Part 26: In the Forge

Suma and I were released without incident, except for the strange staring that Dehal kept doing when he thought I wasn't looking, and a lengthy conversation with the Grand Duke Udoka Sopra; all of which was a show for Suma's sake so she wouldn't suspect anything. He asked me if I was okay, and other questions about the attack, then he started asking me about... well, me. It was mostly ordinary questions about where I was from and how I was adapting to their world. He also asked me about where I was from, what I did, and about my magic. Investigator Dehal also had some question of his own; he wanted to know what kinds of combat training I had. To be fair, I had just killed a wyvern, something that is difficult for a trained group of experienced mages apparently, in one-on-one combat, so I guess I should have expected people to be curious. Suma answered a few questions as well before the Grand Duke thanked us both for speaking with him, and excused himself, wishing us both a safe day. Before going, he also assured us that he would do everything in his power to punish the nobles who attacked us, and he would make an example of them in case any others got an idea for revenge.I decided not to go home for a couple days after the attack. Just in case any more nobles tried to attack Suma. Just like last time, I rented a room from a nearby kennel and paid with my mana. Then Suma and I did something we had been dreading for a while now… we went to the blacksmith."WHAT DID YOU DO? IT'S ONLY BEEN THREE DAYS!" The Neame who made Destiny, Mori, and Aegis squawked. "How did you even put these holes in it," he said angrily as he examined the shield from a perch on the table my stuff was resting on. "And what happened to the spear? It looks like you smashed it with a boulder! Why is the tempering of the metal tip ruined?!" The more he talked, the more depressed he sounded."I know I know, I'm sorry," I said, "but we were attacked, and everything got broken in the fight. Well, except Mori, the sword."The Neame blacksmith sighed, "Well, I guess on some level I knew this would happen eventually; I just didn't expect it so soon." He shook his head and used magic to lift Aegis. He looked over it again and then back to me, "So did they at least do well?""Yeah, they did. Aegis, the shield, took everything like a champ, I would have been skewered without it, and Destiny gave me range when I needed it. I took out several of those noble's familiars with her. That wyvern would have killed me if I hadn't had them all." I told him. When I said the word wyvern, his head perked up a bit, and the feathers on his head did too."A wyvern you say," his voice sounding much lighter, "the things I made helped beat a wyvern?" He started standing a bit taller now and his chest was even poked out. "Well, how about that…""So, can they be fixed?" I wondered. He looked over everything one more time."The shield will need to be patched and melded back together, but it's doable. The spear however, that might be a lost cause, at least the shaft anyway. I could retemper the metal, but there is always a chance that a wooden shaft will break again. You might want to consider ordering a new one out of a metal tube. That way it will be harder to break and easier to repair." He explained."How much is all that going to cost?" Suma spoke up."I won't lie… probably a lot. Maybe a whole daljar." He said."How much is that?" I asked Suma."A lot. A daljar is what we use to store mana outside of our bodies. One daljar could hold two whole days' worth of mana from two normal Neame, or maybe about half of a day for a court mage." She explained."Can I pay half now and half upon completion?" I asked the blacksmith.He wobbled his head back and forth in a thinking motion, then said, "Well, I don't know for sure how much it will cost until it's all said and done, but if you want to put a down payment then that's fine with me." He went into another room for a moment and came back carrying a small jar looking thing in his talons. The jar was about the size of his body."How did you carry that?" I wondered."It's lighter than it looks, also it's empty." He replied and scooted it in front of me. "Just put in as much as you can manage, and we can worry about the rest later." I knew how to do this part as it was pretty similar to when I paid for my room at the kennel, only this jar was a lot bigger. I placed my hand on the top of it and started forcing mana into the jar. I had to be careful; the first time I tried this, I broke the jar. Slowly, I let mana flow into the container, but unlike the kennel, I didn't feel any resistance, so I let it flow a bit harder assuming that I was holding back too much. "Are you okay Jake?" Suma asked after a moment."Yeah, I'm fine." I said with my eyes still closed, trying to focus on not breaking the bottle."Are you sure son?" The blacksmith asked sounding a bit worried."Yeah… why?" I asked opening my eyes and seeing that the jar was almost full and glowing brightly enough that all of us had to avert our eyes. I immediately stopped as I didn't want to accidentally lose control and break the bottle. "Oh, sorry."The blacksmith peaked around the wing he was using to shield his eyes from the light, "It didn't do that the last time you paid did it?""Suma paid last time." I said. "Speaking of which, it didn't cost this much to have it made, why is it so much to have it repaired?""Most of the price is the metal tube, it's difficult hallowing out a metal rod." The Neame said still side eyeing the glowing daljar."Jake did this happen when you paid for your room?" Suma asked."I don't know, the thing I used then wasn't see through." I said to her. Turning back to the blacksmith, I asked "Why are you hallowing out a prebuilt rod? Why not make a flat sheet, then roll it?""Evenly heating a hallow tube with Flame Magic is nearly impossible alone, and unless you want to pay a higher price, I can't hire someone to help me." He said. I thought for a moment as he covered up the brightly flowing daljar with a rag, allowing us all to fully open our eyes again."Can I see your working area?" I asked him. "I want to see how you create the fire with magic and how you mold the metal." My question seemed to catch him off guard, but he agreed, and we walked to his back room. Suma excused herself saying that she had other business to attend to. I think she just didn't want to watch."Okay, let's fire up the forge," The blacksmith said and placed a wingtip on a small red symbol emblazoned on the side of a brick and metal box. The symbol began to glow, and a magic circle formed in the center of the box, then it erupted into flames. "First we need to prepare our materials." He said and flew over to a small pile of metal rods in the corner of his shop. He pointed his greying wing tips at one of them, and a yellow glow enveloped the rod, and it began to float towards a table with runes etched into the top."What are these for?" I asked gesturing to the engravings."Different things, one is for holding the metal in place, another for keeping it hot so it is more malleable, and the final one is to cool it off slowly for the tempering process." He explained. I didn't know much about metalwork on my world, but I did know that this was probably something the blacksmiths of Earth would kill a man for."Impressive." I said."Really? Those are fairly standard runes for metalwork. Are they uncommon on your world?" He asked as he pressed the rune on the forge again, making the flames grow even bigger."Magic doesn't exist on my world. We have metalwork though." I told him, and when I did, he looked like I had been speaking gibberish."A world without magic? How can such a thing exist, let alone have metalwork?!" He sounded flabbergasted."We use a gas called propane to create fire hot enough to heat the metal, and as for the shaping, I think they use automatic machine hammers now." I explained, but he still seemed confused. I spent a few minutes explaining what I did know about Earth's metalworking, which was not much, while the blacksmith Nymph sat in stunned silence and occasionally asking a question. Some of the questions I could answer, but most I couldn't. Our conversation lasted so long, that the forge almost went cold and needed to have more mana put into it. He was about to do it himself, but I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn how to use runes properly, so I asked him to show me and explain how to use the forge's rune."It's pretty simple," he started, "just make contact with the rune, then start flowing mana into it.""May I try?" I asked. He nodded his head, and I placed a hand on the rune and followed his instructions. Flowing mana into it was easy enough, just like paying for something, but as soon as I did, the rune glowed a bright red and the forge nearly exploded. Flames began pouring out of the furnace's opening so quickly that the blacksmith thought it best to close the door. "It wasn't like that when you did it." I pointed out."You must have put in quite a bit of mana." He said. "The more mana that goes into a rune, the stronger the effect." I wiped some sweat off my brow, the forge had been going for a while and the room had grown hot enough that I was glad once he closed the furnace door."So, can you show me how you make the rods float like that?" I asked."Of course, it's pretty simple actually." He said and floated one towards me for me to practice on. "Just imagine wrapping the whole bar in a blanket of mana and manipulate that. As if you are picking it up by strings rather than by the bar itself." It made sense to me, so I tried it. I closed my eyes and held the bar in my hands, then imagined closing a wave of mana around the entire metal bar and lifting that mana up. I felt the metal leave my hand and opened my eyes to see it floating. "You're a natural." He said and floated a bar into the small open window of the furnace."Thanks, by the way, how long will it take for the metal to heat up?" I asked."Not long, it's a flame rune, and the sides of the furnace are made of stones that reflect a lot of heat, so for a bar this size… ten minutes." He explained. The time went by fast as I continued practicing moving the bar around and controlling it. "Do you wanna do the honors of pulling the bar out and placing it on the table?""I'd love to." I replied and went over to assist him."Okay, just be careful you don't lose control and drop it, it will be glowing red hot and might burn you if it touches you." He told me. I carefully wrapped my mana around the bar and gently pulled it from the flames, but as soon as it was out, we noticed a problem; it wasn't red hot. In fact, it wasn't hot at all… and neither was the forge. I couldn't feel any heat coming from the fire."Oh no," I realized. "I'm sorry, I think I inverted the forge with my magic.""What do you mean?" The Neame asked."My magic is inversion. I can invert the types of any form of magic. I guess when I used the rune, I must have caused the fire rune to turn into an ice rune or something." I explained."Inversion…" he wondered. "I can't say I have ever heard of that." He looked over the metal rod and saw that it wasn't hot. "But nevertheless, it's fixable. Just place the rod over there and I will fix the forge." I floated the rod to the table he gestured at, and he flew over to the rune. He placed a wing onto the rune and the flames went out, then removed it and repeated the process to turn it back on. I tried to put the rod down and gently as I could manage, but as soon as it hit the table, it shattered like glass dropped from a three-story window."Sorry," I said looking down at the shattered mess."How on Atmosia did that happen?" The blacksmith exclaimed. I took a quick note of the phrase and reminded myself to ask Suma about her world's name."It must have been the cold." I theorized."The cold broke the rod?" He said amazed."I guess if you get anything past a certain temperature it becomes fragile." I said using magic to pick up the pieces and placing them on the table. Just as I finished picking up the final piece, the nymph said it would take another few moments for the forge to heat up fully. That was fine with me, I wanted to try something. I closed my eyes and started focusing on one of the pieces of the shattered rod."What are you doing?" He asked as I sat on the floor with a small shard of metal in front of me."Heat, it's just the atoms of an object vibrating rapidly, I want to see if I can induce that effect without flames. All I really have to do is add energy after all." I explained with my eyes closed still focusing on the shard. I pictured flowing mana into the broken bit of metal, and then causing the atoms of the shard to vibrate quicker and quicker until the metal started to glow. I imagined the atoms absorbing the energy of my mana into themselves.Then I heard it, "Now how did you do that?" I opened my eyes and saw a red-hot shard of metal, almost beginning to melt on the floor."I can't believe it worked." I said to myself just before some of the molten metal touched the leg of my trousers and caught it on fire! "Ahh!" I shouted and jumped up. I thought for a moment about creating water to put the fire out, but before my brain had come up with a plan, my body had already started swatting at my trousers trying to punch the flames out. In an instant, but it felt much longer, I started stripping off my bottoms. Suddenly, I was hit with a huge wave of water that put out the small flames. I turned around and saw the blacksmith standing on top of a counter and a blue rune glowed behind him."AHAHAH!" He cackled in his raspy old voice. "Twelve years I have had this rune here, and this is still the best investment I've ever made." I looked down at my half burnt half drowned trousers laying on the ground and wondered to myself how I let that happen."Catch many things on fire then?" I wondered aloud and picked up my clothes from the ground. I glanced over and saw that the water had cooled off the metal too, as it was now also dripping wet."I haven't in a while, but yes." He answered and fluttered back to the forging table. "Your garments seem to need repair," the blacksmith pointed out.I stuck a few fingers through the new hole burned into the left leg and sighed. "They are easy to replace, but it means I need to head home for a while."He nodded his head, "That's fine, I can give you a lesson in metalwork another time.""I'll call Suma and have her send me back, but before I do…" I said and reached into the back pocket of my ruined jeans and pulled out a piece of paper, "I sketched out some designs for the armor I wanted to order." I placed the paper on a nearby table and took a minute to explain everything I wanted and how best to do it. I expected him to be overwhelmed at the thought of making more gear for me, but instead he looked confused."Jake, what is this material?" He asked."Oh, you can just make it out of normal metal, it doesn't need to be anything special." I answered him."No, I don't mean the strange drawings, what is this white stuff you drew on?" He asked. It took me a moment to realize, I have not seen even a scrap of paper in this entire world. I have been coming and going from this world for months, but I haven't so much as even seen a torn shred of it floating in the breeze."It's called paper. On my world we use it to write stuff down on." I said."What is it made of?" He asked."Um, wood pulp I think, then it gets dissolved in acid, rinsed off, formed out, then pressed and left out to dry." I explained what little I knew."Wow, if you sold this, I bet you could make a lot. It is so much lighter than planks!" He exclaimed. Planks… right, I had seen a few Neame carrying planks of thin wood around. I guess the nymphs haven't invented chemistry yet."I think I'll pass for now, but maybe one day." I said and prepared to call Suma. "Suma, can you send me back home for a bit. I need a change of clothes.""Okay, but I will have to summon you first… duck down." She said. I was a bit confused but did it anyway. I said goodbye to the blacksmith and was summoned to an insanely cramped room. My head was touching the ceiling even though my knees were on the ground."What the- where are we?" I asked."We are in-" Suma stopped and looked me over, "Jake... where are the rest of your garments?""They were burned, so I need to go get new ones." I said. Suma laughed and said she understood, then told me I was currently in her parents' house. "No kidding? I'd love to meet them." I told her."Perhaps after you get dressed." She said and sent me back. I reappeared back in my room and grabbed a spare set of clothes. I changed everything because I had been wearing the same outfit for a few days now, just washing them with water magic at night. I looked at the time, and then immediately did a double take when I realized what I saw. It was about lunch when I left, but my clock said it was almost 2:00 AM and that several days had passed.