The room had warmed up from the furnace’s heat while Vivi carved the runes. Andre had taken off his jacket. Vivi, too, was starting to sweat. That was normal. Her muscles worked the best when the smithy was warm.

“Has the metal melted?” Vivi asked.

“Fully liquid, as was asked,” Einord said. “Those ingots cost me a hundred ether.”

“Perfect,” Vivi said. “Open the lid. We’re moving to the next step.”

Einord frowned, but did as asked. The crucible was full of molten crystal mithril. Vivi picked up her work—the adamantite veins.

Lucius, Vivi thought. Fill the veins with ether. We need around ten. Permanent ether. Make sure the ether passes cleanly through the runes.

“Whaaat?” Lucius exclaimed. “We need to spend more?”

Do it, Vivi thought. The veins will melt otherwise.

After a grunt, Lucius complied. The runes glowed white as ether flowed into the veins. Vivi’s work lit up like a lamp. She took a breath and faced the crucible of molten metal.

The next step was not difficult. Rather, it was terrifying.

Vivi dipped the veins, upside down, into the molten metal. The hilt of the veins poked out above the surface. All of the branches dipped below the metal. Then, as a makeshift holding rack, Vivi tied ropes around the hilt, connecting the ropes to nearby objects. The veins had to stand perfectly still in the metal.

With the setup done, Vivi said, “Now we wait for the metal to cool and solidify. Shouldn’t be more than thirty minutes. The veins speed up the process with its ether reacting to the metal. We can speed the cooling further with water.”

Einord stared at the contraption. He still looked confused. A practiced runesmith would have understood Vivi’s technique by now. Einord seemed clueless. At most, he looked slightly concerned. He said nothing.

Vivi filled herself a mug of water and sat down to wait.

***

A short break later, the metal had cooled. The metal had solidified inside the crucible, veins poking out. The process had gone well. The crucible hadn’t exploded, luckily, and the veins seemed to be solid. Nothing had cracked in half.

“Good,” Vivi said. She stood and stretched. “We can move to the final step.”

“And what will you do next?” Einord asked, crossing his arms.

“We will break the crucible,” Vivi said.

“No, let’s not do that,” Einord said. “Crucibles are expensive. Fifty ether for this one.”

“Well, how else will we get the metal out?” Vivi asked.

“You’re the runesmith,” Einord said. “Figure it out.”

“Break the crucible, Einord,” Andre said.

The blacksmith sighed, shaking his head. He got his pickaxe and began hacking at the crucible. This obviously wasn’t his first time retrieving metal stuck inside a crucible.

With the inside carving method, there was no way to retrieve the metal without breaking the crucible. Even if Einord somehow managed to get the metal out, the process had likely ruined the crucible from the inside. It would be too risky to use the same crucible again.

The crucible shattered, and a rough clump of crystal mithril revealed itself. The metal’s surface was uneven like the peel of an orange. The beautiful blue surface of the ingots was deformed into a rough ore-like texture. The handle of the veins poked out from the clump of metal.

Einord had been right with his assessment; the shiny ingot had been ruined, and the metal wasn’t pretty to look at. However, this clump of metal before them was far stronger, far more powerful than any regular ingot could ever be. The metal had already been strengthened by ether.

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Vivi grinned, seeing it. Only one last step remained.

Vivi picked up her hammer and moved to the anvil. The emberstone forge was very similar to the one Axback had. Vivi knew how to operate it.

The last step of the process was something even a blacksmith could understand. Vivi heated the clump of metal in the forge, waiting for it to turn orange. From there, habit took over, and Vivi began hammering the metal into the shape of a sword, the veins still poking out from where the handle of the sword would end up in.

Einord and Andre watched as the clump slowly took the shape of a sword. Vivi’s heartbeat rose, and pressure welled up inside her body. There was still no guarantee the sword would end up functional. A small imperfection within the runes could have already ruined the metal without Vivi knowing, or the veins could have snapped slightly inside. The only way to know the sword worked was to finish it and test it for real.

Vivi was confident that the sword was properly crafted. She was smithing a mere single-runed sword. Yet, somehow, she was far more nervous than usual. Lucius… Do you really think this sword is worth three thousand ether?

“I don’t know,” Lucius said. “For the time spent, three thousand ether is insane. I don’t think Andre expected you to be done so fast.”

Vivi could feel pressure in her throat. I can’t sell this sword. I can’t.

Lucius was quiet. Vivi expected him to argue. Instead, he seemed to understand. Right now, this wasn’t just about ether, or gaining money.

I would love to earn three thousand ether, Vivi thought. But I can’t sell this sword to Andre. Gods know what crimes his people will commit. I can’t sell a sword to the blue cloaks, no matter what they pay. I just can’t.

“Not selling it is stupid,” Lucius said. “We could nearly reach five thousand ether if we sell it. You’ve barely worked for seven hours now.” He paused. “But I understand. I don’t really want to sell it either.”

You don’t? Vivi thought.

“We’ll earn ether by hunting,” Lucius said. “Real strength comes from skills. We can’t buy skills with Andre’s ether. He will get a lot more use out of a runesword than we will out of three thousand ether. I am okay with either decision.”

Vivi kept hammering, hitting harder than she needed to. She remained nervous, uncertain about what to do. Three thousand ether would make her rich, maxing out Lucius’s powers. But selling the sword would mean providing an enemy gang with a powerful weapon.

She finished the sword in silence. The clump of metal slowly took the shape of a basic longsword. Vivi hadn’t put much thought into the blacksmithing process. The shape simply came out on its own, and Vivi was fairly happy with her work.

Some tens of minutes later, Vivi placed down her hammer and assessed her work.

The blade was rough and unsharpened, and the metal was still burning hot, but the sword was done. Vivi quenched the runesword in water, cooling it down. The metal sizzled underwater.

As the blade cooled down, the crystal mithril regained its beautiful appearance. The adamantite veins glowed inside the see-through crystal mithril. Ether flowed within, enhancing the metal from the inside. Vivi could feel the sword’s presence near her. An ominous object of concealed power waiting to be released. Even without a proper finish and sharpening, the sword appeared like a magical artifact.

As a final step, Vivi wrapped a small string tightly around the handle of her sword to act as some sort of grip tape. It would serve her for now until she crafted a proper hilt for the weapon.

Andre and Einord watched patiently. Einord no longer had insults to throw with the sword in front of him. He was supposed to be assessing Vivi’s runesword. Except, he still didn’t seem to know what he was looking at.

“Is it finished?” Andre asked. He’d sat and watched the whole process. Vivi had expected him to be more busy. Perhaps he was curious about Vivi’s work. Or he wished to ensure Vivi didn’t do anything stupid.

Vivi didn’t respond. She put her raincoat back on and checked that all of her belongings were with her. She was done here. The decision was made.

Lucius ate the sword into his spatial storage.

“I can’t sell this sword for three thousand ether,” Vivi said. “Thanks for letting me use your smithy. I’ll accept the favor as an apology for attacking me. I would like to leave now.”

Andre stood by the exit, unmoving. “I thought we had an agreement,” he said.

“We have a truce,” Vivi said. “I will look past your operations so long as you don’t bother me. If you have more concrete plans to escape Zand, I’ll hear you out. But I won’t become your personal runesmith.”

“Even if the position would make you rich?” Andre asked. “Even if following me would help you escape?”

“I’m not after money,” Vivi said.

“There’s nothing I can do to change your mind?”

“We have a truce,” Vivi said. “I will not work with you beyond that.”

Andre stood still for a second. He breathed in, drumming his fingers on his legs. Suddenly, a threatening presence filled the room.

“In that case, it’s best for us all if you die,” Andre said.

His eyes lit up in a glowing blue. His skin became bright, wisps of ether coating his body. He held out his arm, and a bright blue spirit blade materialized in his hand.