Looking over her shoulder with her hands on her upper chest keeping the dress in place, Ashleen declared, “I’ll get ready for bed first, if you don’t mind.”
The dress dropped to the floor leaving only her rear end covered before she used a foot to push the door closed to cut off the view.
Shaking his head, Sebastian moved to his bed to pull off his boots wondering what he was in for now.
Chapter 3- Cutting Steel
Sebastian began his day later than he might in one of the castles along the wall or even back in White Hall where he had trained to become a mage. The city of Hala ran on different hours than the more militaristic castles. He guessed that if he had been housed in the local barracks instead, the mage would find the soldiers and battle mages already at work well before much of the city’s merchants had even risen for breakfast.
Such was the delay he found, since he still had to wait for the sword merchant to open his door after a bit of a wait. Sebastian hadn’t known when they opened and simply arrived when he guessed that they would open the doors. Early by half an hour, the mage had waited with a sleepy looking Ashleen who leaned against the building wearing a dark blue, sleeveless tunic coming down to her upper thighs. Brown pants coming down in a close fit just below her knees were an unusual look for the girl, who Bas only recalled wearing dresses or Kardorian robes the entire time he had known her. He had never seen the girl in pants and her short leather boots were a departure from her usual slipper like shoes.
As they entered behind the owner of the Cutting Steel and Ashleen covered another yawn with the back of her hand, the mage reminded the girl, “You could have slept in at the inn, if you are so tired. I don’t have any official training with the local wizards and mages until after the royal reception for the Grimnal. Today I just planned on doing some research into making the metal I need for making more Hollow Swords. You could have slept in and met me at the Black Smith Inn later.”
Shaking her head with her platinum blonde hair already pulled back into a tail that swayed with each turn, Ashleen replied with some sparkle to her eyes, “I will stick with you and see if I can learn something as well. After all, I am basically your apprentice for now, so I can surely rise and follow my master, if he is already up.”
She smiled up at him and he knew that she joked, if only just. They were going to be in a teacher-student relationship for awhile, but he could assume that the girl also hoped to wear him down by spending every minute that she could with him. It almost made him sigh; but if he had to be shadowed, Ashleen was definitely not bad company to have.
“Well, apprentice, today we will try and find out if anyone is making swords of a quality similar to the one I found for the Hollow Sword,” he declared forgetting that the merchant was still in ear range.
The dark haired man frowned and stated, “I will have you know that the Cutting Steel has some of the finest swords you will find anywhere in Southwall or the rest of the North continent. In the past I have even sent men to Taltan looking for blades made by the smiths there, so I am pretty sure that you won’t be disappointed.”
Looking apologetic for managing to insult the merchant, Sebastian replied, “I am sure that you have excellent swords here, but I need to find blades that can handle magic as well. It isn’t just the quality of workmanship, but finding the right mix of metals to create something like this.”
He drew the Hollow Sword from its sheath holding it out across both of his hands. The morning light coming in through the open door caught the engraved runes running along its length bringing a surprised look to the merchant’s eyes.
“Where did you get this?” the man asked in shock.
With word of Gerid’s return already making its way through the city exciting Hala, the secrecy of his journey was no longer needed, so telling the story of the sword would hurt nothing to reveal. Sebastian followed the man to one of his exhibition cases made of glass and laid the sword on top carefully.
“On my recent travels I discovered a sword made before the Cataclysm. It was broken and the tip had been left to the elements for years without rusting away. The other half was kept in a safe, so the handle was ready for mending the two halves back together again.
“I used magic to mend the break and continued to channel my power as I felt the constitution of the metal, working to make the blade better than it had been before. When I finished, this was the blade that I created.
“My problem is that I do not know enough about smithing to recreate the weapon again. I am here to see if I can find an existing sword with the properties I need to make another.”
Closing his left eye and cocking his head to the side, the man seemed to be appraising him like a gem stone before a jeweler. “So you are an iron wizard or something?”
Ashleen grinned and said, “He is a battle mage actually, so more appropriately he would be an iron mage.”
Ignoring the girl’s humorous intent after a quick disapproving glance, Sebastian replied, “I have a knack for working with metal to a point, but so far it has been mostly creations made from instinct and without learning any of the craft of sword making.”
The man picked up the Hollow Sword noting the balance before examining the steel with his fingers. “I am Bharen Orden, the owner of the Cutting Steel, and I have to say that this is a truly interesting piece. Essentially you created this out of an old sword?”
Sebastian nodded and introduced himself, “I am Falcon Sebastian Trillon. Besides this sword, I have managed to draw iron through wood for a staff, but I admit that both were simply experiments. Now I plan to take a little time to discover if something like this is possible to make more than once.”
“Falcon Trillon, that name seems familiar to me,” the older man said giving pause as he racked his brain for the reason.
Ashleen spoke up saying, “He was the battle mage from the wizard’s tournament. My name is Ashleen and I was in it as well.”
She finished elbowing the mage in the side showing her displeasure at being left out by Sebastian.
“Ah, the lone battle mage who managed to defeat so many wizards. You technically never lost a match, did you? It is a good thing that I am not a betting man. I would have bet this business that no battle mage could have beaten a wizard at their own game, let alone so many.”
A little disappointed that his visit had become lost in the past events so quickly, Sebastian merely nodded and tried to get the conversation back to the topic which had brought him to the Cutting Steel. “I guess that it is a good thing that you didn’t bet against me then or we wouldn’t be standing here discussing swords. Since I am not sure whether I was able to make this new weapon from the old because it was an expensively made sword or because of a certain mix of iron and alloys, maybe having an expert like you will help shed light on the question.”
Bharen nodded noticing the shift back to the topic, which had never completely left the merchant’s mind. He was in business to make money though so the man had to make his pitch. “Whether it costs much or not steel has different properties and different smiths prefer to make their blades a certain way. As a battle mage, you are familiar with the standard in Southwall’s army.”
“I have broken quite a few blades, until I found this one and reinforced it with my magic,” Sebastian agreed with a nod. He had lost track of how many metal blades he had broken during his service over the last year. Admittedly fighting armored viles, trolls and the like had tested the swords beyond their limits.
Nodding, Bharen replied, “The smiths use an inexpensive steel, but the metal used is hard and a bit brittle. They give out that kind of blade because it holds its edge longer than a softer steel, though that would have allowed more flex and give. You probably need to stop hitting hard, solid things,” the man concluded with a chuckle.
Grunting dismissively, the mage replied, “If the emperor would field softer armored viles, that would be fine by me. Until that time, I need to figure out how to make swords that can supp
ort a battle mage or wizard by holding their magic.”
“This one can hold magic?” the merchant asked eying the blade admiringly. “Well, I can’t say what makes a weapon usable in that way, but perhaps if I show you the various grades in swords you’ll have a way of checking that for yourself?”
The battle mage nodded as he took his personal sword and replaced it in its sheath. Behind him, Ashleen let out a breath already looking outside at the sunlight of an early summer day. Spending her time in a sword shop had probably not been on the girl’s list of ways to spend her morning, but she had decided to shadow Sebastian in the name of learning. While he had his doubts about her willingness to help him study how to make Hollow Swords, Ashleen had made it known that she wanted to spend time with him and why.
Ignoring the wilder, Sebastian watched as Bharen pulled out a handful of swords and placed them on a wood rack beside the displays. Apparently the man’s business often involved showcasing various weapons at once, but placing them on the glass cases was likely to end up with broken glass. Picking up each option, the mage used his healing spell which made the merchant raise an eyebrow curiously at the word ‘heal’ making Sebastian think one day he needed to work on words for examining things other than his patients.
He could still remember the feel of the Hollow Sword’s steel before his magic had been added to it, so Sebastian tried to reflect on the feel of each grade of metal. Bharen passed him each sword telling him of the type of iron used in the creation of each sword blade. Testing each one, the mage decided that his assumption that the ancient sword was unique in its quality might not be correct.
Pulling two swords that had cores that were made of softer metal but with the cutting edge alloys made hard to dull, Sebastian looked at the style of the guards and handles. One looked quite ornate and he knew Bharen was likely to tell him a high price, while the other looked more like a mid level officer’s price range.
“These two seem closest to the Hollow Sword’s original composition. If there is a cheaper version of this one,” he said pointing to the overly ornate sword, “I would rather buy that. I can’t see spending money on a sword that I mean to experiment on and could ruin it once I play with it.”
The merchant looked a little disappointed in his cost preference, but cheered up slightly believing that he might sell not one, but two swords to the battle mage. Searching for a simpler blade made of a similar composition, Bharen stated, “While I know that you did well in the Winter’s Edge tournament, I don’t recall a cash prize given to fourth place.”
“You attended the king’s banquet the night the king gave out the prizes?” Sebastian returned the prying nature of the man’s veiled inquiry.
Looking up in surprise, the man replied, “As a local merchant and seller of goods to many of the royals of Hala, I sometimes attend the celebrations. Not everyone needs to be a celebrated battle mage or a lord under King Alain’s rule to attend,” Bharen said with a smile that proved he liked the king and the way he ruled his country.
“I performed an extensive service for the king where I, and my team, took a chest of gold from one of the emperor’s ships. For my part in the capture, I was rewarded with a percentage of the worth in gold. Hopefully it is enough to pay for a pair of swords as well as what I will owe the Black Smith Inn by the time I am through,” Sebastian stated without revealing too many details. While the fact that the man known as the Grimnal had been found, much of the mission was considered secret. Still it was enough to let the merchant know that he was serious.
Nodding without prying further, Bharen pulled out a sheathed sword with a simple, wound leather, wrapped handle. He handed the weapon to the mage and asked, “I bought a unique sword about the time of Winter’s Edge by the way. Maybe it is something that you would be interested in trying. A young girl accompanied by a pair of mages from Staron brought me something that I have never seen before. Since it is so strange, many of my patrons have been leery of trying something different.”
Bas shrugged and let the man bring out another sword from behind the case. The leather on the hilt was laced in a simple way that looked comfortable for his grip. Even in its brown sheath that was the color of wood, Sebastian found the weight of the weapon surprisingly light. Pulling the sword free of the sheath, he was surprised by the dark color of the blade.
Proving that she was still paying at least some attention even after the men had been discussing the swords and metals for more than half an hour; Ashleen stated, “The steel is almost black. Is it stained or painted that way?”
“It’s very light weight as well,” Sebastian added noting the excellent balance of the weapon in his hand. By its heft, one would almost discount the steel as too light and thin to be strong; but Sebastian could feel something was different about the sword beyond the easily obvious coloring and weight.
Frowning slightly, Bharen replied, “The girl said that she had made it, but looked to be younger than you and as small as your friend here. No offense intended miss, but you don’t look like someone who spends time at a forge working metal with a hammer. This girl looked as small and maybe even lighter weight. How she could even try to tell me that she had made it is beyond me. There was no way such a little girl could have made such a thing in a forge.”
“Heal,” Sebastian ordered his spell once again. He frowned feeling the strangeness of the sword and noted that it felt like no steel he had ever touched. While the mage had never used his senses on a sword before making the Hollow Sword, he knew how the other weapons in Bharen’s store felt and this did not feel like any of them. Magic laced the weapon, but it didn’t seem to have been added to the sword like his blade.
“She was a wizard,” he surmised. “I don’t think she made it in a forge at all. She used her magic to form the blade, hilt and sheath. The latter looks like wood and my senses tell me that it once was. The steel you think you see isn’t actually metal at all. It was made from something else entirely.”
Frowning at Sebastian’s appraisal, Bharen complained, “I gave her nearly the price I would pay for the ones you chose. She looked so sweet and smelled nice as well. I would never have thought that she was a crook.”
“How much did you buy the sword for?”
“Eighty gold and I would have sold it for one hundred twenty,” the man muttered before looking up in surprise at his candid revelation to the mage.
Sebastian nodded and said, “I’ll give you ninety and take it off of your hands.”
Greed returned to the merchant’s eyes as he said, “Well, it has been here since this spring and I was hoping to get a better return since I have made space for it and spent time trying to sell it.”
“Ninety gold and I won’t tell anyone that you were fooled into buying a sword not made of steel.”
Cringing, Bharen tried to digest the younger man’s words and wondered if the previously civil mage was threatening him. “Fine, but I won’t compromise on the other two like that.”
Sebastian gave a brief laugh and nodded to the merchant.
Standing in the blacksmith’s workshop, Sebastian listened to Ivol and his apprentice Aric hammering on heated iron. It appeared to be a larger project, perhaps a piece of a cart; but the mage didn’t ask while their attention remained on their work.
Ashleen watched as he placed two of the three new swords on a workbench. While there were several heavy tables serving as workbenches, this one had been cleared for the mage and was about the only space not covered in pieces of iron and steel in the workshop. The girl wiped her forehead removing perspiration beginning to build in the heat of the forge and warm summer air. It was a very warm day for Hala, though they had contended with similar temperatures on Grimnal Island far to the south; but there they could easily swim in the ocean when it became too hot.
Mumbling a spell, the air wizard pulled an air shield into place. It would serve to keep her cooler and Sebastian was surprised that she had waited so long. His air shield had been put in place on th
e walk from the sword shop to the forge. It was one of the spells he had learned from another air wizard the summer before that he had perfected to use little of his magic once it was in place.
“So what are you going to do now?” the wilder asked as she stood beside the mage.
Giving the girl a smile, Sebastian stated, “Now I see if I can implant magic like I did with my Hollow Sword. If I can discover the way to make more of them, then other mages can use them to increase their attacks in battle.”
With a disappointed look, Ashleen said, “It seems like a waste to spend so much on them just to experiment with them. If you break them that is a lot of gold wasted.”
She glanced to the last sword leaning against the table and pointed, “What about that one?”
As Sebastian drew out the first candidate he had chosen to try, the mage glanced to her and admitted, “I’m not sure. It seemed too unique not to buy and someone used magic to create it. I’ve never seen anything like this black steel and I am not even sure that I should call it metal really.”
Ashleen picked up the magically created blade and scabbard questioning, “How could someone make something like this? Is the magic new or is this an ancient creation?”
“As far as I can tell, the magic is relatively fresh. Bharen said that it was sold to him after the tournament, and I don’t think that it is much older than that if I had to guess. It certainly isn’t magic like I have ever seen before though.”
“It is very light,” the girl noted holding it with two hands, though it was light enough for one. “Do you think that it is actually strong?”
Removing her left hand, Ashleen touched the edge of the blade finding it nearly as thin as a razor and perhaps as sharp. Most swords didn’t require such precision and those who used them knew that a blade needed to be thick enough to resist pitting the weapon with repeated attacks.
His attention pulled away to the mysterious blade, Sebastian placed the sword he had been holding on the table before taking the black sword from the girl’s hands. Placing the point against the clay floor, the mage placed both hands on the hilt before pushing with his foot against the metal enough to begin to bend the sword. It was typically a reckless thing to do, but he had faith in the magic used on the blade.
Battle Mage: Forging New Steel (Tales of Alus Book 9) Page 4