Vivi was rusty. She immediately noticed sluggishness in her movements. Her hands didn’t flow with the root’s stalk like they used to. Holding a crochet hook felt awkward. The last time she’d worked with one was on the surface back in Grandpa’s smithy.

  Back there, just hours before being sent underground, Vivi had carved her first three-runed sword. It had taken her attempt after attempt, wasting countless ether roots on failed sets of veins. Three-runed swords required impeccable concentration for the whole process, leaving little room for errors. Vivi had been in the zone for many hours straight until eventually completing one lucky attempt.

  Right now, the skill she’d had back then felt like a distant memory. I’m never taking a break for two weeks straight again… Just one day away from the smithy is enough to make my hands slow.

  Lucius sounded concerned. “You mean, you’ve forgotten how to be a runesmith?”

  Vivi smiled. Not in the slightest. I’ll just need a good warm-up.

  In this situation, Grandpa would have told Vivi to spend a day or two performing rudimentary exercises, such as shaping artwork and tying knots with inexpensive plant roots. Rudimentary exercises were a great way to gain a feel for how veins were supposed to be handled.

  In Zand, Vivi didn’t have time to practice. She needed results. Rohan’s sword will be my warm-up today, Vivi thought. A single-runed sword is hard to screw up. Lucius, speed up the tempo a bit. Iron roots require faster growth, or they’ll dim out.

  Lucius followed the order, and the vein-shaping process continued. The image of Black Rose was clear in Vivi’s head. She recalled the shape of the veins on the asmite sword’s surface. Vivi tried to replicate a similar pattern with the iron root’s branches. The sword should feel similar to swing. Only, Rohan’s new sword would be inside-carved and far more powerful.

  Rensfig watched from the side silently. He could see Vivi’s concentration and didn’t ask questions. He, too, looked concentrated, watching every movement Vivi made with seriousness. Rensfig was the opposite of Andre’s blacksmith. Einord had merely rolled his eyes and sighed repeatedly.

  “Assistant,” Vivi said, making Rensfig flinch. “Could you heat the crucible furnace to sixteen hundred kelvin?”

  “I’m a runesmith,” Rensfig said. “I don’t know how to use that thing.”

  “Just add in some ether and watch the temperature,” Vivi said.

  “It doesn’t have a gauge?” Rensfig said.

  “I’ll tell you when it’s there,” Vivi said.

  Rensfig gave her a look but heated the crucible furnace. The emberstones warmed up the small smithy within five minutes. The temperature wasn’t sweat-inducing yet, but Vivi’s fingers felt slightly warmer.

  “That should be enough,” Vivi said. “The heat feels right.”

  Droplets of sweat formed on Rensfig’s forehead as he stood next to the furnace. “You mean, you can tell the heat? From that distance?”

  “It feels right to me,” Vivi said. “Now, for the next step. Place in the crucible. Wait for it to heat up before placing in the metals. We will liquidize the green mithril.”

  Rensfig scrambled to follow the instructions. He clearly wasn’t practiced, but placing metals into a crucible didn’t require much skill. He closed the lid and let the furnace do its work.

  By now, Vivi was finishing up the veins. The stalk of the iron root was colored a boring gray. This was another disadvantage of iron roots; the appearance was not exactly awe-inspiring. Grandpa rarely used iron for this specific reason, despite iron being very cost-effective. Most customers wanted beautiful swords. Iron bordered ugliness.

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  The Hollows, however, required strength. Vivi finished up the set of veins, cauterizing growth. She cut off the stalk from the root and assessed the veins she’d created.

  She was quite happy with the result. The branches were a lot more complicated, forming half-squares with sharp angles. The half-squared formed together by connecting with other branches. With a crochet hook, Vivi had a lot more control over the shapes she wanted to form.

  “A Hank’s pattern?” Rensfig asked.

  “Yes, it’s a simpler variation of the pattern Rohan’s old sword had,” Vivi said. The square branches were named after their inventor, Hank the Beer Carver. Hank was a legendary runesmith from way before the age of typhoons. He worked while drunk in an age where runesmiths were competing on who could carve the most beautiful patterns into their runeswords. Hank, drunk as he was, struggled to compete. Instead, he carved simple half-squares into his swords.

  Somehow, Hank’s swords kept beating everyone else’s, proving that runesmithing wasn’t all about beautiful patterns. Hank’s half-square pattern was seriously efficient. Today, the pattern translated well into inside carving.

  With the veins done, Vivi quickly got to carving the runes. A mass rune was slightly more complicated than a strength rune, requiring a more specific path within ether’s elements. The iron root’s surface was also tough, making the carving process tedious. Vivi only had time to add four runes to the sword before it was time to move to the last step. She would have liked to add at least eight for a faster intake of ether, but iron roots weren’t supposed to be fast either way. With less intake runes, controlling the flow of ether inside the sword was easier.

  By the time she was done with the runes, Rensifg’s face was red from sweat. He was drinking water at a steady pace. “How can you work here?” he asked. “The heat is unbearable.”

  “Wait until we get to forging,” Vivi said with a smile. “Before we continue, do you understand now how inside carving works?”

  “I think I get the idea,” Rensfig said. “You’re going to reform the liquidized metal around the veins. But can the ether root withstand the heat? Will your veins not deform?”

  “If ether is provided through the runes, the veins will withstand,” Vivi said. “Open the lid, if you please.”

  Rensfig was nervous as Vivi moved to the final steps. To balance the veins upside down inside the molten metal, Vivi set up her rope configuration again. The ropes were far from optimal, and they limited her movement within the small smithy, as touching the ropes would cause the veins to twitch. Grandpa had a proper holding rack for the crucibles back home. Vivi would have to craft a better setup when she had time.

  “This method is insane,” Rensfig said “Not only are the veins inside the sword, you also carved them in barely an hour. You’ve sped up the process by weeks.”

  “It’s called vein-shaping,” Vivi said. “It’s far more difficult compared to carving outside-veins, but when done right, vein-shaping is the most satisfying part of runesmithing.”

  Rensfig stood still with a thoughtful expression while watching the metal cool down. “Can inside-carved runeswords compete with three-runed swords? I can’t imagine how rune combinations are possible with this method. The veins of an outside-carved blade aren’t allowed to mix. Runes cause bad reactions if they directly mix. That’s why the veins need to be carved separately from each other. The same rule will apply to inside carving. But I don’t see how you can ever connect another separate ether root into this.”

  “Rune combinations are intricate, but they're absolutely possible,” Vivi said. “Tell me, what’s the most runes an outside-carving runesmith has crammed into one sword?”

  “Undar Grievous fit four into a greatsword fifty years ago,” Rensfig said. “He was awarded a prize for innovation by Ingfried himself. Although, the sword snapped after too much stress was placed into it.”

  Vivi grinned. “My grandpa fit five runes into one sword.”

  Rensfig blinked. “Okay, now you’re fucking with me.”

  Vivi ignored him. She stretched, preparing for the next job. “That was a good warm-up. Let the metal cool down for now. I’ll forge the sword later. Right now, my hands are ready for more intricate work.”

  “You mean, you’re crafting another sword?”

  “Yes,” Vivi said. “I’ve crafted two toy swords now. Grandpa would be disappointed if he saw my work so far. It’s about time I crafted something for real.”

  Vivi already had a vision for what she wanted to carve. Rensfig’s adamantite katana was clear in her head; the exact same patterns he was trying to use. Was her idea too cruel?

  “Let’s do it, Vivi,” Lucius said. “Let’s show this dwarf how runesmithing is really done.”

  Yes, Vivi thought. Two runes. A swiftness and a sharpness rune. We need to defeat Wheryn, Uundref, and an Elder Gnoll. Let’s get to work.

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