The Celestial Forge

By: Schin Ka'Tharos

CHAPTER 24

(Part 3)

Ciara remained quiet and observant as we descended the spiral staircase into the basement and as I led her down the long hallway to the workshop. I stopped at the double doors at the shop's entrance and shifted my stance to watch her as I willed them open.

Her eyes took in the room stoically though a hint of surprise registered on her face. I motioned her into the room and she started to step in. Then her eyes found the grand wooden table in the center and she froze.

“By the hand of Onak” She whispered. She walked forward as if in a trance, oblivious to all else in the room except the grand table.

“Do you recognize this table?” I asked. She stopped a few feet away from it.

“Huh? Oh the table? No, it's not the table itself. It's the wood.” She said, and looked at me then. A childish aww adorned her face.“Do you know what this is?”

“The wood? No I don't.” I said.

“This is realmwood.” She whispered the name with reverence and went over to place her hands on the table. “I told you before that my clan is very old. Over the many long years we had collected a few unique items. I only recognize the realmwood because my family has a small box made from it. Realmwood is one of the rarest materials that exists. It’s virtually a myth. A small fragment it wildly valuable, I am having trouble comprehending that this entire massive table is made from it”

“Realmwood. Ok, what do you know about it?” I asked.

“Some say it's wood from the first tree.” She said.”But, there's some evidence and rumors to suggest that the species still grows from time to time in remote and rare conditions. It's unknown though, or at least not common knowledge. Its extreme rarity isn't the only reason why it's so valuable and coveted though. It’s the woods properties. This is, in part, is where the Guilds learned how to make core-formed weapons and items from”

“Wait, what?” I said.

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“The wood has the ability to store and channel essence. More importantly though, a forged pattern can be imprinted into wood itself.” She said, “I am not sure about the process, but it's like burning a set of instructions into the wood. I believe once it imprints on the wood it is fixed to that pattern too, at least that is how the box is within my clan.”

“So just like a core-formed weapon functions like a pre-set technique,” I said. “ I could take a piece of the realmwood and, for instance, imprint a blade vector technique into it and then everytime I pushed essence into the wood it would perform the technique?”

“Yes, I believe so.” She said, “But the realmwood is supposed to be more nuanced than that. It is more broad and dynamic in its ability to carry out techniques than core-formed creations. My Aunt had explained it to me like this: you can teach realmwood how to paint landscapes and you can teach a core-formed item how to paint a specific pine-tree.”

“Is there a certain amount of essence required to feed into the wood for the technique to trigger?” I asked. My hope had been growing ever since she had recognised the wood.

“I don't believe so,” She said. “That would solely depend on the technique I believe. And the amount of wood maybe?”

“You said something about essence storage?” I said.

“Just that it’s part of how the wood functions ito be able to enact a technique I guess. I don't really know.” She said, “What I know is very limited. All I've said is essentially the extent of my knowledge on it.”

I sighed. “Ok, thank you. I wasn’t expecting you to know anything about the table at all to be honest. I had brought you down to show you some other things and to give you a comprehensive look at the resources available to us to know how to plan accordingly together. Your knowledge on the wood got my hopes up though, I’ve sunk over half of my essence into it and it's unusable to me until I can figure out how to release it from the table.”

“You were able to push some essence into it?” She said, “How? Did you get it to work and trigger a technique?”

“No, it simply absorbs all the essence I spell-forge while touching it. All my essence is still sitting dormant within the realmwood. I can still feel my authority over it but I can't do anything with it.

“Let me try.” She said.

Before I could object her eyes lit on fire and she spell-forged. Nothing happened. I could see the essence slithering around her fingertips as she tried.

“Strange,” She said. “ It doesn't seem to want my essence. My flame influence shouldn't be the problem. It isn't supposed to bother realmwood. Maybe because you already started filling it up. I’m not sure. That’s different than a core-formed mechanism though, as far as I know all core-formed items work like the Skiff and multiple Forgers can pour into the item at the same time. Looks like you're on your own and the only one that can fill it up.”

“Which leads me to one of the things we need to discuss.” I said. Then I pulled out a few pouches full of rendings and set them on the table.

“I stole all of your rendings.” I said.

Next Chapter...

Chapter 24 (Part 4)