Her routine: Wake up, put on her work dress, make her way down the wooden stairs of her home, grab two apples from the kitchen and head out the door to the shop. She would always eat one apple on the way and set the other one down on the barrel outside the entrance to the shop.

The sign above was swaying in the light breeze, displaying "War Madien" on the engraved piece of wood. She had made as a gift for her uncle to replace the old sign. He had been so impressed with 14-year-old Jeongeyon. Her father not so much.

“Jeongyeon, why don’t you go play with the other kids instead of spending all your time around that hot forge.”

He never understood then. He still doesn’t, even now.

She grabbed her blacksmith apron hanging on the wall inside, tying the strings around her waist before taking her hammer and tongs from the tool rack and heading outside to the furnace.

she threw some charcoal into the still hot furnace, pulled up and down on the chain connected to the large bellow and tossed in a few steel ingots when the furnace was hot enough, bringing the metal to working temperature. Once the metal is to her liking, she pulls it out with her tongs and brings it over to the anvil where she starts hammering the metal over and over again until it grows cold.

Heat.

Hammer.

Heat.

Hammer.

”Excuse me?”

Jeongyeon’s routine is disrupted by a passerby. She is slightly shorter than Jeongeyon with pale skin and long black hair that passes her shoulders. She was definitely younger then Jeongeyon. The woman must be a foreigner, she’s not someone Jeongeyon immediately recognized like the residents of Whiterun.

“What can I help you with?” Jeongyeon set the hot metal aside to let it cool.

”Do you know where an apothecary is? My friend is sick and needs some medicine.” The woman told Jeongyeon. Jeongeyon gestures for the young woman to follow her and walks out into the street in front of her shop.

”Alright. If you just continue down this street you will eventually come to the well in the middle of the plaza,” Jeongyeon points down the street. “There are three big buildings: the Bannered Mare will be directly in front of you, the building on your right will be Heechul’s Goods and the building between the two is Bae’s Cauldron. That’s where you’re going to find the city apothecary.” Jeongyeon finishes her instructions with a smile. The young woman bows in thanks and heads in the direction with a thank you.

Back to work.

Jeongyeon grabs the sword she had been working on, taking it to the grindstone near the front of the store. She pushed down on the pedal making the wheel spin. Sparks go flying when she slides the metal against the spinning stone.

Slide.

Sparks.

Flip.

Slide.

Sparks.

Flip.

One more slide of the sword across the grindstone and she is satisfied with the result. Standing up, Jeongyeon heads back to the furnace to temper and harden the blade.

She begins by bringing the blade to an even heat in the furnace, then carefully submerges it in hot oil for a few seconds. When she pulls it out, she looks for any warping in the metal then clamps the blade straight up and down, a trick her uncle had taught her, to keep the blade straight while it cooled.

Jeongyeon stretched her back, hearing a few cracks, then moves back to the forge to get started on the guard and pommel. She grabbed a leftover chunk of steel from her pile and brings it up to temperature in the furnace, then moves to the anvil and begins pounding the metal to shape.

Heat.

Hammer.

Heat.

Hammer.

once she is satisfied with the shape of the guard she moves on to the pommel.

Heat.

Hammer.

Heat.

Hammer.

”Thank you again!”

A voice breaks Jeongyeon from her trance. She looks up and over her shoulder to see the young woman from earlier walking by with a sack full of potions. Jeongeyon just smiles and nods her head in acknowledgment.

After a few more hits, she sets down her hammer and wipes the sweat dripping from her brow. She returns to the blade that was now cool enough to handle. The metal, being extremely fragile during this stage, is once again submerged in the hot oil but instead of pulling the blade out right away, Jeongyeon leaves the blade in the hot oil bath. She grabs her other apple and walks over to lean against the beam right outside the store to wait and talk with customers;

“Got some good pieces out here if you’re looking to buy. More inside.”

“Don’t forget to check inside the shop if you need anything.”

“Thanks for the business.”

Jeongyeon checks the position of the sun and decides it’s been long enough. She pulls the sword out of the hot oil and adjusts any warping on the blade. She clamped the sword straight up and down to let it cool once more. Jeongyeon starts on the handle of the sword by going inside the shop and to the back room where she keeps her wood for the sword handles.

She grabbed a piece of strong oak and brought it to her chiseling table. She chips at the wood until it is hollow, then heads back outside to the grindstone to sand the wood to shape. On the way she makes sure to take her leather, she had stained darker the previous day, with her.

Jeongyeon slides the guard over the tang then burns the handle onto the sword. She twists the pommel onto the end of the sword after she had wrapped the handle with the leather strips and takes one last look at the weapon. Being happy with the results of her hard work, she hangs it up on the outside weapons rack with all the others.

Jeongyeon has been making swords since she was 12 years old. Smithing was in her blood. Her father wanted her to stay at home, learn how to cook, clean, take care of the family until she had one of her own to tend to. Jeongeyon didn’t want that kind of life. She wanted to make her own decisions, not let some old soldier tell her when she should make him a meal.

“You guards are useless!”

“Calm down miss Bae and tell us what is wrong.”

“What’s wrong? What’s wrong!”

Yelling from the marketplace broke Jeongyeon out of her thoughts. Curious about what all the commotion was about Jeongeyon quickly made her way up the street towards the plaza.

“Miss Bae, please stop yelling in my face.” The guard in the middle of the plaza towered over a woman.

“You guards are supposed to prevent petty theft and crimes but if you take a look inside my shop you would see how almost everything is missing!” Bae Joohyun may be tiny, but she was scary when she was pissed off.

“You were probably too busy drinking mead behind Dragons Reach to notice any crime going on! Even if it was happening right in front of you!”

She had them there, Jeongeyon couldn’t count the number of time she’s seen the guards around here trying to sneak a sip on the job.

“Who was the last person inside the shop miss Bae?” The guard tried to get through to the fuming woman pacing in front of her shop.

“I was, today was slow. The only people that came in today were LE and Hyerin looking for hangover cures. And that was this morning.”

That’s weird. Didn’t Jeongeyon just help a woman find Joohyun’s shop? Wait. She couldn’t have. She was helping a friend who was sick. But wouldn’t it have been smarter to bring her sick friend with her? Jeongyeon was starting to assume that there was no sick friend and that she helped point a thief to their next target.

“Think I know who did this,” Jeongeyon spoke up from the crowd that had formed.

“Who”

Both the guards and Joohyun asked at the same time (Joohyun more aggressively of course).

“Earlier today, a woman from out of town came up to me asking for directions to the apothecary. saying that she had a sick friend who needed medicine.” She told the guards. She then turns to Joohyun. “ but when you said nobody besides LE and Hyerin had come in I was confused. I even saw her leaving with a sack full of potions so I just assumed you helped her out.”

The crowd had gone silent as Jeongyeon finished speaking.

“Do you remember when she left?” One of the guards asked her.

“At least an hour ago,” Jeongyeon tells him. She turned to Joohyun and gave her an apologetic face. the small woman just nodded back.

“Do you remember what she looked like?” Another guard had walked up to her.

Jeongeyon thought about the women but didn’t remember anything suspicious in the way she interacted with her. A practiced thief.

“She had pale skin and long dark hair that went past her shoulders. Umm... she wasn’t tall but she wasn’t short.” Joohyun gave her a dirty look when she said short. “She wore leather. Boots, coat, gloves.”

“Anything else? Scars? Warpaint?” The guard asked.

“Hmm... no scars. She had extremely fair skin. No war paint either.”

“Alright. Thank you miss Yoo, we will be keeping an eye out for anyone fitting that description.” The guards left to inform the rest of the Whiterun guard of this suspect. Joohyun angrily kicked a rock in the plaza then turned and went back inside her shop mumbling under her breath while the rest of the crowd started to disburse. Jeongeyon sighed.

“Back to the routine.”