The molten metal in the red-hot containment area was orange, which didn't tell him much since all molten metals were orange at this point. He watched the furnace for a while to confirm there was no more metal left in the ores to be refined before he opened the hatch that he placed the ores into for refinement so he could see if the orange and indigo had melted together.

Upon opening the hatch, he was first assaulted with a waft of heat as it blew up past his head. He was used to this happening when he opened the hatch to the furnace, and he just squinted his eyes a bit so they wouldn't dry out too much.

After he adjusted his vision, he was able to see the crumbled remains of the indigo and orange ores where they settled after releasing the metal within them. They retained a bit of the indigo and orange color, though that had dulled a bit.

'Looks like a success, now I can take this alloy and work it into the blade. I got lucky with this one, but it looks like I can just arrange the indigo ores around the orange ores in the future to refine them.'

Mark picked up the removable tundish by attaching the detachable arm for it and quickly poured the molten metal into his crucible. After placing the tundish back into the heating area, he picked up his crucible with his heavy-duty crucible tongs to place the crucible on his forge.

Mark allowed the molten metal to cool down to a working temperature on the coals of the forge which were much less intense than the furnace. Once it was thickened to a working consistency, he pulled his sword out of the coals with one hand and grabbed the crucible in the necessary tongs with the other hand.

He kept the sword steady on the anvil and poured the metal that was now just able to be poured mostly evenly over the grooves that would serve as the binding site for the alloy.

Once he had poured enough metal onto the sword to be worked with, he placed the crucible back on the coals of the forge and grabbed his hammer.

He started the fifth step with light hammering, to get a feel for the new alloy that he was working with. It was not soft and over-maleable like the indigo metal was when he had tried to work it in the past. It was also not too hard in its molten state that would make it unworkable, but it was different from the other alloys he had made up to this point.

'It feels like it needs a specific direction, like the balance needed in the metal was not achieved in the refinement phase. . .this is going to take some work.'

With his probing hammer strikes, he moved his hammer around the blade to see the different densities of the metal as it moved to fill every indention he had made in the sword. The different sounds the hammer made as he hit the metal in different areas gave him feedback on what he would need to do to push the alloy to the most suitable form.

As he struck the sword with his hammer, he began to lose himself in the work. He focused only on the sounds and feelings of the vibrations from the hammer and the sword in either of his hands. Each form of feedback drew a picture in his mind's eye. The idealized metal began to take form and soon Mark was not even watching what he was doing, he was working from sound and feel as he closed his eyes to concentrate on his other senses.

White bursts of light began to come out of his hammer with each strike that landed on the sword. The metal that should have begun to cool looked like it had just come off of the fire still. As he continued to hammer at the weapon, the white flashes of light occasionally took on the form of unknown symbols though there was no one around to see for sure what was happening.

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Mark was oblivious to the white bursts of light and the possible symbols though. He was lost in his own little world.

He found himself floating in a void, where time and space had no meaning. He could still feel himself hammering the metal while adjusting his strikes as needed for the alloy to align with his wishes, but at the same time, he found himself floating through a place of darkness.

Before his eyes, he started to see lines that took on different shapes as they connected together. Small turquoise spheres started to surround larger orange spheres which created a distinct pattern with an orange circle surrounded by three turquoise circles.

Once the pattern he found had stabilized into a definite shape and the circles looked to be spaced perfectly apart, they started replicating in the same pattern. The pattern spread out in all directions until it met a grey wall on one side, and on the other side it seemed to hit an invisible wall but as far as Mark could see north and south, the pattern continued.

In his vision, Mark was brought between the spheres where he could see the orange and turquoise spheres trying to merge into the grey wall, but there was no space for them to merge. Instead of merging, the turquoise spheres and the orange spheres began to expand until their edges touched.

Mark was still able to see what was happening because he was in a space between the spheres that they naturally were unable to occupy and on one side was a hole between the spheres where the grey of the wall could still be seen.

Upon closer inspection, Mark could see that the grey wall was actually comprised of many triangles stacked together. This caused him to think about the structure of the grey wall.

"Hmmm, those triangles would be perfect as a filler for these spaces between these spheres."

And as he was thinking this out loud, the grey triangles began to fill the spaces between the spheres, and Mark's point of view moved to above where the spheres met the grey walls.

Meanwhile, in the real world, the bright bursts of white light intensified as Mark found the rhythm he needed to utilize the fifth step in this new alloy he was trying to incorporate into his sword. The squiggles of light that looked like symbols at times began to form a more definite shape, but anyone who was watching the phenomenon would likely miss this little detail.

In Mark's vision, he watched as the grey wall and the colored spheres merged with the grey wall filling the spaces between the spheres. This allowed the spheres to expand into the area of the grey walls which they continued to do until only the spheres were visible on half of the area where the grey wall was situated.

"It looks like those areas managed to merge, but the spheres are sticking out far above that part of the grey wall. It just looks like a mess. It would be better if the spheres could be compressed. . ."

Once again, as Mark thought out loud, the shapes in his vision seemed to go along with his musings and the spheres began to be compressed. But they only compressed a little bit before they stopped, seemingly unable to compress any further. Mark thought it was a shame they wouldn't look very uniform but before he could say anything he noticed a myriad of white symbols made of light forming above him before they rained down on the spheres like a flood or flames.

The sudden influx of bright white symbols of light snapped Mark out of his vision/daydream as his hammer made an off-key ping, which brought his attention to his blade. Sure enough, the blade had been completed on one side with the metal bonded into what looked like a perfect alloy. The blade on the side facing him was now silver, and as he moved it back and forth in the light it had a teal sheen at some angles and a neon-orange sheen at other angles.

Looking out of his smithy, Mark noticed it was dark and when looking back at his blade he could see it was cold.

"Well, I guess I should call it a day here. The other half of the blade can be fixed up tomorrow."

He put the new alloy away in a holding area where it wouldn't collect impurities as it cooled and then put the rest of the smithy away.

When he was done, he walked home to get some sleep so he could get an early start in the morning.