…The Tamers, on the second year after the end of the War, joins the Empire under these conditions:

The clan’s tradition pertaining to tertias and their cavalry will not be influenced by the Empire of Ja. The Imperial representative will be elected by the men and women of the clan. This vote shall not be influenced by the Empire of Ja.

In return, the Tamers shall provide:

The service of their cavalry, in time of war. A tax to the Empire, so they can benefit from the enlightened rule of the Imperatrix. Following of the Empire law, unless it goes against the traditions previously cited.

Contract six extract: The welcoming of the Tamers in the Empire.

Nay was restless. To be perfectly transparent, she hadn’t felt that excited since a long time ago. Probably only comparable to times when she and Liz were allowed to get a private bath in the Jasminn, just for the both of them.

The short-haired yaes were pulling the carriage that had been lent to her, bringing her beyond the city walls. She would have loved to bring Lisana or Trinne to the Zenith forges, but unfortunately, Lisana was currently studying with Berth, and Trinne wasn’t allowed out of the city yet. Nay wasn’t either but had received special authorization from Jarl to get her order made. There was an Imperial guard sitting in the carriage with her, who had introduced himself to her, and then she had promptly forgotten his name. He was in his forties, and was no Touched, but had quite the numerous stripes on his armour, showing his noble descent and his most likely high rank. He had dark eyes, an angled face with blue eyes, so typical of Leïn nobility. He was very obviously half asleep; it was early in the morning. If his role had been to protect Nay, it would have honestly been insulting. And if his role was to prevent her escape, he would have failed ten times out of ten.

Nay had reproduced the miracle of the Door more than half a dozen times now, and Hyn knew perfectly well that if Nay wanted to disappear, she could do exactly that whenever and wherever she so desired. Though despite she had succeeded in creating the Door multiple times, Nay hadn’t tested its effects yet. Hyn and Defin had insisted for her to wait before opening the Conqueror’s door, as she couldn’t hold it in place for more than fifteen seconds, her current record. With such a short window, there was a risk she could not use the same door to come back. It was likely she would get stuck in another part of the Empire, exhausted and with no way back for two or three days. The miracle experiments were not good times, it was asking her a lot of energy, but at least it excused her from the evening meetings, and Trinne stayed with her to take care of her. Speaking of meetings, the first one, where the Emperor gave her an appointment with Vorcan, had happened almost a month ago, and she had had to suffer through so meetings since, that Nay honestly considered using her newly learned miracle to dodge them for a few days. Hyn had said that she and Trinne would soon be asked to start their first mission, but instead of being upfront and practical about it, and finally letting them leave their golden cage, the mere introduction to the mission had taken two weeks, five private meetings in the Imperatrix’ new room, and two in the Emperor’s. Which was extremely annoying to her, as all of it could have been resumed with a simple parchment.

Trinne and Nay were sent to the Hymere to supervise the railway construction work.

That was it.

More precisely, Trinne had the mission to find solutions to all the issues delaying the railroad being built, and Nay was to protect her. The Legio also had to participate in an expedition in the jungle. According to the Imperatrix, there was in the heart of the Hymere, a place that would stop Nay’s power to explode in case of her death. Nay had to get there physically to be able in the future to teleport back.

But instead of just saying that, along with a nice cup of tea and a pastry, Nay had been forced to listen to an herbology master tell her about all the poisonous and venomous plants in the jungle, a zoologist tell her about every animal that would kill her, and a meteorologist even came to talk about the Gozardana, some sort of mythical thunderstorm happening every twenty years or so. And it was scheduled to occur in six years! Hours and hours of lessons, that could have been resumed with; don’t touch anything, everything that moves is deadly, and if the sky turns orange: pray.

Nay had been allowed to go make her order for weeks now, but had been delayed over and over with all of this nonsense. She had barely seen her mother, who had simply told her to be careful, and that if she ever faced a Banshee, she would need to fight it with her eyes closed. A tip that came from an old story Marke had told her. It was clear advice and short, everything Nay loved.

Fortunately here, in this beautiful early morning, Nay had finally been given the free reign to meet Vorcan. The forge was outside the capital wall, at the foot of the northern side of the Zenith mountain. The enchanting art being dangerous, especially Patrex enchantings, the Zenith forges had exiled themselves there to work in peace. Defin hadn’t been talkative about all the dangers linked with enchanting, but Trinne had taken a delve in everything pertaining to magic, and she had talked about the subject in more detail. Apparently, to create an enchantment, you needed two competent God-Touched. But more importantly, you needed harmony between them. One needed to apply the runes while the other needed to focus on the psalm you wanted to transcribe into writing, all the while, both of them needed to apply the same and right amount of power. Nay had countered by saying that the northern lift in the Ducal plateau had been created by just one Touched, so that didn’t make sense. Except that apparently that Touched was coming from the Blue Tower and was a Carradin, and as such didn’t use magic the same way. Trinne had gotten close with a loth of God-Touched apprentices, but even she had no idea why that was. It seemed that magic was surrounded by many mysteries yet to be solved.

In any case, the Patrex enchantments were not the most interesting thing to the Legio. They were fascinating, sure, but what she couldn’t wait for was the weapon itself. She had admired Murasama a few times, and the weapon was nothing like she had ever seen before. It wasn’t enchanted, at least Nay had never felt any magic emanating from the Commandare’s sword, but she would have loved to hold the weapon in her hands at least once. Maybe Birrebus had inherited it? She hoped they hadn’t been as disrespectful to bury Redrick’s sword with him.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the coachman saying hello to someone. The only thing that Nay was seeing through the windows of the carriage were wheat fields. They had left the city for something close to an hour now. She felt Rreicos approach, and then high stone walls appeared in her side vision. The guard woke up, looking around for a moment.

Nay gestured him with her hand, telling him to wipe the drool off his face.

The man blushed and quickly swiped himself with his right arm. “Thank you Darae.” He said solemnly.

Nay grimaced, and preferred to focus on what was happening outside. She peaked her head out of the carriage, to be faced with a beautiful stairway garden, with at its top a very luxurious villa half buried under the mountain. A dozen metres above the building, large holes in the mountain were letting out white and grey fumes.

They were currently standing still behind the walls of the property, the entrance a large, opened metal fence. The coachman was conversing with one of the four guards and gave them a paper with the Imperial seal. The bars of the fence were decorated, naked men and women dancing one above the other, and the structure itself was a flowerbed of dark metal. On its own, the fence could have warranted a trip to a museum. The men and women weren’t tall, barely ten centimetres, and despite that you could see the ripples in their skin, the tension in their muscled. What’s more, every dancer had a face with individual features and a unique pose.

Nay wanted to get out of the carriage to get to the villa quicker, but she stopped peering outside and went back to the relative darkness of the carriage. A few minutes passed until the carriage started moving again. The guards of the forge let them through. The sinuous road top gave Nay the time to contemplate the view. Although far from the impossible beauty of the Imperatrix’ chambers, it was still a beautiful rural landscape.

The carriage finally stopped, and the Imperial guard bowed ceremoniously. Which was a bit ridiculous as they were still sitting.

“I’m leaving you here, Darae. I will accompany you back as soon as your business her is done.”

Nay sighed and didn’t answer him. She wouldn’t even be allowed to sightsee a bit before being promptly carried back to Leïn. She opened the carriage door, stopping her movement just in time as she felt the coachman’s Rreico behind it. She almost knocked him out.

“Oh!” Said the man, surprised.

“Sorry! Sorry!” Nay apologized as she jumped out of the vehicle. She found herself stared down by two guards. They were well trained, they had moved reflexively around the sudden landing of the Legio.

“Hi!” Nay smiled at them.

The two men looked at each other, then the older one, who had a grey beard, smiled back. “Welcome, Darae, please follow us, Madame Vorcan is waiting for you.”

“Madame?” Nay was quite certain that Vorcan was a man in his sixties.

“It is Madame Vorcan who is in charge of familial affairs, Darae, the master does not participate in state matters.”

Nay held back a grimace. This was a bad start. And of course, Vorcan was the master’s family name. She still followed the two men inside the building. The entrance was massive, a large red carpet passing through the central floor, while many doors littered the right and left wall. There were also stairs on each side of the room, and the men brought her to the left one. Nay tried not to look disappointed. She could feel the Rreico, and even a smudge of sulfur in the air, coming from the gigantic metal door at the end of the red carpet. If they weren’t bringing her to the forges, that meant she had still much to prove.

One on the upper floor, she was led through two other corridors. She stopped automatically as she examined the many bronze and metal sculptures along the way. The one she was currently examining was a miniature of Leïn, a very faithful rendition, except the palace of the Imperatrix wasn’t just like a dragon, it was a real one, taking flight. Nay couldn’t stand there long though, feeling the increasing worry in the guards’ Rreico.

She was finally brought in front of a red wooden door. Wheat fields were graved on the wood, and the old guard knocked.

“Come on in.” The voice was grave but still feminine.

The guard opened the door, and they entered the room.

It was large but felt small. There were two library shelves and racks all over the walls, the desk at the end was so full of dirty dishes and official papers it was blocking the sunlight coming from the windows showing the fields behind. What’s more, there was a gigantic statue, some weird kind of fusion between a potato and a cactus, that was taking considerable space in one of the corners, almost touching the high ceiling as well. The two coaches facing each other around a low living room table were the only things not clustered with random stuff. A woman in her thirties rose from the desk as she put her smoking pipe down. She had dark hair, a square face and a slightly twisted nose. She was muscled but small, at least a head and a half smaller than the Legio. She looked tired, but came towards Nay with an extended hand and a smile. “Darae, I was waiting for you.” They shook hands. “Please, I apologize for the mess, please sit here. I don’t have much time, but I will give everything I have to satisfy the needs of the Empire.”

Nay smiled back, and sat down on the couch the woman was pointing at. It was too soft for her tastes, she almost felt like falling on the cushions.

“You are?” She asked.

“Oh, I apologize I didn’t introduce myself. I am Toriana Vorcan, Roger Vorcan’s granddaughter. I am the manager of Vorcan property. I believe we have met before, during the marriage of Ferdinant Harev and Franscesca Harev.”

Nay nodded. She had no idea who this Frederic and Manuela Aref were. And she had no memories of the woman in front of her either. Her Rreico seemed familiar though, so it could be possible they had met in the past.

“From what I gathered from the Emperor’s letter, you are the goddaughter of the Mother of us all, and a great swordswoman. But, if I may, you are not equipped accordingly?” The question was polite, but the smile tight. Nay felt the completely neutral Rreico coming from the woman, and understood what it meant. First she was Hyn’s goddaughter, and that was why she needed their weapons, to fit with her title. The quick look of the smith, because she was a smith, it was undeniable considering her muscles and family, at the borrowed weapons around Nay’s belt, was quite disrespectful, but the expression had gone as fast as it had appeared.

Nay rolled her eyes to the sky, already getting tired of the political games. “I am a Legio, and after saving the Imperatrix’ life, the Emperor judged necessary to give me a gift. I was given the opportunity to get weapons crafted by your grandfather, and enchanted by your house.”

“A Legio you say? I apologize, I do not know what that means. And I understand that your accomplishments deserve reward, and I will do my best to fulfill exactly that, but unfortunately, my grandfather does not accept orders for weapons anymore. It’s been twenty years now, that he prefers to use his art for…well art.” She looked at the statue at the corner of the room.

Nay followed her gaze, examining the piece with renewed interest but…well, the potato was absolutely hideous. There was no doubt that it had taken tremendous mastery to create, to a point Nay couldn’t even begin to imagine, but she couldn’t feel anything artistic emanating from the potato.

“It's…” The Legio hesitated.

“Oh, don’t bother with that. It is an abomination. My grandfather made it for me so I could use it as an example. The details in the torture of the vegetables are very difficult to create. He thought it funny to offer me this so I could learn from it.”

“Torture of the vegetables?”

“Its name.”

“Ah.”

There was a long uncomfortable silence before Toriana spoke again. “My grandfather is stubborn, no one can change that. Sorry if you hoped something from him. I’m quite surprised that his reputation still holds after all this time.”

Nay grimaced openly this time. It seemed that she wouldn’t get what she wanted, and worse, she would not even be allowed to try to get it. “Well, I saw Muramasa a few times, and I admit I’ve always dreamt of obtaining such a marvelous item.”

“Muramasa? The sword that grandpa made for the previous Commandare?”

“That’s the one.”

“Oh, I believe the reason why my grandfather stopped making weapons is because of it.”

Nay’s eyebrow rose. “He didn’t think he would ever be able to replicate it?”

“What? No, he hated Redrick Darkstar more than anything. Roger Vorcan was at the time charged into making the first prize for the winner of the three cities tournament. He was so annoyed at being obligated to make a weapon for the Commandare that he created the most unwieldy sword he could. It was balanced at the front, the handle overly…hum, a lot of things to make the sword as dangerous for yourself as for your enemy.”

Nay listened to the story without intervening, but couldn’t stop a surprised gasp at that last part. “What do you mean? Muramasa is a bad sword?”

“No, not at all. My grandfather has…a very acute sense of pride. He would never let a bad sword exit his forge. Muramasa is an excellent sword, but it has been made to be uncontrollable.”

“And Redrick tamed it.”

“He did. My grandfather was very unhappy. He doesn’t recognize this as the reason why he stopped crafting weapons though. He says it is because he didn’t find anyone that was worth holding his craft. I think that is why I receive so many demands from young warriors, there is some sort of myth going around about getting a sword from him. Do not worry though, Roger Vorcan has supervised the training of all of our weaponsmiths, you will not be disappointed with what we shall provide you.”

Nay pouted. Usually, she would have accepted the situation, and would have let the old smith that didn’t want to create weapons live in peace. But for once, she really wanted to try, at the very least. She had just been told that Muramasa, the most impressive sword she had ever seen, was some sort of failed joke! What would happen if she received a sword and dagger made seriously by the same smith?

“So, if you could tell me what type of sword you prefer, and if you desire a shield, chainmail with it…”

“Can’t I meet him,” Nay cut the smith’s words short.

She grimaced in turn. “At this time of day, he words, it would be better not to…”

“I apologize but, I believe the Emperor’s demand was that I meet Roger Vorcan so I can ask him for a special order. Your grandfather does not have to fulfill the order himself if he does not wish it, but to meet me is an Imperial order.”

“I understand.” Toriana’s smile was tight again. “But it is not possible…”

“Then you don’t understand. To refuse an Imperial order is punished by ten years of prison, up to forced exile depending on the cases.” Nay was letting some inner Trinne out, and, a bit depressingly, the effect was immediate.

Toriana reddened, sweat on her forehead.

“Ah, well, yes then, we’ll need another meeting…”

“No, that won’t do. I have an official mission for the Emperor in ten days, and my weapons need to be finished for then. I am here, your grandfather is here, I simply ask that you give me five minutes to talk with him.”

The smith clenched her teeth, looked to the side, then back to the Legio. Finally, her head swooped down and she sighed. “You don’t understand what you’re getting into girl, grandpa hates being bothered. If I say no to you, he’ll go to prison, if I say yes, he’ll probably be exiled because he was rude to the Imperatrix’ goddaughter, or worse, because he attacked her.”

Nay nodded. “No, that won’t happen. I won’t formalize any bad language against me, and I don’t believe an old smith could hurt me.”

“Your choice…Follow me.” The woman rose to her feet, and Nay followed her out of the room. The two men that had brought her here were standing guard, and Toriana talked to them for a short instant.

“We’re coming back soon, I’m bringing her to the forge.”

“Understood Madam.”

Toriana sighed again, and she and Nay went to the lower floor, then through the corridor with the red carpet to reach the large metal door Nay had spotted coming in. The smith didn’t knock, she simply pushed the metal door open as if it had been made of wood. Immediately, Nay was assaulted by the smell of fire, molten metal and sulfur. The temperature rose twenty degrees, and the deafening sound of metal on metal shook her ears.

The smith close the door behind them, while Nay was observing the room. It was nothing like the rich interior of the villa. The walls were part of the mountain, and dozen of women and men were working; hitting red hot metal with their hammers, running around with water buckets and ore pieces, and there was even three God-Touched between two furnaces clearly working on some sort of enchantment on a halberd. It was quite impressive, but Nay was a bit disappointed. The furnaces were nothing special, and the room itself was just a dozen forges put inside a long cave.

“Tori?” The smith closest to them turned around. He wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his arm. He was muscled, clearly visible as he wasn’t wearing anything for a top. Most women and men weren’t wearing much, but he was clearly the least clothed here.

“Get back to your work Dorian, I need to bring this id…the Darae see Roger.”

The man looked at the two women before asking. “Are you sure? He’s stuck on his ballerina project for more than a week now…”

“I know. But I have an Imperial order to follow.”

“Well, good luck then.”

“Thanks honey.”

The conversation over, not without one last worried look coming from the man towards them, Nay continued following Toriana through the room. When they finally reached its end, instead of another door, it was a badly lit tunnel that was waiting for them. The smith took some sort of mask and held it for the Legio to pick.

“Our air filtering system is good, but the tunnel to Zenith’s heart can be dangerous still. It’ll make sure you don’t suffocate.”

Nay took the mask and put it on. Where was she being led to, exactly?

“What about you?” She asked.

“I’m used to it.”

The lights hanging on the ceiling through a cable were clearly new, and Nay had to hunch down to avoid breaking them. Minutes passed as they continued walking forward, the smell of sulfur getting more and more powerful.

Then, after a turn, they finally arrived at the end of the tunnel.

This time, Nay wasn’t disappointed. The room, or maybe it would have been more correct to call it a volcanic chamber, was roomy to say the least. The tunnel brought them on a very large platform, twenty meters in circumference, and at the other side stood the largest furnace Nay had ever seen. Behind it, there was a drop, Nya couldn’t see how deep, but the red and yellow hue, as well as the soft crackling of stone bubbles, indicated lava. The most impressive were the walls though. The stone walls were like a dome closing up everything above their heads, but most of the reachable parts were covered in runes. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of enchantments were all around the walls. The Rreico was soft, just a hum, as most of them were empty. Nay immediately focused, not wanting to charge them by mistake with her presence. She had no idea what would happen if so many enchantments suddenly burst alive.

A man, only wearing a dirty apron, shorts and heavy leather gloves, was looking at a magnificent statue of an acrobat standing upside down on one of her hands. The piece had to be a metre tall, and was probable insanely heavy. It didn’t stop the man, who screamed in rage, to pick it up by the waist and throw it far away, inside the precipices’ maws.

“Oh, OK.” Nay said out loud, suddenly not as confident.

“I forgot! Please, give me your weapons.” Toriana exclaimed.

“I’m sorry?”

“If he sees you with that trash, he won’t even look at you.” The smith explained.

Was she seriously being asked to put away her weapons when she was going to talk with the very rageful man that threw away hundreds of kilos of metal inside a volcano?

As it seemed, yes, that was exactly what Toriana had asked, as she didn’t seem to be joking. Nay shook her head in disarray, removed her belt and put it next to the tunnel’s entrance.

The smith nodded nervously, then continued talking. “Well, good, very good. Let me talk first, I’m going to introduce you. You focus on dodging the hammers, then we’ll leave, ok?”

The Legio blinked wildly. What? Dodging the hammers?

But Toriana walked towards her grandfather, and Nay followed her, a bit despite her better judgement.

You could immediately see that the two Vorcans were related. The same crooked nose, the same hair colour. Wrinkles on the renowned smith were the only thing betraying his age. His muscled body would have been envied by young and old men alike, and there was no grey in his hair. He was still unaware of their presence, despite them standing mere metres away. On his working table was a large box of ores. There were five others, much the same, on the ground next to him. He was studying a piece of ore methodically.

Toriana didn’t say anything.

He looked displeased, and threw the ore behind him. It flew in a beautiful arc trajectory, right into the void. Nay quickly glanced at the edge. The fall would be long, with quite the horrible crash, seeing how red and brown the shining lava at the bottom was.

Nay stepped a bit further away from the edge, before concentrating back on the smith. His Rreico was pure focus.

“Grandpa?” Toriana dared to ask.

The man immediately rose his eyes to meet his granddaughters, and the expression looked quite deadly. “Tori? What are you doing here? Can’t you see I’m working?”

“Yes, I know, I’m sorry. But you received a letter a few weeks ago and…”

“Since when do I read letters?”

“Yeah I know, I meant that I read the letter and…”

“Who’s that?” The smith had just noticed the Legio now. She tried to give him the most peaceful smile she could.

Toriana clenched her teeth, a nerve popping on her forehead. “If you just let me finish…”

“Are you looking for Biach here just to lecture me?”

“No I…no.”

Nay couldn’t handle the poor woman being attacked like that by her fault, so she took an uncalculated risk. She removed her mask and spoke.

“Good morning, mister Vorcan. I am Nay, Master Legio, and I came here in hope that you would forge my weapons.”

There was a long silence after that.

Tension grew noticeably, and the smith very slowly turned to face her, his eyes as cold as a Hi blizzard. It lasted for minutes. His Rreico was inscrutable, but Toriana’s wasn’t. Her anxiety was very clearly rising every second that passed.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity, the smith answered her.

“I can do that.”

Toriana reacted instantly. “There you are. Darae I am extremely sorry about that but I…WHAT!?”

The old man rose an eyebrow. “Obviously I’m going to make her her weapons. Have you even looked at her?... TORI!”

She stood to attention as if suddenly in the military. “Yes?” She answered as if she was ten and not thirty or more.

“Did you look at her!?” He shouted.

The poor smith woman looked towards Nay, clearly utterly confused.

Nay wasn’t understanding anything occurring right now either, but, as it seemed, she was going to get what she wanted. She was smiling through her teeth.

“Yes?” Toriana responded with the littlest of voices.

Roger Vorcan shook his head disappointedly, before addressing Nay. “I’m sorry girly, these idiots still have much to learn.”

This was the first time that the Legio didn’t feel anything negative in the word girly when said towards her. It was still a bit weird as she was quite taller than the old smith.

“Can I see your hands?” He asked her.

She obeyed, showing him her palms. He came closer, grabbed her wrists, and inspected her hands for a short moment.

His grip was strong, and there was sweat and dark residues all over his gloves, but Nay didn’t react. Finally, he released her. “Could you stand like you would when fighting?”

Nay obeyed again, doing a low guard pose.

The smith took some time as he circled around her, before going back in his initial position and nodded. “Sword and dagger right? You use your dagger in throws?”

Nay shook her head up and down, slowly. She had no idea how he could have guessed that. He wasn’t Touched, and showed no signs of being a Teller.

“Very well. My idiots will enchant them, just for good measure. They’ll arrive next week. Thank you, by the way, I had stopped hoping.”

And in his Rreico, there was only metal. Only the forge. The Legio had never seen such focus.

She stayed there for a few minutes. Standing and watching the artist start his work. Then Toriana seemed to wake up, and she brought the Legio out of Vorcan’s forge.

“How?” She asked once they were back in the tunnel.

But as she wasn’t really asking the question to the Legio, Nay just shrugged her shoulders.

Her mood was through the roof, she was going to get her weapons crafted by Roger Vorcan himself, and would get them next week!