“Daaaamn,” Perry muttered, spinning and gawking at the changes Natalie had wrought on the spirit forge.

The shiny blue reflective crystals that lined the entire dome were fluttering gently, almost like a breeze was rolling through them.

Perry stepped closer and marveled as the crystals turned their reflective surfaces away from him as he waved his hand in front of it.

“So I gave the crystals some articulation and connected it to a central AI. It guides the crystals to make sure the reflected essence of the original object perfectly matches the shape of the original. I’m sure a lot of leakage was caused because of that.”

Before Perry could respond, Natalie grabbed his hand and dragged him over to the forge itself, pointing out the changes.

The biggest one: The entire thing had been replaced with a larger, high-tech block of steel.

“It’s still got the clay on the inside, but I coated the outside in an essence-transparent metal for stability. It was necessary because I found that the nanotubes in the clay that absorbed magical essence most efficiently were horribly crumbly.”

“There’s the polarity inverter,” Natalie said, pointing to a metal pedal on the floor. “It’s digital rather than analogue now, but the button is on a spring-loaded switch to give it that feel. The pulse goes through a carefully calibrated circuit to make sure the entire forge reverses polarity at the exact same instant.”

“Damn,” Perry muttered, a little jealous of Natalie’s magitech. He knew he shouldn’t be jealous, but magitech always felt like Perry’s thing. For the first time in his career, he felt like he had to step up his game.

“Over here!” Natalie dragged him around to the other side of the massive steel forge.

Andre Demetre looked on with amusement as Natalie dragged Perry around to a massive computer.

“And check this out!” Nat said, pointing at a crystal-studded satellite dish pointed directly at the forge. “It-“

“Gives you real-time visuals on exactly what’s going on in the forge?”

Natalie gave him a slightly miffed expression for stealing a bit of her thunder.

“Yes…” She suddenly brightened. “Now check this out!” Nat dragged him to the next spot.

“She’s going to be the best Spirit Smith either world has ever seen,” Andre Demetre said quietly, surveying the room with reverential awe.

“And now for your surprise!” Natalie said, her heart visibly pounding in the hollow of her neck.

She fished around in her pocket for a moment before she held out a silver chain to him, her entire body stiff.

Perry took it, inspecting the locket at the end of the chain. A hinged silver oval about half the size of his palm.

“Open it,” Nat said, shifting nervously from foot to foot.

Perry found the seam with his thumbnail and popped it open, revealing an incredibly detailed figurine of Natalie cast in silver. It almost looked like it was breathing.

He studied it for a moment before asking the first question that came to mind.

“Why doesn’t it have any clothes on?”

Nat went crimson, avoiding his gaze.

“Because clothes don’t have souls, and I couldn’t figure out how to – if you don’t like it-” She reached out to take it away, but Perry held it out of her grasp.

“I absolutely did not say that,” Perry said, before noticing movement out of the corner of his eye.

The metal figurine waved at him.

“I used vivant root and areonite to bring a tiny bit of myself to life,” Natalie said, peering down at the animated figurine along with him.

“That must’ve cost a lot,” Perry murmured as the figurine motioned for him to come closer.

He gave her his finger, and the tiny metal Natalie wrapped her arms around it in a hug that radiated warmth through his entire body.

“Is she…aware?” Perry didn’t think he could keep a sentient thing trapped in a locket 99% of the time.

“Not really, more like a snapshot of my emotions at the time,” Natalie said. “She’ll never stop being infatuated with you.” She looked up at him with upturned eyes in a way that nearly made his heart stop.

“Are we still talking about the locket?” Perry asked.

“Do you…like it?”

“Emphatically,” Perry said before picking up the little Tinker and kissing her.

Andre cleared his throat before they got too carried away. “You were here to do some work?”

“R-right,” Nat said as Perry set her down.

“What’s on the menu for today?” Perry asked.

“I’m gonna make a magical galvanic anode for my mechsuit suit and imbue it with some traits from you! Your soul exemplifies durability, adaptability, growth and cheapness.”

“Hey.”

Nat wasn’t listening because she was sinking into the Tinker Twitch.

“Heather isn’t a great choice for the damage absorption, because she’s more aggressive and explosive in nature, so I’m going to use her smudges on the weapons-systems.”

A galvanic anode was basically a panel of highly reactive material that would rust instead of the object it was attached to. It was also called a ‘sacrificial anode’ for that reason.

Natalie left and returned a moment later with a massive sheet of silvery white metal, rolled into a foil that looked thinner than a human hair.

“It’s mithril and form-steel, in a one to sixteen ratio. Mithril for corrosion resistance, Form-Steel for toughness and the ability to regain its shape.” Natalie explained as she rolled it in. “I wanted to work based on the experience I gained from when we made Resistance and use that as a jumping off point to expand my skills.”

“I had to suck the essence properties out of the Form-steel to get it to stay in a foil shape,” Natalie muttered, rolling the foil over to the furnace, whose back opened up to reveal a rectangular passage they could send the foil through. It was white hot all the way through.

Nat frowned at the furnace, then went over to the control panel on the side and entered in a lower heat, causing the glow to drop from white to reddish orange.

“Okay, Mr. Demetre, grab a couple of those tongs and stand on the other side of the forge. When I pass it through, grab the end and load it into the rolling machine, but don’t pull too hard. If we rip it, we’ll have to start all over again.”

When Nat was in her Tinker Twitch, she went from a shy, awkward little nerd, to being in charge.

Perry thought she was adorable her either way.

“Perry, stand right there so I can look at you while I work,” Nat said, pointing off to the side.

Perry raised a brow, but did as he was told.

Nat wheeled the roll of magical foil over to the forge on a metal cart, doubled checked the heat again, along with the position of all her tools.

She gave Perry one last glance, then picked up a hammer and began unspooling the magical foil, feeding it through the forge.

Natalie’s eyes fluttered into the back of her head and her body shuddered like she was possessed. Her lips moved with silent prayers as she tapped the hammer with quick, precise movements along the foil.

Perry could see that the hammers were inlaying some kind of writing into the foil, but he had no idea how.

He could also feel something emanating from Nat. It was the strangest sensation as he felt a preserved piece of himself travel up from her navel through her body and out through the hammer.

Her stomach and legs tensed as he felt her dole out a tiny bit of her saved up smudges, rationing it over the entire spool of foil.

I wonder if I can feel it because it’s a piece of me? Perry wondered as she unspooled the foil. On the other side, the aged duelist caught the cherry-red foil as it passed through the forge and carefully placed it on another roller, a bead of sweat forming on his temple.

“We’re good,” Andre said, fastening the foil in place before flipping the switch on the roller, causing it to slowly pull the rest of the foil through the forge.

Natalie took her hand off the roller and devoted all of her attention to scoring the foil, creating long strings of characters marching top to bottom that reminded Perry of one of those Japanese scrolls.

Japan should have been completely destroyed after the first prawns, let alone the first high-tide, but those people were hardcore when push came to shove.

It felt like an eternity, but was closer to fifteen minutes, by the time Natalie inlaid the last of Perry’s Soul Tidbits ™ into the foil.

Once the foil was all wrapped up on the other side, Nat hustled around the other end of the forge and placed insulative caps on either side of the roll.

“Do it,” Nat said.

Andre flipped a switch, and Perry heard a motor kick on inside the roller.

SCREEEECH!

“THE ROLLER IS COOLING THE METAL FROM THE INSIDE WHILE TIGHTENING THE ROLL!” Natalie shouted over the noise. Perry could see the roller slowly spinning as the metal tightened around it.

Once the machine started to sound like it was straining, Nat jumped up and took the insulative caps off, replacing them with metal bands to keep the roll in place.

“Deflate the roller.” Nat said.

Andre nodded and pulled a plug, causing a hiss of air to escape from the machine.

“Andre, pull the machine back, Perry, help me pull it off the tube.”

Perry grabbed a pair of leather gloves and grabbed the roll of foil, pulling it off the roller while the machine slowly eased back.

“Hold it perpendicular to the ground,” Nat commanded, arriving in front of Perry with a pair of runed steel caps. She placed one on the top and hammered it into place with a wooden mallet, creating a friction fit that those in the Tinkering world referred to as ‘crazy-tight’.

“Flip.” Natalie commanded.

Perry flipped the roll of form-steel and Natalie repeated the process on the other side, before returning with a pair of bolt-cutters and snipping off the metal bands cinching the roll closed.

The whole thing was about a foot and a half from end to end and weighed about fifteen pounds. The roll itself was about as wide as his forearm.

For a technomagical component, Perry had expected it to be a bit smaller, but it definitely had the look, with the shimmering lines of runes exposed on the outside of the foil, and the two caps keep the whole thing tight.

Natalie took off her gloves and tentatively touched the caps.

“Okay, it’s good to touch,” She said, picking up the component with her bare hands.

She turned over to Perry and said something crazy.

“I’m sorry, what?” Perry asked her to repeat herself, not quite understanding what she’d just said.

“I want you to punch me in the face. The roll should protect any complex system touching both ends of the roll from damage of any kind, turning kinetic force into rust. I am touching both ends, so it should work.”

That’s what I thought you said.

“I…don’t wanna do that?” Perry said.

“Don’t you trust me?” Natalie pouted.

“Is there any way we can test it on something that’s…not you?”

Natalie blinked.

“Oh yeah, that would-“

Fwooomph!

Natalie’s face was engulfed by a firebolt emanating from Andre Demetre’s fingertips, causing Perry’s heartrate to skyrocket.

“Nat!”

“What was that!?” Natalie started as the fire around her head was snuffed out. She was completely unharmed, not a single hair singed.

Perry glanced over at Mr. Demetre.

“It works,” Andre said with a shrug. “Oh, don’t look at me like that, I’ve got some of the best healing spells in the world after your grandmother. She was never in any danger.”

“Whoah, check this out.” Natalie said, motioning them over.

“Oh, cool,” Perry murmured, momentarily forgetting to be angry at the old man.

“Interesting.” Andre said, peering over Nat’s shoulder.

A small area of off-color tarnish was receding from the center of the sacrificial anode, disappearing like a breath of fog on a mirror.

“It seems to be able to fix itself.” Natalie said, breaking out into a grin. “As long as the damage isn’t too much at once, it should be able to keep any complex system running indefinitely.”

“Remarkable. I’ve never seen a protective enchantment that’s so… elegant in its simplicity. Most protective amulets require a bit of blood to attune them to their bearer, and a specific form of damage to be warded against, in very precise terms, and will break rather quickly, but this… works for anyone, and stops anything. I’ve never seen it’s like. ” Andre said, rubbing his chin. “Do you think it would be able to stop aging?”

“A large portion of aging is damage to DNA from free-radicals and radiation, it’s true,” Perry said, gaining Andre’s attention. “The sacrificial anode would probably protect from those forms of aging by it’s very nature, but…another portion of aging is telomerase shortening from excessive copying, so if I had to guess, I would say it might slow down aging and prevent excessive mutations, like liver spots and cancer. So the wearer might age slower and more...gracefully than they might otherwise.”

“Hmm…” Andre rubbed his chin, glancing at Nat. “I’ll pay you five million dollars for an earring or bracelet that uses this technique. Each, if you feel inspired to make more than one.”

“Buh…” Natalie’s jaw dropped.

“Hey, you’re gonna be richer than me in a week,” Perry said, elbowing Nat.

“But…I can’t,” Natalie protested. “I used up the smudges I got from Perry. I’m empty right now.”

“I’d be happy to fill you up again,” Perry said, shortly before Nat punched him in the shoulder.