Supreme Magus

The only other bit of relevant information he found was about Menadion’s sudden disappearance right after sharing with the magical community the set of artifacts bearing her name.

The historians also reported that it had been her, together with Silverwing, to build and project the foundations of all the great academies. Also, even if it was Silverwing’s legacy that had allowed magic to develop into the disciplines now called specializations, Menadion was universally recognized as the inventor of Forgemastering.

’Poor woman.’ Lith thought. ’She was the Salieri to Silverwing’s Mozart. The fact that she was basically a recluse and left no legacy behind doesn’t help either. Does her story ring any bells, Solus?’

’Sadly, no.’ She sighed. ’I can’t believe that there are so many stories, between truth and fiction about Silverwing and so little about master Menadion. It’s unfair! She’s the mother of Forgemastering, after all.’

’It’s not like other mages got it any better. Aside from Silverwing, do we know the name of the mage who created modern healing magic? Or any other specialization? No, all Professors always quote Silverwing’s writings.’ Lith replied.

Solus had to admit that he was right, yet it didn’t make her feel any better.

At least until Lith walked to Orion’s study and asked him about Menadion.

"How do you know that name?" Orion was quite curious. Aside from powerful crafters, very few bothered to remember the name of the First Royal Forgemaster, the Ruler of the Flames who first had tamed all metals with her blazing Fury.

"I’ll be honest with you." Lith said, opening his speech with a blatant lie that made Solus laugh her ass off. "I was snooping around your library, hoping to find something about runes, when I discovered her existence.

"It pisses me off that nothing is recorded about her, so I wanted to ask you, a fellow Forgemaster, if there’s any tome I can consult about her life."

"There’s no such thing as an official biography about Ripha Menadion. Most of her works are still a state secret, but if you content yourself with some lore, I can share with you all the information available to the public."

Lith nodded for Orion to continue and Orion offered him a seat.

"According to what I know, she was born in Derios. Back then the city was just a small-time village, but due to her choice to build two academies near her hometown, it soon grew until it became the capital of the entire region.

"She was rumored to possess an amazing mage tower, that she was capable of rearranging as she saw fit. Menadion could turn a bedroom into a kitchen or a broom closet into a perfectly equipped Forgemastering lab with just a snap of her fingers.

"Some even say that her tower was alive, capable of independent thought and movement."

"Does that mean that she dabbled in forbidden magic?" Lith asked, almost causing Orion to fly into an outrage.

"That’s a perversion of magic! No Forgemaster would ever dare to do something like that. Master Menadion was also one of the founding Spellbreakers, she took down countless scums who dared to mess with her legacy.

"What I meant to say, is just that it was akin to a living being, like an academy. Every single of its stones was enchanted, its master could reshape it at will, and it was able to self-repair.

"It was only thanks to her tower that Menadion managed to craft such wonders. After her death, countless mages, human, undead, and even beasts scoured the entire Kingdom looking for her tower, but to no avail.

"The legend says that Menadion’s disappearance was due to a demon, who stole her Fury. Without it, Menadion was akin to crippled, so she searched for it for the rest of her life."

"A demon?" Lith sneered. Aside from himself, he had yet to see anything that even looked like one.

"Yeah." Orion sneered as well. He believed in demons just like he believed in free meals. "It was probably a rival mage who managed to seduce her first and then betrayed her trust to steal her secrets.

"That or one of her disciples. You know what they say. Keep your friends close..."

"And your enemies closer." Lith nodded.

’Is there any chance that you are the demon, Solus? Maybe you stole her tower and she fused you with it as a punishment.’ Lith thought.

’What? No! I could never do something like that, at least based on who I am now and the little I remember.’ She replied, even though she couldn’t think of any other reason why a kind person as her master could have doomed her to an eternity of misery.

"Is there a museum about her? Anything? I would like to pay her my respects." Lith said.

"There’s none, Lith." Orion shook his head. "But know this. Every time you work in your Forge, you already bestow upon her the greatest honor she might have ever wished for.

"Every enchanted item you craft, you shape it from her teachings. Know then, that every time you create even the most insignificant trinket, you’re following the footsteps of the First Forgemaster.

"The second greatest honor Menadion could ever ask, is for you to take a disciple. Only those who have learned her lessons and in turn teach them, making it so that a unique innovation can become a foundation for all, can say that they have truly inherited her spirit.

"I will not lie to you, there are ancient bloodlines and Emperor Beasts who have their own legacy, but none of them is superior to Menadion’s.

"Despite the fact that they might live longer than we do, their numbers are too few, whereas Royal Forgemasters share and improve her teachings every single day as they have done since she gifted us her knowledge.

"If you really consider yourself a Forgemaster, you should think about leaving a legacy that amounts to more than mountains of corpses and broken buildings. Your feats might one day take one page in history books, whereas your teachings might fill books and most importantly, shape lives."

"Thank you, Orion. After meeting you and Yondra, I’m considering the idea of becoming a Royal Forgemaster." Lith said with a smile. Orion’s words were almost the same Lith had told Morok.

On top of that, whatever the Hydra might teach him, it would be the legacy of a single bloodline and the same would stand for all Awakened. A master could teach their disciples, but could the work of a single person, no matter how gifted, compare with the constant work of thousands?

Especially since people like Manohar and Balkor existed. A single non Awakened could make Runesmithing improve by leaps and bounds, allowing people like Vastor or Marth to find even more applications.

Awakened ones, instead, were limited by their small numbers and were unlikely to share their knowledge.

’At least in theory.’ Lith thought. ’Who knows if Awakened had their own Silverwing or if this so-called Council provides to its members a base amount of knowledge. I’m really looking forward to meeting Faluel the Hydra.

’She will help me determine the next course of action after I quit the army. Or maybe she will just try to eat me alive.’

Lith and Orion went to dinner together, still talking about any trivia Orion could remember about Menadion. Lith was likely to have already got her tower, Menadion’s Fury, the prized Forgemastering hammer, would have been a fine addition to his collection.