Soulburned: The School of Souls

Chapter 25: The Cauldron

"Void, Thale. It's just a few steps. Mage-up."

Thale groaned and grabbed his thigh, right above his prosthesis. The muscles in his thigh felt like they were going to explode. He leaned against the wall.

"Remind me again why the Artificer's workshop is on a floor so far away from a Node?"

"Because she's paranoid." Sylane said simply, "And a bitch."

"Yeah... I've started to get that impression. So far, no one I've talked to about her has had anything positive to say."

"The woman is terrifying." Sylane said, "She teaches an anatomy class to students taking the Mender Voction... if you can even call what she does teaching, where she conjures a simulacrum of herself, then disembowels it right there in front of you. The worst part is that she has the simulacrum doing most of the lecture! Horrifying." Sylane shuddered.

"Great." Thale puffed. "So she's crazy. Hopefully, that's just a Marelda thing... and not an Artificer thing. I've got enough problems without adding potential insanity to the list."

Void, whoever designed these steps was a masochist!

They finally arrived outside Marelda's workshop. The door had an intricate glyph burned into the wood, At first glance it didn't appear to be imbued with either Logos or Eros, and seemed to only be decoration. Thale had to admit that he liked the design. It was a stylized representation of a Mage Mark superimposed on top of a Wizard's Mark.

"You good on Eros?" Sylane asked.

Thale shook his head.

"The leg's bled the sword dry, which is bleeding me dry."

Sylane transfused some of her Eros into him. It helped him catch his breath a little, but not entirely.

"Void, doing this so often can't be good for me," Thale said.

Sylane shook her head.

"No, it's really not. That Eros is made to keep me moving. Don't get me wrong, my soul is made of outstanding stuff, but it's just not made for anyone else. Your body's been running off mine and Magnus's souls for so long now... I have no idea how you're heart hasn't just given out.

Thale panted.

"Well... We're getting there. I used to be able to run up and down these damn steps."

"Crazy or not... Marelda is your best bet. "

"I can hear you, Sylane!" Mareda shouted."The door is open.

Sylane paled.

"I'll... come back when you're done. I need to check on some things.

Thale waved her off, then pushed open the door.

Marelda's Workshop was enormous. Everywhere he looked there was some sort of artifact or magical implement, all in various states of repair. Scraps of Void-plate, long staves with crystals affixed to their ends, some of which seemed cracked. Various articles of clothing, each covered in embroidered runes. Dozens of broken silver chalices. A miniature Brazier affixed to a metal table. The metal surface reminded him of his 'Marking'. He rubbed his forehead absent-mindedly.

Several maps were stretched out haphazardly. He recognized several as the military maps currently in rotation. One of Sclera, one of the Continent, and what appeared to be a map of the tunnel underneath the city.

Marelda was nowhere to be seen, and while the space was large, it was also quite open. A cot was pushed lazily into one corner, and there were no doors or walls that Marelda could be behind... at least not ones that Thale could see.

Thale frowned.

He'd just heard her, hadn't he?

-"Madame Artificer?"

"Yes? What do you want?" Marelda's disembodied voice said from somewhere in the center of the chaos.

"It's Thale... You asked me to come here, to start my apprenticeship."

"Did I now? Interesting... That's not like me. Stir that."

Thale looked around for the source of Marelda's voice. He still saw nothing.

"Stir...what?"

"Void boy! That cauldron."

There were many cauldrons.

Thale tentatively walked over to the one nearest to him.

"Splintered save you! Are you dumb, boy!?"

Thale stopped.

"Madame Artificer... I can't see you."

Silence.

Marelda suddenly appeared in front of one of the many workbenchs.It was littered with dozens of vials and bottles, each filled with colored liquids or powders. She was stooped, her face pressed up against a burette. She was titrating two of the liquids together.

"You couldn't see me?" She asked.

"Uh. No, invisibility spell?" Thale asked.

"Hmm... That's an... unexpected side effect. Useful though. The old woman began scribbling somthing into an open notebook.

Thale approached.

Marelda pointed at a cauldron on a different workbench.

"Stir that." She demanded, pointing at a cauldron beside her.

Thale moved to oblige, his wooden leg loud on the bare wooden floorboards.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

He peered into the iron cauldron to find it... empty.

"Uh...Artificer?"

"Stir, boy."

Thale picked up the wooden spun that sat next to the cauldron and picked it up. He began moving the wooden spoon around in the cauldron, there was no resistance.

"How did you score in Alchemy, when you were a student?" Mareda asked, not taking her eyes off of her experiment.

"Alchemy is only an elective for Mages."

"That's not an answer to the question I asked you," Marelda said.

"Then I'd have to say that I scored perfectly on every Alchemy test I took because I didn't take any."

"Void within... An Artificer who doesn't know basic Alchemy." She shook her head, "I guess I shouldn't be surprised, you Guardians are usually more brawn than brain."

Thale tried not to be offended by that.

"So, what can you tell me about the concoction you're currently string."

Thale peered into the cauldron again.

It was most certainly empty. He had briefly entertained the notion that it was some sort of invisible substance, but even if it was, it would certainly still have some sort of mass, wouldn't it? His wooden spoon just clanged around aimlessly in the glorified pot.

"It's empty," Thale said.

"The first intelligent thing I've heard you say. So tell me, why are you stirring an empty cauldron?"

"Because you told me to?"

Marelda nodded sagely.

"I did. But why?"

Thale studied the cauldron a third time, desperate to see whatever it was that he was missing.

"I don't know," he admitted.

"Excellent. There's hope for you yet, boy."

Thale stopped stirring.

"I did not say you could stop."

Thale resumed.

"The first and most important thing you'll learn in this room is this. You know nothing. Everything you thought you knew, is wrong. The quicker you can wrap your mind around that, the quicker you'll be able to learn. The sooner you can acknowledge that you don't know a thing, to sooner you can start trying. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Madame Artificer. I understand."

"No. You don't. Try again."

Thale sighed.

"No, Madame Artificer. I don't understand."

"Good. Now, tell me more about what you don't understand."

Thale stared into the empty cauldron, thinking.

"I don't understand why you're having me stir empty air," he said.

"A good start," Marelda said. She went back to her titration, "What else?"

Thale sighed again.

"I don't understand why your Workshop is so far from a Node."

Marelda chucked.

"What else?"

Thale gripped the sword.

"I don't understand how the Shrive Blade works. None of the priests I've spoken to can give me anything but flowery excerpts and nothing I've read explains it in concrete terms."

"Concerning to hear a Guardian say that," Marelda said, "but the honesty is refreshing. What else? Keep going."

"I... don't understand why Adler decided that now was the time to raise a barrier, or how he even has the power to do so, hasn't he been stunted since he was a child? I don't understand how knowing he can somehow access his Thymos resulted in us giving him more freedom, especially when now he has Logos! Which he can already use!"

Thale's pointless stirring grew faster and more agitated.

"I don't understand how my new leg is supposed to work, or why you even with through the trouble of creating it! There are better candidates to hold this sword, and there are better candidates to be your successor, or whatever the fuck I am now. Letting this thing kill me would solve more problems than it creates! And don't you dare tell me that you decided to save me because it's the 'right' thing to do because let's be honest with ourselves here, an Iris that isn't above cauterizing a child's soul isn't above letting an obstacle like me remove itself!"

He was shouting now.

"I don't understand why the Kovites hate us SO MUCH that they're willing to sacrifice the souls of an entire generation of their own citizens in their attempt to destroy us!"

Marelda closed the valve on her burette and turned to face Thale.

The cauldron lay abandoned. Sometime during his rant Thale's eyes had begun to water. He became aware of this suddenly and wiped his face with his hand.

"I don't understand how a single unexpected touch could exhume each and every inadequacy I've ever buried. I don't understand the Void, or the Trials, or how I'm still me after having my soul sucked out by a piece of steel day after day. I don't understand... anything, Marelda."

Marelda studied Thale for a moment.

"Well then. At least we've got a list to work through. Let's start with the low-hanging fruit."

She reached into the fold of her robe and pulled out a perfectly smooth, perfectly spherical mass of nothing. A void-coal.

"What do you see when you look into this?" Marelda asked, setting the orb into the cauldron Thale had long since stopped stirring.

Thale fought to slow his breathing and examined the shard of Void. It reflected so little light that it seemed to be a hole in the fabric of reality. Like his sword. Like his leg.

"I don't see anything," Thale said.

"Precisely," Marelda said. "It's as empty as that cauldron. Many worship the Void, thinking that it's where..." She gestured in the air all around her, "All of this, came from, but whether or not they're right is irrelevant. The only purpose it serves now is to consume. It's a great big vacuum, pulling anything it can in. These," She pulled the Coal from the cauldron and hefted it, "Are paradoxical. If you ask any devotee, like Magnus, they'll tell you that this is the Void... and yet."

She dropped the heavy orb against the metal table, which it struck with a deafening clang.

"It's clearly something. Whatever they are, they serve as pathways to the Void but are not the Void themselves. Your sword, your leg, even the Braziers are not made of nothing, they're made of pathways to nothing. The runes and fixtures designed by me and my predecessors are merely traffic signs to control what and how the Void consumes in any given application."

Thale digested this.

"That's... simple enough, I guess," he said finally.

"No, it's incredibly complex. I'm just dumbing it down for you."

"Still... it helped. What would happen if a Shrive Blade didn't have a Guardian?" Thale asked.

"Without the constant influx of Eros, it would consume itself. Eventually, it would turn back into one of these. The Artificers that designed them in Eons passed likely meant it to be a failsafe to prevent the Swords from slowly consuming everything, presumably they built the bonding mechanism with the same goal in mind."

Thale nodded.

"Thank you." He said genuinely.

"The rest of your questions are more challenging, and even I, in my near limitless knowledge, don't have all the answers, so let's skip to the ones I do, for now."

"Okay."

"Adler."

Thale nodded,

"He didn't raise the barrier."

"Right, Magnus told me a bit about that...but still, why now? Magnus said the Archmage has been trying to override Adler's reluctance for years. Doesn't that imply that Adler wanted to raise the Barrier?"

"Maybe he did. Anyone with Logos could access his Thymos, but only if he was willing. He claims that he wasn't, and I don't know why he'd lie about that... unless he's lying to himself. The possibility that there's some sort of creature or spirit loose in the tower with enough raw Logos to overpower someone's mind is... concerning. We're trying to track it down... Which is where you come in."

Thale arched an eyebrow.

"How am I supposed to help you find it? I can't even cast spells right now with Eros, and I can barely manage a trickle of Logos."

"Exactly."

"Well, It didn't seize control of Adler until he was Marked with a Wizard Mark and his Sorceror's Mark. It's still just a theory, but we think Adler being a fledgling compound Soulmancer made him a controllable target."

Thale didn't like where this was going.

"I'm bait," he said.

"You're bait," Marelda confirmed.