As a lord of considerable holdings, Kael naturally employed dedicated chefs to serve his household.
Though he could easily conjure delicious food with magic once or twice for novelty, doing it daily would quickly beco tireso work better left to skilled hands.
So he had specially hired the finest chefs from both Hogsade and Bree, offering generous wages and the prestige of serving directly in the lord's castle.
Facing such generous salary treatnt and the considerable honor of serving their lord personally, Kael's subjects had competed eagerly for the positions. So had even offered to work without wages at all, just for the privilege of living within the legendary castle walls.
Besides preparing als for Kael himself, the chefs also had responsibility for feeding Smaug, Thorondor, and Isengard's massive Cerberus—though the latter remained at the distant fortress.
Actually, work for Kael's various magical pets occupied most of the kitchen staff's considerable ti and effort.
In the bustling castle kitchen, when steward Edward solemnly handed over dragon at to the head chef for processing, every face showed undisguised amazent.
This was genuine dragon at! They were actually being asked to cook with this legendary ingredient!
For a long mont, the assembled chefs felt as though they must be dreaming.
After Gandalf had thoroughly enjoyed his long-anticipated dragon at feast, praising every bite, he and Kael began discussing the practical details of the upcoming wedding plans.
Gandalf knew elven marriage processes and ceremonial traditions intimately from his long years in Middle-earth.
According to ancient elven ritual, when a man wished to marry his beloved, he first needed to gain the woman's parents' formal consent.
The prospective groom would commission soone of appropriate status and respect to propose formally at the woman's family ho. After gaining parental consent, both families would host a celebratory banquet publicly announcing the engagent, with the betrothed couple exchanging silver rings as binding tokens of their commitnt.
According to strict elven law, at least one full year was required between engagent and the actual marriage ceremony. During this probationary period, if either party publicly returned their silver ring, the engagent could be formally dissolved, with the returned rings being lted down to erase all trace of the broken promise.
However, since elves were naturally faithful and took such commitnts with utmost seriousness, broken engagents were extraordinarily rare in their long history.
At the wedding ceremony following the engagent period, both families would gather for an elaborate wedding feast. Under the sacred witness of the Valar Varda and Manwë, they would offer blessings upon the newlyweds joining their lives.
Simultaneously, the couple would retrieve their engagent silver rings and exchange new gold rings instead, wearing them on their right index fingers as permanent symbols of their union.
"So, Kael, you now need to personally forge a silver ring as an engagent gift for your bride-to-be," Gandalf explained with obvious pleasure. "Do you have any ideas about the design?"
Kael hadn't given this particular requirent much consideration beforehand. He shook his head, consulting the experienced wizard. "Do you have any suggestions for ?"
"Engagent silver rings differ significantly from wedding gold rings in aning and purpose," Gandalf explained thoughtfully. "Engagent rings should express your sincere feelings and creative devotion, while wedding rings traditionally feature simpler, more tiless designs. So for the engagent ring, you can maximize your imagination and considerable abilities to win your lady's favor and delight."
Gandalf's eyes twinkled mischievously as he added with mock seriousness, "After all, at least one full year is required between engagent and marriage according to tradition. If the engagent ring doesn't sufficiently please your fiancée, she might decide the wedding date should be postponed indefinitely. Wouldn't that make you absolutely miserable?"
Kael smiled warmly—he genuinely didn't believe Arwen would ever do such a thing to him.
But since this would be an engagent ring for Arwen—the woman he loved above all else—he naturally needed to dedicate his full effort and creativity to its creation.
After spending an entire sleepless night carefully planning the ring's intricate design, Kael ca to his well-equipped alchemy workshop at dawn. He retrieved a piece of rare mithril mother—even more precious and powerful than regular mithril—cutting off a thumb-sized section and placing it into his mithril furnace to lt.
The specialized mithril furnace contained Balrog fire crystals that released trendous temperatures capable of lting even the hardest tempered steel, yet still the precious mithril mother resisted lting stubbornly.
Kael summoned his Fiendfyre, carefully adding the cursed flas to the furnace to dramatically raise the temperature high enough to finally affect the stubborn tal.
But even then, the lting speed remained frustratingly slow.
Seeing Kael's difficulty, Gandalf stepped forward to help, channeling Narya's divine power directly into the furnace flas.
With the Ring of Fire's assistance, the furnace flas' temperature rose sharply and imdiately. Despite the furnace's magical heat insulation, Kael still felt intense waves of heat radiating outward.
The mithril mother inside finally began lting rapidly into liquid tal.
Within re monts, the mithril mother had completely liquefied, with scorching flas continuously burning away any remaining impurities, making the molten tal increasingly pure.
Once impurities had been nearly completely burned away, Kael carefully lowered the fla temperature, allowing the purified mithril mother to solidify slightly into a workable consistency.
Then he removed the glowing tal from the furnace using enchanted tongs, placing it reverently on his forging table. He wielded a specially crafted mithril hamr, striking in a mysterious, almost musical rhythm, constantly working the precious tal.
Simultaneously, his own magic flowed purposefully through the mithril hamr into the mithril ingot with each careful strike.
During this rhythmic striking process, Kael's magic continuously rged with the tal at a fundantal level, awakening its latent essence and bringing out its natural properties to perfection.
This was the legendary goblin forging technique from his world—properly forged tal beca not only virtually indestructible but could also absorb beneficial influences to strengthen itself further, even gaining the ability to self-repair if damaged.
Kael made no attempt to hide this valuable technique from Gandalf while forging.
Watching the masterful process unfold, Gandalf found himself impressed by the young wizard's skill and knowledge.
This forging craft alone was in no way inferior to the fad elven and dwarven smithing traditions—it possessed its own uniquely distinctive character.
Through Kael's repeated careful forging, the mithril mother seed to wash away all remaining impurities, beginning to radiate a soft, pure silver light.
It also gradually ford into a perfect ring shape under his skilled hands. Finally, after hours of dedicated work, an exquisite silver ring took solid form.
But Kael's painstaking work was far from finished. While the ring hadn't completely cooled and solidified, he used delicate tools to inscribe intricate runes in flowing Elven Tengwar script along the inner band for powerful enchantnts.
Then, to Gandalf's considerable surprise, Kael carefully retrieved the purified Balrog heart from its protective case. Using his razor-sharp Flammifer sword, he cut away a fragnt roughly the size of a dove's egg.
The severed Balrog heart fragnt looked like an extraordinarily pure red gemstone, flawless and brilliant.
As the Balrog's essential core, the entire heart was essentially a concentrated fire elent crystal containing vast accumulated energy.
Even just a small fragnt combined with Balrog blood had proven sufficient to transform ordinary lizards and snakes into genuine magical creatures like salamanders and Ashwinders.
Kael spent the following weeks carefully cutting and painstakingly polishing this irregular Balrog heart fragnt with specialized jeweler's tools and patient dedication.
After investing a full month of ticulous daily work, Kael had finally carved the Balrog heart fragnt into a perfect heart-shaped gemstone featuring countless precisely cut facets that reflected and radiated brilliant red light—absolutely dazzling to behold.
Moreover, deep inside the heart-shaped gemstone burned a barely visible spark he had separated from the Balrog heart's core eternal fla—a precious wisp of energy filled with immortal, eternally inextinguishable essence.
Under this spark's constant influence, the heart-shaped gemstone radiated warm, comforting light as surrounding fire elents continuously flowed into it from the environnt.
Kael carefully set the magnificent heart-shaped gemstone into the silver ring's prepared mounting, completing the final intricate assembly.
Looking at this completed silver ring set with its glowing heart-shaped red gemstone, Kael experintally slipped it onto his finger. The enchanted ring automatically resized itself to fit his index finger perfectly.
He cautiously activated the ring's considerable power. Instantly it released golden flas that blazed throughout the entire expanded workshop space, seemingly ready to consu everything within the Extension Charm-enlarged room.
Yet surrounded completely by these intense flas, Kael remained comfortable as a fish in water, showing absolutely no signs of burning or even discomfort.
With a focused thought, the surrounding flas quickly converged and shaped themselves into a flexible whip of pure fire.
He experintally swung the fla whip toward the workshop's far corner.
The blazing whip rapidly extended and lengthened with his will, directly striking a steel armor suit standing in the shadows.
The heavy armor was instantly cut cleanly in half, the severed edges imdiately lting into glowing lava that dripped to the stone floor.
Kael gestured again—the fla whip smoothly transford into a fla sword, solid and deadly.
With continued experintation, it shifted forms again into staff, then axe, then spear, and countless other weapon configurations.
Kael tested the ring's capabilities with endless enjoynt and satisfaction. Watching intently from the sidelines, Gandalf showed genuine appreciation for the masterwork, praising warmly:
"Kael, this engagent ring is without question the most precious and powerful ring I have ever personally witnessed in all my long years.
The ring body forged from rare mithril mother, the gemstone crafted from purified Balrog heart—the fortunate wearer will fear no fla's burning, can release and command flas at will, and condense them into any weapon form desired. This ring's power is comparable to the legendary Rings of Power themselves!"
Kael wasn't particularly surprised that Gandalf could perceive the ring's full abilities at a re glance. He responded with quiet conviction, "If I'm creating sothing for Arwen, naturally I would create only the very best ring possible—only that is truly worthy of her."
Moreover, besides the impressive abilities Gandalf had ntioned, this ring also employed advanced goblin forging craft principles. If placed directly in flas, it would beco increasingly pristine and bright rather than damaged, also absorbing various fla types to continuously enhance its own inherent power.
One could accurately say that burning in flas would never lt or damage the ring, but would only make it progressively stronger over ti.
Having successfully forged the precious engagent silver ring, Kael and Gandalf began making practical preparations to visit Rivendell for the formal marriage proposal.
But beforehand, Kael made a special journey to visit the Shire, personally inviting his old dear friend Bilbo Baggins to also represent him during the important ceremony.
Learning of Kael's upcoming Rivendell marriage proposal, Bilbo was absolutely delighted and genuinely happy for his friend, promptly agreeing to participate without any hesitation.
He then followed Kael through the Floo Network fireplace directly to Hogwarts Castle.
"Gandalf!" Bilbo called out joyfully, happily embracing the tall wizard, who had to bend considerably to properly hug the hobbit standing half his height.
"Oh, how wonderful to see you again, dear Bilbo! You're looking quite well, I must say."
Bilbo smiled with his characteristic cheer. "Indeed quite well! After all, the treasure I brought back from Erebor could probably buy the entire Shire several tis over—I doubt I could possibly spend it all in a single lifeti, even trying."
"Moreover, having a powerful lord as a close personal friend ans even the most stay-at-ho hobbits have heard of Weathertop's famous Hogwarts Castle and the legendary Black-Robed Kael. So absolutely no one dares to trouble these days."
He smiled warmly at Kael. "Recently, the Shire's Thain even held a formal eting discussing the possibility of establishing official diplomatic relations with Weathertop—I voted enthusiastically in favor, naturally."
"Oh? The Shire wants formal diplomatic relations with Weathertop?" Kael was sowhat surprised by this political developnt, then smiled with satisfaction. "That's genuinely good news. After all, we're close neighbors now. Increased mutual exchange and trade benefits everyone involved."
Since Bree had beco part of Weathertop's expanding territory, Kael's domain now covered all the surrounding Bree-land areas.
With Bree rapidly developing into a prosperous city and the Barrow-wights no longer rampaging across the land, trade between the Shire and Bree City had grown increasingly frequent and profitable. Shire pipe-weed tobacco, fine oat beer, mushrooms, and other goods continuously flowed into Bree and Hogsade markets.
Bree City rchants also channeled various diverse goods through enterprising Buckland hobbits throughout the Shire's settlents.
Many practical Buckland hobbits had chosen to work permanently in Bree City—like the Prancing Pony inn's owner, who had hired several hobbits as servers after discovering their excellent hospitality skills.
Even in the distant Hogsade village, occasional hobbit visitors could now be spotted browsing the shops.
As trade and cultural exchange between the regions grew more frequent and substantial, naturally the Shire's local governnt would seriously consider establishing formal diplomatic relations with Weathertop.
But Kael didn't inquire extensively about these political details, preferring to leave such matters to the capable Bree and Hogsade mayors. He trusted their administrative abilities completely.
Returning to the imdiate matter at hand—Kael, Gandalf, and Bilbo now gathered together in the castle's sitting room, discussing final preparations.
Gandalf smiled with obvious pleasure and anticipation. "This ti we're seeking to claim Rivendell's most precious treasure—the Lady Evenstar herself, Arwen Undómiel. So Kael, you absolutely must dress handsoly and impressively, then travel in suitable splendor to Rivendell. We'll gain Lord Elrond's paternal consent, successfully establish the formal engagent, and win your heart's desire!"
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