Tafel exhaled and took a step back before collapsing into a seat that had been placed behind her. She had been manipulating her flames for an hour straight. Manipulating her flames was easy, but maintaining her focus for that long was much harder.

“Alright, we have a mithril coating to apply next,” Pan said and placed a chunk of blue and black ore onto the table in front of the exhausted demon.

“No!” Tafel said and sprang to her feet. She pointed at the clock hanging on the wall. “It’s been an hour. That’s all I’m doing for today.”

Pan blinked. “Are you sure? There’s only another half hour until closing,” the blacksmith said. “Your mastery over your flames have increased drastically as well. Wouldn’t it be best to continue since you’re on a roll?”

“I hear you,” Tafel said as her horns glowed silver. “I understand what you’re saying and have taken it into consideration. On that note”—a portal appeared in the air beside her—“you’re wrong, bye!” Her voice faded as she leapt into the portal. “See you tomorrow!”

The blacksmiths glanced at each other as the portal faded away. “Anyone have any tools to stop portals from opening?” one of them asked. “We can use it tomorrow.”

“She can still leave through the door,” Pan said and shook his head. “Besides, it’s not like it’s easy to obtain items that mess with space.”

“Well, yeah, she can exit through the door, but we can make it extremely awkward for her to walk away by staring at her with sad eyes as she leaves.”

Pan glared at the blacksmith who came up with the suggestion. “You know what,” Pan said and nodded. “That might just work, but it still comes back to disabling portals within the smithy.” He squinted. “If we all make use of our contacts, we might just discover a way.”

The blacksmiths exchanged another round of glances. As blacksmiths, they did have lots of contacts who’d be willing to assist them. It was essential to get on a blacksmith’s good side. Weapons and armor determined whether one lived or died in the tower, and people definitely didn’t want a disgruntled blacksmith repairing their gear. Who knew when it’d suddenly break?

Meanwhile, back at the residence, Tafel took a step out of the portal and placed her hands on her hips as the tear in space closed behind her. She took in a deep breath of the fresh forest air, and … froze. The air did not smell fresh nor like a forest. It smelled burnt and metallic. A furrow appeared on Tafel’s brow as she looked around, her gaze moving from tree to tree to giant pit in the ground to Vur’s sleeping body and to more trees.

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A blank expression appeared on Tafel’s face as she opened a portal and stepped through it, arriving on top of Vur’s head. The demon’s horns glowed blue as an icicle appeared in her grasp. Tafel threw the icicle at the snot bubble coming out of Vur’s nostril, and with a glopping sound, the bubble popped.

Vur sniffled before opening his eyes, blinking a few times before rolling them up to look at Tafel. “Oh, hi, Tafel,” he said before yawning, making sure to raise his paw up by his head to prevent his wife from falling. When he finished his yawn, he glanced at the gigantic pit in front of him. He stared at it for a bit before rolling his eyes up to look at Tafel. “Did you make that?”

“No,” Tafel said. She glanced down at Vur’s scales. “Stella? Do you know what happened while I was gone?”

“Your auntie fought the lords, and they’re all at the bottom of the pit now,” Stella’s voice said, her voice curt.

“Oh,” Tafel said. “Why did Auntie fight the lords? Wait. Which lords? All of them?”

“They’re at the bottom of the pit,” Stella’s voice said. “Go ask them yourselves!”

Tafel flinched. “Well, alright,” she said. “Why are you in such a bad mood?”

“I’m setting up some poles and lines to help support Mervin’s growth, but someone keeps asking me questions while I’m struggling!” Stella’s voice said and grunted. “These poles are heavy!”

Tafel tilted her head. “I’m guessing Diamant’s too busy to help you out?”

“Just jump in the pit already, will you?”

“Alright, alright, I’m going,” Tafel said and leapt off of Vur’s head, landing on the ground beside his claw. She went to the edge of the pit and leaned over, taking a look at the bottom. There was too much ash floating inside the pit to see the bottom. “Are you ready, Vur?”

Vur blinked. “I’m going too?”

“Well, yeah,” Tafel said and backed away from the edge of the pit. She looked at Vur. “Why wouldn’t you? Don’t you want to see what happened between Auntie and the lords?”

“Not really,” Vur said and got up despite his words. “It’ll be boring.”

“Boring?” Tafel asked, raising an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“Auntie can’t lose,” Vur said. “All the elementals are down there too. They’re probably doing boring stuff like negotiating.”

Tafel rubbed her chin. “And if we go down there, she’ll dump those responsibilities onto us,” the demon said and slowly nodded her head. “You have a good point.”

Vur blinked. “So, we’re not going down?” His knees bent slightly, lowering himself towards the ground.

“Yeah,” Tafel said and gestured with a smile. “You can lie back down. I know you want to.”

Vur exhaled and flopped to the ground, sending out a small breeze that brushed by Tafel’s robes. Vur let out a large yawn and mostly closed his eyes, keeping just enough space in his vision to look at his wife.

Tafel took a seat next to Vur and leaned her back against his scales. “I’m exhausted too because I kept my flames going for a whole hour.” She folded her hands across her waist and closed her eyes. “Let’s hope it takes them a while to negotiate.”

Vur shut his eyes and grunted in agreement.