Steuben Viscosa swore the ancient oath of his trade. He stood with the few others before old masters of the organization. He said the words mangled by memory and time. He took a small crucible of molten metal from a coal furnace. The metal combined in recipe of iron that had drifted with time and place. He poured the molten metal into a ring mold ancient when it had first arrived in Yliakum. He quenched the mold. He opened the mold into his hand. The ring fell into his palm still slightly warm. He placed the mold back on the table and retook his place.
He placed the scalloped ring on the little finger of his right hand. He saw flashes of images. A world consumed by fire. A woman with long black hair dressed in a pale grey sweater and a pale green dress, unremarkable except for her solid sapphire blue eyes. Six people wandered and worked metal in villages scattered in the ashes.
He heard the words, "you cannot magic iron" from the old masters over the whisper of woman, "there is no more magic in metal."
"Master Viscosa," one of the old masters stood in front of him. "We are finished." Steuben looked around. The others that were with him were at the door. They looked back with a bit of concern on their faces. He shook his head to clear it.
“Yes, sorry." He said and walked to the door. The master watched him as he left.
"Hey, steub," one of the others said as he got into the hall. "What happened? Once you put on the ring you kind of zoned out."
Steuben opened his mouth to say something but paused. "Nothing, just got lost in the amount of work I’m going to have to do when I get home." They started to walk down the hall to the rooms they were staying with in.
"A master smith working a village forge, for village wages." Feleke shook her head. "Your work is genius more frequent than not. You could easily find work in the great workshops. "
"Who says they didn't offer." Steuben said. "Besides even the lords have to eat. And they can't if the plow is broken and the kettle drains into the fire."
"Yes, yes, I know the story."
It was a discussion they had had many times before. Neither had persuaded the other. They stopped in front of Steuben's room. "See you at the supper?" Feleke said.
Steuben nodded. "Yes, of course."
That night Steuben tossed and turned in his sleep. More images flashed through his dreams. Cities of crystal and chrome that gleamed in the night before they crumbled, burned, and dissolved in blinding white light. Seven people gathered around a cobbled together forge, one the woman from before. Steuben sat upright in his bed. The sheets were tangled around him, damp from sweat despite the cool night.
He left his room and walked to one of the balconies that overlooked the garden. He leaned against the railing and looked down at the ring on his finger. He was still looking at it when the master from earlier walked by.
"Had too much at the supper, Steuben?" He said.
Steuben looked up and turned around. He shook his head. "No, master Tuyrad just," he paused. "Just trouble sleeping."
Tuyrad frowned. "You’ve been unfocused since the ceremony. Tell me what happened when you put on your ring."
Steuben recounted what he saw in his dreams and the images. The master nodded the whole time.
"You're sure it was seven people around that forge?" Tuyrad said. "The woman and six others?"
Steuben closed his eyes as he focused on the memory of the image. "Yes, seven people."
Tuyrad's brow furrowed as he looked deep into Steuben’s eyes. The master turned away. He paced the few steps at the entrance to the balcony. "Of all times now. But when else would it be?" He muttered.
"What, what is it?" Steuben said.
"Go, see the librarian. He'll explain it. Best go now."
"But --"
"Knowing him he's probably waiting. Besides your sleep is shot for the rest of the night."
Steuben walked down the hall. The master watched him go a hint of regret in his eyes. Steuben walked through the darkened campus. The images still roiled in his mind. He stopped in front of the great door to the library. He pushed the door. It opened easily. He had heard that the library was never locked. It looked to be true. He walked into the lobby.
The door slowly drifted closed behind him. He had wondered about that when he first arrived, until he noticed the combination of the mechanism and the angle the door was hung at. The words of another master drifted through his mind. "Never trust magic. Use it. But, never trust it, especially when iron will do."
He stood in the lobby and wondered where to find the librarian. He heard the taping of a cane from within the stacks. He walked towards the sound. The words kept running through his mind. They kept him from focusing on the events of earlier that day. "What is magic?" He said aloud.
"Simply put," and old voice said through one of the shelves. "Magic is that which you do not understand."
Steuben walked around the stack to the other side.
"Like smithing when you first learned it." The voice continued. Steuben stopped in front of a stooped wizened lemur. "But, you did not come here for such a question did you, new maser Viscosa."
"No. Master Tuyrad sent me when I told him about the dream I had about seven people standing around a forge."
"Seven. Hmm. And among them a young woman, with long black hair and pale coloured clothes?"
"Yes, with eyes that were solid sapphire blue."
"Hmm. Show me your ring."
Steuben took it off and handed to the librarian. The librarian looked at it. He held it at eyelevel and let it drop. It hit the floor on a corner fell over and laid still. He picked it up, and handed it back to Steuben. He put it on a puzzled look on his face.
"I should have expected this, having seen your work." he turned to walk deeper into the library. "Come. There is something I must show you."
At the end of the row the librarian took a small pale blue crystal out of a pouch on his belt. He blew on it gently. It started to glow with a blue-white light. "We shall need this where we are going."
They walked through the library. They stopped at a door. "Tell me, what do you know of the origin of our order?" the librarian pushed the door open. Behind it was a spiral stair case.
"What has been passed through the stories. On a world beyond a portal deep in the stone labyrinths an unnamed goddess kept the knowledge of how to work iron in the minds of five people. With the ceremony of the ring she bound them to an oath that they would, among other things, use their knowledge and skills for the betterment of the community."
"Yes, among other things," said the librarian as they walked down the stairs. "An oath in a language old when the gods were new. She was one of the few that knew that language. She paid for that knowledge and her rebellion with her life."
At the bottom of the stairs they walked along a short hallway in to a room roughly hewn out of the living rock. On the floor was an uncontained perfect circle of quicksilver. "After all these years I never properly dressed the rock." The librarian gestured around. "I never really saw the need." He walked over to a wall sconce and lit the lamp. It cast a flickering yellow light in the room.
"How to you contain the quicksilver?" Steuben asked.
"It isn't quicksilver. That is a portal."
"What's on the other side?"
"Many more questions, and a few answers." The librarian stood at the edge. "Careful stepping through, the floors aren't aligned." He stepped off and walked into the portal. The surface rippled a little and quickly settled.
Steuben walked to the edge and looked down at the portal. The surface cast back a frosted reflection of him. He took a deep breath and held it. It stepped into the portal. The surface rippled slightly and fell flat and still again.
To be continued...
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