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[Dio]

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Arc 716, 5th trial of Zi'da

Dio pushed the bellows, causing a gust of hot air to waft across the embers. They glowed briefly, and the small bit of iron clasped securely between his tongs began to soften. Dio pumped it again, his cracked skin even more pronounced under the light of the forge.

Quickly, with a small amount of confidence, he pulled the tube of softened iron out of the forge and began to carefully beat it around a horn on the anvil. There was a small ridge with an engraved "8" on it, and Dio cautiously lined it up.

"No good."

The voice cut through his focus, grating on his ears. It was the voice of someone who spent her life in a room filled with smoke, and it was the voice that had been immovable by the long trial of practice.

Dio had arrived early that morning before the sun had risen, and had spent the day working directly under Brianna. She was a tireless teacher, and he had yet to earn anything approaching a compliment from her. Granted, his jewelry work was subpar, to say the least, but she didn't need to be so needlessly difficult.

"You know what you did wrong?" She barked.

"I-I would guess that I took too long placing it on the horn?"

"That too. You need to be faster. But no. It was too cold still. If I had let you keep going, you would've snapped the iron tube and we would've had to restart."

Dio nodded thoughtfully, returning the tongs to the forge and began pumping again. The bellows were heavy for his skinny frame, and he was thankful that he didn't have to work with the full sized ones armorers used. It was the small miracles that he had to focus on, and he sighed deeply, pushing down.

A loud ringing from the front got Brianna's attention and she grumbled under her breath, "Follow me," and something about not trusting him alone. Setting the tongs down, Dio stifled his impatience and went entered the main room of the shop, closing the heavy oak door behind him. He stood quietly in the corner, trying desperately not to be noticed despite his odd skin and tall frame.

Brianna walked to the front desk and looked at the customer. "Yes? How can I help you?" Dio could hear her attempt to be social and snorted quietly to himself. No matter how she tried to act, all he could do was see her as a big grumpy bear and her attempts to be anything else were humorous.

[Sintih]

The cold Zi'da winds were present as always, cutting through Sin's clothes and freezing the crystals around him. The asterism hidden deep within was working overtime to keep him warm enough to function. With the weather already affecting him as it did this trial, Sin wondered how things were going to go next season. Cylus was well known for being even worse of a time then Zi'da. Maybe he had to look into some sort of self-hibernation or something like that, allowing him to sleep through the cold until the warmth returned to Idalos. Sin was sure he could shack up with his parents in Uleuda for the season.

At least it wasn't snowing, for now. Sin made his way through the market square and walked past several shops. It was mostly window shopping but Sin let himself linger here and there, looking at the various goods for sale. Most of them, he had no idea what to do with them but here and there things drew his attention. With his paycheck burning a hole in his purse, Sin had money to spare, money that for the first time in arcs he didn't need in order to survive the next season. He walked past a window and looked inside. The display had various pieces of jewelry in it in various colors. There were also quite a few necklaces hanging from hooks. Sin absent mindedly touched the crystals under his shirt hanging from a leather cord around his neck. Maybe the remains of his parents deserved something fancier?

Sin stepped back towards the entrance of the shop and pushed open the door. There was a loud ringing as it sounded through the shop. At first Sin saw nobody present so he simply walked around a bit, looking at the jewelry work there. He knew very little about it so it all looked fine to him. He was sure that if he brought a female friend along they'd be able to tell him how all of these pieces were all perfect just for them. Wasn't that how it worked? Sin looked up from the display to see a woman walk in from the back door, followed by one of the stone looking people.

While Sin stood tall above the woman, he felt in no way superior to her as her thick, muscular frame left nothing to the imagination when it came to her ability to kick his ass. She seemed a little gruff in her greeting but Sin ignored it. "Hello, I'm looking for some jewelry both for myself and for a friend." As he spoke, Sin pulled the leather strip from around his neck and fished the twin crystals out of his shirt. He carefully placed the blue hued crystals on the counter. "I'm looking for something... better to keep these two on. They're quite precious to me so I prefer to keep them close. As for my friend, I'm not quite sure what I should get her."

Sin had to admit that he didn't really know which friend he was talking about. Maybe he was preparing for the possibility that he'd meet someone at the party Heran had invited him to? But he knew nothing would come from it. Uptight nobles like that only kept other uptight nobles as company so the odds of Sin finding someone interesting there were close to none. Perhaps it was for the Eídisi squire he was meeting in five trials? But their relationship was nothing that required, or even allowed, jewelry. It definitely wasn't for Faith, nope, no, nuh-uh. She was completely gone from his mind. He didn't spend breaks of time thinking about her and Padraig and why he was so wrong for her. Nope. "Is there something you could recommend? I'm looking for something silver, definitely." He had a budget, sort of, and maybe he was just here to spend it, thinking it would make him feel better. Sin wasn't quite sure what he was doing here but it was too late to get out now.