Riftside 3 - Chapter 33

The world swam back into focus as the mattress moved beneath me. I blinked, my mind still foggy with sleep, seeing Eryn nearly bouncing up and down as she got dressed in her adventuring kit. 

“Slept well?” I murmured, my tongue fat.

She turned with a smile so bright it outshone the early morning sun and popped a Mind Gem into her mouth.

“Barely a wink!” she said, her voice buzzing with energy. “I’m too excited to see if Arclight gets a Primal Form like Roq. Imagine running a hand through her sparkling fur.”

“I remember it as quite painful, actually,” I said, sitting up, the bedsheet sliding down my chest as I yawned. 

"Nonsense,” Eryn said. “Barely a love zap!”

“Where are you hurrying off to?”

“I’m heading out for a few hours of guard duty. Hopefully I’ll catch at least one attack wave,” Eryn said with a grin, tying off her bracer. “No point letting free experience go to waste, right?” She came over and gave me a quick, firm kiss. “Lan! Get your moody arse out of bed, or you’ll lose your share of the kills!” she called as she hurried out.

“She seems… chipper,” Roq said, sounding almost suspicious.

“Big day for them, buddy. Have you forgotten how frustrated you were while stuck at breakthrough?”

“I’m a king, Ash,” Roq said. “I do not forget, I do not forgive, and I most certainly do not appreciate the insinuation that this day is anything else than about me.”

“How do you figure?” I asked, swinging my legs onto the floor and curling my toes at the grainy wood. 

“If today goes well, it proves my superiority and brilliance in leading the way for Soul Weapons everywhere, cementing once again my role as ruler of all,” Roq said. “And if it doesn’t go well… It proves my superiority and brilliance among all Soul Weapons everywhere, cementing once again—”

“Your role as ruler of all,” I finished, rolling my eyes. “Ha ha. Very funny.”

“Glad you think so too,” Roq said. “I’m merely trying to take your mind off the dangers of today with amusing facts. Something I’ve seen you humans do frequently.”

After a quick breakfast, I headed for Steel & Scale. Where the street out front was usually calm at this hour, today there was a crowd of around twenty men milling about, chatting.

“Is the smithy under attack again?” Roq asked, a hopeful, hungry note in his voice. “Are we about to feast on more thugs and ruffians and good-for-nothings?”

“Hold your fury,” I muttered, scanning the crowd. “Not a single weapon between them. They’re just citizens.”

Once the men saw me coming, a path cleared as if by magic, murmurs and respectful nods following in my wake.

I glanced inside the forge to see Torsten already hard at work, a shower of sparks flying from the grindstone. It looked like he was working on shaping a piece from one of the Queen’s legs into a pike head, while Landor, the new apprentice, diligently cleaned the floor. 

Not seeing signs of Ma or Pa, I headed into the shop where I found both standing by the counter, talking to a broad-shouldered man with sawdust in his hair.

“What’s all this?” I asked, gesturing towards the chaos outside.

“Ash, my boy!” Pa boomed, clapping his hands together. “Meet Gorald, Landor’s father. We’ve hired him to start on the new smithy.”

Gorald wiped a hand on his trousers and offered it to me. His grip was firm, his eyes clear and honest. 

“A pleasure, Adventurer Aldrich. It’s an honor to meet you. Everyone in town talks of your hunts. I can’t thank you and your family enough for this opportunity. I’m doing the project barely over cost, but a project like this… it’ll be the best advertisement a builder could ask for.”

“When are you starting?” I asked.

“Today,” Gorald said, nodding. “Measuring out the plot based on Mr. Tharen’s specifications and then we will start our preparations. I’ve managed to hire a good number of the folk who came in on the caravan, giving them honest work until they find their feet. Even got a few of the unaffiliated adventurers to lend a hand.”

“How’d you get them to agree to that instead of guard duty?” I asked.

“I offered them a scaling discount on Steel & Scale gear, depending on how long they help,” Ma said. “A ten percent cap, of course.”

“Aye,” Gorald said. “Won’t stop them from accepting party invites or going hunting, but if it helps them get settled I figured its good for the town, and good for business.”

“But, how will you know what to build? Pa, we’ve kind of got a few things we need to finish,” I said, raising my eyebrows. “I can’t finish the new armor without you.” 

“Oh, don’t worry, Adventurer Aldrich,” Gorald said. “Mr. and Mrs. Tharen have already given me the detailed building plans, besides, all the work will be done out back. We’ll keep away from the smithy and the house so you can work at peace.”

“Detailed building plans? How?” I asked, looking at Pa, even more confused now. 

“We’ve been planning this for ages, son. Would have been foolish not to, right?” Pa said with a shrug, though I spotted the deep satisfaction in his eyes. He was enjoying this immensely. “Back when we worked on this forge, I hired the architect to draw up plans for the perfect forge. One we couldn’t afford back then. But a man’s got to have a dream to hammer towards.”

“You’ve really thought of everything,” I said, looking from Ma to Pa. It was staggering to see a plan they’d only spoken of in whispers just days ago already in motion.

“Don’t we always?” Ma asked, handing me a cup of tea.

A while later, with Gorald and his crew out back, making quite the racket, I inspected the progress on my new armor with Pa and Torsten.

“The Scrambler plates for the cuirass are all completed, as are those for the greaves and vambraces,” Pa said. “Today we’ll make the dome for the helmet, and also start work on the frame and bracing using the heartwood of the Woodweaver.”

“What an affront it was for the Hive Mind to force my kingly soul into the form of a spidery monster. Me, a king, in the form of an arachnid?” Roq said from his perch on the main anvil. “It is good to finally see the remains of that shell turned into something useful.”

I picked up the smooth sheet of glass-like material Pa had carved from the Emmet Queen’s eye. It would be slotted into the visor for my new helmet. 

“Beautiful,” I said, looking through it. The world was tinted a subtle crimson, but less shaded than I had expected. 

“Better be,” Pa said. “I’ve been stuck polishing that thing three nights in a row.”

“Wonder what this will all be like when it’s finished and slotted together,” I said, placing the lens back on the table next to a melon-sized piece of Quarris’ crystal that would be set in the chest of the cuirass. 

Pa hoped it would help disperse magical energy.

Landor approached, grasping the broomhandle tightly, carefully leaning in to look at the pieces. He stared down at the crimson plumes of the Emmet Queen. “I understand how you will use the plates for reinforcement, sir, but… what are these steel feathers for?”

“Those are plumes, lad,” I said with a laugh. “They’ll go on my helmet, make me easier to spot.”

“But… won’t it just make you an easier target for the monsters?” the boy asked, his brow furrowed in confusion.

“I hope so!”

“I hope so!” I said and winked at the apprentice. “Easier to kill them when I don’t have to chase them down. Besides, it’ll allow the other adventurers and guards to more easily see where I am. Also, the monsters attack everything anyway. Doesn’t change a thing.”

Landor nodded slowly and reached out, touching the pile of Arclight’s silvery under-fur. 

“It’s so soft,” he murmured.

“It wasn’t soft when it was trying to tear our faces off,” Roq said dryly.

“These materials are beautiful and powerful. But they came from monsters that would kill your family without a second thought,” I said, my voice hardening slightly. “Never forget that, Landor. Now, go help your father. We need some quiet for this next part.”

The boy nodded and hurried out, and Pa nodded for Torsten to lock up the smithy. 

As he did, Pa pulled out and handed me a small package, a conspiratorial smile on his face. 

“The jeweler dropped by this morning. Said your… special order was ready.”

“Perfect,” I said, goosebumps running down my back and I smiled. “Then it’s time to finish my secret project.” I swiped a small, velvet-wrapped object from my spatial storage. I carefully unwrapped it, revealing the still work in progress ring.

The band was forged from the Scrambler’s self-repairing shell, polished to a mirror shine. It was a simple, powerful design, with a single setting for a center stone, flanked by alternating splinters of pink Quarris crystal, and black chips of the Queen’s eye.

“It’s really coming together,” Torsten said. “She’s a lucky gal.”

“I’m the lucky one,” I corrected, my heart giving a small lurch. 

I took the small package from the jeweler and poured its contents into my palm. A single, perfectly cut, square gem, made from a piece of the Emmet Queen’s Heart I’d chipped off with Roq’s spike.

“The bipeds have their uses, I suppose,” Roq said, his voice holding a rare note of grudging admiration. “It’s been completely changed. I’d say it is now worthy of your mate.”

I exchanged a smile with Torsten, then moved on to the delicate work of setting the final stone.

Later, Ma came to say goodbye. 

“Wish Arclight and Eryn good luck from us,” she said, pulling me into a hug.

“I should be there,” Pa grumbled from the doorway. “For Arclight’s breakthrough. Or at least we should have sent for Lysander. To think that wily old bastard slipped out in the middle of the night without so much as a farewell. Rude.”

“I’m sure you’ll see your friend again, Pa,” I said, chuckling. He was still not over his friend leaving so suddenly. “And we don’t know what Arclight’s breakthrough will be like. If it’s anything like Roq’s, it might be dangerous for non-classed folk to be too close.”

“If you do not like it, start consuming gems and become classed!” Roq offered.

Pa just scoffed. 

“It’s too expensive, and I’m too old for that nonsense.”

“Stubborn, the both of you,” I said. “And you’d both get younger from the process and you know it!” I shook my head as I left the smithy, the finished ring a happy secret in my storage.

Now to find the perfect time and location.

*

We gathered in a barely shaded gully several miles from Dawnwatch, not wanting any prying eyes on what was about to go down. The air was still and my chest was tight with anticipation. Katherine stood with Knut, covered by his tower shield.

“Good luck,” I said, squeezing Eryn’s hand one last time. “We’re all here for you.”

She gave me a grateful, nervous smile. 

“Thanks, Ash.”

“I’m rested and at full mana,” Katherine announced. “Ready when you are.”

Lan lurked by the gully wall next to Nabeeh and offered a stiff nod. 

“Thank you… for letting me be here. I want to see what it’s like to have your weapon break through.”

Eryn held her bow up, and asked, “Arclight? Anything you want to say?”

“Larger prey awaits,” the soul weapon spoke calmly. “The hunter must evolve. It is time.”

“A kingly act requires a proper audience,” Roq said. “I shall bear witness to this… attempt. Should be amusing to see a lesser weapon try to match my glorious ascension.”

“Your ‘ascension’ nearly tore your wielder in half. Today I step up to pass you by,” Arclight snapped back. “Try to keep up, stone-on-a-stick.”

Roq sputtered, but before he could launch into a tirade, he seemed to reconsider. “Hmph. A show of spirit. Good. You will need it.” Then, to my utter shock, he added, “Good luck, bow.”

Eryn took a deep, steadying breath and raised the deep green Ranger’s gem, carefully held in her glove so it didn’t touch her skin. Without another word, she pressed it to Arclight’s central lightning globule.

The effect was not a slow melt, but a violent detonation.

The gem didn’t dissolve; it shattered into a thousand motes of emerald light. My eyes went wide as Eryn cried out and dropped to one knee, the concussive force ripping her glove to shreds and flinging her arm back. But her other hand was clasped tightly around the bow.

A howling wind erupted from the bow, a physical force that tore at my clothes, pushing me back and sending dust and stones skittering across the ground. The emerald motes spun around Arclight, a miniature galaxy of green fire.

Arcs of lightning, white and blue, crackled along the bow’s limbs before leaping into the air, seeking purchase. Several bolts slammed into the ground, kicking up showers of smoking dirt.

One struck Knut’s raised tower shield with a deafening crack, but the big man stood firm. Another shot through the air and seared into my side... I gritted my teeth, but my gut twisted as stray arcs caught Nabeeh and Lan, sending them tumbling backward with yelps of pain.

A sound came from Arclight, like the moan of a wounded animal, and the bow bucked in Eryn’s grasp like a wild beast. The bowstring snapped with the sound of a whip-crack, lashing across Eryn’s face and leaving a thin, bloody line on her cheek.

“I can’t… I can’t control it!” Eryn yelled, her voice strained. She struggled to get her bleeding second hand onto the bow, but the gale-force wind kept her off balance, forcing her to plant her hand to stay upright. “I’ve got the vision, but the energy won’t listen! It’s! Just! Chaos!”

The storm intensified, the lightning strikes growing more frequent, more violent, the uncontrolled power turning into a maelstrom. 

“AAAAAAAAAARGH!” Arclight yowled.

“I’m losing her!” Eryn screamed, her voice cracking with pain and despair. “Roq! Help me!”

“The energy is tearing Arclight apart!” he replied with a hint of panic. “Her body is in shock! All the different pieces are fighting each other! There’s no plan, no cohesion!”

That’s it.

The thought hit me with the force of a hammer blow. Roq was a lump. A glorious, kingly lump, yes, but fundamentally, he was a head and a haft. Two parts, one purpose.

“Eryn!” I yelled over the wind. “You were right! Roq is just two parts! Arclight is… a lot! It all has to be changed, fitted together!”

My words seemed to cut through her panic as her eyes went wide. Her mouth moved, whispering something lost in the wind. A sudden, stunning clarity appeared on her face.

“Yes!” Roq said. “You are the healer! Now, quick, heal my friend before she’s destroyed and loses her mind like that stupid axe of Mara’s!”

Eryn’s entire posture changed and she closed her eyes. Her face softened, and she swayed with the storm, no longer fighting it. But instead of being swept away, a calm seemed to settle over her, as if the wind pressed in on her from all sides, like a support.

“What is happening?” I asked, my voice tight. Katherine was huddled behind Knut’s shield, squinting against the dust and stones, while Lan helped Nabeeh back to her feet.

“She’s soothing the energy like frayed nerves,” Roq replied. “Steadying the wind like a panicked breath. She’s slipping her mind in through the chaos. Arclight, hold on! She’s coming!”

“So, she’s… healing her?”

“Yes.”

Slowly, the howling storm quieted. The wind spiralled into a focused vortex around the bow. The lightning ceased their random arcs, and coalesced, weaving themselves like golden threads into Arclight.

Eryn pulled the bow from the air and knelt, lowering it on her lap. Then she ran her bleeding hand slowly and lovingly back and forth along the bow’s length.

With each pass, Arclight’s form shifted.

The stacked layers of the spine slats shortened and compressed, yet the mat of sinew stayed taut as the recurve deepened, creating a more aggressive and powerful shape. The thin veneer of steelhusk seemed to flow, becoming denser, and the Lightning Globule set in the riser shrank, but its inner golden light brightened.

Arclight was being reborn, smaller, denser, and purer.

After a dozen passes, a deafening crack of thunder shook the ground, and Lan shrieked in surprise.

The storm collapsed inward, all the lightning and wind vanishing, sucked into Arclight’s globule in a blinding implosion of light. Then, an absolute ringing silence fell over the group as the dust slowly settled, revealing the calm sky once more.

Eryn knelt, panting, in the center of a big scorchmark, smoke rising around her. Her hair was a wild tangle, and face streaked with dirt and blood.

But in her hands, she held Arclight.

Or what Arclight had become.

It was a hand-span shorter and the golden runes stood out brightly, not fading in the slightest. The lightning globule thrummed with power, a golden sun with a tiny, piercingly red center, like a predatory eye. It was a compact, elegant, and utterly lethal-looking weapon.

Eryn let out a shaky, triumphant laugh, pure joy on her face. 

“Arclight? Are you… are you okay?”

“VANNASH!” Arclight screamed.

The scream was filled with such pure, unadulterated rage, and so loud and powerful that Eryn cried out and scrambled backward, dropping the bow.

“Throw me and run, Ash! Quick!” Roq said, his voice filled with something I’d never heard before.

Without thinking, I did as he said, hurling my warhammer away to one side of Arclight, while I ran for Eryn on the other.

As Roq sailed through the air, a thick, blood-red smoke erupted from Arclight, obscuring the bow completely.

“To me!” Knut roared, moving towards the two mages, Katherine safely behind him.

“Is Arclight’s mind lost?”

Just as my warhammer thudded onto the dirt, the red smoke cleared.

Where a bow had been, a beast now stood. 

One that reminded me of the Arclight we had fought and killed. 

She was still feline, with a broad, muscular frame on long, powerful limbs. And most of her body was covered in short, golden fur through which lightning crackled and danced.

But that’s where the similarities ended.

Her snout was longer, narrower, her nostrils more flared.

A jagged ridge of yellow, translucent crystals ran from her forehead and up along her spine, and her tail was now twice as long, ending in a blade-like tip. And sprouting from her shoulders were two small wings, each about the length of my arm. Her glowing yellow eyes tracked across me before landing on Roq.

“Primal Form,” Roq said and black smoke exploded around him.

With a snarl that was half roar, half the crackle of a thunderstorm, Arclight pounced.