Deus Necros

The forge had finally settled into a quieter rhythm, the kind that came after the day’s violence of hammering and quenching. Coals still breathed, not roaring, just alive enough to stain the air with warmth and soot.

Ludwig sat where Andre had left him, Noctivex cradled in his hand like a truce that could still be broken, and Nightbreaker rested nearby with the patient menace of a thing that never truly slept. He was turning Andre’s hint over in his head again, not the words, the meaning behind them, and how quickly the answer had snapped into place once he stopped trying to command and started trying to listen.

The door opened soon as Ludwig was contemplating on what to do next. And how to plan his future advents.

Andre walked in as if he had forgotten something, his eyes wandering around the shop when he noticed Ludwig have had pulled out both Noctivex and the mace. The mace itself sat menacingly in the middle of the hall on its head. It was taller than the seated Ludwig by two folds.

Andre froze for half a heartbeat, not in fear, but in recognition. Ludwig saw it in the way Andre’s shoulders tightened, the way his gaze moved, quick and professional, from the cube to the mace and back again.

The workshop felt suddenly smaller with both relics present, like the space itself knew it was outmatched. Nightbreaker’s silhouette looked absurd in a smithy, too large and too wrong to be treated as a tool, and Noctivex had that quiet pressure to it that made even lantern light seem a little less confident.

“You… how did you do it?” Andre asked.

“Oh, you noticed…” Ludwig smiled.

He kept the reply casual, but his attention sharpened. Andre was not the type to waste words. If he asked that, it meant he had felt the shift in the weapons, the same shift Ludwig had felt, that subtle agreement that stopped being hostility and became alignment.

“I’d be shaming my entire line and ancestors if I couldn’t recognize weapon unity…But how? In less than an hour?”

Andre stepped closer, eyes fixed on Noctivex as if staring might reveal the metal’s nature the way heat revealed color.

The words that Andre spoke landed with weight. Ludwig had heard talk about weapons loving their masters like sentimental fools. Something that Joana mentioned in passing about Blade and Soul unity.

This wasn’t that. This sounded like a craft truth. Like an old rule Andre’s family had learned the hard way. Or more like the proper way. With experience and time.

“I guess I was lucky?” Ludwig smiled.

The smile was thin, half habit, half defense. He knew Andre wouldn’t accept that answer. Andre didn’t respect excuses, and luck was just an excuse people used when they didn’t understand their own actions.

“Luck has nothing to do with this, I was even contemplating returning to give you another hint since I felt that what I said wasn’t enough. But you caught on…Just how did you convince such metal?”

Andre’s frustration wasn’t jealousy. It was the irritation of a master who wanted the mechanism, not the result.

Ludwig understood that too well. He had lived by mechanisms. He didn’t survive because he was lucky. He survived because he found the lever, then pulled it until the world moved. And if that didn’t work, he’ll rewind the world itself if need came to be.

“I didn’t,” Ludwig said.

Andre’s brows drew together, confused and conflicted. For a moment the giant man looked genuinely thrown, like someone had told him steel floated if you believed hard enough. Ludwig didn’t let it linger. Confusion was a doorway. He stepped through before Andre could close it.

“I merely showed it that we can align with the same goal. And it agreed.” Ludwig said.

The truth sounded simple out loud, but Ludwig could still feel how precarious the agreement was. Noctivex hadn’t surrendered. It had decided. That difference mattered. It was the difference between a chained beast and a beast walking beside you because it chose to.

They were still the same beast at the end of the day, and all that mattered is if you feed the beast right.

“But its goal is… no, it isn’t my place to dictate how you swing your weapon, I only make it. Go then.”

Andre cut himself off mid thought, the way craftsmen did when they caught themselves reaching into territory that belonged to someone else.

Ludwig respected that restraint. Andre could have pried. He didn’t. He chose to stay in the lane of his craft.

“I thought you wanted to study Nightbreaker.” Ludwig said.

He said it carefully, because part of him did feel the imbalance. Andre had given him time, knowledge, and priority.

Ludwig had promised him a look at Nightbreaker, and Ludwig didn’t like leaving debts open. Debts turned into hooks later.

“I would like to. But, I have a feeling that you’re pressed for time.” Andre said.

Andre’s gaze drifted briefly toward the forge ceiling, toward the structure that would not survive reckless experimentation.

Ludwig caught the meaning. Andre wasn’t saying no because he didn’t want to. He was saying no because if Ludwig stayed, Ludwig would start testing, and testing would get loud, and loud would get noticed or break things.

Ludwig didn’t want to reply, he felt it was rude that he got what he wanted from Andre but Andre never did.

“Don’t worry about it, and be on your way. It was the Tower right?” Andre asked.

The way Andre said it made it clear he was already aware. News moved fast among imperial workers. Even if Andre didn’t care about court gossip, he was close with the Emperor and he must have received his news that way.

“Yeah, I need to get to the Tower of Trials.” Ludwig said.

“Well, with the imperial support, you can easily get there, it’s in Politia. There is a royal carriage that’s been waiting outside since you first got here.” Andre said.