-- Lilith POV --

  She just had returned from her walk with Princess Lisa and was sitting at her table, waiting to be called for work when Sir Frederik came into the outer room, and made his way through the cascaded doors into her cell. He held a book under his left arm, which made her curious, but she tried to show patience.

  "Good morning Sir Frederik", she welcomed him once he had made the way through the cascaded doors, "What brings you here so early the day?"

  "Sam told me you have asked for a book about forging, but he couldn't find anything in the public library. So he asked me for help. Being a Sir doesn't help much there though, forging is a craft taught from master to apprentice, father to son, and the blacksmiths don't bother to write anything down. Many of them even protect their secrets eagerly, worried another smith could steal them and produce the same quality or even better items."

  She chuckled, "That is a very good way to slow down any development in forging."

  Sir Frederik grinned, "Yes, I guess one can see it this way. I've got something for you anyways."

  He put the book which he was carrying on the table and gestured grandiosely, "Voilà", before took seat on the other chair.

  She looked at the book. Leather bound, the title imprinted with gilded letters, "A guide to metals and their alloys."

  She picked it up to get a feeling for the book. A mundane book, there was neither magic power in it, nor anything holy. A well made book, pleasant to hold, with weight and the scent of decades. It was not a new book, many hands had held this book, she was sure. If this book had any power, it was the power of proven wisdom, which had passed the test of time and held it's worth.

  "This is a good book," she let Sir Frederik know.

  He laughed a little, "I'm always surprised by your method to judge books without looking into them at all, but yes, I think so too. It is more an alchemical book, discussing the properties of various metals, their uses, their common alloys and their uses as well. But it also has a short introduction into forging as well as casting and then more chapters about shaping metals with various other methods."

  She smiled at him and nodded, "That sounds very helpful. Thank you Sir Frederik."

  "Glad to see you happy, Lilith. Thanks to the librarian I was able to find this. With some luck I might be able to find a book about tools as well, particularly metal working tools, if you are interested?"

  She opened the book and checked the first few pages. Hand written, quality ink on quality paper, written by the skilled hand of a scribe or scholar. Each letter shaped with precision, much like she carved the runes. Someone had put time and effort into this work.

  She looked up from the book to Sir Frederik, "That might come handy indeed. John told me about the tools he was using, but I might need to know more at some point. But that will be for later. So, this book is from a library? That means I have to give it back some day, right?"

  He nodded, "Yes, four weeks is the usual time. All at the back of the book you'll find a card with the date when it has to be returned. It shouldn't be a problem though to extend the period once or twice, but we can't keep the book forever. Other people want to read it too."

  She thought about this for a while. Yes, this was a law of the good sort. This way many people could learn from the book, everyone would benefit if this source of knowledge was returned and made available again and again to be read by someone else. The book became worth a hundred times or more of a book kept private.

  She still needed an idea though, how to preserve the knowledge from being forgotten again once the book had to be returned.

  A bit hesitantly she spoke up, "Do you think you can get a blank book for me? Just a book with empty pages. And a quill to write? I have ink, but the brush for runes is way too precious for writing plain words. With a blank book and a quill I could copy the most important parts, so we can give this one back to the public library and give the next person a chance to learn from it."

  He looked up at the wall for a moment, apparently pondering the issue, then back at her, "I have no idea how the scribes produce their books, but there clearly has to be a way to make a new book. I'll ask around and find out how it's done. A blank book to write in, or sheets of paper to be bound into a book. Or maybe some other way."

  After a little pause her added, "It's sort of funny, how you give me all these challenges. Never thought a knight in the royal army had to care about writing materials and find out how books are made. But yeah, that's for later. Get dressed for forge work Lilith, I'll bring you to the workshop. The book can stay here. No one will steal it."

  She laughed, "I'm pretty sure if someone makes it here, they will take the jewelry, run like hell and not even look at the book. So indeed, the book is as safe as it can be."

  He laughed as well, "I rather meant, no one has a chance to make it to your cell, but indeed, the jewelry will make a great distraction. If that ever should get stolen though, Queen Zabeth will have the head of whoever did it."

  It didn't take her long to put on the leather apron and they made their way to the workshop, each door meticulously unlocked, opened, closed and locked again. One thing seemed certain, any attempt to abduct her from here couldn't happen by surprise, or quick by any measure. Too many doors had to be broken, too many gates unlocked. Time for the guards to step in and stop whoever was coming. Right now, it was a fact, which she appreciated, even if it felt silly to watch the guards struggle with the many doors all the time.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  "Good day Sir Frederik, morning demon," Bernard welcomed them, the coal in the forge already glowing. "Today we've got an order for something new, demon, a weapon called glaive. Not very common yet in the army, but the queen's scouts have found our enemies use it with quite some success and now Queen Zabeth wants some troops fitted with this sort of weapon as well. We'll forge a first batch today. I've already shaped a first sample, take a look."

  He handed her a somewhat crudely formed, rather massive, curved blade, with a socket for a handle. "It's supposed to be mounted on a pole, taller than a man. The curved edge will be sharp, the back side blunt. The spike is for catching enemy weapons, or hooking their armor and hindering them. What sort of runes do you think will be useful?"

  "I have no good idea Bernard. I'm not a trained soldier or someone to actually use these weapons. I have claws. But maybe we could try to give the blade strength and the pole durability, so it won't break? Dexterity seems wasted on such a heavy weapon, but we can try it anyway. Accuracy should be helpful on any weapon. Fire or frost seem useless. If the opponents wear armor, they won't do much."

  She thought about it for another moment and added more decidedly, "Strength. It's a heavy weapon by nature. Strength will make it even stronger. Probably best to enhance what it is already good at."

  Sir Frederik nodded slowly, "I also think strength will be a good idea. To cut or pierce armor. Accuracy is probably next best, to aim at gaps in the armor." He looked at her, "Can you combine strength and accuracy on one blade?"

  She nodded, "Yes, they don't benefit much from each other, but they also don't harm each other. It's just a bit more difficult to carve and infuse both runes while the metal is still hot. This is a big blade though, it won't cool down quickly. Pretty certainly I can even give it three runes."

  "Try it", Sir Frederik ordered. "Inscribe two with both strength and accuracy, another two with just strength, and yet another two with accuracy only. We'll test them and see which one the men like best."

  "And the durability for the shafts?" she asked.

  Bernard shook his head, "Metal is too heavy for the shafts. They will have to be made from wood."

  She nodded slowly, "Might still help some, but for wood durability mostly means resistance to rot. Something you want to put on wooden beams for construction in wetlands."

  "We'll try it with ordinary wooden shafts first", Sir Frederik decided, "If they break too easily, langets should be more helpful than a durability rune."

  With that decision proclaimed, he left them alone. Forging six blades for glaives probably kept Bernard busy most of the day, but she already dreaded another boring day, just interrupted six times to carve the runes and infuse them with power.

  Bernard's voice woke her from the dreary thoughts, "Hey demon, some of the soldiers praise knives which you have made. They say the knives can split a falling leave, even if they look crude."

  She looked at him in light surprise, "Yes, I have made some kitchen knives for them. You know, while you refuse to teach me forging, they spend time to help me learn. It's my payment for them."

  Bernard completely ignored the point, "Can you give the glaives such an edge too?"

  She looked at the blade for a while, "I can try, but these edges are really delicate. They are good for kitchen knives, even a dagger, something which is used with skill rather than force. This blade though needs an edge that will still be usable after it hit a steel helmet or a shield a dozen times. That's not the sort of edge my knives have. That's the sort of edge you give to an axe."

  "I want you to try it anyways", he insisted

  "Very well. But then you must shape it like a daggers edge first, not like an axe." She shook her head, "I still think it the wrong idea. The soldiers need these weapons to stay usable in a prolonged battle. Once the edge is dulled or chipped, the weapon won't do them any good anymore."

  "We'll forge one with such an edge and asked Sir Frederik about it once he's back", Bernard decided.

  ----

  As expected the day had passed without much excitement, but with some better chances to spy on how Bernard was forging the blades. The shape was apparently new to him, as well as the way to quench the blades to give them a strong body as well as a durable edge, and with the slower working pace came better chances for her to watch and learn.

  Now they had six blades, two with strength runes inscribed, two with accuracy and two with both. And of the latter, one had a demon-hand-drawn edge, like her knives had. A very delicate edge which, at least to her understanding, was totally out of place on such a weapon.

  She still was pondering the misfit of the massive blade and the delicate edge, when the door opened and Sir Frederik came in, "So, how are you two getting along with the glaives?"

  "Got six blades made for you, as ordered," Bernard replied, "and Lilith has given one an edge, sharp like I've never seen an edge before. And I've seen a lot."

  "I still think it is out of place on a weapon like this though. At least in regard to what John taught me, a heavy blade like this needs an edge which is backed by more substance, even if that means it cannot be as sharp," she voiced her doubts.

  Sir Frederik picked up the blade in question, "Is it this one?"

  "That's the one, Sir," Bernard confirmed.

  She watched with a pained expression how Sir Frederik was about to run a thumb over the edge and shouted to warn him, hands risen in defense, "No! Sir Frederik! Do not touch the edge!"

  Yet it was too late. A surprised yelp came from Sir Frederik and thin line of blood ran down the blade, more blood dripped to the ground and she quickly ripped part of the bottom seam of her robe off to have an improvised bandage. The scent of the blood already bothered her, but she managed to grab his hand and wrap the cloth to stop the bleeding. Even if her claws were in the way so often, they certainly made slicing cloth very easy.

  "So, this is how a demon forged blade is cutting?" Sir Frederik asked, apparently much less bothered by the cut and blood than she was.

  "No," she tried to correct, holding his wrist and hand high to reduce blood pressure and stop the bleeding, "It's only got a demon forged edge. The blade is all Bernard's work."

  "That's still unholy sharp. I've never seen an edge like this," Sir Frederik still held the blade with his his good hand.

  "I'm afraid, it is, Sir Frederik," she admitted, "But Bernard wanted an edge like that on one of the blades."

  A bit reluctantly, she let go of his hand, it seemed the bleeding had been stopped by the bandage and with help of reduced blood pressure.

  Sir Frederik nodded, "If it cuts our enemies like that, I want you to make more of these. I'll talk to Queen Zabeth about it, even if she is against you doing actual forging. This is way too valuable to pass up."

  After a moment he checked the improvised bandage on his thumb, "Thank you for the bandage Lilith. I had not expected a demon to know about medical aid, or do something like that."

  She shook her head lightly, "I had to, before the smell of blood put bad thoughts into my head. I wouldn't want to hurt you, just to see and smell more blood."