Gold is too soft to be used in the forging of weapons, but it is a highly sought after alchemical ingredient. A pauper may be free, but gold offers an entirely different type of freedom. It is gold that keeps bellies full, armies equipped, and the commoners entertained. Merchants and Kings alike will tell you that gold is more powerful than any sorcery. On the brink, under his very hand as he crouched, he found it, a thin vein of sparkling gold running from an outcropping of ore to the edge and down across the silvery floor.
