The Celestial Forge
By: Schin Ka'Tharos
CHAPTER 21
(Part 3)
“Take care,” I said. “While you were indeed in a stasis over the last few months, requiring no sustenance to live, your soul went through an intense and extremely difficult ordeal. Your body and soul need to reconcile your current being. You will most likely experience some extreme fatigue and weakness, possibly some general bodily pain as well.”
“Good to know,” she said. “Either way, I’m in stasis no longer and need to get myself moving.”
She moved over to Adeon and I caught a wince flash across her face before she controlled herself. She rested a hand on his chest and closed her eyes. After less than a minute she spoke.
“What is going on with my eternal flame? It's acting strange. It seems – distant at the moment.” She said with eyes still closed.
“A byproduct of the trial and the soul and body needing to reconcile. Give it a little bit of time, your connection with your flame will be back to normal. Probably in a few hours.“
“Why does my flame feel so odd within the tower? It seems to almost – like it here?” She said. “Is it related to the trial?”
“No, not that I’m aware. I have no idea.” I said and began some very basic movement katas from Jun’Dok to get my body active. It would take some time to readjust to not being alone. “My natural flame doesn’t feel any different while in the tower, nor during any of my forays into the Reflection Trials.”
“Ah, there we go.” She said, her eyes opened blazing blue flame with focus unfixed. “I believe you about Adeon, but I want to see if I can find anything else out.”
I was so shocked that she had already reconnected with her flame that I forgot what I was doing and just stared at her. After a short time she seemed satisfied and took her hand off of Adeon. The flame in her eyes lessened in intensity but remained burning. Then she shifted into static stretches and flowed from form to form while, I presumed, soul-forging all the while.
“Onaks hammer, this feels good.” She muttered, then spoke to me directly.” How much longer is he going to be in the trial? How long does it usually take?”
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“The usual is a difficult way to frame it,” I said, “Three months seemed extremely long to me, I’m not sure though. I would expect him to wake within a week or so. It’s really hard to know. At least you have an idea of what he is going through so you can at least understand what he has to overcome.”
“Oh I almost forgot,” I said and pulled a small wrapped cloth neatly folded in on itself from within my robes and held it out to her. “This is part of my peace offering and a show of my good intentions. Also, it is partly a repayment for the kindness and resources the two of you have shown me. I know some trust may have been lost between us but I hope this is a good start to rebuilding it.”
I knew she could sense the power and potency contained within the cloth and her curiosity was plain across her face.
“What is it?” She said and accepted the cloth as I handed it to her. “Also, you need to tell me what is going on with this mask you're wearing. Everytime I look at you I get the chills ”
“Huh? Oh I keep forgetting I have it on. I will. “ I said and self consciously touched the cheek of the Ghost King mask on my face. “These are two Skin of Silver Wind Pills.
She stared at the bundled pills and then at me in disbelief.
“When I had first offered to bring the two of you here I had mentioned that you may find it very beneficial, I was not lying.” I said. “I had always intended to repay your kindness if things worked out.”
“Do you know how much one of these is worth?” She breathed and unfolded the cloth to inspect the pills. “ One of these is ten maybe twenty times worth the Rendings we gave you to recover. “
“You are familiar with it then? You know what it does?” I asked.
“Of course, it was one of the items on our short list of resources to save up for to eventually buy in Stone Crown City to help with our advancement.” She said and unfolded the wrapping to reveal the two gray pills. Each seemed to pulse with significance. “There are a few other ways to increase the link between the first two flowlines for a Discple but this is the most efficient pill that I know of. You can't be serious.”
“Very, and I hope this shows how serious I am, in light of my next offering.” I said. Then I reached up and removed the Ghost King from my face so that I could look her eye to eye. Face to face. “ I don’t expect an answer to this right now, but I want to propose an oath between us. Like I said earlier I want to rebuild trust and only desire a mutual benefit and unity between us. I would like an oath that we cannot lie to each other. Let us make an oath of truth.”
She stared at me for some time without reaction. I could see her mind working it out and thinking it through. She searched my eyes and then looked down again to the two pills in her hand.
“I’ll give it some thought.” She said pensively.
“Thank you.” I said and turned back to continue my katas. “There’s more to discuss. We are running out of food and supplies for starters. Also, we need to address what our plan is now that we made it to safety, among other things. But I know you have much to think on for now and I can see your body reconciliation is starting to take its toll. I’ll give you some space for now.”
Next Chapter...
Chapter 22