Elonore was awakened by a burst of knocking.
Clang, clang—the rhythmic, steady sound of metal striking metal carried over from the workshop next door.
She opened her eyes to a grayish-white stone wall.
A row of guiding needles hung on the wall, arranged neatly from thick to thin.
Several unfinished billets of refined steel were piled in the corner, while an introductory rune textbook lay open halfway across the table.
This was her apprentice dormitory at the Elven Merchant Association.
Elonore sat up, and the blanket slipped from her shoulders. She lowered her head and looked at her hands.
Slender, pale, with clean fingertips—not even a single callus.
All the burn scars left behind from three years of forging iron with Su Li in her previous life were gone.
She turned over her wrist.
Empty.
That mithril iron ring was gone.
Elonore stared at her bare wrist for five seconds. Her nose suddenly stung, and her eyes reddened.
Su Li had shaped it for her with his own hands.
It had been made from scraps, crude and rough, its Fortitude Rune crooked and uneven. Saina had called it ugly, while Elena said it looked like a dog collar.
But Elonore had worn it for over two years. She had never even taken it off to bathe.
And now it was gone.
Elonore clasped her wrist in her other hand and curled up beneath the blanket, her shoulders trembling.
The knocking outside stopped.
"Elonore! Are you up yet? You still haven't finished today's basic circuit! If you don't come out now, I'm eating your breakfast!"
Violet's voice came through the door, full of vigor, with a slightly boastful lilt at the end.
Elonore wiped her face and sniffled.
Master.
The master who had taught her to forge iron, taught her to