by Dante King
“You reached out to me in my world, didn’t you?” I thought back to the day when I had crossed over.
“Oh, yes.”
“The things you did... They didn’t seem quite real, but they worked. Did that actually happen, or was it just another dream you planted in my head?”
“Planted in your head, indeed! You make it sound so sinister, but there’s nothing you and I have done, inside your head or outside of it, that wasn’t as much your choice as it was mine. If you didn’t want it, all you had to do was say.”
“That’s not what I mean. Now, tell me: what happened on Earth… was it real?”
“As real as rain, my sweet, and just as able to send a chill through you.”
“So, you moved from the Seven Realms to my world, and then, back again?”
“Ah, I see.”
There was a moment of quiet. Outside, the wind was blowing hard against the walls of the guild house, rattling shutters and shaking loose roof tiles. Rutmonlir had predicted that a thaw would start tomorrow, but if he was right, then the thaw was in no rush.
“You want things to be simple,” Nydarth said. “For me to be in this world or that, one place or another. But that isn’t what I am. I am woman and dragon. I am fire made flesh and I am the ghost within the sword. I am in the Seven Realms and that without ever traveling between the two.”
“Is this a quantum thing?” I asked.
“Would it make it easier for you if I said yes?”
I shrugged. “Not really, but at least I’d have a concrete answer.”
“Very well. Like you, I am an Augmenter. As well as fire, I have some power over void. They haven’t taught you about void, have they?”
“You know the answer, or you wouldn’t be asking.”
“You’re so handsome when you the anger rises within you. Void is an element many disapprove of because of the ways it has been abused. But in the right hands, it is a powerful tool. It allows an Augmenter to master time and space, to travel between realms and even between worlds.
“Void does not always follow the rules of the world as you live them. Through its power, a person or an object can sometimes be in more than one place at once. And then, by choosing which truth to make real, they can shift from one world to the next.”
“So, is that what you’re going to teach me—how to channel void Vigor?”
“Oh, no. My sweet man, that power would consume you in an instant. Maybe someday you will be capable of channeling so great an element. For now, I am here to teach you more about fire.”
“What can you teach me that a guild full of fire masters can’t?”
Her laughter rang as clear as the tolling of a bell. “I am the greatest of fire dragons. There is nothing they can teach you that I cannot teach better. Now, stand and pick up the Sundered Heart Sword.”
I wrapped my fingers around the handle of the sword and noticed how perfectly it fitted my grip. The Sundered Heart. I imagined that there must be a story behind the name, a tale of lost love perhaps or of heartbreaking grief. But stories could wait for later. Now, I was here to learn.
“Everything you have learned about Augmenting so far has been about using core channels,” Nydarth said. “This is right and good, the natural way for an initiate to come to grips with the power. But it is not the only way. If you are to truly grasp the power of fire, then you must deal with it in its raw form. You must learn the fundamentals. Working with the sword will make this easier to start with. Hold it out in front of you.”
I did as she told me and looked along the blade, as if I was drawing a site on an opponent.
“Now, imagine a channel running from your heart, out along your arm, to the very tip of the blade. Start with one of the types of cores you have absorbed and let that Vigor flow along the channel.”
I closed my eyes and focused on the power inside me. There was the spark that came from the ember sprites, something bright and restless. I let it flow down that channel, and it filled my arm with heat.
“Good,” Nydarth said. “Now, add the power of the scorched salamander. Instead of focusing on one form of fire, let the two flow together.”
I tried to open the channel wider, to let the salamander’s power in, but it wouldn’t go. It was as if the two forms of power were opposing magnets that pushed away from each other.
“They won’t mix,” I said.
“Oh, they will. You just have to bend them to that potent will of yours.”
I forced the scorched salamander power into the channel. The heat of the fire suffused my body as sweat poured from me, and I gritted my teeth at the strain. But at last, the two merged and became a single stream of fire, fiercer together than they had been apart.
“Don’t worry; it will get easier with time,” Nydarth said. “Now, the power is in you, but it isn’t in the blade. Make that blade part of your body. It is an extension of you, the deadly thrust of your will. Let it become engorged with your power. Let it feel your flame.”
I opened my eyes and looked down the length of the sword. Power raced through my hand, through the hilt, and out into the blade. There was a whoosh as flames leapt from the blade. It was similar to the technique I’d used when I first found the sword on Earth, but it was clearly a less powerful version. Nydarth had said that she’d grown weak after moving between worlds, and it seemed that together, we had grown a little stronger. It was a far cry from her previous strength, but she was improving.
“It takes time to master the fundamentals,” Nydarth said. “But once you have that mastery, you can do so much more than follow the arts and techniques of lesser beings. For most, it takes centuries to reach that point, but you have so much more potential than most men, Ethan. With me by your side, you can be so much greater.”
“What’s next?” I asked as I drew the power back into myself. The flames on the blade flickered and died.
“Now, it’s time to go back to the source,” Nydarth said. “It’s time to return to the Ember Cavern.”
Chapter Seventeen
I walked up the mountainside dressed in a thick, fur-lined cloak, the only way to ascend the landmark without dying from exposure. The fire channels inside my body helped protect me against the heat of the Ember Cavern, but I was still vulnerable to extreme cold. The guards stationed outside the cavern numbered only two, and I easily snuck past them without being noticed.
Inside the cave mouth, I cast the extra clothing aside and laid it near the entrance. I’d need it on the way back, but fur wasn’t necessary inside the cavern. The mountain was alive with the spirit of fire, and after weeks living in the cold of an increasingly harsh winter, that alone made the journey worthwhile.
“My prison,” Nydarth whispered from the sword. “And yet it will be the place where you take your next step.”
“Toward becoming the Immortal Swordslinger?” I asked as I basked in the heat radiating from the very stone itself.
“Perhaps,” she answered. “Or maybe you will fill another role? Who’s to know?”
I shrugged. “I don’t care either way. I just want to get stronger.”
I traveled down the first few tunnels and didn’t encounter any monsters. Without a lure, they weren’t drawn to me, but Nydarth was focused on reaching the Fire Core, so I hurried along without worrying about killing beasts and collecting their cores. I still needed a few daji and hellhound cores to complete their respective techniques, so I hoped I would stumble upon a few of those stronger monsters. I didn’t have Kegohr and Vesma with me this time, but I was carrying the Sundered Heart. I’d grown in power over the past few weeks, and this would provide an excellent testing ground for my skill level.
A perfect chance arrived when half a dozen ember sprites leaped out of recesses in the walls surrounding me. They were larger than the ones I’d encountered before. The first two latched onto my sword arm and weighed it down so heavily that I couldn’t swing the blade. The others attacked me with fists and feet as I staggered back against the w
all, burdened by the weight of the sprites. Fortunately, my left arm was still free. I brought my hand around and hit one of the sprites with Stinging Palm at point blank range. I’d increased the strength of my thorns, and this time, they didn’t burn away but punctured the sprite’s skull. The dead creature released my arm and fell to the ground.
Now that I could move my right arm again, instead of attacking with my sword, I swung back against the wall and smashed the other clinging sprite against the stone. When it still held fast, I punched it with my off-hand and crushed its ashen head against the wall before a precise chop with my sword finished it off.
I brought the Sundered Heart Sword around in a scything arc. The blade sliced through the nearest two sprites like a hot knife through butter. One still clung to my leg as it punched at my thigh with a fiery fist. I raised the sword, then plunged it into the creature’s shoulder. The blade drove down through the body and cut it almost in half.
The last sprite looked at me, looked at its fallen comrades, then turned and ran.
“Absorb the cores,” Nydarth said. “Wielding my sword will allow you to consume them without succumbing to Augmentor’s Sickness.”
I did as Nydarth commanded, and I felt no crushing exhaustion. The power of the cores filtered through my body, and the usual fatigue vanished as I gripped the sword.
Left alone in the tunnel, I took a moment to rest and apply a poultice to my thigh. I knew this would be a tough series of fights, especially now that I was on my own, so I’d come with more medicine and water. I missed the company, but Nydarth had been clear in her instructions—if she was going to teach me, then we needed to travel alone.
“Those sprites seemed tougher than last time,” I said as I set off again down the tunnels.
“The Fire Core has grown more powerful since you were last here,” Nydarth said. “It has had time to recover from the damage you did and to learn from it. Fortunate, then, that you have learned even more.”
A growling emerged from the tunnel up ahead and echoed off the rock walls. I drew my sword as I rounded a corner and saw a hellhound standing in front of me. Its body almost filled the tunnel, and its deadly teeth were bared as it stared at me with a raging hate. As it bounded toward me, I summoned a Plank Pillar to block the creature’s path.
Rather than wait for it to roar and produce a fiery whirlwind, I skirted around the wooden wall and slashed at the giant canine’s neck. The Sundered Heart penetrated its tough hide and sliced clean through. The hellhound’s massive head crashed to the ground a second before its body. The magical sword was far more powerful than the one Tolin had given me, and it seemed to slice a hellhound’s hide with remarkable ease. Lava-like blood gushed from the corpse’s fatal wound and leaked onto the ground, and I quickly cut out the core before I absorbed it. As the blood-lava continued to flow, I created little wooden stepping stones and skipped to the other side of the tunnel.
There were more encounters like it as I made my way down through the tunnels toward the Fire Core. Scorched salamanders slithered out of their lava pools and dajis danced through the caverns. Every time, I managed to beat them, whether through Augmenting, fighting, or some other trick. The Ember Cavern seemed like child’s play compared to the first time I’d ventured inside. Even though the monsters were twice as strong, I had improved my abilities tenfold.
On Nydarth’s instructions, I absorbed the beast cores rather than carry them with me. As she had promised, I didn’t feel at all drained when the monsters’ energies joined with my own.
At last, we reached the final chamber in the heart of the mountain. Just like before, I found myself facing a pair of hellhounds. Last time, it had taken three of us to beat a pair of them. But I was stronger than before. My Vigor pathways had increased in power, and I knew exactly how to defeat their attacks.
“This is what you were born for,” Nydarth said. “Just follow the strength within you.”
I advanced, the Sundered Heart Sword raised in front of me. The hounds growled, paced away from each other, and circled around to come at me from both sides.
“Worlds touch,” Nydarth continued. “Veils part. The void connects all. Now, it’s time for you to fight.”
Her talk of the void took me back to our training session in the dojo. I remembered what it had felt like to let the many fires within me flow together and become one within my blade. Not an elegant shaping of the Vigor, like techniques allowed, but a raw flow of power.
I sighted down the length of the sword and let the Vigor flow through me. The power of the ember sprites. The power of the scorched salamanders. The power of the dajis and the hellhounds. The power of every fire creature I had defeated and absorbed flowed as one in a single, seething torrent.
Fire burst out along the blade, and the flames rose so high that I felt as though I was wielding a bonfire. I swung around with the strength of my whole body, and the hound raised its paw to deflect the attack, but the blade sliced straight through. The severed limb tumbled through the air as lava-blood spouted like a burst faucet.
The beast staggered back, and I pressed on, determined to use the advantage while I had it. I swung and it dodged, then lunged at me with its teeth. I dived beneath the attack, hit the ground hard, and rolled back to my feet a dozen feet away, sword still in hand.
The hound twisted around and got in the way of its companion. It seemed disoriented, whether from the pain or still shocked at the sheer wall of flames I had summoned. I wasn’t going to miss my chance, so I stepped straight toward its mouth. The hound opened its jaws wide and lunged, but at the last moment, I sidestepped, sprang forward, and chopped my sword down. A rainbow of fire seemed to shine in the air, then my blade hit the monster’s neck and continued until it struck the ground in a shower of sparking embers. The head rolled away and the body collapsed, revealing the other hellhound behind it.
The final beast roared, and a blue fireball burst from its maw. It spiraled through the air as it grew into a whirling tornado of azure flames. I pointed my sword at the elemental storm and poured Untamed Torch through the blade. A flaming spear lengthened from the end of my weapon and struck the whirlwind in the center. My orange flames engulfed the whirlpool, and it faded away.
“How creative,” Nydarth commented.
With Untamed Torch still igniting my sword, I advanced upon the hellhound, but it kept advancing and forced me back. I tried to dodge left, but it was ahead of me. The monster used claws and teeth to box me in while it swiped at me from both directions, keeping me on the defensive, unable to make a decisive move. I had injured it, so the monster was slower and its attacks easier to evade.
The fire was still raging through the sword, but my arm was growing unsteady. I didn’t know how much longer I could control it. The constant stream of flame was already getting beyond me, and it threatened to break free, to escape my control entirely.
I raised the sword and pointed it at the hound. If I couldn’t control the fire, maybe I could use that to my advantage. I gave one last push on the power running through me, and a vast gout of flames burst from the tip of the Sundered Heart Sword. My fire attack fanned out into a broad arc, and the hound’s head and half its shoulders evaporated, turned in an instant into a cloud of ash. Every time I’d tried Untamed Torch on the Ember Cavern’s strongest monster, it barely did any damage, but it seemed that the sword increased the power of my attacks a hundredfold.
My Vigor channels were running low, and exhaustion threatened to topple me. I forced myself to remain standing and stared at the corpses of the hellhounds smoldering beside me.
“You were fortunate,” Nydarth said. “For many people, channeling that much power without a technique would kill them.”
“That’s why we use techniques,” I said as I came to understand the relationship between techniques and raw magic.
“Indeed,” Nydarth said, her tone proud. “Raw channeling is for study and improving your core skills. Only use it in combat as a last resort.”
“Is that five hellhounds you’ve taken now?” Nydarth asked.
“Yes. I can learn Burning Wheel now,” I answered as the energies of the cores burned through me. “And at least 10 dajis. That’s enough to learn Fire Empowerment.”
I took hold of the energy inside me and fished out the daji and hellhound cores. Heat blazed within me, and I balled my hands into fists as I controlled a sudden rage. The fire element set my heart aflame, and every fiber of my being roared for release. My muscles tensed all at once, and I clenched my teeth.
I forced back the fire’s anger and breathed deeply to control it. Then my body eased, and the Vigor pathways cooled down. I felt new channels form inside me, new ways to direct the flames.
“Try the new techniques,” Nydarth said.
I used Fire Empowerment first, the skill I had taken from the dajis. I stretched my hand toward the remains of one of the hellhounds and used the power to take hold of the flames eating away at its fur. The fire lifted from the body and danced through the air before I let go and it faded away.
Then, I reached inward for the ability I’d gained from the hellhounds and grasped the power of Burning Wheel. Rather than open my mouth and roar, I swung the Sundered Heart, and a blue fireball launched from the blade. It expanded as it traveled until it was a whirlwind of roaring flames. It spun around the cavern until I concentrated on dispelling it. The spinning torrent of fire faded into embers and ceased to exist. My Burning Wheel wasn’t quite as strong as the hellhounds’ version, but I figured it would grow more powerful with time and practice.
I tended to the burns on my body, drank water, and ate some dried berries I’d brought along in my pack. I wasn’t exactly in top shape, but my energy was returning thanks to rest and rehydration. Now, it was time to return to the guild house.
