a look of mock outrage. “And just a minute ago you insisted that you came because you didn’t trust anyone else to handle matters!” Then her eyes drifted down, noting a spot of mud on the rug. It was in a spot farther into the room than Will had yet come, but he knew it was likely from his earlier entrance. She frowned. “That’s odd. The rug was clean not long ago.”
Before she could think on it further, Will put together the cleaning spell she had originally designed and focused it on the floor, cleaning the rugs and the hardwood beneath them. “That should solve it,” he announced.
Laina frowned at him, and Selene gave him an envious look which made him feel even worse, given what he’d recently heard. He hurried to move the conversation along. “Is anyone hungry?”
Chapter 20
The next day Blake brought Will a note from Master Dugas, the head of the Engineering Department, who wanted him to come by for a visit. Will hadn’t interacted with the man on a personal level very many times since the attempted sabotage on the dam the previous year, so he was curious as to what he wanted.
A short walk across the campus and then through the Engineering building, and he found the Master’s office, but when he knocked he immediately noticed he wasn’t the only one who had been summoned. Two other notables were present: Master Courtney, the head of Wurthaven’s Research Department, and Master Salsbury, the head of the Artifice Department.
Master Courtney rose from his chair as soon as Master Dugas opened the door for Will. The older man gestured to Salsbury, and everyone followed him out of the room and down the hall. Will watched them go, unsure what was happening, but Dugas pulled on his arm. “Come along. This is for you.”
They followed the two other men down the hall and through a heavy iron door into a large workroom Will had never seen before. At one end there were ritual diagrams inscribed on the floor, while on the opposite end a forge and a spell-driven auto-hammer were the predominant features. In between were a variety of large tools, molds, supports, tables, and all manner of clamps and forms.
Overall, the room gave the impression that it was the result of a bizarre cross between a smithy, a foundry, and an artificer’s machine shop. Will blinked, then made a mental addition, and a ritualist’s workspace. “What is all this?” he asked.
Master Dugas gave him a wry grin. “It used to be one of my department’s workshops, but after these two got involved it’s turned into an unholy amalgamation of a lot of different things. I hope you’re proud of yourself.”
Will glanced at the others, then pointed at himself. “Me?”
Master Courtney directed his attention to a rounded metal piece mounted on a strange table. Clamps held the edges, and the table itself had a complex spell diagram engraved upon it. “Recognize this?”
Will studied the metal for a moment. It appeared to be ordinary steel, well-polished and without a speck of rust showing, but as to what it was for—he bent down and looked at it from the side and realized it was two pieces, just like a… “Is this the breastplate I gave you to examine?” As he asked the question, he saw the faint lines of the Cath Bawlg’s claw marks across the front.
Professor Dugas nodded. “The very same. We finally managed to piece together the method for working the metal. With Master Salsbury’s help, we’ve managed to remove some metal from the sides and reshape it to meet your measurements.”
He frowned. “The scratches are still in the front. You couldn’t polish those out? And why does it look like ordinary steel now?” It had previously been a solid black with very little shimmer or shine.
Master Courtney smiled. “That’s a side effect of the table’s function. Otherwise we couldn’t have worked with it.”
Seeming irritated, Master Salsbury moved forward. “Don’t be cryptic. Let me explain.”
Meanwhile, Will was staring at the spell diagram on the table. He couldn’t be sure of its exact function with such a brief glance, but he’d studied similar designs over the past semester. “It’s a transducer, but what for? The metal doesn’t produce turyn.”
“Yes and no,” said Salsbury. “In the beginning, we were completely unable to work the metal and even after Master Courtney dug through the archives to see if we could find some clues from the notes left by the last of the