The forest gently swayed a light breeze drifted through the air sounds of wildlife heard but not seen Vance found himself in his familiar hunting spot outside of town. Glancing down he looked at his hands but there was no sword only his bow that he had left at home, strangely without his quiver of arrows on his back.

“Divide my soul and never let go of the sword…” scratching his head bemusedly, “Hopefully I didn’t fail the second part already, guess I should look around for some clues.”

Resolved he began to explore the woods that looked exactly as last remembered them down to the markings he made on the trees while hunting. After an hour of exploration he had found that the forest itself was only a mile in diameter the edges of which gave way to a formless black void, Vance stared around the woods once more trying to determine what he should do.

A rustling in the grass behind him drew his attention he turned around, some feet away was a mirror copy of himself with their bow drawn and arrow nocked. Eyes wide Vance leapt behind a tree to his left barely dodging the flying arrow that grazed his shoulder drawing a trace of blood, “Argh!” he rolled ahead keeping the tree between him and his aggressive clone, quickly drawing his own bow he forgot he didn’t even have arrows. Grimacing he called out to his clone, “Why are you trying to kill me!” then backing up to dodge the bow’s limb swiping at his face, the copy not bothering to respond, continuing to attack.

Retaliating Vance followed up kicking outward at his clone’s waist but missed as they dodged forward to gut punch Vance, “Ugh!” resisting the urge to collapse he threw head forward headbutting his clone in the nose who fell backwards a couple of steps still making no noise. Looking back at Vance with an expressionless face they raised their bow once more nocking an arrow from thin air, while they took aim Vance risked it running forward tackling his copy to the ground. They both wrestled for a minute throwing punches and kicks to fend off the other when Vance finally managed to knock away his clone’s bow, flying through the air the bow clattered on the white stone floor before fading away his clone shortly following after.

Now alone again Vance looked around confused, still on guard, at his new surroundings. As far as the eye could see was an endless expanse of white skies and stone flooring, in the distance seemed to be a slight haze. Walking forward he stilled once again face to face with his mirror image Vance quickly readied himself for a fight but his clone only simply nodded becoming translucent his form giving way to flickering soulfire, relaxing his stance felt a sudden heft in his hand the Reaper Blade appearing whee his bow used to be.

Vance nodded to the floating flame opposite him wielding the sword solemnly before stabbing the blade deep into the soulfire. Instantly the entire white realm around him cracked, the sky rent in half roiling with red storm clouds, his Reaper Blade seemed to absorb the now slowly shrinking soulfire. A strange twisting burning pain radiated throughout Vance’s body feeling like he was aging dozens of years with each second that passed. His body was hunched with haunted eyes and strained bone-white knuckles gripped the sword as if his life depended on it.

When the flame was but a shadow of its former self Vance felt the pain contort multiplying in intensity, he was on his knees but still stubbornly grasped the sword while it absorbed the remaining fire a whisper of a candle’s flame until at last the soulfire disappeared into the Reaper Blade.

Collapsing forward almost impaling himself with the sword he fell on the floor gasping his body looking like it had aged a hundred years with deeply wrinkled skin, long patches of white hair with barely any meat on his bones as if he was already a corpse. His vision began to fade as the world around him started to crumble.

————————————

When Vance woke up he found himself standing in front of Harrul who was putting away his bone knife, “You’re back. Time in the soul has almost no meaning.”

Looking down at the Reaper Blade in his hands its rust coloring faded to reveal the shiny gray steel that now flickered with hints of blue along its length. Somewhat awed he spoke, “I got lucky. I think confronting my other half should have been more difficult, was that because of the stabilizing ritual?” reaching out to hand the sword back to Harrul who held his palm up to stop him, “No keep the blade for now.” The large smith continued talking while heading back to his bench “Dividing the soul is different for everyone. A stable soul certainly helps but the ease you experienced is, I suspect, because your soul shared the same wish only giving you a token fight to prove yourself.”

With his one arm Harrul picked up the lantern frame off the bench, “Use your first instinct.” Then without warning threw it in the air towards Vance. Time seemed to slow as the lantern flew head over head towards him about to reach out to catch it in his free hand he stopped, The Reaper Blade in his other hand hummed with a familiar tone, understanding filled his eyes as Vance changed his stance thrusting his glowing sword forward into the falling lantern its metal frame shattering like glass.

A bright pale blue light lit up the forge his sword shining as a ghostly blue flame erupted forward gathering the flying metal shards before condensing around Vance’s hand forming into a lantern, the metal a dull dark blue with hints of glittering white steel and containing a small bright white orb covered in a thin layer of dancing blue flames.

Walking up to the young man while admiring his new Soul Lantern Harrul grunted, “Fawn over your lantern elsewhere. I have more work to do.” He patted Vance’s back almost knocking him over and taking the Reaper Blade from his hand, “Rest for a day to get used to your lantern. Waste of my time if you die to impatience.”

Ignoring the pain from his back where Harrul’s obscene strength hit him Vance stared at the smith’s grim face then smiled patting his fist against his chest, “Thank you Harrul. I will never forget your help.”

With twitching eyebrows Harrul closed his eyes, Vance having already left, slowly bringing his own fist to his chest patting gently.