The final loop.

  Vivi’s hands were starting to get irritated. She’d been shaping veins for hours now. She'd lost track of how many. This was her third attempt after the second attempt failed even earlier than the first. The progress now was promising.

  The stalks of the second ether root reached the tip of where the blade would be. There, Vivi cauterized each stalk. Their shapes were good, and the twenty five branches Vivi had shaped so far were immaculate.

  One last branch remained to be shaped. Vivi guided its growth with her crochet hook. Her eyes were stinging from staring at growing ether roots for so long. She’d need water and some rest soon.

  Slow the tempo, Vivi thought. Less ether. You’re rushing this.

  “Yes,” Lucius said. He was focused as well, taking the process seriously. The moment Vivi told him to slow the tempo, Lucius fixed his flow.

  Vivi completed the last loop, cauterizing the branch. She let out a long sigh of relief and leaned back.

  Lucius looked concerned. “Did something happen? Did we fail again?”

  Vivi assessed her work so far. “No, it looks good to me. We can take a short break.”

  Lucius’s face lit up. “Can we finally craft a three-runed sword?”

  Vivi let out a laugh. “We can move to the third ether root. The hardest part of the process.”

  “Oh,” Lucius said. “We still have more loopy loops to make?”

  “No,” Vivi said. She stretched, took off her gloves and quickly ate a fish. “The last part is a lot more difficult than just shaping some loops.”

  Lucius looked curious, but he was eager to have a break as well. He’d been controlling the flow of ether while Vivi worked for hours. Vivi could have controlled the flow of ether herself after practicing with Alisa, but it was best to let Lucius stay in charge of the ether root. The job fit him well, and he tended to grow restless if there was nothing to do for extended periods of time.

  Back home, Vivi had used a device called an ether transmitter. The device was designed to steadily transfer ether at a slow pace. Grandpa had to fill it for her before she got to work. Afterward, she could use it to control the tempo as she wished. Lucius was as smooth as the device, if not smoother. Despite his arrogance and often chaotic personality, he was really good at controlling a steady flow of ether into the ether root.

  After eating the fish, Vivi closed her eyes and took steady breaths. The process was far from completed. Vivi had been in the same position more than fifty times in the past. The second set of veins was completed, only the last remaining.

  The last steps were so difficult that only one in fifty of her attempts had turned into a finished product.

  Before getting started, Vivi still had preparations to do. She carved another hole through the bottom of the hilt for the third ether root to take. The last hole was the smallest, traveling only through the inside of the second ether root.

  The bottom of the hilt resembled the inside of a tree. Each ether root was like a tree’s annual ring, though the order of the rings was reversed. The outer ring carried the core root, the mass rune, and the ring after that carried the crush rune. The inner ring would hold the last ether root. Three runes, three rings.

  With all holes carved, Vivi chose a simple white obsidian root to accompany the sharpness rune. She drank a mug of water, stretched again, and placed the root in the vise.

  Lucius, initiate the root, Vivi thought. The hard part begins.

  The root cracked open, and growth started. Vivi held the veins firmly in place, letting the root grow through the holes she’d created. She had her eyes closed, crochet hook in hand, waiting.

  The stalks of the third root joined the branches, and the shaping process began.

  Vivi guided the stalks across the obstacle course of branches left behind by the first and second root. The third root had to accompany all remaining space near the edges, distributing the sharpness rune to the sharp edges of the blade as thoroughly as it could.

  Stolen story; please report.

  Vivi no longer had to plan ahead or form loops. She had to guide the stalks through the existing loops, while also separating the stalk into branches, making use of the remaining space.

  The first loops passed nicely. The stalks grew at a steady pace, and Vivi led the branches to their respective positions without incident. If a branch of the third root made contact with anything it wasn’t supposed to, the branch would cauterize, and the project was immediately a failure.

  The angles at which Vivi could work her crochet hook in were limited. The second ether root and its branches made work difficult. She sometimes had to fit the tool between tight branches. The third root was not only the most precise part of the process, Vivi also had the least freedom to work with her tools.

  Vivi focused. Outside thoughts disappeared from her head. Right now, her mind believed in one goal, clouding everything around her. Conflicts, difficulties, bullies, all were forgotten as Vivi stared at her veins like a predator stalking prey.

  The third ether root typically took around an hour or two to shape. A short time for a craftsman, but an eternity for a runesmith. That hour was filled with near perfect movements, guiding branches through loops with zero margin for error.

  The first fifteen minutes went smoothly. Vivi cleared the first eight loops. The branches turned out perfect, reaching the edges of the blade exactly as they should.

  Her heart began to race. The last ether root was always the most difficult one to shape. But it was also the last difficult part. Afterward, Vivi just had to carve runes and to smith the weapons. Both required work and were far from easy skills to learn, but neither was as stress-inducing as vein-shaping. Grandpa always said that vein-shaping was the heart and soul of inside carving.

  Everything was going well. The loops progressed.

  But her concentration began to slip. Her hands were tired. Her eyes hurt. Her head requested a break.

  Vivi continued working. When the ether root was initiated, the job would be finished. No matter what, Vivi would finish the job.

  The stalks passed the halfway mark, having passed twelve loops. Vivi’s heart couldn’t calm down. Finishing the three-runed sword would give a huge strength boost to the Hollows. Whether Vivi succeeded now could very well have been the difference between clearing the main dungeon or dying to the boss.

  Her hands were starting to shake. She continued working.

  Thirteen loops, fourteen. She eventually passed the twentieth. Just a few more remained.

  Vivi was so close. Just a few more loops to traverse, and—

  Suddenly, the branch under her crochet hook thumped. A slight jolt shot through her hand. The branch twirled to the left, slightly off path.

  Vivi paused, mouth hanging open. Immediately, she knew what had happened.

  “Aaahh!” Vivi said. She fell to her knees. Her heart wouldn’t stop beating. Vivi slammed her fist on her anvil.

  “What happened now?” Lucius asked, flying beside Vivi. “Is it done?”

  Vivi gritted her teeth. It felt like her body wanted to pry itself open. Why was she so nervous?

  “It failed, Lucius,” she said. “I used too much force. The crochet hook needs to press firmly against a branch’s growth to guide it properly. But if I press too hard… That can happen. A slight crack formed, and the branch snapped on the inside. It’s ruined.”

  Slowly, the pressure escaped from her body through heavy breaths. Vivi was always nervous during the last few steps of finishing a milestone sword. But she’d never been this nervous. Her hands were trembling, for god’s sake!

  “It’s just one branch…” Lucius said, examining the failure point. “It’s not even an inch off the path. Why strive for perfection? Just a good enough sword will do.”

  “No, it doesn’t work like that,” Vivi said. “I would complete the sword if I could. Half an inch of asymmetry is enough to cause odd pressure points to be left within the metal. Metals can’t withstand such forces. If the veins are incorrectly carved, the ether inside will not strengthen the metal, but rather, pry the metal apart.”

  She sighed at the failed stalk. “Some errors are worse than others. This one is catastrophic. Not only is the branch swerved off path, I also cracked the branch inside by pushing too hard. It’s a ruin.”

  Lucius floated in place with a disappointed expression. “What now, then? Try again again?”

  Vivi sat still for a moment, staring aimlessly at her work. “No. That was the best attempt we’ll have today. I’m tired. It’s better to restart the day and try again later.”

  Failure was the most important step of learning, as Grandpa had always said. Despite that, Vivi couldn’t help but feel disappointed. In Zand, she didn’t have time for failures, or for practice. The Hollows had to be as strong as possible and quickly. Two-runed swords were good, far stronger than the weapons they faced, but a three-runed sword would totally outclass anything their opponents wielded.

  How long have we spent here? Vivi asked in her head. She was losing track of time. Collection day was coming. She didn’t even know if she had time to start another project.

  Vivi sighed. She switched her smithing apron back to her raincoat. On another day, perhaps she would have started another desperate attempt, forcing herself to work through exhaustion. She did that a lot on the surface.

  In Zand, she had a lot more things to do than just smash her head against the same problem. Rest would give her better chances of finishing a three-runed sword later.

  “Runesmithing doesn’t always go as planned,” Vivi said. “In fact, when you’re working on your limits, vein-shaping rarely ever goes as planned.”

  “Should we get to hunting, then?” Lucius asked.

  Before Vivi could answer, Lucius suddenly perked up. “Wait, I’m getting a signal.”

  “A signal?” Vivi asked.

  “Someone wants to talk to us in Paradise.”

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