The next evening, Shaya approached the military quarter located on the same plateau as the Academy and nodded to the pair of guards standing watch at the gate. This quarter’s defenses were as impressive as the Academy’s, another kingdom’s wealth in mythrite etched into runes and another two humanoid golems standing watching alongside the guards. She gave her name and was ushered through the gate, her student slate serving no purpose here.

She got directions to ‘The Forge’, as they called it with reverence, but they weren’t necessary. Even from a mile away, Shaya’s untrained third-eye could sense waves of aether emanating from a large workshop located in a walled sub-compound. Soldiers in iron jogged about the compound or sparred in open fields, training even late into the day. She couldn’t help but wonder if those she saw were being punished for talking back to their superiors or sneaking contraband into their barracks, like the stories she used to hear of life in the military from her mom.

Ignored by the many soldiers moving about, Shaya walked up to the entrance of ‘The Forge’ and was stopped by two more guards backed by two more golems. They went through the same process as the initial gate guards, accepting her name and appearance and letting her pass. Apparently, Auric had told them to expect someone matching her description.

She passed through the gate and entered the cacophonous Forge, the sound of clanging hammers smashing into her like a wall of sound accompanied by a wave of heat that seemed unnatural given the cool weather outside.

Stunned by the sudden, overwhelming sensations, Shaya stood at the gate until one of the guards, wincing at the noise and heat himself, pushed her through and shut the gate behind her.

It must use magic to block the sound and heat.

She winced as the hammering continued, like Titans pounding on her ear drums, but adjusted to it after a few more seconds passed.

Gods, what did I sign up for?

“I’m glad you could make it!” Auric boomed over the clangorous din, Shaya feeling his words in her bones more than hearing them. He left a young man behind at an anvil as he approached her, “Come on, let me give you the tour!”

While he normally looked relaxed, Shaya had never seen Auric so happy. It struck her that the Forge was his true passion and home, where he felt most comfortable and preferred to spend his time.

“Thanks, I can’t wait!” She shouted back, her voice not carrying half as well as Auric’s.

The workshop was mostly open to the world, with little in the way of walls except for sheds designed to store items away from the weather. Columns on the outer edges of the ‘building’ held up a simple, angled roof of segmented metal sheets that built up to a large point at the center. Rather than any column, the center of the building was an enormous construct of red bricks where all of the heat was coming from – and the aether.

“That’s the heart of the Forge,” Auric said to her, no longer needing to shout now that they stood next to each other, “it’s a rift to the plane of fire, which we channel to the various furnaces around it. The heat is capable of melting any metal.”

He pointed at the spokes coming from the ‘heart’, which ended in what she recognized to be smithing furnaces. Armourers and smiths of various ages and backgrounds placed ingots or their pieces into those furnaces, waiting for the metal to come back up to a temperature where they could mold them again with a hammer.

“Even adamantite and orikalkite?” Shaya asked, eyes wide.

“Certainly adamantite,” he nodded, “orikalkite is a controlled substance in the Empire, given its theorized ability to kill gods.”

The next layer out from the heart was a circle of anvils, their shapes and sizes more diverse than Shaya had expected. She sensed more aether pouring from each anvil, surprising her even further. Auric smiled when she turned from the anvils to him, cocking an eyebrow at the bronze giant.

“Drawn from metals from the plane of earth, so that they can maintain their shape against the strongest of blows,” he said, giddy, then gestured to the pools of water, “and that flows from the plane of water, able to quench any metal regardless of its temperature.”

“Cool,” Shaya replied, impressed by the raw magical power all this probably required, but not really understanding what it was all for.

“You’ll grasp the full value eventually,” he said, seeing her glazed eyes, “but let’s start your training.”

They walked over to a vacant anvil next to a work bench full of ingots and plain tools, Auric gesturing for her to stand across from him. He picked up one of the several hammers from the table as well as a grey ingot and placed it on the anvil before her.

“The Academy’s...current curriculum is missing one integral teaching for its first years, so I will start there,” he gestured at the ingot and the hammer, “if I told you to turn that into a knife, how would you go about it?”

Shaya frowned at the change of topic, but tried to work through it with her basic understanding. “Well, assuming that grey metal is iron, you can’t hammer it while it’s cold. And...can I pick it up?”

He nodded.

She picked up the ingot, hefting it in a hand. It was much heavier than a knife needed to be. Setting the metal back down, she continued, “And you don’t need that much metal for a knife, so I’d...cut it in half? Or something.”

“Good, do you know what I speak of then?”

She worked through her thoughts before coming to a conclusion she was confident in: “Efficiency.”

“Correct,” he nodded, “the current Academy assumes that the mages it trains are nephilim with a head start on their magical endurance, so it starts by teaching you Seeds and pushes you to cast them at their default power. For instance, Basillo has started teaching you wards, yes? What is the purpose of a ward spell?”

“To absorb hostile magics?”

“No, try again.”

“Prevent hostile magic from harming me or my friends.”

“Correct. You already have a strong grasp of melee combat: is it better to absorb a blow or deflect it? And do you take it on your armour?”

“You want to turn them aside before they get close to you, especially if they’re enchanted...”

“Yet the ward Seeds, like most, are simple – they ward a broad area around you, thereby wasting energy,” he continued, “especially when you are inexperienced, it also means you may not be focusing enough energy to protect against incoming magic.”

“You’re talking about modifying spells, then?” Shaya asked, full of enthusiasm.

“Yes,” he nodded, “we tend to call this ‘metamagic’ - the study of elements around the core Seeds, the in-depth study of spell circuits themselves.”

Shaya continued, overflowing with excitement, “I’ve already started that with my light armour and barrier of light Seeds!”

Auric grunted in acknowledgement and disapproval, “Ah, Light-forging – your first teacher was also an Astorian then?”

“...yes...?”

The bronze giant nodded, “Typical. Light-forging is effective, but not simple. Astoria discovered that use of Amber, but it was far from Her first spells.”

“What do you mean?” Shaya cocked her head, “I picked it up quickly, I’d say I’m pretty close to mastering the light armour Seed, even.”

“Magic bends natural laws,” he explained, “but the further something needs to bend, the more aether is required and the more complex the spell circuit. Is light naturally hard enough to stop blades?

“No, it’s not,” he answered, “the amount of aether required to transmute its properties such that it can pushes the limits of young mages, and wastes a lot of space in your spirit should you need to cast additional spells.”

I’ve definitely run into that problem before...

“So, what would you suggest as an alternative?”

He shrugged. “That depends on your needs – do you need to enhance existing armour on the battlefield? Be able to conjure it from anywhere at any time while unarmoured? Magic has a lot of answers, assuming you know to ask the right questions.”

“But...” Shaya shook her head, taking this all in, “why is none of this taught at the beginning?”

“The last celestial war of succession was devastating,” Auric replied, leaving it to her to draw conclusions.

“So... we need to replenish our number of mages quickly,” she mused, “and we’d rather have mages that know at least a small breadth of spells at their disposal and make an immediate impact, rather than slowing down progress to get the most out of each Seed?”

He nodded, but Shaya got the sense there was more. More that she didn’t want to say aloud.

If Auric is right and there’s serious power behind this kind of flexibility... maybe they don’t want to teach it to just anyone, in case they join the opposite side of another civil war.

Is this really the Empire my mom sacrificed her life for?

Claws dug into her palms as Shaya clenched her fists at the thought of it.

She united so many different people under her banner... and the new dynasty is afraid to do the same?

With a slow breath, Shaya reined in her thoughts and saw Auric watching her.

“Okay, so where do we start?” Shaya asked.

“I’ll teach you the basic concepts that will let you shape your spells, focus aether to empower parts of your spell, and how to improve their efficiency; employing them will be much harder though. As you can guess, modifying a spell is intuitive – but not easy. But first, you owe me a work shift,” Auric smiled, then gestured behind Shaya, “this is my partner, Vatag, he’ll be handling your orientation at the Forge.”

A Kelahk name?

Another bear of a man walked forward to stand beside Auric, about as tall as Shaya and broad enough to confirm that he was a kitahm. Vatag had cropped dark hair showing streaks of grey, but his bushy beard and the chest hair that poked out over his simple tunic were ginger. He wore the standard protective gear of a blacksmith: a heavy leather apron that covered his broad gut, thin leather gloves that protected his large hands yet kept them dextrous, and heavy-looking goggles.

Shaya was almost surprised to see someone that was less a nephilim than herself, then felt guilty given how many soldiers she passed in the compound earlier.

“A pleasure to meet you,” his deep voice rumbled and the smile he gave her was warm.

“Nice to meet you too,” Shaya replied with a smile, eager to get started and occupy her mind before it wandered again.

“We’ll get you started with some basic safety,” Vatag said, “but I want you swinging a hammer before the end of the shift, just to get you a feel for it.”

He grinned, “you’ll be hooked after that.”

The older man wasn’t wrong.

Hours later, as she shaped even a basic hook out of a simple iron ingot, something seemed to click into place for her. Shaping the metal one hammer blow at a time felt...similar to shaping Amber aether into her spell circuits. The way Amber had to be moved into place and corrected if she used too much force, like sculpting something that was barely malleable.