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 become tiresome work better left to skilled hands.
So he had specially hired the finest chefs from both Hogsmeade and Bree, offering generous wages and the prestige of serving directly in the lord's castle.
Facing such generous salary treatment and the considerable honor of serving their lord personally, Kael's subjects had competed eagerly for the positions. Some had even offered to work without wages at all, just for the privilege of living within the legendary castle walls.
Besides preparing meals 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 time and effort.
In the bustling castle kitchen, when steward Edward solemnly handed over dragon meat to the head chef for processing, every face showed undisguised amazement.
This was genuine dragon meat! They were actually being asked to cook with this legendary ingredient!
For a long moment, the assembled chefs felt as though they must be dreaming.
After Gandalf had thoroughly enjoyed his long-anticipated dragon meat 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 someone of appropriate status and respect to propose formally at the woman's family home. After gaining parental consent, both families would host a celebratory banquet publicly announcing the engagement, with the betrothed couple exchanging silver rings as binding tokens of their commitment.
According to strict elven law, at least one full year was required between engagement and the actual marriage ceremony. During this probationary period, if either party publicly returned their silver ring, the engagement could be formally dissolved, with the returned rings being melted down to erase all trace of the broken promise.
However, since elves were naturally faithful and took such commitments with utmost seriousness, broken engagements were extraordinarily rare in their long history.
At the wedding ceremony following the engagement 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 engagement 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 engagement 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 requirement much consideration beforehand. He shook his head, consulting the experienced wizard. "Do you have any suggestions for me?"
"Engagement silver rings differ significantly from wedding gold rings in meaning and purpose," Gandalf explained thoughtfully. "Engagement rings should express your sincere feelings and creative devotion, while wedding rings traditionally feature simpler, more timeless designs. So for the engagement 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 engagement and marriage according to tradition. If the engagement 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 engagement 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 came 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 melt.
The specialized mithril furnace contained Balrog fire crystals that released tremendous temperatures capable of melting even the hardest tempered steel, yet still the precious mithril mother resisted melting stubbornly.
Kael summoned his Fiendfyre, carefully adding the cursed flames to the furnace to dramatically raise the temperature high enough to finally affect the stubborn metal.
But even then, the melting speed remained frustratingly slow.
Seeing Kael's difficulty, Gandalf stepped forward to help, channeling Narya's divine power directly into the furnace flames.
With the Ring of Fire's assistance, the furnace flames' temperature rose sharply and immediately. Despite the furnace's magical heat insulation, Kael still felt intense waves of heat radiating outward.
The mithril mother inside finally began melting rapidly into liquid metal.
Within mere moments, the mithril mother had completely liquefied, with scorching flames continuously burning away any remaining impurities, making the molten metal increasingly pure.
Once impurities had been nearly completely burned away, Kael carefully lowered the flame temperature, allowing the purified mithril mother to solidify slightly into a workable consistency.
Then he removed the glowing metal from the furnace using enchanted tongs, placing it reverently on his forging table. He wielded a specially crafted mithril hammer, striking in a mysterious, almost musical rhythm, constantly working the precious metal.
Simultaneously, his own magic flowed purposefully through the mithril hammer into the mithril ingot with each careful strike.
During this rhythmic striking process, Kael's magic continuously merged with the metal at a fundamental 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 metal became 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 famed elven and dwarven smithing traditions—it possessed its own uniquely distinctive character.
Through Kael's repeated careful forging, the mithril mother seemed to wash away all remaining impurities, beginning to radiate a soft, pure silver light.
It also gradually formed 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 enchantments.
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 fragment roughly the size of a dove's egg.
The severed Balrog heart fragment looked like an extraordinarily pure red gemstone, flawless and brilliant.
As the Balrog's essential core, the entire heart was essentially a concentrated fire element crystal containing vast accumulated energy.
Even just a small fragment 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 fragment with specialized jeweler's tools and patient dedication.
After investing a full month of meticulous daily work, Kael had finally carved the Balrog heart fragment 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 flame—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 elements continuously flowed into it from the environment.
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 experimentally 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 flames that blazed throughout the entire expanded workshop space, seemingly ready to consume everything within the Extension Charm-enlarged room.
Yet surrounded completely by these intense flames, Kael remained comfortable as a fish in water, showing absolutely no signs of burning or even discomfort.
With a focused thought, the surrounding flames quickly converged and shaped themselves into a flexible whip of pure fire.
He experimentally swung the flame 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 immediately melting into glowing lava that dripped to the stone floor.
Kael gestured again—the flame whip smoothly transformed into a flame sword, solid and deadly.
With continued experimentation, it shifted forms again into staff, then axe, then spear, and countless other weapon configurations.
Kael tested the ring's capabilities with endless enjoyment and satisfaction. Watching intently from the sidelines, Gandalf showed genuine appreciation for the masterwork, praising warmly:
"Kael, this engagement 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 flame's burning, can release and command flames 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 mere glance. He responded with quiet conviction, "If I'm creating something 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 mentioned, this ring also employed advanced goblin forging craft principles. If placed directly in flames, it would become increasingly pristine and bright rather than damaged, also absorbing various flame types to continuously enhance its own inherent power.
One could accurately say that burning in flames would never melt or damage the ring, but would only make it progressively stronger over time.
Having successfully forged the precious engagement 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 times over—I doubt I could possibly spend it all in a single lifetime, even trying."
"Moreover, having a powerful lord as a close personal friend means even the most stay-at-home hobbits have heard of Weathertop's famous Hogwarts Castle and the legendary Black-Robed Kael. So absolutely no one dares to trouble me these days."
He smiled warmly at Kael. "Recently, the Shire's Thain even held a formal meeting 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 somewhat surprised by this political development, 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 become 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 Hogsmeade markets.
Bree City merchants also channeled various diverse goods through enterprising Buckland hobbits throughout the Shire's settlements.
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 Hogsmeade 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 government 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 Hogsmeade mayors. He trusted their administrative abilities completely.
Returning to the immediate 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 time we're seeking to claim Rivendell's most precious treasure—the Lady Evenstar herself, Arwen Undómiel. So Kael, you absolutely must dress handsomely and impressively, then travel in suitable splendor to Rivendell. We'll gain Lord Elrond's paternal consent, successfully establish the formal engagement, and win your heart's desire!"