Steel

We left at first light.

The city streets were quieter than usual, still damp with the ashfall from the forge smoke that never really cleared. No one followed us, but I felt the eyes, on rooftops, in alleyways, behind shuttered stalls.

Helios stayed close, cloak drawn tight around his shoulders. Aelira walked ahead, guiding us through the winding streets toward the southern quarter, where Firewatch's smiths worked.

"We do this," Helios muttered beside me, "and then we're gone."

I nodded. "I know."

But even as I said it, my heart beat faster. I wasn't thinking about spies or enemies.

I was thinking about steel.

The forge looked like it had been pulled from the bones of a dying mountain, a scorched tower, half-collapsed, thick with smoke and the scent of iron and oil. A carved anvil marked the door, split down the middle like a battle-wound.

Inside, the heat swallowed us whole. Sparks flew. Hammers rang. The rhythm of metal shaping metal, it wasn't just noise, it was language. It was war and creation at once.

A woman stood at the back, tall and grim, with soot on her cheek and fire in her eyes. She didn't greet us, just looked, measured, and turned back to her work.

"We need a shield," Helios said. "And gauntlets. Real ones. Not scraps."

The blacksmith, Brakka, didn't look up. "You the brawler?" she asked without turning.

"Yeah," I said. "I'm Aaron."

Now she looked. Her eyes were like cooling embers heavy with judgment, but curious. "You've been fighting with your skin. About time you started using steel."

She motioned to a heavy table near the forge. Several pairs of gauntlets rested there none of them polished, none decorative. They looked like they belonged in war, or had already been through it.

She picked one up and handed it to me. "Thundersteel base. Lined with drakehide. Weight-balanced. Fists like these don't just punch they speak, and usually people listen."

I slid my hand in.

The inside was warm from the forge. The fit was perfect, like the steel had been waiting for me.

I flexed.

The knuckles made a low, mechanical sound, like something breathing through a grill. The weight rolled through my forearm, settling into my bones like it belonged there.

And I smiled.

Not because it looked good.

Because for the first time… my hands didn't feel empty.

They felt right.

They felt ready.

I couldn't stop looking at them. I turned my hands slowly, watching the way the gauntlets caught the forge light. There were faint scratches already in the metal not from use, but from the shaping process. Like scars forged into them. Like memory.

"These are mine?" I asked.

Brakka grunted. "You pay, they're yours. You bleed with them they're really yours."

I caught Helios watching. He was smiling, just a little.

Behind me, Aelira leaned against a beam, arms crossed. Her eyes trailed down to the gauntlets, then back up to my face.

"You're staring at them like they just proposed to you," she said, smirking.

I flushed and looked away. "I've never had anything like this before."

"Oh, I can tell," she laughed. "You've got the 'new warrior' glow. Like a puppy who found his first bone."

I tried to scowl, but the grin kept pulling at my mouth. "They're not just gloves."

"No," she said, pushing off the beam and coming closer. "They're gauntlets. Very serious. Very deadly." She poked one of the knuckles. "And still somehow cute when you wear them."

I groaned. "You're not gonna let me have this moment, are you?"

"Absolutely not," she said, smiling.

But then she stepped beside me, and her voice softened.

"They suit you, though. You look… stronger."

I looked down at my fists steel-wrapped, fire-born, heavier than before.

But they didn't weigh me down.

They anchored me.

"I'm gonna give you a name," I whispered.

Helios glanced over. "You what?"

I shrugged, grinning. "These deserve one."

"See?" Aelira said, nudging my arm. "Adorable. Deadly, but adorable."

Helios rolled his eyes but didn't argue.

"Let's go," he said.

We turned away from the forge, from Firewatch, from the web of danger still tightening behind us.

But me?

I walked taller.