3 THE FORGE MOUNT

  Medhan had crafted a horse that could run tirelessly over any manner of terrain or across water. It could run across air or fire as well but only for a moment. Wherever he needed shelter he would unfold a piece of paper into a small house with a simple room and a stocked pantry. It even had running water because of a box that could pull water from the air in seconds. When the night or storm had passed, he would then fold the house back up into a square of paper and move on.

  It took three months of steady travel for him to reach the molten desert. He set up his house, with its depleted supplies, at the edge of the desert. The molten desert had dozens of shield volcanoes that formed when very fluid magma rose through a shattered tectonic plate. The ground was volatile and weaker than it appeared so Medhan dared not search himself. Instead, he released a dozen flocks of artificial starlings to search for the wandering Mount.

  He remained at the house and replenished his supplies by hunting and fishing around the Last River. His most useful tool of the journey so far was an animated rope that he kept around his left forearm. It could unfurl itself and stretch a long way to tie itself around an object. It wasn't technically a weapon but Medhan found it made hunting and fishing a non-issue.

  He lived like this for weeks before the starlings returned. He followed the small swarm on horseback for several weeks until he found the rest of the birds circling the Mount. Many of the birds were broken and drained at this point. The desert was unkind even to his creations. Many times a day his horse was forced to run on air to escape the collapsing ground. The heat from above and below was also wreaking havoc on his fine enchantments.

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  The enormous gate was open, torn off its moorings by a void-form even before Ahlum seized the Weapon. The first trial he encountered was the moving maze. Here the walls shifted constantly and impossible geometry seeped into reality. Ahlum passed through here using a path laid out in her ancestor's ramblings. Medhan passed by donning a masterful lie, tricking the maze into thinking the forge god was here. The maze turned into a straight path to welcome its long lost creator.

  The second challenge was far more lethal than the first. Stone tigers, impossible to deceive, guarded any further ingress. Ahlum fought them and defeated them after a great struggle. Against these four-metre tall giants, he also deployed force. He threw seeds onto the ground and these rapidly grew into half-dragon, half-wolves. The two sets of constructs fought but he ignored them and passed into the next chamber.

  The third challenge was a puzzle. A pattern needed to be drawn using reflected light and stones. Ahlum knew the solution and moved on. In solving it, a new puzzle was generated and this remained for centuries. It took Medhan three days of trial and error, of notes scribbled on paper, walls and the puzzle itself, of cursing and praying, to solve the thing. Even then he was sure it was simply just luck.

  The vault opened and he entered into the Forge of Heaven.