The rest of the day had been spent teaching Atlas how to walk without falling. It was also filled with complaints that ranged from ‘Father, why is walking so hard!’ to ‘Father, you must have made my feet wrong! Make new ones!’ He was getting the hang of it by the end of the day though. It seemed that he had made an error in the designs when building Atlas though, he hadn’t thought about how it would maintain a sense of balance. Humans had natural systems in place that he hadn’t realized would be so critical to maintaining your balance on two legs. As a result Atlas had to constantly focus on every little motion, and tended to teeter over if his concentration slipped.

It wasn’t until the end of the day that they managed to fix the problem. Gerand had rushed off after Atlas complained about his feet being made wrong, clearly offended at such a claim being levied against his work, and came back that evening with a children’s toy he insisted would fix the problem if Sebastian could get it to work. He called it a gyroscope, and had modified its mounting so that it could be fitted into part of Atlas’s chest cavity that hadn’t been filled yet. More of them would probably be even better, but since he could see and had a decent amount of spatial awareness, just one would do for now. Sebastian enchanted it to spin continuously, which only consumed a trickle of mana to maintain. The far more difficult part of the enchantment was trying to get it tied into Atlas’s enchantments in a way that he could actually get the orientation information from it.

In the end it took both of them working together to get it to work, Sebastian wove the enchantment to connect to the network of enchantments that riddled Atlas’s body, and Atlas somehow connected it to the rest of himself with a strange, barely visible, silvery luminescence that could only be the Aether he was warned not to play with. It was fascinating. He really didn’t want to risk killing himself by playing with it just yet though, so instead he opted to watch for it now that he knew what to look for. With a proper amount of study he should be able to learn how to manipulate and use Aether eventually. For what, he didn’t know yet, but if Atlas could use it and not die he should be able to as well. He chose to ignore the fact that Atlas was what appeared to be a disembodied soul occupying a metal orb, occupying a mythril golem, and generally ignoring all known laws of physics and magic altogether.

It worked though, once they were done and had Atlas’s chest closed back up, he was walking around just fine. Better than fine actually. It seems the gyroscope was considerably more effective than he had expected. A couple more with different orientations and Atlas would probably have perfect spatial awareness of his body. The door thudded open, and Sebastian was surprised to see Jasper walk in. He hadn’t seen the dwarf in a couple days now, and had just assumed that he had moved on to different projects now that Atlas was finished. Since all they needed was the face and Gerand had been hard at work on it, Jasper had been left with nothing to do. Or so he had assumed.

Jasper looked a bit embarrassed, and was carrying a large wrapped bundle. “I wanted to apologize again for insulting you, Mage Sebastian. I know I already said it, but to have insulted a man that aided my prince, and provided me with the most challenging project I have ever had the opportunity to work on is a stain on my honor. I hope that you would accept this as recompense, and allow me to cleanse this mark against me.”

Sebastian was about to say it wasn’t necessary, but Sarah grabbed his elbow and shushed him. “Stupid, honor is very important to dwarves, how do you not know that yet? I mean, Jake spurred his entire nation into war to repay his honor debt to you! If Jasper thinks he owes you a debt, and that this gift should clear it, you will take it. Doing otherwise is like saying he isn’t worthy of forgiveness. Seriously, pay more attention!”

Sebastian squinted at her, “How do you know I wasn’t going to accept it? I didn’t even say anything before you interrupted me.”

She swatted him on the shoulder, “Because I’ve been around you long enough to realize that you bluff your way through most social interactions, and half the time have absolutely no idea why stuff is happening the way it is. You also don’t handle people thanking you for things or trying to give you gifts very well. Plus you have done nothing since we got here that didn’t involve working on…” her eyes darted towards Atlas for a moment. “Atlas, or reading in the library and never gave yourself the chance to learn more about dwarven social stuff. I mean, I had to force you to spar with me! I still think I can beat you if I were to go all out.”

Sebastian realized that Jasper was still holding out the wrapped object with an increasingly worried expression on his face, and he reached out and took it from him, grunting at the unexpected weight of it. “Thank you Jasper, I didn’t realize you felt there was a debt between us, but you can consider it gone. Friends?” Jasper nodded, the worry gone from his expression, and Sebastian started to unwrap the gift. Peeling back the fabric revealed a magnificently crafted axe. The blade and haft both were made of mithril, and had been etched, no, more likely molded, to resemble the strands of metal wire that formed the muscular system of both Sebastian’s right arm and Atlas’s entire body. It was also way too big and heavy for Sebastian to even consider using.

Jasper cleared his throat awkwardly, “You see, as we got closer and closer to finishing, I realized that you were so focused on building your golem that you never considered what it would use to fight with if you succeeded. I imagine the great brute could do a lot of damage with his fists-”

Sarah cut in with a giggle, “Or his face, he’s cracked the ground a couple times with it already!”

Jasper grinned, “Or his face, thank you Lady Sarah, but if you intend to have him help us fight the mutants and protect you from harm, he deserves a proper weapon to use.”

Atlas jumped into the conversation, making Jasper sputter in shock. He had expected movement, but speech had never once been mentioned as being something to expect. “It’s for me?! Thank you! Father, may I try it out? Please?”

Sebastian shook his head violently, “Nope, not happening. You just barely managed to walk without falling on your face a few minutes ago, there is no way I’m giving you a giant axe right now. Let’s make sure you can actually do the whole walking thing consistently first.”

Atlas actually started sulking, then gave him sad faces. Sebastian tried his best to hold in a laugh, but there was just something hilarious about a nearly eight foot gleaming silver colossus giving him sad puppy eyes that he couldn’t resist. “We can let you try it later, maybe you can talk Jasper into showing you how to use it without being a danger to everyone within ten feet of you, but first we need to make sure you can stay on your feet. I also want to make sure you can do things like run and jump without falling too. We don’t have a lot of time either, so let’s get to work.”

They spent the rest of the day, and a good portion of the evening doing precisely that. Atlas was still going strong, although Sebastian could see that his mana levels were starting to get pretty low, and he figured that would probably be an issue in the future if Atlas wasn’t able to judge his own energy levels. A problem for another day. One in which he had slept within the last twenty hours. He waved goodbye at them, smirking a bit as Atlas started to pester Jasper about the axe for the fourth or fifth time in the last two hours, and trudged off to the room he had been staying in. It was a remarkably convenient inn, mostly because the owner didn’t care about him one bit, and it was just far enough from the Forge to be relatively quiet, while also being two blocks from the library.

The innkeeper nodded in his direction as he walked in, and barely a minute after he got to his room someone knocked on his door. When he opened it he wasn’t all that surprised to find one of the servers offering him a large bowl of the day’s stew. It was delicious, full of mushrooms, tubers, and what Sebastian lovingly referred to as mystery meat. He had gotten used to there being mushrooms in practically every meal, but since they didn’t have any livestock that he was aware of, he simply chose not to ask what the meat was. He figured he might not enjoy it quite so much if he found out it was some giant bug or something.

Sebastian was glad that Jasper had pointed him in this place’s direction. Good food, privacy, and no manservants. Jake had tried to offer him a room in the palace, but it had only taken a day of that nonsense before Sebastian decided to find something better. Who in their right mind wants some strange guy to help them get dressed? So far this inn was fantastic though. All it had cost him was a simple enchantment that pulled the heat from one of the dwarf’s storage rooms.

He tried to blink the sleep from his eyes as he realized that his mind was wandering aimlessly, then shrugged as he finished the last of the stew. No point in forcing himself to stay awake anymore, better to get some sleep and be well rested for tomorrow. According to Jake and the other dwarves, they would not only leave tomorrow, they would reach the surface near midday and likely be able to see the walls of Clearlake by evening. He put out the candle and laid down on the bed, idly inspecting his metal arm in the faint light coming through the window from the luminescent moss.

It was a nearly miraculous thing, practically doubling the amount of mana his body could contain while also providing him a means to use embedded items to cast spells very much like a real mage would be able to do, and yet, he hated it a little bit. The little clicks of metal that sounded as he touched things, the phantom pains that still grazed across his consciousness from time to time, the fact that the entire thing represented a colossal failure on his part to prepare for the dangers of the world around them. Every little thing added to the resentment he held for it.

He dropped his arm to the side with a sigh, wincing at the sound his metal fingers made when they clattered against the bedframe accidentally. Tomorrow they would leave, tomorrow he would see this war train the dwarves spoke of with such passion, and tomorrow there was a chance he would see his mother again. With luck they would break the stranglehold the Twisted were putting on Clearlake, and from that point on… well they would just have to see.