Start small. They hadn’t settled on a course of action for the crafters yet, and with Tallsun coming to a close, she needed to do something. Can’t let a season waste, and really, she couldn’t go just start building entire structures anyway. She’s never crafted. Though she had the magic in the Falls, nothing ever happened there, and then all too soon the place was just gone anyway. She’d watched Brisa though, had spent plenty of time with Dragomir talking about the art, so how hard could it be? Just exhausting, sweaty, disgusting work.

She sighs, though Thea is a bundle of excitement. The little creature sets out in hydra form, slithering around the sand and collecting bits of metal as she goes. At least she has help, Syrena thinks, grateful to her overzealous companion. Syrena rarely even asks for things. Thea just bounds off, doing her own thing, dragging Syrean along. Or in cases like this, helping her companion with whatever task Syrena has been set to do. Why? Syrena doesn’t know, but she’s pretty sure the little girl was sent to torture her and make her life a million times brighter all at once.

Syrena collects the larger piece, doing her best to carry them in her mouth or resting on her back. Thea has a piece in each of her five heads, some bits and pieces of her curled around others. When they can’t possibly carry any more, they set off to the Diviner’s fire together, two mythical creatures without any real powers at all. Except this borrowed skill to mold metal.

They reach the fire and unceremoniously dump the ore into a pile. For a moment, Syrena just stares at Thea, all ten purple eyes staring back. “Um,” she says to the hydra, uncertain how to do this. One of the five heads reaches out, giving Syrena a light bump of encouragement on the chest. Thea is possibly the only creature Syrena doesn’t flinch from. Instead, she finds the touch almost reassuring. It can’t be that much different than other magic, right?

The same way she’d make water plants grow, she simply searches for the tether of magic, pulling on it. As she does, the little bits of ore move into the fire, and she focuses, closing her eyes, imagining the knife she’s trying to create. Start small. One knife. She imagines the blade first, sharp on both sides, not overly long but a good fighting length. For the handle she makes the metal thicker, rounder, something that could be gripped a bit more easily. Maybe they could trade with the basin for some leather to make the handle easier to hold, but for now, she works with what she has. The handle is not perfectly smooth, but ridged with dips for a horse’s teeth.

When she’s done, she opens her eyes, pulling the knife from the fire and letting it come to rest on a nearby stone for it to cool. It’s not half bad, she thinks, though she knows very little about knives, so maybe it’s terrible. She looks at the pile of ore, which is almost gone, sighing slightly. “Let’s get more?” she says to Thea, who doesn’t understand a word, but knows her bonded’s heart well enough and also the task at hand. She begins to slither around the area, looking for more ore. Syrena does the same. Two more to go. It could be worse.


les words "chat chat"

Syrena

let the water take me

Thea perhaps notices Vastra, but if she does, she hides that fact from Syrena well. Which is unusual, because usually Thea is running off to meet everyone and anyone, but perhaps the girl knows how to respect someone trying to be sneaky. Or maybe it’s just fun to see how long it will take Syrena to notice the mare flying around watching them. Because Syrena doesn’t notice. Looking around, or caring what’s around, really isn’t her thing. Which is entirely stupid, because that’s how you get killed, but of course, Syrena wouldn’t be all that sorry if something dropped out of the sky and slit her throat, so there’s that.

It’s not until a yelp sounds through the nearby area that Syrena actually bothers to look, surprised to find a mare there frowning at the knife Syrena had left to cool. Thea seems entirely unsurprised by this turn of events, however, and Syrena gives her a long stare before turning her attention to the girl. They are not overly close, and Syrena doesn’t rush in better back, picking up bits and pieces of metal as she goes. Thea collects as well, using her many mouths and necks to hold as much as she can.

They return together, dumping the ore near the fire as they did before. Someday they would just have to start making a stockpile of this stuff, so she didn’t have to collect it all the time. “Careful,” she says, entirely unhelpful since the girl has already discovered that the knife is hot. “I’m not entirely sure how quickly metal cools, but I assume not very fast.” After all, the fire in which it was tempered was scorching, and the knife spends some time in there as she shapes it. Not that it would stay hot nearly as long as it spends in the actual flames, but still, it must take some time to cool completely.

She turns her attention back to the ore, starting to get the feel for it. This time, it’s easier, and she finds she can keep a bit of her attention focuses on the girl and she sends more ore into the flames, concentrating again on the shape of the knife. This one is slightly different, a bit longer, designed for someone taller, though otherwise she uses the same design. “Syrena, and this is Thea” she says, pulling the second knife from the fire and letting the magic deposit it next to the first.

She gathers more ore from the pile, calling on her magic to send it into the fire as well. This time, she finds that shaping and sharpening the knife is almost easy. Almost. She's still sweating, but she is also standing by a fire. Though she can feel the magic draining her as well, much as it might if she were actually making knives. But soon, the third is done, and she lays it by the others to cool as well. It wasn't a half bad start.


les words "chat chat"

Syrena

let the water take me