Chapter 14 #3
Riven stripped off his heavy leather duster, tossing it onto the marble floor. He stood bare-chested before the colossal forge, the golden geometric tattoos on his skin glowing fiercely in the dim red light of the cavern.
He didn't use an iron stylus. He didn't need a conduit to speak to the heart of the mountain.
He placed both of his bare hands flat against the cold, star-flecked metal of the crucible.
He closed his eyes.
He didn't just access the Lexicon; he dove into it. He pushed his consciousness down through the floor of the Deep Forge, reaching past the bedrock, reaching deep into the crushing, tectonic friction of the earth's mantle. He felt the terrifying, grinding heat of the planet itself.
Ignite, he commanded.
He acted as the lightning rod. He pulled the raw, kinetic friction up from the deep earth, channeling it directly through his spine, down his arms, and violently into the cold metal of the forge.
The response was explosive.
The golden circuitry on his skin flared to a blinding, agonizing brilliance. The veins in his neck bulged as the sheer volume of aether screamed through his mortal flesh. The white marble beneath his boots cracked.
The dark metal bowl of the forge shuddered.
A low, deep, harmonic ringing sound echoed across the cavern, vibrating so powerfully it knocked dust from the unseen ceiling miles above.
Then, the forge caught.
A towering pillar of pure, golden-white fire erupted from the center of the crucible, shooting a hundred feet straight up into the air.
The blast of heat hit them like a physical wall.
It wasn't the suffocating, sulfurous heat of the magma.
It was a clean, sharp, ozone-scented heat of pure, ignited magic.
The blinding golden light banished the shadows of the colossal cavern, illuminating the towering drop-forges and massive anvils in stark, brilliant relief.
The Deep Forge was awake.
Riven pulled his hands away from the metal, gasping for air. He stumbled backward, his chest heaving, sweat instantly beading and evaporating on his skin from the intense heat of the pillar of fire.
He looked at the roaring, golden crucible. It was beautiful. It was terrifying.
Vael walked slowly up the steps, her golden eyes wide, reflecting the roaring flames. She unclipped the Sol-Cleaver from her back and planted the butt of the halberd onto the marble floor.
"We have the fire," Vael said, her voice cutting through the roar of the forge. She looked at Riven, a fierce, predatory grin on her face. "Now we make the teeth."
Riven picked up his leather duster and shrugged it back onto his shoulders. He felt the terrifying weight of his new reality settling permanently into his bones. He wasn't just surviving anymore. He was preparing to break the world that had broken him.
"Lore-Keeper," Riven called out, staring into the golden flames. "Empty your satchel. Let's see how much antibody glass you managed to salvage."
Carys practically scrambled up the marble steps, her face split into a massive, manic grin. She unbuckled her heavy canvas bag and dumped the contents directly onto the smooth floor beside the forge. Dozens of jagged, glittering shards of pitch-black obsidian glass clattered against the marble.
"It's pure, crystallized aether-tar," Carys said, picking up a shard that seemed to actively absorb the golden light of the fire. "It operates on a frequency designed to nullify and erase academy magic. It is the perfect anti-Inquisitor material."
"Can you smelt it?" Vael asked, looking at Riven. "Glass shatters. We need something that can hold an edge."
Riven reached out and picked up a jagged shard of the black glass. As his fingers touched it, the golden circuitry on his hand flared, actively suppressing the neutralizing effect of the antibody.
He looked into the Lexicon. The ancient AI immediately provided the metallurgical blueprints.
"I don't just melt it," Riven said, his amber eyes reflecting the roaring forge.
"I alloy it. I bind the glass with the meteoritic iron from the surrounding anvils.
We forge a composite material. Iron to hold the kinetic edge, and the antibody glass woven into the molecular structure to act as the frequency disruptor. "
He looked at Vael’s halberd.
"Your blade is a masterwork, Vanguard," Riven said. "But against a Phalanx shield wall, it's just a flashlight. Give it to me."
Vael didn't hesitate. She didn't argue the sanctity of her noble weapon. She flipped the heavy polearm and handed it to the Architect.
Riven took the weapon. He turned and threw the priceless, runic halberd of the Solar-Crest lineage directly into the roaring, golden-white fire of the crucible.
"We break their rules," Riven said, his voice dropping into a cold, lethal promise as he watched the weapon begin to melt. "We break their magic. And when the shields fall... we break them."
The plan of attack was set. Deep beneath the crushing weight of the mountain, hidden from the scrying-wards and the armies of the High Proctors, the First Architect prepared for war.