The Celestial Forge

By: Schin Ka'Tharos

Chapter 19

(Part 2)

I set about exploring the room and approached the workbench for the station closest to the door. Splayed out on the tabletops' surface were sections of a half assembled mask along with an assortment of parts surrounding it. It was as if grandfather had abandoned the project in the middle of dismantling it.

Collectively the parts seemed to form a mask designed to cover the lower half of the face. It looked like the visage of an ancient death god statue missing its top half. It was constructed from a mix of dark metal alloys in simple yet masterful craftsmanship. Hell-bronze, the rare alloy formed from metal only found in fever hot mining pits incredibly deep underground, made the main body of the mask which stopped just above the bridge of the nose and sloped down through the center of the mask and under the eyes. On each side of the mouth area set slightly under the hell-bronze was black steel in its gritty charcoal tone with thin vertical slits that formed a grill of sorts.

The partial mask looked strikingly similar to a fully complete mask grandfather had within a glass display case in his study just two floors above. I picked up the mask to inspect it further and in doing so noticed a symbol carved into the center of the table. Expertly etched into the stone slab was a circle that contained a curved line that curled in upon itself directly above a single teardrop shape. The ancient symbol of the first flowline.

The simple haunting visage of the outer side of the mask decried its sophisticated construction within. Intricate and delicately crafted mechanisms had been worked together to form an interlacing artificer and blacksmithing masterpiece. Grandfather had trained me in many fields and I did have some skill in both smithing and artificering. I surmised the mask to be a prototype and unfinished version of a project of grandfather's.

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The next station looked like the workplace of an alchemist or a tailor. Bottles, liquids and ingredients of varying colors and viscosity lined one side of the station organized on small shelving. The other half of the bench contained fabrics,and other strange substances I couldn't identify at first glance. Near the center was a pile of scraps of a thick almost rubbery fabric the color of a silvery cloud.

To my satisfaction I found another symbol carved into the center of the tabletop at the second station as well. This time within an etched circle there were half moon shapes bracketing perpendicular lines of equal size in the center. The ancient symbol for the second flowline.

Curious, I inspected the final three stations and confirmed my suspicions. Each station had a different ancient symbol of one of the five flowlines signaling the dedicated purpose of each workspace.

The three remaining tables varied drastically in contents just like the first two had. One station had a small circular object suspended in the middle of a large glass cylindrical container. Yellow and red lightning danced and streaked within the glass and cables of varying sizes jutted out of the cylinder like tentacles from a sea creature.

The fourth station was a shamble of empty and broken jars. A few still contained ingredients of dried leaves or powders but all in all the station looked like it had been ransacked and destroyed. The table itself was even split and a crack divided its surface right down the middle of its carved symbol.

On the last station a bone-white box the size of my torso sat alone. The material of the box was smooth but had a subtle roughness to it like a fine marble. It was immaculate in design and purity with no discernible flaws or markings. It also had no observable ways to open it. It was as if I had imagined a perfect white cube and it had manifested itself there in front of me.

Glancing over the room I took a moment for gratitude towards my grandfather. If my presumptions were correct, the boon of this workshop would almost make up for the unfortunate squandering of my grandfather's gift of pure celestial rain.

Next Chapter...

Chapter 19 (Part 3)