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Dyakida felt the metal blades she was to sharpen and maintain enviously, reveling in their cool sharpness and their businesslike smoothness. She couldn't work with metal. The heat required to forge metals were hard to make in Jauhar, and any burning risk to her precious hands was to be avoided. When she had to work with metal – rare though it was - she was extremely careful and always did so with an assistant.

And none of her work came out like this.

It was denser and stronger than crystal, without being brittle or resistant to shaping. Yet, it had to be beaten into submission, and Dyakida could not do that. Again, a job left to an assistant. However, the forms that that metal could take were many, and it could be put to so many uses.

She longed to work with it... but for the most part this was the closest she would get – sharpening and shoring up the work of another. She worked on the latter, first, checking the blade handles and the way they felt in her hands. They were heavy, too, able to do more damage than an Alkidike alone could manage. Crystal, too, was heavy at times, but this... these blades were a warrior's best friend.

Dyakida treated them as if they were her own friends adjusting their balance slightly with wax to achieve the perfect unity that was so sought after in these blades. She repaired the handles where they had worn and cracked, and polished what felt like a gem in each pommel – a rosy pink, her assistant told her cloudy but cut into sparkling facets.

Next, she sharpened the edges with a whetstone until a careful test with a cylinder of wood showed that they were intensely sharp – as they should be. She repaired their sheathes and the worn belt-hook attached to them – dangerously well-used in her opinion – with treated leather. She tied it all with one of her textured tags and set it aside, satisfied with her work.

What she wouldn't give to be able to work with metal. The things – oh the things – she could do with such a material! She remembered the Sister's swords she'd had the honor to inspect at the Oban tournament – they had been absolutely marvellous in their craftsmanship, etched with designs and... had she felt two different metals, woven together in some way? Damascus steel, she'd heard it called when two different metals were folded upon each other. She wished she understood it, the way she understood crystal and wood.

Hadn't that sister – V'demhe – said something about a Matorian weaponsmith, the creator of those blades? Well, she HAD been thinking of a trip to Matori sometime... perhaps she would ask Mnyiri about it – that sister had, after all, offered. With the offer of a guide, and the offer of housing, food, and introductions, and the promise of soft sand beaches... Dyakida's resistance was waning.

Soon she decided, thinking of all the weapons she had yet to do, Soon I will make my visit...