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"Don't waste time," he advised before moving on."Work it while it's hot."

Thalia turned to her anvil, suddenly alone with the glowing metal and no clear idea how to proceed.Around her, hammers were already ringing as other students began their work.She placed the strip on the anvil and took up the small hammer provided, then hesitated, afraid of ruining her first attempt before it had even begun.

The moment the heated iron touched the anvil, something unexpected happened.A sensation — familiar yet unique — tingled up her arms.It was the same awareness she'd felt when sorting herbs for her mother's remedies, the intuitive understanding of which plants held power and how they might work together.But this was stronger, more insistent.

The iron seemed to pulse with its own heartbeat.Currents of energy spiraled through it — not uniform but concentrated in veins, like the medicinal essence in particular stems or roots of plants.Thalia stared, transfixed, momentarily forgetting where she was.

Without conscious decision, her hammer struck where the energy seemed strongest.The metal yielded with surprising willingness, folding exactly as she'd intended.She struck again, guided by the flowing patterns she sensed rather than by any plan or technique.

Lost in concentration, Thalia didn't register the approaching footsteps until a shadow fell across her work.She startled violently, dropping both tongs and hammer with a clatter.The iron strip — now bent into the beginning of a curve — skittered across the anvil, its glow already fading from orange to dull red.

"I didn't mean to startle you."

The voice was male, low and rough, as if rarely used.Thalia looked up into the face of a student at least a year her senior.He wasn't particularly tall, but something about his presence made him seem larger, a gravity that commanded attention.His dark hair was cropped close at the sides, longer on top, and his pale skin was flushed from the forge's heat.But it was his eyes that held her — an intense blue that seemed almost unnaturally bright against his sooty face.

"I — it's fine," she managed, flustered by the interruption and the loss of her focus."I was just...concentrating."

"You felt it, didn't you?"he asked, ignoring her discomfort."The currents in the metal."

Thalia blinked in surprise."How did you know?"

"I watched you."He gestured to her abandoned work."Most first-years attack the metal, trying to bend it through force alone.You were following its lead."

"I..."Thalia hesitated, unsure whether admitting to sensing something others might not was wise."I just felt something similar to what I used to feel with herbs back home."

The intensity of his gaze didn't waver."It's the same principle.Life energy, magical current — it exists in different forms throughout nature."He picked up her fallen tongs and offered them back."I'm Kaine.Kaine Ember."

"Thalia Greenspire," she replied, accepting the tongs with a nod of thanks."Are you an assistant for this class?"

Something like amusement flickered across his features, brief and gone."No.Second-year.But I spend most of my free time here."He gestured around the forge."The instructors let me work on my own projects."

That explained his presence, but not his interest in her novice attempt at metalworking."Is that usual?For second-years to have such freedom?"

"No."He didn't elaborate.

An awkward silence fell between them, filled by the constant background noise of the forge.Thalia was acutely aware of her cooling iron, the opportunity to shape it slipping away with each passing second.Yet she found herself reluctant to dismiss this unexpected interaction.

"You mentioned currents in the metal," she ventured."Is that related to why we're learning this?I mean, what does metallurgy have to do with surviving in the Frozen Reaches?"

Kaine studied her for a moment, as if deciding how much to say."Veins of magical ore run deep beneath Frostforge; it's the reason this location was chosen."He gestured to the distant walls of the cavern."Different types of ore are associated with different magical properties, and as such, have different uses.Weapons and tools crafted with these ores are imbued with the natural magic of the metals.And beyond that, we can harness cryomancy to forge ice-metal.The combination of fire and ice is powerful.”

"That's why we're here," Thalia realized."Not just to learn to survive the cold, but to harness it.To use what's in this place."

Kaine nodded, a hint of approval in his expression."Most don’t make the connection so quickly."He glanced at her cooling iron."You should reheat that before it's too late."

"How do you know so much about this?"Thalia asked, curiosity overcoming caution."As only a second-year."

Something like a smile touched his lips."I've spent a lot of time in this forge," he said simply.

Before she could press further, he turned and walked away, moving between the workbenches with the confidence of someone who belonged in this sweltering domain.He stopped at a station across the room and picked up a crude, blackened blade with tongs, thrusting it into a nearby furnace with practiced ease.

Thalia watched, momentarily forgetting her own task, as he withdrew the glowing blade and returned to his anvil.His movements were economical, precise, each hammer blow falling exactly where intended.There was something mesmerizing about the efficiency of his work, the way the metal seemed to flow rather than yield beneath his hammer.

Remembering herself, Thalia hurriedly gathered her own abandoned piece and moved to the nearest furnace.She thrust it into the coals as she'd seen Kaine do, careful to use the tongs properly.The heat blasted her face, forcing her to squint and turn aside until her eyes adjusted.

When she withdrew the iron, glowing orange again, she returned to her anvil with renewed determination.This time, she consciously reached out with her senses, seeking the currents she'd felt before.They were there, weaker now but still present, guiding her hammer as she bent the metal into a simple but functional hook shape.

It wasn't pretty — not compared to Instructor Wolfe's demonstration, and certainly not compared to whatever Kaine was creating across the room.But it was a hook, recognizably so, and she'd made it by working with the metal rather than against it.