The stagnant lifestyle continued for two more days - Alfred continued his ’training’ while slowly gathering more information, and the rest of the group tried to learn things by talking with the knights.
During that time the only notable moment was when Calen and Cassian went to the blacksmith to collect their armour and request help with merging weapons. It took Thomas one day longer than expected to fix their things, but that was to be expected since there was a giant hole in Calen’s chestplate.
"A reforge like that needs a mage." Thomas stated while hammering a piece of metal into the shape of a sword.
"I’m a mage, and have merged objects before." Calen assured him.
"Does that include weapons?"
"No, but it can’t be that different right? I’ve melded magic staffs together if that helps."
"It’s a bit more complicated since shape is more important in the case of swords, but I can help mitigate that." The blacksmith stopped hitting the metal and put it back in fire. "Did you bring both weapons and materials?"
"Yeah, are we going to do it now?"
"Once I’m done with this blade." Thomas nodded. "Show me what you’ve got."
A minute later two swords and a heap of materials separated into neat piles were spread on the floor.
"Where did you get materials like that? I haven’t seen anything this good since... I don’t even know when."
"A dead archmage gave them to me as a reward for playing a game with him." Cassian deadpanned.
Thomas raised an eyebrow and looked at Calen for clarification.
"Don’t ask, it’s complicated." He shrugged.
"Very well then." The blacksmith conceded. "I’ll be done in thirty minutes, you can go do something else or stick around if you want to."
"That depends, do you have any news from Matthew?"
"Not much but yes, he came to grab his armour on the morning. He made friends with some other recruit who apparently saw Arthur’s sword - from his description the blade looks pretty nasty, he even thinks it might be cursed."
"And what do you think? You’re the weapon expert here."
"It sounds like the weapon certainly isn’t mundane, but impossible for me to tell whether it’s enchanted, cursed or something else entirely without seeing the blade first hand."
"Do you think he might have gotten it from the Blightborn?"
"If he did then they didn’t use Blight to power it - no blade using that vile power could exist under the protection of the dragon."
"The Blightborn dagger worked normally in Mountainfall, and they also have protection." Cassian pointed out.
Calen shook his head.
"Space related powers often bypass barrier restrictions - that’s why the Blightborn could open the portals into Mountainfall in the first place, and why we needed to add the additional protection based on the dagger."
"Couldn’t the sword also be a space related weapon?" Cassian looked at Thomas for his opinion.
"I mean, it’s technically possible, but it wouldn’t make much sense based on everything else."
"If it had space related powers then he couldn’t have used the blade to control the anyone." Calen argued. "Which granted, we don’t know that he did, but the things that transpired would be just too weird if he didn’t at least influence the round table in some way."
"Fair point I suppose." Cassian agreed.
The duo continued to watch Thomas hammer the blade until it was finished.
"We’re gonna need a different anvil." Thomas said as he tossed the sword he made into a pile of identical weapons.
"What’s wrong with this one?" Calen questioned.
"Nothing, it’s just not suitable for working with magic - come on, we have to move it and bring a different one from the inside."
With some struggle, they moved the regular one to the side, and dragged a different one to its place.
It was evident that the new anvil wasn’t used very often, as there were almost no marks on of usage on it, but that was an insignificant difference compared to all the others.
For one, it was made of completely different metal - Calen didn’t know which one, but it certainly cost a fortune. Additionally it was covered in magic circles connected by rouge runes and pathways, creating a very convoluted pattern, which he couldn’t make sense of without a closer study.
"Give me the swords, I need to know exactly what I’ll be working with." Thomas said.
Cassian handed his regular weapon to the blacksmith.
The man began inspecting and weighing it.
"Expertly crafted, expensive materials... I feel like I’ve seen this craftsmanship before."
"My father commissioned this sword for me in the same place as sir Nickolas."
"Ah, that’s it. Matthew told me your story, but it’s easy to forget that you’re essentially time travellers." He handed the sword back to Cassian and took the second one. "This one is... strange. Where did you get it?"
They told him everything they knew about the sword and where they got it.
"An artifact, huh? This will be my first time working with one."
"Nah, artifact and relics are just glorified enchanted items - sure, we can’t replicate most of their effects, but they work on the same principles as every other magical object." Thomas handed back the sword and leaned against the anvil. "Which shape of the weapon you prefer? It’ll be important when we merge them."
The swords didn’t differ that much in terms of profile - the artifact had a slightly thinner blade, longer guard and larger pommel,but that was about it.
Still, even the smallest differences could play a huge role in the heat of a battle.
"I thought so." Thomas nodded. "From what you said the artifact grew when you thought about wanting a bigger weapon - if it can do that, it can also change shape to match the other weapon perfectly."
"Yes, merging two objects with identical physical properties is much, much easier."
Cassian looked at the second sword and thought about the shape of the other one - immediately the sword stretched and shrunk, to fit exactly what I had in mind.
"Fantastic, we can begin forging now."