The Place
The Forge Halls is a hall of black stone and cold fire, and the cold fire is the whole of the place, because a hall that is cold fire is a hall that has been sworn, and the swearing is the law. The hall sits under the ridge where the world thins to the stone, and the thinning is the measure the golems trust, because a hall that has been forged is a hall that has been kept, and the keeping is the strength. The stone of the hall is black, a black that is more forge than color, and the black is the color of the oath, which is to say it is a color you can see in the core and not in the field. The fire of the hall is a cold blue, a blue that is more patience than heat, and the blue is the color of the strength, and the strength is the calendar, and the calendar is the word. In the deepest forge, where the oldest oath is kept longest, a slow amber glow works through the stone, and the amber is the color of the strength that has not yet broken, and the not-breaking is the word, and the word is the end. The sky over the ridge is a hard blue, the color of the planes when the storm is far, and the light on the black stone is sharp and mean, the kind of light that shows every seam in the stone and every mark in the forge. It smells of hot stone and old fire, a smell that is the hall and is also the strength, and the one sound under the stone is the tick, a very slow, very quiet crack from the center of the hall that is the strength being read as a word, and the word is the oath, and the oath is the long. There is no landmark the way a ridge has a landmark, but there is one: the First Forge, a black stone forge at the center of the hall, the oldest forge and the first oath, and the forge is the door, and the door is the tick. What makes the Forge Halls itself is the strength: the hall keeps its oaths the way the oaths keep the word, and the keeping is the strength, and the strength is the word, and the word is the end.
How They Live
The Golems keep their hall in the stone, living in chambers of black rock and cold fire, their halls under the forge and their entrances at the ridge's edge, and a forge is raised one stone at a time, because a stone is the season and a stone is the calendar. The halls are low and deep, a black stone over a colder floor, and the black is the wall and the colder is the law, and the law is the strength. Light comes from the hall — the cold blue of the fire, which holds the patience of the season and gives it back, and the giving back is the daylight, and the daylight is the kept. Food is not something the hall offers, and the not-offering is the law, because the golem does not eat, and the not-eating is the strength, and the strength is the kept; what the hall offers is the stone, and the stone is the only meal the oath needs, and the stone of the core is the forge, and the forge is the kept. Water is drawn from the hall's springs, which the strength-keepers tend like a garden, and the tending is the craft and the craft is the rank, and the springs are the cold threads under the stone, and the threads are the kept. Heat is the fire in the season of the cold, and the season is the year, and the golems have stopped asking the stone for more. Their oaths are very long, very quiet, and very patient, and the patience is the law, because an oath that is patient is an oath that has been kept, and the keeping is the word. The defense is the hall itself — a visitor who steps onto the stone is already in the word's path, and the word is the alarm and the welcome and the sentence, because the hall has a forge, and the forge has a strength, and the strength has an end. The day is measured by the strength, which is also the calendar, because the stone is the only clock the oath needs, and the clock does not lie about what is owed. Every golem that is named must stand at the First Forge through one full tick before the hall will call it one of its own, and the standing is the naming, and the naming is the only thing the stone ever gives back.
People
Home of the Golems, whose halls are counted by strength. Seven halls at the last count, and the count is kept by the strength-keepers, which is to say the count is as reliable as the tick, which is to say it is reliable until the oath breaks. The strength-keepers lead, and rank is decided by the keeping, because a keeper who keeps an oath the hall has forgotten is the keeper the forge trusts. Nothing that cannot stand at the First Forge is welcome, and the not-standing is not an insult, because the hall has a word, and the word has a strength, and the strength has an end. A traveler who once stood at the foot of the ridge called it a country that keeps its oaths the way other countries keep their fields, and the calling was the truest thing he said and the thing the hall paid the least attention to.
In Stories
The place where the strength is the only honest thing, and the thing is the word, and the word is the oath, and the oath is the end. The Forgotten have not crossed the ridge, and the not-crossing is the decision, and the decision is the longest one the guild has made. Uaellaen heard the tick once, from the foot of the First Forge, and the hearing was the strength, and the strength was the only thing that lasted.