Chapter 1 Part 6

Ultrecht awoke in his own bed feeling very confused. Avery’s voice came to him, “Feeling better?”
Struggling to wake up fully, he replied, “I think so. ”
“Good.” growled Armegon. “Cause I’m gonna beat you to death if you don’t tell me what the hell you were doing in there.”
Rubbing his aching temples, Ultrecht replied, “Rendering payment for services received. ”
“Uh Huh. That makes sense. Let’s just open a gate into hell itself in return for a favor. ”
“Not hell, the elemental plane of fire.”
Armegon actually stopped his tirade long enough to say, “Huh?”
Avery stepped in. “Lets start at the very beginning.”
Ultrecht leaned back. “Right," he agreed, "a very good place to start.”
“Stop that!” Armegon snapped. “Now, what were you doing?”
“It all started with a memory that came back to me from reading the Tome of Creation. I did some research on it and found the existence of a set of chimes. If you play them in the right order they are reputed to aid in achieving the correct state of mind to appreciate the wonders of the Creator. ”
Avery raised an eyebrow. “Admirable. A worthy goal, I'd say.”
“Yes, but one of the chimes was destroyed, so I’m going to recreate it. But to do so required me to learn more about metal work, which is where Master Bindar came in. In exchange for his teachings I agreed to help him create a new hammer of the Dwarven King from a strange metal his grandfather collected out of a meteorite. The only problem was that the melting point of the metal proved to be so high I needed elemental fire to work it.”
“So you cooked up this lame brained idea of nearly melting the entire city?” Armegon asked acidly.
Ultrecht winced. “Were there any deaths?” he asked dreading the answer.
“No. ” Said Avery. “And the only wounded were inside the smithy.”
Ultrecht breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank the Creator. That level of power was nearly beyond me.”
Armegon snorted. “You had so many lines of power running it’s pure luck you didn’t kill yourself instead of winding up comatose for a week.”
Ultrecht looked up in alarm. “A week? I’ve been down a week?”
“Yes,” said Avery with a grin, "and waiting to find out what you were doing has nearly killed Armegon.”
“How is Master Bindar? Did he create his hammer?”
“Yeah, that pushy damned dwarf has been here every day trying to see you.”
As if summoned by the mere mention of his name, Bindar barged into the room. “So Mage, I guess you might just live after all.”
Ultrecht smiled. “Why yes, Master Bindar. I do believe I’ll pull through. How did our project work out?”
Bindar opened the polished wooden case he was carrying and wordlessly handed a magnificent war hammer to the mage.
Just under three feet tall, the mighty hammer’s head was finished with Dwarven runes. The haft was the beautiful handle that Bindar’s grandfather had made and the grip had been wrapped with fine leather. Ultrecht grunted in surprise when he took it, the hammer weighed around sixty pounds.
Ultrecht marveled at it for a minute, then gave it back to the smith. “Impressive,” he said, as he looked the dwarf over. His hair had nearly all been burned away and he showed a lot of pink new skin from freshly healed burns, but he was in good health and dressed for travel. “So, are you going home?”
“Aye. I’m going to bring the hammer before the clans.”
The mage sat up a little and said, “Congratulations, Master Bindar.” Then a thought struck him. “What about Theo and Eric?”
Bindar grinned. “Don’t ya worry about those two. When word got around town of what they were involved in, and that I was going home, they got real popular. Why Theo even got four marriage proposals from wealthy merchant daughters. I daresay the both of ‘em will be running their own shops by the time their beards are in.”
“Good. Good for them. ”
“Oh, and just so ya can’t say I didn’t complete my end of the deal…,” Bindar took a small ivory case out of his front pocket and handed it to the mage.
Ultrecht took the case and opened it. Inside was a bell strike. It was about five inches long with a round knob on one end, but it was as thin as fine lace. Ultrecht was puzzled until he took it from its case and felt its weight. Realization hit him. “Master Bindar, this is made from your star metal!”
“Well, I had a little left over,” Bindar lied. “Besides, you said you wanted one of high quality.”
“Thank you. This is…”
“Don’t mention it,” the dwarf butted in gruffly. He turned to go, but paused and said, “Build a good chime mage. You have something to play it with now,” and with a nod he left.
“Oh now wasn’t that sweet,” said Armegon flatly.
“Oh shut up,” Ultrecht snapped at him. “I’ve seen you all weepy and sentimental over less.”
“Yeah but I’m a real person,” Armegon retorted. “You’ve never had a sentimental bone in your body.”
“Has anyone ever told you that you are the most tiresome bag of wind ever created?”
Avery spoke up, “Actually I’ve heard statements to that effect from many people.”
Armegon made a rude gesture. “Now, I suppose you are all intent on building this chime.”
“Yes.”
In a mockingly gentle tone he asked, “And will you need to burn down any countries or small planets?”
“No,” said Ultrecht in an icy voice.
“Good boy,” he said sweetly as he led Avery towards the door. “Now do try to get some rest before you embark on your next world-shattering debacle.”
With deadly aim, a pillow struck Armegon in the back of the head.