The coffer, an intricately carved piece out of dark wood, sat on my table. Right there, in the middle of us, catching my attention, making it hard for me to concentrate. It was distracting, to say the least. Who did that? Putting an obviously valuable coffer right on the table and then not talk about it?
“What is that?“ I finally snapped, his introduction of himself becoming ever more elaborate and...empty of meaning.
“That, dear friend, is the birthplace of all greatness in this cruel world of ours. You want to wrangle the Essence of creation into new forms even the mightiest of gods have not known before? You need one of these.“ He smiled slyly, even contend, as if I had sprung a trap he had been laying out for me the whole time. I did not see it.
“What do you call it? A loom? I saw something similar, once.“ I said remembering the loom in the chamber of the Storysmith.
“Oh no, you have not seen anything like this. Because this is not a loom, I can see why you would think that would be the term for it, seeing as Skills are woven. But this does not weave. This takes existing forms and fuses them together. Even smithing is too dull a term for what truly is happening, but we don’t need grandiose terms. It is a Skillforge, plain and simple. But this one is special. It is created by the greatest Skillsmith that ever existed.“
Heron had talked himself into a whirlwind of enthusiasm.
“I am sorry, Heron, but why does that matter?“ I asked.
“It matters because you will have it before this talk is over, and I need you to understand how great a gift it is. The knowledge of the Pathforger is incorporated into every part of this forge, it works with you, nudges you in the right direction, even goes so far as to do the work for you. It has no sentience or anything, but it is so much easier than learning the craft by yourself. Just rely on the mastery of a legend!“
Now that made me suspicious.
“Wait, why would you give it to me? Where is the catch?“
“The catch is, that I will make a tidy profit if you use it. I actually want you to be successful because it will be a success for me as well. I do not see why I should bore you with the details. Accept the windfall and the luck that brought me to your door!“ He smiled.
“Things don’t fall out of the sky, where I come from, and nothing comes cheap. I will hear the reason for your generosity, or we will end negotiations right here.“ I crossed my arms and leaned back. I would not suffer a fool, nor would allow me to be made into one.
He looked like he had to swallow a bitter pill, but forced a smile back within seconds. “Right, yes, as you wish. Skillforging is a mighty tool indeed, but it is limited by the Skills at your disposal. Finding the combinations that work and make sense is the real art, as long as you have access to the techniques of the master and a forge like this. This forge is a masterpiece, but in the sense that it was created by a master. Not for a master. You see, in his time, the Pathforger overcame his limitations with these forges. It is a gift to everyone who is in possession of one. But it is a gift to the gift giver as well. He learns what you learn. Everybody wins.“
“What does that mean exactly? You get to spy on any Skills I use?“
He laughed merrily, shaking his head as if I had made the funniest jest in the world. “No, nothing like that.“ He wiped imaginary tears out of his eye. “To really understand what I mean you need to know how Skills are forged together. It is a complicated process of combining two concepts into one whole. Sometimes it is easy because the two concepts are naturally similar. Sometimes it is not, and for those cases, the forging is more important than the Skills that are combined. Imagine two pieces of art, a wolf and a lamb, for instance. Two opposite concepts, but if you embed them into a painting, a barn overshadowed by the woods in which the wolf lurks, then you get a whole. Both wolf and lamb are part of it, but neither is more important than the scene they are embedded in.“
He realized I was not really following him, quite the contrary, I began to frown at his words, so he hastily added: “The knowledge of skillforging is a bottomless sea, that will never be fully understood. But it is the language, the fractals you need to combine the Skills with, which will be shared with me. Not the Skills. Not only with me, mind you, but with you as well, as all the forges are connected.“
“Well, Heron, I have to say that I do not completely follow your meaning. Why, by the dead gods and the damned, would you offer me of all people a trade like this? There has to be a catch, if what you say is true and this forge is as special as you seem to think it is.“
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“First of all, you underestimate the benefits, I have just described to you, how could you not? You will learn in time how valuable it is to have a fresh pair of eyes on a problem you are trying to solve for years. Secondly, and let me be perfectly honest here, you might not even thank me for it. The forge has a mind of its own and is hard to tame. I search out young godlings especially because they are prone to make the riskiest mistakes. And those I can learn from the most without endangering myself. And lastly: I believe in luck. It has served me as a true friend, all of my life, and brought me the forge along with everything else. I take luck as fate and law, and would not change it for the world.“
He sounded earnest there, but he was right in one point: I was prone to making the riskiest mistakes.
“I am not sold, I‘m sorry Heron.“
He shrugged. “Because you do not know how mighty an asset this forge truly is. If you knew, you would be jumping at the chance. Instead, you will learn the hard way and pay the price for all the knowledge and items you need. And that is fine by me, as it is my source of income. I realize that my offer sounds too good to be true, but I will not make the decision for you. So, now that my offer is off the table, what can I do for you as the Skillsmith you have sought after?“
He leaned forward, and there was something in his eyes, something earnest, that made me hesitate. He truly seemed to be done with his sales pitch, and now wanted to move on to the business I had with him, which was fair. It felt remarkable like having made a wrong decision.
“Hold on, wait.“ I raised a hand. “I have not said to be uninterested in the Skillforge and the process of forging. I just had...reservations.“
In the end, I knew nothing. That was true for a lot of things. So, if I got offered a forge that came with the knowledge of a master, combined with the collective knowledge of who knows what, I just could not say no. I wanted it.
“Did you now?“ He smiled. “Well, the forge is on the table. Take it then.“
“And you want nothing in return?“
“Not for the forge, no. But I am sure I can offer you my services in the future because you will see what is possible and you will want to learn....and that is where I will come in.“
I had to smile as well. Well, Heron could not know that I was in the possession of a book all about the mystical process of skillforging, so...I was making one hell of a deal here.
“The bargain is struck.“ I said and we shook hands on it.
Smalltalk followed, which ended as I led him to the door, both of us smiling happily. Both of us having the feeling of having pulled the other one over the barrel. Those were the best kind of deals.
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I left for the Storysmith, to bring my sword before him, but his stall was empty. Which was a shame, but not unexpected. I left a message for him, asking him to meet me with the time and means to work on the secrets of Kingsbane and left the Fulcrum.
I itched to try out my new forge, but I did not really know how to even start, so I asked Lily to take a look and ask around. She immediately dove into the coffer, literally disappeared into it, and examined the unfathomably intricate weavings and fractals of Essence, that were contained within.
I on the other hand could not contain my excitement and return to reality, to read in the book of the golem maker with the help of [Decipher the Ancient Truth]. More than anything else, more than vanity at the very least, I was in search of a weapon to wield against the Weirderbeast, and if the legendary Skillforge that quite literally had just fallen into my lap was the way to get me one, I needed to put in the hours in to learn what I could, as well.
I dove into the world of this other language, a language of symbolism, hidden meanings, and...art. The Skills were the cold, hard facts of the godling world, combining them was putting them into context, was deconstructing them to their core, and rearranging them as something bigger than the sum of the two or more parts.
To do that I had to learn. Where an artist would draw with colors, painstakingly won through the milling of insects, snails, and other esoteric and obscure resources to create inks and pigments, I now had to first learn what the medium even was I was working with. I had to learn what colors were, so to speak, and where to get them.
Then, I had to learn the alphabet and grammar of a new artistic language and the techniques required to wield the paintbrush. Lastly, I had to learn the theories behind the art. Why some things worked, like complementary colors and harmonies, or why some combination of words sounded good - like rhymes - or not.
It was a daunting task, one made easier by not having to read the words and have the meaning of them directly laid out before me, and a passive understanding of the weaving process I had gained as I had created Skills for myself.
I devoured the book whole, and then, having not understood a fraction of it, I started again. This time I got a lot of the references I had previously missed.
It was the first time, ever really, that I felt the joy of learning and scholarship. The mountains of Ravenrock were a backwater, I am not too proud to say. I have had my schooling, but it had been that of a nobleman groomed to lead and fight. The most reading I had done was for the church, and I had been reluctant in putting my nose into the dusty tomes when there had been the back of a horse, the clear mountain air, or the training yard waiting for me.
I certainly would have wished for better circumstances, damp mountain nights and campfires were not ideal conditions for reading tomes as old as the mountain itself, but I took what I could get, in the desperate hope that knowledge would bring me the solution to a problem I had no idea on how to solve.