My name is Tongbi — Copper-Arm. My arms are covered in furnace scars, shiny as copper. Hence the name.
Before I was taken, I forged farm tools for the troop on Flower-Fruit Mountain. Now, in the forge of the demon den, I forge weapons. Sixteen hours a day in shifts, always the same thing: six-foot iron rods, coiled pattern at the head. They call them weapons. I don't judge by eye — the furnace judges.
And what does the furnace say? This isn't killing iron. Killing iron makes flame leap upward. This iron presses the flame down — presses it, like the iron is drinking breath.
Forging it curdles my stomach. But I can't stop. Stop, and my pen-mates take ten extra lashes.
So I keep a hand behind my back.
In every rod, under the third ring of the coil, I leave a hidden flaw — half a breath short in the tempering. You can't see it. It rings the same when struck. But hit that third ring point with seven-tenths force, and the rod shears clean through at the flaw.
Twenty rods a day. Three months.
Do the arithmetic: three months, twenty rods a day, every one flawed. The stockpiles of the demon den — more than half will snap at the first real blow.
I've told no one. Not even my pen-mates — their lives hang on my silence. I leave the flaw alone, and I count alone.
But last ten-day, the forge got a new overseer.
The new overseer doesn't beat us, doesn't curse us. At the end of each shift he inspects the rods, one by one. His way of inspecting is to flick a finger at the third ring of the coil.
When he reaches my rods, he pauses. Looks at me once. Moves on.
Not one rejected. Not one punished.
Listen to me. He knows. About every single rod, he knows. For three months he's been covering me — as silent as I am.
Tell me: the demon king's own overseer, keeping my secret?
Now every day at the furnace my heart runs hotter than the fire: is this new overseer the king's man — or the guest's?
If you fight your way in, remember: third ring under the coil, seven-tenths force.
That's three months of Copper-Arm's work. A welcome gift, for him.