The Innkeeper

Lex and Luthor walked up to the dwarf and laid eyes on the sword. Its blade was a little more slender than normal swords, being only one and a half inches wide even at the base where it was widest, with a length of 42 inches (106 cm).

But even this was just a vague shape of the sword, as it had not taken its final form yet. The handle still needed to be added, which would be Lex's bone. Since his right arm was already half burnt, he decided to just use his hand and half his forearm for the handle.

"Have you brought the final ingredients?" Orin asked, without stopping his hammering. He was not giving the sword shape, but beating its spirit into shape, because of course a sword of this caliber would give birth to a spirit of its own.

"Yes," Lex said. "You'll need to take a step back and hide behind my body when I reveal the flame, or you might not make it."

Orin snorted, but he was too fatigued to argue. He did not believe a flame existed that dwarves could not harness.

"Prepare yourself, then. After my third hammer, I'll move aside, and you connect the final two pieces."

Lex nodded, and looked towards Luthor, who was also prepared. As soon as Orin pulled back, giving Lex space, Luthor opened up his hands, revealing the flame. Before the dragon fire could burn down the forge where his sword was being made, Lex grabbed the flames, then using the same hand, clamped the base of the sword's blade.

The metal immediately began to melt, and Lex's hand became welded to the sword, though fortunately that was always the plan. Using his sword intent, Lex cut his right arm, leaving half his forearm attached to the sword.

For a very brief time the heat of the dragon fire was trapped within Lex's hand as well as the melting blade of the sword. But unless it was properly tempered, the sword would be destroyed and the flames lost

Fortunately, despite being shocked by the heat, Orin did not pause. Immediately he brought forth his ancient hammer, and called on the ancient powers to finish the forging process. Deep in his mind lay the knowledge of how the foundation of this realm was forged, and now he brought out that knowledge to bear.

Lex, with his stump, and Luthor who had all the hair on his body burned off, making him bald, took a step back and let the dwarf finish his task.

Lex was not worried about healing. The reason why his blood had healing abilities to begin with was because of how densely his body was packed with vital energy. In a few hours to a couple of days at most, he would be back to normal. That's if he relied only on himself.

If Lex walked into the ORR then his hand would regrow in a few minutes.

The two were not needed for the remainder of the process, but they stayed anyway. The birth of such a sword deserved witnesses. What they didn't realize, since they were deep underground, was that above the forge, in the sky, thick black clouds began to gather and flashes of multicolored lightning streaked through the clouds.

The rumbling of thunder began to coincide with each strike of Orin's hammer, and wild winds began to blow across the lands as if feeding the fires of his forge.

An earthquake shook the ground, but when Lex checked he realized that it was not the ground beneath him that was shaking, but the ceiling above him. The roof began to pull apart, rocking loose many massive rocks and boulders that Lex promptly flung aside. But once the initial devastation ended, he noticed that the sky was suddenly visible.

"BY THE POWER OF THE HAMMER DEITY," Orin's voice suddenly boomed across the hall, "BY THE WILL OF THE EARTH, THE BREATH OF THE REALM AND THE TEARS OF THE SKY…"

The dwarfs' voices echoed throughout not only the chamber, but the bowl within the mountain range, and then even farther. Between hammer strikes his tiny body suddenly disappeared, and a massive figure made of pure light appeared in the sky, bigger than even the mountains.

"...I STRIKE!" he roared, and instead of a hammer, a bolt of blue lightning zapped through the sky and struck the blade.

"I STRIKE!" Another bolt of lightning struck the blade, as is tempering it.

"I STRIKE!" One more, and this time the bolt contained so much power that even Lex and Luthor were pushed back by the aura alone. But by the third strike, the sword had changed, and began to float in the air, under the holy light that Orin exuded.

Its appearance was rapidly changing, and Lex could feel that an aura of its own began to develop in the sword. But the process wasn't over yet. The blade was still red hot, not only from the lightning, but from the dragon fire as well. It needed to be quenched.

As if on cue, the clouds above them broke into rain, but it wasn't water that the clouds were giving out. Instead it was pure, liquid spiritual essence.

Orins figure disappeared from the sky and the dwarf reappeared in front of Lex, kneeling in exhaustion and weakness. Even though he was the first dwarf, and even though he was a deity, he had been weakened extensively over the years.

Lex reached to help him up, but he quickly waved him away.

"Forget me you fool. Clasp your sword and give it a name, quick, before it takes a name of its own."

Urged on by Orin, Lex nodded and then walked towards the floating sword, its aura rapidly evolving. The sword tried to resist Lex as he reached for it, but how could anything stop him?

Lex grabbed the handle of the sword, which fortunately no longer looked like his hand, with his left hand, and felt something connect the sword to his soul. But the bond was still weak. To strengthen the bond, he would need to name the sword.

'Crap,' Lex thought to himself as he tried to think of cool names. Why did this seem so much more intimidating than facing death?