-- Lilith POV, Laketown --

  John's workshop was open towards the marketplace, a forge just needed a huge amount of fresh air. But this also meant that everyone could just stop and observe them working. It still made her nervous, to have people watching her as she inscribed runes, and practiced to forge metal under John's guidance. A mistake felt quite a lot worse with a dozen people watching you, than the same mistake made privately.

  But it had some very welcome side effect. People got used to seeing her. Seeing her making mistakes made her more approachable to them. At least John had told her so, when he had tried to comfort her. She wanted to believe it, and if the experiences during grocery shopping were an indicator, then indeed, people treated her more normally now. Maybe it was just the fact though that she went shopping every other day, and had become a common sight in all the shops.

  The first time she inscribed runes into a blade that John had freshly forged, a big crowd of visitors had gathered. She remembered the screams of horror when she had put her hand onto the glowing metal to infuse the runes with intention, holding her hand there till the metal had cooled enough to hold the intention permanently.

  But meanwhile, even that had become normal. John and herself didn't make demonforged runeblades yet, but they made the best runeblades in the entire kingdom.

  A few days ago, they had set up the anvil that once had served as John's anvil in Skyview Monastery, the anvil she had used when she learned how to forge metal. This one was for her to practice.

  Now a dark red hot glowing axe head lay on the anvil and she just had inscribed an accuracy rune into it, infused it with power. Her first axe head! The eye for the handle was the challenge, not so much the wedge or edge, she found. It was surprisingly hard to produce a properly shaped socket for the handle.

  From the marketplace, the distant murmur of people going about their business reached her, but she was barely aware of it anymore. It just had become the usual background noise.

  She picked up the axe head and gently slid it into a bucket with cool oil. It hissed and bubbled and the axe head gained an almost glossy black surface. The black sheen wouldn't last long on an axe though. For the moment it was pretty though.

  While the axe head cooled in the oil, she looked over the marketplace. It was a bright and sunny day, more people out and about than on the average day. Not market day, that would come the day after tomorrow, and then the place would be filled with trade booths and a crowd of people. She looked forward to market day, she preferred to shop on the market than in the stores in town.

  After a minute of watching people passing their workshop, she fetched the axe head from the bucket and wiped the remaining oil off it with an already stained cloth. An accuracy inscribed runic axe. Woodcutters should love it.

  John came to her side to check the result, "Not bad. I think we can sell this one."

  She smiled at him, but before she could answer John a shout from the open side of the workshop rang up, "Hey! Is that the first one you've made? I want to buy it!"

  It was the butcher. William was his name if she remembered right. Quite unlike the drama in the vegetable store, he had never made any troubles when she came to buy meat for them. He'd even been supportive the day when they slaughtered a pig in the back and the smell of blood had almost overwhelmed her.

  "It's my first one", she confirmed. "But it's a woodcutters axe, not a butcher's chopper."

  The butcher entered their workshop, "Doesn't matter. If it's the first axe you've made, I want it."

  A few people outside stopped to see what was going on.

  She looked at John, uncertain how to respond, "John?"

  John nodded to her and turned to the butcher, "Sure, William. It's an accuracy runic axe, might even work for you. Edge needs treatment though, but it will be yours once done. How about fifteen silvers? Demon forged accuracy runic axe."

  Stolen novel; please report.

  "I want it! I'll be the first one in town to have a demon forged runic axe. Fifteen silvers? I'll give you twenty and five of those are for her." The butcher quickly decided, pointing to her.

  John nodded and they shook hands, "Deal. Lilith will treat the edge. She's good at that. You can pick up the axe tomorrow, William."

  William offered her his hand to shake as well. She quickly wiped some last oil stains from her own hand with the cloth that she still had been holding and also shook hands with him. "Once the edge is finished, you can slice sausages with it", she beamed at him.

  "I'll try that!" The big man laughed, "But it's a trophy for me right now. I've got the first axe you've made." He seemed to think for a moment, "Hey! Make me a precision chopper too, once you can. John can teach you how. Got my last one from him. Well, a plain chopper, no runes on it."

  "I can put more than one rune on it if you want. I've been practicing both accuracy and dexterity runes. I'm good at them. And it's barely any extra effort to put both on the chopper", she offered to the butcher.

  John chuckled, "William ... price among friends. Twenty five silvers for a demon forged runic chopper, inscribed with both accuracy and dexterity. You'll never fail a cut anymore. What do you say?"

  The butcher laughed again, "My savings! But I want it. Next week?"

  John nodded, "Next week. I'll have Lilith practice. She knows a trick to give the chopper the sharpest edge you've even seen. Sharp enough that you can shave with it in the morning."

  They bumped fists, "Alright. Tomorrow I'll fetch the axe, next week the chopper."

  One week to learn how to make a good chopper for William. At least those didn't need an eye, they rather had a spike to get the handle fitted with.

  She thought about it a for while. The steel could or even should be harder than the steel for the axe, if the butcher wanted to chop bones with it. The edge had to be sharp enough to cut tender meat properly and sturdy enough not to take damage from hitting bones. There was so much to learn about forging, "John, what is the right steel for a chopper? How to quench and temper it?"

  "A high carbon steel is good. The edge must be hard, the body not so much. Balance is important, bad balance tires the wrist and makes the cuts worse. I can help you with the balance. It's a big item and the back is rather massive, so tempering is important. You'll make a few to practice and then we'll make the one for William. I'll help you." John explained to her.

  How many years had he said, he had been practicing? Since he was six or seven years old?

  -- John POV, Laketown --

  He watched Lilith as she tried to shape a chopper for butcher William. If there was one thing to say, she certainly was determined. Sometimes it hurt him to see how often her claws got into the way. Not so much at the forge where most tools were big and heavy, but in the household. Towels, cloths to wipe, all lived a very dangerous life alongside Lilith. Everything made of wood had scratch marks meanwhile.

  He returned his attention to her work on the anvil. The shape was coming along nicely. A bit more top heavy might be better, he assumed, but he'd let her swing this one a few times and hit some wood. She'd feel the lack in balance and the next one she could make better. A week wasn't much time to practice, but then, William was a nice man, he'd certainly wait another week to get the best result.

  The other point that surprised him was her work in the kitchen. From somewhere she had borrowed cooking books. His best guess was that they came from William's wife. She didn't have many friends in town, and Steven wasn't the man to own cooking books.

  Now she studied cooking like she had studied rune crafting. Sometimes it seemed she did it all for him; he didn't know but whenever he told her he'd like to eat this or that, he could be certain that a few days later she'd found out how to cook it. But even her first attempt at the pork chops, mashed potatoes and red cabbage had been quite good.

  The memory brought a smile upon his lips.

  "Lilith, that's looking good. I have an appointment to meet the praetor in an hour, do you think you get along for a while without me?"

  Lilith put the work piece back into the forge to heat it up again, "Sure John. I'll try to finish this one in the afternoon and then prepare food for us. When will you return?"

  "Mid of the afternoon I think. Nothing special, just need to discuss with him what he wants to have made first from the items on the list."

  Lilith nodded at him, something that always looked odd to him with her curled horns. He certainly did not want to receive a headbutt with those things, "Should be fine then. You said to quench the chopper in oil for just two seconds and then temper it at low or medium heat?"

  "Medium for this one. Two hours should do it. Then we fix a handle to it and you can check the balance of the blade. Try to make it more top heavy. That should give it a better bite. But now I need to get fresh and dressed. Good luck and see you later!", he smiled at her and waved briefly.

  "See you later John!" Lilith replied and waved back before she fetched the work piece from the forge to continue shaping the steel.