He hadn't thought that he would be making a trip back to the Hallows so soon after his last visit given the distance between their packs, but the work that Artorias was doing with weapons here was legendary. He had asked Avacyn first if she felt like she could create what he had in mind, but forging was not really her strong suit and instead she turned him toward The Hallows. It's what he had kind of expected once he had decided to get Darika the weapon she wanted, but he had hoped that he could keep from having to travel to Auster again. Ah well, he supposed if he was going to do this he might as well do it right. His daughter was worth it. He stopped at the border of The Hallows once more, the landscape much more familiar to him this time than his first visit. He tipped back his head to give a call to Art, hoping that he wouldn't be interrupting his fellow alpha with his surprise visit. It occurred to him that he probably should have sent a bird ahead so he could anticipate his arrival, but here he was. He found a bit of shade under a near by tree and settled onto his haunches to wait, enjoying a bit of a breeze as it blew though.

"Deimos Mendacium"

Deimos' voice coming from the borders had started to become a common occurrence around the Hallows. A surprise to be sure, given how recently they had seen one another, but Artorias was never one to leave guests waiting for him at his doorstep. The Lord of Cinder was grinding down an edge on his latest creation in the forge when his fellow alpha's summoning call went out, so it was easy for him to set aside the half finished piece and leave his work for now. Making his way out into the warm autumn day, Artorias spotted the great slate brute hiding from the sun beneath the shade of the nearby forest. A smirk played on the azure brute's lips; poor Deimos always seemed so out of his element down in the southern heat.

Coming up to cross his borders and join Deimos beneath the shade, Artorias turned and sat staring back out across his homelands with pride. "For someone who hates the weather here so much, we sure are seeing a lot of you, Deimos. Here to schedule a rematch already?" he teased the Elysian king. The Hallows had trounced Elysium in the raid so he had fully expected some sort of retribution to be coming from them at some point. Was this about a round two, or another matter entirely?

"Artorias Carpathius" | "Carpathian" | "Corbin" | "Eira" | "Argent"

As always, Artorias never kept him waiting long and the Lord of Cinder was prompt to greet him at the border. The azure man joined him in the shade and commented on his frequent visits despite his hatred of the weather and questioned whether he was here to schedule a rematch. Deimos scoffed and chuckled with a grin at that. "There will certainly be a rematch one day, but that's not what I made the trek for today." He knew his wolves were untested and given their lack of experience he felt like they did fairly well for themselves, but seeing the Hallows wolves at work did certainly show him what they needed to strive for.

"I'm actually here to seek out your skills with weapon making," he added, deciding to get right to business. "We're coming up on my children's' first birthday and I'd like to commission something for my daughter, Darika. She has shown an interest in learning to fight with a blade and since she is also my heir I want to get her something special that she can take with her into her future ruling of the pack." He had a couple ideas in mind, but he knew Artorias would certainly know best when it came to the construction and functionality of a sword so he wanted to leave it partially in his paws and creative freedom as well.

"Deimos Mendacium"

Artorias was surprised and honored by Deimos' request when he revealed the true reason he had come to visit them this time. His pups were becoming yearlings and his heir had requested a blade as her birthday gift. That piqued the bladesmith's attention! With intrigued eyes and perked ears, Artorias gave Deimos a toothy smile and waved him across the border. "I think I can help you out with that. Come in, let's talk in the forge." Rising to his paws, Artorias led Deimos across the plains and into Hearthstone, where he promptly took the Elysian alpha to the forge. The room was thankfully cooler since he hadn't been using the forge yet today, so Deimos probably wasn't going to get heatstroke just yet.

Leading Deimos over to the nearest workbench, Artorias pulled out a piece of rolled parchment and unfurled it to reveal the blank surface. He then snatched up a stick of charcoal to begin sketching out the plan for Darika's weapon. "There's lots of elements that go into making a weapon, but it all boils down to three basics: the shape, the steel, and the finish." As he explained the basics of bladesmithing to Deimos, Art began to gesture to the wall of weapons hanging around the forge, displaying everything from basic daggers to short swords to longswords. "Let's start with the easy one. What kind of blade are you thinking of for your daughter? Do you think she'd be best suited for a dagger, a short sword, or a longsword? And are there any family elements or influences you want incorporated into the weapon?" Every weapon was personal to the wolf that wielded it. What would Darika's blade look like in the mind of her father?

"Artorias Carpathius" | "Carpathian" | "Corbin" | "Eira" | "Argent"

Deimos was glad that Artorias was immediately interested in his request and he nodded with agreement as the Hallows alpha invited him in and mentioned that they could talk in the forge. He followed Art's lead into the castle and stepped into the forge, his gaze roaming curiously over the set up that the Lord of Cinder had set up here. The closest he had ever been to some kind of work space like this was the couple of times he had followed Avacyn into her workshop while they were discussing current events, but even that space was a far cry from this. There were various weapons and the like in different stages of completion all around–certainly more than he had ever seen in one place before. No wonder so many of the Hallows wolves were armed with them.

Following Art over to a work surface, he watched as Art pulled out a piece of parchment and began to sketch out the beginnings of an idea. He listened as he was told the three main components of making a weapon: the shape, the steel, and the finish. Looking around at all of the various swords and daggers that lined the walls he quickly realized there was far more options and variations than he had realized so even boiling it down to three main components there was still seemingly a wide array of things that could be made. When Art questioned him about what kind of blade he envisioned for Darika, he hummed with thought and replied, "I did want it to be something she can easily keep with her all of the time since I imagine she'll be traveling often as she gets into diplomatic meetings and the like so I imagine that probably leads us to some kind of dagger. She's very interested in the look and feel of her mother's culture. I'm not sure how familiar you are with Ikigai's family–particularly her father's side–but she loves the clothing and aesthetic of the things she's inherited from her mother. If there's something that we can incorporate from them I'm sure she'd love it." 

"Deimos Mendacium"

Artorias was so excited to get to work on another blade he was practically thrumming with eager energy! Deimos took a moment to consider the questions he was asked, and Art hoped that he hadn’t overwhelmed the Elysian wolf already. There were many aspects that went into forging a blade from scratch and he tried to make the process as simple as possible. That didn’t seem to be the case though, as Deimos began to state the intended use of the blade—a means of self defense for Darika while she was on diplomatic ventures. She would need to be able to carry it easily with her without it being too cumbersome. Artorias nodded; a dagger definitely seemed to fit the bill for that need. "A good dagger can be even more useful than the deadliest of swords in the right applications. It’s easier for all kinds of wolves to wield too, novices and experts alike," he said in agreement with his fellow alpha, sketching out a general size for the blade on the parchment.

When it came to the style of the blade, Deimos had an interesting request. Darika was heavily influenced by her father’s Nippon heritage, and Deimos wished for her weapon to represent that heritage and tradition in it. Artorias’ eyes lit up with inspiration and his paw immediately began to sketch out the vision in his head. He had seen Hattori’s katanas up close before during the raid Ashen had led on the Hallows, so he had some familiarity with the aesthetics of her paternal family. The sketch of the blade had very hard, simple lines with a pointed tip that slanted on one side into the blade. It was essentially a smaller katana, retaining all the influence of its bigger sibling in its design. After smoothing out some of the lines on the sketch, Artorias showed it off to Deimos with a curious tilt of his head. "Something like this?" He waited for Deimos to give his input on the design before asking about the material and finish. "And what sort of metal are you thinking for the blade? Forged steel is easier and faster for me to make, and it’s god a simple and clean look to it. I can finish that with a mirror polish or a matte finish. Or if you prefer, I can forge it out of Carpathian steel. It’s significantly harder and sharper than standard steel, but will take me a season to forge properly."

"Artorias Carpathius" | "Carpathian" | "Corbin" | "Eira" | "Argent"

With the direction given, Artorias seemed to be off to the races and got to sketching out a blade right away. Deimos watched as the shape and idea of a dagger with a fairly straight blade with an angled tip formed on the paper. He unfortunately had only met Ikigai's mother and the cultural influences that she and Darika followed more closely seemed to come from her father's side so he didn't have much to reference, but Artorias seemed confident that this was in the vain that he was looking for. Since her father's pack was in Auster it made sense that Artorias might have had interactions with Hanzō before. When his fellow alpha turned the sketch toward him and asked for his approval on the design, Deimos easily nodded with a pleased smile. It was a fine looking dagger regardless and if it was half as finely crafted as the other blades he had seen from The Hallows wolves he was sure it would be lovely when it was done. "That looks great. I think that will fit the bill nicely." Then came the fit and finishings. Artorias presented two options for the blade's construction: forged steel or Carpathian steel. He was sure the first option would be easier to pay for and he would be able to get Darika's gift to her sooner, but when he thought about a gift that he wanted his daughter to have with her for the rest of her life he knew no price was going to be too high. "If you don't mind the extra effort, I think I'd like to go for the Carpathian steel," he decided after a moment of thought. "It will be more than worth the wait, I'm sure."

"Deimos Mendacium"

Deimos approved of the sketched design he had come up with and Artorias nodded vigorously, placing a large check mark in he corner of the sketch to mark his patron’s approval. He was already looking forward to getting to work on this blade since he’d never forged a blade in this style before! The Lord of Cinder’s excitement was compounded even further when Deimos made the request for the dagger to be forged from Carpathian steel. Where once Artorias had seen the pattern-forged metal as a cherished artifact for his family exclusively, now that he had the means to recreate it he saw it as another way for his family to leave their mark on the world with timeless and exquisite pieces of metalwork.

"My friend, I never mind getting to forge Carpathian steel, so long as you don’t mind the wait and the bill," Art remarked with a crooked grin and a chuckle. He made a couple marks on the paper to denote that it would be a Damascus blade, then stepped away from the workbench and moved over to a chest of drawers, pulling one open and producing a few small billets of Carpathian steel he had forged as examples of what he could do. Laying the billets out in front of Deimos so each of their unique rippling styles and structures could be seen, Art asked, "Do any of these styles appeal to you? I can also let the metal take its own shape and let the patterns form naturally if you prefer a more wild look to the steel."

"Artorias Carpathius" | "Carpathian" | "Corbin" | "Eira" | "Argent"

Once the style of weapon and the type of metal forging had been decided on and Artorias placed a check mark next to the design Deimos thought everything had been decided upon, but then he watched as Artorias went to retrieve some things from some near by drawers. He was presented with some options for the type of waving pattern in the metal and he blinked with surprise. He didn't realize this amount of detail and control could go into making something like this! He hummed with thought as he leaned closer to examine the patterns in each of them. Part of him liked the idea of just letting the metal take whatever natural, wild shape it might take, but when he thought about his daughter he knew that wasn't Darika's style. She was very proper and intentional and it only made sense to be intentional about this as well. After a few moments of thought he finally lifted a paw and pointed to a sample that almost looked like it had a line running down the middle with waves running off of either side, making it look nearly like a feather. "Artwork with cranes and other birds seem to be pretty common on the kimonos that Ikigai and Darika like and I think she'll like how neat and compact the patterning is."

"Deimos Mendacium"