Blistering heat billowed from the giant furnace where a roaring fire brewed fueled further by Harrul tossing in the occasional passing blue orbs floating in his smithery. Each time they flew in a sickening crack resounded from the furnace the flames retracting somewhat almost as if imploding before expanding outward again bigger and stronger slowly changing the color of the flames to blue. Without missing a beat the smith hammered several red-hot metal rods folding them back on themselves shrinking in length but gaining greater durability only stopping to quickly grab and throw any passing blue orbs into the furnace.

Several hours later the furnace had cooled down significantly the raging fire from before now a deep blue ethereal flame the lack of heat being deceptive it was in fact hot enough to melt hardened steel in seconds. Harrul stepped back inside his smithy carrying a bucket of ice-cold water towards the engraved table where Vances sleeping body lay before dumping the entire bucket on him.

-SPLASH-

“BLECH AACCH” Vance cried out his limbs flailing “GEH Wha-“ he spluttered falling down from the table on his side “AGH Wh-What was that for!” struggling to stand up his body much sorer than before still feeling like his limbs were on fire. Harrul glanced down at Vance’s shivering body trying to stand stroking his beard, “You’ve had enough rest. We must strike while the metal is still hot.” Ignoring Vance he strode past towards the forge at back of the smithery, “During your nap I worked the forge and assembled the frame of your Soul Lantern.” pausing briefly to stoke the furnace, “Next is the hard part, for you, to divide your soul and infuse half into the metal frame but first you will need to feed this flame with your own.” stepping backwards to look at Vance still lagging behind him.

“This is the hard part?” gasped Vance wincing with each step, “How is it harder than the torture I endured?”

Snorting Harrul shook his head, “You only experienced physical pain with no risk of death only painful side-effects. No the hard part will be dividing your soul and surviving the ordeal. It will be pain on a spiritual level without your body taking the brunt of it. Normally the baptism would alleviate some of the suffering and lowering the chance of death significantly. This is the price you pay with shortcuts.”

Vance frowned staring at the blue flame inside the furnace, “I don’t wish to use shortcuts but time is not on my side. I need to be able to enter the Gloamwood without losing myself to the mists, I’d rather endure the pain than let my brother fade away.” Turning his head he stared Harrul in his blue eye with determination, “Now how do I do this? Without a Heartsoul I can’t feed this flame safely from a distance.”

Harrul’s blue eye glowed as he considered the boy in front of him, “With your stable soul you will be able to extend your spiritflame slightly. Concentration and utmost care, one wrong slip will see you lose a finger or hand.”

Nodding Vance concentrated his soulfire into the tip of his finger but was unable to get it to extend outward. Mustering all of his mental focus he forced his will through his finger to push the flame and for a moment the flame flickered slightly outside his finger before his entire arm lit up in burning agony.

“ARRGH”

Almost collapsing he held his arm steady with a hand, “Is this-Was I doing it right? I succeeded but then it felt like my arm was about to explode!” The large blacksmith had his eyes closed in thought, “Normally you would feel some pain but not to this extent. I suspect this may be a side-effect of you forcibly strengthening your Soul Level recently.”

He considered for a moment before looking around the room spotting the bronze turtle lapping up the water on the floor from earlier walking towards it he produced a small green bead from a pocket in his smithing apron and handing it to the small turtle on his palm. It paused from drinking the water it’s attention now drawn towards the bead in Harrul’s hand seeming to think about it before it snapped at it with lightning speed too quick for Vance’s eyes to follow. Humming in satisfaction the bronze turtle crawled around in a circle then the shell on it’s back shined with a brilliant light obscuring the turtle’s form the light continued to grow bigger before it started to fade almost as fast as it came revealing the same bronze turtle but now twice it’s original small size to being as large as two adult hands. Blinking the bronze turtle looked around unused to it’s new size before suddenly puking up a gray-blue bead hacking a little bit before crawling back towards the water on the floor to continue drinking.

Sighing Harrul picked the bead and walked back towards the forge, “No questions. Swallow this.” Handing the strange bead to Vance who had a confused expression, “Uh-“ he looked at the small bead in his hand glancing at Harrul’s impassive face feeling resigned he shrugged popping it into his mouth swallowing it. Upon entering his stomach the bead expanded then dispersed into a cold mist spreading throughout Vance’s body leaving him feeling quite cold but more amazingly his sore muscles and throbbing arm weakened until only a faint tingle could be felt.

“That’s incredible! Wha-“ Again Harrul interrupted with an annoyed grunt, “No questions. Now feed the flame.”

Feeling a little dismayed Vance nodded concentrating his soulfire to his fingertip again with much more ease and mustered up his focus once more to push the flame this time being far easier only experiencing a fraction of the burning from before. Slowly and carefully Vance fed his soulfire into the deep blue flame inside the furnace then after two hours of meticulous work Harrul spoke up, “That’s enough. It is ready. Now you must divide your soul.” Standing up from his bench the blacksmith pondered for a second then grabbed a thin serrated sword with no hilt and and tipped with a vicious looking hook off the wall.

“You must feed this Reaper Blade a drop of your blood then you must never let go.” Carefully handing the sword to Vance who grabbed it with as much care as he could. Drawing his bone knife from his waist Harrul quickly slashed at Vance’s arm cutting into the skin faintly then when enough blood for a drop pooled out Harrul deftly flicked the droplet with his knife down onto the blade held by Vance. Instantly the blood hissed boiling with a frenzy shrinking quickly absorbed by the Reaper Blade which flickered for a moment before the once shiny gray sword turned to the color of rust. Vance’s heart started pounding and his eyes became bloodshot losing consciousness hearing the distant sound of an inhuman scream.

——————————

The whispers had returned but now never stopped the sound present throughout the house and the haze was deep enough that one could only see a couple feet ahead of them. Avar was sitting curled up in a corner of one of the bedrooms rocking back and forwards, “Please… please stop…” he croaked with tears in his eyes. Faint lines of dried blood and cuts were arranged on the walls around him as well as his arms Avar had lost count of how long he had been in this nightmare. With no windows or way to see the outside world and the cursed haze surrounding him time meant nothing to him anymore the memory of Vance’s face was blurred unable to recall details beside his short brown hair.

He stopped rocking and looked up with a dazed expression, “They stopped…” He strained his ears but couldn’t hear the whispers anymore and the haze seemed to have mostly faded. Timidly getting up Avar looked around shocked, “This… This wasn’t the room I was in!” looking around frantically the lines of blood on the walls were missing and the door was in a different spot than before. Pacing around the room Avar gathered his courage heading towards the door when he froze, the sound of a child giggling came from beyond the closed door or at least it sounded like it at first until it gradually distorted into high-pitched laughter that couldn’t be made by a human.

Avar blinked finding himself still sitting curled up in the corner with the familiar bloodstains but the haze was still mostly gone and the whispers were still silent. While he sat there struggling trying to figure out what had happened he heard the click of a door being unlocked.