Rise of the Living Forge

“Tell me,” Kien demanded. “I must have my strength back. Like this, I am nothing. If you can fix me—”

“I’m going to need to know more about just what you mean by losing your strength,” Arwin said, raising a hand to cut the other man off. “But I’m going to be honest with you. I’m exhausted. I’ve been working all day and basically have no magical energy left to work with. If I’m going to be able to really help you, I need to be able to think. Are you going to die tonight?”

There was a long pause. Then Kien grit his teeth. “No. I have waited this long. My body has stabilized. Gotten used to this new… condition. I will survive.”

“Great,” Arwin said. “Then we will speak again in the morning. You can tell me exactly what’s happened and I’ll see what I can do for you. Do you have somewhere to sleep?”

“No. I have not slept since my betrayal.”

You know what? I can tell. His eye bags have eye bags.

“That sounds like a great recipe for success,” Arwin said dryly. “Somebody needs to get you a sword and stick you in a position of abusable leadership as quickly as possible.”

“What?” Kien stared at Arwin.

“Nevermind. My head is hardly functional right now. Lillia, is there room in the tavern for another?”

“No,” Lillia said sheepishly. “I’m out of rooms. I’m going to be expanding as soon as I can.”

“It is fine,” Kien said. “If you insist on it, then I can sleep here. The floor is far from the worst spot I have spent a night.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Arwin was far too tired to argue. He just grunted in approval. “Great. Then I’m going to bed. Don’t do any stupid shit before I wake up, or I’m going to be pissed.”

“What makes you think—”

“I’ve seen too much stupid shit happen,” Arwin said flatly. “Just call it a precaution.”

“I will remain here.”

“Good,” Arwin said. He glanced to Lillia. “Bed?”

“Bed,” Lillia said with a nod. “Until tomorrow, Kien.”

“Tomorrow,” Kien said. It was hard to tell if that was meant to be an agreement, a promise, or a threat.

Arwin and Lillia both rose without another word. They headed through the kitchen and into Lillia’s room. And, without further ado, the pair of them collapsed into bed without another word.

Exhaustion slammed into Arwin like a charging bull. As badly as he wanted to tell Lillia about everything that had happened with the mesh, his body was practically shutting down on him. It would have to wait until the morning.

They’d kept sleep waiting for them for far too long. It was time to pay their dues.

***

The next morning arrived, as usual, earlier than anyone would have preferred.

Arwin was woken by Lillia gently shaking his shoulder. He let out a groan and blinked the sleep away from his eyes, his features screwing up as he pushed himself up with one hand.

“Already?”

“Already,” Lillia said apologetically. “Long night yesterday?”

“You have no idea.” Arwin let out a chuckle.

“Well, we should get moving quickly,” Lillia said. “Kien is waiting for us in the common room. I don’t think he slept for long… but it looks like he honored his word. He hasn’t moved much.”

“That’s good,” Arwin said. His thoughts drifted back to the work he’d done in the smithy with Olive and the others. “But there’s more we need to speak of. Before we see the others. About what happened when I saw the Mesh.”

“When you saw — what? You saw the Mesh? Like, the actual Mesh? Not a message?” Lillia asked, her eyes going as wide as saucers.

“More than that.” Arwin’s voice was grim as his thoughts drifted. His stomach clenched involuntarily at the thought of the sea of magma that had tried to swallow his soul. The power that now resided within him. “Crafting a Core is what made me advance like this. It’s… not the shortest story.”

“I think Kien can survive waiting a bit longer,” Lillia said flatly. “I’ll keep an eye on him, but this takes priority. What happened? What did the Mesh tell you?”

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***

Arwin told Lillia everything, starting from when he’d felt a strange presence helping him while he worked on the Core and not finishing until the Achievement that came from crafting Olive’s groups’ armor.

She listened in complete silence until he was finished. Even though Arwin couldn’t see her features — it was, as usual, pitch black in their room — he could feel her surprise by how tightly her hand was gripping his knee.

“That sounds like hell,” Lillia said. “The Mesh let you torture yourself?”

“It was a choice,” Arwin said. “I couldn’t pass up on the opportunity. We need to get stronger and we both know it. A huge portion of my rewards were that one skill improvement, and are you really telling me that you wouldn’t have chosen a Forbidden skill? Even if I didn’t know for certain it would be worth it… the chance was too good to pass up.”

“I would have,” Lillia admitted reluctantly. “But are you telling me that you wouldn’t be worried if I’d chosen it?”

Arwin winced. “Okay. Fair point. I didn’t exactly have time to warn you about the choice, though.”

“I know. It’s not like I’m mad about it.” Lillia let out a small laugh that turned to a sigh. She squeezed Arwin’s knee. “And the Title that lets you give Quests… that might be even stronger than the ability. I can’t tell if the Mesh is being completely unfair in our favor or if you pulled off some bullshit so astronomical that it had no choice but to deal you rewards like candy.”

“Probably the latter,” Arwin said, though Koyu’s words run through his head even as he answered. The Mesh had an agenda. It wasn’t going to unbalance the way it worked, but it could certainly throw more challenges someone’s way.

That wouldn’t give them an unfair advantage. Every challenge was a chance to die. A chance to fail. But if that person was able to survive those challenges… well, they’d certainly be stronger. A lot stronger.

The question is more if the Mesh wants me to succeed or if I’m standing in its path. It knew something about the explosion and about what happened to me and Lillia. I could have gotten the answer to that… but something tells me it would have only given good questions. There’s no point playing with wishes.

“You did what I would have,” Lillia said, reading Arwin’s expression through the darkness. “Are you planning to test the Quest ability soon?”

“Yes, but I want to make sure I use it on something that’s actually reasonable. I get the feeling that the Mesh isn’t going to just let me hand power out like candy. If I assign a Quest and someone fails… I don’t know what will happen. I’d prefer to avoid finding out.”

“Smart,” Lillia said. She shifted on the bed beside him. “What of Kien, then? Do you think we can do anything about him?”

“I don’t know,” Arwin admitted. He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. A man betrayed by the Adventurer’s Guild. Hardly a new story. “But I’m going to try, so long as he isn’t so consumed with whatever his goals are that he brings us down with him. Any allies against the Guild will be useful.”

“Agreed,” Lillia said. “Let’s see what he’s got to say. I’ve only gotten portions of his story.”

She helped Arwin to his feet and the two of them set out, heading through the kitchen and emerging into the common room.

Kien sat at the table they’d left him at the night before. His fingers were interlaced and some of the exhaustion had faded from his features, though his eyes were still sunken and cold.

“Morning,” Arwin said.

“Fix me,” Kien said.

“I don’t mind blunt, but I’m not going to go doing anything until I know exactly what happened and what it is you want,” Arwin said, pulling the chair across from Kien out and sitting down. Lillia sat beside him.

“There is little of interest. I was an adventurer,” Kien said with a shake of his head. His hands tightened at his sides and his jaw clenched. “Then my brother invited me to a dungeon. We were — no. It doesn’t matter what we were. The dungeon was a ruse. We got to the bottom and he stabbed me in the back. The dagger had some form of magic in it. One I’ve never seen before. It stole my powers.”

“It stole your powers?” Lillia asked, her eyes going wide.

His own brother did this to him? If Blake had betrayed me before the end…

A spike of pain pressed into Arwin’s heart. He couldn’t even begin to imagine how he would have felt.

“As best as I can tell, yes. My magic is gone. My strength is gone. I’m still faster than a normal man… I heal better as well, but that’s it. It’s my fault. I did not realize what my brother had become. The Guild twisted him. They must have. They must have filled his head with lies and deceits to convince him to betray me. I wasn’t meant to survive, you know.” Kien was rambling now, but neither Arwin nor Lillia made any move to stop him. This seemed to be just as important for him to say as it was for them to hear. “The Guild sent a cleaner to get rid of my corpse, but I killed him. And then I ran. I ran until I heard of a smith that could replace damaged limbs. And if you could replace my heart… perhaps you could replace my powers as well.”

Arwin studied Kien’s features for a long time. It didn’t look like the man was lying. It was too ludicrous of a story for anyone to come up with — and only a fool would ever try to tell someone the Adventurer’s Guild would do such a thing.

“Why would the guild do that?” Lillia asked.

“I don’t know,” Kien said. “I know it seems impossible to believe. They’re traitors. The guild seeks only power. I swear—”

“Oh, not that bit,” Arwin said. “We know the guild is scum. We’re more confused as to why they would betray you, specifically.”

Kien blinked. “You knew of the guild? How?”

“A story for another day,” Arwin said. “There’s something about your power that the Guild had to want. Could you think of what it is?”

“Will this help you get me my power back?”

“No,” Arwin said honestly. “Probably not. Separate issue.”

Kien studied him for a few seconds. Then he shook his head. “I don’t know. My powers were nothing special. I am unaware of what their goal was.”

Damn it. A puzzle piece… but where does it fit?

Either way — Kien is involved in something. I want to know what.

“I see,” Arwin said. “Think on it. See if you can figure out what it is. In the meantime… I’ll help you as best as I can.”

“Can you get me my powers back?”

“Unlikely,” Arwin admitted. “I don’t think that replacing your heart will fix you. It’ll just end with you dead. But there’s one thing I can do, even if I can’t give you your old magic back.”

“And what’s that?”

A grim smile crossed Arwin’s features.

“I can give you new ones.”