“I will consider it. I have some idea of which items Wrynn would be more willing to part with, but I don’t wish to presume too much on her behalf.”
“Fine, fine. For now, tell us what you know?”
Keras nodded and sat down next to the magic items pile.
He picked up one of the daggers first. It had a wavy blade, the kind I’d always associated with dark rituals in old stage plays. “Couple of Wrynn’s backup weapons here. This is a nasty one. Makes its own poison.”
Keras set it back down, picking up the second one. “Don’t recognize this one. I can sense a connection with the Dominion of Flame, though.”
“How does that work?” I considered my question, then added, “I mean, your sense. I didn’t think you could see auras.”
“I can’t.” Keras put the dagger down. “But I can feel some of them, especially for types of mana I’m familiar with. The sensation varies based on the specific type of mana. I can feel warmth from the dagger, even when I’m not touching it, and I know it’s not physically that hot. My aura is sensing the flame inside and sending me a signal, which feels like heat.”
“That’s not all that different from how I can sense auras,” Derek added. “Many attuned with hand or leg attunements eventually develop a sense like that. But we can’t sense the mana from anything unless it’s inside our shrouds.”
Patrick moved over to sit next to Keras. “Uh, I don’t want to presume, but if that’s a fire dagger, is there any chance I might be able to borrow it? You know, just for a little while?”
“You’re an Elementalist, correct?”
Patrick nodded in reply.
“No, not this, then. None of the daggers.”
Patrick looked like Keras had just thrown those daggers at a puppy. “…Oh, okay. Sorry, I guess.”
“You don’t want a dagger as an Elementalist, unless it’s a last resort. Don’t want you thinking about one of these as an option. In a real fight, if someone gets that close, they’re more likely to use it against you than you are to use it to your advantage. You want something with range. Either a true ranged weapon, like a bow, or something with physical reach.”
Patrick looked back up. “…But we don’t have anything like that, do we?”
“Not in Wrynn’s pile, no. But these spires seem to have magic weapons all over the place.”
“Yeah, I guess. Just not sure I’ll make it far enough in the year to get back in there.”
Keras frowned. “Is this academy that difficult?”
Marissa jumped in. “Quite a difficult one, m’lord Keras. Very few make it to the second year, and fewer still graduate.”
That was…a bit of an exaggeration, but it wasn’t going to make me look any worse, so I didn’t correct it.
Keras nodded thoughtfully. “All right, so you need an edge. I have some extra weapons, but they’re not in Valia. Maybe I could bring you one before the end of the year, if there’s time.”
I thought about that. “Keras, we were talking about trying to enchant something for Deni together before. Maybe we could practice by trying to enchant a weapon for Patrick?”
Keras turned to look at me, then to Patrick, taking in Patrick’s wide-eyed look of hope. “Sure, sure. I can see this means a lot to you.”
I considered options. “I have a saber I enchanted with some basic transference sorcery that we could work on improving?”
“I have a tougher time working with things that are already enchanted. Too much of a risk that I’d damage them. But I’ve got another idea. Sera, pass me the silver bar next to you.”
Sera found a silvery-looking bar in the stack of metal bars and passed it over. I’d just…assumed that it was made out of something more mundane, like a type of steel. A silver bar was worth a relative fortune.
Another glance told me that there weren’t any bars of gold, sadly.
Keras turned the bar over in his hands, feeling the weight. “This should do.” He glanced over at me. “Corin, you wanted to see some of my type of sorcery. Watch and learn.”
As I watched, I realized he wasn’t just flipping the bar over.
He was rolling it between his hands. Reshaping it, like flour dough.
The metal rippled in his hands, never fully turning to liquid, but shimmering enough that it looked almost gelatinous.
Marissa’s jaw dropped wide open as she processed the same thing that I was.
He moved his hands again, laying the bar on the floor, and took two fingers to draw a portion of it downward.
He plunged his fingers into the metal, piercing it without resistance, and pulled sections to the side.
He was making a hilt.
Derek leaned closer. “Silver? Pretty, but isn’t that a bit impractical for a weapon? It’ll break almost as easily as you’re molding it.”
“This is only the first part.” Keras continued to weave the metal between his fingers, beginning to roll the bottom section of the bar into a cylindrical shape between his hands. “When I’m finished, it won’t be silver. It won’t be steel, either. It will be something greater.”
His hands moved the material easily, but the work continued for minutes. It was probably close to an hour before he finished. Not one of us looked away.
I knew of metal magic. The God Beast of Dalenos was associated with the metal element, and I’d heard of a Forgemaster attunement that could use metal magic.
I’d never heard of anything like this. I’d never dreamed of anyone working metal with such ease.
Keras had the basic shape of a hilt in minutes, but he worked with diligence, hardening some sections while he made others pliable. When the pommel was complete, he traced runes in the air, which burned into the metal. Each letter was only the thickness of a fingernail, and he fit dozens upon the surface.
It was when Keras was sculpting the crossguard that a look of recognition crossed Patrick’s face and he uttered a word in wonder. “Dawnbringer.”
Keras turned to Patrick with an expression of surprise. “You recognize her?”
Patrick nodded reverently. “I’ve read about the Six Sacred Swords since I was a child. I know this isn’t the real thing, but even seeing something that looks like one of them…it’s beautiful.”
Keras grinned. “I’m not done yet. Pass me three of Wrynn’s gold regals — those are the coins with the holes in the center.”
Sera passed the coins over, and Keras turned them over in his hand. “Make that five total. Pass me two more.”
As Sera moved to comply, Keras began to roll the gold coins in his hands. He was making them into round sections like he’d done with the handle, but he made them much thinner.
He’s making wire, I realized. He didn’t wrap the wire around the grip like I’d expected, though. He started pressing it against the silver of the crossguard, then weaving it through the silvery metal like thread.
Keras was drawing letters in a golden script, stretching the writing across the full surface. I couldn’t read a word of it, but it looked like yet another language. Maybe it was another form of runes, but I’d never seen runes interconnected in a cursive format like this writing was.
Either way, the result was beautiful. I’d never been one for the aesthetics of a weapon, but the gold-on-silver was a good look, and there was something ephemerally pleasing about how Keras was weaving it.
It was beautiful, like the echo of something transcendent. Something lost.
Keras turned his head toward the metal pile. “I’ll need another of the silver bars. It’s time to forge the blade. This will take some time, so feel free to rest or eat if you need to. It’s not going to be that interesting.”