Runebound Reverse Tower of The Dead

Reading the section about the coat took far longer than Kael had expected. At first, he believed understanding the mesh would be the greatest problem, and that alone would have been difficult enough.

The more he studied the design, however, the more obvious it became that whoever created the masterpiece had refused to let a single part of it remain mediocre. The leather was far more than a backing material placed beneath better protection. Several pages were devoted entirely to selecting the hide, removing fat without weakening the fibers, stretching it under controlled tension, protecting it against moisture, and hardening specific areas without making the entire coat stiff.

Then came the scales. Their size, shape, and thickness changed according to where they would rest upon the wearer. Those protecting the ribs differed from those covering the shoulders, while the scales near the joints required a separate overlap pattern so the wearer could move without exposing gaps. Even their orientation received an entire section explaining how one incorrectly angled scale could catch a blade instead of redirecting it.

Beneath the leather and scales waited the mesh, which quickly became the true nightmare.

Kael spent hours beside Andre’s forge with the enormous ancestral book resting across his knees, reading the same passages until the words began repeating inside his head. The smith responsible for that section appeared obsessed with patience. He warned the reader against rushing the wire-drawing process, forcing the weave, or attempting to correct several mistakes during the same stage. A failed strand had to be studied before it was replaced, and an uneven weave had to be dismantled instead of carried forward into later stages.

Warnings covered nearly every page. A few were polite, although most sounded as though the writer had personally grown tired of watching impatient apprentices ruin valuable materials. One passage declared, If you believe three months of labor is too long, then spend six months repairing what your impatience destroys.

Kael stared at that sentence for a while before looking toward Andre. "I should make something clear right now. I am not spending three months making a coat."

Andre glanced up from the gauntlet he was working on and snorted. "Then don’t spend three months making one. The book never said ya had to."

"That might be the first useful thing anyone in your family has written about this design."

"The rest becomes useful when ya stop complainin’ long enough to understand it."

Kael turned another page, irritated by how much he wanted to continue. He had enough sense to know he could not reproduce the original masterpiece. Whoever created it had worked at a level Kael could barely understand, much less imitate.

Kael possessed one advantage that ancestor had never enjoyed: Brokk’s Hammer.

If he understood the process well enough, he might be able to cheat. He could not skip the knowledge, but perhaps he could avoid some of the suffering required to apply it. That distinction mattered, at least to Kael.

By then, Andre had nearly completed the new gauntlets. Three Malachor Jade ingots had already been consumed between the pair, though some of the material remained in smaller prepared sections intended for the final reinforcement, channels, and socket structures. Seven untouched ingots still rested nearby.

Kael closed the book and looked toward the dwarf. "Andre, I’m taking one of the remaining Malachor ingots."

The hammer stopped. Andre slowly looked over his shoulder. "If yer planning what I think yer planning, then the answer is no."

"They’re my ingots, which means I’m allowed to use one."

"They’re yers, but that doesn’t mean I have to smile while ya waste one."

Kael stared at him until the dwarf sighed and turned fully around.

"What exactly are ya planning?"

Kael tapped page 225, causing Andre’s expression to sour immediately.

"Absolutely not. If that is what ya learned from reading the book, then ya learned fuck-all."

"I haven’t even explained the idea yet."

"Ya pointed at the coat. That explanation was enough."

Kael leaned back. "I’m not trying to recreate the masterpiece. I know I can’t produce spider-silk wire, perfectly shaped scales, or anything close to the same quality. I want to make my own test version so I can understand how the mesh works."

The answer annoyed Andre somewhat less. "That’s different, although it’s still likely to waste an ingot."

"I have seven left."

"I was planning to use those for accessories." Andre gestured toward the untouched material. "Yer equipment is embarrassingly inconsistent. I could make a necklace, reinforce some channels, and perhaps produce rings if enough remained. Malachor is too useful to throw away because ya became excited over a picture in a book."

"I’m not throwing it away. I’m testing the material, and eventually I need to make something without you doing most of the difficult work."

Andre watched him for another moment before shrugging. "Fine. Take the ingot and do whatever ya want with it."

Kael raised an eyebrow. "You’re giving in that easily?"

"They’re yers. If ya ruin one, then ya ruin one."

"I thought you’d try harder to stop me."

Andre returned to the gauntlets and picked up one of his smaller tools. "I’m yer smith, Kael. I’m not yer mother."

Kael smiled. "Good. I’d rather learn from the mistake myself."

"And I’d rather laugh when ya destroy it."

"There it is. I knew you were being too reasonable."

Kael took one Malachor Jade ingot and began working. His first problem sounded simple enough: he needed wire.

Ordinary metal wire was not produced by hammering an ingot until it somehow became thread. A smith first worked the metal into rods, then pulled those rods through progressively smaller openings in a drawplate. Every pass reduced the diameter until the wire reached the desired thickness.

Andre owned several drawplates. Rows of holes crossed each hardened plate, beginning large enough for a narrow rod and becoming almost impossibly small near the opposite end. Using one correctly would require a great deal of time.

Kael studied the drawplate, then looked toward Brokk’s Hammer. He shifted his attention between the two several times before speaking.

"Or I could avoid most of those passes by..."

"Whatever yer about to suggest, don’t," Andre interrupted.

Kael looked over. "You don’t even know what I was going to say."

"Yer holding a legendary hammer while staring at a tool designed to perform something slowly. It isn’t difficult to guess."

Kael smiled. "I didn’t realize I’d become that predictable."

"Aye, painfully so."

Kael ignored the warning. He hammered Malachor Jade enough to make its initial shaping easier, then began working the material into several long rods. He placed the first one across the anvil and focused upon what he wanted.

Thin.

The rod had to become narrower without flattening or stretching unevenly.

Brokk’s Hammer descended with a metallic clang, changing the material beneath it. Kael struck again, and the rod narrowed. With every successive blow, he reinforced the intended form and avoided dozens of passes through the drawplate.

The result was far from perfect, but by the end of the first session, a collection of thin metallic strands rested across the table. Kael lifted one and studied it under the forge light.

It was still considerably thicker than the material demanded by page 225. The original masterpiece used wire so fine that some sections compared it to house-spider silk. Kael’s work looked closer to very thin instrument wire.

That was still impressive, even if it fell short of insanity.

He attempted to make the strands thinner. Several broke, one twisted, and another flattened instead of narrowing evenly. By the time he had produced several hundred usable pieces, his fingers hurt more than they had after some fights.

Then came the weaving, and Kael quickly discovered that he hated every part of it.

The pattern looked simple when reduced to a diagram. Each strand passed over, under, across, and back before the sequence repeated. Performing those movements hundreds of times without pulling one wire tighter than another proved considerably less simple.

One section bulged outward while another tightened too much. Several wires bent where they should have remained flexible. At one point, Kael reached toward Brokk’s Hammer with every intention of correcting the entire section at once.

Andre’s earlier warning returned before he touched it. The Hammer could perfectly create the wrong answer.

Kael lowered the legendary tool. "I’m not making that mistake."

He dismantled the section and started again. Hours disappeared, followed by another day, and the finished piece of mesh remained barely large enough to cover part of his forearm.

Kael held it up with a tired expression. "That took far longer than any piece this size had the right to take."

Andre continued working without looking up. "Now imagine making enough to cover an entire coat."

"I would genuinely rather fight another Death Knight." Kael sighed.

"That can probably be arranged if ya miss it so much." Andre smirked at him, "I know a guy."

"Fuck off. I’m trying to appreciate my accomplishment." And continued hammering.