“Have we met before?” Mel asked.

Will’s lips curled at the edges slightly. “Kind of. I’ve seen you before.”

“When?”

“When you marched into Professor Dereey’s lesson and interrupted him. Begging him to give you an explanation.”

“Oh,” Mel said, feeling her cheeks hot from embarrassment. “Right. That was your class?”

Will nodded. “I just changed my specialization this semester. I want to become a mage smith instead.”

“So you were studying to be an elemental warrior before?”

“Yeah. But just for two semesters. I guess I would be a year ahead of you if I continued. But I didn’t.”

Mel gave him a smile and watched Will’s blue eyes shine in the light emerging from the forge. He dragged a hand through his sandy-blond hair and smiled back at her.

“Let’s start before this day disappears from us all,” Master Foss said from the head of the classroom.

He wheeled away the lectern to the side and seemed to regard it with hatred for some reason. Master Foss stood with his back turned against the blackboard. He had no chalk in his hands and no desk or lectern close to him. He was just him, meeting their gazes like they were all the same.

“I’m gonna be honest with you,” he said, dragging a hand through his beard again. “This semester is going to be different. We have unusual circumstances with the war ramping up and a dragon loose over the city. I won’t let you take your time to learn, because frankly, there isn’t any time left. You need to learn fast and study hard.”

He looked over at Mel, meeting her gaze. His eyes were warm and seemed to dance in the light from the dragon stones.

“Melissa Temper is from the dragon cult,” he said.

Mel’s skin grew cold and waited for the gasps to ensue. But there were no shocked sounds and when she looked around at her three classmates and the two guards, none of them had a look of surprise on their faces. So, they all knew. Perfect. So much for wanting to hide her origin and why she was being watched by two guards.

“She has gotten a special task from the governor himself to create a weapon to kill the dragon with. Therefore, this class is special. We’ll learn mage smithing this semester, not as a means to create weapons for elemental warriors. No, we’ll learn it to help Melissa create a double imbue. Something thought to be impossible.”

Now the class actually gasped. Or at least Meredith did. Okay, so they didn’t know everything at least.

Mel looked over at her two guards standing by the entrance into the room. Their faces also bore expressions of shock. She wondered what Headmaster Lorken, or the governor, or whoever had employed them, had told them. To watch over this sneaky dragon cult girl while she studied at the dragon forge? Wouldn’t that make them question why?

“I know this is unusual and for some of you…” Master Foss looked over at Will. “...studying at Falden means your family has paid a lot of money for this education. But I ask you to please put that aside and see the truly groundbreaking research, experiments, and knowledge you will gain from exploring this unusual semester.”

It was quiet for a beat in the lecture hall. Master Foss’ words seemed to echo through the stone walls of the cave. Mel swallowed hard, looking down at her desk. She felt exposed, vulnerable. Somehow she hadn’t expected the other students to be brought into this mess of double imbues, dragons and a war with the void.

Of course they were, though. They probably needed a lot of help, even from inexperienced students. Mel could only guess how many of the experienced mage smiths working at the forge that would also be assigned to this task.

Master Foss cleared his throat. “Well, okay. Since there are no interjections, I take it to mean you’re onboard.”

He glanced again over at Will, who was seated behind Mel. But not a word came from him.

“I think the structure must be to first go over how to make any sort of magical imbue. Then to continue with what we have so far on the double imbue and why it’s thought to be impossible. From there, we can work out the details of how to make something impossible possible. Does that sound good?”

Not a word came from the class, and Master Foss sighed.

“I expect you to not be this passive,” he said. “Whatever Professor Dereey has taught you about not speaking in class and raising your hand, stating your name, or whatever. Please unlearn it now. I need everyone in this class to correct me when I’m wrong and to speak their mind when they have something pressing on it.”

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Meredith reached her hand into the air, slowly.

Master Foss stared at her until she brought it down and cleared her throat, still very hesitant.

“I think it sounds good. But, Sir, I don’t know if it will be. I expect none of us know yet what will actually be a good plan. I think you need to decide that.”

Master Foss dragged his hand through his beard again. “Fair enough. But don’t call me Sir, please.”

“Should we call you Master, then?” Meredith asked.

Master Foss’ face drew into a grimace and he winced, seeming utterly uncomfortable with the notion of being called Master. Mel wondered why he was completely okay with Master Foss, so why did he cringe at just Master.

“No, call me Foss or Albert.”

“Albert?” Dean said, incredulity slipping into his voice.

“Yes, it’s my name. Why?”

Mel tilted her head. She would never have thought he could be an Albert, but she guessed it was possible after all. He had to have some first name, didn’t he? Maybe all of their professors had that. A first name. What was Professor Dereey’s?

Mel shivered at the thought. Somehow she didn’t want to humanize her professors with first names, after all.

No one said a word and Master Foss’ face relaxed from a frown into a neutral expression. He took a step back and regarded them for a quiet moment.

“Okay, now that those non-consequential decisions have been made. Let’s make a decision that will definitely have consequences. Big ones. What would you like to learn first? We need to choose one element to focus on and make sure we get that one right.”

It was quiet for a beat, then Mel realized she knew this answer. She knew the choice they should make. But still she hesitated for a second, feeling like big consequences were not what she wanted. She swallowed her fear and raised her hand.

Master Foss rolled his eyes at her, and Mel immediately took her hand down to her side.

“Sorry, bad habit, I’m afraid. I suggest earth or fire, whichever one you think. Since the double imbue is a mix of both of them.”

Master Foss cocked his head, looking at her with a strange expression. “Interesting. Well, in that case, I suggest fire. Earth may be easier to understand and get it right. But fire is more of a challenge and I believe you’ll learn faster by going for the more difficult one right away. What do you say?”

Everyone in the class mumbled a yes to his question, not wanting to really speak up. Maybe they also feared of the consequences landing on their shoulders. Not wanting to be the one people would blame in case they got something wrong.

There were people like Headmaster Lorken, who were hard and selfish, that actually were needed in these cases. People who could make decisions and live with the consequences of killing people. Mel knew he had a place in this world, even though she didn’t particularly like him or approve of his current choices.

“A fire imbue is created with the song of fire, iron as the material and the red dragon stone containing fire magic from a dragon. But as you probably know, these things don't guarantee a quality imbue. You also have to be a pretty good mage smith to get the fire into the metal and make it stay there. Enough of it, at least for an elemental warrior to use. How do we get to become a good mage smith? How do we create a quality imbue?”

Master Foss paused for a second, waiting for someone to maybe interrupt him by answering the questions, but no one did. So he continued.

“Well, you practice. It’s not something I can tell you about or that you can study in a book. It’s done by smithing imbues over and over again until you can feel the magic’s soul speak to you. I know, I know, that may sound strange.” He held up his hands in front of his chest. “But trust me on this. Magic has its own soul and I would say that all the four elements have their own. They sound different, as you already know, but they also are different.”

“But first, let’s go over safety.” Master Foss released his hands back to his sides. “In the dragon forge there are many mage smiths working on Headmaster Lorken’s new weapon. Maybe not so new anymore, but it’s what he calls it. They work in shifts, just in case they accidentally blow up the forge…again. If they do, they’ll only kill about half of the mage smith population.”

Mel’s eyes grew wide with this information. Mage smithing sounded way more dangerous than blacksmithing. Of course, you always run the risk of snapping off a finger or getting burned, but not blowing yourself and others up in an explosion at least. Mel shivered at the thought of what had happened here only weeks ago.

“We’ll not have that luxury. We’re only five people who will be first learning how to make a fire imbue and then experiment with the double imbue. We’ll all need to just accept the risks and run with it. No time to second guess when the dragon is still loose. But there are a few safety measures that we will be taking; Never work alone on an item, always two. Never experiment with smithing magic into an item without my approval or, in case of the double imbue, Headmaster Lorken’s approval. And never leave an unstable magical item outside of the designated areas.”

Mel’s forehead creased. What was an unstable, magical item? Where were the designated areas? She felt like she needed more information than this.

“That’s it. Lecture over. Let’s smith.”

Master Foss wrung his hands together in front of him and Mel watched his calloused fingers clasp each other. Each one of his hands reminded her of a sturdy tree trunk and she was unsure how he could even use his hands with so much hardened skin. It was impressive.

Her own hands had by now softened and forgotten their previous form. But she looked forward to once again feel the rasp of her palms against her skin and to get back into smithing. She longed for doing something she was good at. She wanted to hit stuff with a hammer and could almost hear the sound of metal clinking in her mind.

“What?” Dean said. “No, we need to know more. We need to go over exactly what we’re going to do. Even I, who have extensively studied mage smithing, need to know how.”

Master Foss gave out a burly, deep laugh, his body shaking with pleasure. Then the classroom fell quiet, and he seemed to realize it must have been a genuine question from Dean.

Master Foss cleared his throat. “We’ll take it one step at a time and as long as you remember the safety rules, you’ll learn by trial and error.”

“Trial and error?” Dean sounded indignant, like he couldn't believe Master Foss was doing this to them, to him.

“Don’t worry so much. A mage smith is, if nothing else, practical.”