Neeshka frowned as she sat and watched the work done at the forge.
Since they got back from the Woodman's forest, her unease grew as she instinctively knew that something had changed, that she and her companions were witness to something great and yet at the same time, terrifying .
She remembered the carnage, the Harvesting as Silvarian called it.
They had fought and killed elemental forces that protected Ashenwood for days.
Neeshka knew that the half-elf ranger not only wanted to harvest each fallen elemental for its essence but to also give those who followed him much needed battle experience, as a team. She knew he wanted them all to be able to work together, to be able to act and react in battle knowing each others strengths and weaknesses.
Like he did with her, Khelgar, Shandra and Elanee.
However, the ranger this time took the most expedient and ruthless route to make that happen, and in doing so was far less gentle with his companions then she remembered him to be.
Neeshka remembered when the order was finally given to disrupt the elemental Loci that enabled the forest itself to keep summoning elementals to do battle, and saw for the first time the forest floor.
Glowing remnants of once great towering elementals littered the forest floor in hues of green, yellow, red, blue and white. It was almost festive.
"It's beautiful." She said. "Like stars and jewels scattered on a sea of moss and grass."
"And had they been able to bleed, we'd have a river of blood to play, and bathe in." Gann's reply came.
Neeshka grimaced at the memory.
Though the Hagspawn's tone was light and flippant when he said it, she knew he only spoke out what the others were thinking.
Including herself.
None of them liked the direction and choices made but all kept Silent, because they were all afraid of the man.
"Yes." she thought, the ranger isn't quite the same man she knew back at Cross Road Keep.
"Damn that thing inside of him!" Neeshka fumed.
Neeshka's eyes turned to the bare chested ranger hammering away at the forge, shaping a blade that she thought was a little too long for a dagger yet too short to be a sword.
She knew that he had already worked on another similar blade earlier, using a method she had never seen before in weapon crafting.
The man was folding, refolding, shaping and again refolding what was originally a long metal bar into what grew gradually in shape and size of a long leaf-like blade tapering to a diamond point.
Already he had made several other weapons and had been at it for several days.
Stopping only to rest when a weapon was fully and completely done, enchantments and all.
So far in all, he had made twin swords for himself, a hammer for Kaelyn, a bow for Gann and a staff for Safiya, but oddly enough allowed no one to touch any of the weapons yet.
Neeshka had seen the forging of magical arms before, but never anything like this.
As with the days before when forging the other weapons, she noted that while working on the weapons, the man's hammer and hands glowed with a faint blue light.
She knew that the hammer was far from magical as it was the very same borrowed smith's hammer from the Veil's workshop.
She and the others realized that the ranger was drawing power from the thing within him. Using the Spirit Eater in a way that none understood.
Even Gann and Safiya, both were in agreement, a rare event to be sure, that the forging was anything but normal.
Her attention then turned towards those assisting the ranger.
She felt anger and jealousy rise as she watched them.
Kaelyn was out of her armor, wearing just a short simple frock, and was helping with the bellows. Her feminine yet muscled body glistened with sweat in the yellow glow of the forge, meant that it was both hot and hard work.
She was to keep the forge's heat constant and at some unseen signal from the ranger, worked the bellows harder to bring the temperature higher, heating up the metal the ranger is working on to make it more malleable.
Though the celestial could not see the color of the flames, she could see the brightness of the energy released, her strength and stamina too was far better then most mortals and that made her the perfect person for the job.
Her wings were partially unfurled, perhaps to help keep her balanced, gave her full body a more angelic look then perhaps intended. Her thin sweat drenched frock however, while keeping her modest, left very little to the imagination.
Kaelyn's face, a mask of intense concentration and perhaps devotion, as she watched both ranger and the forge's coals, sent needles of jealousy into Neeshka.
A month or so ago, Neeshka would have brushed off any feelings that the celestial had any seductive intent, but now, she wasn't so sure.
Muttering, the tiefling forced herself to watch the other person assisting the half-elf.
Safiya looked exhausted.
As with Gann, Safiya had been recruited to assist with the spell casting needed to enchant the weapons but both had no idea what was going on or what the ranger was doing. They too had never seen this method of magical forging.
Neeshka remembered the conversation they had.
"It's so strange." Safiya said. "Normally, one would cast the spells needed for enchantments after a weapon is made, not while making the weapon." She continued.
"He would work the gems and essence into the hot metal itself then ask us to cast the needed spells. Usually, we'd use a magical bench or container as the conduit to channel the magical energies into an item, but Silvarian is using himself as that conduit."
"I do not know how he is doing this or why but I know it is dangerous." Safiya frowned, concern on her face.
As Neeshka watched, she felt more and more agitated.
As much as she liked the thought of new and better equipment, here, she felt useless.
She could not go out to steal any and Mulsantir's residents were extra watchful when they saw her walking the streets alone.
Resigned to the fact, that all she could do was to watch and wait while others did things without her, Neeshka chafed at her own restlessness.
Perhaps it wasn't just being left with nothing to do, Neeshka thought.
Neeshka noted sourly that even hard at work, the three at the forge had a rhythm of sorts, a very personal and intimate rhythm that only those within that circle at the forge shared. Neeshka on the other hand was an outsider and as such not only was she just a spectator, she was not needed.
Neeshka didn't like the idea of not being wanted.
She stood, and approached the forge.
* * * * * * * * * *
The tone of the hammer striking metal changed, just a slight change pitch, and the ranger knew that the metal had cooled close to the point that it should not be worked with. Instinctively, Silvarian thrust the unfinished blade into the forge's coals to bring it back to workable heat.
He hated working with adamantine, but the metal had special properties.
Besides being able to hold an edge far better then any other metal, giving rise to legendary blades that were able to cut other normal blades into half. Weapons forged from adamantine retained some of the magical energies used when enchanting it and this caused the weapons to cause more damage when struck by them.
However the voice within had other plans for this peculiar property.
He heard the whoosh of the bellows, pumping harder and faster as Kaelyn dutifully kept the the heat up.
Adamantine's other problem is that the metal requires far more heat and took much longer then any other metal to bring it to malleable temperature.
Silvarian flashed Kaelyn a smile, thankful for her help and in return her lips parted slightly, showing her pearly teeth. She angled herself slightly towards him, allowing him to see perhaps a little too much of her ample body and the hint of a promise she seemed to give.
The ranger smiled and turned back to the blade.
The ranger went back to work, allowing his body to follow the now almost mechanical rhythm of hammer on steel, as he turned inwards, towards his thoughts.
Since Imilvale, something has awakened inside.
Ever since he used and focused his consciousness onto the spirit eater that is now part of him, he has had visions, flashes of images and more recently a voice within his mind.
At first it supplied knowledge that he should not, could not have known, such as crafting of items that he is now attempting, but in his mind, the voice whispered, instructing and taught and he simply found that he knew, as if from memory, as if he had been doing this all his life.
The ranger remembered when the voice first manifested itself.
It was when the Woodman appeared.
As with many nights since, his memory suddenly shifted, and while his body and senses worked on the blade, his mind eye, snapped to and replayed the scene in his mind.
Silvarian remembered the initial hunger.
"Feed." The voice in his mind said, almost a command.
"No! The ranger's mind recoiled in horror, What are you?"
"Feed." Take Sustenance." The voice again asked, this time more of a plea.
"No!" Again the ranger mentally refused and focused his will onto the hunger. The voice no longer present or compelling, instead a wash of images come to his mind. Images that showed why feeding on such a powerful spirit as the Woodman would not only have filled the hunger but would have granted him powers.
But again, the ranger refused and focused his will.
The presence within relented, but this time showed the ranger an alternative.
A way to channel life and spiritual energies.
"What are you?" Silvarian thought in amazement, when he realized exactly the nature of what he was just shown, but there was only silence in his mind.
Still the knowledge of how to restore the Woodman or anyone at death's door was his and ranger made his choice.
* clank * a change in tone.
Again the blade is trust into the coals and the sound of the bellows hard at work.
Silvarian closed his eyes for a while.
He heard footsteps walking into the chamber and glanced up.
Neeshka had walked in and is now sitting down watching them.
"Abomination!"
A sudden distaste for the tiefling welled inside the ranger but he knew it wasn't him.
The presence within didn't like Neeshka, that much was obvious and he willed the thought away from him.
The ranger's eyes moved from the tiefling and rested on Safiya.
They locked eyes for a moment and he felt a sudden rush of desire.
His eyes involuntarily tracing lines down her neck, the curves of her chest and then down to her thighs.
Safiya eyes widened slightly as she noted the sudden interest and blushed.
Feeling himself responding physically, Silvarian tore his eyes away and again focused his will and mind back his work.
He sensed Neeshka's approach even before he heard her stepping up to the forge.
"Not now Neeshka." The ranger said.
"How long are you going to keep at this?" The tiefling replied.
"Until I am done." Said the ranger.
Neeshka glared. "And what am I supposed to do in the mean time?" Her voice a little shrill.
Silvarian felt a sudden hot stab of anger.
"I don't care what you do as long as you don't get in the way." The ranger said and immediately regretted it.
Neeshka stared at the ranger for a moment then spun on the balls of her feet and walked away.
* clank *
Silvarian mechanically stabbed the blade into the coals and closed his eyes.
"Stay out of my mind!" The ranger mentally screamed.
The voice in his mind stayed silent.
Silvarian sighed, then looked at the blade.
"Its time." The voice said in his mind.
With great care and skill he shaped a small well on the blade and drew from the pouch at his waist, a glowing essence that once belonged to an air elemental.
The ranger then focused his will and the hammer he held began to glow.
With each downward stroke, he hammered the essence into the metal.
Holding up the unfinished blade he then called to Safiya, "Chain Lightning."
Magical lightning crackled from Safiya to the ranger.
She had done this several times already but still could not believe or understand how it is being done.
The lightning arced to strike the blade and the ranger that held it, but instead of bouncing off and hitting others in the area, the energies that should have gone wild, were channeled into the blade.
Safiya could see steam rising from the ranger's skin and smelt the ozone thick in the air.
Her eyes quickly went to the ranger's and he returned the look, as if to say "I am alright."
A slight trembling of the hammer however, told Safiya that the process wasn't pain free.
Something within Safiya's heart felt his pain.
She wanted move towards him, to comfort him, but she remained silent and stayed still.
The exchange that just happened between him and Neeshka brought an involuntary smile to her lips but she quickly suppressed it.
She did a quick mental assessment and the one thing she is certain of, is that she agreed with the ranger's earlier sentiment.
"Now is not the time." she whispered to herself.
