I struck the metal, pouring my soul into it. This blade was hungry for energy, devouring every drop I gave it, taking more of me into it than any other. Giving so much of yourself to something was draining, but hearing the tales of their accomplishments was always worth it. This blade would be my 13th child. Well, I call them my children. Some smiths are less attached to the blades they make, but I always found it more challenging to avoid getting attached to them with how much of yourself you had to put into them. Maybe that’s how mothers feel, but I would never know.

“August, you need to finish up. It’s getting late, and Lyra would kill me if you fell asleep at the forge again.”

I look up to see Asra, the partner of Lyra, the first of my children. “Ahh, yes, I’m finishing up right now. How have you and Lyra been? Keeping the town safe as the new guard captain?”

She looks at me with exasperation clear on her face and hands on her hips, her ginger hair in a braid that reaches her lower back, green eyes staring directly at me. “August, it’s not new. I’ve been captain for years now.”

“yes, yes, and you’d never have gotten the job without Lyra, or so you tell it, but you’ll always be the farm girl to me,” I say, quenching the blade and getting ready to douse the forge for the night.

“Yes, the farm girl you gave a piece of your soul to. What were you trying to accomplish?” she says teasingly.

I blush a little from the insinuation. “Nothing really; you always wanted to join the guard and help people, and Lyra only wanted her blade used to defend others. I guess you were the only worthy person I could think of. I asked her to keep you safe, and I think it worked out.”

She looked away while I wasn’t looking. “Why do you have to be such a stupid egg sometimes?”

“what? What does this have to do with eggs?” I ask, confused.

“Nothing, nothing,” she says, shaking her head. “Anyway, Lyra’s coming to get you tomorrow, be ready before midday,” she says, walking out of my workshop.

After cleaning the workshop, I went into the house proper, where waiting for me was a pile of letters from my children, my daughters. Most smiths share a gender with their blades, but for some reason, every blade I made was a woman even though I’m a man; it doesn’t make sense. Many things were malleable or up to chance when making a blade. You can’t make it take on specific aspects or traits from your soul. It would just take bits of you, and you wait to see what comes of it. Gender, though, was 99% of the time the gender of the smith.

The only way this could make sense was if I had the soul of a woman or something, but it’s not like that’s a thing that happens. Right? I mean, that would just be awful, the soul of a woman stuck in the body of a man or vice-versa; what kind of demon’s curse is that?

I shake my head to clear my thoughts. There is a better time for this. I head off to get ready for bed. I change into my sleeping clothes and get into bed. Keeping a lit lamp next to me, I read through the letters until I fell asleep, taking in the tales of my daughter’s adventures.

I’m sitting at a dining table. All my daughters are here having some kind of party. I look around, and everyone seems happy. Then, my eyes land on the woman next to me. No matter how hard I try, I can’t focus on her features, but I know she’s my wife.

Lyra rises from her seat. “Hello, everyone. I want to thank Mom for planning this and getting everyone together, but there’s more to why we’re here tonight. I had Mom gather you all here tonight to announce that I’m getting married and to introduce the person I’m getting married to to all my sisters and moms.”

Lyra hugs me. “Mom, thank you for taking care of the party. I’ve been so busy recently with the guard work, and you’re the only one who’s been able to get all of us to read your letters and respond in a reasonable amount of time. Like when Seva took over a week to write back, you had the entire kingdom looking for her, so we all know to return your letters.” 

She lets go as someone I can’t focus on walks up. “hi honey, meet my moms…….”

All the noise fades out. I can see Lyra continue speaking, but I can’t hear it. Why does she keep calling me Mom? Why don’t I hate it? I look down and notice two things very clearly. 

1. I’m in a dress 

2. I have boobs

I wake up with a start. My face is damp as if I’d been crying. “Must have had a pretty bad dream to make me cry in my sleep. wonder what it was.” I get out of bed and head to the bathroom. I activate the heating rune on the shower head and strip out my clothes. “today will be a long day. Lyra’s plans are always exhausting.”

The morning goes by reasonably peacefully. I got dressed, had breakfast, and cleaned around the house. I didn’t bother lighting the forge, as Lyra would be here before I could get any real work done.

I look out the window to see the overgrown garden; memories of a frail young woman with blond hair and gray eyes fill my mind. Hannah ( my second daughter) loved the garden. She had put so much work into it, and I felt a little guilty letting it get overgrown after leaving on her adventure to find her partner. Maybe I should clean it up and try to return it to its old state before her next visit.

I was pulled from my thoughts by a knock at my door. I get up, crossing the room to the door. I open it expecting to see the black hair and copper eyes of Lyra, but that is not what I find before me. My eyes meet with the red hair and green eyes of my youngest daughter, Vayla.

“Vayla, what are you doing back in town? I thought you were still training with the weapon masters of Everen,” I say with a bit of surprise in my voice.

“hi, m-dad, it’s nothing. I just needed some advice and didn’t want to ask in a letter. “Vayla spoke with a sad look on her face.

“Alright, well, Lyra should be here soon. She has something planned for me today, so if you want to talk about it privately, you might have to wait till later tonight. Still, I’m sure that, whatever it is, Lyra probably has an interesting point of view on it.” compassion is in my voice.

She lights up. “Big sis is going to come over. Can I join in today’s adventure?”

“I’m not sure how much of an adventure it will be, but if Lyra says it’s okay, I don’t see why you couldn’t.” She hugs me as I finish speaking.

“Thank you. I’ve missed you, Lyra, and the others so much. Most of the monks aren’t very affectionate, saying it’s a sign of weakness, but I don’t think that’s true,” she said with a bit of sadness. “Then there’s Anya; Anya is just so… nice.” A blush forms across her cheeks.

“And who is this anya that has my youngest daughter so enraptured?” I say, teasing my youngest.

Her blush deepened, and her stutter stopped after a moment when Vayla was picked up from behind. I look at the new arrival.

“Hello, Lyra, your sister was just telling me about her crush on someone named Anya,” I say, and a wide, evil smile appears on Lyra’s face. She’s going to have fun teasing her sister with that bit of information.