Chapter 13

There was something else that changed while we were here - the ale. It seemed to get even better after we were here for a time, and not just because we were used to it. Brian commented on it to me one day, after we had been here for some while.

"Your women have certainly done a fine job with the brewers. This new ale is the best they have ever produced."

"What have they done?" I asked. I had been so busy studying, that I hadn't paid much attention to what the sisters were doing while I was thus engaged.

"You'll have to ask them, but it has certainly improved the quality of the ale. The brewers have had to expand their facilities to keep up with the demand. They're quite excited and everyone certainly seems to like it," Brian told me with a big smile. That evening I spoke to Katie and Margie about it.

"Oh, yes," Katie said in answer to my question about what they had been doing, "the brewers here had a copy of the formula for O'Connell ale. The original formula and we worked on brewing some and then on improving it a bit. The people here seem to really like it."

"Yes, and when we return to Dublin, we're going to have some shipped to the Keys and Crown for sale there," Margie added, very enthusiastically.

"How much can they produce?" I asked, and then added, "How are they going to get it to Dublin?"

"Oh, they can produce quite a bit. They just have to make enough barrels. The people here are consuming quite a lot, but they have enough capacity to make some for export to our realm. It should go over very well in Dublin," Margie told us.

"As to how we get it to Dublin, I need to speak to Mr. Feeney when we go back. The Aos Si know him fairly well, at least better than they do others in the community. They could deliver it to him and then he could ship it to Dublin to the Keys and Crown, if he's willing to do that," Katie told me.

"Wouldn't that be expensive?" I asked.

"No more so than Guinness shipping their products from Dublin to the rest of Ireland and else where. And this ale will command a premium price, you understand," Katie assured me.

"Is it that good?" I asked.

"It's that fantastic!" Margie told me, enthusiastically.

"And how have you had the time to do all of this?" I asked.

"Oh, Etain finished our instructions some time ago and we can keep the house clean and cook the food by Magic now, so we have plenty of time to experiment with ale. The brewers were very helpful also," they told me.

Later, as my studies drew to a close, I began to wonder about the amount of time that had passed. I hadn't noticed while I was busy, but at least three months must have passed while we were here and possibly more. Surely I had missed the start of school and most, if not all, of the first semester. I brought this up to Brian one day while I was working on the nineteenth book.

"Don't worry, young Mark. As I told you when you first arrived here, time is very forgiving here. When you are finished with your studies and ready to leave, I'll put you out on the mountain at dawn on the 16th of August just as you wanted. It won't be a problem," he assured me. We were in the library here where all of the books on Magic are kept. It was a large impressive collection and many were quite old.

"When you return home, you will still need to continue your studies. Any of these books will come to you when you are ready for them. All you need to do is call them. Now there is one more thing that we need to discuss - that is the source of your power," Brian told me.

"My power?" I asked.

"Yes. Can you tell me about it?" he asked.

"I've seen it several times, as have the sisters. They have seen it when they were climaxing during sex. I've seen it at times then, but also at times when I'm thinking or have a problem," I told him.

"And what does it appear to be?" he asked.

"It appears as a huge flame coming out of a rock shelf on a mountain. The flames leap up to a hundred feet or more in the air when I'm there, yet the rocks there are never more than comfortably warm and there is no indication of burn marks any where," I told him.

"Yes, that makes sense. You were a farmer, weren't you?" he asked.

"Yes, I worked on my uncles' farms for many years."

"That would explain it. Being of the earth and growing things, it's logical that of the four elements earth and fire would be associated with you.

"The witch is associated with wind and water. When you face her, she will try to destroy you with them, but the earth can absorb the water. The fire will evaporate it, and wet ground is very hard for the wind to affect, but it will blow the evaporated water away. She will also try to blow out your fire with her wind, but Magic fire, such as was here when you removed the first part of the curse from the sisters, cannot be blown out by the wind, and it will only fan the flames higher and cause the water to evaporate faster robbing her of a part of her power," Brian told me.

"You are not ready to face her yet. Continue to study when you return to Stait Aontaithe Mheircea (the USA). You will know when you are ready. You will be able to return here by then and I will help you locate her, but you must never use her name here. That would give her a chance to come here and work her evil in our realm. She cannot normally approach us as our magical shields are too strong. With your power, you will have no trouble accessing where she is hiding," he assured me with a smile.

"Now there are some things that you will need in order to face the witch. One is a staff and the other is a sword. We have a Bata, or fighting stick, of great magic here. It is of black thorn and can change itself to whatever length or style of fighting that you need. Bataireacht is the art of traditional stick fighting, and the Bata will teach you all that you need to know about it and how to use it.

"The second item is another matter. Fragarach, the legendary sword of Lugh, is here. It was last used by Conn of the Hundred Battles, but it has been broken since that time. After the Tuatha De Danann were banished, it was brought here to the Otherworld. Several smiths and Sorcerers have tried in vain to repair it, but to no good result. It has always resisted their best efforts," Brian told me.

"Can I see it?" I asked. "One of my uncles is a blacksmith, and I have watched and helped him repair many different types of things."

"Yes," Brian answered, and a sword appeared in his hands in two parts. I could see where there had been attempts to repair it, but they hadn't succeeded.

"Have you a forge and anvil here?" I asked.

"Yes, but it is some distance from the village, as the Fairies don't like the cold iron of the anvil and the other tools associated with it," Brian told me. We moved to the forge then.

From the cobwebs and other debris that had blown in, it was obvious that the forge hadn't been used in some time. I invoked a cleaning spell and the place was soon in much better shape. The rust on the tools, however, had not been affected by the cleaning spell, and I used another spell to return them to their former like new condition.

"That's better," I told Brian, once things were more to my liking.

"This forge has been very neglected and needs a lot of repairs," I told Brian on inspecting it. "There is also very little coal and no coke here," I added.

"Since fire is one of my attributes, I might be able to use it as a source of heat for the work instead of a regular fire in the forge," I told Brian after considering these things for a short time.

"The first job is to prepare the scarfs on the mating ends of the sword," I told him next, as I used a wire brush to clean the ends. Following that I concentrated and called up a small intense fire from my power source. To my surprise, the fire appeared in the forge on a bed of coal just as I had visualized it. Since I didn't want the metal to oxidize more than necessary, I cast a spell around the end of the metal to exclude oxygen from there and placed it in the fire. When it reached the proper heat, I withdrew it from the fire, removed the spell and quickly worked on the surface of the scarf with the hammer.

"Are you sure you know what you are doing?" Brian asked.

"Oh, yes. I helped my uncle forge weld many old farm implements and this isn't really any different," I assured him, as I placed the finished piece in a container of ash to cool slowly while I worked on the other piece of the blade. After finishing it, I allowed both pieces of the sword to cool in the ash.

"The next part is critical," I told Brian. "Both parts must be heated to a welding heat and then quickly brought to the anvil and the weld hammered together. It is best to finish the weld in one heat."

"I will need some flux to apply to the area of the weld to keep it from oxidizing while heating," I told him next before holding out my hand and reciting a little spell to call out any flux in the shop. A small container moved from a shelf to my outstretched hand.

After that, I readied my tools: a pair of tongs to hold the broken end, the flux, and my hammer. The other piece could be held by the handle. I also arranged my hammer so it would be in just the right position when I needed it.

"What are you doing?" Brian asked, as I practiced the final part of the job several times without heat to ensure that things would go correctly.

"Practicing to be sure things are set up correctly. This must be done very quickly before the correct heat is lost," I told him. "This is called the 'dropped tongs method'," I added.

Following that, I started heating both pieces at the same time and applied the flux as soon as they were hot enough for it to be effective. I continued heating them in the fire with the oxygen exclusion spell on them in addition to the flux. I carefully watched their color in the subdued light of the forge building, as they heated.

"Both pieces must reach the welding temperature together," I told Brian as I adjusted the pieces in the fire. As the pieces reached the proper welding temperature which I could tell by their color and appearance, I quickly removed them from the fire, while canceling the protective spell. This was the critical point.

I had the tip of the blade in my right hand held by the tongs with the scarf up, and the handle end in my left hand with the scarf down. I brought both pieces to opposite edges of the anvil and pivoted them down on to it with the handle end on top to hold them in place. I dropped the tongs in my right hand and reached for my hammer.

I quickly hammered the area of the weld to consolidate it. The closing metal forced the liquid flux out of the weld area as I hammered it. After a little reheating, I hammered out the small bumps and irregularities in the weld area to get it to the same size and shape as the rest of the blade.

"That was amazing," Brian said looking at the now repaired sword. I noticed that some of the hot flux had landed on his robe and left a burn spot. I waved my hand at the robe and recited a spell to return the garment to its original condition before he noticed.

"We aren't finished yet," I informed him.

"It looks finished," he said.

"No, it requires re-hardening. The heat has destroyed the temper of the cutting edges. They won't stay sharp," I told him. "I'll need to reheat the entire blade and then allow it to cool slowly. I'll do that before we go to lunch and then harden it after we return from lunch."

I changed my fire to a long narrow one, cast a protective spell on the entire blade and placed it in the fire to heat while I prepared a long bed of ashes for the blade to cool in. When the blade reached the proper temperature, I quickly moved it to the ash and covered it with a thick layer of it.

"Let me extinguish my fire and we'll go to eat," I told Brian. "There isn't any need to rush, as it will take some time for the blade to cool."

After a leisurely lunch, during which I only had a single cup of ale, we returned to the forge. The blade had cooled sufficiently to be prepared for hardening. There was a clay deposit near the forge building and I collected some of it, added water to create a slurry, and painted a thin layer of clay over the entire blade.

"This a Japanese technique for hardening," I told Brian. "My uncle used it for hardening knives that he makes for folks." I cast a spell to quickly dry the clay and added successive layers of clay so that the coating thickened from both edges to the center of the blade on both sides.

After again creating a long narrow fire in the forge and placing the protective spell on the blade, I placed it in the fire to start heating. There was a long water trough for watering horses there and I had Brian fill it with water, while I carefully watched the heating blade. At a certain point my power source told me that it was ready.

Grabbing the handle of the sword with a gloved hand, I removed it from the fire and plunged it into the water with the blade flat to the water's surface so that the entire blade was cooled instantly. A small cloud of steam rose from the trough as the water around the blade boiled from the released heat. I agitated it vigorously through the water before I allowed it to sink to the bottom of the trough to cool for some time. The water didn't soften the clay which was now baked on to the blade it covered.