20 Ash 120 Steel
Talon set the greater aetherite shards within the chamber of the runeforge. He was careful to arrange them in a way so that in their melted form the essence of the aether contained within them would mix with the other components he had gathered. He set the greater lorestone into the very center of the chamber. That was then followed by carefully arranging the elemental dragonshards that he had spent a larger part of the season thus far, collecting. After that he closed the bottom most chamber and moved on to the second compartment for less arcane sourced materials. Turning to his assembled components, he extended a hand for the slice of hide to provide for the leather qualities that he was looking for. Spreading that upon the bottom of the compartment’s shelf he made sure that it did not cover the collection trenches that lined the interior. The last thing he wanted was for the viscerite to clog. That would have been a nightmare to clean.
One by one, Talon placed each of the components that he had gathered as he set to work assembling what would be one of the most powerful artifacts he’d ever created. At least, he would be fashioning the fundamental material necessary to forge those artifacts. This was shaping up to be one of the most elaborate endeavors that he had ever undertaken.
“How much material is this going to make?” Talon shuffled some of the components around the forge compartment before glancing at his apprentice over his shoulder.
“Enough to fully outfit two grown Avialae and an adult human.” Velkan blinked at him in surprise. He looked at all of the assembled materials, chewing on his bottom lip slightly.
“Will I be allowed to help?” Talon chuckled as he closed the compartment. He walked up to his apprentice, clasping the young Avialae’s shoulder.
“Of course. In fact, you are going to get this whole endeavor started.” The young man blinked. His mouth opened and closed for a moment before he looked around at the forge. Talon picked up the runeforge keystone, the dragonshard specifically tasked with powering the reactions that took place within the chambers of the forge. It was this gemstone that enabled the forge to guide the aetheric activities that produced the viscerite that served as the foundation of a runesmith’s work. He extended it to Velkan then pointed to the housing unit for the keystone.
“Place it there.” Velkan looked at him. With only a moment’s hesitation, the young man stepped up to the socket where the gem would fit perfectly. He placed it into the housing unit. As soon as the gemstone was properly seated, the pictography lining the runeforge began to illuminate with the violet-blue light of raw aethereal power. The arcane hue cast a spectral glow about the workshop, one that Talon had come to associate with the working of magic and the forging of great objects of power. The slight smell of ozone touched his nostrils as the runeforge set to work on breaking down the materials inside of it. Soon enough, Talon would have the viscerite that he needed in order to proceed with the true forging process.
“What now?” Talon gestured to the workshop around them.
“Assemble the tools. Make sure the workbenches are properly arranged. You remember the schema that I showed you?” The young man nodded. “Make sure they are unbroken. I am going to set about adding additional layers of warding to the workshop. There will be a considerable amount of power being forged. If anything goes wrong, it will be a disaster.”
Velkan swallowed but gave a smile. He took out the book he had been jotting notes in since studying under Talon the past several days. The young man was a sponge, eager to learn and ready to lend a hand. For that, he was grateful. It was considerably easier managing the shop with some assistance to call upon. Talon took a deep breath. He reached inside of himself, stirring his aether into motion so that he could begin the work of adding shields to the workshop that would lend a hand in his forging process. Stepping up to one of the corners he generated an anchor setting it down. He then traced a line from the top of the anchor and upwards to where the corner reached the ceiling.
To attempt to simply prevent aether from passing through the shield would have been a foolish thing to task it with. His shop was flooded with aether at all hours, the air saturated with magical essence to a degree that would have destroyed the shield in mere minutes. Instead, Talon gave the anchor the primary task of absorbing aether. He then gave it a secondary task of dispersing the aether to every anchor that was connected to it. As the shield presently only had a single anchor, that made for a very heavily charged shield teeming with power that could make it unstable. Still channeling his magic, Talon began crafting the surface of the shield that was connected to the anchor. He extended the surface outward, spreading it over the length of the wall by trailing his fingers over the stone. When he reached the doorway to one of his storage areas, Talon stopped. He created a second anchor, tasking it the same as the first and set it down at the base of the wall right beside the door.
Talon repeated this simple shielding across every individual wall within the interior of his workshop until each wall was covered. He did not create shielding over the staircase leading up to the main floor. Nor did he cover the doorways themselves. He used the layout of the walls themselves to serve as the structure of his Negation network. There was a sheen of sweat over his brow as using his Negation magic to his extent was not something he was accustomed to but he was determined to push himself. He looked over to see that Velkan was still hard at work checking over every pictograph he could make sense of. With the shields in place, Talon picked up a bottle of spellwright’s ink and a paint brush. Approaching his first anchor, he knelt down and dipped his brush into the ink. Using the brush he painted a circle around the anchor then began the work of tracing a line from it to the next anchor. One by one he began to reinforce the connection of the anchors all around the room. Carefully he began construction a sigil that would draw the aether collected by the shields away from them, bringing the network back to the keystone of the runeforge itself.
It was a simple design with minimal nuance to it that, while large, was effective for what Talon had in mind. Ambient aether and residual aether from his forging would be collected and brought back to the keystone of the runeforge itself. It would then be filtered down through the forge and brought to the surface of Talon’s anvil which was then connected to workbenches around the workshop. The surface of each station was made from solid aetherite and covered in runeforging pictography, the result would see the power of each station elevated minimally throughout the forging. Because the ambient aether was being shared between so many outlets, none of them would see a dramatic increase. Talon’s combination of negation shields and the simple nature of the pictograph he drew saw to it that aether was only added to each station via his manufactured funnel, meaning each station was still its own island amidst a sea of aethereal essence.
He wasn’t sure how long it took but by the time he looked up, Velkan was standing over him, extending a small tray of food in one hand while he chewed on a sandwich with his other. The young man smiled.
“Apologies, I tried to get your attention when I went to get food but…” He shrugged his shoulders, his wings fluttering slightly. Talon chuckled, groaning as he got to his feet. He’d gone through at least three bottles of ink and had spent more time fretting over the details of his symbols than he had in years. He set his tools aside, stretching as he popped his spine. Taking the offered tray, Talon brought it over to one of his open workbenches and sat down on a stool.
“Do we have to prepare the workshop like this every time?” Talon shook his head as he took a bite of the one of the dumplings on the tray. It was still warm, which made him sigh contentedly as he realized how hungry he was.
“This is a precaution due to the high level of the artifacts we are going to be forging. I am simply being cautious.” Velkan nodded, joining Talon at the workbench. He took out his journal, drawing out a pen so that he could begin taking notes. As he wrote, Talon cleared his throat, picking up the glass of water on the tray so that he could wet his throat.
“Let us review a bit. What do you remember about Ninarov’s Law of Aetheric Transmutation?” Velkan looked quizzical for a moment as he worked to remember some of the material they had covered thus far.
“Well…”
As Velkan spoke, Talon was finding that he enjoyed teaching. The ability to freely discuss arcane concepts was something he found stimulating, especially where the art of runeforging was concerned. He smiled as Velkan and he engaged in discourse. He was glad to have found an apprentice.
It would make the work of creating fantastical things that much more...well...fantastic.
