Aule's Dilemma by Uvatha the Horseman  

The New Arrivals

The Mansions of Aulë - Present Day (TA 3018)

March was about to turn into April, and the weather, although fickle, was finally warm enough for people to enjoy being outside.

In the Forge, Aulë the Smith pulled the glowing metal from the fire. The iron glowed yellow-orange on the anvil. He raised the hammer and considered the blow before striking, when Rhosfindel, his Chief Maia and second-in-command, interrupted.

"Master Aulë, a new group of Maiar has arrived. Three youngsters, newly descended into the physical world."

Aulë sighed. It was easier to ignore the interruption and finish the task he'd just started, but while they were talking, the iron had cooled. He set it aside and laid down his hammer to go deal with the interruption. He could have hung up his leather apron, but he would have had to find a shirt.

Aulë needed Maiar servants for everything from sculpting mountain ranges to delivering a bag of nails to a customer. As one of the greatest of the Valar, he ran a fairly large household. Most of his Maiar were apprentices, ranging in skill from beginner to highly proficient. There were also alumni who'd gone off on their own and sometimes stopped by to visit. He'd greet them with a nod or a grunt, but privately, he was delighted to see them.

Aulë followed his Chief Maia outside where the new arrivals waited. He looked at the small group assembled before him. There were three of them, a slender girl, a medium-sized boy, and a tall, gangly boy. They all had red hair, according to a custom that had grown up among Aulë's apprentices.

The new arrivals had no useful skills at all, other than performing their duties as Ainur, the Holy Ones, singing in the Celestial choir. They may have known all the verses to countless hymns, but other than that, they were as ignorant as dirt. They didn't know a thing about splitting kindling and bringing it inside, which was what he needed them for at the moment. Plus, training them took time away from his preferred task of forging useful and sometimes beautiful things.

He surveyed the small group assembled before him. The girl was a rose-gold shade of blonde, the medium-sized boy burnished copper, and the tall one had reddish-brown hair.

"You can't work here without a name. I'd have trouble summoning you from across the room or remembering who I talked to last. I'll call you Rose, Copper, and Bronze for now. When I've gotten to know who you are, I'll give you a name that suits you better."

He always tried to find a word that fit them better. For example, his second Chief Maia had been Curumo, "the Skillful one'" and the third one was Rhosfindel, for "Redhead." With a pang, Aulë realized he'd never given his third Chief Maia a proper name. Maybe he should have picked something like "Good-Natured" or "Long-Suffering."

"Let's start with the basics. When we're in the physical world, we wear clothes. Let's get you suited up."

Rhosfindel stood by with an armload of linen garments dyed in shades of russet or umber, earth colors for earth spirits. He gave each newcomer a tunic, a belt, small clothes, leggings, and soft leather shoes.

"And when you're working, which will be most of every day, you'll wear a leather apron. Being in physical form is constraining enough. I don't want to wear clothing too."

Bronze stuck his lip out.

"And yet, you'll wear them. And shoes. You could step on a shard of metal or a bent nail. And do you know why that's bad? Because I don't want to clean up the blood." Aulë knew he came across as gruff.

He would warn them of the many ways they could get hurt. They would forget, and he would warn them again. And when they did get hurt, he would, of course, console the crying youngster and patch them up before he did anything else. They'd learn that the first time they hurt themselves on hot metal or a sharp tool.

Aulë spent a fair amount of time training the new Maiar servants who came to work in the Forge. Teaching took away from shaping metal into useful and beautiful things, but both were important.

As the new apprentices grew in competence and maturity, they would take over for his more senior servants who left for whatever reason: to serve a different master, to strike out on their own, or to go to war. Unlike other Valar, he seemed to burn through Maiar like cordwood.