Andre's fingers stayed on Kael's gauntlets a second longer than they had any right to, like the metal itself offended him and fascinated him at the same time. He turned one glove over, squinted at the seams where the rune sockets met the arm-guard, and then clicked his tongue like he'd just bitten into grit.
"But…" Andre said as he placed the gauntlets down, "This won't do. Can't make it, not like this." He sighed.
The gauntlets landed on the workbench with a dull, heavy clack. Not loud, just final. Kael felt that sound in his teeth more than his ears. He'd walked in here half-expecting Andre to fix everything with two grumpy swings of a hammer. Instead, the dwarf was looking at Kael's pride like it was a house built on wet cardboard.
"Wait, why, the idea is solid though, even I can make it, but I need your hammering and forging skills," Kael said.
