Path of Dragons-Chapter 24Book 8: : Power Source

“The Forge of Creation,” Carmen said aloud. “I don’t hate it.”

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The name had been suggested after a survey of all the other crafters who would one day use the facility, and against all odds, she liked it – at least much better than any of the other options on offer. Still, Carmen wasn’t certain that it was absolutely appropriate, largely because it seemed to give prominence to blacksmithing when the compound had grown far beyond the limited scope with which it had been first conceived.

“A ringin’ endorsement,” said the dwarven head Builder Donagal, who was showing her around. Carmen didn’t need his guidance. She knew the plans like the back of her callused hands. After all, she’d been involved in every stage of its design, and she had engraved many of the bricks herself. “This here is meant ta be the library. One day, we’ll have an Archivist or a Librarian to manage the crystals, but for now, it’s just books. We hired a Scholar to tend to ‘em once we get it all finished and stocked up.”

Carmen nodded along at the description, but she was more interested in her inspection than in listening to the dwarf’s droning explanation of the expansive room’s purpose. She leaned forward, inspecting the shelves. They’d been built by one of the city’s most prominent Woodworkers, and as such, they’d been enchanted to preserve the books they were meant to hold. That would be necessary, given how easily books rotted.

It was one reason why most of the known universe preferred crystals. They weren’t as vulnerable to the elements, so they lasted much longer. The problem was that it took a Scholar of decent level and appropriate class to transfer information from a book to a crystal. Not to mention that the skills necessary to do so were extremely expensive – in terms of ethera – and creating the crystals themselves required a specialized Crystallographer. At the moment, Ironshore didn’t have one of those, and it would take some time before they managed to cultivate one.

So, in the meantime, they would be forced to purchase those crystals from either the Branch Marketplace or from other cities, assuming they could find someone with the talent to create them. In short, for now, they would be stuck with books. Not a huge deal, but settling definitely left a sour taste in Carmen’s mouth.

The library itself rivaled that of the university where Carmen had once worked as an adjunct professor – at least in terms of size, if not regarding the aesthetic. The vaulted ceilings were similar, but there was a good deal less wasted space, with most of the square footage being dominated by the shelves that would hold tens of thousands of books. There were three levels, with dozens of connected rooms that were meant to hold tomes on more sensitive subjects.

Because freedom of information was a thing of the old world. In the new one, knowledge was power, and giving such to the wrong people was tantamount to cutting one’s own throat. So, they had made the hard choice to restrict access to certain information.

The Council of Creators – as they had begun to call themselves, even if Carmen had often insisted the name was pretentious – would control who could study what. It was a point of contention, but Carmen’s argument that they should let people study freely had fallen on mostly deaf ears. She had been quickly overruled, even by her human counterparts.

That was a reminder that the project had grown far beyond her original scope. The plans had once only encompassed a space of a few thousand square feet. Enormous for a smithy, she thought. But now? It was an entire compound hundreds of times that size, reminding Carmen of a half dozen big box stores that had been stacked atop one another and connected via various halls.

“Like an old school shopping mall,” she muttered, leaning forward to inspect the engravings on a particular shelf. She couldn’t check them all, regrettably.

“What was that?” asked the dwarf.

“Nothing. This looks good, so far, but I want the Woodworkers to check these engravings again,” Carmen ordered. “There’s no room for mistakes to slip through the cracks.”

“Aye,” agreed the Builder. Donagal was as much a perfectionist as Carmen, and he wouldn’t accept anything else. Most of the Council was like that, though with different focuses. Biggle, for instance, cared more about perfecting his processes and pushing the boundaries of what he could do with any given ingredients. Donagal wouldn’t be happy unless everything fit together so seamlessly that it defied the very notion of imperfection. And the others’ expression of commitment to their work differed in a thousand other ways.

The results were that everyone wanted the Forge of Creation to be the best it could be, which was why no one really complained when Carmen made them do something over again.

Still, that attitude meant that the project’s completion kept getting further and further away. The bones of the building were finished, the foundation of the complex had been laid and perfected. Now, they were engaged in detail work like the shelves. Or in the smithy’s case, the tools and the forge itself.

“Cool shelves,” came a voice Carmen hadn’t heard in more than week. She turned to see Elijah bending down with his face only an inch away from the wood. “Lots of ethera. You know, if you asked, I could have furnished wood from the island. It would have been a lot livelier. But then again, maybe you don’t want to promote vitality in here. It’s supposed to be a library, right? If the vitality gets too high, you’d probably start getting all kinds of interesting mold. I bet Biggle would go crazy over something like that, though.”

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Donagal took a step back, clearly trying to put some distance between himself and Carmen’s infamous brother-in-law.

“Hey, Elijah. I see that you’re done with your seclusion.”

Indeed, despite looking a bit disheveled, Elijah was in better condition than she’d ever seen him. His face seemed a bit sharper and more handsome, and he’d even grown a little taller. It was like he’d become an idealized version of the Elijah she knew.

“Yep. Proud owner of a Bronze body. You want to see something cool?” he asked.

“Uh…maybe?”

Elijah blinked, then something on his skin stirred. At first, Carmen thought he was transforming into one of his bestial shapes, but there was no herald of swirling ethera to announce it. Before she could ask what was going on, he held up a hand, the back of which was covered in emerald scales.

“What the…”

“Apparently, I’m part dragon now. Neat, huh?” he commented.

Carmen narrowed her eyes, looking at her brother-in-law’s face. They hadn’t known one another that well before the world had changed, but she’d come to recognize a few things about him – like the fact that he often used humor and nonchalance to mask discomfort. She glanced back at Donagal, who took the hint – or maybe saw an opportunity – and excused himself. He moved so quickly that she wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d broken out into a run the second he was out of sight.

For better or worse, Elijah had left quite an impression on the people of Ironshore, and she didn’t think it would soon fade.

“You’re freaked out, aren’t you?” she asked.

“Uh…”

“Don’t lie to me, either. I’ll know.”

He started to say something, but then, he just let out a long sigh before looking away. Finally, after a few seconds, he said, “I’m scared, Carmen.”

“Of what?”

“Of not being me anymore. It’s one thing to use a spell to transform into an animal or something. That almost feels natural, even if I know it’s not. But this? I talked to my…patron, and she said that I’m going to fully turn into a dragon. Like, four legs. Wings. Covered in scales. It wouldn’t bother me if it was just another form, you know? But this…this is going to be me. The real me. And that scares me,” he admitted. After running his hand through his hair, he gave a little chuckle, then said, “I’m turning into one of the most powerful creatures in the universe, and I’m in the middle of an existential crisis about who and what I am. Seems silly, right?”

“A little,” Carmen responded. “But with the state of the world, it’s probably warranted. You want my advice?”

“Please.”

“Don’t get worked up over it. You are who you are, and it doesn’t matter if you grow scales and wings. None of that is going to change you into something else.”

“That’s…that’s literally untrue. If I turn into a dragon, that is, by definition, a change into something else.”

“You know what I mean. I’m talking about inside. In your heart, you’re still just Elijah,” she stated. “Besides, it seems like you’ve got a handle on it.”

“I do. It’s the only thing keeping the panic at bay.”

“Steer into it, then,” she advised.

“Yeah. Maybe,” he said. “Anyway, I didn’t come here to talk about my issues. I came with a gift. Come on.”

“What is it?” she asked, struggling to catch up as he strode away.

“It’s a surprise,” was all he would say.

They left the library behind, descending the grand staircase that led to the next level down. Then, they passed through what would be the lobby, eliciting a few glances from the Sculptors working on the decorations along the way. Carmen ignored them. They weren’t looking at her, after all. Judging by their nervous expressions, they were afraid of what Elijah might do.

“They really are terrified of you.”

“What? No. They’re just surprised to see me around so much is all. They love me around here,” Elijah said.

Carmen just shook her head. “Where are we going?”

“Outside. That’s where I left it.”

Carmen frowned at that. Ironshore was a mostly lawful city, but crime wasn’t entirely unheard-of. In fact, one of the issues they’d found early on centered around their building materials – which were quite valuable – coming up missing. They’d been forced to ask Ramik for guards.

But then again, it was unlikely that anyone was going to steal from Elijah. Not after what most of the city had seen him do. Not only had he slaughtered fifty people who’d trespassed on his island, but he’d also single-handedly won the first battle of Ironshore. Finally, he’d most recently beaten back the dark elves.

So, perhaps she was worried about nothing.

Finally, they left the lobby behind to find their way outside. The exterior was a muddy mess, largely because they hadn’t gotten to the point where they could work on landscaping or anything more than rudimentary steps. That was coming, but for now, doing so wouldn’t have made much sense. Not with how much traffic there was.

Carmen was about to ask what was going on when she saw something that took her breath away. It was a large crystal – at least six feet tall and almost as wide – and the air practically shimmered with the sheer amount of ethera wafting off of it.

“What is that?”

“Power crystal. Full disclosure – I offered it to Kurik first, but he said he didn’t have any use for it. Didn’t make much sense to me, but whatever. I can’t force him to take it. Then I asked Ramik if he wanted it, and he suggested that you could put it to good use. Was he right?”

Carmen didn’t answer. Instead, she stepped forward, blanching at the power emanating from the crystal. And that was just the run-off. What it contained within was far more potent.

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “But…I think so?”

Already, she had a few ideas about how to put it to use. With as much power as it contained, there was every chance that it could run the entire facility. Indeed, if Ramik had taken it, it could have provided the whole city with power. Likely, he’d chosen not to because that would have required an extensive reworking of the city’s infrastructure to take advantage of such a power source. Better to send it toward Carmen and make that her problem to deal with.

Or at least she expected that was his thought process.

However, just because it would cause her no end of problems – and more delays – she knew it had the potential to become an incredible boon to the Forge of Creation. She just needed to get with the others so they could figure out how best to incorporate it into the facility’s design.

“Thank you. I hate you for making so much more work for me, but thank you.”

“Always happy to help. Don’t touch it, by the way. Pretty sure it’ll burn your hand right off,” he said. “Let me handle it.”

Then, he wrapped his arms around the giant crystal – which looked like it probably weighed thousands of pounds – and lifted it without even a hint of effort. When he did, his scales flashed back into existence, though he clearly didn’t notice it.

“Where do you want it, then?”

She just sighed. “Follow me.”