Hello, a young, almost child-like voice said.

There was always something magical in hearing the first words of a guardian. Even veteran awakened relished the moment knowing that their efforts had gained form. Often, they’d spend seconds, or even minutes, disconnected from the world, focusing on the item just created. Dallion didn’t have that luxury. Barely had he heard the voice than he gave instructions to the guardian how to shape its realm.

Eleven instances had failed to match the correct moment. Nine proceeded with the instructions, although in three cases, the new guardian was too confused to follow them adequately. At this point, only six remained.

Did you think of that? The guardian asked, as it moved the molten metal while it hardened. That’s really cool.

Cool? Dallion wondered. He knew that the newly created guardians were close in character to their creator, but this was a bit too much. Strictly speaking, guardians were not created; according to Nil, the moment a new realm came into existence, all of them were attracted to fill it. The actual process by which a guardian was selected remained a mystery. Supposedly, those who mirrored the personality of the creator had a greater chance of showing up, but that wasn’t always the case. At present, it almost seemed as if one of Dallion’s echoes had claimed the realm.

The molten metal moved about as it hardened, crackling in the process. This was unusual, but Dallion’s forging skills told him that everything was going on as expected. Every now and again unfortunate bubble would form, ruining the shape, and causing another instance to be discarded.

Just a bit more! Dallion split into eighteen new instances.

Had the dream been a warning about this? Forging was surprisingly close to forging a province. The only difference was that no people or politics were involved here. Sadly, that didn’t make it a lot easier.

The seconds passed slowly and tensely with Dallion using his focus, as well as music and forging skills to monitor the guardian’s progress and instruct him when needed. Instances faded away by the dozen, only to be replaced by more.

Sweat covered Dallion’s forehead, caused just as much by the heat as by the pressure. Time ceased to have any meaning, all that mattered was to construct the hammer head according to specifications. Then, finally, it was done. Out of habit, Dallion kept on splitting for half a minute more, to be certain that there were no surprises. Then, once he saw that nothing bad had happened, he lay on the floor, grabbed hold of his kaleidervisto, entered into the item, and promptly collapsed.

The first thing Dallion noticed upon waking up was the blanket of blue flames that covered him. Lux, in typical fashion, had made sure that he remained warm and healed, even if the realm was by no means cold.

“Thanks, Lux,” Dallion stirred. Instantly the firebird moved off from him, taking its avian form. “Did anything interesting happen while I was asleep?

There was no telling how much time had passed. If Dallion were to guess, he’d say hours. Not that it mattered. The only reason he asked was because he wanted to have a rough estimate of how angry Nil would be with him. The old echo was far from overprotective, but got especially annoyed when “basic logic” wasn’t followed. In this case—forging until fainting.

Lux flew around Dallion, forming the number nine.

Nine hours? Dallion, thought. That’s not too bad.

Taking a few steps to adjust, he then returned to the real world. With only the moment passed, the hammer head was still scorching hot, even if it had gained solid form. Now was the time for it to be quenched. Since the hammer head was made of sky silver, there was one peculiarity. Quenching wasn’t done in oil or water, but the air itself. That was another of the reasons why the metal was so durable.

Taking a pair of large tongs, Dallion pulled out the hammer head from the sand mold. Seeing it for the first time brought mixed feelings. The hammer glistened with raw brilliance, making the already unusual shape look as if it had been cut out of with a laser. Unfortunately, it was slightly small for a hammer. That was another of the reasons that Dallion wanted to give it a quicksilver core.

Don’t be nitpicky, Nil grumbled. It’s good.

Is that a compliment? Dallion asked, carefully examining the edges of the hammer-head. They were pleasantly sharp, almost crisp. Any onlooker would describe the piece as a misshaped triangular prism with a hole in the middle. Technically, they wouldn’t be wrong. The hammer was triangles, but where others saw an irregular prism, Dallion saw seventy-two faces of different lengths and angles with which to strike. And there wasn’t just one hold, but two: one for the handle and one to pour the quicksilver in.

Feeling okay? Dallion asked the hammer piece.

Perfecto, the hammer replied. In his mind, Dallion almost imagined it giving him a thumbs up.

Okay, let’s get you tempered a bit more. He put the hammer head in the oven.

Twice did Dallion return the item to the oven and twice he quenched it in air. Each time it became slicker and slicker. Euryale would probably grumble that it would need a few areas ground down, but all in all Dallion was pleased with the result.

Once the hammer head had fully cooled down, it was time for phase two. With extreme care and attention, Dallion poured the quicksilver into the head. This time, he only used half a dozen instances. Luckily for him, there were no incidents.

When the liquid metal had filled its container to the brim, he removed his leather gloves and touched the side of the sky silver.

ITEM AWAKENING

The forge disappeared, replaced by a vast three-dimensional maze. Just looking around was enough to make anyone dizzy, as if the internal decorator had been M.C. Escher.

Maybe I went a bit overboard. Dallion closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them up again. This time, things were somewhat better. However, now the most difficult part began.

The HAMMER is level 1

You are in an intricate metal room.

Defeat the guardian and change the HAMMER’s destiny.

You wish, Dallion smirked at the blue rectangle.

Lines of quicksilver flowed along the floor, walls, and ceiling, just as was intended. Dallion’s instinct was to stay away, but his curiosity drew him forward. In the end, he was unable to resist, stepping onto a pool of silvery liquid. The sensation was unusual, as if he were walking on firm jelly.

“Hammer,” Dallion said out loud. “I’ll be heading for the labyrinth. If you can, give me a hand.”

Instantly, all the quicksilver around Dallion pulled away, creating an empty circle. This wasn’t exactly what he had in mind, but Dallion decided to take it.

At first, the mending labyrinth was quite small—no larger than a tennis court. That was to be expected; the item was brand new and there were no areas that needed mending. As Dallion pushed against one of the walls, however, the room expanded tripling in size. Silver markers emerged, standing out from the metallic background thanks to their deep glow. Dallion examined them carefully, then summoned his Nox dagger.

“Keep it even, Nox,” he said and started cutting.

Back on Earth, Dallion would have said that the procedure required surgical precision. As an awakened, he was more than a surgeon. Aided by the forging markers, he sliced through metal with ease, taking out sections to assemble later. At first glance, it seemed that he was destroying the realm, but in truth he was merely rearranging it in such a fashion so as to bottle the mercury inside the sky silver. Doing so in practice was like rearranging a wall of Rubik-cubes, the sides of which moved along with their location.

It took several long hours of insanity, and a lot of help from Nox and Lux, but in the end he managed to rearrange the sections of the labyrinth and weld them in place.

Done, Dallion thought. The wall in front of him was seamless, as if it had always been this way.

Your forging skills have improved, Nil said. Who knows, your crazy idea might work after all.

Thanks, Nil. Dallion started his way towards the guardian chamber.

I know you’re not reckless enough to challenge a sky-silver guardian, the echo said cautiously.

I just want to see the guardian I’ve made.

You can’t say you’ve made him just yet. You’ve completed the hammer head, but you’re still lacking the handle. You can’t call it a full hammer in its present state.

The Moons seem to differ. Not that it mattered if they didn’t. Dallion was still set on seeing his guardian. Still, it was good to be on his guard.

When Dallion stepped through the archway leading to the guardian’s chamber, he expected it to be the same as every other part of the realm. That turned out not to be the case. Sea and blue skies continued in all directions for as far as the eye could see, broken up only by the occasional set of cliffs emerging from beneath the surface. The only solid surface for miles was a clocktower made of sky silver and mercury, emerging from the surface and rising hundreds of feel in the air.

“Hey,” a nymph said, dressed in what looked like steampunk attire. The race aside, the guardian looked quite young and extremely geeky. All that was missing were a pair of thick goggles and he would be at home in a LARP convention or a Jules Verne novel. “You thought of this place?” the boy grinned.

HAMMER GUARDIAN - ONDA

Species: Nymph

Class: Shadow

Statistics: 100% Health

Skills:

-Water control

-Forging

-Carving

-Guard

-Attack

Weak Spot: Unknown

“Did you?” the guardian repeated his question.

“Yes?” Dallion wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing or not.

“Sweet.” The nymph grinned. “Cool design. Haven’t seen something like this in ages. You must have an idea of ferrofluid behavior.”

Huh? Dallion blinked. While he knew that the past ages might have been far more technologically advanced, he didn’t expect his hammer to be versed in modern physics. His body wasn’t shimmering—which meant that he wasn’t from another world—and yet he didn’t seem to belong in a medieval setting in the least. Then again, Vihrogon was also a lot more modern that the current age supposed.

“Sorry, old habit. I was a gearworks apprentice in the past.” he looked at the floor. “You have no idea what it’s like to end up in a realm such as this.”

“You’re aware that you’re a hammer?” Dallion asked.

“Hey, no one’s perfect. Besides, so much thought went into creating this that I wouldn’t call it just a hammer. Anyway, when will you link me to your realm?”

Quite the pushy one, aren’t you, Dallion thought.

“When I get you a handle,” he said reluctantly. “Keep in mind there are a few other guardians linked already.”

“Nice. Any nymphs?”

“One. She’s a harpsisword.”

The eagerness that filled the guardian’s chest suddenly vanished, replaced by equal parts fear and uncertainty.

“Combat gear,” the guardian said. “I can work with that.”

“I’ve also have, a companion shield and… you’ll see when you join he realm. I also have an old echo, who’s the resident librarian. Feel free to chat with him on any topic, though most of all forging. I plan to start making items pretty soon and I’ll rely on you for assistance.”

“I figured as much. Don’t worry, I’ll be here to help you out.” He took a few steps to the edge of the terrace and looked at the horizon. “Combat gear and a companion shield. It won’t be boring, that’s for sure.”

“You have no idea… Don’t worry though, I won’t take you on the trips in the wilderness. You’ll be entirely focused on crafting things.”

And for starters, I’ll see how good you are at shaping an emblem.