Mark walked Anabel to the main road after he put his project away and finished cleaning the smithy.
Anabel looked to Mark, sensing his tumultuous mindset.
"You know, Mark, that sword looked fine until it stopped glowing. . . perhaps you just need to keep at it?"
Mark was pleasantly surprised by Anabel's sudden interjection into his current dilemma. He stopped walking as he thought before responding.
"Thanks, Anabel. You're right, I just need to keep at it. My thoughts are just stuck on how to go about making it work better."
Anabel kept walking as they were at the main road of the village. She turned back and flashed Mark a bright smile and said her goodbyes.
"Don't lose too much sleep over it, Mark, you are a brilliant blacksmith so I am sure you will figure it out with time!"
When they had said their goodbyes, he headed home to think about the failure he was once again facing.
"I guess when I off-handedly said this would take years to fix, I wasn't wrong. . ."
He made his way home thinking about how he had hammered the metal into place while working on the blade. The sounds of the metal hammer hitting his alloy blade still rang in his ears.
The pattern of his strikes were imagined again as he thought of the method he used to fuse the metals back together, trying to figure out why it ended in failure. He ate some jerky from his drying rack and lay in bed while still reviewing his actions in his head.
"I guess I will just have to try again. . ."
He quickly drifted off to a dreamless sleep when he was done trying to figure out his mistakes.
As the sun shone through his window, Mark awoke from his sleep with purpose in his eyes. He quickly readied himself for the day and headed straight to the forge.
After getting the forge prepared, he pulled his sword out again and placed it in the fire. The flames seemed to hungrily lick at the alloy weapon when he placed it over the hot coals.
'Looks like the forge knows we are in for some hard work this morning. . .'
Mark moved to get the tools he would need for the morning in place, which mostly just consisted of having his hammers and tongs available.
With his preparations in place, he watched the sword heat up in the forge. It was already a deep red, and the fire was working to bring it to a brighter shade where it would be workable.
Mark assisted the flames by turning the blade from time to time in order to expose every part of it to the hot flames.
He had no time to get lost in the secrets of the flames, though, as the sword was soon ready to be worked. He pulled it over to his dark anvil and grabbed his hammer where he had left it at the ready.
He started his work by first mending the cracks in the alloy, as he had the day before, then he began his process of working the metal where it needed to be. He soon found the sweet spot for his hammer to get in the rhythm he needed to hit the blade at, which hastened his work greatly.
While he was working, he maintained focus on what he knew he needed to do which resulted in a sort of trance of focus which was different then what he normally experienced. He began to see the white flames that his work produced for himself and understood why Anabel thought it looked like magic.
The flames looked mystical, like a living flame. It was different than any flame Mark had seen before and it was enough to nearly break him out of his focused trance. He forced himself to ignore the flames and zoned in on the task at hand.
With the white flames keeping the sword at optimal temperature, he continued his work for the rest of the morning. When he was finished, he sat back and let the sword slowly cool on his black anvil.
As he leaned back to watch how his work turned out, he was slightly startled by the soft voice that called out from behind him on the bench between the smithies work stations.
"How do you feel about this one, Mark?"
Mark turned around to see that it was just Anabel, once again.
'It seems she will be coming here every day then.'
Mark just shook his head in acceptance as he answered the girl.
"I am just as curious as you, I made sure to move the alloy as needed to strengthen it where it needs to be strengthened. I hope it does not turn out like yesterday, but I have a feeling I will be doing this for a while. . ."
And sure enough, as Mark was done speaking, there was a soft but audible cracking sound that came from the sword.
Mark and Anabel walked over to the anvil where they could both get a good look where they could both see a long crack that had formed on the blade, with more following.
The sword also began to warp, as it cooled off more and more which revealed more and more deformities.
In the end, it looked much the same as the day before. It was warped and cracked and the alloy was inconsistent with a rainbow of colors instead of one uniform color.
Mark just shook his head as he placed the blade back in its storage area to be worked on later.
Anabel, seeing his melancholy, sought to cheer him up.
"Let's take a break and go get some food, how does that sound?"
Mark was a bit disheartened by the result of his work, so he nodded and decided to go with Anabel.
"Perhaps some time from the forge will be good for me, I need to repair the village's tools and anything brought by before the caravan leaves in the morning anyway."
With his decision to go with her, Anabel grabs his arm after he put away the things at the forge that he needed to and set off with him towards the village.
They stopped by the crazy old ladies' food spot to get some fried rice to their fill and when they were on their way back to the forge, Mr. Li found them as they walked past the caravan.
"Hello Mark, Anabel. I was wondering if I could speak to you alone, Mark. If that is possible?"
Mr. Li nodded in respect to Anabel as he said her name, but Mark could tell that Mr. Li would be uncomfortable discussing whatever was on his mind with Anabel around. So, Mark just nodded to Anabel, who was looking him in the eyes. He could see her eyes dart from one eye to the other, before she nodded in agreement and walked off to leave the men alone.
She looked back as she walked toward the smithy and let Mark know where to find her after.
"I will wait at the smithy for you, Mark, I will probably play with the hammers so you better hurry."
She was being playful with her words and hurried away with a giggle, laughing at her own joke.
With Anabel gone, Mark looked back to Mr. Li to ask him what he wanted to speak to him about.
"Would you like to speak here, in the street, or did you have a more private setting in mind?"
Mr. Li looked releived that Mark was willing to go with him and responded.
"Yes, if it is alright with you, I would prefer if I could talk to you near the edge of the village by that giant tree."
Mark was a little confused as he started walking toward the elder tree.
"Why would you want to talk near the elder tree though?"
Mr. Li responded, as if rehearsed.
"I have seen few people walking past this area and it looks like a good place to have a private conversation. I don't want anyone to overhear, even my guards and the other people from my caravan."
Mark accepted this explanation, though he still found it to be a little odd of a place to converse.
They walked the rest of the way to the elder tree with little else than small talk about the caravan and how Mark's work is coming along.
When they approached the tree, Mr. Li guided Mark to an area a bit to the right of the tree instead of right next to the trunk, though they were still in its shade.
Mark heard the caw of the weird bird that lived in the elder tree, which he had never managed to spot, and Mr. Li took on a serious expression as he readied himself to talk to Mark about something that seemed to be quite important.