Steelforged Legacy 2 - Chapter 15

Chapter 15

With the help of Magnus, Casey was able to stumble back to the camp. His previous plans of rapidly evacuating the site were in shambles, as he could barely walk  straight at the moment.

Rest, Casey. We need to focus first and foremost on realizing the gains here. Racing off right now while you are weak won’t help, Maude advised him, her mental voice distracted.

“You gonna be okay there, Maude? I didn’t damage you, did I?” Casey panted, slumping onto the ground by the embers of his fire. Magnus shuffled around behind him and settled down to provide Casey a backrest. “Thanks, Magnus.”

The elk huffed offhandedly, as if to say ‘no worries.’

I’m fine, just have to focus on this. The metal is fighting me more than I expected. It’s rich with qi right now, and a very unique sort of it. The space between stars has its own native qi after all, and this thing was bathing in it before it came here.

Casey felt the ghost of a kiss against his lips and caught the hint of Maude’s wild scent before she continued a moment later.

Just give me an hour and I should have this handled. That’ll be enough time for you to consolidate your next step. The sooner you do that, the better. You are leaking qi right now as touching the star metal gave you far more than you could hold.

“Gonna have to send your mum a thank-you card,” Casey muttered, chuckling weakly at his poor joke while turning his eyes to Maude’s blade form in front of him.

The lump of star metal looked slightly smaller now and was no longer glowing, though it still radiated a bit of heat, like a stone baked in the afternoon sun. Not so much that it hurt to be near, but enough that it was a little uncomfortable. As he watched, Casey swore he could see the lump of metal begin to deflate and he imagined Maude sucking it dry like a Capri-Sun. That mental image made him snicker.

Focus, Casey. Tend to your center, my partner, Maude reminded him and he nodded, taking a long breath and letting it out slowly.

Casey shifted so that Maude lay in his lap with her hilt over the center of his folded legs. The blade protruded just past his shins where it then sank into the lump of star metal, leaving the blob of metal far enough away that its surface wouldn’t touch his skin, but Maude still sat over his lap while he focused.

Closing his eyes, Casey let himself fall back into his center once more and was startled by what he found.

Before, he’d seen that the red-hot qi from the hunk of star metal had merged with his own natural qi, though it had fought the process. The amount of qi within his center had overflowed his pool and washed over the floor of the room at a few inches when his qi had begun to win over the red-hot energy.

Now, Casey’s center was almost a foot deep in the overflow and he could see where the walls were being carved out by the pressure of the lapping pool of energy. He could see the center of the spinning pool trying to drag at the qi that flooded the room and he could suddenly feel his body trying to advance to the next Step.

What did Maude call it? Blaze? The last step on the first stage… I think she called it ‘Building the Fire’ or something like that? Casey thought as he focused on the pool in front of him.

When he had advanced from the first to the second Step, he’d felt the qi crystallize and fall to the bottom of the pool, somehow driving the pool deeper into his soul and allowing for more qi to enter it. He could feel that same reaction right now attempting to occur, but the sheer amount of qi in his center was fighting it. He could feel some of the energy leaking back out of him and into the air, with a portion being drawn in by the steady breaths of his elk companion.

Good, I’d rather Magnus have it than lose it, Casey thought when he realized that the elk was taking what it could. He didn’t begrudge the animal the power, since it would be lost either way. I can’t direct it to Maude either. She’s wrestling with her own problem.

Thinking of his partner granted Casey a vision into Maude’s center. The raven-haired woman was standing above her own swirling pool of qi, but while her pool wasn’t overflowing, he could see a thick cable of dull metal emerging from the wall and Maude was bodily hauling it, hand over hand, towards herself and feeding the metallic strand into the dancing sphere that rolled and bounced at the center of her swirling pool of qi. A sphere that Casey recognized as her Legacy, as it had already formed for her as Maude was a divine being naturally, rather than a mortal like himself. The Legacy pulsed and devoured the strand of metal, flashing with a myriad of metallic colors as it hungrily consumed the star metal.

Pulling back to his own center, Casey focused on his pool of qi.

Focus on keeping the qi moving. It’s going to soak into the basin and expand it for now. You are building your foundation. 

The memory of Maude’s words echoed within his mind and Casey nodded firmly.

Bending his intent on the sluggishly turning pool, Casey urged it to pick up speed. The qi fought to obey him, dragging at the mass of liquid light to force it to follow after. It felt like he was trying to push a boulder uphill, but Casey continued to drive out with his mind and spirit, using the same process he had to shape the room in his center now on the qi.

Near the center of the pool, at the eye of the sluggishly spinning cyclone of energy, Casey felt something begin to form and crystallize, before falling down into the center of his being. As that single grain of coalesced qi hit the bottom of his pool, Casey felt a chain reaction begin. Three more grains formed and fell, then were followed by seven.

With a sucking noise like water swirling down a drain, Casey felt his qi crystallize and merge with the basin of his center.

Each grain that felt struck him like a hammer-blow to the spirit. While the rush of red-hot qi earlier had been one singular, titanic strike, this was the thunderous harmony of the forge hard at work. It pounded at his body and warmed him all at the same time. The process forced his center to take the shape that was needed, and the bottom of his pool continued to sink deeper and deeper.

The qi that had overflowed his pool was drawn rapidly into the reaction, draining into the far deeper pool as the sluggish whirlpool picked up speed. Casey felt the last grains of qi solidify and fall to the bottom of his pool and then the whole thing hardened to dense stone. With the qi that remained, his pool was nearly a third full already, but there was something else happening in his soul.

Right above the center of the pool, where Casey had just witnessed the orb that was Maude’s Legacy a moment before, he felt something beginning to form. While the qi in his pool flowed like a liquid, it glowed with an inner light that felt like distilled starlight. So when a single dancing flame, its base as wide as his palm, sparked into existence above his center, Casey was startled but knew instinctively what it was.

The purifying Forge. Casey thought in wonder as the orb of flame settled into place, slowly turning in place over the very center of his pool while silver and gold flames licked up from a spherical base that was the size of a large apple. This will be the tool to smelt my body and forge my spirit. Everything up to this was preparation and learning, but this… this will be the tool that I can use to sculpt my future with.

Another memory rippled from the depths of his mind. He was standing in a wooden house, with a redheaded man grinning at him from across a wooden table while a large raven perched on the arm of a chair that he had just stood from.

“I trust in my own strength. A man with a shovel and a bucketful of determination can move a mountain.”

Casey’s grin turned feral as he stared down into that dancing orb of spiritual fire, and he swore that he saw the flickering flame grow taller for a moment before it returned to normal.

“Move a mountain, definitely. But with enough determination, I think I could punch that orange-suited… what did Loptr call him again?” Casey cast his memory back for a moment before he laughed. “Yes… bacraut. I think with enough determination, I can punch that orange-suited bacraut right in the nuts.” He stared into the dancing ball of flames and reached out towards it reassuringly. “It’s not revenge… I’m not after revenge. I want justice for those he’s harmed. Justice for all of us he’s manipulated in his deceit.” He wasn’t sure if he was saying it to remind himself or to reassure the energy that dwelt in front of him.

The dancing flame shifted, the trailing tongues of fire angling towards him and he felt a warmth, a confidence coming from it. A confidence that told him the power knew his cause was just. A promise to do what needed to be done, to chase down the stars themselves if that was what it took to find the justice he sought.

He took another long moment to consider the fire in front of him, watching the sparkling light ripple away from it and reflect off the surface of the pool of qi beneath it. How one light reflected off of another, Casey wasn’t sure, but it was the best way he could explain how the glittering gold and bright silver sparkled against the misty qi that swirled beneath it.

“Casey!” Maude’s voice from behind him startled Casey enough that he almost slipped and fell ass-first into his qi pool. Cartwheeling his arms, he managed to stabilize his balance, but a hand caught the back of his belt and pulled him away from the edge a moment later.

The soft sensation of his lover and partner’s body against his back revealed who it was that had startled him, and he turned to look at the grinning face of Maude.

Her simple leather wrap now had silver accents stitched into the edge of the leather, giving it a more regal look and a chasing shimmer of light that followed her when she moved. Her hair was still bundled back off her neck and Casey could see the sweat on her forehead, showing the effort of what she’d achieved herself.

“Maude? Are you okay? Did you finish?” Casey panted, pulling Maude into a crushing hug before she could even speak. The spirit woman eep’ed in surprise at the sudden contact but wrapped her arms around him to return the hug.

“Yes. It’s mine now. I just need to decide how to put the material to use. My Legacy will hold it for now though, but I think you are going to like it regardless of what happens,” Maude mumbled into his chest, clearly reveling in the tight hug.

Maude had explained to him before that one of the things that she envied the most was the sensation of touch that mortals had. She’d never really gotten to experience a loving embrace for very long, as she could only maintain a human form for a bare handful of seconds before. The idea that she’d only ever gotten to hug her mother or father for a few seconds before having to return to her knife form made his chest ache, so Casey made sure to give her plenty of physical contact whenever he had the chance.

“I don’t care what you choose. I know we'll make it work, Maude,” Casey said before pressing a kiss to the shell of her ear. Maude trembled in his arms and sighed happily, nuzzling into his neck for a long moment before pulling back to look up at him.

“I’m proud of you, Casey. You not only completed the third step, but you sparked your Forge, too.” Her eyes darted over his shoulder to the dancing sphere of fire. “The Forge is not actually a true Step, but it is a process needed to actually move past the third Step. Now we will need to do more than just stuff as much qi into you as possible.”

“Oh?” Casey asked, letting his hands fall to settle over her bottom, kneading the muscled curves of Maude’s ass idly and getting a happy purr from the woman before she continued.

“Yes, now that you have the fire going, we can begin the process of purifying your body to remove what you do not want or need, and then forging it into the true weapon I know you can be. But that is something for another day.” Maude sighed resignedly at that and began to pull away, but Casey refused to release her yet.

“What about you? Did you take another Step?”

Maude shot him a glittering smile, her eyes dancing with happiness.

“I did! I hadn’t expected to reach Reducing yet. The fifth Step,” Maude elaborated when Casey hooked an eyebrow at her curiously. “I thought I would have to wait for you to catch up, but the power imbued in that meteorite was far more than I expected. It fought me quite a bit, but I was able to tame it and claim it as my own.”

“Does that mean I get to kiss your physical body now?” Casey teased with a grin, and Maude rolled her eyes up at him.

“No, you can’t ravage my physical body yet. You’ll have to keep it to a spiritual ravaging for now.” She smacked his chest lightly, but the grin never left her face. “Now, we need to get moving. I don’t know how long we’ve been in this trance, but we need to put some distance between us and the impact site. We can return to the road now, too. Maybe in the next town, you can actually sleep the night at the inn if you want?”

“At this point? I think I might have forgotten what a real bed feels like,” Casey replied with a grin.

Bending down, he pulled Maude back in for another kiss before murmuring against her lips.

“I look forward to being able to give you all the affection you could want, both in here and with a physical body.”

“Soon, my loving partner,” Maude husked back, bumping her forehead against Casey’s. “Now go! Before I rip your clothes off here and we both will be further delayed!”

Laughing, Casey released Maude and let his consciousness rise to the surface once more.

Opening his eyes, he glanced around him. The embers of the fire had sunk down to nothing more than barely glowing gray coals. It was still night out, with the moon high overhead and a myriad of stars speckling the sky with dancing motes. A view that actually reminded him of the reflections dancing on the surface of his qi pool, though the darkness of the sky was an opposite to the bright silver of his qi.

Magnus shifted from his spot behind Casey, the movement jostling him as his backrest huffed questioningly.

“Yeah, it’s time to get moving, Magnus,” Casey answered the unspoken question.

The elk perked up, tilting its head for a moment before glancing towards Casey’s pack meaningfully.

Laughing, Casey nodded in agreement. “Yes, I’ll get you the candy I promised you. Glutton!”

Magnus snorted derisively at him, then shook his head back and forth in denial.

“Sure, deny it all you want,” Casey teased again before reaching back with his left hand to pat the animal lightly on the muzzle. “Thanks for watching over us while we took care of that, Magnus. Good boy.”

This time, the huff from the elk was a proud one, and Magnus held his head high.

Such a good boy! Maude added in, making the elk preen even more at the complement.

Getting to his feet, Casey took a moment to study Maude’s weapon-form. The seax was the same blackened steel that he was used to seeing. The only difference was that the edge had a brighter silver gleam to it, but that might have been a trick of the light. He swore, though, that he could feel a hum of energy coming from the weapon. A promise of strength and growth waiting to be realized.

Lifting the blade up, he carefully pressed his lips to the side of the blade in a gentle kiss.

“More where that came from when you can take the right form, partner,” Casey murmured, love thick in his voice. Maude cooed wordlessly into his mind as he slid her into the sheath at his hip.

That settled, Casey started digging for his bribe to the elk while Magnus got up and tried to jam his head into the pack as well, clearly hoping to steal more than one of the rare candies if he could.

Casey pushed him away with a laugh and got the last of the honey squares out. He made sure to offer Magnus his share first before unwrapping his from the leaf container.

Popping the sugary treat into his mouth, Casey murmured to the silent forest thoughtfully.

“I appreciate these, Little Ones. They are a welcome blessing that makes keeping ahead of my enemies easier.”

There was no reply from the silent forest, but Casey felt better for expressing his gratitude, small as it was. Maude had warned him about directly thanking the fae, but he still wanted to express his appreciation, and he felt that it had been well received.

Dressing quickly once more, Casey stomped a few times to make sure his boots were properly tied in place before turning to his horned companion.

“All right, Magnus. To the road north!” Casey ordered as the qi-charged treat dissolved on his tongue. The elk grunted happily, whirling to disappear into the brush on a route away from the river. Casey followed after with a smile, Maude humming happily in his mind.