Chapter Thirty Four - The Healing Hammer

Jason woke up next to Stella. They were curled up under the sheets of Redran’s Guest Bed. Jason yawned and stretched out. They went downstairs and saw Arkanon dressing himself in Redran’s clothes. He put on some slippers and walked outside to greet the horses.

Jason and Stella went downstairs and watched from the front step. Arkanon noticed Jason nearby and remembered his great idea.

“Jason, have you got a nail mould that survived the fire?” Arkanon asked. “Maybe some axe head moulds, or a hammer?”

Jason started thinking. Maybe, buried beneath the layers of wood and tile, the moulds did survive. They were made from very rigid metal.

“Sure, that’s an excellent idea.” Jason responded, finding a smile.

“That’s why I was voted most handsome king of the year, three years in a row.” Arkanon said. “Also, I’m brilliantly smart.”

Jason and Stella rode Bronson into town. They arrived at a neat assortment of large tents. Some were carnival tents, some were home-made. The villagers who survived had decided to build a temporary community. Most of the travellers had ridden home or walked. Only the locals, and a few stragglers remained.

They walked to the food tent, where a large number of tables and chairs had been placed. A small group of townspeople were eating. They recognised Jason and Stella and got up from their chairs. After some hugs, some catching up and some food. Jason convinced some of the men to help him find the mould to make nails. The villagers recognised the importance so they offered willingly to help rebuild the forge.

Jason and the other men carried planks and beams from the crater that used to be his blacksmith shop. During the excavation, Jason’s moulds were found.

They found all of them. A few had been bent and damaged, but the necessary ones were complete.

In the wreckage, they found one by one, some of the ingots Jason had purchased earlier.

Jason grabbed his crucible for melting steel and they departed from the wrecked house. They went to the town church. It was missing a roof, but the walls were still strong. The furniture had been converted into seating in the tent city, so the floor was clear of any obstacle, save for a few broken chairs pushed to the walls.

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In the middle of the church floor, the villagers built a brick circular fireplace waist high. Jason started a fire in the middle with a flint and steel and a villager poured magic moonshine into the fire, which turned the flames purple and blue for a short while. The alcohol burned out and the fire glowed bright yellow.

Several villagers brought scrap metal from the city into the church and placed it in a pile. Melted vases, melted statues, broken buckets, broken swords and broken armour.

Jason watched the villagers move a big wooden ornate dinner table into the room. Stella found a corner of the church to sit, and started reading from her magic book.

A small brick table was constructed to hold the moulds in the centre of the stage, where the priest would normally talk. A half-broken stained glass window cast scattered colours over the stage.

Jason melted some iron bars then, using some tongs, poured his crucible into the hammer mould. The whole hammer was cast. The handle included. It had an ornate arched handle, and a simple, yet sleek hammer head.

Jason then poured the rest of the metal into the nail mould, and filled it halfway, about fifty nails. Jason returned the crucible to the fire and began melting more and more metal. The hammer cooled and Jason removed it from the mould. His hammer was enchanted, but Jason did not know that yet. Jason placed the hammer at one end of the table and emptied the nail mould into a bucket. The nails were still hot. Jason returned the crucible to the fire and began melting more.

One of the villagers curiously picked up the hammer. The man realised that his back pain of fifteen years started to subside. It even turned some of his gray hairs back to brown. The hammer was healing him. Jason’s concentration on helping and fixing his village had a subconscious effect that gave these effects. The nails were imbued with magic too, being in proximity to the nails gave a feeling of hope, and so the town would be rebuilt with hope imbued into the new buildings. The town would be influenced by the magic to believe something better was awaiting them, soon. The man healed by the hammer, didn’t realise the magical properties of the hammer, and he dropped it again, walking away, glad to have full motion in his back again.

Jason and the villagers kept making nails, axes, saws and hammers. The villagers joined in, and Jason taught some basic skills to the men.

Soon, they had wooden buckets filled to the brim with nails. A pile of Hammers and a lot of woodworking tools.

They worked all day, the sun dipped over the horizon and the church was only lit by the roaring forge. The scrap metal pile had been reduced and then more men had scavenged to rebuild the pile to be even bigger than before. Jason and a few other villagers decided to work through the night, taking long breaks between some of the smelting.

At sunrise, the steel pile of scrap had been halved and Jason was tired and ready to give up. He sat down and wiped the sweat from his brow. A few other men had taken over, as they had learned everything they needed from repetition. Jason fell asleep against a pile of stones, with Stella asleep on his shoulder.