Mel and Master Foss had planned their first test for creating a double imbue for days. They’d written documents, tested the material Gabs had provided and discussed for hours what the best solution would be. But nothing could have prepared Mel for what it would feel like to actually smith the weapon.
Will, Meredith and Dean had each created a fire imbue with Master Foss’ help and were now progressing as mage smiths. Mel hadn’t taken the time to work on a magical item herself. Instead, she’d poured all her waking hours into figuring out how to get the double imbue right.
It was late when Master Foss nudged Mel in the side and made her look up from her notes. She was seated in the small lecture hall that Master Foss used to teach them new ideas. She’d been scanning through the notes she’d made last night regarding temperatures and the way the material reacted to them.
“We should perform the experiment tonight,” Master Foss said.
Mel’s eyes grew wide, and her breath hitched. “Really?”
“We told Lorken it would be this week. So, either we do it today or tomorrow. But I don’t see why we should postpone it another day. We have everything we need.”
Mel glanced down at her notes and then up at Master Foss again. She swallowed the lump that formed in her throat and nodded at him.
“Good. We have the start of a blade for a knife from yesterday. I suggest we try to make a copy of your dagger.” Master Foss ran a hand through his beard and then licked his lips. “A very crude copy, at least. Let’s focus on the magic, not the dagger itself.”
Mel stood up from her seat and watched him with hesitant eyes. Would she really dare to smith two sources of magic into one item today?
She’d known this day would come and that it would be soon after the meeting with Headmaster Lorken, but now that it was finally here, she felt ill prepared.
Mel had her notes, and she thought she knew how the new material reacted under heat and pressure. It was a lot sturdier than iron, but according to Master Foss, it had nothing on titanium.
“I’ll get the tools and the metal object we made yesterday. Let’s meet by the dragon stones,” Mel said.
Master Foss took a step toward the door, but stopped and turned back. “I’ll clear the forge from the other mage smiths and ask your guards to wait outside, just in case.”
He walked out of the room, and Mel sucked in a breath. She knew what he meant, just in case she blew up the forge. Her heart sped up and her mind grew dizzy with anticipation and fear. Mel picked up the utility knife blade they’d made the day before and wrapped an apron with tools around her waist.
She walked out to the dragon stones, feeling their light calling to her. Between the earth and fire stone, Master Foss stood waiting for her. The dragon forge was empty with mage smiths and there was an eerie quiet that hadn’t been here before. Mel saw that her two guards were still in the room with them. Master Foss had apparently not convinced them to leave the forge.
Mel placed the blade into the burning embers of a small lit forge. She pumped the bellows and air rushed into the fire, making it livid in its flames. The blade glowed red and angry when she picked it up with a tong and walked over to the anvil placed between the fire and earth dragon stones.
Master Foss peered over her shoulder at the small blade and handed her a hammer. Mel frowned, looking at it. It was new, no magic ran through it. It hadn’t been tainted with use.
“What’s this?”
“It’s yours,” Master Foss said. “I asked a mage smith to make a new set of hammers for you. You’ll need your own. Especially if we succeed with the double imbue. Then the hammer will hold a mixture of the magic as well. Small traces will get trapped inside.”
“It’s made from the same material?”
“Yeah, we need it to resonate with the stones.”
“Right. Of course. I don’t know why I didn’t think about that. Thank you.”
Master Foss gave her a small smile and then turned back to staring at the knife blade lying on the anvil. Mel glanced back at the two guards. They were standing a large distance away from them, but still staying inside the dragon forge.
Mel turned back and felt out the hammer, one that would make cruder shapes, and she sucked in a deep breath. She had the material; she had the two dragon stones in front of her. The only thing left was the song. She’d gone over it several times with Master Foss, analyzing every single beat and note, to know when she would need to hit the metal.
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It was quiet in the dragon forge, and Mel felt like the world was holding its breath for her. Now, in the stillness of the otherwise bustling forge, she heard the dragon stones speaking to her in loud notes, ringing through her mind. She filtered out the sounds and focused on the earth and fire note emanating from the diamonds.
She could do this.
Mel raised her hammer and sang. “It was in dirt and water we found.”
Clink, clink, clink.
“That glowing gold of war we bound.”
Clink, clink, clink.
Something stirred in the stones and Mel’s gaze flicked up from the anvil and from the fire and earth stones. Light flowed in glowing red and brown. It mixed in front of her into an orange and Mel heard one of the guards gasp from behind her.
“Glittering, sparkling and charred you are.”
Clink, clink, clink.
Mel continued hitting the blade with her hammer, creating the right note and the magic, now orange and glowing, poured into the metal. Her hammer flickered in small veins and the blade on the anvil glowed. It consumed Mel’s focus to the degree that she missed focusing on what was happening to her heart. It was opening up again, cracking open.
“We found you, yes, you changed our hearts.”
Clink, clink, clink.
Suddenly the light emanating from the two dragon stones was dimming in Mel’s focus and her body became painfully aware of what was happening inside of her. Her heart felt like it was leaping out of her chest and Mel’s gaze flickered around the room and then landed on her own forearms. Her skin was glowing and inside, Mel felt her veins opening up.
She sucked in a breath through gritted teeth, trying to fight whatever was happening to her, and she released the hammer, placing it on the anvil next to the blade. Mel took a step away, the song falling away from her lips and the metal no longer in her touch.
Master Foss stared at her, and Mel caught his gaze for a second. He was standing so close to her. His eyes were wide and scared, like she was something he didn’t understand. Mel swallowed, looking down at her forearms, and the light had already dimmed away, leaving her to consider if it had all been her imagination.
The light from the dragon stones had drawn back and there was no more mingling of energies between the two stones. The orange light was gone, except for the dimming veins inside the hammer and the small blade. Mel shook her head awake from the strange sensations in her body and grabbed the blade with a tong. She sank it into the barrel of oil closest to the anvil and a hissing sound emerged.
“Do you think it was successful?” Mel asked.
Master Foss caught her gaze, then looked behind her at her guards. His gaze came back to her, and he gave her a curt nod. “Let’s see. Try to connect to the blade and make it glow like you would have with your dagger.”
Mel focused on the knife blade and filtered out the loud dragon stones that were ringing in her mind. She thought she heard a faint little tone inside the blade and Mel matched it in her mind. Projecting out to the dagger to glow for her.
Small orange veins circled around the metal in an intricate pattern and a smile tugged at Mel’s lips at the sight.
She had done it.
It was small and probably useless, not powerful enough to sink the floor into hot boiling lava, but it was hers. Her first magical imbue and Mel couldn’t help but feel proud of herself. She had come such a long way to Aldrion and fought hard to be here. Just so she could make this one weak magical imbue with her own hands.
“Good job,” Master Foss said.
“This proves it, then? That we can make double imbues? That we can create a powerful one to fight the dragon with?”
Master Foss nodded. “I think so. We still have to work on making it stronger. You went through the song too fast and I think it made the magic not want to stick properly. We also need to work on your smithing skills a little. This metal isn’t iron and you can’t treat it as such.”
He pointed one of his big, calloused fingers at the lines where her hammer had made impact with the material. It was visible, but uneven and cruder than Mel would have liked. She knew it was a new metal and she could therefore expect it to be a bit of a learning curve. But Mel also expected it had to do with her overall smithing skills too. She hadn’t practiced for more than half a year, since she’d been in Windbrook at her father’s forge. Mel was rusty, and she knew that.
“I’ll practice more,” Mel said, turning over the blade.
Master Foss leaned in and lowered his voice. “We need to talk about what happened later.”
Mel caught a strange gleam in his eyes and then she snuck a glance back at the two guards standing still within earshot. She understood he meant without them. This made Mel’s back stiffen, and a shiver ran down her spine. Master Foss must have seen her skin glowing, just like Mel had. Then it hadn’t been just a trick of the light.
Master Foss’ voice raised, as if he wanted the guards to hear him now. “That’s it for today, I think. Great job, Melissa. I will make sure we speak to Lorken and report our progress on the double imbue. Go home and get some rest for tonight and we’ll resume with our work tomorrow.”
“Sure. See you tomorrow.”
Mel untied her apron and placed back the tools they’d used. She left the small blade lying on the anvil by the dragon stones and expected Master Foss to handle it. She walked to the guards, standing closer to the entrance, nodding at them. It was time to leave, and Mel knew she needed to think about what had happened and how she would deal with Master Foss noticing strange things about her.
Maybe she could still convince him it was nothing and get away with it. She really didn’t want him to change his opinion of her and think she was working with the void somehow.