The needle had to go through the fire without losing the runes he’d cut into it. Too much heat would blur their edges. Cool the metal too quickly and it would crack along the same lines as the needle he’d dug out of the wall. Cool it too slowly and the point would come out soft.
On Days Thirteen through Fifteen, Pei Jing spent his two practice hours preparing the three rough blanks he’d set aside, refining their runes and testing how they took heat. He built a little kiln behind a removable stone below the rear vent of Cell 114. The draft came from the fiery earth vein below. At the center of the kiln, Master Lu’s bone charcoal burned with a steady white glow.
He lit the fire and watched it climb. Beside the kiln stood an iron trough holding the spirit quench he’d learned to prepare at Fort Ironpass. He lowered those three prototypes into the heart of the heat and watched through the mica window.
Their gray surfaces went maroon, then dark red, then cherry red. The black enamel in the runes didn’t boil away. Thunder bile drew the Chaos Qi into the hot steel. The wind spirals and the first set of runes sank into the surface. For the first time he could see their light coming from inside the metal.
