Chapter 9 Part 3

Armegon, Avery and Ultrecht spoke at great length with the former god of visionaries. It was well into the night when they finally turned in for some much needed rest. The plans had been argued and laid. Though Woeden insisted that the only answer to the destruction of the Abomination was in the Tome, the three outworlders were very reluctant to begin horsing around with the Spells of Creation.

"So it's settled," Ultrecht said finally. "Our primary plan is to construct a mirror of opposition to use against the Abomination. At best, the mirror will kill it. At worst, the mirror will beat it down to a weakened state. Then we can attack with magic and weapon."

"That beast will consume your magic," Woeden objected.

"The magic won’t be directed at it," Armegon explained. "Let’s say that you can absorb magic. If I cast a bolt of lightning at you, you absorb the spell and I’ll lose. But on the other hand, if I magically levitate a large bolder over your head and then release it, my magic has not acted on you at all, and you can't absorb it. The impact and crushing weight of the boulder will squash you and I emerge the victor."

"Then I ask if the mirror can work as well?" Woeden inquired. "For it certainly seem to be casting a spell on the target."

"The mirror will work if we can get it to function," Armegon answered. "The mirror doesn’t direct magic back at the target, but constructs a magical entity that will temporarily exist."

Woeden sighed. "Very well then, since you are set on this path, is there any way I can help?"

"Tomorrow we’ll need to make a list of the items necessary to construct the mirror. Naturally considering the amount of power it must contain, we’ll need very potent components"

"Is there some way we can help?" Woeden asked again.

"Not at the moment," Ultrecht replied. "Our first and immediate task will be to engineer and formulate the materials and enchantments necessary to form the mirror. Then we will need to fetch the materials. Once we have all that together, we will have to construct the item."

"How long do you think this will take?" Woeden asked.

"I really can not say." Ultrecht scratched his head. "I have never tried to build one of these things before. I really won't know until the calculations have been made."

Armegon dragged the Tome of Creation from the thick leather satchel they were carrying it in. He flipped through several pages then paused and made some notes on a separate piece of paper.

"I think the mirror will work," Ultrecht continued while Armegon worked. "The theory is solid enough, but just in case there are some peculiarities that impede us, we are going to follow your recommendation and seek an answer in the Tome."

The rest of the night, Armegon and Ultrecht worked diligently. Ultrecht pulled volume after volume of text from the interdimensional pocket inside his robe giving Calista cause to question him on just what all he had in the mysterious pocket. Armegon laughed and told her that Ultrecht kept all kinds of things in his wardrobe, even a door to another world. Calista was not convinced that the remark was a joke.

By morning, there were no less than twenty scrolls and two dozen manuscripts stacked around the flat stone where the pair of mages were working. When Avery returned from the mountains where he and Yoan had spent the last hours of darkness hunting and trapping, Armegon proudly displayed a sheet of cryptic figures that represented magical formulations. Avery glanced over it for a moment and seemed to understand what it meant.

"That," Armegon announced, "should enchant a window frame through which the reflected image will become a temporary reality."

"The material components?" Avery asked.

"Some," Armegon told him. "There might be a small problem with that, but I think we can get around it. We need to forge a window frame of white gold. The alloy’s usually a gold and nickel mix, but we think we’ll get better results if we use silver. We have to use gold because it’s mutable, and silver is a better conductor of magic, so we want to use it instead of nickel."

"Who’s going to make it?" Avery asked. "The last time I looked, neither of you had listed silversmith on your resumes."

"It just happens," Armegon said with a grin and gesture to the dwarf who stepped out of a nearby lodge, "that mister Regalus has considerable experience as a gold and silversmith."

"So all we need now is a generous amount of silver and gold?" Avery asked.

"Ore," Armegon added.

"Ore?" Avery asked puzzled. "It would be much easier to melt down some coins or jewelry."

"It must be virgin metal," Ultrecht explained as he shoved a book inside his robe. "The metal must be in its very first form. We can not use anything recycled."

"It might hold residual enchantments or polarization," Armegon added.

"Okay so where do we get the ore?" Avery asked.

"Well," Ultrecht continued, "according to the Elder of the Glade, there is gold in them thar hills." He jerked his head back towards Mount Gale. "Apparently that is the Janusian's legacy. If all else goes against them, they could tap the gold and silver and platinum beneath the mountain range."

"That’s quite a little trust fund," Avery observed. "Okay so when do we go and get it?"

"This afternoon," Armegon replied. "According to the elder, there’s an old mine at the base of Mount Gale. They’ve hidden it with surface rubble, but we will be allowed to enter it. Of course we have given our word to keep its secret."

"Of course."

That afternoon, one of the older centaurs led Avery, Armegon and Regalus down the valley to the foot of the tall peaks of Mount Gale. The clouds drifting from the west to the east were funneling through the high passes and a faint whisper could be heard from the distant winds.

"That’s how the mountain got its name," their guide told them. "Sometimes, that whisper becomes a low moan and the whole valley echoes with the sound."

"You know," Armegon recalled as he gazed up the slope of the mountain, "the last time we were up in this area, we were ambushed by some very nasty varmints."

"Yes," the guide answered. "They exist all along the side of this ridge line around Mount Gale, but the mines that we’re going to are not that high up. We shouldn't see any of them."

Somewhat more at ease, Armegon fell into step with Avery, who was bringing up the rear of the small troop. Something had been nagging at Armegon all day and at first he assumed that it was the concern over the hostile inhabitants of the upper boundaries of the valley, but after being reassured, the feeling persisted. "Is it my imagination, or is the day dragging along," the mage asked.

"It’s not your imagination," Avery replied quietly so as to avoid being overheard. "I couldn’t say so in camp, because I didn’t want to alarm anyone, but everyone is slowly dying."

Armegon inhaled sharply. Avery's cursed vision allowed him to see the health or disease of everyone he looked upon. "What do you mean?"

"Everyone is dying. And I’m not talking about normal aging. The life is being drained out of the world around us. Only you, Ultrecht and I are unaffected."

"Out of the world?"

Avery nodded slightly and kept his voice low. "From the very rocks and trees. This whole planet is dying and it’s accelerating. Haven't you noticed that even Regalus is getting tired more often than a dwarf of his relative age should. Regalus is only about one hundred seventy years old. He should be as strong as an ox. Dwarves generally live over two hundred fifty or so years and only during the last thirty does their stamina decline."

Armegon spent a few moments observing the heavy dwarf. Members of a tough species, they were famous for their endurance and strength. Though nowhere near as strong as a creature like Ruk, Regalus was easily stronger than the average human male.

Regalus clambered up the slightly inclined footpath and stopped to mop his brow with the back of his hand. Armegon noted at that moment that the others were also tired and weak. Yet, he and Avery had yet to break a sweat.

"What do you think is causing this?"

"You heard what Woeden told Nikki and the others. That Abomination thing is draining the life from this whole world. We’re spared because we’re not of this world."

"Well, your the biologist, how long do we have?"

Avery did not answer for several minutes. "A few days, I’d guess. The very young children, the sick and the old will die first. The stronger and more healthy may even last a week. But no matter how you look at it, I would venture to guess that in ten days we may be the only three men left in the world. The dragons and very powerful creatures may last a month, but eventually we three will be the only things alive on the planet with the exception of the Abomination. Then it’ll come after us and there won’t be anything to distract it and I doubt there will be anything to stop it either."

Armegon listened in silence. When their guide called a temporary rest stop, Armegon and Avery acted as if they too were tired. There was no good to come from letting their friends know how bad things were getting. When they resumed their hike, Armegon whispered to Avery. "What do you suggest we do?"

Avery whispered back. "Hurry."

Three more hours and four rest stops passed before they reached the thick foliage that disguised the mine entrance.

"This is the legacy of our people," their guide, a respected member of the Glade announced. The guide's name was Mryght. It was a difficult name to pronounce for the humanoid tongue, so generally he was referred to as Pops.

Pops pushed aside a false tree branch and a thicket of shrubbery followed revealing the large tunnel that was the mine. The centaur removed a blanket from an old chest and unwrapped two large torches. Those he lit from a piece of flint mounted on the rock surface at the mine entrance. when the flame caught, he entered and they followed him.

The mine was large. It had to be for centaurs were large beings. Regalus noted that the Janusian would never make efficient miners because they had to spend too much time enlarging their tunnels. Pops agreed and explained that his people were not miners and that the only mining done was done periodically by small groups of Janusian. "Part of the rite of adulthood is the child's work in the mine. They must excavate a given amount of rock before they can reemerge into the light as adults. We hold that the child reenters the womb of the earth and sweats his childhood from his body with labor. Then he’s reborn as an adult. While he’s here, his family prepares a lodge for him to live in. The new adult may then choose a mate or await the adulthood of another mate."

"A very proper sounding tradition," Avery commended.

"It helps us preserve our morals and identity."

Pops led them deeper into the mine and made several turns. Though somewhat disorienting, Armegon was certain that he knew the way out and if not himself, Regalus would undoubtedly retain his dwarven sense of direction underground. At the very least, Avery could back track their path.

Abruptly Pops stopped before a heavy wooden door and pulled a key from his shoulder bag. He unlocked the door and pushed it in. The door slowly opened to reveal mounds of gold and silver ore. The minerals glittered seductively in the torches' dancing glow.

Pops invited the trio to help themselves to the ore. Regalus picked through hundreds of nuggets only selecting those of quality and those that would be easy to refine. Those Avery and Armegon packed away in sacks that they had brought with them.

After an hour of picking through the Janusian treasure hoard, Avery and Armegon hefted the bags onto their backs as did Pops. They then left the mine and made their way back to the Glade. It was long after nightfall when they returned to find Ultrecht fussing over several long sheets of figures.

"Is there a problem?" Armegon asked.

Ultrecht cursed. "There is a very subtle magical difference in the field equations here and the ones we are used to using. I have to use a fourth order differential equation and the solution is an imaginary hyperbolic oscillator. That took me all day long and to make matters worse the flux gradient will not conform to my calculations. I can't balance the force equation."

Avery blinked and shook his head. "You lost me," he said.

"I followed it," Armegon proclaimed. "Can you introduce a scale factor to compensate for the force equations?"

"I might can if I use the third derivative to determine the rate of change of acceleration." Ultrecht stroked his goatee. "I can solve the derivative to find the inflection point and that will give me a synchronization point."

Avery lifted Armegon's sack and followed Regalus to a low stone cottage. He could follow the general flow of the conversation, but Ultrecht and Armegon were the physics and chemistry experts. Avery's strength was in biology and botany. The deeper intricacies of field magic theory were beyond him. He could cast spells, and he could create simple spells, but what his friends were discussing was out of his league.

Regalus and Avery left the two mages hypothesizing far behind as they delivered the raw ore to the stone house. The building was a small smithy complete with forge and anvil occasionally used by the Janusians.

Regalus dumped the sacks and began rummaging through the ore. Several centaurs entered also carrying large sacks. They placed them next to the forge and departed. Avery investigated the new material. The sacks opened to expose pitch black, "coal," he said with some surprise. "Anthracite coal. This will burn very, very well."

"Call it what you will my woodland friend," Regalus commented, " but whatever you call it, it burns with almost no smoke or ash and it’s very hot." The dwarf passed a wide flat shovel to the ranger. "Here," he said, "make yourself useful. Fill the furnace. There’s a lot more of that stuff coming. We’ll need enough to smelt this ore, and that may take quite a while.

Avery looked around for several moments until Regalus chided him. "Well, hop to it!"
Avery sighed and rolled up his sleeves. Spitting on his hands, he took the shovel and noted that once again Armegon and Ultrecht had managed to avoid the manual labor.

Avery had only worked half an hour when Calista came running into the forge. The look in her eyes told volumes of worry and weariness. "Avery," she begged, "come quick."

The halfelf dropped the shovel and ran out the door after the young woman. Calista ran fleetly to the main lodge. The great teepee beside it had a crowd of Janusians before it. As Avery came forward, a singular voice rose above the others. "Make way, the healer comes." Avery recognized the herald's voice as that of Yoan. The result was instantaneous. The crowd parted and Avery sprinted on Calista's heels into the giant wigwam.

Laying on a thick mat of soft blankets, the tribal elder that had been so helpful to them lay gasping for breath. Avery knelt beside him and placed a hand gently on the old centaur's heart. The breathing and beat were both labored. Death was very near.

Avery settled down in a crossed legged position and took the old head in his lap. Gently he passed his hand over the eyes and entered his trance. After several long moments, he reopened his eyes and shook his head. "I’m afraid I can’t heal this," he said. "The problem is one of age. Normally I’d give him several weeks or even a few months to live," Avery recalled the slow death of the planet and how the weak would die first, "but, in this case, I’m afraid he may not make it through the night."

Calista sobbed and knelt next to the grandfatherly figure and hugged him possessively. The frail arms returned the embrace and Avery left the pair to share the healing magic of friendship and love. When he emerged from the teepee, a crowd of Janusians were gathered and awaiting word. He knew that he was expected to say something.

"It is age that’s the cause of his decline," Avery told them. "He may or may not see tomorrow. I recommend you rejoice in every moment that he has left and plan to honor his passing when the time comes. He’s lived long and well. Such lives are not to be mourned for they are not wasted."

With that bit of philosophy dispatched, Avery slowly walked back towards the forge. Nikki joined him half way there.

"That was touching," she said.

"Hope is what they need most," Avery replied.

"How long do I have left?"

Avery glanced side long at his mate.

"You know exactly what I am talking about," Nikki scolded sadly. "I am a druid and I can see the slow death in everything around us except for you three. I want to know why you and the other two are not dying and how long I have left."

Avery took Nikki's hand. He could see no reason in lying or hiding the truth from her. After all they had shared, he was not aboput to start keeping secrets from her. "The reason you’re dying is because the world that made you is dying. The Abomination is consuming all life from your world. Armegon and Ultrecht and I aren’t dying because this world didn’t create us. Our lives are tied to another world."

"I see," the elf woman said. "How long?"

"The weak and very young will die first," Avery informed her. The strong bodied and strong willed will last longer." He smiled and squeezed her hand. "I suspect you’ll live several long months, but if we have anything to say about this, and we do, I plan to have you around to darn my socks for a few hundred more years."

Nikki took the news well. Then she asked, "is there anything I can do to help?"

Avery smiled. "Hope," he said. "Have hope. It’s what we need from you most."

Nikki returned her mate's smile and kissed his palm. "I will have hope for the both of us," she said.

The two walked back towards the forge in silence. Nikki considered telling Avery that he was about to become a father at the end of the next moon. She refrained, judging that the extra stress was unnecessary. She would save the surprise for later.

When they arrived at the forge, Avery found Regalus fretting over a collection of tools and the ore. "Has Ultrecht come up with the design of the window?" the dwarf asked.

"Not yet," Avery answered. "There are some subtle problems he has to iron out."

"That suits me fine," Regalus grunted. "I could use a little rest." He hunched down on a low work bench and leaned against the corner of the building. "I must be getting really old to get tired this easily."

"Maybe you are getting sick," Avery suggested. The signs of the Abomination's hunger were already beginning to show on even the tougher individuals. "Some good hard work might kill the bug off before it gets a good hold on you."

"Maybe," the dwarf muttered.

Avery felt Nikki leave and go back outside. A lover of nature, she was not overly fond of smithies. Avery watched Regalus nod off into sleep, then he too exited the building.

"I believe the appropriate word is 'eureka'," Armegon announced as Avery and Nikki approached.

"You solved the problem?" Avery asked.

"Not only that, but we may have derived an equation that could open a lot of doors that we never even though about before."

Avery's nose twitched. "Oh? By all means go on."

Armegon explained. "Recall that magic and science are very similar. Both have laws and those laws are inviolate within its realm. For example, the fundamental law of biology states that once dead, an organism can not live again, correct?"

"Essentially," Avery agreed. "A dead organism can be animated by magic as is the case with zombies and skeletons and the like, or a deceased soul may be bound to a person or place like a ghost or wraith, but in all cases of the undead, the organism will never reachieve life."

"Likewise for physics," Armegon continued. "The fundamental laws may be bent by magic, but they can not be broken. Like that fellow back home who sold all those perpetual motion engines. It was thought that the law of energy conservation had been broken until someone discovered that the engine was being fueled magically from a pocket dimension inside the machine."

"Didn't you buy one of those things?" Ultrecht asked Armegon with a hint of a smile.

Armegon frowned. "Do you mind? I’m trying to explain something here."

Ultrecht turned away barely concealing a chuckle. Armegon continued. "Well we’ve always known that the reverse was possible as well. We knew that we could use science to bend the laws of magic too. Magic can not bend the laws of magic and science can not bend the laws of science, but they can bend each other."

"I get the idea," Avery said impatiently.

"Okay," Armegon continued, "remember that we were talking about using a scale factor to solve the problems Ultrecht had come up against? Well, I noticed that there was some radioactivity in some of that gold ore we brought back."

"Uranium," Avery confirmed. He too had noticed it, but it was not concentrated enough to be hazardous.

"We can impregnate the frame that Regalus is going to build, with the Uranium and use magic to speed up the half-life of the uranium. Then we can use the energy given off to boost the mirror's power to a level that it may actually beat the Abomination."

"In other words," Ultrecht added, "we can use magic to induce a small fission reaction and channel the energy into the mirror's enchantment when it is activated.

"You two don't fool around," Avery said in awe. "Don't you think one atomic reaction is enough. It has hardly been two years since you nuked Gly-ou-vogue."

"We use what’s available," Armegon argued.

"We have seen five different worlds in which that same philosophy led to the thermonuclear destruction of the primary civilization."

"And we have seen five hundred worlds in which nuclear fusion has led to the energy revolution and birth of a space faring society," Ultrecht countered.

"The difference was the maturity of the species," Avery pointed out. "One good look’ll tell you that these people aren’t anywhere near ready for nuclear responsibility."

"So you don't think we should do this?" Armegon asked.

"That’s not it," Avery said. "I just think that you two should stop looking to atomic reactions to solve your energy needs."

"We use what is available," Ultrecht said. "Do you have any alternatives?"

"No," Avery admitted. "Do it your way."

Armegon sighed. "I think I’ll go and talk with Regalus about separating the uranium and gold. The silver won't be a problem. It’s easily extracted from its ore." The halfelf stood and collected some of the papers. He left Ultrecht and Avery to their arguments about cold wars and superpower politics.

Armegon found Regalus sitting in the shade of the forge gazing lazily at the sky. He joined the dwarf and carefully outlined what they needed. Regalus listened intently to Armegon's directions. The smith was confident that he could separate the metals that they had requested. "As you say that the strange metal is much heavier than gold and silver, it should settle out and they should separate well in liquid form."

Avery joined them several minutes later and as the day drew to a close, they began their task. The summer year tended to be hotter in the days so they had decided to work at night. Though still warm and sticky, the cooler night temperatures were less demanding.

Through the first part of the night, Avery, Armegon and Regalus used heavy sledges to pound the ore into powder. Regalus had to stop many times. On occasion he pushed himself to the brink of total exhaustion.

Armegon and Avery took breaks as well. Avery was concerned for the dwarf's failing strength, but there was no magic that could remedy the problem. Only the destruction of the Abomination could do that. Already throughout the day four of the Janusians had died. Two elderly females, a fevered adolescent and a three week old infant had been cut down by the Abomination's hunger. There was no telling how many had died across the world. The thought was eating at their souls, but they knew that they could not rush the mirror's construction. A flaw would cause their failure, and there would not be enough time to try again.

By midnight, the ore had been pulverized. Regalus announced that he needed a short nap and left instructions as to what needed to be done. Avery and Armegon started the fire and tended the coal until a deep blue hue surrounded the forge. Then the powdered ore was placed into the oven. Within an hour the smelting was ready to begin.

Regalus returned and called for a crate that was waiting outside. Avery fetched the item and Regalus drew from its contents more powders, and liquids that he added to the mixture. He explained that they were trade secrets that expedited the separation of minerals and alloys. Armegon noted an acidic smell and speculated that the potions were a series of chemical compounds.

The waiting began as heat and chemistry worked on the powdered ore. The silver was processed separately but since the gold and uranium was in the same ore, they had to be processed together. While the acids ate away the undesired minerals. the heat melted the metals and their own weight differences separated them.

The cooking continued on through the night. Armegon was meditating by staring into the burning coals. He was watching the rocks' red glare when the dawn's early light sent the morning dew gallantly steaming.

The door to the forge stood open as the heat inside was nearly unbearable, they had retired to the cooler morning outside to await the smelting ore.

Ultrecht appeared from the retreating darkness flanked by a pair of centaurs. They were carrying a large flat stone tablet. The tablet, Armegon knew was the mold that would be used to shape the molten metal. The tablet was engraved with a large circle.

Ultrecht had insisted that the mirror's frame be circular. He had argued that the circle represented both a polygon with no sides and a polygon with infinitely many sides. Thus the circle was the shape of perfection. Ultrecht had worked throughout the night with one of the Janusian craftsmen to chisel out the mold.

"Good morning," the mage greeted the trio as he approached. "Is it ready?"

Armegon sighed. "Almost. The silver’s ready and we’re about to start skimming the gold."

"The silver is most important right now," Ultrecht motioned to the mold. Silver though less valuable, is a better conductor of magic than any other of the natural elements."

As soon as Regalus feels up to it we’ll go ahead and tap the silver charge. The gold will take a while longer. We have to skim it several times and there needs to be about fifteen minutes between each skim for the liquid gold and liquid uranium to resettle."

"How did you get them to both liquefy at the same temperature?" Ultrecht asked.

"The smiths of this world seem to be partly alchemists and work with a lot of acids and bases," Armegon answered. "Regalus introduced a compound into the gold to raise its boiling point to match that of the uranium. When the two are separate, an acid will be added to vaporize the compound. It’s really quite clever."

Ultrecht, who was a learned metallurgist of some renown back home, nodded in understanding. He was familiar with a similar form of processing. "I see," he said. "Well, as soon as you are ready, Regalus, we can mold the silver core of this frame."

The dwarf stood wearily. It was obvious that he was very tired, as were the other natives of Asille. "I ain't getting any younger," he said. "And there’s no time like the present."

Avery and Armegon joined the dwarf and took the molding tablet from the tired looking centaurs that had carried it. The stone was heavy, but between the two of them, Avery and Armegon easily carried it inside the forge.

The heat was terrible, but comfort was not an option nor was time a luxury. Regalus directed the mold to be placed on a low berth near the edge of the furnace. He took a vial from his treasured tool chest and poured a deep purple liquid into the stone mold. A sizzle was heard and whisps of smoke appeared above the carving. Regalus quickly added a bright orange liquid and the sound and smoke ceased. The Dwarf explained that he was purifying the mold without damaging the carving.

That done, he motioned the others away. Taking a ceramic ladle on a long pole, he dipped the end in a strong acid to burn away the outer layer of the hardened clay, then me passed it through the blue flame of the furnace to sterilize any other impurities.

With steady hands skilled by decades of experience, the dwarf silversmith dipped the ladle into the molten silver and lifted the first part of the charge. Without spilling a single drop of the molten metal, he poured the charge into the mold. It took seven ladles full, but soon he had the work done.

Immediately the dwarf sprinkled a generous amount of a yellow powder atop the molten silver explaining as he did so that it was a powdered flux that would seal out any impurities and could be easily peeled off once the silver had frozen.

Regalus then left the cooling silver to Ultrecht and Armegon while he and Avery turned their attention to the gold and uranium mixture. He took another ladle, a wide flatter version of the one he had just used and repeated the purifying process. Then he skimmed the top layer of the mixture. The bright orange melt flowed into the ladle and filled it readily.

When he lifted the giant spoon from the vat, Avery caught a glimpse of the bright green paste that was the uranium. Regalus had warned him beforehand that he had added a dye that would color the thicker heavier of part of any two metal mixture. He had proudly announced that the dye was a development of the master he had apprenticed under.

"We’re going to have to wait a little while the fluids re-settle," Regalus announced as he emptied the skimmed gold into a smaller vat that had been heated while empty. We’ll put the gold we separate in here and then when we have enough, I’ll use another potion to remove the gold from the heavy stuff that Ultrecht calls uranium."

Avery nodded. Regalus was unaware of the nature of heavy elements since they were not really useful in a scientifically illiterate society. His own home world had been one of the few realms in all of creation where science and magic had developed together. Such an achievement was very rare.

Regalus and Avery retired back into the early morning air to rest. Armegon and Ultrecht had managed to get the mold and its precious cargo outside as well. Away from the heat of the forge, the silver had soon cooled and solidified. Within ten minutes, it had cooled enough for the flux seal to be chipped away.

When the opaque flux was brushed aside, it revealed a deep gray metal hoop about a meter in diameter. Regalus took a soft piece of cloth and poured a clear liquid onto it. Then he knelt beside the metal hoop and softly stroked the rim. Where the cloth and solvent passed a mirror shiny gleam lay. Regalus quickly finished his task and soon Ultrecht held a solid silver hoop that shone like a mirror itself.

"This is beautiful," the mage admired the dwarfs craft. Then excitedly he asked, "when can the gold be ready?"

"Well before noon," Regalus answered. "The first skim has already been drawn. We’ll need to make about three to six more and then we can finish the work."

"You have the mold for the gold?" Ultrecht asked.

"One was not needed," Regalus answered. "Armegon told me of your desire to avoid the hammer and to form the object whole and unchanged. I have engineered a way for you to do that."

Avery passed what at first appeared to be a wooden mug to the dwarf. Regalus fitted the mug with several cubit long bars until it resembled a starburst. It dawned on Ultrecht that the thing was actually a wheel's hub and the bars were spokes.

Regalus then wedged the hub and spokes into the still warm hoop. To finish the preparations, he doused the entire contraption with water. The strange wood seemed to swell right before Ultrecht's eyes.

"It’s called spongewood," Avery said. "I’ve heard of it. It grows in the swamps in the deep south. Regalus and other blacksmiths use it for just such reasons. It’ll hold the hoop tightly even when the thing begins to expand."

"Ah, we won’t let it get too hot," Regalus interrupted. "The application of the gold’ll take a long time, but I’m of a mind that you’ll prefer it done this way."

Regalus suddenly sagged and Avery caught him. "Whoa, guy, " the healer exclaimed worriedly. "You need to take a breather."

Regalus nodded and sat against the building wall.

"We can't wait long," Avery told his two companions. "Every passing minute kills more innocent people."

"I wonder if we can halt the world's energy level at this point but not let it get any stronger," Armegon mused aloud.

"Are you nuts!?" Ultrecht exclaimed.

"No," Armegon explained. "Just think how difficult it’d be to run a war with the world in this condition."

Ultrecht covered his eyes in defeat. "Your sense of humor is beyond me."

Armegon smiled. "It was just a thought."