wahh I am still waking up but if I put this off any longer I am gonna go insane so, SORRY.
SORRY.
SORRY!!
I like the idea of Keydis being so restless she decides to GO FORGE A WHOLE-ASS WEAPON (or two) in the dead of the night. RIP anyone who might have had sleeping quarters near her, surely the sound of aggressive, 'I'm working through some STRESS right now!' forging was a little loud.
ANYWHO! As per usual, the way you write crafting is amazing - I can only assume it's a combination of the amount of research you're willing to put in, combined with all the episodes of Forged in Fire you've surely watched, COMBINED with your ability to neatly bullshit in such a way that I can't even tell what details aren't realistic and which ones are. So. KUDOS. TO YOU.
This was her meditation, her zen. She beat hammer to steel, her ring keeping the metal heated so that she had no time to break, no time to think about the three people she had killed, no time to think about the wounded emperor, or the children being threatened. All she could think about was her next hammer strike, about the new shape hidden within the blade. Heat, beat, repeat, while the stars rolled by overhead.
This little bit prolly takes the cake for me, neatly highlighting WHY she's outside beatin' metal in the dead-ass of night while also giving a good impression of just how long she's out there, working. (spoilers it's all night, what a nutter) She S T R E S S E D. and feels like there's something she needs to be doing! but doesn't know what! SHE'S A WOMAN OF ACTION, SHE NEEDS TO ACT.
This makes me feel like I should put out a pchap of Red and her thoughts/feels following the ballroom-blitz mess. MAYBE I WILL. MAYBE I WILL.
(PS i love this deepening canon that red is facedown snoring loudly every night while keydis goes off and gets in fights, forges weapons, starts wars, etc.)