<div style="text-indent:1em;">Brenshire was a good town, a hub of magical and technological advances which was only a few centuries old. Titus had been born and raised here, gotten into mischief as a child, but he also had a dream. He wanted to become a renowned blacksmith, drawing business from around the world. So helping support the guards for the Queen's Coronation was going to be a big step forward in getting his name out. The Man Who Armed the Queen's Protectors. That had a good ring to it. And he could start now that the Captain of the Guard's page, who was actually a young man of about 12 years, had brought the metal to be used.</div><br/><div style="text-indent:1em;">For large projects such as these, Titus had a larger forge which sat out in front of his shop. People enjoyed watching him work, and the almost constant breeze helped keep the flames hot. Titus hefted the mass of iron into the pan on the edge of the furnace, then slid it in. Pulling his sleeves back, he released a torrent of blue flames into the glowing furnace, melting the iron quickly into a red hot liquid. Keeping his mind focused on the flames to keep them going, he turned and added coal to the flaming mixture. It ignited briefly before being consumed. Titus always used coal to strengthen the iron he worked with, as the high temperatures he starts the forging process at would normally make the metal brittle once it cooled.</div><br/><div style="text-indent:1em;">With the heat from the metal seeming to be spread evenly, Titus cooled his flames to the standard orange-red. He had already gotten the molds ready to receive the metal, and so he poured his flaming mixture into the sixteen molds, the eight swords and eight halberds that were going to be needed. The molds were all carved from granite and would not crack due to the magic inherent to it. Normally, Titus would not use magic other than his fire to craft his works, but he did know of one technique which would allow him to do a week's work in a day. Of course, he barely used it because he rarely had a task which was required to be done in a day. So Titus breathed in deeply, felt the flames within himself, and then seemed to become a haze as sparks flew from his anvil, shaping the metal. Steam rose from the 3 barrels nearby as the hiss of 8 swords cooling sounded through the streets. The halberd shafts were slid into the still hot blades and then hammered into place and cooled. And finally, all the grips were wrapped, the hilts decorated, and the blades polished.</div><br/><div style="text-indent:1em;">Sitting down by the door of his shop, Titus breathed a sigh. That took a little more out of him than he thought, but then again he just did a whole week's work in about 3 hours. He whistled for a young boy nearby to come over. "Lad, can you tell the Captain of the Guard his order is ready? He went off that way earlier. And I'll give you a silver piece when you come back, okay?" The boy nodded and ran off down the street. Titus had seen the boy run errands before for the other shops and knew he was trustworthy. When he felt rested enough, and as the boy, the page, and the Captain were coming back, Titus rose. He tossed the boy a silver piece from his pocket, and then greeted the Captain.</div><br/><br/>"The boy said my order was ready...Did you really manage to do all of that so soon?"<br/><br/>"Aye. It was no easy task, but they are all ready. Here, come and examine the work."<br/><br/><div style="text-indent:1em;">The Captain was impressed at the decoration on the swords, the sharpness of all the blades. He offered a spot at the coronation to Titus, who gladly accepted. The Captain also formally introduced himself as John, and told Titus to simply come up to the palace about an hour before the coronation and ask for John. Also, he told Titus to wear his best looking clothes and to come armed with his most decorated sword. John shook Titus' hand again, then had his page collect the halberds and swords and place them on his horse. Everyone had departed, and so Titus returned to the interior of his shop.</div><br/><br/><div style="text-indent:1em;">It was already past noon, but Titus went upstairs to his loft. The tub he had installed for a bath was large enough to sink into, and he didn't have to worry about heating the water because he could do it himself. After filling the tub, he got in and heated the water. At this point he didn't care if his clothes got wet because they were covered in soot and smelt strongly of coal and sweat. The water helped him relax, and slowly cleaned the grime off of him. When he felt clean, Titus got out, stripped, and then found his best non-work clothes. Those happened to be a white tunic with gold trim, mahogany colored breeches, and a set of rich leather boots. Then he went to the wall and took off his pride and joy. The sword which had been crafted by him years ago when he sought out a master smith from the north still gleamed as though it was made that day. The blade would remain sharp until the day it is forged into something else, and the hand-and-a-half form of the sword meant it could be used in nearly any situation.</div><br/><div style="margin:20px; margin-top:5px"><div class="quotetitle"><input class="button2 btnlite" onclick="if (this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display != '') { this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display = '';      this.innerText = ''; this.value = 'Hide'; } else { this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display = 'none'; this.innerText = ''; this.value = 'Show'; }" style="text-align:center;width:100px;margin:0px;padding:0px;" type="button" value="Show"/></div><div class="quotecontent"><div style="display: none;"><a class="postlink" href="http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs40/i/2009/004/4/1/Genesis_Sword_by_Hallucination047.jpg">[ img ]</a>Looks similar to this</div></div></div><br/><div style="text-indent:1em;">Fastening the scabbard onto his belt, Titus returned the blade to its sheath and began closing his shop. He locked the door on the first floor, then started heading toward the palace. Anyone who was passing by could probably see the grin on his face and the pride he felt in his work. But now he did have to manage the trek across the town and through the slowly forming crowds so that he could do as was asked of him.</div>