"The dwarves living in the mountains in the far east are known as The Steelborn, who seem to defy what we know about the dwarven race by their very existence. Unlike the "Edorian" dwarfs, the Steelborn can use magic, very few of their ilk manifest any magical power which is equivalent to a human mage's power which is an impressive level of magical attunement especially since Steelborn are still very much dwarfs which are almost unnaturally indifferent to the effects of magic.
Steelborn or rather Uron'Fer as they would call themselves stray the furthest from any of the dwarven subcultures as instead of worshipping their Ancestors the Steelborn worship the terrible deity of ash and fire, Nahur.
From the little, the Steelborn say about their origins, I had learned that long before the old dwarven empire had collapsed the ancestors were banished. Forced to leave their long-forgotten hold behind their ancestors travelled east where they turned their back on their ancestors' gods and prayed for salvation, causing the Steelborn to be born as Nahur answered their call.
Above the Uron'Fer holds an endless cloud of black smoke rise from their massive foundries rivalling even those of Karr'Grant's and clad the overground in thick black fog. From these foundries, they forge servants of their revered ashen deity. Uron'Igs are creatures of pure magma encased in heavy armour strong enough to contain their infernal bodies. In Steelborn culture being revered doesn't mean the Fireborn can laze about, they are controlled and bound to the most powerful daemon-smiths and sent to destroy the enemies of Steelborn.
The less powerful and younger ash-smiths sometimes travel outside their isolated holds to the minor and other isolated dwarven holds where their strange but industrial mindset and their magic are warmly welcomed as the ash-smiths are one of the few dwarves who in the eyes of the ruling king are fulfilling their ancient oaths and answering their calls for help against the many things lurking in Edor's depth.
The mayor dwarven hold not troubled by the same plights view the travelling ash-smiths with disdained and few of them such as Karr'Fer whose dwarves go to great lengths to kill all Uron'Fer in Edor for staining their once stainless name."
Extract from "With Dwarfs and Back" by Hanzef of Catalina.
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“Iris.” A mellow echo of dulcet voice outstretched its melody toward the worried elf. As the coldness of Kia’s soft touch spread from Iris’s forearm.
“I said-“
“Iris,” The short girl stared at the much taller risen with a seemingly infinite calmness and patience. Her fingers slowly slid away from the elf causing her to pin the undead mage’s hand with her warm hand without her even realising it. “I will be fine,” Kia’s voice echoed inside the risen’s mind as it bypassed her mental resilience creating gruesome visions of the future. “Trust me.” A wave of cold washed over Iris as her radiant amethyst eyes locked onto the girl.
“Would you have said all this if I had simply said Ba is terribly sick?” Iris asked the girl in the sudden moment of clarity.
Kia’s glowing eyes in the colours of a foggy morning shifted away from the risen’s judgmental gaze while a small lair’s smile appeared on her pearly face. Iris spotted a familiar bright spark of curiosity glimmering deep inside Kia’s brightly coloured eyes. She shifted her gaze to the weeping human behind the snow-pale mage.
“Cast on yourself as many protective spells as you can.” Iris ordered.
“Against what?”
“Disease of course.”
“Disease… ah o-of course there are spell against that.” A blue halo hurriedly covered the undead girl before disappearing with a bright flash of light.
Kia turned on her heel and walk up to Nu. With a light shove, the human’s teary face hesitantly rose from the ground and gazed at the pale human above her. Nu's already teary eyes overflowed with even more tears as she lunged at Kia's shoulders bringing her down on the ground. The necromancer seemed petrified as the human beside her gripped her tightly and beg her to save Ba.
Feeling something hit her chest, the elf walked up to the two kneeling girls and unceremoniously pulled her companion from the hysterical human, seeing no reason to talk to Nu while she was in such a pitiful state.
"Do you need something I can grab for you from here?" The risen asked the stiff undead.
"Huh?... Oh, can you make something where I can expe- examine the human without others seeing me?" The risen saw the bright spark inside the pale blue and golden eyes lit up again causing her stiff body to relax again.
"You want a tent?"
"Yes, a tent will do. But make it as large as you can make it and put something the human could lay on. I can't have dirt spoiling my results."
With a quick stride, Iris followed the girl to where the sick sibling was, leaving the older sibling to calm dawn. Passing the many terror birds which naturally parted as the two approached, Iris spotted Ruu sitting at a respectable distance from Ba who seemed detached from reality as his eyes blankly stared at the ground below him. The man even went as far as to comfort the boy with his gloved hand.
"Elf now is not the best time to talk." Ruu massaged his temple with his free hand as the human shaman standing above Ba casted an equally troubled glance at them.
"Siri said she would like to see if she cannot cure the boy from the Bloom." Iris said, not blaming the humans for looking at her like she had just lost her mind.
"I didn't though the girl beside you had a death wish."
"If she thinks she can cure Ba and she doesn't know what she is talking about." Kasheng added.
The elf looked down beside her where Kia stood. She absolutely agreed with the human but the pale undead beside her seemed to not be worried about the Godkiller. She couldn't even rationalise why the girl was potentially risking her life in her mind. She didn't think the girl was doing what she was doing because it was the right thing to try and save Ba but for reasons entirely alien to the young undead.
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Cold fingers around her wrist reminded Iris of the overwhelming confidence which persuaded her to allow the girl to get close to the infected human. The girl tugged at the distracted elf's wrist as an uncomfortable silence hung above them. "Is there something stopping her from trying?"
"Ehh... no I don't think so." The man furrowed his eyes before shifting his eyes onto the shaman who tapped her fingers on her chin before shaking her head.
"Then can she try?"
"I guess so, hopefully you learn something from it but promise me that he will not suffer more than he needs to."
After translating Ruu's words, the girl placed her right arm on her chest and smiled brightly which would have brought joy to anyone who had seen its pearly light if not for the current circumstances. Kia hopped on the wagon and reached for Ba before retreating her hand away from him.
The clay construct shaped in the visage of death itself scooped up the boy into the hurriedly constructed tent, the ominous sight didn't escape the humans' attention and Iris watched as they made gestures warding of evil spirits. Inside the tent, a bed of furs made the floor for Ba to lay on as Iris lifted the fabric for the golem to walk through.
Iris stared over her creator's shoulder as she adjusted the boy who quietly moaned in pain before reaching into her inventory. A large black leather satchel appeared from thin air, the undead mage lay the satchel beside her while she kneeled above the boy.
"What's that?" The girl began to pull out small silvery tools from the depths of the bag made out of black leather with large scales scattered haphazardly on its surface.
"Tools." Kia answered as her eyes focused on her patient.
The petite necromancer struggled to take off Ba's jacket and Iris kneeled opposite to the girl to help her out. A pale blue light enveloped the risen as Kia pointed her hand at her. She thanked Kia but the girl stared at the ground for a moment avoiding her gaze before returning to working on the human. Kia gently picked up a small silver blade with on a large handle for something its size causing it to look like a miniaturized glaive rather than anything else Iris knew. Muted light piercing the white fabric of their tent caused the edge of the blade to glint.
[Inspect]
[Silver Scalpel]
{A medical tool used to cut flesh.}
Iris satiated her curiosity not wanting to disturb the girl who appeared to be troubled by something.
"What's wrong, Kia?"
"I have to cast a spell on him," Kia answered. Not understanding why the mage looked troubled Iris waited for the girl to elaborate. "I never casted this type of spell on the living. And I promised that he will not suffer more than he needs to." Her fingers played with the scalpel in her hands as she stared at the elf before opening her mouth again. "Can you hold him?"
"Give me a second." Iris quickly gave a piece of folded fabric in front of Ba's mouth before holding his hands above his head.
The risen's idea quickly paid off as the human's flailing legs had to be held by the construct as Kia began to cut deep cuts into the boy's chest forming a magical symbol. With a small spark made by snapping her fingers a blue flame raged on the boy's body in the shape of the cuts causing his face to become redder then the hottest of embers before his body went limp and his skin returned to its slightly sickly appearance.
The girl set aside the bloody scalpel on a white handkerchief before grabbing a metal rod with hooked ends. She tried to press the rod into Ba's nostril but found the hook too large so she flipped it and carefully aimed it.
"What are you doing?" Iris asked causing the girl to stop and stiffen like a criminal getting caught red-handed.
"Hehe... force of habit." The necromancer dismissive laughed causing the risen to raise an eyebrow.
Kia picked up another scalpel with an even smaller blade and carved out four small holes into the human's well-shaped chest. The girl reached inside the satchel and pulled out a jar of green powder resembling powdered glass. With a couple of smooth motions, the ancient mage filled the four holes with the strange powder which turned crimson as it touched Ba's flesh.
From the powder, four sea-green pillars of opaque light grew toward the heavens before forming a perfect circle about a forearm length above Ba within which a transparent membrane formed.
Looking through the membrane in the middle of the stonework pillars Iris saw a spider web of yellow and grass-green light similar to what Kia had done to her while they were bathing together but instead of hundreds of threads, she could see an uncountable amount of small threads filling most of the human's body.
Before Iris could notice Kia had exposed Ba's ribcage, with all honesty she would have thought that inside a body is filled with blood which would flow out as soon as Kia had cut so deeply but unexpectedly very little blood actually appeared to flow out. With confident hand gestures the quietly muttering mage caused the unconscious boy's ribs to bend themselves out of her way in morbid ways releasing a small amount of steam trapped beneath them. Kia calmly grabbed the edge of the magic circle suspended on the stone pillars and moved it down where she could peer through the middle.
The undead's hands began to grow more bloody as she touched each organ in search of something. Iris too searched for anomalies in his ribcage but all of his organs appeared healthy in lively pink and red colours. The elf noticed that her hands began to ache and when she brought her limbs closer to Ba's open chest the redder her skin became.
Finally noticing something unnatrual, Iris pointed her clawed hand at a brown line peeping from under the boy's beating heart. Getting a closer look at the brown smudge which seemed to curl away from her inquisitive stare the brown thing appeared to be a vine.
"Kia take a look at this." Iris pointed with her finger at the strange vine. The short girl stood up and kneeled beside the tall risen before pinching the strange vine causing a sizzling sound to soudn out as Kia's snow-white fingers began to melt like wax.
"Ohhh." Kia opened her mouth in a shocked expression.
"You are all red, Kia," Iris touched the girl's red cheek. "Are you in danger?"
"You are too." The necromancer turned away and said gritting her voice through her teeth.
"Shush you."
Iris's eyes returned to the girl and saw Kia pull a large taproot with green light coming from within from under the boy's heart. From the taproot, many small, slender vines wrapped themselves around anything in its vicinity. The taproot produced a loud stretching noise which resembled a high pitch scream mixed with the sound of scrapping metal. The risen saw golden and blue light course through Kia's wrist causing the green light inside the taproot to begin to flicker causing the bushel of the roots to shrivel and disintegrate.
With one motion Kia pulled the taproot from Ba's body and threw it at her construct. The golem grabbed the taproot and held it tight as possible until the white steam stopped filling the tent.
Iris grabbed Kia's hand which resembled more of a used candle than a hand and casted [Negative Life]. The charred wax stopped producing more smoke and slowly reformed into Kia's delicate hand.
"D-did that taproot cause the Bloom?" Iris's voice barely made it through as she quietly whispered her words of astonishment afraid she would say something which would curse Kia's success.
"I think so, his body looked alright and I didn't see anything else which would cause any of the symptoms I saw," Kia answered while already beginning to mend the boy together, visibly not wanting to stay in the tent for longer than she needed too. "You said that healing magic doesn't work on this sickness?"
"I did, it makes it worse in fact."
"I don't know if I am correct but I think that these taproots use healing magic to grow faster since they are made primarily from life mana."
"I think that make sense but how on the divines did it get inside his chest?"
"I don't know if it is the same here but when there is a lot of death mana in one place and a dead body the mana possesses the body and causes an undead to be born," Kia stated as she turned toward the elf. "If there is a lot of fire mana and a pile of rocks a fire element spawns and so on. I think that since this human soul had an affinity toward controlling life mana and the annoying winds carry massive amounts of mana with them. I theorize that life mana seeped into his body faster than he could expel it, and a taproot was created because of the overabundance of ambient life mana."
"Then shouldn't a dryad be spawned inside of him instead of a taproot?" Iris asked.
"Well, a little bit of death mana creates a fog in which small proto-souls or whisps fly about and some fire mana spontaneously combusts and increases temperature but I do wonder if a dryad would crawl out of a human or would a human slowly turn into one..." Iris grew more and more concerned as Kia's words sank into a familiar dreadful tone. "Also upon expiration of the afflicted most of that stored-up, mana should escape which would probably saturate the air once again causing people nearby to repeat the cycle."
Iris watched as Ba's body was manipulated by the necromancer, mending it back to normal alongside the screech of bones which snapped back into their place. Once the girl had finished, the golem opened the tent allowing the wind to rush in quickly replecing the smell of blood with the grassy aroma.
"Tell me when you are about to do something dumb." Iris grabbed the undead's half-healed hand.
"But-" The wounded undead tried to speak up before Iris used her palm to muffle the girl.
"Understand?" Iris stared at the nodding girl before kissing her on the forehead unable to stop smiling. "What now vanquisher of Godloss?"
"I have to remove all of my spells and then I will see if I adapted my edited soul stealer spell correctly to work as intended."
"Kia!"