Cold Iron

_{The richest people in the world build monuments from this stuff. Where do you get it and what special properties does it have?}
I was 60 days East from Agoioven, not half the way between it and the Green Line in front of me. I'm a sigrax mind you, and I as not alone. My guide is a sigrax himself, and a Hunter Caste from Agoioven, we had five Warrior Castes of Ring City with us too, nicely equipped with those finest Perms their city don't sell to outsiders. For a less well equipped band this 60 days could easily be 60 years, or, more likely, for ever.
That's dense forest here, not as exotic and beautiful as Ungnui Forest in the South but about as dangerous.
We are stepping in the imaginary line of the Equator here, in the side of Main Continent where the North Polar winds don't reach. Except for Piwag Desert this planet don't go hotter than this. And Piwag Desert cheats.
I grew up next to a Rain Forest myself, on a Equator of other Planet, in other Universe. Was hot up there, but not that hot.
The tallest threes around here are one hundred kilometers tall, from the ground to the tallest branches. As much as five times larger bellow ground than they are above. The sun boils the water inside their tallest leaves during the hottest hours of day, and in some parts the volcanic activity manifests in long scars and deep pools of liquid stone bubbling between the roots of plants that evolved in other Universes, in similar environments. Between those extremes there is layers of bland shady temperatures, cut by hellish rivers of hot air ascending from the ground to met the hellish upper levels under the tropical sun.
Without reason or advice you step on a clearing in the woods from time to time, a dark spot on the ground surrounded by a jungle so dense that one could walk for years inside it without know one is above the surface and not bellow it.
Some predators hunt in this woods that neither spells nor spears would scare away. For those and other dangerous our best defense the the knowledge of terrain.
An competent guide in places like that worth a hundred sigraxes.
I should know, since I am the one paying for this expedition. Even if isn't actually my money.
According to our guide we have another 30 days in front of us before we reach Callak-Shall, the largest city in this jungle. Possibly the most isolated human city in Main Continent. Up there we have to look for ancient houses, mentioned in the letters of credit I am caring. Demand payment for old debits, enforce contracts more than ten million years old before some circumstances make some of them loose effect.
We do have a week or two to loose, however. And three of the warriors are suffering from poisoning from the catlike beasts that attacked us yesterday.
I don't want to use healing spells on them before as a actually healer or a soothsayer to give a look in the matter. There is a chance that could be a magically active poison that would became worse if treated by basic healing spells (which are the ones I have).
Fortunately our guide knows the way to this village, that is not far from our way. And he as visited here enough times to know how to approach the place with little danger of being taken by enemy. Most of this places will attack, kill, and eat, anyone who approaches in the wrong day of the week; or in the wrong month of the year. Not surprisingly you don't hear about many Merchant Caravans entering those woods.
We reached their City Gates peacefully, and I was surprised by the size of it. "This town must be as large as Makdiba" I commented.
_Their population is about half as big, but those magical walls are not a product of the art of the current inhabitants. They are a magical relic of times before the Age of Empires. Come in handy to have space for some additional farming inside city walls in this parts.
I imagine he was right. One certainly can't rely on commerce around here. The forests are exuberant, even luxurious, in their offer of animals to hunt. However, hunt must be a dangerous and somewhat unpredictable industry. To feed a proper urban population one needs agriculture, and agriculture demands a lot of land under: preferable under the sun.
Unless, or course, you use magic to feed your population. However, do that for long periods of time, in large scale, is (to say the least) problematic. 
The External walls and the main streets are made of a white substance that reminds me opaque glass, or perhaps milk. A lot of this thing is found on Shirshan, far East and in the other side of the Sorrowful River, but up there they use a a refined form that is as transparent as water. Here the living buildings are the oldest constructions: Elven architecture. There is five of them inside the walls, and all have lost the fluid dreamlike attribute distinctive of elvish heritage long time ago; still functional enough, they have been growing without proper specialized care for Ages. 
_That must have been an Elven City, possibly the capital of some Elven country when those small countries where the norm around here. Some time before the Imperial Age._ mentioned one of the warriors. The younger one, with the funny moustache, who fancies Scholar Caste ladies. 
People looked at us with some interest. They where humans, somewhat less variate in skin tone and hair color that usual. What makes sense in a region where travels are that slow, dangerous, and hard to make. Looking on a map one gets the impression that the nearest Green Line isn't that far away, but that is not a distance walked on open fields. 
_There is some villages like that in the region, but this is the largest one I know about. For outsiders they look very similar, but this would not by the opinion of locals. We are in KaPra, considered by its citizens the only civilized nation in those forests. 
_What about Callak-Shall? 
_They know it is a more powerful nation, but consider it a sort of rogue state. Besides, it is too distant to be considered from the point of view of this people. They are more concerned to smaller villages and wild tribes, who they slave when they can, and who pass by in furtive raids to steal their free women very often. 
We walked right to a Healer Sanctuary nearby. Our guide was acquainted with the place, and the family responsible for it. 
Merchant Language was rare in this parts, but we had our guide who speaks the closest relevant equivalent. And has always a translation spell ready to cover any exceptional necessity. 
Translation spells are not half as good as know the language, at least not in the hands of most sigraxes. They are tricky and hard to master. Still, they are a far superior tool than the combination of mimic and guessing. 
Our poisoned Warrior Castes where in fact poisoned by the sort of thing that would result in ugly consequences if treated directly by healing spells. They needed a day in anti-magic treatment, and some doses of expensive elixirs, before the divination spell could be tried. Then would be simple enough to design the proper healing spell. Simple enough for a follower of Healing Magic Way, I mean. Not a problem, I was more worried about the time this process would take than about the costs: costs where covert by my client as long, as we succeeded in do our job.
_We could leave them behind, but that would mean a more dangerous travel. Is good to have a wall of Warriors to buy us time when predators attack. One healthy warrior will have to stay behind to provide any necessary explanation about how to deal with the perms (perms are "permanent armors" a fancy way to say "cyborg implants" on a planet where that sort of technology supposedly does not exist: perms are rare and only the people of Agoioven knows how to deal with them) in case of complication. 
_So, would be you and me, and one Warrior. I see. 
He suggested spend the night in the city and make the decision with more information. After we have the results of Divination Magic. I agreed. 
In our way to the place recommended by our doctor as the best alternative to expend the night (not a hostel actually, but the house of his brother-in-law: you don't find much hosts or pensions in nations as isolated as that) we when lost for a moment. And found ourselves in this nice garden in the middle of the city. Surrounded by fountains, in an island accessed by tree bridges of white wood, there was the most gorgeous statue I ever saw. 
As tall as a man, it represented some sort of elf lady with large batlike wings connected to her back. One was almost closed, but the other was fully open. Larger than the size of the elf herself. The expression on her face was hard to define. Sadness, or perhaps compassion. 
The impression of movement given by her one feet touching the ground, and the conflicting emotions expressed in the the figure where so distracting that took me a while to notice the most important thing about this statue. The material it is made of. It only occurred to me when I noticed the white veil coming from the statue like a waterfall. Creating small rainbows in the hot day. 
Then I noticed the snow covering all around the pedestal where the figure was. Dark steel. 
_You know what is that ? 
_She was a high elf of some kind. I am not sure if that is a symbionte for Mibavan in her back or if her sup-specie actually had wings. Perhaps it is just an artistic metaphor of some kind. Unless you are talking about the metal it is made of: that is elf-bone._answered the young Warrior. 
_Not literally the bones of elves_ he continued_ at least I don't think so. That's how we call it back home, in Agoioven.
_I don't think it is elf-bone either, Warrior. Because I don't want to start thinking about the universe where a living thing could have bones made of pure metal. Sure, I know they use it for money in Erevi, had no idea you could find the material outside Elven City in such large quantity. 
_Well that was a elven city some time in the past. If there is magic protecting this statue it could be very ancient._added our guide. 
_Oh, I am sure there is magic protecting the statue. Doubt it would be necessary, however. Neither of us could brake it with our spells if we wanted to, even without magic, or the angry citizens that would want to stop us.
_What you mean? 
_See the circle of snow, and the ice in the lake ? You know elven black-iron drops the temperature of everything nearby. That's one of those non-magical properties of materials brought by the Vortex that end up looking a lot like magic in the effects it produces. 
_Sure. Perhaps the most famous example of that. 
_Yep. To cause such a fall in temperature in a hot day like that, a piece of black-iron that large would have to be almost 50% pure. The pedestal is not of the same material! neither is anything else in that island. You cannot even work this metal with magic, not in this concentration. Someone must have used special tools of some sort, elvish tools perhaps. 
_So, it is valuable._concluded the guide.  
_Valuable enough to justify a war, I would say. If that could be carried away. What would not be a simple thing to do, I suppose._I admitted. 
_It is fairly close to their Main Gate. If they have it here, I wonder what else they have in more well defended areas._commented the young Warrior. 
 _They do have more statues like that, of other elven princesses and princes. And there is a gallery of statues representing historical scenes in that large building in their Main Square. Up there, right above everything else, there is a large statue of some elf king that is as tall as a shirshane spear.    
_And the art, the details? 
_About as good as the ones we see here, as far as I can tell. Considering that I am no expert in sculpture. 
_Any chance we could buy some of that art? Small souvenirs perhaps. 
_Hardly. As I mentioned before, those are national treasures left by the founders of this place when that was a elven nation. They may have mines of this material somewhere, or deposits with tons of it, but isn't the sort of thing you would find in Main Market. Any statue will be sacred and therefore not for sale. _answered the guide.
_Certainly not to be sold for outsiders._added the Warrior.
_That's a shame._ I concluded. 
Deep in my mind a plan begun floating, like a fetus in initial stage of development. That plan  would need time, research, patience. In the end, but if successful it could prove to be far more profitable than the business I was currently engaged in.   

Cold Iron 

   Cold iron is a metallic substance that has the property of low temperature. This property isn't magical and it is not affected by anti-magic or even Xar-Scars. However, it is not a normal property that could be explained by natural laws of nature as they are in Sharitarn Universe. This substance came through the Vortex with that property, and it cannot be neither eliminated nor perfectly reproduced by magic. 
  Apart of that, cold iron is very hard to work with. And has a high degree of resistance against magic manipulation. Thanks to what sculptures and tools made of this material are extremely expensive. 
   The substance is used in coins by Erevi, and was always connected to elven races in the minds of Sharitarnes.