"You look nicer in the plate anyway," she added, taking out one of the last of the crabs and dumping it in the second pot, her eyes locking on his face for just a moment with a deceptively coy smile.

Once the pot over the fire was empty, she hoisted the second batch up and brought them back to his side to begin working on them while he finished his batch. "It's mindless work, easy to lose an hour or two in. I'm lucky enough I don't have to usually work with plate or metal. If I do, I get some help from one of the vendors." She had hardly a smithing skill to speak of. "But polishing, sharpening, mending? It's surprisingly enjoyable. Better than chasing down trouble in some dark alleyway in Lowtown."

She grinned. "Bad enough for your father too? You must have been a sight. At least you didn't have to keep wearing them." She liked hearing about his parents, if only because the fondness he had for those memories showed so easily in his tone and in his eyes. "What else did your mother do?"