Evren returned from the government building with the deed to the home. He had managed to lower the price on the home rather easily as there was many repairs that needed to be done, and there was no competition for buyers, nor had there been for years. The next few days were spent furnishing and cleaning the home by the ‘servants’ as Evren began his tutelage of blacksmithing.
As Evren learned, he did so with a smile. He did this mostly to hide the anxiety he was experiencing as the man’s techniques were not only poor, but the quality of the metal he had to work with was abyssal. Evren now understood why the tools needed to be repaired frequently and often. He didn’t say anything though. He kept smiling and planned to slowly increase the quality of the products in an unnoticeable way. While occasionally he would learn something new, his knowledge far outweighed his learning.
Harley had decided to become the ‘head maid’ of the home and really took to the role of cleaning and fixing it up. Walter and Fletcher helped with the repairs around the house. Karina found a job as a waitress in a tavern nearby, and Ellis got a position at the government building filing paperwork. Bryan and Tim stayed in the house mostly to keep a low profile and Isobel hadn’t found a job yet, so when she wasn’t looking, she was helping Harley around the house.
Ellis’s position at the government building turned out to be the golden goose when it came to gathering information. As he needed to scan the document for the contents in order to properly file it, he learned quite a bit about St. Gloria and the Holy State Grandia in general. Karina picked up quite a bit of gossip working as a waitress. She had earned a reputation as being dependable and tough. Her combat experience kept the hands of the grabby patrons off of her, much to the entertainment of the other customers.
Harley’s contacts in the market were growing. As she went shopping for food, she would speak with the various merchants and people in town and picked up gossip and news there. Once a day the group would meet up and share information with each other to work out a plan. The local officials, and most of the citizens not caring for the church’s practices, but nobody willing to stand out against them. Bryan and Tim had created a rough map of the cathedral and the basement where the summoning chamber and the depository were located.
Evren poured over the documents and maps trying to devise a way in which he could free the puppets. If it were just a matter of killing the pope, he was pretty sure he could do it. If it were to get into the depository, he was sure he could do that as well, but he wasn’t sure how he could recall all the pets at one point, so he could free them and de-curse them.
Evren pondered taking over the church and ruling in its stead. So, he could pull the puppets back little by little and free them. As possible as that was, he disliked the thought of ruling. If there were any surviving descendants of the previous ruling class, he’d feel comfortable giving them the ruling seat, but it would seem any possibility of that happening had been erased by the church.
Evren sighed and walked out of the office to the main room where everyone was at, chatting. “Hey, anyone here want to rule Grandia?”
Everyone just stared at Evren for a while before he just shrugged and walked back into the office. Before anyone had a chance to say anything, he had closed the door behind him.
There was a knock at the door and the door opened immediately afterwards, “Evren, what do you mean ‘rule Grandia?’”
Evren turned around because he hadn’t sat down yet, “I mean what I said. If we take out the pope and the other members of the church, someone will have to take control of Grandia.”
“Wouldn’t that be you, Evren?” Walter asked.
Evren scoffed, “I don’t want the job.”
“Wouldn’t you be the best for it?” Karina asked.
Evren shook his head. “I don’t think I would. First, I have too much I still want to do. Second, I’m an old soldier. Sure, I can lead others, but not a country.”
Walter asked, “Couldn’t you just lead for a while until we find someone else?”
Evren smiled and said, “Couldn’t someone else do the same?”
Speechless, everyone left the room and returned to sit on the couches they had acquired. Evren returned to the notes he had spread across the desk from speaking with the others. The commander’s name, the adjutant, the quartermasters; these were the only people that Bryan and Tim made contact within the church. They didn’t even know who these people reported to. Just how carefree of a lifestyle were they leading that they were completely oblivious to the world around them?
Evren had made tiny nails at the blacksmith, and he was using them now to pin the information he had on the wall. Adding notes to the scraps of paper on the wall, he would sometimes step back for a broader view. As he went, he would add more notes, circle something or draw an arrow to another note.
Evren decided to shelf it for the moment. He needed more information and then he could form a plan. As it stood right now, he wouldn’t be able to do anything. He headed out to the others who were still discussing what Evren asked earlier. They all looked to Evren and seemed to want to say something. Evren flashed a big smile, waved and headed out the front door.
He was going to head over to his job as a blacksmith apprentice. He figured while he was hammering out on steel, he could clear his head from everything and hopefully find a new way of looking at things. The blacksmith’s name is Gus. The first time Evren heard the name, he though, “Wow, that’s weirdly appropriate.” Gus was 63 years old. Gus has been working metal for nearly fifty years. Gus has been around long enough, that in his day, they could make swords for the people to defend themselves.
Gus was a little dour. Evren believed that if the Holy State were thrown over today, he’d be happy, but still act cranky. As Evren walked through the door, he said, “Mornin Gus.”
Gus replied, “You’re late.”
Evren smiled and said, “No, now we talked about this, Gus. You said to show up whenever when I asked what time you wanted me to be here. I wanted to set a time, but you wandered off bitching about something.”
“Get in the forge!” he yelled as Evren was walking past him to grab his apron. He was using the one provided by the shop, he wouldn’t be able to use his own because of the runework on it. If he were to pose as an apprentice with a well-used fine dwarven apron, he’d be questioned about it.
“What are we working on today, Gus?” Evren said has he cleaned up the shop a bit.
“Horseshoes! Same as yesterday until you get good at ‘em!” he called out without moving from his seat.
Evren got some billets of ore that had been put through a blast furnace to make into steel. He didn’t have any quick lime to stabilize it, so it was high in carbon content. While that made for some hard metal, it was a bit brittle.
There was a way to lower the impurities of it aside from refining it that involved a lot of hammering, folding and welding. Which is something Evren tried once but got yelled at for taking too much time and making it too damn thin. So, Evren had decided to create low quality products for all to enjoy.
Evren heated up some ore in the shape of a rod. He used the horn of the anvil to bend it to shape, then flattened it and cut it to length. He put furrows into the shanks and added the holes for the nails. He added a toe caulk and the heel caulks, then quenched it to harden and set it aside, picking up a new rod to heat and make into another horseshoe. He repeated this process throughout the day, and by the time Gus came in to check on him, he had created seventy-five horseshoes and work working on the seventy-sixth one.
“What the hell are you doing?” Gus asked.
Evren looked down at the horseshoe he was working on and said, “Horseshoes until I get good at ‘em!”
“What did you make so damn many for?” Gus exclaimed.
“Because you didn’t tell me to stop like you normally do, so I kept working.” Evren said.
“Do you think you can just do whatever you’re told to do and get away with it?” Gus asked.
Evren stared at him trying to figure out whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. “Whatever, how do they look? Can I move onto something else?”
Gus looked at the horseshoes on the table and didn’t say anything as he went through them. Evren had made sure to only refine them a little bit, leaving them rough looking but functional. “They’ll do,” Was all he said.
Suddenly a fire lit up in Gus’ eyes and he said, “Put ‘em away and make some nails next. Eight for each one of ‘em shoes ya made!” He walked back up front and looked around the store mumbling to himself, “Now, what are we short on?”
“I’ll have to get him to make forks an spoons.” He said after a time of walking around the store.
Gus walked into the back and yelled, “That’s enough nails damn it! You tryin to build a house? Forks an spoons is what we need! Forks an spoons!”
Evren looked at Gus while holding back a smile and said, “But you haven’t shown me how to make those yet.”
“Damn it!” he replied, “Do I have to show you how to make everything?”
Evren nodded, “Yes, unless you want me to wing it.”
“No, none of yer wingin’ in here.” Gus said. He walked around and grabbed one of the rods Evren had been using for the horseshoes and put it in the fire. “Gimme the hammer.”
He pulled the rod out and said, “I’m gonna show you this one time. Got that, Chester? First is a spoon.” He hammered the end of the rod flat and stretched the handle out until it was the right size, then flattened it. He cut off the excess and then used the hardie hole on the anvil and a hammer with a tight peen and formed the bowl of the spoon.
He took the excess of the rod, put it into the fire and when it was hot enough, he began hammering the end flat, as he did for the spoon. He thinned out the handle and flattened it slightly, then he took a punch that was specially made for fork tines and punched out the excess metal. He then curved it slightly on the horn of the anvil and tossed it down on the table near the spoon.
Evren picked up the spoon and the fork and examined them for an unusually long period of time before setting them back down and said, “Show me again.”
After cursing for a few minutes, Gus heated up another metal rod and said, “Now, pay attention this time, damn it!” As he worked, Evren was smiling behind his back.
