Rise of the Living Forge

Chapter 63: Together

Flames danced in Arwin’s eyes long after the smithy had burned to the ground and the consuming inferno that had swallowed it dwindled to embers and ash. The world transformed into a muted swirl of dimming color and sound.

He vaguely recalled the others around him, but none of their words so much as reached his ears. It just sounded like mumbles beneath the ocean, lost within the crash of the waves. Arwin remembered getting pulled away from the street and into the darkness of the tavern. He didn’t know who the guiding hands belonged to, and he couldn’t bring himself to care.

Even in the darkness, flame still crackled in Arwin’s mind. The explosion rang through his mind over and over again, always ending with the same scene in the end. It burned itself into his mind, one more death to join legions of others.

And yet, this one wasn’t the same. The adventurers had known the risks that awaited them. They’d entered the battle for money, glory, and power. They’d been prepared to die.

Zeke hadn’t. The boy had barely even started to live. He hadn’t had a class. He’d barely just joined the guild and gotten off the streets. And now he was a charred corpse in a broken building, beyond the reaches of even the strongest magic.

Over and over, the scene ran through Arwin’s mind. He couldn’t seem to shake it from his mind. Time passed, but it was hard to tell how long. The darkness of the tavern was a blanket, swallowing up the hours and leaving him with peaceful nothing.

Nobody was trying to say anything anymore – of that, Arwin was thankful. He didn’t need words. He didn’t want words. Words would change nothing.

He wasn’t sure what would change anything. Nothing he could do would ever bring Zeke back. There was no magic in the world that could raise the dead in true. There was no number of people he could kill that would undo what had happened.

The darkness didn’t carry any answers for him, but it didn’t ask for them either. It simply accepted and waited.

At some point, Arwin became aware of a presence in the dark with him. He wasn’t sure when it had arrived or how long it had been there. It simply sat in silence. In some odd way, even though not a word was said, Arwin took solace in its presence.

But, as it always did, time continued to pass. A single mote of heat swirled in the sea of shadow, keeping him grounded. The visions of embers faded to memory, and Arwin could sit still no longer. He didn’t know how long it had been, but it couldn’t have been more than a few days because [The Hungering Maw] had yet to activate.

For the first time, Arwin turned toward the other presence in the room beside him. Even in the darkness, he recognized Lillia’s features – and he recognized the look in her eyes. It was the very same one that was within his own.

“I know,” Lillia said simply, and Arwin knew she did. If there was anyone else in the world who knew what it felt like to lose and lose, to watch their allies vanish before their eyes until only they remained, it was her.

The mote of heat that had accompanied him through the dark was her hand, laid over his. A lifeline, possibly not just for him but for the both of them. Arwin drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly as a deep anger burned within his chest, begging for him to let it free. To destroy.

“That was an attack,” Arwin said, his voice raspy as he broke the silence. “Magical fire. Someone was trying to kill me. I should have been in the forge. Zeke offered to let me use it, but he’d started on something–”

Stolen story; please report.

“It isn’t your fault,” Lillia said, her hand tightening around his. “You didn’t kill him.”

“I know that,” Arwin said, his teeth grinding against each other as he fought to keep his breathing under control. “But someone did, Lillia. They tried to kill me, and they got him instead.”

“It will not go unanswered,” Lillia promised, and a flash of the demon queen that Arwin had once known passed through her features. “Zeke was innocent. He didn’t deserve this.”

“Nobody ever does,” Arwin said. For some reason, the only thing keeping his growing anger in check was the warmth of Lillia’s hand against his.

“Could it have been the Adventurer’s Guild?” Lillia asked. “There’s no way they found us, is there?”

Arwin dug through his memories – and one stuck out instantly. He hadn’t made any enemies since the fight with Lillia. The guild shouldn’t have had any way to know where he was. There were only two groups of people that even knew where he lived, not counting the members of his own guild.

The first was the thieves’ guild. There was a chance they were the ones that had attacked, but he doubted it. If they’d had access to the destructive magic that had been used to destroy the smithy, they would have used it when he’d attacked their own base.

No, it hadn’t been them. And, if it wasn’t the thieves’ guild, then there was only one other person that knew where he lived.

Tix. The woman that had invited him to her guild to monopolize his work. She’d even bought armor from him before. She hadn’t struck Arwin as the type of person to attempt a murder, but he didn’t care about what her motives had been.

She was the only possible one who could have wanted him dead and known where he lived. And, if her vile guild had been responsible, then Arwin could guess why as well. They had wanted him to exclusively sell to them. So, when he’d rejected their offer to join, they’d tried to make sure he could never sell to anyone.

“You know,” Lillia said. “Who did it?”

“A guild called the Iron Hounds,” Arwin said. “The ones that came trying to recruit me.”

“You’re sure?”

“I strongly suspect. They were the only ones that had any reason to dislike me. And, other than the local thieves’ guild, they were the only ones that knew where I lived. They must have come to the smithy, heard someone working in it, and assumed that it was me.” Arwin’s voice broke and his brow tightened in anger.

“Then they will die,” Lillia said. “We’ll kill all of them.”

It was so tempting to agree. Arwin nearly dragged Lillia out of the house then and there to track down the Iron Hounds, but a tiny portion of his mind voiced itself. And, to Arwin’s infuriation, it was just loud enough to give him halt.

“Not yet,” Arwin ground out.

Lillia stared at Arwin in disbelief. “What? You’re just going to let them go? After what they did?”

“No,” Arwin said. “The ones that killed Zeke will die. Their guild is large, though.”

“So what?” Lillia demanded. “Both of us have slaughtered entire legions. I think we can handle a godspitten group of fucking murderers.”

“I’m sure we could,” Arwin snapped. “And what if some of them aren’t murderers? Did we even know what our own armies were doing? How can we assume that the ones at the bottom of the guild knew about what the others did? Will we orphan more children? Slaughter more friends? How do we know, Lillia?”

Lillia froze in place, the anger creasing her brow flickering with shock. “I – but, they’re a guild. They should know. They work together.”

“Then why didn’t we know?” Arwin demanded. “We led entire armies that didn’t even follow our command. They may not have even been following our orders, and we knew nothing. If it was that bad there, how do we know it isn’t the same here?”

Lillia’s jaw clenched. Her hand lifted from Arwin’s slightly, but she stopped before breaking contact and let it sink back down as she cursed under her breath. “Shit. What the hell are we supposed to do then, Arwin? I don’t care how much blood I have to spill. I’m not leaving things as they lie.”

“We find out who did this,” Arwin said. “We figure out who they worked for, and everyone related to Zeke’s death. Then we kill them. Every. Single. One. Maybe it’ll be the entire guild. Maybe it’ll just be Tix. I don’t know, and I don’t care. The ones responsible will die, but nobody else. I won’t tarnish Zeke’s afterlife with anything but the blood of the ones that killed him.”

“You’re right,” Lillia said. The shadows twisted around her, betraying the fury and loss she felt, but the only thing in her eyes was cold determination. “Together, then.”

“Together,” Arwin agreed without even a flicker of hesitation. If there had ever been even the slightest speck of doubt remaining in him about Lillia, it had long since vanished.

The former Hero of Lian and Demon Queen would ride together.