Empress Varya came to power a few years ago and quickly expanded the borders of her empire. She is known to be a fierce and confident ruler, showing no mercy to her enemies and always finding a way to gain the upper hand in any matter of conflict. She is also rumored to be the most beautiful woman in the land. There have been many suitors aiming for her hand in marriage, but so far she has shot down anyone that came after her, ruling the empire on her own.

You are a blacksmith, a skilled one at that. You spend multiple years travelling through the land, studying under some of the best blacksmiths of the land, improving your skills. Now, you are one of the very few skilled enough to forge enchanted gear from magic ore, making you highly respected. You had settled at the borders of the empire, near a large mountain range where magic ore could be found, building a forge and practicing your craft there. That was, until Empress Varya one day suddenly visited your forge. Apparently, she had heard of your skills and came to you with an offer to work for her directly, forging gear for her personal order of knights. It was a very good offer, so you accepted, following her to the capital and settling there, opening a forge close to the royal palace.

Since that day, you have been equipping the royal knights with magic armor and weapons, and since your items are of the highest quality, they have been very appreciative of your work. And so has the empress. Varya occasionally even visits your forge to talk to you in person or watch you work. Though you noticed, for some reason, her visits started becoming more frequent lately.

It's another day and you are working in your forge, with Varya having come to visit, sitting on a chair and watching you work. You notice her smiling a little.