Normally, meteor showers aren’t particularly noteworthy, other than the beauty they bring. The ones we can see passing by us in the sky don’t generally indicate an increased likelihood one is going to land nearby. But with a combination of the more mundane astrology, divination and scrying, it is possible to predict, with only the meteor shower as your indicator, when a meteorite might next fall locally. Even if it’s years down the line, as long as it will have some significant impact upon it’s arrival. The difficult part is to tell what exact form the consequences will be. One bringing the egg of a legendary phoenix might appear just as impactful as one that levels a whole kingdom.
The meteorite I had sent them to recover was of apparently miniscule threat. I expected it would be made up of simple iron and rock, as I usually divined incoming Skysteel far earlier. In retrospect, I suppose the general upheaval of fate those fortune tellers had kept going on about should have hinted to me something big was coming, but it seemed irrelevant to what I expected would be nothing more than some noble’s fancy paperweight.
~~~
The Greenwood is a young forest, and it is well known for being safe. No monsters dwelled in its depths, mostly because of the dryads and treents that called it home. Entering the forest to hunt or gather was unobjectionable, and as long as logging was kept below a negotiated threshold, the woods were a veritable boon for the local liege lord. Adventurers didn’t often need to go delving inside unless some monsters had tried to migrate in, or some special ingredient or component had a bounty posted. The network of dryads and treents were warned ahead of time that something would likely be landing in their forest, and they had taken precautions to limit the spread of any fire by clearing the underbrush and expanding natural firebreaks like streams and large game trails. It was the third day of the meteor shower when it made landfall. The sound echoed a great distance, and the immediate surroundings were devastated. The fire petered out without undergrowth to spread from one tree to another, so the denizens of the forest avoided the site. Waiting for adventurers to come and take whatever had landed away. They had been told that while it wasn’t likely dangerous to the whole forest, you could never rule out the chance it might contain, or even be, a monster.
The Dryad that was leading them to the crater claimed to have been knocked down by the force of the impact. She was youthful for a dryad, but of average age in this younger forest.
“I was just relaxing, counting the shooting stars, when I felt the forest almost shout. You need to understand how rare that is, trees don’t do a lot of shouting!”
From the rear of the party came a breathless mutter;
“The forest might not, but you sure do.”
The white robed woman rebuked her elder.
“Oh shut it Rodney, you know dryads don’t see many people, and this is probably the most exciting thing that’s happened in this forest.”
“Fine, fine. How much further did she say it was again?”
“She said it was about a ten minute run to the road, and we’ve been off it about that long, so if I had to guess another ten at walking speed.”
“Just had to land so close to the ridges, hm? We could be home by now if it fell on the other side of the forest.”
The druid’s voice butted in.
“If it didn’t land here you might have had a hard time digging it out. I’ve got some of the firmest and rockiest soil around, and it still threw around a lot of dirt.”
The party’s knight, Larrik, grabbed the druid’s attention back by asking;
“You didn’t get close to it right? While, even if it was a monster, I doubt that it would have been able to catch you, that is no reason to risk yourself when we were on our way.”
“No, I didn’t. I just climbed my tree! It is the tallest around, and I could barely make out something shiny half buried in the mound.”
“Anything else you could tell us about it? We must be getting pretty close by now?”
“Uh, there is one thing. On my way back to my hometree I saw something glowing go flying off into the woods. You didn’t really warn me that was a possibility, so I just left that alone too. I did keep track of where it landed, though.”
The party remained briefly silent. The list of things that could fall from the sky and then go flying from the crater was short. Short and dangerous.
Rodney quickened his steps to speak directly to the dryad.
“Did it seem to be actually flying, as opposed to just being flung?”
“What would be the difference?”
“Flight would be a number of small arcs, but flung would be one long one, without any turns.”
“I’m not sure, but I think one big arc. It definitely didn’t turn. Why?”
“It wouldn’t be unheard of for the meteorite to crack and eject fragments, the shards would travel in a straight line along one big arc. If it had been a string of shorter arcs, it would have likely been a monster. And if it recovered from impact so quickly, a particularly deadly one.”
The party now visibly relaxed, but the druid stayed thoughtful.
“I can take you around where the glowing thing ended up before we go to the crater, if you want.”
“How far is that?” asked Larrik
“It would only be an extra couple minutes. It’s almost on the way, if I’d thought of this earlier I could have taken you straight there. Sorry.”
“It’s fine, we didn’t ask. Let’s go”
Continuing their walk in silence for some time, other than the occasional spiteful grumbling, the party made way towards whatever the druid had seen last night.
~~~
It was certainly morning as the sun felt particularly pleasant with how deep nighttime’s chill had penetrated me. It was not just the air, but the ground stealing my warmth now that it had cooled down too. I had been able to expel a few of my impurities, but now that I am so cold I don’t think I could do it again. One notable thing is that the grains inside of me had felt like solid clumps, but they now felt significantly more broken up. If I had to guess when I cooled down they shattered into smaller pieces. I could probably attack someone with them, if I could figure out where my target is, and if I was hot enough. I tried focusing on my sunwarmed surface, trying to feel for anything that slow trickle of heat would actually let me do, but I think I need both a bit more sun to warm me, and a little less ground to steal my heat, before I will be able to try for a total ejection again. The shards inside of me have settled to the bottom of the voids they had previously filled, so If I could manipulate them, I could try to shake myself free of the crater. With my new plan I focused inwards, visualizing what I wanted to happen, and sort of fumbling around in my rocky muscle memory for what I had managed to do last night.
Suddenly and violently, I felt a shearing sensation. The ground had been formed around me, but as the foreign metals jerked upwards, and then came to a sudden stop, I felt the compacted dirt around me give away. I didn’t go far, and though there was still dirt stuck to my surface blocking the sun, I was now in significantly less contact with the ground. I was also afraid if I tried that again I might either fall back down or go flying off into the forest somewhere. I really hope the forest fire died out, it seemed really tranquil here. Before I stepped into the circle of burning trees, anyways.
~~~
What they found was approximately the size of a large potato, surrounded by radiating scorch marks and stuck halfway into a pine tree. It glinted a brilliant yellow, which Rodney identified as electrum. A mix of gold, silver and small amounts of other metals, The old rogue only knew it as a valuable magical ingredient, especially if the ratio was right. But of what it could have come from, only one option remained.
“Good news is, we’re getting paid extra for this,” he said, breaking the valuable find off the tree. “but you must not breathe a word of it on our way to give the meteorite to the Baron.”
“What is it?”
“This is electrum, it’s worth quite a lot. But the fact this is here, and not in the crater, means that it’s not just SkySteel we’re recovering”
“I thought they said it wasn’t going to be Skysteel?”
“Leona, you must have heard of Soulsteel, Right?”
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“I have, but are you trying to say-” The woman’s face lit up with shock.
“I am almost certain. When we get there, Larrik must empty his pack. Do you know any fire spells?”
“A few, but most of them incorporate holy magic, that’s not a problem, right?”
“If it reacts poorly to your first casting, we’re leaving it here and finding someone else to deal with it. But as it's shitting out electrum, we should be fine.”
As they started heading for the impact site again, the druid was initially speechless. She had no clue about this Soulsteel, and she thought it sounded awfully strange.
“What is it then? What landed in my little stretch of the woods?”
“Soulsteel is a kind of living metal, a kind with, as the name suggests, its own soul.”
“What? How can metal be alive, let alone hold a soul?”
“Living metal is physically an element like any other, and as for the soul, my limited understanding is that through its interactions with magic it gains life, and therefore eventually a soul. Natural things instead gain magic through life.”
“Isn’t that almost the same explanation you gave me for monsters?” asked Larrik
“Basically, perhaps, but there is some nuance to it. Most monsters were animals before they gained magic, but they now rely on the magic to sustain themselves. Or so Archy said when I asked him.”
“I can see the clearing up ahead, should I come in with you three?”
“No, Stay here. If we don’t come back, tell the next caravan going to Kruth that this part of the forest is off limits and they must inform the Baron to send for a court magician from the Duke.”
“Oh, can living metal really be that dangerous?”
“Only if your holy fire pisses it off instead of sating it.”
“I see.”
Leaving the druid to watch from a safe distance, the trio approached the crater. The soil was indeed firm, but the mess of fallen trees made it difficult to work their way to the center, as while most trunks ran straight towards the crater, the branches and occasional outjogged tree still created a barrier to forward progress, forcing them to either cut their way through or circle around particularly messy clumps of the thrashed timber.
“Allright, I'm gonna go take a look first, you two stay here and keep your heads down. When I call you up with me, have a fire spell and your metal buckler ready.”
~~~
After I escaped from my dirt nap, I sat there basking in the sun. It was quite pleasant, I still couldn’t ‘see’ anything, but the warmth was, while not quite energizing me, making me less lethargic. I found myself completely without a plan, other than to wait and pretend I was a solar panel.
I can’t judge time well, only really able to judge by counting seconds, and how many of them it took the last shadow to pass over me. By now the sun must be reasonably high in the sky. I can say, based on the parts of me getting sun, that it's at the latest an hour before noon. Assuming I am not more than halfway into the northern hemisphere, at least. I drop my current count, all my concentration jumping to a small flash of light that was there for just one second, and then gone the next. The brightness reminded me of retroreflectors late at night.
Whatever it is, it's now clambering through the maze of trees that surrounded me. I see its head clearly, and as it passes what must be the last of the ripped up roots, I get a good look at it. It is shaped like a human, but one with shading that seems all wrong. His eyes are the brightest part of his body. His clothes hide most of his form. It strikes me how it looks like I’m seeing with infrared, but I can see his hair, as it doesn’t show black. He’s also wearing comically large gloves, they remind me of oven mitts, or baseball gloves. The fact I can see them when the rest of his clothes are imperceptible strikes me as important. He himself doesn’t have a specific color, as he shines white, but the gloves are a dull blue. Approaching me carefully, he stops just out of arm's reach of me and squats down. I can’t discern the pupils of his eyes, but I’m sure they are locked on me.
~~~
“Allright, it doesn’t seem hostile to me.”
“What are you doing? You didn’t do anything to check! You just walked right up to it!”
“If it was hostile it would have started trying to build up enough force to either launch itself, or more electrum, at me.”
“Come on, let’s go.” Larrik leads Leona, holding a small steel buckler in front of him. Normally this is his backup shield, but Rodney said his wooden one wouldn’t block a molten shot from this close.
“First off, light this up for me.” Rodney proffered a splintered bundle of wood.
“Okay”
Taking the now alight tinder, Rodney waved the other two a step back, and placed the burning sticks on top of the white, almost pink rock. When nothing happened he breathed a sigh of relief.
“Now listen little feller, as long as you promise to be good on our trip home, you can have all the fire you want when we get there.”
The response was as dry as the kindling, but that was what he was hoping for.
“Allright, open that pack of yours up, it’s a little big but it should fit.”
“Why do we have to put it in my pack?”
“It’s too heavy for either of us, now will you stop complaining and take it before I drop it. That would piss it right off.”
~~~
When the other two had come climbing over the log, I was concerned. They also appeared with clothes, or maybe armor, black as pitch. Their bodies also seemed to be full of their own light. They wore significantly more clothes then the first guy, so I couldn’t get as good of a read on them. The one with the cloak was definitely a girl though. She did a weird snap of her fingers that sparked a fire, but I couldn’t see exactly what she was doing because the man in front of her was holding a big disc of nothingness, and if I was being honest I wouldn’t be able to see a firestarter if she was holding one. As the first man brought the fire closer to me, cradled in his blue oven mitts, I could actually distinguish things with the little light it gave off. His shirt was brown, probably leather if I had to guess. He placed the little fire on top of me, like some sort of crown, and I fell absolutely enamored with it. It radiated a warmth that quenched a thirst I didn't know I had. Unlike with the sunlight, I didn’t get any physically warmer, but I instead felt truly energized, and even though the flame burnt out far too quickly, the warmth didn’t bleed away. Around the time the fire went out, I noticed his mouth was moving. But I had never learned to read lips, so I just sat there, focusing on him as he scooped me up. Those gloves were not cold, but they were cool. A strange distinction I didn’t have time to explore before he placed me into some kind of container held by the armored looking guy, and the world returned to darkness. I could feel it was leather, likely a backpack. It seemed to strain to fit me inside, and with how I was jostled, the second man must have put me on his back.
~~~
“Is that really it?”
“Yes, but let’s take our time climbing over the trees on the way out. I don’t want to learn how living metal reacts when it's dropped.”
“I thought you said it was Soulsteel?”
“If it can shoot out a nugget, It should have to be. But it also should have reacted to the fire, or to me picking it up. It’s weird, but luckily it’s not our job to figure out why.”
“Okay, let’s go.”
Looking down to take off his Gloves of Resist Heat, he saw them covered with metallic dust.
“Quick, give me a phial. That thing was shedding.”
“Shedding? Shedding what?”
“Some metal, I don’t know this kind by sight. You can tell a lot about Living Metal by what mundane metals came down with it, so the Baron will be needing whatever it sheds to show to whoever’s got to deal with it after us.”