Want to read more?
The next 10+ chapters are already available on my Patreon!
By joining, you'll get:
📖 Early access to future chapters
🗳️ Polls to shape the story
🎁 Exclusive content for Patrons
🔥 Bonus scenes & content you won't find anywhere else
👀 Don't fall behind—others are already ahead!
👉 patreon.com/FanfictionTakashi
(If link doesn't show, just search on Google: FanfictionTakashi Patreon)
------------
A bead of sweat rolled down her brow. She did not raise her hand to wipe it away. The unfinished product in her hand was in too precarious a state to divert even a moment's attention away.
Clang.
The bead of sweat trickled down her cheek, before coming to halt at the base of her chin, where it threatened to drip down and ruin weeks of hard work. The sweat of a God, no matter how diluted her power was in her mortal body, contained enough magic to disrupt the delicate array of charms and runes that enchanted her latest project.
Clang.
In the best case scenario, it could power up her creation quite significantly. In the worst, it could set off a magical chain reaction, creating an explosion more than capable of destroying her entire forge—and her with it.
Clang.
Deftly, she adjusted her head slightly and watched the sweat droplet fall harmlessly to the ground.
She smiled to herself. No more distractions. Alone in her forge, hammer in hand, and her latest piece of art only a few strikes away from completion.
Just the way Hephaestus liked it.
Clang.
Clang.
Just one more strike.
She raised her hand up and took a deep breath. She couldn't call it her finest work. This was made with standard materials, after all. But that didn't mean she felt any less pride at it.
It was the job of a craftsman to make the extraordinary from the ordinary, and Hephaestus had every bit of confidence that whoever ended up using this sword would not find it lacking in any way.
Slowly, she exhaled. The tension left her shoulders. Her vision narrowed. Her senses sharpened. Unnecessary thoughts and stimuli were forcibly ignored by her brain.
In that moment, all that existed was her, and the soon-to-be-finished sword.
She swung down, closing her eye, knowing that the hammer would strike where it needed to, and mark the birth of her newest child with a reassuring and resounding 'Clang'.
BAM!
Her body jolted from the shock of suddenly having the door slammed open, and Hephaestus snapped open her eye and heaved a sigh of relief when she saw that her hammer had stopped mere millimeters above the blade. A fraction of a second later, and she may have shattered the whole thing.
A familiarly annoying, high-pitched voice sounded out. "Hephaestus! There you are! I was looking all over for you!"
The safety of her sword accounted for, relief seeped away and irritation flooded in.
"Loki," she said, trying hard to sound calm. "Didn't you see the 'Forge In Use' sign?"
She turned around. Loki was beaming widely at her, and strapped across the redhead's back were two long objects that were wrapped up in bandages.
"I did," Loki said, seemingly unable to contain her excitement. "That's how I knew you were here!"
Hephaestus felt her eyebrow twitch. It was the second time Loki had barged in uninvited this week already.
"Anyway," Loki continued, striding over. "Remember when I came over a few days ago and asked you to teach me how to build a sword?"
"Forge a sword," Hephaestus corrected out of instinct. "And yes, I do." She hadn't been thrilled at the prospect, and the only reason she'd agreed at all was because she'd learned her lesson after Hestia; the fastest way to get rid of stubborn, annoying goddesses was to just give them what they wanted.
Loki's grin got even wider. She start vibrating on the spot from sheer excitement and Hephaestus began to feel worry.
Then she heard it.
The sound of metal striking metal. The soft clink when a sword's guard met its sheath.
Her eye was immediately drawn to the objects hanging on Loki's back.
"No," she said, her lone eye growing wide.
Loki nodded her head violently.
"It's been three days!"
"I know!" Loki said. "Not bad, right?"
"You can't forge a sword in three days."
"Oh. I didn't," Loki said.
Hephaestus felt much comfort at her admission. Her gaze flicked back to her work-in-progress. She'd been working on it for almost two weeks now, and that was after she'd gotten her Familia members to prep the materials for her.
If Loki had somehow managed to forge a sword in a fraction of that time—
"I forged two of them."
Hephaestus' blinked.
"You wanna see?" Loki asked excitedly.
Of course she wanted to see. There was no way Loki could've done it. She hadn't had a clue about the fundamentals of smithing before this. And Hephaestus was quite certain Loki had been zoning out more than half of her lecture that day.
And even if she hadn't, swordsmithing wasn't something one could learn from a lecture alone. The mental discipline and awareness to maintain the consistency behind each blow of the hammer. The sharp eye needed to watch as molten steel flooded its iron cast. The artists' pride to accept nothing better than the very best.
Those things took time and practice, and the idea that Loki had made not one, but two swords, a few days after her first time in a forge was downright insulting to her.
It took everything for Hephaestus to maintain her disinterested facade and nod her head slightly.
She couldn't wait to wipe that smug grin off Loki's face as she went over each and every mistake and flaw in her abominations.
Loki unslung one of them and held it out to her. Making a distasteful face and sticking out her tongue, the redhead said, "I call this one Lancelot. She-it's the uglier of the two."
Carefully, Hephaestus accepted it. If she dropped the 'sword', it might break after all.
------------
Want to read more?
The next 10+ chapters are already available on my Patreon!
By joining, you'll get:
📖 Early access to future chapters
🗳️ Polls to shape the story
🎁 Exclusive content for Patrons
🔥 Bonus scenes & content you won't find anywhere else
👀 Don't fall behind—others are already ahead!
👉 patreon.com/FanfictionTakashi
(If link doesn't show, just search on Google: FanfictionTakashi Patreon)