Kael did not rush the second attempt, and that patience became the most important difference between it and the first. Before, he had looked at the finished coat, considered what Brokk's Hammer could do, and tried to jump directly from ingot to result. Now he understood exactly why that approach had failed.
He began by heating the Malachor Jade properly. It was not merely softened enough to accept a new shape. Kael followed the methods recorded in Andre's ancestral book, spending hours heating, hammering, rotating, reheating, and drawing the material into long rods while paying attention to the direction of every strike.
Only after the internal structure had been worked into the proper alignment did he begin drawing the rods thinner. Even then, he moved slowly and kept his ambition under control.
