.^^ the new arm ^^

— Rune —

I groaned in pain, sitting up slowly, and looked at my surroundings. I was against the wall of the temple, for some reason, with a headache. The events of the night came to me, and I sighed, standing up slowly, cracking my back and neck. My shoulders and arms came next, and I realized I couldn't crack my right arm.

I sighed, scratching the freshly healed wound on my shoulder, and looked to my left, at Natva. "Oh! Sorry... I'll get us home, then." I nodded, leading her into the tree, and through the mirror, which activated with a drop of my blood.

She hummed, examining the mirror as I placed it against the wall in her room. "So... you built this?"

"More like I bought it, honestly. I supplied the magical energy, but I didn't design this, no. Not my invention... you could say I built it using someone else's schematics." I explained.

She nodded. "And whose schematics were they?"

"The Ancient Dwarves. The dead ones who live in the Realm of Dreams, after trying to achieve immortality." I shrugged, and then winced at the lack of feeling in my arm.

She hummed, moving past that little tidbit. "So how do you fix an arm given as Sacrifice? Last I knew, that was irrevocable, but you don't seem concerned."

"I'm never concerned, first of all, and second, I've been toying with an idea for years... and now I have an excuse to use it." I grinned, and sat down on the bed, laying back with my legs still touching the floor.

She sat on the bed behind my head, and leaned over me. "Such as?" She poked my chest.

"Mechanical limbs. And yes, a vibration feature." I smirked.

She laughed, and kissed me luxuriously. "You're dashingly mischievous, and I like it, but I have a serious question for you." She hummed.

"Is it about A: how you think I'm young enough to go have children, and I should do that, and am I sure I want a mature woman, not some young bimbo whose sole purpose would be to bear me children, stroke my ego, and make me feel superior? B: you feel weird dating the son of your oldest friend and likely a one-time lover, especially now that he is effectively revived? Or C: you think my reckless attitude is dangerous, and you disapprove?" I smiled.

She hummed. "All three, though they were going to be separate conversations."

"Easy enough, I can put all three to bed right now." I nodded, and rolled us over, pulling her robe open easily, and kissing her neck.

"Oh! I fail to see how- oh..." she moaned softly.

"Mm. First: You are beautiful, and wonderful, and if you don't want to be in a serious relationship with me, if you want me to go and have children, I'm sure we could survive as friends with wonderful, luxurious benefits, darling, that's the first conversation at least half finished, yes?" I asked, kissing down to her chest, and staying there, looking up.

She sighed, shifting under me to get comfortable. "Yes... half finished."

"Good. Also, if we become casual lovers, the second conversation is also half-finished, as you can happily say you are no longer 'Dating' the son of your ex-lover and still-friend." I kissed down to her belly button.

She relaxed slowly, as my cold breath washed over her goose-bumped skin. "True..."

"And you find my recklessness exciting, sexy, and amusing, so that's conversation three finished entirely." I smirked, and kissed her thighs.

She laughed softly. "Yes, True... And so we are casual, now? Is that what you want?"

"What I want? Darling I want so many things... such as you." I kissed her thighs again gently, dragging my teeth over the soft, vulnerable skin, making her gasp. "And of course I'll want children in a little while... maybe in a decade... but until then, I just want to have fun!" I smirked against her skin, and chuckled at her immediate, reflexive grip on my hair.

She smiled slowly, and pulled me forward forcefully, pushing my face between her legs. "Is that so? Good... fun I can provide!!!" She laughed, and then gasped as I opened my mouth, my tongue snaking out against her skin just the way she liked.

—

I looked at my workbench, and hummed slowly. "How do I forge a new arm... with only one arm?" I sighed.

"Can I ask when you lost an arm? Was that just something not in your notes, and you lost your prosthetic in the Deep?" Johann looked into the Construct, looking at the things on the walls for a moment before snapping his eyes back to me.

"It was last night. Payment for the Portal door. Here, scry it real quick, so you can open it with your mind. I already paid the price." I held out the silver scrying bowl.

He blinked, but looked inside, and grinned. "Interesting choice of Runes..."

"Forget you ever saw them." I said sternly.

He nodded. "Of course, yes... That's dangerous knowledge, after all... now, your arm?"

"Yes, I have designs, but following them with one hand is... difficult, to say the least." I grumbled.

He sat down next to me, rolling up his sleeves. "How about three?" He asked casually.

"Hmm... Perhaps. Here, I have focusing platinum, and I need it shaped into the parts listed here. I'll be working the forge. I can work a press with one arm." I nodded and tapped the schematics, placing the platinum on the table.

He read them quickly, and whistled softly. "Impressive..."

"Thanks. Come on." I started up a hydraulic press, a massive pounding machine built to replace a hammer. For weaker people, it was an improvement. For me, I'd always noticed a distinct equality between the two, my hammer and this machine.

He nodded and slowly cut one of the pieces with his fingers, then layered it until it reached the specifications, settling it under the press, inside the holding brackets. I started it up, and watched the metal slowly compress, until it was the first part of the machine that would become my arm.

"That's one down." I sighed at the waste of time.

"Only a few hundred more to go." He grinned.

"On Page one... Yes. There's eleven pages to go after that." I rubbed my face tiredly, and he shrugged.

"Ah well. It's fun, though, yeah?" He grinned, and I remembered he hadn't been able to forge anything at all for 20 years.

I nodded. "Yes. Let's continue."

—

The pieces fit together with careful execution of heating and cooling the metals, swelling and shrinking them so that they would fit into the precise place they were designed for, which was measured down to the nanometer, meaning they didn't slip together like the pieces of a gun.

After a week of forging, about three days more than I'd like, because Johann insisted on eating every eight hours for some reason, and seemed confused by my constant refusal, being that I only ate once a day. Also, Natva's nighttime pleasures were incredibly draining, though endlessly interesting, with new things every night.

The arm was designed to mimic a real arm, every muscle, bone, tendon, and even skin, to effortlessly mirror my left arm, with one small change, a shaft down the bone, made entirely of focusing crystal, in place of marrow.

One end touched my blood, and would be fed Magic through direct contact. The other end was placed in my wrist, and would sit behind a small empty slot. In that slot, behind a magnifying glass, would be a small piece of crystal, carved with Runes, making my arm into another weapon like my pistols, on command.

Instead of something mundane like a ball of fire, or some other casually barbaric, like a bullet, I used the focusing crystals to focus the concussive magic that was the only offensive magic I could muster, and amplify it with a semi-random elemental effect, a smaller version of the chest piece of the Construct.

In the shoulder, a small, Rune-version of the elven gravity generator would make my entire body lighter, and faster, when it reacted to adrenaline. A small Alchemical chamber was set to collect adrenaline that would affect my arm, as it passed into the blood of my shoulder, and turn it into fuel for the generator, meaning that my adrenaline would make me lighter, and therefore faster.

Johann lifted it with a grunt, (and both hands,) when it was finally finished being constructed, then hummed. "Heavy... but it'll do, I think."

"Yes, well, it isn't entirely finished." I took it back casually, and then took it apart with my mind, something I was happy that I had finally learned to do. Putting things together was still a struggle, but progress was progress, however small.

I began slowly, carefully carving Runes of strength, power, durability, and focus into the metal, enchanting it in the gnomish, dwarven, and elvish ways simultaneously, just like my coat, to amplify and absorb any magic directed through it (or at me, in the eventuality of magical attack,), and also to make it as physically strong as my left arm, magically.

A last, mischievous addition was the vibrating fingers and knuckles I'd promised Natva, which would be useful for just about anything I could think of, and the spell that I used to cut metal with my fingers, very carefully separated so that there was no way to go from one to the other.

Once it was properly enchanted, I put it back together by hand, which took about an hour, and finally placed the shoulder portion of the metal against my own, bracing myself for the pain.

What was left of my arm, from the upper portion of the bicep to the shoulder, was ripped to pieces and sundered, turning into sacrificial magic for the metal to bind to my body and mind, and become my new arm, in the eyes of my brain, as the nerves reached out and connected to the cogs and wires inside, as well as the tiny generator.

I gritted my teeth to keep from screaming in pain, and breathed a sigh of relief when it suddenly became tangible, like I could move it. It didn't feel very much different from my other arm, except newer, the nerves very fresh, and the fake skin I'd built it reacting to the air rushing over it as I moved it, which felt like water hitting my arm, though it didn't delay or restrict my movements.

"Hmm... a bit too sensitive... I'll give it a few tweaks in the future." I nodded, flexing slowly to get a feel for its movement.

"Interesting deployment of cogs and pulleys... I've never seen automaton work like that. It looks just like muscles and bone." Johann hummed.

"That was the idea, yes. Thank you for your assistance. I'll leave you to your workshop, now, and go build my own." I bowed sarcastically, and grabbed my coat, on the way out, the one I'd allowed him to borrow. "I assume you've read everything in these?" I asked.

He nodded. "Indeed."

"Good. I'll be back when your castle has been relocated to Ulfavir... the one from the College." I grinned, and walked down the corridor before he could protest.

—

The College was a fun sight to see, in the middle of a busy day, despite the bright false sunlight being too luminous for my eyes, shaded or not.

The floating island holding the Castle was easy to remove, a simple scenario, really, seeing as it was already within a large folded space. Taking that entire portion of the folded space, and holding it steady, I made my way through a portal, once I was in a private room in the workshop castle.

The sky above the Temple was as clear as always, to my amusement. "Perfect weather for this, no?" I smiled at Raava, who I was holding with one hand.

"For... what, exactly?" He asked.

"Simple. I want you to sink the Temple, say... thirty feet underground? Leaving an entry tunnel in the side of the other one, of course." I pointed at the tunnel that went to the little expeditionary base, the mountain/plateau just visible from this angle, over the beanstalks and trees.

He shrugged. "Alright, sounds easy enough." The Temple and everything around it began to sink, slowly, until it was out of view, about ten minutes later. Then, a solid ceiling of dirt covered it, and he relaxed.

"Not quite done yet, Raava, one last thing. That tree, the Lonely Greenwood? Without damaging it in any way, bring it to the center, directly over the temple, let its roots sink in properly, but turn them up. I'm going to redirect the stream around it like a little moat, so that's where it'll get it's water." I explained.

He hummed, and shrugged. "Alright, sounds easy enough."

I snorted. "Either you're very agreeable, or mocking me, and I find both amusing."

"A little bit of both." He grinned mischievously, and the tree slowly began to move, the dirt turning to mud around it, until it sat in the center of the clearing, a truly Lonely Tree. Then a trough appeared, circling it and spanning the entire tree, before returning to the river.

Tiny roots became visible, and I nodded, then pulled the water through. It flowed quickly, filling the trough, and letting the water resume its natural course. "Wonderful! That's all I needed here, my friend, you can go to the other site and begin the work there! Ta!" I opened a portal under his feet, and laughed softly at his surprised yelp.

I stepped inside the Lonely Greenwood, and smiled at the mirror, placing a hand on its frame, and I released the Castle, settling it above the Greenwood, surrounded by illusionary clouds, which you could see through from the inside, without ruining the view. Stepping through, I landed on the bridge, and nodded at the view of the entire territory, from this height, so high up that the bubble of air around it was the only way you could breath.

A few dragons' lairs were visible, within a 75 mile radius or so of the temple, but I ignored them, and stepped through my portal into the center of my building site.

Raava glowered at me, still dusting himself off, having apparently landed in a pile of chalk dust. "You're enjoying that new magic far too much." He muttered.

"Perhaps. But really, who is to say how much is too much?" I shrugged, and watched as he and three other earth mages, -all of whom I had paid a resplendent amount of platinum for this duty,- began raising the earth, following the building schematics I'd set forth beforehand.

My tower loomed over us quickly, having been built one floor at a time, and risen up after it had been properly supported. It was relatively small on the outside, fitting snugly into the corner of the lot that faced west, and also south, at the bay.

It was 30 feet in diameter, upon completion, and 13 stories, with the middle 11 being entirely empty, besides the four columns that ran through the entirety of the structure, and the mirrors that stood at even intervals along the walls, reflecting magical images of different places, around the world. Not portals, just images. In magically protected glass cases throughout, I would place my works for sale, to be perused and bartered for over tea on the roof, my lounge of sorts.

The bottom floor was magically expanded, though nothing insane, just to the size of a large ballroom, for multiple purposes, and a ring of 32 nicely sized and decorated rooms around it, each with magical mirrors that spanned an entire wall, and reflected any requested Home, for any future guests.

The top was a simple workshop, not even magically expanded, with a small cot for the nights I slept alone, and a very secure safe, hidden by way of magical expansion... in a way. The safe was in the Dwarven City, hidden beneath a blacksmith's forge. I stored my more dangerous work there, and it was, until recently, only accessible through the portal in the Temple.

A lift went through the center of the entire tower, in the middle of the four pillars, for extra stability, which was an interesting challenge, the mechanics of it. The roof, though... that was fun.

The symbolism wasn't lost on me, of there being thirteen members of the council, and thirteen floors, and I was to do business on top of them, and it did make me laugh, but the real reason was for Height. At 14 stories above the ground, and effectively 280 feet in the air, I was at the perfect height to be able to see the entire city, and the ocean.

The lounge was built to mirror a western Harem Parlor, all colorful pillows and sheer drapes and curtains, on a platform that made up the middle of the room, a 20ft circle that sat on top of the lift column, so that when a guest exited the lift, they were faced with the staircase, walking up through a view of the city and ocean before reaching the resting area.

The curtains and sheets swayed gently in a nonexistent breeze, a ruse to disguising the glass cylinder that surrounded the space, like a bird-cage, and the illusionary lighthouse I'd built on top. That was the only way I'd gotten the Council to agree to the plans, when they'd gotten fussy about it all, despite the fact that the entire thing was invisible until you entered my property, was my tower would double as a Lighthouse, for the bay, to stop any further unfortunate accidents, like the two just within the last four months.

That issue dealt with, I smiled and relaxed, looking out over the city cooly while relaxing on a pillow with a glass of wine. "Now... how can I get in trouble today?" I chuckled, then looked up when the bell rang, meaning someone was in the lift, and wanted to come in. "Ooh, Who is it?" I mused, and opened the gate with a flick of my fingers, admitting my first customer.