The return trip was quick and quiet, Larrik’s backpack was noticeably overfull, but none of the merchants or common folk they passed on the road were foolish enough to pry into the business of adventurers laden with loot. The other two had taken most of Larrik’s supplies, having left the heaviest of rations and perishables behind, as there was no longer enough room to fit them. They wouldn’t be camping outside like they had been prepared to, as they had met up with the Dryad on the first pass down the forest road.
“So, we’re staying the night, right? Tom will be done by tomorrow, and there is no reason to give away we’re in a rush.”
“You know I just got done saying we needed to get this thing to the Baron before anything goes wrong, right?”
“Yeah, but you’re not the one who’s been carrying it for the last two hours.”
“Fine. We can rest here and wait for tom. We got here early enough that we can take proper watches. And it’s late enough in the year that no one will find it suspicious if we light a fire.”
“What would we need a fire for?”
“When the sun goes down, it might get a bit antsy. If we need it to sit quietly and behave, you can placate it with that manafire again.”
“Why do you think it likes fire?”
“It’s not the flames themselves, it’s the mana and energy it releases.”
“Oh. We’re just feeding it mana then. Can it use other kinds? It’s metal, shouldn’t it like metal or earth the most?”
“I don’t know either way, but do not try it tonight. If it doesn’t like it, it might spit another glob of molten metal through the thatch roof.”
“Okay.”
Upon entering the tavern, the one they had just departed from that morning, Rodney went straight to book them a room.
“Mary, Is our room still open?”
“Yep, It’s already been cleaned too.”
“Perfect. It’s the one with the fireplace, right?”
“Why? Will you be needing some firewood for your weary bones?”
“Couldn’t hurt.”
“Okay, 2 silver for 4 beds, 5 coppers for the firewood.”
The small coins swap hands, and the party goes straight upstairs. Arriving at the same room they stayed in the night before. Larrik drew the curtains on the only window.
“Can I take it out now?”
“I suppose, just make sure to use the gloves. They’re not just to protect you from its temperature, they also isolate your mana from it.” Turning to Leona, “Would you mind starting the fire, so by the time he sours it’s mood we can stick it in the fireplace?”
“Sure, I’ll go grab the firewood.”
~~~
We must have gone some significant distance, because after being in that bag for god knows how long, I felt the backpack get taken off, and then I was set on the floor. Looking up, I watched as the flap got pulled back and the man whose body heat I could just barely feel through the leather peered into the bag at me. He was now wearing those blue gloves, and as they touched me again the cool feeling returned. It felt like the opposite of the warmth that fire had given to me, but not draining like the true cold of night. He was unable to hold me with one hand, and almost dropped me. This body had just struck the ground with all the force of a literal meteor, so I was not too concerned about him hurting me if he did lose his grip. The older man however, who had been turned away, spun around and started giving this brawny looking guy a real talking to.
I didn’t pay much attention though, I was busy enjoying the cooling sensation. If I felt energized with that weird fire, this was soothing. I could feel the stresses inside of me slowly reaching an equilibrium. Once I was relaxed, I realized that I was starting to store that coolness, just like I had when taking in the warmth from the fire. I also didn’t get any physically colder. I had lost some of my stored “warmth” while I was relaxing, but now that I already felt calm, the coolness and the warmth seemed to be able to coexist. This struck me as weird magic stuff. Maybe it’s what I eat? What else could sentient metal even eat? I don’t think I eat metal, as I'm pretty sure that the foreign grains inside of me are other metals, and I can’t seem to absorb them.
As of right now, I can feel the powdered impurities sinking not just to the bottom of their voids, but them filtering out between my different crystalline structures. They were all gathering between me and the gloves. The metals coming out of me didn’t seem to reflect any light, just as dark as my surroundings. As the man holding me shifted slightly, I felt the metal abrase against my surface. The feeling caused him to jump, dumping the powdery metal dust onto the floor, and nearly dropping me once again. But without the metal blocking me, I started absorbing magic from the gloves again.
~~~
“Shit!”
“If you can’t hold your hands still, put the damn thing back down. And stop shouting.”
“No, look. It’s shedding again.”
“I’ll gather it in a phial, you go set that thing down by the fireplace, and try leaving a glove under it.”
Carefully, Larrik slid his hand partway out of the right glove, and then guided the living metal to sit on top. He didn’t have a plan for what to do with the second glove, so he simply draped the glove over its surface.
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“Is that good?”
“For now, but get away from it before something else happens.”
Having retreated to the other side of the room, they both sat on the edge of their beds, as the shedding slowed, and eventually stopped.
“Why doesn’t it get any smaller if it’s expelling so much metal?”
“I don’t know. But the metal it’s expelling isn't alive like it is.”
“Why is that?”
“There is a difference between metals that can conduct magic, and metals that are magic. Don’t ask what that is, I don’t know.”
“Leona had said you were so experienced when we left. I’m a little dissapointed”
“I am plenty experienced in Skysteel recovery, I’ve been on five missions to locate meteoroids, although only two of them we recovered any significant amount. Everything about Living Metal I know is stuff I picked up by my own curiosity, at least twenty years ago now.”
“You said this was Soulsteel though?”
“I’m not sure, Soulsteel shouldn’t be falling from the sky. Soulsteel starts off as Living metal, mostly because it’s without a soul. Fresh Living Metal should be, at best, not quite as smart as a dog. Soulsteel is the next step, it is considered soulsteel when it’s as intelligent as magical familiars. Plus priests can check if it has a soul.”
“So you don’t-”
The door to the room opens without a knock, briefly making both occupants jump, before Leona steps in with a bundle of firewood in her hands.
“Can one of you take this, it’s heavier than I expected. She must have given us extra for being repeat customers.”
“I will, How big a fire would you say we wanna start with?”
“As far as I understand, a nice small one would be ideal, too much at once and it might get overwhelmed. Unless it’s Soulsteel”
“Do I start the fire first, and then put it in, or just build the fire on top of it?”
“Build the fire on top. If it can already shed, ashes shouldn’t bother it.”
~~~
When the woman returned, I thought both the men were going to jump out of their skins. I must be a secret, and I guess that makes sense, if I’m so valuable. I couldn’t tell what she came back with at first, but then the big guy came over and moved me into what must be a fireplace, I realized their plan was and I was all for it. After placing the wood around and on top of me, the robed female came over and snapped her fingers again. With how close she did the gesture, I could make out that she kept her ring finger pointed out, and sparks flew from it, her thumb, and her pointer finger.
Almost all the sparks caught on the wood around me, but one missed, and landed on me. Trying to look at where it landed felt like I was crossing my eyes, but I could certainly feel it. It was hot, but didn’t burn, and it reminded me of the presence of warmth I had felt passing through the burning treeline. It dispersed as it penetrated my surface like it wasn’t there, intermingling and assimilating with the warmth I already had stockpiled. I figured, having seen it be the product of some sort of spell, that it must be mana. Perhaps the fire is releasing fire mana, but I could also detect what I can only start to describe as the smell of laundry softener. I was still without a nose, but as the mana swirled through me I couldn’t seem to find what was making the smell. I still didn’t know if the cool mana was water or ice, or if there was even a difference between the two here.
I focused on drawing in as much of the warmth as I could, but as I took a deep breath of the now abundant mana, I pulled the very flames from the logs and into myself. The fire died, seemingly because it was now without mana. I could see the three of them fine, the wood being piled mostly between me and the back of the fireplace. The older man reacted by breaking out into what looked like laughter, but the other two seemed stunned. I wasn’t sure, but I was tempted to be offended. If I expelled some of my fire mana, could I start my own fire? I was worried about it being seen as a threat, so I made sure to shepherd it all towards the rear of the fireplace, where there was the most fresh wood. I couldn’t focus on more than one thing at a time, so when I glanced back at the old man, he’d gone from his fit of laughter to a similar look of concern as the other two. Before they could do anything to react, I guided the mana to a crack in my surface, and it spit out like a miniature flamethrower. Wherever it contacted the wood, it caught on fire, even if it had taken a lot more mana than the woman’s sparks had seemed to. I tried to radiate smugness, but I don’t think it was coming across.
~~~
The ripping sound that briefly dominated the room died away, and the fire returned to its previous strength.
“So, that’s really weird, isn’t it?”
“It was weird when it put out the Manafire. That it is already experimenting with mana release, even if it’s just as raw power, is concerning.”
“What do you mean? It’s a magical creature, it should know mana control inherently.”
“What I mean is that if it could control its mana like that, why’d it put the fire out? I can think of many reasons it might have, but the only one that fits to the rest of its behavior is curiosity, it’s testing its limits.”
“And that’s a bad thing?”
“If we want to get it to Kruth quietly, it most certainly is.”