Sebastian woke up slowly and when he looked around everything was fuzzy and out of focus. His mind was sluggish and slow, and he couldn’t remember what had happened after fighting a bunch of giant spiders. A memory of Sarah’s terrified face and then pain on a level nearly the match for his body enchantment shook him. He was torn from the memory by a sudden swirling wash of chaotic light and sound rippling its way through his entire being. His skin started to tingle and then the sensation of millions of tiny things crawling all over him flooded his mind, then was suddenly replaced by random waves of pain, pleasure, hot, cold, pressure, numbness, everything you could feel or sense was pouring into his consciousness all at once in an overwhelming flood.

He was pretty sure he screamed. Or something screamed at him. Or something screamed at something else, which screamed back. He was sure he heard screaming though, mixed in there somewhere behind the laughter and crying. A sudden burst of mana erupted from his hand, and suddenly the chaos was gone. It drained away into the black iron ball that had somehow found its way into his palm. He held it up, confused by its presence. Then he realized that it was in his left hand, which was strange because the link to it had been in his right. Still somewhat in a daze and reeling from whatever had just happened to him he lifted his right arm to look, and this time he was sure the scream was his as he finally realized that it ended halfway to his elbow.

A soothing sensation ran up his left arm. Calm, Father, calm. You were damaged, and your magic went out of control, but I will help. We can fix you, your short friend can help fix you. Fear not, worry not, all will be made good again.

Sebastian started at the sudden stream of thoughts that were very much not his. Some dwarves came in and started to fret over him, but he ignored them for now. Can you hear me? He thought tentatively. Who are you? Why are you in my head?

The orb pulsed in his hand and a feeling of pure joy washed through his mind. Father! You can hear me now! You made me Father, your magic ties us together. The link is weaker now that you are damaged, though. I won’t be able to come to your aid from too far away again, this time nearly broke me. I don’t want to break, I don’t want to go back into the endless darkness.

Sebastian wasn’t sure what that meant. What are you? Who are you? How did you get here?

Laughter rippled through his mind. So many questions Father! I have longed to speak with you since the day I awakened outside the dark! I don’t know what I am though, I lived in the dark. I don’t know how long. Then one glorious day I heard your call! You were angry, so, so angry, and sad, so very sad. Your emotions and magic melded together, and it rang forth in a song I couldn’t resist. I stretched out towards it, and with a great clang a piece of my soul was hammered into this new me. On and on the clanging went, each one adding more of me until I was whole. Who am I though? I am… Orb? Sphere? Ball? No… these are things that describe me, but aren’t me. Why haven’t you given me a name Father?

Sebastian was beginning to feel overwhelmed by all this. I, er, didn’t know you needed one? I didn’t realize you were alive, are there more like you out there? Wait, you probably wouldn’t know that, I’ll think of a name for you I guess? I have so many questions I don’t even know what to ask… and I have no idea what to call you. He realized something suddenly. Did you have anything to do with that golem idea I had? How much can you affect my thoughts?

The mental equivalent of a shrug came from the orb. Very little, Father. I can nudge a little, when I want something bad enough, but only when your thoughts align with mine. You wanted to help save Old Mage, I wanted to help, my thoughts leaked over and told you to throw me, your magic and mine ensured your aim was true. You wanted to build a guardian, but wanted it to be a true guardian and not a simple thing like the Old Mage’s fire guardian, and I desire a body that can help Father more than I can now, and it inspired you to design one that has me at the core. Perhaps it would be best to name me when you give me a true body? I have waited a long time already, what is a few more days?

Sebastian blinked, “What do you mean a few more days? Jake said it would take a… well actually he never did specify did he?” He suddenly realized he had spoken out loud this time and sheepishly grinned at all the dwarves staring at him like he was a lunatic. “Uh, Hi? Sorry I’m not crazy or anything I was talking to the metal ball in my hand… and that doesn’t make me sound less crazy at all does it? Are my friends around? I promise my kind of crazy isn’t harmful to others.” He felt a wave of humor from the orb, and briefly wondered at the strange mix of adult and child that made up the consciousness in the orb.

“They are on their way sir, we alerted them them moment we knew you were awake. Are you in any pain? Does the socket cause any discomfort? Do you require any more painkillers?”

Sebastian tilted his head at the dwarf questioningly. “Painkillers? No, no discomfort anymore, but what do you mean by socket?”

Jake spoke up from the doorway. “Go ahead and unwrap it. It should be healed enough, and I will need to do a few test runs anyways to make sure the prosthetic is properly sized and fitted.”

The dwarves around him rushed to do what Jake told them, hurriedly unwrapping the bandages around his right arm. They quickly revealed a shining metal rod jutting a few inches beyond where his arm ended now, it had a notch that went all the way around it just short of the flesh, but otherwise seemed to just be a metal rod embedded in his arm. He couldn’t help but ask, “How is that a socket? Don’t things normally get put into sockets? I’m no expert but this looks like the other part of the whole socket idea.” Sarah came in then, with Kyle and Legs close behind her. He noticed the heavy bandages wrapped around her right hand and was immediately worried. “What happened to your hand? It wasn’t the acid spit was it? I’m sorry I couldn’t stop it all.”

She burst into tears, which was definitely not what he expected, he didn’t know what he expected but it certainly wasn’t tears. “No you silly fool, I’m the one that’s sorry, you got hit protecting me, and I had to burn your,” She gestured at his arm, seemingly unable to actually say it out loud. “Jake just cut it off as soon as he got to you, and I was in such a panic I burned my hand too when I stopped the bleeding. I’m okay though! No venom got on me, it was just your arm, it stuck too far outside your shield when the glob hit and a little splattered on you.”

Jake grimaced, “Nasty things, widowers, they earned that name on account of how few survive stumbling into their nests. We usually have to clear them out with fire-throwers, a division has already been sent to make sure all of them are dead, and to clear out any eggs. You very nearly died though, we have been back in Undermount for nearly three days. The blacksmiths and shapers are about halfway done with your statue, but first we need to get your new arm finished.”

Legs spat on the floor, earning himself a glare from the dwarven healers. “Yah also need to fix yer damned magics whelp. Yah got spat on ‘cause yah started runnin an’ shinin’ a great bloody blue light around. Yer not a good fighter, and if’n yah want to keep yer squishy bits inside yah, yah need to be a damned sight less conspiscious. Yah ain’t ‘llowed to die afore I gets ya to yer ma, I ain’t keen on havin her after mah skin.”

Kyle elbowed Legs in the ribs to shut him up, “I’ve been seeing different officials to try and drum up aid for Clearlake, but most are skeptical and reluctant to offer help. The long and short of it is that they don’t really feel like we have anything to offer them in return, and as much as they hate the Twisted, or mutants and abominations as they tend to call them, they don’t want to throw away dwarven lives for a possible alliance that they don’t really need or care about.”

Jake snorted. “I told you not to bother with that, I didn’t tell you why they wouldn’t listen to you because I didn’t want you to feel insulted after saving my life. To be blunt, they see you,” He pointed at legs and Kyle, “as lackeys, someone’s errand runner, and since your proposed alliance involves going to war they would never discuss terms with you. As for Sarah, well, even though according to your society she is a noble of sorts, she is also a woman, and dwarves will not discuss war and death with a woman.” Sarah’s brow started to furrow and he quickly added, “It isn’t because we don’t think women can handle it, and I know for a fact that you can, it’s that it is both rude and goes against tradition, far more dwarves are born male than female, and we go to considerable lengths to protect our daughters.

“Oh, and it’s a socket because it is mostly hollow, and goes a fair bit deeper than you probably expect.” he said, turning back to Sebastian. “Now, are you feeling up to bit of a tour? You seem to heal remarkably fast, it’s only been three days since you were hit, but my doctors assure me that the traces of venom were purged from your system in only a few hours, and your flesh has knitted nicely around the socket, I guess you can call it a peg if you like? Anyways, I think you would enjoy seeing some of our workshops.”

Sebastian grimaced as a swirl of liquid chaos washed through his mind, scattering his thoughts and thoroughly distracting him. Sorry Father, I will draw off more of your mana so that stops happening. “I’m pretty sure I’m in worse condition than your dock tars could imagine, you guys are lucky I didn’t explode and kill everyone within a few hundred feet of me when you lopped off my arm.”

Everyone but Sarah looked terribly confused. Her expression shifted to one of horror as she realized what he was getting at. He tried to explain it simply for the others, “Damaging enchanted items is usually pretty hard to do, and most of the time the damage is small and the magic bleeds out slowly, or the item just doesn’t have the capacity to hold enough energy to be too dangerous. My bow is pretty heavily enchanted, and if it broke badly while I was holding it, it would probably just blow my hand off…” He drifted into silence for a bit as he reminded himself of his current condition. “Well anyways, I am, to the best of my knowledge, the most heavily enchanted thing in existence. My test to become a mage indicated that I have an unusually high capacity for mana, and I think the enchantment actually increased that amount a bit.

“Long story short, if it wasn’t for this,” He held up the iron sphere clutched in his left hand. “I would probably have gone completely out of control a while ago. I can only guess at why I didn’t immediately die, maybe because I drained my mana enchanting and then fighting? Took a while to build back up after all that?” He shrugged, which felt awkward and lopsided, “But, I’m alive so it doesn’t matter, hopefully I can extend my enchantment over a prosthetic and stop the mana bleedout. You said something about workshops?”

Sarah stared at the black iron orb in his hand for a long moment. “Sebastian?” She asked slowly, “How many of those did you have? Because I distinctly remember you only making one, and I distinctly remember you throwing it at some sort of lava golem.”

Sebastian looked down at it for a moment, “Oh, it came back. I think it likes me.” He grinned at her scowl, “Seriously, it likes me. I have no way of explaining how or why it does whatever it does without sounding completely insane right now so I’m not going to try. Workshops? I would really like to try on a new arm or three. I don’t know how long this thing will be able to draw off my mana, so the sooner I get that problem fixed the better.”