Hammer blows rang in a steady fury, metal on metal, the sound thick enough to taste.
Heat rolled off the forges in waves that made the air swim, and every breath carried iron, flux, and the faint bite of burning oil.
Radeon walked close to a furnace whose body was not simple brick and clay, but layered alloys both ordinary and strange.
Riverglass Titanium laced its frame. Skymirror Chromium held the edges true.
At its core sat Firehaze Gold, stubborn as a curse, refusing to melt even when the heat climbed into cruelty.
A craftsman would have called it an artifact, maybe even Epic grade.
Radeon did not build it for himself. He built it for the auction.
He moved deeper into the workshop where the light was harsher and the shadows sharper, and a sword lay waiting on a rack.
When his fingers brushed the hilt, the balance settled into his palm like a familiar handshake.
It felt less like a weapon and more like an extra bone that had always belonged there.
