\u201cYou\u00a0 know, Azrael, I hope you don\u2019t take this the wrong way, but man \u2013 your people had a habit of a little too much drama in your naming schemes.\u00a0 Seriously\u2026the Hellforge?\u201d\u00a0 Horace said this around a roll with jam.\u00a0 He shook his head, then washed down the food with coffee.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I shrugged.\u00a0 \u201cNo offense taken.\u00a0 It\u2019s an apt name \u2013 the Master Smith, Rithzalgor, is an infernal.\u00a0 The Hellforge was designed to use the souls of those sacrificed to it to power its enchantments.\u00a0 If the shoe fits, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you commissioned a weapon to be made there?\u00a0 Whose soul got used for that?\u201d Nemmy was expressionless while he asked the question.\u00a0 It was the first time I\u2019d seen him without some form of emotion crossing his face.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI might have made a promise of a certain halfwise\u2026\u201d\u00a0 I saw the frown starting and held up my hand to admit the joke.\u00a0 \u201cI sacrificed no-one.\u00a0 Instead I had a supply of metal from the Pool of Bronze, the grave of infernals destroyed for betrayals or disloyalty to Bael Turath. If there was a source of power, a soul involved in the making, it was from that.\u201d\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t eating this morning, only a steaming cup of coffee sat before me.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the best of your knowledge,\u201d Lotonna completed for me.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, to the best of my knowledge.\u201d\u00a0 I agreed cautiously. \u201cLook, I\u2019m not asking you to accompany me to the forge.\u00a0 In fact, if you prefer not to, you don\u2019t have to come along beyond just getting me down the slope into Vor Kragal and un-shrinking my barrel when I get down there.\u00a0 I can take care of the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Horace shrugged.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s not a problem going there, man, I think the important part is just making sure we know what\u2019s on the agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kineta had remained silent through most of this.\u00a0 She and I had already had this discussion the night before, and she had agreed to come.\u00a0 Actually, it was more along the lines of refusal to be left behind, but I wasn\u2019t going to go into deep distinctions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes that mean you\u2019re coming with me?\u201d I asked with some trepidation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI suppose so, yeah,\u201d Horace said non-commitally.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThen that requires another question on my part, and please forgive me for asking it.\u201d\u00a0 I leaned forward at the table.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Nemmy just drew pictures in the condensation on his glass while the others looked on questioningly.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I ask you to wait for me, to stay outside while I go on ahead, will you do?\u00a0 Or if I ask you to leave me in a dangerous place, will you?\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Nemmy gazed at me uncomprehendingly.\u00a0 Horace looked alternatively relieved and embarrassed.\u00a0 Lotonna just stared at me \u2013 rather like a cow staring at an abacus, if you\u2019ll pardon the likeness.\u00a0 Kineta closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lotonna broke the silence.\u00a0 \u201cYes.\u00a0 We might not enjoy it, but yes.\u201d\u00a0 They all agreed more or less around the table.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I felt relieved.\u00a0 I still hadn\u2019t seen these people challenged, and while I was comfortable fighting alongside them, the Smith was altogether a different story.\u00a0 Not only would he have been a Lord of the Nine Legions were he in his native land, he was arguably off his rocker, which made him even more unpredictable and dangerous.\u00a0 That problem was mine, and I had no intention of putting these people \u2013 these friends \u2013 in the path of greater harm than necessary.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I suppose if they had simply been hired hands, I wouldn\u2019t feel this way, but in three weeks I\u2019d grown to like them.\u00a0 As I said, I considered them friends.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cGood, and I appreciate that.\u201d\u00a0 I sat back, satisfied, and stuffed a biscuit loaded with sausage gravy into my mouth.\u00a0 Half because I was hungry, and half because I needed to shut up at this juncture of the conversation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cSo what is this weapon you had made?\u201d\u00a0 Lotonna asked.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s an interesting question, because in the end, I really don\u2019t know.\u00a0 I gave him materials, which he saw as a challenge, and I gave him the bronze, which he\u2019d never worked before.\u00a0 He said he\u2019d figure it out.\u201d\u00a0 Come to think of it, I didn\u2019t really know what I was setting myself up for.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you went to all the trouble of taking yourself down there, to this \u2018Hellforge,\u2019 at great personal risk, gave him what was probably priceless materials to work with, and you don\u2019t even know what he\u2019s making for you?<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 Nemmy was wide-eyed as he looked at me.\u00a0 He seemed to just not be able to accept the idea.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s the Master Smith of probably the most astonishing and powerful magical forge that there has ever been, at least in this known world.\u201d I said with little inflection.\u00a0 \u201cI wasn\u2019t precisely in the position to dictate what should or should not be done.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cFair point, well made,\u201d Horace said.\u00a0 \u201cSo, you\u2019ve got what, five days?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I nodded. \u201cAnd it\u2019ll take two to cross the Hastwith and get to Vor Kragal, I expect another one or two to descend the wall and reach the Forge with the barrel.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He did a measure of counting on his fingers.\u00a0 \u201cGuess we\u2019d better get moving then.\u00a0 After food?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve probably got time for food.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The trip to Vor Kragal goes much faster after you\u2019ve been there once or twice.\u00a0 No biting sandstorms, no hazy pits to pull one in.\u00a0 At least, nothing accosted us this time around.\u00a0 I decided to avoid Serim Saldazzar\u2019s encampment this time, at least until we\u2019d retrieved what we\u2019d come for.\u00a0 No sense in exposing ourselves to additional \u2013 and unnecessary \u2013 risk.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As we passed through the Overspill, I saw Madam Garandes working her peculiar magic on a male Eladrin.\u00a0 She smiled and nodded to our wave as we went past, her hands too full with the man\u2019s tresses to return the gesture.\u00a0 We saw no sign of Geria\u2019s village on our way across the Hastwith.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The morning of the second day, the Charspire became visible, like a great finger raised to point at the heavens\u2026which may have been an intentional obscene gesture, come to think of it.\u00a0 Who knows?\u00a0 The upper echelons of the nobility were never terribly clear in their purposes.\u00a0 Which was also intentional, most likely.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhy is everything named the So-and-so-Spire<\/em>?\u201d Nemmy had asked me at that point.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNot exactly sure, but I suspect we\u2019re all emulating the Feywild.\u00a0 It seems most of the Eladrin cities focus around spires of some kind or other.\u00a0 That, or we are all emulating a precursor from some lost empire and we just don\u2019t know it.\u201d\u00a0 I shrugged a little, then gestured at the giant structure.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m sure if you wanted to ask them, they might answer if you knock nicely.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lotonna looked over at the halfwise.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t think it would be a wise choice to do so, Nem,\u201d his rumbling voice almost seemed to lift dust off the road as he spoke, while his footsteps clumped<\/em> through the ground alongside the horse\u2019s hooves.\u00a0 \u201cIt would probably be your last.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nemmy nodded.\u00a0 \u201cYeah, the folks living in there probably aren\u2019t the most reasonable sort.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I withheld mentioning where I had received my materials for the commission we were going to pick up.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We arrived a bit after noon, and I led them around to the side from which the Forge would be most readily accessible.\u00a0 The smoke of the Forge was rising lazily up, drifting up a ways before being caught by a breeze and carried away.\u00a0 The smell of brimstone was still quite distinct here, but there was enough clear territory around that we could see anyone or anything approaching without much trouble.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I decided we\u2019d go in on the following morning, rather than rush overly fast and get caught up at night in the ruins, weighted down with cargo.\u00a0 When I explained the reasoning, it was met with general approval.\u00a0 Camp was established in sight of the city, and we settled in to wait through the night.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As soon as we\u2019d settled in, Kineta approached me.\u00a0 \u201cRetrieve the barrel \u2013 we\u2019ll try the shrink again.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I did as she requested, and shortly I had the wide curve of the barrel\u2019s top extending out of the mouth of the bag.\u00a0 She opened a tiny journal, and ran her fingers over the wooden container while repeating several phrases.\u00a0 I envied her the ritualistic casting methods she used, the flexibility they offered.\u00a0 In my accepting a pactbinding, my old ways of magic had been forbidden to me \u2013 I\u2019m sure I could have made an arrangement to open that path again, but the cost of such a bargain both in trouble and in sheer price wasn\u2019t something I was quite ready to go through.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n On the third pass of her hand, the barrel visibly reduced its size.\u00a0 It was a strange and dizzying affair, seeing the thing larger on one side of her palm than the other.\u00a0 Several more passes continued the reduction, after which she closed the little book and secreted it back to its pocket.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n She said, \u201cShould be good for another day, I\u2019d think.\u201d\u00a0 The mouth of the bag easily fit over the barrel\u2019s end now, and it was clear that the thing could pass unhindered out into my possession without notice.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cCan you dispel this effect?\u201d\u00a0 I looked at it skeptically.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t want to be thought stingy here.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSure, of course, though I would rather save that spell for something more needful.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYes, I see your point.\u00a0 I can always wait before entering the Forge.\u201d\u00a0 I shrugged and slid the bag closed around the barrel.\u00a0 \u201cJust making sure.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to be accused of shorting him.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nemmy\u2019s voice broke in just then.\u00a0 \u201cReady for dinner?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I looked over to see a large pot of soup or stew cooking over a small fire.\u00a0 My stomach reminded me that I hadn\u2019t eaten in quite a while, and that the trail had been somewhat tiring.\u00a0 I looked back to Kineta.\u00a0 \u201cAre you able to conjure horses as well?\u00a0 Steeds?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIf you have the castings, I have the rituals.\u201d\u00a0 She patted a pocket, and I refrained from making worm jokes.<\/p>\n We settled in, each of us producing a bowl and spoon, and divvied up the stew from the pot.\u00a0 I produced some whiskey from the small cask which I wasn\u2019t intending to trade, then replaced it in the haversack.\u00a0 I reminded myself that on my next visit to Al\u2019Veydra I\u2019d have to get that Cask of Liquid Gold <\/em>to take with me on trips, now that I could transport it easily.\u00a0 As the night wore on, we traded a few stories back and forth.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201c\u2026so as it turned out, our rescued Fomorian turned out to be the new King of Ihnbarhan \u2013 and a healthy business partner.\u00a0 He buys up a good chunk of my ale stocks now.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lotonna shook his head.\u00a0 \u201cSo many turns and choices, it is astounding that they should come to that \u2013 fighting down your hated enemy, meeting an old friend, and making a new ally in a noble destined to be king.\u00a0 It was a nexus of choices, the Fates must have been whirling about your head like flies.\u201d\u00a0 He tipped back his cup.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAll right, your turn.\u00a0 Tell me, why \u2018Lion\u2019s Lunge\u2019<\/em>?\u00a0 What\u2019s up with that name?\u201d\u00a0 It had been itching at me for a while, and I hadn\u2019t found a good moment to ask the question before now.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Horace moaned and fell back on the ground, looking up at the stars.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nemmy coughed a few times to cover his obvious good humor.\u00a0 \u201cAll right, Az, you deserve to know this one.\u00a0 Are you familiar with Stonehaven, the barrow town to the far south?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHeard of it, never visited.\u201d\u00a0 That town was old<\/em>, even when I was young.\u00a0 Rumor had it that the empire which preceeded Bael Turath \u2013 and that was a while back \u2013 had constructed barrows for their kings there.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWell, this was back before Horace joined us, see, and we\u2019d gone to Stonehaven, thinking to recover a bit of what once was, right?\u201d\u00a0 He was tracing in the air with a stick, whose end was a glowing ember.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe dead certainly have no use for the riches they\u2019re buried with,\u201d I agreed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He pointed authoritatively at me with the stick.\u00a0 \u201cExactly<\/em>.\u00a0 So Lotonna, Kineta and me, we went down there, and we found ourselves a barrow whose entrance wasn\u2019t incredibly hidden, and we pop it open and go in.\u00a0 Thing is, it turns out that there aren\u2019t a bunch of barrows there, there\u2019s just one.\u00a0 It\u2019s one giant necropolis down there, an entire city of the dead encased in a great bubble of earth.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cCurious \u2013 and surprisingly powerful, if that\u2019s the case.\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t thought that such enchantments were available to those people.\u201d\u00a0 It was interesting, this really was<\/em> news to me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s correct \u2013 it should not have been there, yet it was.\u00a0 Vast twisting alleys and streets, I could have spent a month there, finding my way,\u201d Lotonna added.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nemmy looked over at him.\u00a0 \u201cHmm.\u00a0 Yes, I suppose so, and probably could have made your home there.\u00a0 Mazes and dark and all, you\u2019d have been right at home.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He glanced back at me.\u00a0 \u201cSo we decide to try to find a new way in, since a lot of other groups have used the one that faces the town.\u00a0 We figure there\u2019s a better chance of coming across some unmolested barrows if we find\u00a0 a new path.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cInteresting choice of words for someone looking into an old grave.\u00a0 Molested<\/em>.\u00a0 Remind me not to turn my back on you, okay?\u201d\u00a0 Horace\u2019s voice drifted up from his makeshift pillow.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYeah, just hush.\u00a0 Remember first who\u2019s telling this story, and then where we found you.\u201d\u00a0 Nemmy quipped back.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSo, short version, we find a new way in,\u201d Nemmy continued.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s beneath an old oak, we find this sinkhole, and it leads to a ramp-like spot that descends deep down.\u00a0 We are figuring we\u2019ve got a whole new path here.\u00a0 We\u2019re going down, thinking about how rich we\u2019ll be.\u00a0 I\u2019m already spending my findings while we walk.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lotonna threw another few large sticks on the fire, and sneezed once in the small cloud of ashes that rose into his face.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going down, and we get to the gate of the city \u2013 we had no idea of this, it\u2019s an entire necropolis.\u00a0 There\u2019s a whole city there, all dark and dead, but it looks just like a city on the surface.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAnd at the gate, to either side, are these giant carved lions, sitting on their haunches, with one paw out \u2013 like a cat does, when it\u2019s sitting next to you and wants food.\u201d\u00a0 He gestured with his hand in the air.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s not asking for food, that\u2019s asking the people around you if you are <\/em>food.\u201d Lotonna said this with what I assume was dead-pan (still getting used to his face), and then chuffed a few times.\u00a0 Kineta snickered at the joke as well.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHa, ha,\u201d Nemmy said with a nasal tone in his voice.\u00a0 \u201cAnyhow, we start down, and we see these giant stone lions \u2013 and there\u2019s something hanging from the extended paw of one of them, something kinda big.\u201d\u00a0 He made a weighty gesture with his left hand.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSo we go to take a look at this thing it\u2019s holding, and it turns out, it\u2019s some man,\u201d\u00a0 He pointed straight at the man as he said so.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s hanging by the straps of his backpack, and his arms are pinioned out to either side, he can\u2019t move.\u00a0 At first, we think he\u2019s dead, but as we get closer, I see his feet moving.\u201d\u00a0 He made little dangling motions with his fingers while he said this.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYeah, about all he sees of anyone is feet moving,\u201d came Horace\u2019s voice.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cShh!\u00a0 Anyhow, I see his feet moving, and we get closer, and that\u2019s when this moaning starts, fit to wake the dead themselves.\u00a0 Now his arms are wagging a little, and we hear this voice, he\u2019s mumbling \u2018help me,\u2019 over and over again.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I sat up a little.\u00a0 \u201cI take it you did?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYep, we stepped up and looked, and this guy was strung up by his backpack \u2013 he couldn\u2019t free himself from it.\u00a0 We cut him down after a few minutes of checking him out to make sure he\u2019s not a trap, and as it turns out\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt was Horace,\u201d I finished for him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou got it!\u201d\u00a0 Nemmy squealed.\u00a0 \u201cThe great adventurer had been upon top of the statue, trying to pry an eye out of it, when he slipped and his pack got caught on the arm as he was coming down.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t even have a knife to cut himself free, dropped it when he fell.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHow long were you up there?\u201d\u00a0 I asked.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI guess about six hours,\u201d Horace said.\u00a0 \u201cKinda lost track of time there.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cRough night, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou ain\u2019t kidding.\u00a0 Took two hours just to get the feeling back into my hands.\u00a0 Not to mention I\u2019ve never heard the end of that story.\u201d\u00a0 He threw a small clump of dirt at Nemmy, who dodged proudly, grinning.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kineta had been silent through the whole thing, but was smiling and enjoying Horace\u2019s discomfort.\u00a0 \u201cAs much as I enjoy that tale, we have work tomorrow, and I for one am not on watch.\u201d\u00a0 She rolled back towards the fire, covering herself up from the chill.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I spent the next hour or so listening to the others before turning in myself.\u00a0 They settled soon after.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As soon as I closed my eyes and drifted to sleep, I found myself in a barren mountain-scape, looking down at a gigantic flowing glacier.\u00a0 Grey rock without a hint of vegetation rose up like islands in a sea of chill.\u00a0 The enormous river of ice didn\u2019t move, but its sense of motion and incredible vastness was clearly visible.\u00a0 Standing on it was a single figure, a tiny spec of darkness against the searing white.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Coming down? <\/em> Voedle asked.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I stepped across and was beside him.\u00a0 \u201cFunny, I\u2019ve never been to Levistus, yet here it is.\u00a0 I draw enough power from it, though, so I suppose it\u2019s made an impression on me.\u201d\u00a0 I smelled the ice in the air, its sharpness freezing the inside of my nostrils and frosting my lungs.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It can do that.\u00a0 All the Hells can do that.\u00a0 I suspect every Astral realm leaves its mark on those who spend enough time in contact with them. <\/em>He hefted a chunk of blue-white before dropping it on the ground.\u00a0 Where did you learn to dream with such detail?<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t really know.\u00a0 I just do.\u00a0 I noticed it even on trips into the Feywild, though there\u2019s little enough time to dream there.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Or perhaps more than is good for a soul.<\/em> He eyed me sidelong.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s also possible.\u00a0 Why are we fencing around this?\u201d\u00a0 The ice beneath my feet was far from uniform, great gashes and ridges ran the length of the current, huge boulders of the stuff arose as though caught in mid-bob.\u00a0 Snow fell around us in tiny, almost microscopic, particles, each glittering as it fell on the wind.\u00a0 My feet caught tiny globs of them as I walked and tossed them ahead of me, where they skidded through their compatriots, leaving little streaks of clean ice to mark their passage.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Have you decided how you are going to handle Rithzalgor? <\/em>He stood steady, unmoving.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI think so.\u00a0 Initially, I will go direct.\u00a0 He asked for whiskey and the chance to work at something challenging.\u00a0 I\u2019ll give him that.\u201d\u00a0 Voedle walked, keeping distance with me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And if he wants more?<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019ll depend on the nature of \u2018more,\u2019 won\u2019t it?\u00a0 I can hardly anticipate him.\u00a0 I can, however, guide his thinking.\u201d\u00a0 I scooped up a small handful of snow and bit into it.\u00a0 Clean, but with a taste of char in it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This is not some third-rate swampy provincial noble you\u2019re dealing with here, Azrael.\u00a0 This is serious business, and it could get you worse than killed. <\/em>He drew himself up and stopped walking.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWell I\u2019m hardly a third-rate ne\u2019erdowell looking for handouts, either, and my soul is already destined for an end that isn\u2019t natural.\u201d\u00a0 I dropped the remaining snow, brushing my hand off on my jacket while I turned to face him.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m an officer of the Cairn Jale, a successful campaigner, and if I have to I\u2019ll find a way to rip a hole through the Astral Sea myself to get what I want.\u00a0 I will either succeed, or I will fail.\u00a0 If my soul feeds his Forge or the engines of Nessus, it hardly makes a difference, does it?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Easy, boy, I\u2019m just making sure you\u2019re taking this seriously. <\/em>Voedle chuckled a bit as he approached me. I\u2019ve got some skin in this game too, in case you weren\u2019t paying attention, and I didn\u2019t hitch a ride with you just to do a little sightseeing and end up in the Forge myself.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThen I\u2019d appreciate it if you\u2019d back off a bit, and help rather than just observe.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Okay, fair enough.\u00a0 How are you going to get the barrel to him? <\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cKineta can summon steeds.\u00a0 Barrel can go on one of them.\u00a0 If things get violent in there, I don\u2019t have to dodge a big pile of horse-meat, or have it thrown at me.\u201d\u00a0 I was a little surprised he hadn\u2019t been listening when she and I had discussed that.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What then, afterwards?\u00a0 When you have your weapon, what then?<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNot sure.\u00a0 I need to re-locate Fellbane.\u00a0 Sered is an immortal, he knows angels.\u00a0 As does Morin.\u00a0 The two of them may be able to get me an audience with their patrons, and at the very least might be able to help me find information on how to destroy an angel.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Angels?\u00a0 You\u2019re looking at a full god, you know?\u00a0 He stopped being an angel a long while back.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n I nodded.\u00a0 \u201cYes, I know.\u00a0 But we all carry around with us a piece of our past selves.\u00a0 A weakness then might be my best shot at a weakness now.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I got some bad news for you, then.\u00a0 He has no weaknesses \u2013 that\u2019s why he was the chief of the armies of He Who Was.\u00a0 None at all.\u00a0 Unless you want to consider his pride a weakness.\u00a0 His well-deserved and world-sized pride.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n I thought of the \u2018conversation\u2019 I\u2019d had with the whirlwind on my last visit to Vor Kragal.\u00a0 \u201cOh yes, I certainly will.\u00a0 Pride will do, nicely.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n I had last watch, and stirred up the fire to observe the dawn with its warmth on my hands.\u00a0 It rose yellow-gray, the wind coming in off the desert this time. \u00a0I could smell blooming flowers from somewhere, and heard the occasional chirp of a bird.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nemmy was the first up, to my surprise.\u00a0 I always figured halfwise to be a somewhat lazy race.\u00a0 Chalk that up to another misconception born of my background.\u00a0 There he was, puttering around camp and getting himself ready.\u00a0 Lotonna was next, stretching with audible cracks up and down his spine.\u00a0 Even his tail snapped as he straightened it out.\u00a0 He yawned, showing the feral teeth that generally dispel anyone\u2019s debates regarding the herbivorous nature of cattle and his species\u2019 relationship to the bovine.\u00a0 They may have similar faces or hair, but with teeth like those it was obvious that salads were not at the top of a minotaur\u2019s menu.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kineta also sat up, staring blearily at the fire for nearly half an hour before speaking.\u00a0 I\u2019d noticed that back in the City of Brass as well \u2013 she would sit up in bed for ten or twenty minutes before getting up.\u00a0 I do much the same myself, though when a snap wakeup is needed I have no problems getting to business.\u00a0 Horace was last, standing and doing a series of calisthenics that just made my teeth hurt to watch.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I strapped my armor on carefully, cinching the leather straps down firmly.\u00a0 Checked Riftspar<\/em> and Crownfire<\/em> in their places, and nodded to the others.\u00a0 \u201cHopefully I will only be gone for the day,\u201d I said.\u00a0 \u201cKineta, if you please, those mounts.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n She performed the ritual calmly and easily, and before I knew it, there were several ghostly horses all around us.\u00a0 I climbed upon one, as did each of the others.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThese should be more than suitable,\u201d Kineta said.\u00a0 \u201cIn fact,\u201d she ventured, \u201cfrom the looks of them, they can fly.\u201d\u00a0 She slapped hers on the rump, and it jumped a few feet into the air before settling down.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYep, we\u2019re good to go,\u201d she smiled.\u00a0 I felt a little of that envy again, but let it slip past.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHow long do we have before this grows back to full size?\u201d I patted the haversack.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cDepends on how excited you get it,\u201d she replied in a demure tone.\u00a0 Lotonna chuffed so hard that I thought he would swallow his own snout.\u00a0 She continued more seriously: \u201cAt least noon, it was later than that when we shrank it.\u00a0 Let\u2019s get to the front door and get it out then.\u00a0 You can go in with it shrunk, and get it as far inside as you can before it returns.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I accepted that, and gave a look around.\u00a0 No one for miles, which was good, but I found myself wondering where my pursuit might be.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t like not knowing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n On the other hand, they might have more pressing things to concern themselves with.<\/em> Voedle reminded me.\u00a0 You aren\u2019t exactly an emergency, and they\u2019re pushing an army.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Considering it that way, I felt somewhat better.\u00a0 They\u2019d already hired mercenaries, and I assumed they had been good ones.\u00a0 That the mercs didn\u2019t make it out might have just been filed away under \u201cdeal with later\u201d.\u00a0 Or I could be fooling myself.\u00a0 In any case, it wasn\u2019t worth sweating over, just something to remain cautious about.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The spectral horses took us up a few feet and we glided to the edge of the city.\u00a0 I saw no gurragal, and also no sign of Morvreyans.\u00a0 From this distance that didn\u2019t mean a lot, but on a first-look it was calm down below.\u00a0 We coasted down the slope and around the row of buildings to the gate of the Hellforge with little effort.\u00a0 I really feel knowing the way is a huge<\/em> advantage.\u00a0 I\u2019ll remember to hire a guide for future visits to unexplored territory.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Onreaching the gate, I got off my mount and double-checked my things.\u00a0 \u201cI will go on from here,\u201d I said.\u00a0 \u201cIf you please, I\u2019d appreciate it if you waited for me until two dawns from now.\u00a0 I\u2019d like to think this will be done by then, but if I don\u2019t come out, I don\u2019t want any rescue attempts.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou know we\u2019re probably going to try, don\u2019t you?\u201d Lotonna intoned.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYes, but you shouldn\u2019t.\u00a0 Rithzalgor is a major pile of nasty with a capper of bad-ass on it, and if he takes a dislike to me or you, things won\u2019t end well.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Horace interrupted us.\u00a0 \u201cMessage received.\u00a0 Whether we listen to it or not is up to us.\u00a0 Now get going so we can go get dinner ready.\u00a0 I\u2019ll make sure they save some leftovers for you.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I nodded and walked in.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n The place hadn\u2019t changed all that much, though some of the tools had seen use recently and an anvil, glowing hot, was still charged up and occasionally spitting flame and sparks.\u00a0 No hand worked that anvil, though.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I carried the still-shrunken barrel over my shoulder \u2013 even in its current state it was still a good thirty or forty pounds, and I\u2019m no log-tosser.\u00a0 I set it on the floor gently, and strolled around a bit.\u00a0 The seat, or throne, or whatever you might call it that I\u2019d first seen the Smith sitting on was empty.\u00a0 In fact, aside from me and the anvil, nothing made any semblance of motion.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I made a note to myself that should I ever return, I would bring the Smith some books, as well.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Venturing over to the anvil, I inspected the various tools there.\u00a0 Enormous hammers, tongs, an oversized poker, and some kind of strange set of rollers, like a grain-crusher or a clothes-press, were arranged around the thing.\u00a0 I could not make out where the heat was coming from that made it flame up like this, but the warmth gave me some comfort.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t tell you why that is, it just felt right<\/em>, somehow.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I lifted a hammer, and found it absolutely ridiculously heavy. \u00a0Embarrassed at my own grunting, I replaced it where it had sat and resumed walking around the huge room.\u00a0 Other devices were present here \u2013 more workplaces, complete with anvils, bellows and tools.\u00a0 A great crucible sat across the room from Rithzalgor\u2019s seat, apparently used to smelt ore, for beside it was a large pile of slag.\u00a0 Above it was a crows-cage, with chains leading down to anchor-points on the sides of the crucible.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I assumed this was where subjects having their souls drawn for the Forge were placed.\u00a0 Not a pleasant end, I have to say.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I also found three holding areas, each containing bars of various metals, as well.\u00a0 As before, the scent of brimstone throughout the complex was unmistakable.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Finding little else, I drew out a small sandwich and went to sit upon the barrel I\u2019d brought.\u00a0 The gloom of the ceiling was depressing, and I was somewhat curious at the seeming emptiness of the place.\u00a0 After finishing my food, I stood again and walked over to the Smith\u2019s seat.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It was an enormous settee, constructed of iron and inlaid with a silvery metal.\u00a0 Runes were etched all over it, and in some places filled with another material. The sense of enchantment in this thing was clear and strong.\u00a0 A large sword rested on display hooks against the back wall, and a set of ornaments (mostly armor, from the look of it) waited on a stand beside the sword.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I could not reach the sword from my height, but I walked over to get a better look at it.\u00a0 Fully six feet in length, it curved gently towards the fore like an inverted khopesh, and ended in a chiseled point.\u00a0 Nicks in the edge had been worked out, and it gleamed in the dim light with a greenish tinge.\u00a0 It was probably two inches thick at its middle, and six to eight inches in width, which would make it extremely heavy \u2013 this was an absolute cleaver.\u00a0 I was surprised at how simplistic the blade seemed, given the Smith\u2019s reputation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cEnjoying the view?\u201d\u00a0 The deep voice came from behind, startling me.\u00a0 I found my hands had been in my pockets, and I had to struggle to free them as I turned around.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThat is an excellent piece of work, though it somehow doesn\u2019t seem like what I would expect.\u201d\u00a0 I tried to play off the possible faux pas<\/em> by changing the subject.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou mean it looks plain, don\u2019t you?\u201d\u00a0 He was standing by the anvil, turning the poker on its surface.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI suppose so, yes.\u00a0 I was expecting something\u2026I don\u2019t know, prettier.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYour kind always did have a flair for vanity. \u00a0Much like Himself.\u201d\u00a0 He set the poker back in its place gently.\u00a0 \u201cMy weapons need no decoration, though your people always demanded it of my tools.\u00a0 That,\u201d he gestured to the sword, \u201chas served me well for a great many centuries.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I looked back at it.\u00a0 \u201cI imagine it has few equals, given its apparent strength.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He did not move.\u00a0 \u201cYou would imagine correctly, considering what transpires in this world.\u00a0 Perhaps we can dispense with the flattery.\u00a0 It is enough that you restrained your hands, I hold no grudge for the passage of your eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I felt relieved, as well as somewhat ashamed.\u00a0 \u201cStill, I apologize for my intrusion.\u00a0 And I remain quite impressed with the blade.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He nodded.\u00a0 \u201cAccepted and noted.\u00a0 Whiskey?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I pointed at the wooden container.\u00a0 \u201cCurrently subject to a shrinking ritual.\u00a0 A while after noon it shall revert to full size, a sixty-gallon barrel.\u00a0 Hainish white oak staves, except for three of Fey nature, black oak.\u00a0 The Hainish are somewhat wide-grain and the Fey are medium, so while the mix is good now, it will appreciate over the next year or two considerably.\u00a0 If you can wait for ten, it will reach its full measure.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I also drew a flask from my side-pocket.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve also brought a full sample of its current state, so that you don\u2019t have to break the seal to get an idea of its quality.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He extended his hand \u2013 fully the size of my upper torso \u2013 and held it out.\u00a0 I walked forward and placed the flask on his open palm.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n With remarkable delicacy for fingers so large, he unscrewed the cap and held it to his nose.\u00a0 Quickly, he threw back a splash into his mouth, then looked down at me while he worked it about in his mouth.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t tell from his expression what he was thinking, but eventually he smacked his lips loudly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNot bad, Shadrim, not bad at all.\u00a0 Now, I am in need of your help.\u00a0 Follow me.\u201d\u00a0 He turned and walked silently away and around a corner.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I followed, to see him descending on a large spiral stair \u2013 one I had missed before, I suppose.\u00a0 I walked down the stairs, which were considerably larger than they should have been, if carved for a normal man\u2019s legs.\u00a0 The stone wall around it was deeply etched with something that could have been writing, or could have been simply heavy etching by whatever force carved the stair in the first place.\u00a0 It felt coolto the touch, though I imagined I could feel a warm draft seeping in from the deeper slices.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Reaching the bottom, I saw a room of perhaps sixty feet on a side, with several tables laid out before an array of six huge cauldrons, each of which contained a brightly-glowing molten fluid.\u00a0 Probably some kind of metal.\u00a0 Against the wall opposite, a stone trough of clear water ran the length of the wall.\u00a0 The water moved from one side to the next, following some unknown course as it passed through this place.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rithzalgor drew up at the bottom of the stairs to his full height \u2013 which again made me a bit nervous.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe salt-bath is done, and I shall be ready to quench the blade again shortly.\u201d\u00a0 He reached into one of the cauldrons and drew out a dully-glowing metal object.\u00a0 \u201cThis is molten rock-salt,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cIt is quite useful for sealing in enchantments and enhancing them with heat.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t become part of the weapon, but lends its properties to it through a receptive pattern I placed on it earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhat do you need me to do to help?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSpeak with me while I work,\u201d he replied, immersing the thing into the next cauldron.\u00a0 \u201cShortly after you visited me, I was granted a dream.\u00a0 A nightmare, actually. Do I need to explain to you how\u2026how unlikely<\/em> it is for me to partake of a nightmare?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He stirred the thing, like a galley chef making soup, swirling a stick here and there through a thick liquor of water.\u00a0 Steam of some sort rose from the liquid, and clung to the thing in his hand.\u00a0 Drawing it up I saw the thing surrounded by a maze of swirling threads, which glowed with changing color and moved slowly around the centerpiece \u2013 for the life of me it looked like candy-floss.\u00a0 He nodded with satisfaction at this.\u00a0 \u201cOrium, one of the bars you brought with you.\u00a0 This will be very receptive to arcane energies.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He gave it a few more moments in the cauldron, then picked it out and took it to the next.\u00a0 As he lowered it into the solution, the candy-floss contracted around it, pulling tight and concentrating its glow upon the surface of the object.\u00a0 He retracted his hand and looked at me, leaning against the deep vessel. \u201cYou keep wondering, don\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSorry, what?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMy madness.\u00a0 The stories of me being unbalanced, insane.\u201d\u00a0 He tapped enormous clawed fingers on the edge of the vat.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Careful, <\/em>Voedle\u2019s voice spoke quietly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMadness is a subjective term, relative to the observer.\u00a0 To many, I would be deemed mad.\u00a0 You are infernal \u2013 by nature that puts the workings of your mind into a different perspective than those born here in the middle-world.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rithzalgor chuckled slowly.\u00a0 \u201cVery diplomatic answer, Shadrim.\u00a0 Structured to give as little offense as possible, leave as few holes in it as possible.\u00a0 You\u2019re right to be concerned, for I do have my moments.\u201d\u00a0 He looked down into the tilted opening of the great vessel.\u00a0 \u201cAnd yes, many would consider you mad.\u00a0 I myself do.\u00a0 I respect that, even if I think it folly.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhere do you lie on the skein of things, Shadrim?\u00a0 What threads do you follow to your fate?\u201d\u00a0 His tail twitched, the stinger on the end of it drawing hissing circles on the stone.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not sure I follow, Smith.\u00a0 I don\u2019t see the threads, I only can proceed where best I feel I can succeed.\u201d\u00a0 He did make some<\/em> sense, but it was tough to see where he was going with this.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThose are threads \u2013 your feelings.\u00a0 Your choices.\u00a0 Your minotaur friend would relate it as navigating a maze.\u201d\u00a0 He knew about Lotonna?\u00a0 His information network must either be very, very good, or he had been scrying on me unobserved.\u00a0 Either one I found mildly unsettling.\u00a0 \u201cWhere do you think you are headed?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI cannot be certain of that, but I do not think it will end well,\u201d I spread my hands out.\u00a0 \u201cI am but one person, what can one do against so much?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAll ideas begin with one person, and from ideas, gods live or die.\u00a0 Mighty Vecna knows this, they all do.\u00a0 If I did not think your idea had merit, I would have slain you outright, a mercy-killing.\u201d\u00a0 He looked back into the hot, still solution and harrumphed once.\u00a0 \u201cBut you\u2019ve come a long way, and accomplished more than most ever could in a lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I supposed he was right.\u00a0 \u201cThere seems little choice before me.\u00a0 I was born to this, I think.\u00a0 It gives me purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYour world is the realm of demons and my kind, fighting over their meat, you and yours.\u00a0 There is only room for some to escape to other realms in between our periods of dominance, Shadrim.\u00a0 You and all mortals like you are like wheat before the scythe.\u00a0 They wish to devour you, we wish to make you better.\u201d\u00a0 He stirred the fluid while he said this.\u00a0 \u201cWhat is your stance on this?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe see the nature of you, we have escape, we have our gods.\u201d\u00a0 I said, more defensively than I think I\u2019d intended.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNot if He has his way.\u00a0 He would eclipse all others from you, tell you how you would be best served by glorying him and elevating His name.\u00a0 And you\u2019d follow, knowing nothing else.\u00a0 You\u2019d engage in His wars when he needed you to, to feed his machine\u2019s hunger for souls.\u00a0 Even the noblest among you would stoop to the deepest horrors in His name, thinking you were on the side of righteousness. You would enslave yourselves gleefully, sacrifice the blood of your children, torture one another with relish.\u00a0 All thinking you follow the path of good.\u201d He washed his hands in the trough as he said this.\u00a0 Turning to me, he placed a hand on its edge and scratched his ear with the other.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOn the other hand, if He does not win, they<\/em> will.\u00a0 And as terrible as His rule may have been or is yet to be, their depredations will be a thousand times the worse, albeit shorter in duration.\u201d\u00a0 He walked to the first vat of bubbling, glowing fluid.\u00a0 \u201cThey would rip every being on this world to shreds, animal, vegetable, or other.\u00a0 They would devour the soul-stuff of each in their hunger and their sheer enjoyment of the hunt.\u00a0 Theirs is no plan, it is simply to devour, for the one who eats the most of the world will emerge stronger than the rest, and will dominate all others until they discover another world to eat.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He looked back at me.\u00a0 \u201cThe choice you described to me last time seems to favor them.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI am loyal to my people, though they might not see this.\u00a0 I wish for them to be free.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cEven if it costs them their very souls?\u00a0 That it extinguishes all things considered living in this world?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I thought this over.\u00a0 \u201cNo.\u00a0 Were those my only choices, I would put aside my grudge and serve the King of Nessus.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou imply that there are other options. Do you believe there to be?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOf course.\u00a0 I would not be seeking your aid if I did not.\u201d\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t sure where he was going with this.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI would advise you to seek guidance in this choice of yours.\u00a0 No, I would urge it.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cGuidance?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou were right, you cannot do this alone.\u00a0 Your idea is sound, I think \u2013 take that for what it might be worth, coming from an insane fiend.\u00a0\u00a0 But there are others, not insane by your judgment, who may help.\u00a0 Sources of information, if you can find them.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I walked to the first table, and picked up one of the items on it.\u00a0 A long-handled scupper, used to skim waste off the top of hot liquids.\u00a0 \u201cWhere would you suggest I look?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThere are many gods, some devoted to knowledge.\u00a0 Some to creation.\u00a0 Some to justice and law.\u00a0 They or their servants may consider your goal to be worthy of their aid.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThey also may turn on me.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt means I wish to end this time \u2013 I wish for our lands, our world, to cease being a battleground for others.\u00a0 Cease having us be no more than cattle.\u00a0 Many of these other gods still use us as such, even if their touch is gentler.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou will always be cattle, that is not an option to be changed.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cPerhaps that is my madness, to believe it to be so.\u201d\u00a0 I set down the scupper and made a half-hearted effort to examine the other things.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He seemed to accept that.\u00a0 \u201cYou recently acquired two things, a gate opening device, and one to find gates.\u00a0 Give them to me.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhat?\u201d\u00a0 I was a little taken aback.\u00a0 In our discussion I\u2019d forgotten them.\u00a0 \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Before I realized what had happened, he was only feet away from me, a great hand wrapped around my torso and holding me fast against the table.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cBecause I want to be FREE as well, mad Azrael.\u00a0 Perhaps they can give me insights I have missed.\u201d\u00a0 He relaxed his grip and stepped back.\u00a0 \u201cDo not confuse my resignation to reside here as acceptance of an eternal future.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I nodded and reached into my haversack, then passed both the lodestone and the sextant to him.\u00a0 He examined each, pocketing both.\u00a0 Then he turned back to the bubbling cauldrons.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe wrapping I put on the weapon there, it has drawn tight in this curing solution.\u00a0 The next,\u201d he reached in and drew out the object \u2013 it was longer now, and I could see the candy-floss had become a glazed, ridged surface.\u00a0 \u201cThis next, is the mithril you brought.\u00a0 It lends great strength, and it channels magic well.\u201d He set the long object down in the vat, where it floated on the surface.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe bone, that is at the center of the thing, is porous. I shaved it down to give it an initial form and embedded the liquid bronze into that.\u00a0 It will draw up a coating of the mithril around itself, something of a reflex action, what\u2019s left of the life inside protecting itself.\u201d As he said this, I could see the silvery metal was slowly drawing up and around it, coating the surface and filling out its form.\u00a0 It was beginning to look like a blade.\u00a0 \u201cYes, you can see it now, it is finally achieving its desired form.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt still lives?\u201d\u00a0 I was a bit amazed at the behavior of the metals.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOnly in the most rudimentary form.\u00a0 It has no mind, if that is what you are asking.\u00a0 It can still receive your will, but it does not have any of its own.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou mentioned this was to be a blade.\u00a0 Of what sort did you make it?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t.\u00a0 I simply gave it the semblance of a blade and am letting it progress as it will.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t choose the form these things take?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNot this one.\u00a0 I can push it in directions, but something as complicated as this chooses its own form.\u00a0 The last one of these I made became a flanged mace-head.\u201d\u00a0 He turned the weapon over on the molten mithril.\u00a0 \u201cSo, mad Shadrim, I asked you this before.\u00a0 Who are you?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI remain Azrael Ille Macreane, as I was before.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYet you are more than that.\u00a0 Any best can have a name, but who are you?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t understand the question, I\u2019m afraid.\u201d\u00a0 It frustrated me to not know a second meaning to this simplest of questions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe spoke of my madness earlier.\u00a0 Allow me to tell you more.\u201d\u00a0 He flipped the blade over again.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhen I took this form, I found I was gifted \u2013 or cursed, if you will \u2013 with the ability to see intent.\u00a0 Many people say things, and do others.\u00a0 Some even live their entire lives with the idea that they will accomplish a goal, yet deep in their hearts is hidden the fact that they simply will not do what they think they will.\u00a0 Whether they intend it this way as active deception or whether they follow this path in denial of their nature, I see it.\u201d\u00a0 He swirled his finger in the molten mithril, wincing and withdrawing it after a few moments.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We need to get out of here, Now,<\/em> Voedle\u2019s voice urged from somewhere inside.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rithzalgor sucked on the burnt end of his finger.\u00a0 \u201cBecause of this ability, I was most unwelcome in the every corner of the hells, from Avernus to Nessus.\u00a0 I could see through every hidden purpose, I could sense every motive.\u00a0 It is effortless.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Get moving.\u00a0 He\u2019s going to snap.\u00a0 RUN. <\/em>His voice was almost shrill.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cEventually I became too inconvenient, and He sentenced me to serve here, where I could be rendered harmless.\u201d\u00a0 He looked over at me.\u00a0 \u201cNo one comes to see me here, and I cannot therefore have any motivations revealed to me.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Will you, for all the Nine Gates, MOVE?!? <\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I was transfixed by his stare.\u00a0 \u201cMy nightmare, such as it was, had you in it.\u00a0 Instead of completing your goal, you joined alongside Him, and as his first task for you, he sent you to punish me.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n My chest began to feel tight, and I could feel my arms twitching, seemingly of their own accord.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSo I ask you, who are you?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n My feet began to vibrate in my boots.\u00a0 MOVE.\u00a0 Don\u2019t make me do something rash, <\/em>Voedle\u2019s voice began to sound ominous, threatening.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI am Azrael Ille Macreane.\u201d\u00a0 I said evenly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMad Azrael, you must choose\u2026\u201d\u00a0 As he spoke, Rithzalgor\u2019s voice began to grow distant and my vision greyed out.\u00a0 The last I heard was: \u201c\u2026to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I found myself back in the mansion.\u00a0 In the library, where a fire was going in the fireplace, and the chairs positioned themselves longingly for someone to rest in them.\u00a0 Voedle was there, beside one, clutching firmly to the back of one of them, as if afraid to let go.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I was hoping I would not have to do this,<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cDo what?\u201d\u00a0 I asked, warily.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Direct things.\u00a0 But that damned Smith has forced me.\u00a0 I cannot let you leave. <\/em>He drew from behind him a set of crystal shackles, at least two inches thick, chained together with some kind of thick cable.\u00a0 I cannot let him further influence you. <\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI believe that isn\u2019t your choice to make.\u00a0 Now, end this.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Or what?\u00a0 We\u2019re in this together, Azrael.\u00a0 I\u2019m just pointing out that I have the upper hand, and while I am content to remain courteous, I am not so content to let you jeopardize us.<\/em> He approached, still holding the shackles.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou will not put those on me,\u201d I said flatly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He looked down at them.\u00a0 They are merely a precaution, Azrael.\u00a0 I have to get us away from him, and I cannot have you interfere.\u00a0 We cannot let him further threaten us.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThreaten us?\u00a0 He\u2019s made no motion or threat to me, other than to take the two things.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n That was a test, to see your resistance to his aggression against you.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHe is an infernal, a Lord of the Pit.\u00a0 I could at best escape him, and possibly injure him.\u00a0 If I know this, surely he must have done the balances by now and knows it better than I do.\u201d\u00a0 I stepped to the cart and poured myself a glass of wine while keeping an eye on Voedle.\u00a0 \u201cHe could have killed us the first moment he found me looking among his things.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He could also be playing with you.\u00a0 Loneliness can make you willing to treat even your worst enemies as friends. <\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAnd what is happening out there right now?\u00a0 He could be ripping limbs from sockets as we debate this issue.\u201d\u00a0 I raised the glass and sipped.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Won\u2019t happen.\u00a0 You and I are having this conversation in a time that is nearly instantaneous. <\/em>He moved slightly closer.\u00a0 We must escape him, and we must go now.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI think I want to know what your plan is, Voedle.\u00a0 Obviously the Smith sees something that he disagrees with.\u00a0 And you haven\u2019t shared with me what your hopes for the future are.\u00a0 Better start talking, because we\u2019re not leaving this room until we come to an understanding.\u201d\u00a0 I gestured to the chairs with my glass.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I had hoped we could avoid having this talk for a while, but since you seem determined, we might as well do. <\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n And he charged me.\u00a0 He\u2019d dropped the shackles, which vanished when they left his hands, and his hands had grown to double their former size, sprouting wicked claws.\u00a0 He swiped at me with both, and I was able to barely dodge the first.\u00a0 Not so lucky with the second, which rang my bell pretty hard.\u00a0 Lights swam for a second in my vision before I stumbled upright, still clutching a half-full wine glass.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I swiveled and ducked away without looking, passing under his follow-up and extending my foot to trip his feet out from under him.\u00a0 He hit the floor with a grunt and began to rise.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOkay, if this is how we play it out, then so be it,\u201d I said, throwing the glass and its contents at him.\u00a0 I braced and readied myself for him, arms out and low.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He rose quickly and turned to look at me, face distorted from its normal shape, spikes extruding from every possible angle of bone beneath.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want you dead, Shadrim, I only want you incapacitated.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhy is that?\u201d\u00a0 We circled around a chair, slowly.\u00a0 I watched his feet, which had also grown in size.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I still need you to run most of this body.\u00a0 I only have the small amount you took up \u2013 enough to contain me, and to channel our power, but I cannot keep your heart beating or make your feet dance when I need them to.<\/em> He swiped the chair aside, and it flew across the room to shatter on the wall.\u00a0 For a moment I lamented its loss, till I remembered I could probably dream a new one.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As he did this, I sent a spray of witch-fire at him, striking him full in the face.\u00a0 I sent a minute prayer to the Black Queen when I did this, \u201cPlease, please don\u2019t let me set my own brain on fire.\u201d\u00a0 He winced a little, and as I expected the fire did little harm, but the play of smoke and flames confounded his vision.\u00a0 While he waved futilely at the distraction, I leaped and aimed a braced foot at his right knee.\u00a0 The satisfying crunch told me I\u2019d caused real harm, and the scream he let out confirmed it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n While he staggered down to the floor on one knee, I grabbed a full, heavy crockery bottle of whiskey from the cart and whirled with it over my head.\u00a0 I hefted it like a rock and came down with all my force at Voedle\u2019s skull.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This, I thought, was a great move \u2013 except he apparently thought so too.\u00a0 At the last moment his head slipped to one side, and his hand appeared in exactly the place to catch my wrist.\u00a0 That hand squeezed \u2013 hard.\u00a0 Pain exploded in my head, shrieking rivers of soaking agony chasing up my neck and into my skull from my wrist.\u00a0 I remember distinctly hearing the grinding pop of every bone being crushed in sequence as he first squeezed it limp and bent it backwards.\u00a0 Splintered fragments of my wrist punched through the skin, welling up red in a myriad of wounds that melded into a magnificent and horrible compound fracture.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He released my arm, whereupon I sank to my knees, moaning.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Your death, as I said, is unnecessary and undesirable. <\/em>He rose up to his full height, knee apparently uninjured.\u00a0 Your pain, however, might be entertaining.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n He swung down, backhanding me across the jaw, and sending me sprawling.\u00a0 Fresh shoots of furious torment rocketed up my arm, and new abrasions made their presence known on my face.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Did you think I would sit idly by, mortal, watching you run this show while I stood by?\u00a0 Me?\u00a0 A bystander?\u00a0 Hardly.<\/em> He raised the remaining chair above his head \u2013 he was fully eight feet tall now, spikes all over, a heavy tail balancing his weight behind him \u2013 and flung it down on me.\u00a0 I felt ribs shatter.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t speak, and breathing was a completely new torture.\u00a0 I not only gain some measure of revenge against your people, but against the very family I spent so many years suffering.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n I found irony in his use of the word \u2018suffering\u2019 at that moment.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I can empathize with the Ruby Lord, his revenge is artful.\u00a0 And nothing says admiration better than emulation, wouldn\u2019t you say, Azrael?<\/em> He reached down and lifted me by the front of my jacket.\u00a0 My feet dangled helplessly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Between bloody inhalations I managed to mutter wetly, \u201cOh, I totally agree.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Yes, despite your moments of recklessness, you aren\u2019t stupid.\u00a0 And you have an appreciation for the finer things. <\/em>He shook me like a doll and threw me against the wall, and much like the chair I fell in a broken heap.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You see, no matter what I do to you here, you won\u2019t die.\u00a0 Unless I do something to you out there, <\/em>he waved his hand in a gesture that meant somewhere outside of this mansion, you\u2019ll survive.\u00a0 Your mind might be destroyed, but that makes controlling your physical self much easier.\u00a0 I had hoped you would have given me more time to learn your habits, emulate you better, so that I might join your companions, this group \u2018Fellbane\u2019.\u00a0 No matter, they trust you so little from what you\u2019ve said, I could probably start speaking in goblin and it would make no difference.\u00a0 I\u2019ll bring each of their heads to the Ruby Lord himself \u2013 I have no doubt he\u2019ll reward me for that.\u00a0 And then what fun we\u2019ll have.\u00a0 Imagine!\u00a0 You and I, forever, I\u2019ll beat you until the end of time.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n They didn\u2019t deserve that, I thought.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now, <\/em>Voedle said as he walked slowly towards me, let\u2019s see about some restraints.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I was dragged bodily off the floor and spread-eagled against the wall.\u00a0 I could feel the splinters of my wrist that protruded from the back catching against the wood \u2013 it was an effervescent pain, brilliant champagne bubbles drifting to the surface to join their fellows bursting on the meniscus like a hissing symphony of woe.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I came to a stop, and crystal shackles extruded from the wall to clasp around my arms and legs above the knees and elbows, and around my neck.\u00a0 I was transfixed, bleeding and broken, in my own mansion.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Did you think I was just loitering around, enjoying the wine?\u00a0 I was learning how your dream-world\u2019s physics work, Azrael.\u00a0 It\u2019s fascinating, playing in another man\u2019s mind.\u00a0 Learning to master the tricks of it.\u00a0 I have to give you credit, Az, your dreams have a vivid quality mine never did.\u00a0 Your attention to detail is positively superb.\u00a0 Those bindings, by the way \u2013 those are mine.\u00a0 They\u2019re the same as the ones I was originally bound with when I was taken from being man to being as I am today.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n I lay against the wall, my weight supported by the shackles, clawing breath into my lungs.\u00a0 The flickering firelight made it look as though my library was burning.\u00a0 Through the haze of blood clouding my vision, it could very well have been.\u00a0 In the ceiling, skylights shone the dark of night through crystal-clear panes.\u00a0 My vision cleared, and I saw a break in the clouds above, crystal points of light shone through.\u00a0 The stars gazed down as the rip in the clouds widened and passed them by.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The tear in the clouds continued to move, and behind it was revealed a bright, full moon.\u00a0 Its cool light splashed across me, like a bath of cold water.\u00a0 I felt my wounds ease, my breathing smoothed out.\u00a0 Deep down, I felt more than heard a thought.\u00a0 It was all sharp edges and deceptively soft pillows of ice.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I was in a dream, one of my own making. <\/em>But I never made those skylights.<\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n Yes, it\u2019s most telling, to investigate a man\u2019s dreams. One learns a great deal, though piecing the threads together cannot be done without knowing the mind that collects them.\u00a0 I can tell a great deal, much as knowing the materials that make up a tapestry can tell you much of its quality, but little of the story worked into its weave.\u00a0 Being with you these weeks, it gives me insight to you I would not have otherwise been able to take up. <\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n As he said this, he stripped away the ragged clothing which had ripped to shreds when his body grew.\u00a0 The funny thing was, that in spite of the pain I could hear him and comprehend perfectly.\u00a0 My ears still were ringing from the solid blow he\u2019d delivered to me when he flung me against the wall.\u00a0 The bindings holding me were tight \u2013 constricting, but not damaging.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Yet I was in a dream.\u00a0 This was no room, there were no books, there were no shackles.\u00a0 This was a contest of wills, augmented by imagination.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And in dreams, no weapon is more powerful than nightmare.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now I recognized what I was seeing.\u00a0 The moon faded behind the scudding clouds, its gentle light slipping away into darkness.\u00a0 With it, the heat of my injuries returned.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI learned from the best,\u201d I said.\u00a0 It came out as a gurgle, and blood dribbled down my chin.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He looked up from pulling his belt off and dropping it to the floor.\u00a0 What\u2019s that?<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I mumbled something, I\u2019m not sure what.\u00a0 He approached more closely.\u00a0 Did you say something?<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI learned\u2026from\u2026\u201d I took a shuddering breath.\u00a0 \u201cthe best.\u201d\u00a0 As I spoke the words, in my mind I traced paths of insane dimensional logic, preparing a channel.\u00a0 While Voedle was looking up at me, he didn\u2019t notice the floor around his feet develop a lovely inlaid silver circle, etched with runes.\u00a0 I steeled myself for what was coming.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And who would that have been?<\/em> Voedle grinned up at me, a predator\u2019s mouth full of teeth, jagged and sharp.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cEasier\u2026\u201d another breath, \u201c\u2026to just show you.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And with that I tore open a rift to Taer Lian Doresh.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I open rifts like this all the time in the world.\u00a0 I port through them to cross short distances without moving, I shunt enemies there for moments to give me a chance to remove myself from a crowd, and even at times open a fountain of nightmares to unfold upon a battlefield much as I did with Kurrian\u2019s group.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I\u2019ve never done it in my own dream before.\u00a0 I certainly had no idea what the impact would be on me directly, though I suspected it would be controllable.\u00a0 I sank my cursing grip into Voedle\u2019s spirit and forged a link between what I perceived as his mind and the realm of my Fey patron, the Lord of Nightmares.\u00a0 I felt the flood of unformed horror wash through the link, like a tidal rush of water.\u00a0 I smelled <\/em>them as they raced past me.\u00a0 I even think I heard one giggle madly as it rushed towards its victim.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I then rift-ported to the archway next to the drink cart, where I collapsed to my knees.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I heard Voedle scream \u2013 a deep, yodeling affair \u2013 while I turned quickly.\u00a0 Blood smeared the floor where my knee twisted on it.\u00a0 Voedle was clawing at the flesh of his face, pulling chunks of it off and leaving deep gashed wounds.\u00a0 I\u2019d apparently done right, for he screamed fitfully over and over again.\u00a0 When he saw me, I found the terror in his eyes reassuring.\u00a0 He charged straight at me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And ran face-first into the binding circle I\u2019d laid down on the floor.\u00a0 I saw his face compress as though running into a wall of crystal, and he rebounded onto his back.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I widened the rift a bit, opening it up beyond just his personal space, whereupon it began to suck new terrors from the Realm of Nightmare into my library.\u00a0 They scoured his form, flaying skin from muscle, muscle from bone.\u00a0 He flung himself about wildly, thrashing on the floor while the flood of nightmares scourged his dream-flesh and his mind alike.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I staggered to my feet, concentrating to maintain the fountaining rift while watching carefully the things<\/em> that entered the room.\u00a0 I wanted to make sure they dissipated and faded, as they did in the world outside my mind.\u00a0 Most did, but several clung to the walls, digging a hold into the books and holding there.\u00a0 The ones with eyes watched Voedle and I, while others waved antennae or simply crawled blindly along the surface they had come into contact with.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After a while, I let the rift settle closed, and had spent a moment repairing my wounds.\u00a0 He lay there, twitching slightly, flesh stripped away from his skeleton in great swaths.\u00a0 I swiftly walked up to Voedle\u2019s form, manifesting a sword in my hand.\u00a0 It was my old blade from the Cairn Jale, an artistically-curved scimitar.\u00a0 I came down from overhead with it, hard, headsman-style, and sliced clean through his neck.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A fountain of banana-yellow scum burst from the severed pipes, like soured pudding.\u00a0 His head rolled a short distance, coming to rest on its side.\u00a0 The eyes popped open as his head rolled clear.\u00a0 Please, Azrael, I want to live. <\/em>His mouth worked silently, gaping like a fish pulled from the water.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI gave you that option when you first joined me.\u00a0 You chose not to accept it.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What will you do now?<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I stepped free from the circle, leaving his body trapped inside. I carried the head by one of its horns, and set it upon the floor, upright.\u00a0 It left an ugly smear of yellow to one side.\u00a0 \u201cI can\u2019t trust you to remain with me any longer.\u00a0 I see now why the first of those to visit the pool dashed his own brains against a stone.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Did he?\u00a0 I had heard that his arm strangled him.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHe was a cousin.\u00a0 We blamed it on the hand rather than allow the shame of suicide to taint the family.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Something new every day.\u00a0 Please keep me safe, Azrael.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI would love to say yes to that, but events as they just transpired will not allow such a future.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You cannot destroy me, we are one. <\/em>His argument was true \u2013 but he did not take into account that we were in my dream, my mind.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNo, you\u2019re right, I can\u2019t simply kill you.\u201d\u00a0 I thought it over for a moment.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I glanced over to where his body lay, seeing it slowly repairing.\u00a0 There was only one option that I could see here.\u00a0 I walked over to the edge of the circle, focusing my will on the space and the body within.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What are you doing? <\/em>A hint of panic tinged his voice.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n At a thought, flames leaped into existence on the floor, bright blue and white, forming a cyclonic ring of devastation within the circle.\u00a0 The body resisted the heat for a short while, then ignited, burning brightly.\u00a0 Pieces broke off, whipping into the air as they quickly converted to ash.\u00a0 Voedle shrieked like a wild thing as the flames ate his body.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI cannot destroy you, but I can subsume you, Voedle.\u201d\u00a0 I focused hard, forcing the tempest of flames to thoroughly immolate the body.\u00a0 The skeleton took the longest, first etching in the fire, then crumbling to pieces which were all thrown about in the tornadic storm of heat.\u00a0 I held my arms out, cradling the boundary of the circle, slowly shrinking it and compressing its circumference.\u00a0 The silver circle in the floor bent to my will, tightening as I willed it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When the body was only so much ash and smoke, swirling about in the wind, I cut the flames and stepped into the circle.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cFirst, your strength.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I inhaled<\/em> him.\u00a0 In one long breath, I took the remnants of the body into my lungs.\u00a0 It was not an unpleasant feeling, rather like walking through the smoke of a cooking-fire.\u00a0 I felt power course through my veins, washing through me like a draught of hot wine on a frozen winter day.\u00a0 The moment seemed longer, somehow, than it should have.\u00a0 When I was done, I stood in the empty circle and willed it away.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I turned back, feeling a thrumming of power through me, and faced what was left of him.\u00a0 Voedle\u2019s eyes darted this way and that, variously between me and the vestigial nightmares still clinging to the library.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Please, I don\u2019t want to go.\u00a0 Don\u2019t make me go, Azrael.\u00a0 I am so sorry, I didn\u2019t know\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou won\u2019t die, Voedle,\u201d I said.\u00a0 \u201cYou won\u2019t ever be conscious again, but you won\u2019t die.\u201d\u00a0 I looked at the nightmares in the room.\u00a0 \u201cI am sorry too \u2013 I always liked you, warmaster.\u00a0 But I can\u2019t grant you any sort of freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As I said this, I willed a crystal bucket to appear on the drink cart.\u00a0 I gently lifted the head and placed it inside the bucket.\u00a0 I felt him trying to resist me, but this was my mind, my dream \u2013 and this was my victory.\u00a0 I imposed my choice of image on him, and beat down his resistance with the implacability of a glacier.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Please, no\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I liquefied him.\u00a0 The head in the bucket melted, slowly at first, accelerating as the transformation neared completion.\u00a0 In the end, the bucket contained a dark red wine, whose depth of color seemed to go on forever, layer after iridescent layer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The bucket transformed into a wide-globed glass atop a thin crystal stem, half-full of the remnants of the infernal soul.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNow, your spirit,\u201d as I said this, I could feel his lamentations and fear.\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t fear, Voedle.\u00a0 I will always remember you.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I drank down the wine, and consumed the rest of his soul.\u00a0 I felt his past, knew his stories, filed them all away.\u00a0 He became a part of me, and slowly faded behind my self<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I sighed heavily, and set the glass down on the cart, wiping the last of the fluid from its rim with my thumb and licking it away.\u00a0 I walked to the fireplace, willing my wounds to re-knit, and leaned against the mantle.\u00a0 I then turned, observing the half-dozen malformed spirits who were present.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cEach of you is welcome here, and if you are not beholden to your master, I offer you terms of service.\u00a0 You may remain here under my law, and reside here for the duration of your existence, so long as you obey my commands.\u00a0 I may require you, from time to time, to perform a service for me.\u201d\u00a0 I walked to the door.\u00a0 \u201cIf you have other obligations that would prevent such service, or you find these terms unsatisfactory, you are to return to Taer Dian Loresh by dawn of this coming morning.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I walked out of the room, and back into the Smith\u2019s construction laboratory.\u00a0 The transition shocked me slightly, and I stumbled into the table before me.\u00a0 A sharp poker stuck me painfully in the chest.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He was there, leaning against the fourth cauldron, looking at me.\u00a0 \u201cI see before me only one, now.\u00a0 I take it you have chosen between you which of you is to survive?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I contemplated this.\u00a0 \u201cHow long was I\u2026preoccupied?\u201d\u00a0 I took the chance I had and leaned heavily against the table.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cA few minutes.\u00a0 You mumbled quite a bit.\u00a0 Are you prepared to answer my question now?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I thought it over.\u00a0 \u201cI am the instrument of my own destiny.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He considered this.\u00a0 \u201cYou are singular in your intention, which is good.\u00a0 My nightmare seems distant, now.\u00a0 This makes me glad.\u00a0 Have you chosen this destiny of yours?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I nodded.\u00a0 \u201cI must end this cycle, or perish in the attempt.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He looked down into the cauldron.\u00a0 \u201cThe mithril coating is done, and this is a crystalline bath.\u00a0 It will smooth the rougher edges,\u00a0 fill in gaps, and will form channels along the blade.\u201d\u00a0 He pulled the weapon out of the cauldron, where it glimmered in the light as though covered with ice crystals.\u00a0 \u201cMost of these will sunder in the next, which is the adamantium you brought me.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He slowly pushed the weapon into the fifth vat\u2019s fluids.\u00a0 It made sharp, long, cracking noises.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThis will provide you the sharp edge, and strength along the length.\u00a0 The bone beneath is for flexibility, the mitrhil for a strong spine, but this will make and keep an edge forever.\u201d\u00a0 As he stirred the great pot with the blade, the surface collected the black metal in small patches, which eventually grew to cover the entire surface.\u00a0 They shone dully with a faint indigo tint as he raised it from the vat.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou do things very differently here than from what I would normally consider forging,\u201d I said.\u00a0 \u201cI am accustomed to thinking of it as a process of beating and folding with hammers, tongs, that sort of thing.\u00a0 This is\u2026this is almost like making candles.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt is, in many ways the same.\u00a0 I do not beat the metal down, that breaks a valuable part of its spirit.\u00a0 Instead, I coax it into the places I want it to be, give it the chance to choose a form that I prefer for it.\u00a0 In this way, the weapon created wants <\/em>to be what I make, rather than be forced into it.\u00a0 Much like training a good soldier, you will have greater results with a volunteer than someone forcibly recruited.\u201d\u00a0 He looked about the room.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt seems almost a shame that I should make this for you.\u201d\u00a0 He looked at me, grim determination on his face.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou are almost guaranteed to fail, and it will likely be lost to time.\u201d He held it before him, and the hard intent faded into something softer, something morose.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I thought about it for a moment.\u00a0 \u201cI do not intend to fail,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAnd He has no intention of abdicating.\u00a0 Remember, I do this for you not out of generosity, but out of spite.\u00a0 It is one of the few things I have left.\u201d\u00a0 He took the blade to the final vat and began muttering a repetitious chant of five words, in some arcane language I could not make out.\u00a0 If I had heard him clearly, I\u2019m sure that my stone would have translated for me, but I must hear the words in order to understand them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The blade itself began to shine, slowly glowing beneath its black surface.\u00a0 It passed up the spectrum from a deep red to brilliant white, shining birght as a star in response to his enchantment.\u00a0 When it practically lit the room, he sank it into the final vat.\u00a0 The liquid in it practically exploded, the reaction was so violent.\u00a0 Vapor shot up out of the vat around the great Smith, obscuring him from view for a moment.\u00a0 I could hear him over the sound of the hissing stuff, shouting his cadence.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A few minutes passed while the steam surged occasionally, but eventually it lessened and finally stopped.\u00a0 Rithzalgor turned to face me.\u00a0 \u201cNow we just need a wrapping and a grip.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We walked upstairs, where we went to a different worktable.\u00a0 He tried several different fittings before choosing a slit ivory handle, and through its apertures he wound a length of leather strap reinforced with twined wire.\u00a0 He fastened a tang nut that had a grasping dragon-claw motif on it, the individual talons wrapped around a deep grey crystal.\u00a0 With another muttered spell, the grip and tang sparked and fused together.\u00a0 He then passed it over his rolling mill, to give it an edge or test for one, I couldn\u2019t tell \u2013 he spent so little time at it, I couldn\u2019t imagine it had a great effect.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAzrael, you must do one more thing for me before I will grant you this.\u201d\u00a0 He stood and faced me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhat would that be?\u201d\u00a0 Exhaustion was beginning to set in.\u00a0 The fight with Voedle had taken a lot out of me, and I wasn\u2019t sure I was hearing him right.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIf you are successful in your chosen path, free me.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Knowing what I did of his bindings, I suspected them to be eternal.\u00a0 His fate was chosen for him, and I don\u2019t think even a god could undo what had been done.\u00a0 I sagged against the table, hoping this wasn\u2019t going to be a deal-breaker.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cRithzalgor, if I say yes to that request, you will know me to be lying, because you can see my intent as clearly as your own.\u00a0 Know that if it is ever within my power or the power of those I can convince to do so, I will do my utmost to see you freed from your fate, but I cannot simply affirm your request.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He remained impassive.\u00a0 \u201cGive me your hand,\u201d he said.\u00a0 I thought I knew what he was about to do, but reached out to him anyway.\u00a0 He grasped my arm, and used the new blade to cut my forearm open.\u00a0 Not a deep gash, but it bled a good deal \u2013 and continued to do so after, forcing me to wrap it right away.\u00a0 I swore an oath under my breath while I wound a strip of bandage around my arm.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNow,\u201d he said, smearing my blood \u2013 laced with little rivulets of bronze, I could see \u2013 over the blade.\u00a0 \u201cSwear that on your blood, and on the blade before you.\u201d\u00a0 He held it out to me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I gripped the blade and looked him in the eye.\u00a0 \u201cI do so swear, Rithzalgor.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He nodded.\u00a0 \u201cIt is done then.\u00a0 Every blade should taste the blood of its bearer, that it knows its ally and does not give in to curiosity during a battle.\u00a0 This, is Dreaming Fire<\/em>.\u201d He released his grip, and I was left holding the sword by its blade.\u00a0 I carefully changed my grip to the hilt, testing the balance and heft.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I\u2019d like to say it was beautiful, but that would not be honest \u2013 it was functional, and wickedly sharp.\u00a0 I suppose there is a level of beauty in that.\u00a0 The blade was scalloped on its back half, forming a slightly jagged surface, while the fore curved smoothly upwards.\u00a0 Its dark surface glittered indigo, and when I looked closely I could see lines of bronze meandering about on its surface, like drifting cobwebs caught in a soft breeze.\u00a0 It was very warm to the touch, and as I held it I could sense it resonated with the flames of the Hellforge.\u00a0 Small wisps of vapor traced down from the blade to the floor, evaporating before they touched it. \u00a0Enemies cut by this would burn as well as bleed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI did not tell you how I was given my nightmare, Azrael,\u201d Rithzalgor said.\u00a0 \u201cIt was your patron who gave it to me.\u00a0 He delivered the idea of this to me, in the same nightmare that warned me of your duality.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I hesitated before asking about such a nightmare.\u00a0 \u201cWhat would you have done if I had lost, if the infernal spirit had come to dominance?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d have killed you.\u00a0 I could not afford to let you live if you weren\u2019t going to try to help me.\u201d\u00a0 He set his tools back straight.\u00a0 \u201cIn addition to heat, Shan Doresh also asked me to link a portion of this weapon to his realm.\u00a0 It will serve you as a conduit for your own spells, and rather than ignite your enemies, it can rip their minds.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Useful to know.\u00a0 I looked back at the blade, and focused on it.\u00a0 I could feel the dual nature of it now.\u00a0 I thought of flames, and the gray gem slowly turned to a deep blood-red, and the edge gleamed with heat.\u00a0 I extinguished the flames and imagined the deep mood of fear inherent in nightmare, and the gem turned white as snow.\u00a0 The heat faded, and in its place was a vibration I almost heard<\/em>, rather than felt or saw.\u00a0 I grinned now, satisfied.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYour reputation does not describe your talents well enough, master Smith.\u00a0 You have my gratitude as well as my pledge,\u201d I hefted the weapon, gave it a few practice swings and thrusts.\u00a0 It was heavy, but not oppressively so.\u00a0 The balance point was about fifteen inches ahead of my hand, leaving the curved portion of the blade to carry most of the weight during a swing.\u00a0 One would term it a scimitar, though it approached the character of a longsword.\u00a0 In form it was very similar to the traditional weapons of the Cairn Jale, and I felt comfortable with it almost immediately. I took up a small bar of iron from a scraps-table and ran it gently along the edge of the blade \u2013 and was rewarded with seeing Dreaming Fire<\/em> ease its way through the metal with only a heavy stickiness for resistance.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Definitely was going to have to keep the fingers and toes clear of this one.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rithzalgor hunted about in a bin for a few moments, and withdrew a sheath of leather.\u00a0 \u201cTry this, it should fit until you can have one tailored.\u201d\u00a0 It was a little loose, but it did fit the blade just fine.\u00a0 I realized as I released the grip that tiny tendrils of bronze linked me to it, like strands of wet glue that broke and retracted between my hand and the sword.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Smith observed this.\u00a0 \u201cI was wondering if that would happen,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cThe metal in the blade and the metal in your blood have a sympathetic bond.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know exactly what that will do, but it should be interesting.\u201d\u00a0 He scratched his chin as he said the words.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNow, Mad Azrael, I wish to be alone.\u00a0 Pass my regards to Himself when you two finally meet.\u201d\u00a0 He walked me back to the stairs, where the barrel of whiskey waited.\u00a0 It had returned to its full size while I had been here, and he picked it up with no more effort than I would have a loaf of bread.\u00a0 \u201cAnd remember your promise to me, Shadrim.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I bowed to him.\u00a0 \u201cI shall indeed, master Smith.\u00a0 Again, my thanks.\u201d\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want to give him reason to change his mind, and so took my leave \u2013 rapidly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I walked out of the Forge to find the sky showing a brilliant orange, sunset coming on.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Already knowing the way, I climbed the ridge again, quickly \u2013 even so armed, I didn\u2019t want to get caught after nightfall in this ruined city.\u00a0 I reached the top of the ridge and turned to gaze back down into the dark crater, to see sunset fall on Vor Kragal.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The crater had already developed an evening mist, some distance down from its edge, and few buildings protruded from it.\u00a0 The Charspire still extended defiantly into the light of the setting sun, gleaming wetly like a dagger recently extracted from a mortal wound.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I imagined eyes looking back at me from that edifice, that refuge.\u00a0 It did not inspire me with the greatest of security.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I walked back to the campsite amidst the gathering darkness.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I came in from the night-side, so either my shadow melted in with the others, or someone was being particularly unobservant.\u00a0 I was practically on top of them when Kineta first spotted me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAzrael!\u201d She cried out, and raced towards me.\u00a0 A great fur-covered arm caught her across her midsection, while Lotonna interposed himself between us.\u00a0 He held up his axe, ready for a fight.\u00a0 I noticed Horace had his bow out, nocked but pointed down, and Nemmy had his crossbow ready as well.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I raised my hands unthreateningly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cPassword?\u201d\u00a0 Lotonna said in a deep growl.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHuh?\u201d\u00a0 My usually sharp wit failed to provide me with a proper retort.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhat was the name of the third king of Elden?\u201d\u00a0 Nemmy called out.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cErr, what? What in the hells are you all at?\u201d\u00a0 I dropped my hands.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhat did you come back with?\u201d\u00a0 Kineta asked.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I patted Dreaming Fire<\/em> beside me.\u00a0 \u201cThis,\u201d I replied hesitantly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s him, Lot, I swear it\u2019s him,\u201d she said from behind the menacing minotaur.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He eased down a bit.\u00a0 \u201cApproach, Shadrim,\u201d he intoned.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWould one of you mind telling me what\u2019s going on?\u201d\u00a0 I requested, walking up to Kineta.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n She hugged me, hard.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve had a hard night and day.\u00a0 Shapeshifters, some kind of undead, the first one pretended to be you.\u00a0 They almost had us, but Lotonna killed one and we all drove the others off.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHad you given us \u2018cream cheese\u2019 we\u2019d have killed you.\u201d\u00a0 Horace said.\u00a0 \u201cWe made a password, but we knew you weren\u2019t around for that and wouldn\u2019t know it.\u00a0 They have some way of reading minds, they would pick it up and give it back to us.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI understand now; glad I wasn\u2019t in the mood for toast.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nemmy giggled at that one.\u00a0 \u201cThat the big bad weapon you had made?\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t look nearly as huge as I was expecting,\u201d he looked at me sideways.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I nodded.\u00a0 \u201cThis is Dreaming Fire,<\/em> the latest of the Smith\u2019s creations.\u201d\u00a0 I drew it out and offered it to him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He reached for it, and drew his hand back quickly.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s hot<\/em>,\u201d he muttered.\u00a0 I checked the hilt \u2013 the gem was neutral gray.\u00a0 Touching the blade, it felt normal, cool.\u00a0 I raised my eyebrows.\u00a0 \u201cLooks neat, though,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lotonna motioned to see the weapon.\u00a0 \u201cIt looks like it was carved from stone,\u201d he pushed the back of his hand against the flat of the blade.\u00a0 \u201cIt is uncomfortably warm, but not unusable.\u00a0 May I?\u201d\u00a0 I presented the hilt to him, and he took it up, feeling the weight.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cVery nice,it almost feels\u2026ow!\u201d He grabbed it by the blade with his other hand and drew away the one holding it.\u00a0 I saw the strands of bronze retreating from his palm and back into the grip of the sword.\u00a0 He handed it back to me quickly, licking blood from his hand.\u00a0 \u201cFascinating,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cIt seems attuned to you, somehow.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I thought about it for a moment.\u00a0 This would be useful information, to keep it out of the wrong hand, so to speak.\u00a0 Then it occurred to me \u2013 all hands except one other, that was.\u00a0 Kaenig had an arm of bronze by all accounts.\u00a0 I would have bet real money that he would have no issues handling this sword.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Good reason to make sure that I either kept it from him, or gave him only the business end.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Horace held his hands up in denial.\u00a0 \u201cNo thanks, man.\u00a0 I trust you, it\u2019s a cool sword.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHow many of these shapeshifters were there?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kineta walked me over to the camp. \u201cThree or four, it was hard to tell when we started fighting.\u00a0 They showed up about two hours after we came back.\u00a0 You\u2019ve been gone maybe four or five hours now.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWell, we could travel at night, and head back to the Overspill, if you\u2019d rather,\u201d I offered.\u00a0 \u201cThe desert isn\u2019t particularly safe, though.\u00a0 Would be better if you can see where you step.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYeah, not so sure I want to trade one threat for another.\u00a0 We fought off the things once, hopefully they won\u2019t be back for more.\u201d Horace had replaced his arrow and was unstringing his bow.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lotonna and Nemmy looked at each other and exchanged a few shrugs.\u00a0 \u201cAlright, we stay here overnight.\u00a0 That will give us time to determine what we wish to do, now, anyway.\u201d\u00a0 The minotaur shouldered his axe and replaced it by his bedroll.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I sat down by the fire.\u00a0 \u201cFirst order of business, let\u2019s have some food.\u00a0 I\u2019m starving.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We had a mixed-bag dinner of dried meats and fruits, washed down with water and a reasonable wine \u2013 which is about as good as it gets when you travel, since whatever you take with you generally comes out of a skin instead of a glass bottle.\u00a0 I told them about Rithzalgor, and my agreement to try to free him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We didn\u2019t discuss Voedle at all.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d like to try to re-establish contact with Fellbane sometime soon,\u201d I brought up.\u00a0 \u201cWe still have business in dealing with Hesrith Andelyn and the Morvreyans.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNot so sure I want to get mixed up in that mess,\u201d Horace said.\u00a0 \u201cNo offense, but they don\u2019t know me, and from the sound of it I\u2019d rather it stayed that way.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nemmy nodded quickly at this idea.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lotonna remained impassive, as did Kineta.\u00a0 The eyes of the great ox-headed creature narrowed a little.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t like to back away from a fight, but this might not be ours.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I nodded.\u00a0 \u201cIt will be everyone\u2019s fight soon enough.\u00a0 You\u2019ve heard me describe the sides \u2013 demons on the one, infernals on the other.\u00a0 If either wins, the end result isn\u2019t pretty.\u00a0 We could use your help, I think, if we\u2019re going to put both by the wayside.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I opened my hands.\u00a0 \u201cI can\u2019t, and I won\u2019t, force anyone to choose.\u00a0 But someone will, eventually.\u00a0 This situation has all happened before, and it will all happen again.\u00a0 If you choose to participate, seek out Addaweyr of the Night in or around Banner.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou say that like we won\u2019t be with you,\u201d Kineta said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI might not be.\u00a0 On the other hand, maybe I will.\u00a0 It all depends on where our paths take us.\u00a0 I think once I find Fellbane again, that might take us on different roads.\u201d\u00a0 I looked closely at her.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m not saying we\u2019d never see each other again, but if I go on with them, it\u2019s likely we take a different path. One you might not want to take.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n She didn\u2019t react, just turned her face back to the fire.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cFor now, though, what do we want to do?\u201d\u00a0 Nemmy showed a strangely diplomatic side, shifting the topic.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhat about the Witchlight Fens?\u00a0 Wasn\u2019t there some report of some strange temple rising up there?\u201d Horace offered up.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I nodded.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019d heard that, a long while back, but I don\u2019t have any details about it.\u00a0 There\u2019s also Hammerfast, that\u2019s up in the mountains \u2013 should be plenty of interesting things around there.\u00a0 Maybe even a dragon or two.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cDragons, that could be good, if it\u2019s not a really big one,\u201d Nemmy blurted.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lotonna stirred the fire with a long stick.\u00a0 \u201cI could be happy trying that place out.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kineta just shrugged.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Horace stood up and stretched.\u00a0 \u201cHammerfast it is,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cI always wanted to see a dwarven city.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Later that night, Kineta and I had a chance to chat privately by the fire.\u00a0 Our watches coincided, hers ending while mine had just begun.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAz, I\u2019m really angry,\u201d she began.\u00a0 My immediate reaction was to get fired up as well, but I set it aside for the time being.\u00a0 \u201cYou sound like what you\u2019re saying is that none of us are welcome to come along when you rejoin Fellbane.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s not it at all, Kineta.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to speak for you, is all.\u00a0 I also can\u2019t speak for them.\u00a0 Who knows, maybe one of them will get a bug up his ass about traveling with a minotaur.\u00a0 I mean, that\u2019s not likely, but introducing five or six people to four more, someone\u2019s bound to rub someone else the wrong way.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSo if I wanted to come along, you\u2019d be alright with that?\u201d\u00a0 She looked me in the eye.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cFor the most part, yes.\u201d\u00a0 I shrugged.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhat do you mean, \u2018for the most part\u2019?\u00a0 What\u2019s that?\u201d\u00a0 She frowned deeply.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2026I don\u2019t like to see you in danger.\u00a0 When you came down to the Forge with me today, I couldn\u2019t help but worry.\u00a0 I thought\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNo, you didn\u2019t think, Az.\u00a0 I\u2019m a grown woman, I can take care of myself, thanks.\u00a0 I don\u2019t need your protection.\u201d\u00a0 She stood up and slammed her fists against her hips.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Of course, read an attack where there isn\u2019t one.\u00a0 Why do people do this?\u00a0 \u201cThat is NOT what I said.\u00a0 I said I worried.\u00a0 Before you cut me off, I was going to say I didn\u2019t know what I\u2019d do if something happened to you.\u00a0 I really care about you, and I don\u2019t want that to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n She stopped and drew up short.\u00a0 I stood up to face her.\u00a0 \u201cHow am I supposed to feel, Kineta?\u00a0 It\u2019s dangerous to hang around me.\u00a0 It\u2019s going to be for some time to come. I want you to be there when all this is said and done, and coming along is a pretty good way to bump up the odds that that won\u2019t happen.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what to do here.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n She stayed silent for a long while.\u00a0 \u201cI need to think about this,\u201d was all she said.\u00a0 She walked over to her spot, then laid down to get some sleep.\u00a0 Whether she was successful or not, I couldn\u2019t tell \u2013 and I didn\u2019t want to disturb her in either case.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cYou\u00a0 know, Azrael, I hope you don\u2019t take this the wrong way, but man \u2013 your people had a habit of a little too much drama in your naming schemes.\u00a0 Seriously\u2026the Hellforge?\u201d\u00a0 Horace said this around a roll with jam.\u00a0 … Continue reading