Unlike before, the forge was different.
A year ago, the place had looked like it was waiting to die, windows stuffed with rotten planks, a door that didn't quite shut, and grime layered so thick it felt like part of the stone. Kael had cleaned the inside back then, sure, but even he hadn't been able to fix the feeling of it. That sour, neglected stench. The kind of place that made you check over your shoulder, not because you expected a monster, but because you expected a man desperate enough to be one.
Now, the street itself seemed to acknowledge the change.
The outside still wasn't pretty, no flowers, no clean paving stones, no polite little lanterns hanging by the door. It still looked like a corner the city forgot. A place a homeless person would think twice before sleeping next to. But the structure had teeth again.
