Forging Workshop

Early the next morning, Hera decided to go to her private room. She wanted to fix the gloves and, more than that, she wanted to get her final titled blade soon. And she felt restless about it. It was a bit strange. That kind of thing never bothered her before. Not when talking about the title blades, at least. The open slot that could be taken by another powerful individual was not something that was always weighing on her mind. The empress simply felt that once it was time for her to find this final title blade, things would happen. There was no need to worry about it. It wasn't like what happened when her regular court increased in size.

Knowing that she could have six instead of five blades and she was not doing that felt just awful, as if there was a hole in her clothes or something missing, no matter what she did. With the title blades, that was far more calming. Yet, now that she had the opportunity to get the final permanent court member, she couldn't wait to do so. She couldn't handle things, not progressing quickly when she was just trying to increase the permanent members of her court. Everything but without the gloves just felt wrong. She felt she was not doing what she was supposed to be doing.

The empress was sitting in her private room. The specific version where she had not just the training area but also a memorial to her old blades. She had her forging tools available. Including a few of them that could only be used in here. A gift from the Guides. And as a matter of fact, the empress had called them in order to mostly catch up but also ask for advice related to reforging her gloves. It was not the type of item she was comfortable working with by herself, even if Vulcan was also a part of this.

Specifically, she called four of them who she thought could help with her Noxis, the fox-bat from the Duskwild Enclave where the Strength Spirits were located. Since that was the place she first used the [Decipher me or I will devour you] skill.

Stewart, the guide for the Cinderspire Citadel. The robot was a mix and match of various body parts and his unusual form could give them some ideas about how to work with the gloves. Not to mention that Forge originally came from his room.

Zhao Ye, the Scorpion from the dunes of isolation. She got the cloak pin from his room and his input on how to make sure the gloves still matched the brooch could be very helpful.

Nana Mittens, who was responsible for this room and could also assist the Empress with the item drops they were looking for. Even if she couldn't answer a few things due to the restrictions related to her skill, that didn't mean she couldn't give a few tips or ideas.

Aside from them, there was one more guide that decided to join the conversation: Veridallion. The leaf mantis was apparently an expert on wired weapons and could assist them in understanding how a weapon like that should function. And of course, Tara also joined in, as she was an almost mandatory presence when the empress called the Guides for a visit. Not that anyone was complaining.

The group spent some time just talking, trying to understand how the Legacy worked and why the bladed wire gloves were specifically well-suited to become a title blade. It took a lot of time to go over all the details. Mostly because the Guides struggled to understand the ability that bended some of the rules that existed in the MAZE. They could comprehend what an ability should do just fine. But the moment it started to be focused on the hows and whys, things became very complicated.

The reason was simple. The Guides understood how the MAZE was supposed to work. They understood what magic was supposed to do and how people were supposed to interact with it. But the moment someone placed a concept that was borderline impossible, it took a lot for them to properly rationalize what was going on. It could be akin to trying to explain to a person why a tree was behaving like a liquid instead of a solid. Or why someone was drinking sand and quenching their thirst. There were explanations, of course, but they all sounded so strange and impossible that it would be hard for anyone to understand that at first.

Still, they managed to do so. And Hera, after a good couple of hours, finished her explanation in a way that everybody understood the requirements for a titled blade to be born.

"Just to confirm," Stewart scratched the nape of his neck with a metal claw coming from his back, "we are trying to create life, or at least sentience. We do that by using two pieces of equipment that are connected enough to create a personality. And the familiarity ends up working as kind of like a glue to make sure both parts are working well together before the final step?"

Daskka nodded. "That's as good as an answer as any. I think the actual details are a bit more complex than that, but I don't know if they would matter in the long run. Not for us, at least."

"And the skills we will be giving the wire gloves are what connects them. Did I get that right?" Veridallion added.

"Yeah. We just never know for sure how that connection is made," Hera said. "Some cases were easier. Like Livy being a sea serpent and the war axe being part of the same dungeon. Or Nimbus being a griffin as both an item and a weapon."

"So in the end, we are kind of going off blind, right?" Tara said, getting nods from everybody.

"Pretty much. All we know is that the previous version of the gloves had a loose connection to the brooch," Hera continued. "That's why I was hoping that we could somehow figure out what kind of enchantment or engraving I should add to the glove to make its compatibility increase."

 "What about personality? You already said that the personality doesn't really match the actual skill. I mean, Nimbus is supposed to be a protector, right? Someone who cares about others?" Zhao Ye, the scorpion asked.

"Are you saying I don't care about people?" The Sentinel frowned and crossed his arms. 

The Scorpion shook his head but then nodded, "Sort of. Not that you don't care about people in the sense of being a bad person. But from what I've seen you doing here, you play a lot of pranks. You keep teasing people, you keep making others feel kind of bad about themselves - but not in a mean way. It's not the type of thing you would think a protector would do, you know?"

Nimbus opened his mouth but stopped himself, realizing that the Scorpion wasn't wrong. He was a bit of a prankster, and there were things he did when outside of combat that may not look like someone focused on caring about others.

"We also have the twins," Noxis turned to Crimson, who was inside the training room screaming loudly as she fought with Livy. "They are not exactly quiet when they're out and about."

Hera understood what they were coming from. It was a bit odd when she thought about their reactions. But at the same time, it felt very natural to them. If Crimson didn't act like that, it seemed like she wouldn't fit properly. Neither would Viper without his occasional nagging.

"We might be going about this on the wrong way," Nana Mittens spoke up. "We are considering the items as their skills. But they're not just that. The objects themselves are part of the transformation. So maybe what we are looking for is not simply a visual comparison, but something more profound. Maybe even their mana should be similar."

Hera frowned and stared at the grandma cat for a moment. "Even the mana?" She tried to remember the mana signature of the items before they became titled blades, but it had been too long. She couldn't figure out what they were before. And there was no one in her court who also remembered. After all, the title blades never paid too much attention to the items themselves or, more specifically, to the mana signatures of each of them.

But thinking about things in a different direction, she focused on the brooch and the gloves, trying to see if she could understand their mana signature. It took a little bit of time, but quickly became clear that they were somewhat similar. Not a one-to-one copy of each other, but they blended well together, even if there were a few pieces of it that clashed.

"So what you're saying is that we should figure out a way to make effects that connect well together?" Hera asked, thanking the fact that she could sense mana so well thanks to all the skills and random events in her life that brought her to that moment.

"In essence, that's what I'm saying," Nana Mittens nodded.

"That's actually quite a good idea," Forge said, staring at the gloves and the bladed wire. "We would need a little bit of time to properly identify the types of seals or skills we could try to put on the wire and the gloves, but I think it can work." He turned to Hera with a white smile. "Let's get to it then."

The empress turned to the Guides. "Can you still help me with this, or is this out of the scope of what you can do?"

"We ourselves are not sure what to do. I think we're fine," Stewart said, the plates that formed his mouth shifting to create a smirk.

"I agree. And I do want to help you. It's the least I can do," Nana Mittens added.

Hera frowned and turned to Nana Mittens. "What do you mean?"

"You have learned what pretty much everybody has learned about the past of my room. But no one has ever tried to complete the Feywyrm's final project," the grandma cat explained. "At least the project that survived. It may have been a long time ago, but it still warms my heart to see her work living on. Even if she was misguided at times. Fey was a good kid. I'm glad that I can help someone who is trying so hard to keep her memory alive."

Hera smiled and was about to say something else, but held back. Nana Mittens seemed to understand what the Ophidianite's intentions were.

"Do you want to?" Nana Mittens asked.

"May I?" Hera asked.

Nana Mittens smiled. "Of course, dear. I told you. Anytime you want."

"Thank you," Hera smiled back and picked up the cat Guide, placing her in her lap while giving her a big hug.

The other guides who were watching the scene just froze. But the moment any one of them even thought about asking or mentioning the situation, Nana Mittens let out such an intense bloodlust directed specifically at them and only them that made the Guides fear death for the first time in their lives.

The Empress and her entire Court were none the wiser. To them, everything was as normal as it could be.

They continued talking about the possible enchantments, with the Guides doing their best to help. The fact was, no one knew what were the types of skills and spells that could be added to the weapon to make them harmonize with the cloak pin. But they were able to discern a bit better the results of their experiments.

In addition, Veridallion was kind enough to provide some extra bladed string so Hera could practice on a pair of gloves that she created using her crafting skill. Something she had prepared before starting this process.

All the while, Lurize and Viper were watching some videos about taming snakes in hopes that it would be able to befriend the Jarnak and make the entire process much, much easier. At the same time, Levy and Crimson were training in the training area, trying to figure out how to create a proper finishing move a skill or a spell that could be used to do a lot of damage and that didn't require her to use the brake combo, since there were situations when that wasn't really an option.

The empress smiled. Days like this really made her appreciate her Court even more. In any other moment, she would have to practice herself, study herself, and craft the weapon herself. But here she had an entire team ready to help her achieve her goals. And if everything worked out as she hoped, that team would soon have one more member.