The loud clinging of metal hitting metal echoed in a spacious room far from Earth. An old woman hummed an unfamiliar tune as she formed the blinding hot metal on the anvil in front of her.
If one only wasted a superficial look, this scene might not seem much different from a smithy on Earth. But many questions might come to mind once one tried to observe some details.
Suddenly one might ask how the old smith could endure the enormous heat pervading the room. Or how the wooden floor didn't catch fire as hundreds of sparks rained down on it.
Naturally those peculiarities weren't out of the norm for Noctbenua. She had been working as a magesmith on planet Hex for a dozen centuries. Compared to her own masterpieces, everything on this planet was really just crude work.
Sadly, she hadn't been able to prove her talent in a long time. Following her master's plan, Noctbenua lived in hiding on this planet. She proved her patience and diligently played the role of a standard magesmith.
Today Noctbenua worked in her smithy like always. Next to her oven sat a pile of worn-out pickaxes. She had already been working to reduce their numbers for a few days.
Unexpectedly those simple looking metal tools had some complex rune structures woven into them. Without those it would be difficult to mine the precious minerals growing on planet Hex.
Noctbenua thus continued to diligently hammer the pickaxe's head resting on the anvil before her. With impeccable control she used her mastery in fire manipulation to burn new runes into the metal.
The old lady didn't have any distracting thoughts, although this work could never challenge someone of her caliber.
Suddenly, however, something Noctbenua had been waiting for for a long time, yet never expected, happened. Just as her strangely slim arm repeatedly brought her massive hammer down, her loyal tool exploded into a thousand pieces.
Noctbenua's tall, slim frame promptly ceased moving. Her slim mouth opened slightly, letting out a stream of fire. The escape breath quickly hit the metallic wall next to the oven. Weirdly the wall, which easily endured the smithy's usual temperature, slowly melted under Noctbenua's fire.
Slight embarrassment could be seen on the old smith's face, as she watched thin lines appearing on the wall, aiding the metal in repairing itself.
Soon her expression was overtaken by firmness, as she considered of her next steps.
The explosion of her hammer was the signal prepared by Noctbenua's master Thooan Rortarr, or Thomas Rottal as he was called the last few years. Judging from the explosion's intensity, Noctbenua knew the seriousness of their situation.
Repeating the last few moments over and over in her mind, Noctbenua's expression slowly turned grim. Although they hadn't reached the worst-case scenario, something unsuspected seemed to have occurred.
The loyal servant planned her next steps in her mind. After a few seconds she lightly swiped her hand. A precise stream of air swept through the room, picking up all the metal debris and throwing it into a container for scrap metal.
Noctbenua calmly took of the heavy leather apron, which she only wore for aesthetics. A yellow, floral dress came to light, obviously unblemished by the smithy's dirty environment.
As the old smith turned around, her leather apron suddenly vanished and two new ones appeared. She solemnly hung those next to her tidy workbench.
Leaving her workroom, Noctbenua's gaze naturally fell on the tainted window opposite of her. She perfectly captured the moment when Iomor's light miraculously overcame all obstacles and shone straight into her room.
The God of Light's followers would be delighted, naturally taking this as a good omen. As the biggest of the six stars surrounding planet Hex, its light would have been blinding if not for the darkened windows installed in every building.
Noctbenua wasn't one to belief in superstition of course. She shook her head as her gaze glided one last time through her familiar home.
Without her knowledge she had at some point become used to living a simple live. However, the intelligent woman had always known that this live might abruptly come to an end.
As her sentimental feeling slowly vanished, Noctbenua let go of her role as a simple smith and once again took on her real identity.
She had always been thankful to her master and mistress. Naturally she wouldn't let them down, once again prepared to prove her resourcefulness and loyalty.
Noctbenua's eyes regain the calm intelligence many of their enemies learned to fear as she took a single step to elegantly glide towards her bedroom of many years.
It was common knowledge that higher leveled beings needed less sleep the stronger they became. Noctbenua though had always been peculiar in her love for rest, but her master never scolded her for this quirk.
A small smile formed on her mouth as the athletic woman stood at one corner of her room. In front of her was a small statue of a majestic, dangerous looking creature sharing some semblance of a bear.
Noctbenua took out a small metallic marble, putting it in the bear's wide opened mouth.
Although the marble appeared way to big, the bear's throat turned mendable as soon as those two came into contact, allowing the statue to swallow this marble.
A short second later complicated patterns appeared underneath Noctbenua's feet. With familiarity the smith activated the mana in her body. After an amount, which was difficult to conjure even for her, vanished into the ground, a distortion in space erupted for an instant, before Noctbenua disappeared.
Already used to teleportation since a long time ago, Noctbenua arrived in her secret room without any problems.
Her solemn gaze locked on the bigger teleportation platform opposite her. Such devices were used for long distance travel. Despite their obvious usefulness, their complexity prevented their widespread use.
A planet was already considered important if it could boast a single teleportation platform, often also called a space hub.
The planet Hex they were on for example couldn't even build a single space hub because of its special location. After all it orbited a black hole.
Therefore, it would be shocking to everyone on Hex if they knew of this secret room containing a teleportation platform.
Noctbenua didn't have time to care for these things. Soon the master's children would appear in this place, and she still had much to prepare.
She took out multiple items including a similar marble to the one she had used earlier from her spatial storage. Afterwards she placed them on a small desk, next to an already prepared recording device.
Noctbenua meticulously checked the varying things laying on some shelfs surrounding the room. After making sure that everything was in order, the loyal servant hastily left the room again.
As soon as she vanished, the transportation platform already shown signs of activation.
Since their plan foresaw that Noctbenua wouldn't meet her master's children, she already knew that she couldn't delay her departure from this planet.
Although she would have loved to get to know the pair of siblings, she also realized that the time wasn't right. If Iain and Lilly got attached to her and later realized that she was fighting a war, they might feel compelled to help her.
This was a scenario her master wanted to prevent as much as possible.
Therefore, Noctbenua concentrated on the important actions she had to take. Everything in her home was prepared for the children's arrival.
She only had a few things left to do in the city.
Having mingled in society for millions of years, the experienced servant naturally knew the importance of favors. While staying on planet Hex, she already purposely befriended the local authorities in preparation for this day.
Grabbing a backpack which had been collecting dusk in a corner for a long time, the old woman wore tainted glasses to cover her eyes, before leaving her home.
As soon as Noctbenua stepped outside she was welcomed by the glaring light of all six stars surrounding Hex. While others had avoided her house for its lack of any shade, this was exactly what she liked.
If one looked straight up from the city one would notice that the many panels floating in the air didn't cover this region.
Instead, many solid metal pillars reached from the ground up to the sky, connecting those floating panels with a few buildings on the ground.
As she often had to repair the panels, Noctbenua naturally knew that those gathered energy from the six stars, which was later stored in those buildings.
Praising the ingenuity of this system, which fueled the whole planet, while providing shade on the ground, Noctbenua took out a classy looking, streamlined, floating vehicle. The old woman sat down and traveled along the familiar path under the envious gazes of those poorer folk walking on the city's floor.