And it worked! I could actually feel myself overcoming a resistance and, through the magic of the spell, direct how I wanted the sockets to appear.

  When the sockets formed around the back and sides, Grandmaster Copperheart actually cheered for me.

  “Do you have any advice about the gemstones on it?” I asked, grinning and happy with myself.

  He paused and thought about my question. “You clearly have some challenges ahead of you. I would focus on protection from enemies. A strong attack, a strong defense, and a trap door, perhaps.”

  “A trap door?” I asked.

  “It’s what we refer to as spells like teleport, invisibility, and the like.” He said. “But I am not an enchanter. I have only some basic spells that I can imbue. I make the objects, and others enchant them.”

  “Thank you, that is good advice.”

  “And if you can afford it, don’t settle for 7’s when you can insert a 14pt or better yet, a set of 28’s into the sockets. That circlet is yours, and it should last you a lifetime.”

  “Thank you, grandmaster. I don’t know how to thank you for your time.”

  “Actually, you gave me an hour of your time. It is I who must thank you. And in fairness, I will give you an hour of my time in return. Do you have a more private place where we could talk?”

  I didn’t understand what was happening, but figured it was all part of their trials and questions.

  “Of course. We can retire to my study. I can provide you with some bread, cheese, and wine if you like.”

  “I’d prefer ale over wine,” he said with a slight grimace. I figured it was a dwarf thing. Maybe an anti-elf thing. Hard to tell with dwarves.

  “Not a problem,” I replied, knowing that by the time we reached my personal quarters, Bella would have something waiting for us.

  And I was not mistaken. In fact, there was also an assortment of sweetmeats and salted pork.

  The grandmaster grinned from ear to ear, and for a dwarf with prominent teeth (which was all dwarves), that was saying something. He reached out and carefully took a small sweetmeat. He stared at it, sniffed it a couple of times, and gently placed it in his mouth with his eyes closed.

  “Just like Nan used to make for us.” He said in delight.

  I sent a mental thank you to Bella and asked her not to snoop on people.

  He was thinking about it the whole way up the stairs, and I am a spirit of hospitality, she said defensively.

  I rolled my eyes, but composed myself as he opened his eyes once more. He looked at me and back at the table.

  “Please, master, I insist. Help yourself.” And it was my turn to smile at his enthusiasm for the sweetmeats and salted pork.

  Between mouthfuls, he said, “Superb, simply superb. What a delight.”

  But he suddenly grew serious. “You have not asked me any questions, you know. I am at your disposal for an hour, and you have yet to pry dwarven secrets out of me. Which, of course, I am happy to share.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Forgive me, master, but that is hardly the reputation of a dwarf master.”

  He burst out laughing. “Even so, even so. I am at your service by my word, and not only that, but for your amazing treats.”

  He was a puzzle for sure. His behavior was definitely off, but I couldn’t figure out why.

  I asked, “Then perhaps you can tell me, grandmaster, just why you are here and why all the pleasantries. It cannot be typical to treat candidates for rise to mastery this way.”

  He grew serious again and took a long drink of his ale. Eventually, he said, “No. No, this is not typical.”

  With a deep sigh, he placed his hands on the top of the table and folded one on top of the other. “May I ask you a very important question, one that you must swear to either answer with complete honesty or refuse to answer. But by no means try to deceive me.”

  I grew a little indigent. “I will not lie to you, and I am surprised, given this evening, that you would ask me such a question.”

  “But lad, it is because of this evening that I ask you.” He paused, seeing that I was upset. “Do you promise?”

  I settled down. “If I were the type of man to lie, then telling you I would not lie would be just the thing a dishonest man would say.”

  “And an honest man as well.” He countered. “Your word, please. Either promise to tell me the truth, the entire truth, or refuse to answer me at all. That is what I ask, even though I have no right to do so. Even my rank does not forgive the insult, I know. But still I ask it of you.”

  I realized that whatever his purpose for being here and whatever the underlying motives for his unusual behavior and timing could be, would be answered by his question.

  I nodded once. “I give you my word to answer you completely and honestly, or not at all. I will not lie to you.”

  He relaxed. “Please explain to me, in detail, how you came to be able to make such nearly flawless Dwarven copper and imbue them so readily with sockets and command the very gemstones to your will.”

  He knew about the book. Or he suspected it.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  My deepest secret and a promise made to Sundance sent lies into my mind as an answer to his question.

  He saw it in me and settled back into the chair. He knew that now I would tell him the truth, refuse the truth, or break my oath and lie to him. For my shame, I nearly broke my oath and lied.

  Instead, I slowly rose and walked over to my sliding ladder that rested in a nearby corner. I rolled it along the top and bottom brass rails to my furthest corner library shelves. I had to roll it to the opposite edge of the room, set it, and climb nearly to the top. On the second shelf from the top, surrounded by loose parchments and some dust, I removed a battered old book. I held it gently in my hands, closed my eyes, and asked Sundance, wherever he was, for his forgiveness.

  I then carefully climbed back down the steps, walked over to him, and with great care placed the book in front of him. I did not say a word.

  He stared at it for a long moment before he opened it to the first page. His eyes teared up, and he did not even try to hide their fall onto his beard.

  He closed the book after looking at the first page and stroked the cover. Then he looked up to me and began to explain.

  “You know, I am sure, that dwarves are born and raised commonly so that all dwarves of a birth year are considered brothers and sisters. We never wed with one another in the same year. We never know who our children are, and so treat all children of younger generations as nieces and nephews.”

  I nodded. “I am aware of this grandmaster.”

  He continued. “I had a son. Just one. My wife died in childbirth, and I gave him away to the midwife as all fathers do after a brief kiss on the forehead and a blessing. In my grief at the loss of my wife and the taking away of the only living link I had left to her, I despaired in my heart.

  “I bent to give my son his kiss and blessing, planning to end my own journey later that same day. But I saw two things that stopped my heart from turning to stone. First, he looked upon me with eyes that twinkled in the lamplight and looked so much like his mother’s that it filled my heart with joy when moments ago it had withered and nearly died.”

  “And the other thing?” I asked, drawn into his story and the deep emotion on his face, in his eyes, and in his voice.

  “And the other was a small half-moon birthmark on his left shoulder. In seeing it, I knew that he would never be lost to me. I could pick him out of a crowd someday, and she would never truly be lost to me.”

  My breath caught in my throat.

  He smiled wanly. “I see that you have also seen the birthmark. Yes, Sundance was my true son. He never knew it, of course. It would have broken one of our oldest and most entrenched laws. But I watched over him and when the time was right, took him on as my apprentice.”

  My eyes widened, and I looked at the book.

  His hand rested on its cover. “I am the master who gave him this book. The special spell on your Dwarven Circlet of Forging, in fact, came from this book. One of the few things we have successfully passed down through the ages. The spell is known as Ward Against All Heat and Fire. It is far superior to the typical protection spell that dwarves use. This spell protects you from magical as well as natural fire and heat. Dragon fire, infernal combustion, elemental inferno. None can touch you under its powerful protection.”

  He looked up to me. “I am a part of the lineage of hundreds of masters and apprentices over thousands of years. And lad, so are you. My son gave this to you. He considered you his son. His only son. And that makes you my grandson. That makes you family.”

  We stared at each other for a while and then both sat in silence. He gave me space to think over what he had revealed.

  “Do the other masters know?” I asked.

  “No. Not of my relationship with Sundance, other than being his master. And certainly not of this book. It has been a secret thread across time in our clan, and even before our clan. Archmaster Norsil Copperthane is legendary among our people, and he did have some writings that our lore keepers hold, but to my knowledge, none know of this book or its long history. None but the masters and their apprentices.

  “Over time,” he continued, “some of the teachings were lost, as were some of the secrets of enchantment and gem work. Maybe through greed, maybe through accidents. I don’t know. But I do know that what you are able to do, you learned in that book, and Sundance did not teach it because neither he nor I were able to crack those secrets, and we spent many, many hours together trying.

  “He loved you like a son.” He said. “He told me as much in his letter that warned me of his danger and that you had redeemed our clan by cracking the mysteries lost to us centuries ago.”

  I was speechless. Whatever motivations were behind the grandmaster’s unusual behavior, I would never have guessed it was this.

  Finally, I said, “I don’t know what to say.”

  He slid the book over to me. “There is nothing for you to say. The saying was mine. I thought you should know, but I had to be sure of you before I revealed my shame, loss, and sorrow.”

  “I am glad you did, grandfather.”

  He looked up into my eyes, and his filled once more with tears. “You have no idea what it means to me to hear those words. But lad, never repeat them again. For love of your master and the honor of the clan. Never.”

  I nodded. “When I say the words grandmaster, know what I am truly saying to you.”

  He reached out, and his massive dwarven hand covered my own.

  “Now for the bad news.” He said.

  I blinked. “The what?” I asked, confused once more.

  “I was ordered to make sure that no human was to be made dwarf master of the forge, no human must be named master of Dwarven Copper. It was so ordered by the king and council. We masters cannot deny the order even though its very demand breaks one of our deepest truths of honor.”

  I sighed sadly. “I understand.”

  In truth, I never really expected to be awarded the honor. But it was a wonderful dream while it lasted.

  He grew angry. Whether it was at me, himself, or the Master’s Council, I did not know.

  “If I were a dwarf, was my work worthy of a master?” I asked.

  He calmed down. “Lad, what you did was worthy. We all three were stunned by your skill, and your bond with gemstones is a gift nearly unheard of among even dwarves. None currently possesses it. Yes, we have masters who can cast magic to accomplish what you do, but none are currently able to commune with gems like you. It is a wondrous gift.”

  Just knowing that my skill was worthy of a Dwarven master would be good enough. I might not have the title, but Sundance and the Archmaster gave me the tools I needed to create beauty and hopefully protect our city.

  “Our city!” I blurted out.

  It was his turn to be confused.

  “Grandmaster, our city is the target of a goblin invasion. It is a force greater than any seen before, even in the Goblin Wars.”

  “I am sorry for you and those here. Our clan has faced many such crises over the centuries. It is tragic.”

  “You misunderstand. Well, no, you do understand, but I meant that there is a very good chance the city would be overrun and destroyed.”

  He nodded, “Yes, it is tragic, truly tragic.” He repeated.

  I sighed in frustration. “Grandmaster. If the city is destroyed, so will be this book!”

  The blood drained from his face, and he looked down at the book in horror.

  I set my shoulders and did what I somehow knew I was meant to do as soon as we sat down together in this room. “You must take it back to the clan with you when you depart in the morning. The time has come for it to be revealed to our family.”

  He looked at me in both hope and agony, knowing what this meant.

  I got up and fetched another book from a lower shelf in a different location in the library. It also required the use of the ladder, but it was among other books with similar fresh bindings.

  I laid it before him. “I made a true copy of the book. It is not original, but the words are the same. I will still have the means to pass on the Archmaster’s teachings, but this artifact must not fall to the goblins. There is far worse they could do to the book than burn it.”

  His look was incredulous.

  “Master, they could learn from it.”

  And then he understood. The goblins and their dark powers could take these lessons from the ancients. Lessons I had just barely touched the surface of, and then turn them to dark purposes.

  “You would give us this freely?” He asked softly.

  “For the honor of my master, his master, and our clan. Yes. Yes, I do give it freely.”

  There was not much left to say after so much emotion between two men unaccustomed to sharing emotions. He embraced me once, placed his hand on my shoulder, and then departed. His only words over his shoulder as he walked out of my rooms into the common area with the book were in a deep and scratchy voice, “We will see each other in the morning before we depart. Thank you for your hospitality, Patron.”

  His addition of the title “patron” was high praise and meant as a significant honorific. He marched directly to the rooms prepared for him and the other two dwarves. I did not see or hear from him or the others the rest of the night.

  It was still early enough in the evening that I decided to head down to the lower levels after securing my treasured book in its place on the shelf. I had more work to complete, and it was our first night shift, and I’m sure people were wondering where I had gotten to with the dwarves. The day was coming to an end, and that meant only six days until the goblin siege unless the defensive Goblin Walls could hold longer than anticipated. I sent up a prayer that it would, and for strength if it didn’t.