Noem hissed in effort and sank down the slab, pools of solidified stone drying at his feet. Things hadn’t gone exactly as he’d expected, but he felt that he was finally getting somewhere. Even if he had to stop at frustration station and failure junction before he reached his final stop.

Stone dripped through his fingers like cooling tar. He’d managed to get it to completely change its consistency with more than a little effort, but now he was getting the hang of it. Instead of a few thoughts, a handful of seconds of concentration, and some precisely placed Qi, he’d boiled it down to a few errant thoughts and a quick burst of Qi. Yet it still wasn’t enough. The difference between altering the matter through physical touch and from a distance through the system was about as different as a lemon and an icepick.

“Don’t be discouraged. You’ve only been working for, what, four hours now?” The Artisan said encouragingly. “Bonded cultivators might instinctively know how to use their new abilities, but it takes them months to be able to use them properly. You’ll be more than good long before then.”

“Aw, thanks. But I’m not discouraged.” Noem sighed and leaned back against the slab. “Just so fucking exhausted from emptying, refilling, and emptying my Qi reserves six times over. But hey, I can easily make the rock into a slurry when I’m touching it. And I can do the same over the system with a whole lotta difficulty.”

The Artisan laughed lightly at Noem’s almost-joke. “What you’re doing is like trying to make an artificial heart work with just your own blood. While still having your actual heart very much alive and beating in your chest. ‘Difficult’ is the name of the game, and the fact that you’re even making progress this early shows that you’re playing just fine. Even if you’re on assisted difficulty.”

Noem nodded slightly, then snapped his fingers and summoned a small metal box from his inventory. He knew what was inside it, and as long as everything went well, he wouldn’t have to open it. But just having it there on his lap was more than comforting. Since it was a foolproof solution to any one singular problem.

Then he summoned his knife, this time with a surge of conscious thought and a shove of Qi into his interface. It clattered to the ground next to him instead of where he’d intended it to go. He winced and gingerly picked up the fragile knife, inspected it for damage, then frowned at a hairpin crack in the blade.

“Can’t let exhaustion make mistakes for me.” He said to himself, and The Artisan didn’t respond. She was strangely good at discerning which words were directed at her, and which weren’t. “None of my enemies would let me off the hook because I made a sleepy mistake, and none of my skills will correct themselves after I let them loose. You worked through that once before, and you can do it again.”

The blade of the knife caught the strange light of The Artisan’s domain. A greenish glint that revealed the material wasn’t quite opaque, but that it was so close to it that anything seen through it would come away as a verdant blur. Its red accents trailed through the green as a promise of violence and its delivery, and it had delivered more violence than any weapon Noem had ever held. Mostly to naturally bonded spirits, but very recently, to one anonymous figure that may or may not have survived a gushing neck wound.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

Noem admired his work, then solemnly bowed his head to it. “Sorry, old friend, but you’re way too identifiable. So you’re going to have to go into witness protection–and speaking of, how would you feel about becoming a weapon of slightly different destruction?”

“Ooh, I’m interested.” The Artisan leaned down and dipped her paws into the slab so she was staring straight down. “I was wondering why you had a softsteel weapon.”

“Not just any softsteel. Viridian softsteel.” Noem corrected. He grabbed hold of the handle and snapped the blade clean off, leaving behind absolutely no steel. Then he sent the handle away and focused completely on the blade. “And a small band of bloodstone I crushed into a thick paste and hardened with my Qi. One of the sharpest things I’ve ever seen, and since it’s my blood in the bloodstone, it was much easier to coat it in my skills. But I guess I don’t need that anymore, do I?”

The Artisan shook her head. “No, you don’t. Are you going to replace it with some programmable matter?”

“That was the plan, yes.” Noem nodded as he broke apart the softsteel to get at the bloodstone. It was warm to the touch, and when it pressed to his fingers, it stuck like a tongue to a metal pole. After that, it was very simple to pull all of the bloodstone away. Leaving only the softsteel. “Do you have a forge I can use to remake this thing?”

Stone shifted and broke apart in perfect cubes to reveal a set of tools and a forge all made of the same stuff. It rose from the ground, pushed by more of the cubes, until it was a little over waist-high next to Noem. A flame burst into being that was coloured exactly like The Artisan’s Qi, and it radiated more power than Noem needed for a little repair. Especially for softsteel.

“Well, I’m not going to deny such a thoughtful gift.” Noem chuckled to himself as he stood on tight legs. “After this I’m gonna have to take a long nap, though. Maybe even get a full night’s sleep.”

“You’re allowed to do that.” The Artisan said with a wave of her paw. Another paw that hadn’t sunken into the stone, making the total number of paws she had an uneven five. “I’ll get you some food that doesn’t need to be cooked while you work that softsteel into something new. Just contact me through your interface when you want to be picked up.”

Noem waved as The Artisan’s Qi left her statue. “Won’t be long. I’ve already done this half a dozen times.”

He went to roll up his sleeves, only to be reminded that he only wore a towel. Noem hummed in thought and gathered up all the softsteel he wanted to shape into something new, then reached for a handful of programmable matter to replace the bloodstone. This would be perfect practice for later, and it would kill one of the only leads Ajiana’s people had managed to gather. Of course that wouldn’t matter if they actually recorded his face, but The Artisan hadn’t said anything about that.

And he really hoped she would, if that was the case. “No point worrying about that now. What I should be thinking about is what you’re going to become, used-to-be-knife. I’ve got more than enough softsteel to make pretty much anything, but turning you into a bladed weapon could draw more than a little suspicion. No, you need to be something else completely. Not a bow, and definitely not a gun, so what else?”

Noem tapped a handful of softsteel against the forge. “I guess it really depends on what I’m doing next, doesn’t it? Maybe a necklace, or some other kind of jewelry. But that’d be such a waste of good material. You were supposed to be the anchor for whatever I bonded, but that ship’s obviously already sailed. How about… gauntlets? Gloves? Nah, who ever heard of metal gloves. And Gauntlets would need more materials than I’ve got on me to be properly articulated.”

“Hm. Doesn’t leave much left, does it?” Noem chuckled and tossed the softsteel into the fire. The Artisan’s Qi liquified it almost instantly, and he felt it permeate the metal at the same time. Strengthening it somehow. “Nah, what I need is something I can justify having on me at all times but that’s also kind of useful in combat.”

The fire crackled as the programmable matter joined the softsteel slurry. Noem had an idea, and it would be a very easy thing to make. So of course he had to overcomplicate it. Otherwise, what would be the point in having anything made of softsteel?