The Celestial Forge
By: Schin Ka'Tharos
CHAPTER 24
(Part 2)
I stood over the grand table again and began to forge. I expected the essence to pull into the table like it had just done but nothing happened as my spell formed. My mind scoured my previous experience thinking through exactly what had happened. Then I leaned over and placed my hands onto the dark wooden surface. Immediately the essence I spell-forged drained from me into the wood.
As soon as I ceased spell-forging my essence stopped leaving me. However, curiously, I could still feel my authority over the essence that was now in the table, although dimmed. I tested it out a few more times and confirmed that anytime I touched the wood and spell-forged the essence would get sucked within as soon as it left my body.
By the end of my tests I was fatigued and over half of my essence was sunk into the table. Still, feeling my connection to the essence gave me some comfort as I knew it wasn't lost to me. However, I couldn't determine what or how to use it now that it was within the table.
I had the impression that the table needed more essence than what I had offered. This was a new problem layered on top of my other existing ones. Over half my essence was inaccessible already but I needed to sink even more into the table. How much was needed was unknown to me. I could put every last drop of essence in and nothing could happen. I couldn't simply walk away at that point though. I needed my essence back and I needed to figure out what the table did and how it could be of use.
An idea sparked in me. I went to the storage/kitchen room and willed the hidden door to swing open. On the bottom of the shelf to my left there were two long boards I had found when I had first discovered the room. They were both two inches by two inches and made of the same dark wood as the grand table. I selected one of them and slid it out to set it up straight. It was about as tall as I was. There were a few numbers and measurements scribbled in grandfather's writing with chalk up one side of it. They must have been either scraps left over from the table or from a different project.
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I sat down at the first workstation and placed the wooden board on the table. I had completely organized the workstation so any Ghost Mask parts that I hadn't used were put away, so I had plenty of room to work. I wanted to test this wood away from the grand table for the time being. I rested my hands on the wood and spell-forged. Like the wood from the grand table the board drank in my essence, however it wasn't desperately pulling it in, more like allowing it to filter in.
I stopped forging after only a trickle of my essence had entered it. Just like with the table a new awareness of the board had flickered to life, but it felt different. I couldn't quite place it but the essence in the board felt like it was sitting in clay that was ready to be shaped or molded, whereas the table felt like it sat in a complicated mechanism waiting to power it. So the wood itself had some type of storage properties, but also the table had been made to function in an altered way. Or the behavior of the wood was somehow able to be manipulated.
My essence in the thin dark board, while still under my authority, still felt out of reach and unusable. That problem still remained.
With a slight pang of regret and annoyance I put both the hammer and tongs back into the compartment within the table and headed up stairs. I had wrapped the hook blade edge carefully in some of the fabric and put it within my robes. Though seemingly meager as it was, there was comfort in finally having a weapon on me.
I found Ciara in a spell-forging exercise when I emerged onto the first floor. She was upside down in a balanced handstand using only one hand. Her other hand was stretched out to her side to balance but also hairline strands of essence twisted and turned around it. They knit together like threads of a cloth in a specific pattern and then would unravel to then knit together again in a new way. I watched her in silence for a while. Eventually her essence dissolved and she effortlessly sprung off her hand to flip to her feet.
“A simple exercise, but it helps with my precision and accuracy.” Ciara said. “Wasn't sure if you were going to make an appearance today or not. Did I hurt you that bad in our sparring yesterday?”
“I’ve been busy,” I said. “When trying to reach the top of a mountain you have to keep climbing.”
“Uh huh.” She said, eyeing me. “This mountain you’re climbing down there?”
She nodded to the location of the steps leading to the basement. I moved towards the steps and waved for her to follow.
“Don't worry about your brother. I’ll know if his status changes.” I said. “We need to discuss a few things further. Come, let me show you where we stand so we can plan accordingly.”
Next Chapter...
Chapter 24 (Part 3)