Iron Gold Novels & Stories

"The flood was the work of your brothers, not the North. We have healed the water. We can heal your land, too." "Heal it?" Valerius II laughed, a sound like grinding stones. He gestured to the floor. The iron turned transparent, revealing the Iron-Anchor. It was a colossal, inverted pyramid of Starlight-Iron, reaching miles into the earth. It was vibrating with a high-pitched, agonizing hum.

It was a test of whether I'd fill the silence with something stupid. "That metal doesn't run out," I said. "It's not coal, not gold, not anything you dig until the hole's empty. Pull everything you can carry out this year and there's just as much sitting there next year. Whatever Ironmaw takes from it doesn't shrink what's left. It's the same well, and there's room at it for both of us." "And what does Ironmaw get from a war fought over your family's debts." "Strength that doesn't come from blood or borders. Money the rest of the South will never see coming, for as long as that ground keeps producing, which is forever. You're not doing me a favor. You're building something that outlasts both

I didn’t touch it yet. “We intercepted news this morning,” he said. “An undocumented mine was discovered two days ago. The samples recovered are pure. Gold. With only 0.2% impurities. This rare white gold has the closest similarities with the lost stone used in the creation of the Abalone Ryn gem.” Now that caught my interest. I leaned back slightly, steepling my fingers. “Location?” He hesitated, exchanging a glance with Man 1. “Spit it out,” I said. My voice, cold like the Antarctic wind, caused the room temperature to drop.

The keys to the agricultural valleys were surprisingly heavy. Made of raw, unpolished iron rather than the delicate filigree gold favored by the High Council, they felt solid and cold against my palm. As I held them, the permanent star-silver bracer on my right arm gave a quiet, satisfied thrum, its internal runes settling into a deep, stable violet hue.

"Starved Iron eats heat. The Obsidian metal eats kinetic force. Neither of them can catch light." "I know," I said softly. I walked to the arched window, looking out over the sprawling, sunlit capital, and then further east, toward the jagged peaks of the wolf continent. "We don't need iron," I said. "We need silver. Raw, unadulterated, tectonic silver." I looked back at the Sovereign. "Elias. The crown on your head, the ancestral silver of your bloodline... where was it mined?" Elias instinctively reached up, touching the tarnished silver band resting on his brow.

He would also not risk his life again in the city while playing a deadly game of hide and seek with the people of the slums. "You need valuable and precious metals, host. The components to make one are gold, silver, platinum, palladium, copper, nickel, tantalum, cobalt, aluminum, tin, zinc, neodymium, …" the female voice answered Maru in length. It was almost three minutes until she had finished listing the requirements of making a food fabricator.

' Jai thought. The next battle was announced and the participants went on stage. Jai divided his attention to ask Darrion some things. "What's higher than ruby?" Jai asked honestly. Darrion took a second before replying, "I forgot you lost your memory. So money, Jai, starts with copper. Then it's silver, rubies, and gold." As the water elemer on the stage made his first move, Jai tilted his head. "The highest one is gold? Not ruby? Is there something higher than that?"

The silence here wasn't the peaceful quiet of the sanctuary; it was the airless, metallic weight of an industrial grave. Below us, Iron Ridge sat nestled in the throat of a collapsed silver mine like a crown of rusted iron and shattered glass. Toxic neon indigo flickered through the haze—advertisements for bootleg silver-salt and black-market adrenaline that had no business being so bright in a world that had forgotten the sun.

The temple's worn walls bear intricate carvings and symbols, telling stories of devotion and ancient rituals. Adjacent to the temple, they find a forge reminiscent of the one they camped at the night before, albeit better equipped and stocked. Large stone basins, meticulously arranged, contain millions of tiny nodules carefully separated and sorted. One basin holds precious metals like gold, silver, and electrum, shimmering in the dim light. Another basin contains cobalt, a valuable resource for their underwater world. The third basin houses copper and nickel, metals essential for various purposes.