Sometimes the cost of doing the impossible is accepting the unthinkable.

----------------------------------------

─ Maelstrom

─ Type: Ascended Soulsword (3rd Form)

─ Rank: Legendary (Integrity: 17%)

Imbued with the pure energy of Mount Sanctum and the lifeblood of its creator, this blade has transcended its humble origins and become a weapon of *****?

After ****?, this blade now contains traces of ***?, ****?, and ***? and will **?

─ Class Requirement: Mageblade

─ Bound to Jair Welburne

“Is this process going to keep adding more and more question marks to the description?” Jair shook his head. “It’s pretty obvious what the middle section is. That’ll be a list of the creatures it ‘contains traces’ of. Venix, vylix, brobeg. After slaying them, probably the first part. It’s the ‘and will’ that I can’t figure out.”

Visually, the very tip of the blade had shifted from its usual color to a faintly yellowish tint. Barely noticeable when not glowing, but extremely obvious when the sword lit up in its brilliant silver pulses and the point’s distinct sickly yellow aura seemed almost to push away the silver light.

“And will continue to grow stronger the more monsters it defeats,” Eythron said. “Now quit staring and get slaying. There’s more brobegs out here to take care of.”

“No.”

“Eh? You disobeying me already, boy?”

“My soul, remember? I need to know more about what’s being done before I’ll commit to continuing. Something doesn’t feel right.”

“Oh, of course, if it doesn’t feel right, let’s just give up.”

Jair snorted. “You really don’t want me to give up right now.”

“I still don’t see why I should care.” Eythron crossed his arms and leaned back against the tree. “So far I haven’t seen anything impressive from you. The sword’s alright, I suppose, but why should I—”

“I’m not saying ‘we’ll stop killing things,’” Jair interrupted. “I’m saying this is a permanent change to my eternal soulsword, and I won’t be rushed into it just because you have an agenda.”

“Me, agenda? You don’t know me as well as you think.”

Jair raised an eyebrow. “We have a broad enough sample now, I need to examine the changes in detail.”

“Three is not a broad enough sample.”

“It is to show a basic pattern. Some creatures are changing the color, others are changing the shape. But I need to know what else they’re doing before I commit to increasing its influence.”

Eythron made a disgruntled noise but didn’t continue the argument.

Jair closed his eyes and sat with his back to the slick brobeg remains, resting Maelstrom across his lap as he searched out their conjoined soulmap.

That second pair of greater vylix in the fury they’d cleared on the way to the brobeg’s land, accounted for another two percent of its advancement and increased the serrations along its back to a double row that reached halfway from hilt to tip.

The brobeg had added two percent on its own, the first time a single creature had added more than one.

Maelstrom’s soulmap was almost half monster-essence by now, though the vast majority of it remained open gaps torn into the pattern. The vylix patches were thorny and brown, interwoven with Maelstrom’s silver filigree, with thin brown trails reaching across to connect them to each other.

The venix’s section remained the same size, as expected since they hadn’t encountered the mythical creature again, but when he focused more deeply on the venix’s influence, it actually looked like the dark fire was becoming more similar to Maelstrom’s base. The shape and color were still distinctly its own, but the subtle details more closely matched up to the torn silver filigree.

The brobeg’s was the newest and oddest of the lot. Each of the others had filled in one of the torn sections with a variation on the same basic pattern as Maelstrom’s default but with their own flavor and color.

The brobeg’s influence instead wrapped itself around Maelstrom’s silver, coating it in slick and vibrant yellow-green. It only covered a fifth of the sword’s soul, but something about it made Jair very uncomfortable.

He took his time assessing the other sections very closely, checking if any of the other additions were trying to usurp Maelstrom’s supremacy, but found no sign of anything troubling there.

“I don’t like it.”

Eythron looked over from where he’d lay down in the shade. “What’re you complaining about now?”

“I don’t know what all these creature souls are doing. It’s too random.”

Eythron folded his hands over his chest and lay back, closing his eyes. “Is that all.”

Jair narrowed his eyes. “What are you doing, old man?”

“Taking a nap.”

“No. With me and Maelstrom. You wouldn’t be using us as test subjects again, are you?”

“Of course not,” Eythron said, not even pretending to sound sincere. “Would I ever do something like that?”

“Could you at least pretend to have my best interest at heart for a few weeks?”

“I’m hurt by your accusation.”

Jair raised an eyebrow. “Doesn’t sound it.”

“What do you want from me? You bring an experimental sword with unknown damage and expect me to, what, be able to tell you everything about it without running tests?”

“There has to be a way to ascertain the effects from the creatures without going ahead and shoving their essence into Maelstrom to find out. These are permanent changes. I can’t go—” Jair blinked as a thought occurred to him. Then he started to laugh.

“What now?”

“You were right. I really should have stayed with Qahrvirna.”

Eythron squinted up at him. “So I can go home now? No more chasing the crazy child around the jungle so he can poke his sword into bigger and bigger monsters?”

"Unless you're interested in spending the next few years researching soul alchemy."

"That’s a myth. Soul alchemy doesn't exist."

Jair held up Maelstrom. "It does now."

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

Eythron grumbled incoherently for an overly long moment, then sat up. “If you want to mess around with souls, it sounds to me like you need to go have a chat with the star hydra.”

“I’m hoping to improve Maelstrom’s soul, not destroy it.”

Eythron got to his feet and leaned back against the tree, wordlessly continued to stare at him.

Jair frowned. “What do you want? Is this what you’ve been pushing for? Why?”

“You tell me you have a sword that eats monster souls. So what better soul than the soul-eater itself?” Eythron spread his hands as though this were obvious. “If you want to kill the unkillable, you don’t stab it with a sword. You don’t poison it, or burn it, or freeze it. You throw it in the sea. And since that’s clearly not an option here, star hydra is the next best thing.”

“You want its body for something.”

“And you need its soul for something. Sounds like an equitable arrangement to me.”

“It’s always something with you.”

Eythron raised an eyebrow.

Jair took a moment to consider. Unfortunately, as unconventional as he may be, Eythron generally had a point. “Fine. You win. Let’s hunt a star hydra. But if it gets to me, you’re responsible for protecting me however long it takes for my soulspell to repair itself.”

“That won’t be an issue.”

Jair waved at his missing hand. “I readily accept plenty of things that most people would find unthinkable, but a star hydra? Ephemeral monster immune to damage, six heads each capable of biting the soul right out of you… and it’s no issue?”

Eythron grunted. “It’s not immune to damage, it’s impervious to physical damage. And that’s why we’re going to keep hunting brobegs.”

“I don’t like what brobegs do to Maelstrom.”

“And what’s that, then?”

“If I knew, I wouldn’t need to spend the next several years learning soul alchemy with a vampire witch, would I?”

Eythron scowled. “I’ll tell you what it does. It takes a soul that’s on the verge of collapse and holds it together.”

“Maelstrom is not on the verge of collapse. It can survive a few years without needing frog slime all over its soul.”

“Then distract it and I’ll do the killing, if you’re that sensitive about it.”

Jair turned and squinted at the brobeg behind him. While he’d been meditating, Eythron had de-clawed it and taken several strips from its back. “How much brobeg hide do you need?”

“More now that you’re coming.”

“So brobegs have some way of protecting from star hydras?”

“Of course they do. Otherwise there’d be nothing but hydra nests across the whole jungle.”

“And you neglected to mention this when you were planning to send me out after one?”

Eythron shrugged. “If you were idiot enough to rush into things like that then you deserve to lose your soul.”

Jair chuckled. “Past me was a complete idiot, but even he never fell for that. My encounter with the star hydra was entirely accidental. That said, you can be an incredibly frustrating person to work with, master.”

“You can walk away any time.”

"I'm not complaining. I enjoy your company. Don’t think you’ll get rid of me that easily. I’m sticking through this until we get somewhere worth being. And from the sounds of it, your plan is the best shot we’ve got.”

“It is. I don’t do things frivolously.”

“Might I ask what exactly you want a star hydra for?”

“You might.”

“Why do you want to kill a star hydra?”

“None of your business.”

Jair shook his head. “Of course. What was I thinking, imagining that you’d answer a question reasonably.”

“You think it’s unreasonable not to want kids with delusions of grandeur to know too much about plans involving dangerous monsters?”

“When that ‘kid’ is me? Yes.” Jair folded up the brobeg tongue and stuffed it in his bag for Qahrvirna, then grabbed a large sturdy leaf from the nearest tree to wipe off the monster’s sludgy remnants from his body and armor. “Let’s go. Brobeg hunting it is.”

----------------------------------------

Jair sliced his way out of the latest brobeg on their months-long hunt and gave his mentor an exaggerated scowl. “Much longer and I’d have had to kill it myself. You’re getting slow, old man.”

Eythron didn’t look up from where he squatted beside the body, already stripping the brobeg’s vaguely scaley hide. “If you’d wait for your cue before getting eaten, I wouldn’t have to rush so much to get in position.”

For all his gruff behavior, Eythron had remained sufficiently conscientious about Jair’s presence and existence that even when their targets retaliated unexpectedly, he could jump in. True to his word, he’d been dedicated to taking on the bulk of the work in doing the killing.

That slowed their fights down significantly. Things like the brobeg that Jair could slice straight through would take a normal mageblade—even an ascendant with a relic weapon like Eythron—minutes at best.

Still, occupying the creature with his body while Eythron took care of the vitals seemed to be working out well. Apart from his perpetual need to de-slime himself after.

Brobeg saliva was barely better than its blood, both thick and too-sticky. At least they weren’t acidic like a poison dragon’s, that would have made Jair’s propensity for getting eaten less of a tactical decision and more of a disaster waiting to happen.

“The brobeg’s not waiting on cues, it’s hungry and grumpy at being invaded.” Jair dismissed Maelstrom and the brobeg gunk that had been clinging to the blade dropped to the ground with a dull splat. He shook his hand to fling off the sludgy remnants. “I feel like these things get more disgusting every time. I’m starting to hate you for always leaving me to get eaten.”

“You’re good at it. Play to your strengths.” Eythron finished with the hide and began slicing off the nascent wings. This specimen was younger than the others, its wings barely more than stubby fins, insufficient for even their usual gliding descent.

“Why are you only collecting wings from the juveniles?”

“Don’t think that asking when I’m not paying attention will get you my secrets, boy.”

“Are they for Qahrvirna?”

“You’re the one who lives with her. I barely know the witch.”

“That’s a blatant lie. No one who barely knows her gets away with calling her Qahri.”

“Well, aren’t you the expert.”

“I can help, you know.”

“Don’t need help.” He tossed the bundled brobeg skin at Jair. “Carry that. One more and we’ll have enough.”

“Of course, master.”

Once Eythron was finished, Jair set about collecting his own ingredients from the creature. “I’d like to visit Qahrvirna before the last one. This would be a lot easier if I had my replacement hand, and she has to have gotten it in by now.”

“I have it. She sent it a few weeks ago.”

“Aelir.” Jair closed his eyes. “Did you ever consider informing me that my incredibly customized and essential tool had arrived?”

“Where’s the fun in that? Then I’d miss out on this.”

Jair opened his eyes, to find Eythron watching him.

The old man had a happy scowl, amusement danced in his eyes.

“I’m glad you find yourself so entertaining.”

Eythron raised a finger. “I also find you entertaining.”

“For all the wrong reasons, I’m sure.” Jair held out his hand. “Hand, please?”

“One more brobeg.”

“I’d rather start building up my skill with it sooner than later, if we’re going after a star hydra in the near future.”

“Near future he says.” Eythron snorted. “We’ll be lucky if we’re ready to hunt by the end of the year.”

“The year just started.”

“And we’ll be lucky to finish before it’s over. You’ll have plenty of time to play with your new toy.”

“You don’t know how tempting it is to skewer you sometimes.”

Eythron laughed. “I have been told my face is very stabbable. Not many have survived the attempt.”

“What is your reason for withholding my possession from me?”

“Do I need a reason?”

“Most people have reasons, yes.”

Eythron rose to his feet. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Me? Disbelieve you? I’m a time traveler. And I know you. You’re not going to lie about something important.”

“It’s cursed.”

Jair frowned, thoughts thoroughly derailed. “How?”

“I’m trying to figure that out.”

“But it’s a construct hand. What is there to curse?”

“You, apparently.”

“To what purpose?”

“I’m trying to find out.”

“Well, I can save you some time.” Jair held out his hand again. “I’ll activate it, and if it’s too annoying I can loop back a bit.”

“Idiot. See? This is why I didn’t want to tell you.”

“I can take care of myself, old man.”

“If you don’t need me then why are you still following me around?”

“Nostalgia, most likely, though I’m beginning to question my tastes. Qahrvirna is seeming more and more of a reasonable option.”

Eythron pointed in the general direction of north. “Then go.”

“Not without my hand.”

“I haven’t discerned its curse’s effects. It would be irresponsible of me as a mentor to—”

“Oh, so now you’re a mentor, when it means you get to annoy me?” Jair stepped forward. “Just hand it over. I’ll deal with the curse.”

Eythron shrugged. “I did try to warn you. If you die now, it’s not my fault.”

----------------------------------------