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“Spoken like a true dwarf,” Wallace said, a smile splitting his beard as he give Arwin a small nod. “Very well. I’ll humor you. Don’t reckon I have a choice, actually. My job’s to get you to properly smith that Mithril. If you need to go back to do that, then back we go. Just remember. You involve the lass — we’re all gonna have a problem.”

The dwarf grabbed his hammer and walked to join Arwin, molten energy heating the tool’s head from within. It quickly turned a brilliant orange and a ripple of power washed out from it as Wallace carved a flaming portal through the air.

Its center rippled and changed to reveal the back room of the Infernal Armory, dark and silent as if in wait. Arwin didn’t waste a second. He stepped through the portal and Wallace followed after him.

The portal snapped shut behind them, sending a small curl of fire through the air before dissipating entirely. Wallace stepped to the side to give Arwin room, bracing his back against the door out and leaning against it.

His meaning was clear enough. He was willing to give Arwin room to work, but he was quite serious about making sure Lillia didn’t interfere. There was a chance that would cause trouble if Lillia arrived before Arwin finished — which meant he didn’t have much time to work with.

It was difficult to keep the smile from his face. Wallace was too late. The dwarf was worried about Lillia helping him during their little test, but she’d already given Arwin everything he needed to know.

Arwin drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly as he approached the maw-hearth at the center of the room. Wallace’s gaze rested on the back of his neck with enough weight to make his hair stand on end, but he ignored it.

He didn’t care who was watching. It didn’t change anything. After all, he hadn’t found Wallace on his own. The Infernal Armory had opened the portal into the dwarf’s workshop for seemingly no reason.

Now he knew better. That portal hadn’t been random, and it hadn’t just been trying to let him steal some materials to upgrade the smithy. The Infernal Armory wanted to be used. That was its desire — and it didn’t want to just be used by any old smith.

Wallace isn’t the only one testing me here, is he?

“Let’s begin,” Arwin said. “You’re the one that wanted this, aren’t you?”

“Don’t you think you’re missing something?” Wallace asked with a dry laugh. “You need lava if you’re going to do any dwarven smithing. You haven’t forgotten that already, have you?”

“No, I don’t believe I have,” Arwin replied. He approached the maw of the Infernal Armory and placed his hand on its edge. “And I’m afraid I wasn’t talking to you.”

Magical energy tingled against Arwin’s fingers as they ignited with [Soul Flame] and he placed into the maw of the Infernal Armory. He didn’t have any more of Lillia’s food, but they’d already fed it this morning. With any luck, it wouldn’t need another meal so soon and it would still have enough power to —

The veins running throughout the building pulsated. Arwin drew in a surprised breath as the hearth rippled. Petal-shaped stone curled up, flames igniting at their tips and crackling with power.

They closed in on themselves, devouring the fire for an instant. Then the petals pulled back apart. A whump roared out to announce a thick pillar of black flame that burst from the hole in the center of the hearth.

And, for the second time that day, the Infernal Armory opened a portal to Wallace’s workshop. There was just one small difference. This time around, the portal didn’t appear on the obsidian floors.

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It formed directly inside the pool of lava.

Magma poured down from the black portal and into the maw of the hearth. It rolled down the petal-shaped walls and into the hole at its center. Light burned within the black veins covering the floor and walls as the lava sank into the Infernal Armory and started to spread through them.

The heart thumped.

“Sorry,” Arwin said, glancing back at Wallace. “This time, it was intentional.”

“Are you stealing my lava?” Wallace demanded.

“Can anyone really own lava? It’s just a hot rock,” Arwin replied with a chuckle. The black portal faded away, but the lava he’d confiscated from the huge pool remained. Petals of the flower-like hearth curled up to form a bowl as the Infernal Armory responded to Arwin’s mental request before he could even make it.

Lava bubbled up inside the bowl and rose to fill it. [Soul Flame] coated Arwin’s hands and he reached in, scooping a small portion free and summoning the magical fire to his mouth as well before popping the lava in and starting to chew.

He ignored the aghast expression on Wallace’s face as he worked to form a ball of lava he could work with. Arwin chewed, pushing his magical energy into the lava as he crushed it beneath his teeth.

The ball of molten stone came together quickly. It wasn’t long before Arwin had it completely prepared and connected to himself. He dismissed the flames from his mouth to save energy, then held the molten ball in one hand as he pulled the steel out and put it within the ball.

He focused his attention, feeling the song of the metal as he purged it of impurities over the next few minutes. After a few minutes of work, he was rewarded with a cube of purified metal ready and waiting to be forged.

Arwin set the metal on the ground and then took the small bar of Mithril out from his pocket. For a second, he hesitated. He’d had a whole lot of practice with the rough steel. This was different.

Warm light reflected off the gentle blue surface of the ingot. Arwin could see his reflection within it, muted and warped in the gentle swirls buried within the metal. From this point onward, he couldn’t afford any mistakes.

He studied the metal for a moment longer. Then he plunged it into the ball of lava. Molten rock swallowed the beautiful blue metal, and Arwin had no more time to contemplate or think.

All he could do now was act.

Thoughts washed across his mind. He blocked them out. The time for the mithril to make its desires known would come, but it wasn’t now. Arwin stilled his breathing. He closed his mind to everything but the beat of the song traveling through the lava cupped in his hands.

He felt it — and it felt him.

Arwin responded to the song, pouring [Soul Flame] into the lava and purging the impurities from the Mithril without mercy. The longer he worked, the more he could feel it harmonizing with him.

His actions were those of the lava, and the lava sung in synchrony with the mithril. Minutes rolled by with the droplets of sweat that traced down Arwin’s brow and soaked into his clothes.

Concentration creased his features and gripped his chest in a vice to the point where he almost forgot to breathe. His focus was completely and utterly on the glowing orange ball of molten stone and the gentle blue metal within it.

And then it was done.

The Mithril was prepared. Arwin pulled it from the ball of lava, a small bar that fit perfectly in the center of his palm and set it down beside the prepared piece of steel. There wasn’t much material, but it was more than enough for what he had planned.

He dropped the ball of lava back into the hole at the center of the hearth. It sank into the stone throat and vanished, sending another flicker of energy through the black veins in the ground.

“Well done,” Wallace said from behind Arwin. “Good purity. I can tell. But what comes next? Have you figured out your dwarven smithing method?”

“Nah. I figured I’d wing it,” Arwin replied with a small smile.

“Good man,” the dwarf cackled. “I knew—”

“But I did lie a little bit,” Arwin said as he drew on his magical energy and let it swirl through his body and gather at his right hand. A tremor ran through the ground at Arwin’s feet and the energy glowing in the black veins pulsated. The heart in the wall thumped.

“Did you, now?” Wallace’s voice held a note of steel in it.

“I said I wasn’t going to get help. And I won’t. Not from Lillia, at least,” Arwin said. He lifted right hand as the air around it started to shimmer with magical power. “But I’m more than a smith, Wallace. I’m a guildmaster. My power doesn’t come just from working alone. It comes from everyone around me.”

Arwin plunged his hand down into the center of the maw. The stone petals curled shut around his arm in an instant, wrapping it in a surprisingly warm, comforting hug. Another thud passed through the room as the heart beat once more.

An immense wave of thought and desire slammed into Arwin with more intensity than any item he’d ever worked with before. More intensity than all of them put together — but that was no surprise. This was no mere item.

“This is what you wanted, isn’t it?” Arwin asked, baring his teeth in equal parts snarl and smile as power rushed out of him. “Come on!”

The energy stabilized. For a brief instant, the entire building was completely silent.

Then the Infernal Armory came to life.