The smithy was about to gain a member… yet had also lost one.

Young Lellip stood with me in front of Nebl’s grave. She had been the only one willing to show me where his grave was.

“Did they find the body?” I asked the young girl. Why did the grave look so…

Lellip shook her head. “The entire shaft got buried Vim… a whole floor almost,” she said softly.

I took a small breath as I studied the untouched grass before me. They had smelted a gravestone for him, and had carved loving words into it. They had put his favorite phrase onto it, along with a note on how he had helped build the greatest society in all of history.

Slowly moving my foot in front of me, I watched the way the grass shifted thanks to my movement. The grass was firm, and didn’t shift. Which meant the dirt beneath wasn’t just settled but had been for years.

So just a gravestone, since no body laid beneath. That explained why it didn’t smell like a grave, and also why her parents hadn’t really wished to show me it. Either because of shame or because they hadn’t believed it to be his grave at all.

“Did I do okay, Vim? He used to say that phrase often,” Lellip asked softly.

Ah… that made a lot of sense.

I reached over to pat the young girl on the head. She stared up at me with an oddly concerned look as I smiled and nodded to her. “It fits him well, thank you,” I said to her.

Lellip didn’t smile, but her concern died a little. She nodded as I tried to think of what to say. She wasn’t as young as I thought her, she was… Thirty? Almost forty maybe?

“Why was he in the mines?” I asked.

“Someone got lost. A young miner, from a family who just arrived a few months ago. They were…” Lellip shrugged softly.

“They were what?” I asked. I already somewhat knew what her answer would be, but I needed to hear it.

“Inexperienced,” she said softly, as if embarrassed to say so.

“I see. Nebl did favor the greenhorns,” I said.

Lellip nodded, agreeing with me. And why wouldn’t she? It was part of the reason I had planned to stick around here for some time. I had planned to have him teach Renn what he could while we were here.

“Is… Is that girl special, Vim?” Lellip then asked as she turned around a little.

Glancing behind us, to the large house in the distance… I wondered if Renn seemed that way. We couldn’t see her of course, nor could I hear her… but I knew she was inside the house with Lellip’s parents. Probably telling them her story in full, without hiding anything.

“I’m finding that out still,” I said honestly.

“Oh…? Anything I can do to help?” Lellip asked.

“I plan to stick around for a little while. Until the passes clear at least. Think you could teach her your craft while we’re here?” I asked her.

Lellip beamed me a smile as she nodded quickly. “Oh yes! I can! Grandpa always said I needed to teach someone first before I could actually be considered a master!” she said happily.

“Good. Thank you. I’m sure she’ll learn well, if not we’ll just… bury her next to your grandfather,” I said lightly.

Lellip’s smile wavered a moment, until she realized I was mostly kidding around. Mostly.

“I offered to get his body, Vim… mom and dad won’t let me go near the mines,” Lellip said softly.

“Which is wise. Did the young miner ever get rescued or had he been lost too?” I asked.

“Three other miners died with him. One went in with Nebl, the other was with Kline, the young boy originally,” Lellip explained.

“How are their families taking it?” I asked.

“Not as well as us, honestly. Half the mine hasn’t returned to work, they’re a superstitious lot,” Lellip said.

“So are we sometimes,” I said.

Lellip nodded, and I knew it was because her parents were the same way. It was probably why they didn’t help her with this grave.

For a long moment we stood in silence, and I glanced up at the setting sun. I knew some of the smoke coming from the smithy’s house was now not only the furnaces, but the kitchens too.

“When’s your mother due?” I asked.

“Later this year she thinks,” Lellip said.

“Good. That’s good,” I said.

“I hope it’s a sister,” Lellip said.

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“Why’s that?” I asked.

“Men are stupid,” she said in a way that told me one of them had recently decided that fact for her.

Smiling at her, I was about to say something… but…

“The young man…?” I asked gently.

Lellip took a deep breath and then nodded, but said nothing more.

Reaching out to her, I pulled her closer to me instead of patting her head this time. She accepted the hug gracefully, and wrapped her arms around my waist. She gave me a tight squeeze, one that would have hurt a normal man.

“It’s not your fault, Lellip. Nebl was wise and strong. If even he couldn’t do it, then no one could have,” I said softly.

She nodded, yet still didn’t speak. Most likely because she was crying.

So…

Looking back to the gravestone, I sighed as I now understood.

The young man, a human, that Lellip had feelings for had gotten in trouble. Lost or stuck in the mines.

Nebl went in to save him. For her.

The results were the worst outcome, obviously… and now Lellip most likely blamed herself.

“I’m going to go help make dinner,” Lellip then said after a moment.

Patting her back as she separated from me, I nodded to her. She was strong. Like her grandfather.

“Make Renn help you and your mother out. Your mother needs to stay off her feet,” I told her.

Lellip smiled and nodded as she wiped her face off. I noticed the gleam of snot and tears on her hands and arms as she did.

While staring at the young girl… I realized something rather important.

Renn had gone through something similar recently. The Sleepy Artist had gone just as… wrong. Just as painful.

The two would get along well.

“I’ll be in shortly,” I told her.

Lellip swallowed some emotions as she nodded. “Okay. Don’t be long Vim,” she said as she turned to go.

I watched her go. She hurried down the small hill to the large open dirt land that surrounded the smithy. Years of using horses to stomp the area around the buildings had been effective, it kept the possibility of the furnaces exploding and burning down the whole forest to a minimum.

Lellip paused before the large house, and glanced back at me. I didn’t wave back at her as she entered, even though I knew I probably should have.

Looking back to the grave, I sighed.

“Death always comes unexpectedly, old friend,” I said softly.

The house behind me was a little noisy. And not just because the smithy was always noisy. Lellip’s voice echoed a little as she shouted something. It was a happy shout however, so I didn’t worry over it.

“Sacrificing your life for humans… I honestly never expected it,” I said.

Though it had probably been more so for Lellip than not. I could see how it had happened.

She heard of him getting stuck in the mine. Her running to her grandfather, the strong and all knowing man who always had answers. And then Nebl running into the mines, knowing full well the danger… for his precious granddaughter. The only one of his descendants to not only have survived the Monarch that hunted his family, but also the only one to inherit his passion of the forge.

“I can’t fault you, old friend… but I really wish you hadn’t,” I said.

Yet how could I be angry? How could I blame him?

The man had been tired of burying his children. Tired of failing them.

But to be buried alive…?

I tried to imagine how long it would have taken. Although Nebl had been old… far older than most of our people, he had been also more like me than not. A being that was strong beyond belief, and thrice as stubborn.

The poor man must have spent weeks buried beneath a mountain. Unable to move. Unable to breath. All alone, until his whole body was eventually crushed and his brain died from a lack of nutrients.

Not a slow death at all.

Stepping away from the grave, I took a deep breath and decided to walk around the property for a while. I was angry now, and I didn’t want to intrude into what sounded like a happy atmosphere inside the house.

That house needed happiness. When Renn and I had arrived a few hours ago, it had been…

Pram had been in bed. Her husband, Drandle, had told me that this was the first time she’s been out of bed since her father died.

“What a curse,” I said. Why couldn’t death just ever take the one? Why did it always have to make the rest suffer too?

Death was the end of the suffering for the individual, but the beginning for the group.

Hopefully the short time Renn and I were here, they’d be able to heal a little. Not entirely of course, but enough that it’ll make it all worth it.

Walking along the edge of the dirt, I studied the forest that surrounded the three large buildings. It was just as thick and quiet as it always was.

The smithy was a little higher than the village at the base of the mountains. But it was close enough to be considered part of the village itself. From certain parts of the village, you could see the typical smoke coming from the smithy furnaces. About half way in-between the village and here, was the mines. A large one too, that I knew would eventually… if it didn’t all completely collapse upon itself, make this place a boomtown.

There were diamonds in this mountain. Not just the coal, copper, tin, hematite and other alloys they were currently pulling out. Not that today’s society could do much with diamonds just yet. Jewelry and certain tools were the limit.

Renn and I had circumvented the mining village. Usually I didn’t pass through there when I came here, since Nebl would be able to fill me in on the state of the village. I was able to trust his insight and judgment of the village’s condition.

Now I was going to have to go there myself. Which was a pain here. There weren’t many people here, so everyone knew everyone. Which meant I’d stick out. A visiting family member worked, until some old folks recognized me from one of my last visits. Lellip had said some new families had come, maybe I’ll get lucky and most the village is relatively new.

Rounding the smithy building, I noted the large section of black earth entrenching into the green of the forest. The dozens of years of soot and refuse was staining the land. It wasn’t killing it though, based off the grass growing all over it.

Once I made a full circle of the property… I slowly approached the small hill where Nebl’s grave stood.

It was a little too close, in retrospect. It’d need to be moved a little one day. Maybe to the outer layer of the forest that surrounded this area. But one couldn’t blame young Lellip for it… she had done her best.

Staring at his little gravestone, I sighed as I read the words she had carved into it.

“If it breaks just hammer it again. And Again,” Nebl, a man who lived for his family and sacrificed it all to build the greatest society known.

“Sorry Nebl… Nothing to hammer this time.”