indulge Jade in her attempt to alleviate the air. “We should show up in pajamas or something.”

  “Bodysuits!” Jade joined in.

  “Or butt naked!” I added, unable to get rid of the chuckle in my throat.

  “As long as you are naked too, I wouldn’t complain,” Jade said with suggestive eyebrows.