The thump of blood pounding in Arwin’s ears mixed with the rush of magic pouring through his body. Sweat rolled down his back and soaked into his shirt as he gritted his teeth, drawing on a mixture of strength from the Infernal Armory and Reya.
They’d been trying to find a way to get Reya’s soul imprinted into an item for… well, Arwin wasn’t actually sure how long it had been. Using magic from the Infernal Armory helped alleviate a lot of the stress on him and Reya alike, but it had definitely been at least a few hours.
He wouldn’t go so far to say that their efforts had been worthless. It had taken Arwin more time than he’d thought to get used to actually working with Reya’s power. He’d thought it would have been just as easy to work with as Lillia’s, but apparently not everyone’s magic functioned the same.
That made a certain amount of sense in hindsight. It still hadn’t stopped Arwin from spending nearly an hour just finding out how to direct Reya’s power without completely losing his grip on it.
And that had just been the first step. They’d had to pause for a short while so Reya could recover her strength before they got back to work — and then the hard bit had started.
There was a subtle but painfully important difference between using someone else’s magic to empower himself and trying to put their power directly into an item. Arwin had done the former several times together with Lillia.
It worked great at empowering an item and establishing a better connection between it and its intended wielder, but that wasn’t his goal right now.
Arwin was looking to imprint Reya’s soul upon the metal. He needed more than just the magic. He needed what made that magic up to be preserved. And, unfortunately for him, that bit was painfully fragile. He couldn’t control Reya’s magic with his own without accidentally crushing it down into pure energy that would give her a stronger connection to the item but fail to imprint her soul upon it.
No matter what Arwin tried, Reya’s magic did not just go right into metal like his did. Even when he completely gave up on all the more advanced techniques he’d learned in recent times and just tried letting the Mesh do everything so he just get something to start from, her magic still stubbornly refused to enter anything on its own.
She accepted his offer and let him pull her to her feet. “Thanks. I was low on magic anyway I guess… but don’t worry. I’ll be back right after. We’re going to get this figured out.”
“We are,” Arwin agreed. “But don’t lose sleep over this. I’m not trying to grind you into dirt testing my theories. You can always rest and we can try again—”
“No,” Reya said firmly, fists tightening at her sides, features as serious as Arwin had ever seen them. “I can do this, Arwin. I don’t need more breaks than you do. I’m not a baby. This will help everyone if we can figure it out.”
Arwin opened his mouth. Reya’s eyes narrowed.
“And don’t say I shouldn’t push myself so hard,” she added. “You’re doing the same shit. I’m not a child. I can make my own decisions. If you can do this, then I can to.”
“Actually, I was just going to say you should bring some extra food from Lillia to help you recover your strength faster. This isn’t going to be easy.”
Reya blinked. “Oh. Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.”
“Take an hour or two off,” Arwin said. “Recover and see if you can think of anything we can try.”
“I’ll be ready before that. You don’t have to delay so long. We don’t have that much time to waste. Who knows when the tournament can start, and you need this for Olive and her team, right?”
“I do, but I think I’ve come to realize that there might be better ways to find a solution than bashing our head against the wall incessantly for hours on end to no avail. This isn’t just about delaying. I’m diversifying.”
“Asking someone who might know a whole lot more about messing with specialized equipment and fancy enchantments than I do,” Arwin replied with a smile.
Reya blinked. Then realization washed over her features.
“I — yes, actually, but how did you guess that? Why didn’t you say Wallace? He’s the one that actually knows smithing.”
“Because messing with souls is definitely on the creepy side,” Reya replied in a matter-of-fact tone. “There’s no way a goody dwarf like him would be an expert on finding ways to stuff somebody’s path to eternal life into a metal bar.”
Hold on. We all know she makes potions and the like, but I swear we never told everyone that Esmerelda knows about or sells cursed items. Did everyone else just know she sold cursed stuff already?
Arwin pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a pained sigh. “I’ve already told you, this isn’t going to actually consume your soul. Just think of it like using your soul as a mold. At least, that’s my running theory. I don’t actually know how it works… but we’ll find a different solution if this actually involves leaving your body a husk.”
“You think you’re going to get a different solution from Esmerelda? She’s going to say you have to pickle me.”
“Oh, come on. She’s not that bad.”
Reya squinted at him. “Probably not. But still — No pickling.”
“No pickling,” Arwin promised. “Now go get some dinner while I track Esmerelda down. Meet me back here in an hour. If Esmerelda can give me any good ideas, we’ll try those. If not… well, we can just get back to it as we were. There are always more things to try.”