"Do you feel them? Do you hear them?" the cloaked old man said in a raspy voice as he looked around the empty space.

The young boy gulped in fear. "Yes." he said quickly. "What are they? Why are they here?" His eyes darted around the space. He knew he was being watched, but he didn't know what was watching.

"They are one of our greatest assets. They are here because this is where they relay all they have learned." The hunched old man waddled towards a blazier burning a cold blue. He raised a shaking hand and a spectral man rose from the flames.

The boy gasped in disbelief and took an involuntary step away from the specter.

"No, boy!" the old man scolded. "Closer. You are the master here. Reach out with your power. Force the secrets from its lips."

The boy closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When his eyes next opened, there was steel in them. He took one step forward; then another. Soon he was standing before the brazier, the lifeless eyes of the specter bore into him, but he did not flinch again.

"Good." the old man said, a crooked smile on his sagging face. "Now reach out. Take all it knows for yourself!"

The boy raised his hand, summoning his magic.

The specter let out a pained cry as the boy's magic locked around it. Images, thoughts, places, people - all flew from the specter into the boy's mind.

The boy wrenched away from the connection in shock, panting heavily.

"What did you see?" the old man prodded.

"I…. I saw its life. I saw its death. I saw everything it has seen since death. I saw everything." the boy said breathlessly.

The old man's broken teeth shone out in the dimly lit area as a wide smile broke out across his features. "Good. You learn quickly, boy. These spirits are ours to command; ours to control. We send them into the world to learn all there is to know. Their eyes see for us. Their ears overhear secrets for us to turn to our own purposes. They are the greatest spies we could ask for. With their information we are unstoppable. Information is power boy - never forget that."

The boy nodded, but he was distracted. His mind was already comprehending the possibilities of using these silent, ethereal puppets.

The old man grew ever more pleased at the sight. Ah, yes. he thought. This one will go far.

X

I awoke with a groan. My ribs and the surrounding tissue were on fire.

"Finally awake?" a voice asked from my right.

I rolled over, causing myself no small amount of pain, and greeted my visitor. "Vali. Shouldn't you be in worse shape then I am?"

"I'm a half-devil." he said as if stating the obvious. "I heal fast."

"Lucky." I forced myself into a sitting position, wincing as my wounds flared. Looking around, I found myself laying on a recovery bed in one of the infirmary rooms. With the exception of Vali and myself, there was no one here.

Pulling a blanket off myself, I was finally able to see the damage. Rather than being covered in wrappings dyed red with blood, I just had a patch over where the knife went in. "Huh. That's not nearly as bad as I was expecting."

"The benefits of mutilating yourself when surrounded by Fallen Angels. Their healing powers aren't as good as the angels in heaven, but they're still potent." Vali said as he shoved his hands in his pockets. "Congratulations."

I barked out a laugh. "For what? Nearly killing myself?"

"You won." Vali said without a trace of bitterness. "I underestimated you. It won't happen again."

Chuckling, I said, "And that is why I doubt I'll ever beat you again. I have a lot of tricks, but they're all easier to deal with when you know what they are. Add onto that the fact that you only touched Divine Dividing at the end and you're still leagues above me in terms of combat ability."

"True." Vali easily agreed. "But that is not the only area in which you excel. Azazel told me what your bracer does. Are you able to make anything else like that?"

"Provided I have the materials and patience I don't see why not. Why? Do you want me to make you something?"

Vali shook his head. "Divine Dividing is the only weapon I will ever use. Still, your crafting skill is impressive."

"Well, thanks." I threw my legs over the side of the bed and slowly put my weight on them. I was a little shaky, but overall far better off than I expected. The last time this spell went this bad I was down for almost a month. A little unsteadiness was a cake walk by comparison.

"So how did our audience enjoy the fight?" I said more to distract myself from the pain than anything.

"A few people got filthy rich for betting on your long odds. Other than that, they were impressed."

I held up a hand. "Wait, back up. People were betting on us? How bad were the odds?"

"Three-hundred to one." Vali said simply.

I didn't expect them to be good, but that was a little much.

"Azazel loved it." Vali said. "I'm not sure if he saw the fight or not, but he loves the idea that the strength of the Illusive Necrosage will spread through his ranks and inevitably spill over into the devils and angel's spies."

About to take a step to test my legs, I stopped dead and turned to Vali. "Is that actually what they're calling me?"

Vali must have sensed something because he raised an eyebrow. "I thought it was fairly good considering some of the other, more ridiculous titles I've heard."

"No." I denied. "It's not that." I went quiet as I worked over my reaction.

They wouldn't hold the title against me when it was given to me by others, right? Especially since it was given for an entirely different reason.

In the end, I took a deep breath and decided to move on. They weren't here. Even if they were, I didn't need their approval anymore.

"Well, at least it won't screw up my cover as an insane sociopath." I said.

"Actually that's exactly what it will do." A new voice joined the conversation.

Walking through the door, a crooked grin on his face, was Azazel. "It'll legitimize the fact that you're a threat. When people hear about you beating Vali in a spar, which they will because there are spies all over the place, they'll stop seeing you as an insane necromancer, and start seeing you as a dangerously intelligent necromancer, which is good for us." Azazel stopped a few steps away and gave me a once over. "How are you feeling?"

"Surprisingly like I haven't been stabbed." I said as I gingerly stretched out my arms, being careful not to upset my chest too much. Something else about what he'd said jumped out at me and I said, "What was that about spies?"

"Don't worry about it." Azazel waved my worries aside. "They'll exist whether I want them or not, so it's better to keep the ones I know so I can control what they overhear." That made a certain amount of sense. "Getting back on topic," he continued. "I don't want you doing anything strenuous for at least a week. Take it easy. Maybe use the time to brainstorm a new project or two? Just don't tear open the stitches. Those things are a pain to enchant."

I looked down at the bandage over my chest in curiosity. "You gave me enchanted stitches?"

"We may still technically be angels, but our healing abilities are thrown way out of whack when we fall. Otherwise you'd be at one-hundred percent already."

I started rubbing my forehead. "I really need to find some way to either get tougher or develop a regenerative factor. I can't keep up with you bullshit supernatural guys otherwise."

Azazel barked out a laugh. "Let me know if you figure anything out. In the meantime, I've got work to do." He spun around and walked out the room, sending a short wave over his shoulder as he did.

"Guess I'm benched for a while." I said to Vali as I cautiously made my way towards the door. "Then again, I expected to be out of commission for far longer so I'm happy."

"I expect to spar again." Vali declared to my back. "There are not many people here who can challenge me, and Azazel rarely leaves his lab long enough for me to spar with him."

Raising an eyebrow at him, I said, "Did you miss the part where you know my tricks now? I won't be as difficult to fight. Not to mention the fact that if I get hospitalized every time it's really going to cut into my crafting time."

"I doubt you've shown me all you are capable of yet. And you will not be hospitalized so long as you refrain from impaling yourself. Rest well." He walked past me and out the door without another word.

"He makes it sound so easy; 'Just don't impale yourself'." I mimicked Vali. "Like it's really that simple."

Done mumbling to myself, I made my way back to my lab. If I was bedridden anyway, I may as well go over some of those preliminary sketches I'd drawn up.

X

Making one more note in the margins, I nodded to myself and put the book aside, reaching for my tools. It had been almost a week since my spar with Vali, and I was almost one-hundred percent. Maybe not enough to throw around magic, but definitely enough to start working on my sword.

"So you're finally done planning?" my visitor asked in excitement as he noticed I finally started moving.

"You don't need to just sit there and stare at things, you know. There is literally anything else you can be doing."

"I wish to view the process of crafting a magical sword." Vali said simply as he focused on the various tools and materials I was arranging.

The White Dragon Emperor had apparently made the decision to randomly pop into my lab and commandeer the most comfortable chair in it while his eyes panned over everything in the room. For the last week or so that I'd been recovering and drawing up artifice ideas, he'd hung out here whenever he felt like it. He never bothered me, so I never kicked him out.

"You're going to have to be breathing over my shoulder for the better part of a year then." I said as I retrieved my single bar of adamantine from its safe. Azazel wouldn't get me any more. Apparently even the one bar cost him more than he was willing to justify. That meant I needed to not screw up the forging process or I was shit out of luck. "It's not easy to make something like what I'm about to attempt and it takes a lot of dedication and know-how."

"Where did you learn to craft as you do?" Vali asked curiously.

I shot him a smirk over my shoulder. "Somewhere you've never been. Maybe one day I'll tell you about it." I pointedly dropped the adamantine on the table before me, the thud made by the metal impacting against wood signaling that was all I would speak of my old home.

"What are you attempting to create?" Vali asked in interest as he finally stood up from my chair. "I know it is a sword, but what enchantments are you going to place on it?"

With an irritated sigh, I rubbed my forehead. "It's not enchanting. It's artifice. How many times do I have to explain this to you people? Enchanting would be imbuing magic into something that already exists. Artifice is the process of slowly saturating the piece with magic as you construct it by hand. It's a much more refined way to make magical items."

Vali just blinked uncomprehendingly at me.

With another sigh, I gave up trying to explain to him the intricacy of what I was doing and focused on firing the forge. "To answer your question, I'm not quite sure yet."

"But you've been outlining your project for almost a week. How could you not know what you're making?" Vali said as his eyebrows creased in confusion.

"Because I'm giving it magical properties as I create the blade itself." I tried to explain. "I can force as much magic as I want into it, but some of it will inevitably go somewhere I don't intend, which will create an effect I didn't expect. That's why artifice is so powerful. Because while unexpected flares of magic are annoying to deal with, they also result in the most powerful enchantments. The reason I spent so long outlining was because I was trying to map out different ways the process could turn out and define set paths for potential eventualities." I looked away from the forge to see if Vali still looked confused.

The half-devil was staring at the flames as they started to reach temperature. "So your craft is more erratic than what Azazel does?"

Nodding, I allowed myself a smile. "Yes. As a result it has higher highs and lower lows, but I'll take it over basic enchanting any day."

"Could you teach me?" Vali asked out of the blue.

Surprised by the sudden interest, I said, "I wouldn't be opposed to it by any means. But be aware that it took me years learning under masters before I got this good, and I still have a ways to go. Why do you want to learn? Didn't you just say you'd only ever use your Sacred Gear?"

"I'd still like to learn." he said without explaining anything.

Scanning his face, I tried to figure out if he had some ulterior motive, but I only saw genuine curiosity. "Alright. I'll give you a crash course on everything as I work through it. You'll probably need to watch me do a few projects before you'll be ready to help with one, but everyone starts somewhere. Now, in order to start we need to start heating the metal…."

X

Azazel

I'd almost figured it out. I was this close. All I needed was a different perspective and I'd crack it.

Walking up to the door to Xarion's workshop, I was surprised to hear voices inside. Xarion was more of a shut in than I was. Who would he be talking to; in his work area no less? Once he got going on a project he was hyper focused. You typically had to walk right in front of him and wave your arms around to get his attention.

Flexing my power, I tried to get a read on whoever was in the room. The first presence was Xarion himself. The second one surprised me.

Vali? What was he doing there? He obviously wasn't here to regain his honor or something equally asinine as the area wasn't in the process of exploding, so it must have been something else.

Standing in front of the door as I thought over whether I should enter or not, I eventually decided to leave them be. I could work on puzzling out the solution on my own. Besides, the two of them both needed more friends. Or any friends as it were. That was why I sent them to meet the devil delegation together after all.

I was still focused on my work as I walked back through to my lab, but there was a small smile on my face in place of the frustrated frown that was there before.