October arrived with a steady, unrelenting rain that chilled the air above ground.
The deep tunnel leading down to the goblin settlement was significantly drier than the surface, but Morwenna could still feel the dampness seeping through the heavy fabric of her travelling cloak.
The cart ride had felt noticeably shorter this time. Either she was finally getting used to the harrowing speed, or Grindelna had managed to convince someone to take the gentler route through the dark.
When she finally stepped off the cart, her legs didn't shake at all.
Grindelna was waiting for them right at the entrance to her workshop, her stark white hair and pale eyes appearing exactly as they had before. Her sharp gaze moved over the young girl with a scrutinizing intensity, as if she were checking a freshly forged blade for any hidden flaws.
"You are early," she noted.
"The cart seemed faster today," Morwenna replied.
The old smith gave a short grunt and led them inside.
The workshop was exactly as they had left it, with the distant ringing of hammers echoing through the air and the smell of hot metal and cold stone lingering in the heat. However, Grindelna didn't lead them toward the large testing room this time.
Instead, she took them into a smaller chamber located just off the main forge. A heavy stone table stood in the centre, its surface covered in detailed sketches, precise weights and measures, and complex diagrams of mechanisms that Morwenna didn't fully understand.
Threndak stood stoically near the door, while Jack and Jane took their seats on a stone bench against the wall.
Grindelna folded her scarred arms over her apron. "Now, we must discuss the clan leader weapon. This is entirely different from your personal blades. This is intended for ceremony, for war, and for announcing exactly who you are to the world."
Morwenna gave a firm nod.
"Before I make any final recommendations, I need to know something. Will you use a staff like Myrddin and Morganaadth, or do you intend to use only a wand?"
Morwenna straightened her shoulders, her mismatched eyes bright. "I will get my staff when I turn seven, after my third magical maturity."
Jack leaned forward slightly, his voice carrying a note of quiet pride. "The Keith family has its own dedicated staff maker. The craft has been in our family for centuries."
Grindelna's eyebrows rose at the news. "That's quite rare."
Her pale eyes moved to Jack briefly before returning to the child. "What kind of staff do you want, then?"
Morwenna's face immediately went a bright, embarrassed red.
Grindelna's mouth gave a knowing twitch. "Your initial weapon choices told me enough. I already knew it wouldn't be a conventional staff."
Morwenna looked down at the floor, then at the various tools on the walls, and finally over at her parents. Her throat felt uncomfortably tight, and she let out a small, poorly executed fake cough.
"If it's possible," she began, her voice small, "I want my staff to look like a cane. Or something very similar."
Jane's eyebrows shot up toward her hairline as she looked from her daughter to Jack and back again. Her mouth opened in surprise.
"Why?" Jane asked.
Morwenna's cheeks burned with heat. "Because it seems cool."
She pressed on before anyone could interrupt or laugh. "Nobody would know it's actually a staff. If something happened to my wand, I could just use my staff right there and catch people completely off guard."
Jane started laughing. She pressed her hand over her mouth, but the laughter kept coming.
Morwenna's face turned an even deeper shade of red.
Jack looked from his daughter to his wife and back again. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but then closed it, his jaw working as if he were chewing on a thought he couldn't quite swallow. The question was right there, sitting just behind his teeth.
He desperately wanted to ask what kind of things she had seen and learned in her other life to come up with such a request, but he swallowed the question down.
Beside him, Threndak's eyes had gone sharp as he looked at the girl with a newfound sense of interest.
Grindelna shook her head, thoroughly amused. "Your parents are certainly easily entertained."
Morwenna tried to regain her dignity. "Can we please focus?"
"Fine." The smith gave another amused shake of her head. "A cane."
"Yes."
"A cane with a hidden blade inside."
"Yes."
Grindelna remained quiet for a long moment before standing up. "The cane idea is certainly viable, but it will delay the final ceremony. The clan leader weapon must be finished before you can be formally recognised as the heir, and a custom design like this takes time."
"I understand," Morwenna replied.
Grindelna walked over to a wooden cabinet against the wall, pulled out several finished pieces, and set them on the table one by one. The first was a cane of dark wood with the handle carved into the shape of a serpent's head, its eyes set with small garnets.
She pressed the serpent's tongue, and a narrow, needle-fine blade slid silently from the shaft.
"The serpent head acts as the release," she explained. "The blade is poisoned. It isn't lethal, but it acts as a powerful paralytic."
She set it aside and picked up a second cane made of wood so light it was almost white. The handle was a simple, elegant curve without any ornamentation.
"This one has no hidden blade at all. The staff itself is the weapon, as the wood is enchanted to be completely unbreakable."
She set that one down and picked up a third. This one was made of dark metal rather than wood, with a handle wrapped in sturdy leather.
"The shaft separates into three distinct sections connected by a fine chain. It acts more as a flail than a staff, but the form is the same when it's collapsed."
She set it on the table with the others. "Those are the closest examples I have to what you are describing."
Morwenna examined each one, her fingers brushing the serpent cane. The wood was smooth, but the balance felt entirely wrong, as it was far too heavy at the top. She set her hands flat on the table and looked up at the old smith.
"I want a cane that looks like a fashion accessory, but functions as a staff and conceals at least one blade."
Grindelna shook her head. "A cane."
"Yes."
"This is merely a prototype," Grindelna explained. "It isn't magical, it's just meant to test the structure."
She pulled down another box containing a second cane with a handle shaped like a bird with its wings folded. Finally, she produced a third option that lacked any ornamentation at all, consisting only of smooth wood and a silver band near the top.
"This one is plain and easy to modify," she noted.
Morwenna stepped closer to touch the silver serpent head. The metal was cool to the touch and the carving was exceptionally precise. She looked back at Grindelna.
"I have a different thought," she said, "if that's all right."
Grindelna gestured for her to continue.
Morwenna kept her hands flat on the table, her voice growing more confident. "I want it to look like a cane, but not obviously like a weapon. It should be the kind of thing someone carries because they are well-dressed, not because they are armed."
She paused, but Grindelna said nothing, only watched her.
"But I want two blades hidden inside the shaft. There should be a short blade near the top, and a jian further down."
Jane leaned forward in interest, and even Jack stopped pretending he wasn't listening.
"The top piece should be ornate. I haven't settled on the final design yet, but it should be decorative, not plain."
Morwenna moved her finger along the surface of the table to mark out an imaginary length.
"For the short blade, I thought of two ways the mechanism could work."
She pressed two fingers against the stone in a short, deliberate sequence.
"The first option involves pressure points built into the ornate top. If I press them in the right order and the right rhythm, the short blade will emerge from below the decorative piece."
She lifted her fingers and placed them in a different configuration.
"The second option is that the base of the ornate piece, right where it meets the shaft, can be twisted and then pulled. The short blade would emerge from that section when both actions are performed."
She glanced up, but the goblin's face remained unreadable.
"As for the jian, the release would depend on which short blade design we use."
She traced two separate spots along her imaginary line on the table.
"If we choose the first design with the pressure points, then there would be a separate join point further down the shaft. I would twist that section and pull, and the jian would come out from below. This way, the short blade and the jian would each unlock from a completely different point on the cane."
She straightened her posture.
"If we choose the second design instead, the twist-pull for the short blade, there would be another join even further down the shaft. It would use the same mechanic of twisting and then pulling, and the jian would come out from there."
She looked at Grindelna expectantly. "Either way, there are two weapons inside—one near the top and one in the main shaft. They just emerge from different places depending on which design we build."
The workshop became very quiet, with only the distant ring of a hammer and the hiss of the forge filling the space. Grindelna picked up a piece of charcoal and a fresh sheet of parchment and began to sketch rapidly.
"Pressure points in the ornate top," she murmured, not looking up from her work. "You would need to remember the exact sequence. In a real fight, fine motor control is the first thing to fail. The twist-pull is much simpler and easier to manage under pressure."
Morwenna watched as the precise lines of a mechanism took shape on the page.
"The jian release needs to be distinct from the short blade release," the smith continued. "If they are too similar, you will draw the wrong weapon at the wrong time."
She finished the sketch and held it up, showing a cane with a decorative head, a twist-release at the neck, and a second join further down the shaft. "This design uses your second option. It's a twist-pull for both, but the short blade comes from the neck while the jian comes from the lower join."
She set the sketch down and reached for a fresh sheet of parchment. The forge fire crackled in the distance while Grindelna kept her pale eyes on the girl's face.
"That's... remarkably detailed," Grindelna noted.
Morwenna's ears were red, but she didn't look away.
Grindelna reached into the cabinet again and pulled out two more pieces. One was a cane with an ornate silver head worked into a pattern of twisting vines, leaves, and small flowers. It looked like expensive jewellery. The second was simpler, featuring a wooden shaft with an engraved brass collar near the top.
She set both on the stone table.
"The silver head has three pressure points built into it. If you press them in the correct sequence, a blade emerges from the collar." She demonstrated the action, her fingers moving incredibly fast until a thin, sharp blade slid out.
"The wooden shaft uses a twist-pull mechanism at the collar." She twisted the wood and pulled, and the blade emerged from the same point. "Neither of these has a second blade, but they could both be modified."
She pushed both canes toward the girl. "Try them. Feel the weight, the balance, and the release."
Morwenna picked up the silver head first. The metal was cold to the touch and the weight was heavier than she expected. She located the pressure points and pressed them, but nothing happened.
"It requires the sequence," Grindelna reminded her.
She tried again in a different order, and the blade finally slid out. She pressed them again, and the blade retracted. She tested the release three more times until her fingers began to memorise the pattern.
Then, she picked up the wooden shaft. The twist-pull was much simpler, requiring only one motion to make the blade emerge and one to make it retract. She held both canes, turning them over in her hands to feel the balance.
"The silver head feels better," she decided. "The weight is correct, and the release is much harder to trigger accidentally. But the wooden shaft has a much better grip."
Grindelna gave a nod of agreement. "We can combine the elements. We can use the silver head with the dimensions of the wooden shaft's grip, and then we add the second blade release further down."
She took the canes back and set them aside.
"Your idea is perfectly feasible, even if the design is complex. It will take significant time to forge, but it can be done. I have the components for both mechanisms in my stores, so we can test them today. It won't be the full weapon, just the release systems to see which one your hands prefer."
Grindelna disappeared through a door at the back and returned with two metal rods. One featured a twist-release at the top, while the other had a pressure-point sequence built into a carved wooden head.
"Try both," the smith said. "Tell me what you feel."
Morwenna picked up the twist-release first. Her fingers found the grip easily, and she twisted and pulled until the blade slid out fast and smooth. She did it again and again. While her right hand was noticeably slower than her left, the motion remained consistent.
She set it down and picked up the pressure-point mechanism. The sequence was short, requiring only three points, but when she pressed them in order, nothing happened.
She tried a second time, and the blade clicked but refused to release. On her third attempt, the blade finally slid out, but it caught halfway through the motion.
"That's the fine motor control I mentioned," Grindelna noted. "Under real stress, you will miss the sequence. The twist-pull is far more reliable."
Morwenna set the mechanism down. "Twist-pull," she agreed.
Grindelna made a quick note on her sketch. "Now for the jian release. We'll test the lower join placement."
She handed over another rod that had a join point further down the shaft. Morwenna twisted and pulled, and a longer blade slid out. It was much heavier than the short blade, and the balance felt entirely different. She held it and felt the weight pulling toward the tip.
"The jian should be lighter," she suggested. "Or the cane itself should be heavier to balance the weight."
Grindelna made another note. "We will adjust the weight distribution. The cane itself will bear some of the mass."
They spent the next hour testing four more configurations, trying out different join placements, blade weights, and grip textures. By the end of the session, Morwenna's hands were sore and her wrists ached, but she finally had her answer.
"Twist-pull for both," she decided. "The short blade release will be at the neck, and the jian release will be further down the shaft. I want separate join points so I don't draw the wrong weapon."
She looked down at the sketches on the table, seeing her own concept translated into expert goblin engineering.
Grindelna gathered up the sketches. "The ceremony will need to be rescheduled because building this will take significant time. Six months, at least. Maybe more. And because we need your staff for the base, we can only build it after you have your staff ready."
Morwenna nodded. "I understand."
"But it will be done."
Grindelna walked over to the far wall and took down two blades from a rack of leather sheaths. They were the same length and had the same curve, with the hilts wrapped in dark cord. She set them on the stone table.
"Your personal weapons. The dual daggers."
Morwenna stepped closer to examine them. The steel was incredibly dark, and the sharp edges caught the torchlight in thin, silver lines.
"The steel is the same as what we will use for the final pieces," Grindelna explained. "These are merely practice weights with an approximate balance and a dull edge."
Morwenna picked one up and found it was heavier than the practice blade she had used last time. The hilt fit her hand perfectly, and her fingers found the proper grip without having to search for it.
"Now the other," Grindelna prompted.
Morwenna picked up the second dagger and held one in each hand. The distribution of weight was different from the single blade, and she found she had to adjust her grip while her shoulders tensed.
"You are compensating," Grindelna observed. "Your right hand is still the weaker one, so you are holding the left blade closer to your body to balance yourself."
Morwenna lowered the blades. "How do I fix it?"
"You must train your right hand every single day. And not just with blades. You should open jars, write, and throw stones with it." Grindelna took the daggers and set them back on the table. "Your left hand learned dominance over many years, so your right hand needs to catch up."
Morwenna looked down at her right hand, seeing only pale fingers and short nails. It looked no different from her left.
"The blade length is twenty-five centimetres from hilt to tip," the smith continued. "The curve is subtle, making it enough to slash but sharp enough to pierce."
She turned one of the blades over to show that the spine was thicker near the hilt and tapered toward the point.
"The balance point is right here." She touched the steel a few centimetres from the hilt. "You will feel it when you hold it correctly, and the blade won't fight against you."
Morwenna picked up the left-hand blade again and shifted her grip until she found the balance point. The steel finally settled properly.
"That's much better," Grindelna said.
She walked back to her workbench and pulled out a sheet of parchment covered in sketches. There were multiple angles of a blade with detailed measurements in the margins.
"These are the specifications we are working toward. The final steel will be much darker, almost black, so it won't reflect the light."
Morwenna studied the sketches, noting the curve and the taper. The hilt design showed a grip wrapped in dark cord with a small pommel stone set in silver.
"The stone," Morwenna noted.
"That's your choice. It can be any stone you wish, and the setting will match your clan leader weapon."
Morwenna thought about it for a moment. She wanted green, like her mother's eyes or the emerald she often wore at her throat. "Emerald."
Grindelna nodded and marked the sketch accordingly. "The sheaths will be enchanted to hold the blades securely and release them silently. You can wear them on your forearms, right under your sleeves."
Morwenna looked down at her arms, knowing the dark grey robes would cover everything. No one would ever see them.
"The concealment element matches your Lethifold line," the goblin added. "The blades won't be detected by any standard scanning spells when you are wearing them."
Morwenna felt her heart begin to beat faster at the thought. "How do I draw them?"
Grindelna picked up one of the practice blades and held it against her own forearm. "The sheath has a release catch right here."
She pressed her thumb against a specific point near her wrist, and the hilt slid instantly into her palm. "You must practice that motion thousands of times until your hands do it without even thinking."
She set the blade back down.
"Go home and rest. You have done enough for one day."
Morwenna looked back at her parents. Jane's face was calm, and Jack's hand was resting gently on his wife's shoulder.
"Thank you," Morwenna said.
.
The cart ride back to the surface was just as harrowing as always, and her stomach did its very best to escape her body. She held on tight and refused to close her eyes until they reached the top. Jack put a steadying hand on her shoulder when they stepped out into the bank.
"You did very well," he said.
Morwenna looked back at the white marble pillars of Gringotts, knowing that somewhere deep below, her weapons were being built.
"A cane," Jane said, her voice still sounding thoroughly amused. "I really should have known."
Morwenna's ears went red once more, and she began to walk faster toward the exit.