TS5 - Chapter 42 (Patreon)

Though Thorn didn’t actually need sleep, he still lay in bed, tossing and turning, unable to overcome the excitement in his heart. It was deeper than the fact that he was going to be learning how to forge from a master. Deeper even than the surefire path, a guaranteed path to greater strength. As he examined his heart, he found that he was just excited to interact with another titan. Feelings that he didn't know he had repressed kept surging to the surface, and no matter what he did, a relentless fear seemed to replay in his head that somehow his grandfather wouldn't like him.

Finally, annoyed by his inability to control his jumping emotions, Thorn had Eve set an alarm and then sat up to meditate. All of the raging thoughts that he hadn't been able to settle quickly melted away, and it felt as if he had only taken a few breaths when he felt Eve's mental nudge. His eyes opened, and in the next moment, he was standing outside. The streets were dark, though the stars shone brightly overhead, casting their pale light across the village as he made his way through the twisting streets towards the forge.

When he arrived, he found his grandfather at the door, a broom in hand. Hurrying forward, Thorn reached out to take the broom, but his grandfather pulled the broom away, shaking his head.

"Good morning. You can sweep another time. I like to do the first one myself. Keeps me grounded, connected with the forge. What's rule number one of running a shop?"

The question caught Thorn off guard, but his mind quickly sprang into action, and he stood up straight as he answered, "Keep it clean."

When his grandfather continued staring at him blankly, he started to flounder before quickly adding, "Sir, that's correct.”

“The first rule of any shop is to keep it clean. It's much easier to work that way, and you won't have accidental contamination. We're going to be doing some pretty precise work in here, and we can't have little bits and pieces getting in our alloys, so we always start the morning by cleaning. We also end the evening with cleaning, and I like to clean at midday too. I'm not exaggerating when I say I run a very tidy shop. But anyway, as I was saying, I like to do the first one, though you'll be doing the midday and evening cleanings yourself."

As he finished sweeping, Urmag'Tal took the broom to the corner, leaning it up in a spot that was clearly designed for it.

"You've said that you've worked under other smiths, is that correct?"

"Yes, sir.”

“But not your father."

Hesitating for a brief moment, Thorn shook his head. "No, sir, I've only ever met my father extremely briefly."

"Huh, and he didn't show you any forging techniques?"

About to shake his head again, Thorn paused, his mind replaying the very few memories he had of his encounters with Kamag'Tal's spirit.

"Let me guess, he showed you something but never explained what it was he was doing," Urmag'Tal said, a lopsided grin on his face.

"Yes, sir, that's correct. He forged a star when I first saw him."

"Let me apologize in his stead. My son never had any sense for what was appropriate," Urmag'Tal said, rolling his eyes. "But enough about him, I want to see your technique. We'll start with a simple one. Feel free to use any of the equipment. You'll find iron in the corner."

Walking over to the corner, Thorn looked at a few of the steel ingots, the iron ingots his grandfather had pointed to, turning them over in his hand as he examined them carefully with his mental sense. Not finding any flaws in any of them, he selected one at random and brought it back to the forge. The coals were already stoked and an orangish-red, so after securing the ingot, he put it in the fire to heat up.

While he was waiting for it to get to the right temperature, he got out a pair of gloves and a few hammers, testing each with a couple of swings against the anvil to see which he liked best. Once he had found one that suited him, he took the glowing ingot and lifted it from the coals, holding it up next to the anvil and bringing his hammer down in a smooth motion that caused sparks to jump and a clear bell-like sound to ring through the forge.

Three strikes were all he got before the tone changed ever so slightly, and he had to put the ingot back in the fire. A few strokes at a time, Thorn worked the metal, drawing it out until it had formed a long, thin blade. From there, he continued to heat and shape it, doing his best to keep the entire thing as straight as possible. He was helped by his mental sense and his uncannily accurate hammer strikes, as well as his ability to control the vibration his hammer produced.

After a few hours of work, the blade was formed to his liking, and once more, it sank deep into the coals. This time, as he monitored it carefully, he found his grandfather looking at him with curiosity. Though he wanted to ask if his grandfather had any questions, he knew that he couldn't afford to break his concentration, and so he kept his focus squarely on the blade, pulling it out at just the right temperature and quenching it in a trough of oil nearby.

The blade was smooth as he pulled it free, unblemished and straight as an arrow. Though he had not yet sharpened the edge, his hammer strikes had been so precise that it already had a blade sharp enough to cut someone, and it wasn't long before he had polished it up even further, using his incredible precision to create a blade so straight it felt as if it could cut anything.

There was nothing particularly fancy about the blade. He had not added any ornamentation or any enchantments, and in fact, had done his best to keep his mana away from it. He had not spirit forged it, and instead, it was a simple but elegant example of his mastery of blacksmithing.

With a smile of approval, his grandfather took the blade he offered, looking down the blade and examining the hilt. Holding it up, he flicked it with his finger, producing a clear vibration that echoed around the room. The sound caused a small smile to come to his lips, and it was with some anticipation that Thorn heard him speak.

"Well," Urmag'Tal said, giving the blade an appraising glance, "it's complete garbage, but at least you show some promise."

Unsure that he had heard his grandfather right, Thorn blinked, but Urmag'Tal's next words put any confusion to rest.

"I mean, don't get me wrong, if you were a mortal blacksmith, this would be of acceptable standard for a grandmaster. But you're not a mortal blacksmith, are you? You're a titan, and above that, a forge master. If this was the first blade you had ever made, I guess it might be acceptable, but from what I understand, you've been practicing this craft for a while."

Crestfallen, all Thorn could do was nod, causing his grandfather to laugh and pat him on the shoulder.

"Don't be disheartened. While you're currently lacking, you have at least some fundamental grasp of how to do this, so I should be able to teach you at least the basics in the next year, though in reality, if you want to master this craft to the true standard of the Titans, it's going to take you many years longer."

Taking a deep breath, Thorn firmed up his resolve and nodded. "Yes, sir. I'll work as long as it takes."

"Good. That's the right attitude to have. Now, I want you to watch me." Flicking the blade that Thorn had created once more, Urmag'Tal caused it to shatter into pieces that gathered up together in front of him, forming a ball of iron. In a few seconds, it had melted together, returning to the simple ingot shape it had when Thorn first picked it up.

Heading to the forge, Urmag'Tal stuck his hand directly into it, picking up a piece of coal and examining it closely. "You're a Titan, and you have an absolute fire affinity. Flame is your friend, though it's not actually flame, but heat that we are after. Absolute perfectly controlled heat. We need it to be applied evenly to all parts of the metal to ensure that we don't end up with any imperfections. One of the problems with your blade was that there were imperfections inside of it, creating weak spots that could have been taken advantage of by a skilled enemy. We create blades that don't shatter."

Tossing the coal back into the fire, Urmag'Tal put the ingot down on the anvil and walked over to the bellows, gripping the handle tightly and pulling down three times. A loud rush of air filled the room as the fire roared. Moving quickly, though not too quickly, Urmag'Tal stepped over to the anvil, picked up the ingot and flicked it into the forge, completely burying it in the coals.

"Your second mistake. You have no need to eyeball it in order to understand the temperature. You've unlocked your mental sense, correct? What am I asking? You're a void forger. Of course you have. You can track the temperature from here to make sure that it's perfect. Beyond that, you can bend the heat around it, guaranteeing that it will not only heat to the correct temperature, but that it will stay at the correct temperature, even as you're pulling it out."

Heading over to the tools, while his ingot was heating up, Urmag'Tal picked up a couple of the hammers, weighing them in his hand before putting them down and selecting a smaller hammer. "Mistake number three. Your hammer was too heavy. It feels really good in the hand because you can borrow its power to strike. But that minute bit of extra weight threw off each of your strikes. Better to pick a smaller hammer that you know you can control, absolutely."

Walking back over to the forge, Urmag'Tal reached in, his hand emerging with the burning hot ingot that he placed on the anvil. "So far I've given you three pointers, things that you can do. But if that was all there was to mastery, you'd get it in no time. Now let me open your eyes."

Flipping the ingot onto its side, Urmag'Tal lifted his hammer up over his shoulder and brought it down. A swift blow that felt as if it was going to shake the foundation of the world itself. Yet as it hit the iron, Thorn blinked. There was nothing. No sound, no vibration. Absolute nothing. Yet as Urmag'Tal's hammer lifted, Thorn could tell that the ingot had been fundamentally altered. Its shape had not been reformed by force, but instead seemed to have just become different. Eyes wide, he stared as Urmag'Tal's hammer fell once more. Again, there was nothing. None of the chime and echo that he anticipated. A complete negation of all vibration, as any sort of movement was transposed into a different state of being.

After two more of the null strikes, Urmag'Tal tossed the elongated piece of metal back into the forge and turned to Thorn with a wink. "That is what void forging looks like," he said, a sly grin on his face.

"Did you say void forging?" Thorn asked, unable to believe what he was hearing.

"Yes, you didn't actually believe that void forging was simply a matter of using the void to forge, did you?" Urmag'Tal asked, causing a faint blush to rise on Thorn's cheeks.

Seeing it, Urmag'Tal let out a hearty laugh and slapped his grandson on the shoulder.

"I'm just teasing you. There isn't a way to know if no one's there to teach you, which is what I'm here for. And if not me, one of the other titans scattered around the endless worlds. Don't worry, we're not foolish enough to leave our progeny on their own. Eventually, you would have run across one of us, and we would have taught you what you needed to know. I must say, however, that considering I'm your first real mentor, you've done very well. Now, let's finish this sword."

What had taken Thorn a few hours seemed to only take minutes in Urmag'Tal's hands. Every strike fundamentally changed the existence of the ingot until a gleaming silver sword took its place. Where Thorn's edge had looked straight, this blade seemed the very definition of straightness. Where Thorn's edge had looked sharp, this edge appeared to be cleaving reality apart, even as it remained frozen in the air. The blade gave off a sense of weight, yet moved with an unimaginable ease. And as soon as Thorn's hand touched it, he felt a thrill run through him. As if every instinct in his body begged him to take a swing.

"This is a sword," Urmag'Tal said. "Do you know what the difference between this sword and your sword is?"

Thorn didn't answer right away, instead examining it carefully all over. Unable to find even a single hint of a flaw, he let out a sigh and took a step back, letting his hand drop to his side. "This is a sword," he said. "Mine was just the idea of a sword."

"I'm impressed. Not many can see that right away," Urmag'Tal said, swishing the tip of the sword through the air with a flick of his wrist. "This carries the will of the sword, and it was that will that shaped it, even more than my hammer blows. This is what you as a Titan must learn. The ability to bring all of your strength together, binding it into a single force."

"I feel like I've been doing that, sir," Thorn said, his forehead wrinkling.

"Oh?" Urmag'Tal answered, giving Thorn a long look. "Do you have a secret skill that you hadn't shown me?"

"Uh, no, nothing like that, sir," Thorn said, shaking his head. "It's just, I've forged my will into items before, with spirit forging, and back in Angoril, the world I was in before I ascended."

"Mm, yes, I understand your confusion," Urmag'Tal said, gesturing for Thorn to come and sit by the forge. "But what you are thinking of as will is actually just your spirit - your soul, you might say. In those instances, you were putting a piece of yourself into the item. There's no piece of me in this sword, because there's no room for me in this sword. Instead, this sword carries the very will of the concept ‘sword’ itself. Does that make sense?"

"Vaguely," Thorn said, "but I don't quite understand how it would be practical."

"You will," Urmag'Tal said with a smile, "but we can also leave that till later. The first thing we're going to be doing, now that I've assessed your skill, is rebuilding all of it from the ground up. I hope you're ready for some long days of hard labor."

"I'm ready, sir."

"You know, everybody says that, but Titan days are twice as long as everybody else's," Urmag'Tal said with a smile and a wink. Standing up, he jerked his thumb at the bellows next to him. "Your first task is going to be learning to work the bellows. You saw how I did it, correct?"

"I think so, sir," Thorn replied, standing up.

"Good. Then get on them. We have much to do today."