The room was filled with rows upon rows of shelves, neatly organised with signs indicating to each type of material. A large ledger sat near the entrance of the room. Standing in front of the ledger, Ira flicked through the pages, tapping his finger on various lines of text, causing the words to glow and float off the page.

The words floated off into the darkness, lighting up the shelves and allowing Ed to see what was being held in the room. Different pieces of wood and ore filled up several shelves. Different pieces of leather and materials gathered from various beasts, and even several organs, carefully preserved in jars, littered the shelves.

All kinds of weird and wonderful materials filled the shelves: From dragon bones to pieces of a star’s core, and so much more. And that was just the things Ed could see. The room stretched on for an eternity, containing countless resources from things Ed had never seen before.

“When making something, you have to make sure you choose the right materials, otherwise you will never be able to create something that reaches its full potential.” Ira explained, still flipping through the book, sending more and more words out to find things.

“Is that why you asked me so many questions?” Ed asked, looking at everything in wonder.

“Exactly. I need to know everything about you so that I know what to use.”

“Does that mean you’ve figured out what to make?”

“That will be left up to you. I believe your soul will know what it wants.”

One by one, materials floated back to them, forming a small pile. Everything looked strange and alien to Ed, unlike anything he had ever seen before. He was able to vaguely make out that some things were bones, and that others were pieces of wood, but as for the vast majority, he had no clue what they were.

“That should be all we need from here.” Ira closed the book and walked back out the door. The ground picked up all the items and deposited them onto a bench back out in the main room.

“What is all this stuff?” Ed asked.

Ira smiled slightly as he picked up one of the bones. While this was happening, the items were separated out on the table for ease of access. “These here are bones from a skeletal dragon. They’re sturdy, allow for the easy flow of energy, and are highly magical in nature.”

Tossing the bone back with the others, he grabbed an ashen coloured piece of wood. “This is from a soul harvester. As the name suggests, it has a high affinity for souls, which will let you carry it around with you wherever you go. It’s also quite pliable.” He bent the wood between his fingers for emphasis.

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Picking up a piece of nearly pitch-black wood, he held it up to the light, showing Ed the little flickers of colour it had. “This is midnight wood. It’s a solid base material, which will be used as the outer casing when I need something that won’t bend.”

Ira pointed at a pile of ashes. “These are banshee ashes, useful for the control and amplification of sound.”

“And what about that?” Ed pointed at the glowing pile of intestines on the table.

“Those are angel intestines. A good choice to use as threads or strings, and the sound they make is practically heavenly.” Ira chuckled to himself.

“Slightly concerning that you would choose to use angel intestines knowing that I’m dating an angel.” Ed said.

“They’re not hers, are they?” Ira raised an eyebrow at Ed. “Then its fine. Now I just need one more material.”

Ed looked around in confusion. “Do we need to go back to the storeroom... Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Just hold still for a second.”

Before Ed could even think, he felt a burning sensation from his left shoulder and looked up in shock to find Ira playing around with his arm. “What the fuck was that for!?” A wave of dizziness washed over him.

“You’ll be fine, quit your whinging. Besides, I said I needed one final thing. And that was a piece of you. It can’t truly be yours if I don’t use a piece of you. This way you won’t have any problems with it being disobedient.”

Ed swallowed his words. Guess that makes sense. Plus, it’s not like this is a lasting injury, I just need to go buy more potions.

“There are healing potions out in the waiting room, go get yourself sorted out while I handle this here. I’ll call you in when it’s done.”

Ed was pulled out of the room before he could say anything. Looking around the room for the potions, he noticed the guard pointing to a nearby cabinet. Opening it, he found it stocked to the brim with potions.

Knocking one down, he felt his head go heavy, as he was forced to sit down. His arm grew back at a visible pace, but he was too disoriented to notice. By the time he came to, Zara was standing above him shaking him with a worried look on her face.

“Ed! Ed, are you okay?”

Shaking his head, he gave a quick smile. “I’m fine. That potion was just a bit stronger than I thought.” He looked down at his arm, finding it back to normal without a single sign of damage. He flexed and bent his fingers, feeling no difference from before at all.

“Did something happen in there?” Zara asked, noticing his actions and putting two and two together with what he said. “Did he hurt you? I’ll kill him!”

Ed grabbed her before she could foolishly try and break into the room. “There’s no need for that. I’m fine. So don’t go and do something stupid.”

“Fine.” She slumped down in the chair next to him. “So, how’d it go?”

“It was alright. Nothing too special. I hope you didn’t mind waiting?”

“It was fine. I found a whole bunch of cool stuff...”