Greg was in the workshop at dawn six months after the ceremony.
After 15 years of mornings, he felt like he was part of the workshop.
The tools were still hanging in the same places they had always hung, in the same order that Bork had arranged them a long time ago. Greg had never changed the order because it was right and because some things you keep.
He built the forge in the island's third month, and it was still the same one, but bigger and fixed.
Greg saw that the place, which was always used and loved more than the smell of it being there, lacked the smell of metal and woodsmoke. It was like, "You only notice the sound of a clock when it stops."
He was making a cup of tea.
He wasn't preparing the tea because someone had requested it or because the island was in need of more teacups. He made the best things for specific people because he wanted them to have something that was just right.
