Seliza's master smith stood staring at the table with his thick hands hovering.
The black core Hajin had pulled from the anomaly sat beneath those hands, patient and heavy.
The smith was built like a stone pillar and carried a hammer meant for cracking vaults.
Yet he refused to touch the loot while its pressure thinned the air around it.
"Forging this is impossible," the smith said, wiping sweat from his forehead despite the morning chill. "My forge would melt before the core even grew warm."
"That is an Apex core, and your House works with anomaly materials all the time," Hajin said from the doorframe.
"We work with anomaly shells and lesser cores," the smith replied, taking one slow step back. "That thing is pulling ambient mana from the room simply by existing."
He glanced down at the hammer hanging from his belt. "If I strike it, the core will shatter my tool and probably take my arm with it."
