PreCursive

  “So, they’re two days out?” I asked Grey quietly, loud enough so only he could hear. My eyes weren’t on him, though.

  They were on Azarus.

  Grey, Azarus, and I were in the small fe that this military camp had. Azarus had iated for its use from the fe master, a Sculpted wrought from iron by the name of Smelt. Right now, Azarus was doing the actual fe work required for my arm, with the assistance of said fe master. He’d been w on it now since before the sun had e up and seemed to have finished most of it, judging by the bits and bobs he had scattered around on a nearby workbench.

  I would have volunteered to help with the f process, but Azarus had turned me dowold me that he wao do this for me, as a repayment of his debt to me.

  “What debt?” I’d asked him, pletely fused.

  Azarus had looked me straight in the eye and said one word. “Addersfield.”

  Oh.

  I…guess he still felt that he owed me a debt for helpi him out of the Principality. I didn’t really agree with that. We’d all worked together to get out of Addersfield, and away from dwarven nds. If anything, I owed him a debt. I don’t think I’d have ever been able to free myself from bohout his help. I didn’t feel like there was any sort of debt between us. Apparently, he didn’t agree with that. He was being characteristically stubborn about this, so I let it drop.

  Thus, Azarus was doing the fe work. I trusted him, though. Last night, Grey, Honoka, Azarus, and I had spoken about the way that we wahe arm to actually attay body and had e up with a pretty iing idea. Azarus had told me he could do it, so I’d given the go-ahead oirely differehod than we’d initially pnned on. Honoka had even said this sounded less risky, as far as the operatio. Azarus had taken a few measurements of my stump, and that was that.

  Grey had only just joined me, actually. Like he’d promised Azarus, he had been w with my dwarven friend for a rge part of the f process. I hadn’t been io hear, but I’d seen Grey patiently expin how te and work Mithril to an ied Azarus and ahralled Smelt. It didn’t seem like Azarus had needed much help, though. After a few tries, he’d seemingly gotten the process down just fine, leading to Grey exiting the fe to stand with me.

  I guess Azarus hadn’t had enough faith in his own abilities.

  Grey and I were standing just outside of the fe while Azarus and Smelt worked. We had fihe design work for the arm’s entment, and now we just he physical pos. Then, ohey were done, we would just o inscribe and ent them. At that point, after fully assembling the arm, all that would be needed was the actual surgery to graft it to my body and soul.

  You know. Only the most dangerous part.

  No biggie.

  “Yes,” Grey said, nodding to my question. “The scouts have entered the main host. For now, they’re just barely out of far-eye range. If we wish to finish your arm, then we’ll o be done by at least tomorrow. From what I’ve been informed, the main host isn’t intending to stay at Silvercrest for long. Only a few hours, so they purchase additional supplies from the town. The camp is intending to immediately start breaking up when they reach us.”

  “All right, that…still sounds doable,” I said slowly, eyes trag the rise and fall of Azarus’s smithing hammer. I didn’t even flinch at the ringing of metal oal that echoed out of the fe. I may not use a hammer for my own f, but I was used to the noise by now. I cast a gaze over at Grey. “We’ll have to bug Honoka about being ready for the operation.”

  I was startled by the feeling of a sharp finger jabbing me in the ribs. I yelped, spinning around to see who had assaulted me.

  Even though I already had a suspi…

  Sure enough, Honoka was standing behind Grey and I, smirking at me. Sylvia was with her, smiling at me almost apologetically.

  “o pester me, boy,” Honoka said, amused by my rea. “I’ve already set up an appropriate surgery station in the Healer’s tent. I eve and recruited an assistant in that fox boy you rescued. Whatshisname, Reyault.”

  “Renauld,” I corrected automatically. So, Renauld was going to help then? I’d have to go and thank him ter.

  Honoka waved me off irritably. “Eh, whatever. Point is, you better be grateful, boy,” She said, jabbing me in the chest with the same fihat had goosed my ribs. “I’m meant to be teag Sylvia here the basics of Cultivation Arts, but no. Instead, I’m running around preparing for your damn fool operation.”

  “Yes, yes,” Grey said dryly. “Far be it from me to prevent education, but I’m sure Sylvia doesn’t mind it being postponed for a medical procedure.”

  Sylvia shook her head. “No, it’s fine. I wait a few days for my instru to begin. This is more important.” She smiled slightly in my dire. I retur, gd for the support. I’d been a little awkward around Sylvia the day after our little…session, but I’d gotte. There was no use stressing out over things like that, especially right now. If she had meant that kiss in a certain way, then I trusted Sylvia to say so.

  Our little group versation was cut short by Azarus, appearing in the doorway of the fe. We turo face him, to see that the soot-stained and exhausted dwarf had a triumphant look on his broad features. “It’s done,” He said heavily, with a breath. “, I’ll show ye how it works.” He walked bato the fe, with the rest of us following.

  Azarus led us to the bench where a mass of finished parts y. On it, I could see what looked to be bones wrought from solid Mithril, and a plethora of golden shell pieces. I tilted my head when I saw them, instantly uanding the idea behind what Azarus had been after.

  “So,” Azarus said, folding his arms and nodding at the table. “Essentially, the thing is going to work like a real arm would. It’s not going to work like some kind of solid hunk of metal. Nah, that would be too unwieldy. Instead, you’ve got all the individual bones,” He poio three separate piles of Mithril ‘bones’, each seeming to be for the forearm, wrist, and hand. I ted exactly twenty-nine of them. “Which make the skeleton of the arm. Now, like we talked about, all that is goin’ to attach to these.”

  Azarus reached into the pile of golden pos and pulled out what looked to be two gold and silver caps. They were around the width of what was left of my forearm, with ohril side of it ft on each, and with a few notches on the surface of it. The other was gold and cupped in the shape of my stump. Inside were a few spikes extending from their surface.

  Honoka took it from him, giving the po a critical eye. She her iion. “Yes, we work with this. As agreed, one of these is what will actually be grafted to the boy’s body. Against my wishes, he'll be awake during the procedure, to meld the gold to his flesh and bone. Ohat’s done, he’ll do something to ect it to his soul as well. The whole time, I’ll be keeping him alive with the help of the fox.” Honoka stopped to give me a doubtful look. “Are you sure you actually do this, boy? It’ll be beyond excruciating.”

  Still, I Honoka. “Yeah, I do it. I have Skill that will help with this.” In fact, I don’t even think I would have been capable of this at all with Ringed Mind. I’d be turning off my paiors during the operation with the help of my c, and wouldn’t feel a bit of it. I’d probably o dull my sense of horror at perf surgery on myself with my middle ring, as well.

  “All right then,” Azarus nodded, and then held up the sed cap. “The actual arm will fit onto this. O’s all ented, I’ll assemble it, bones first, and then the gold g around that. It’ll be mostly hollow, but that ain’t going to be a problem because you guys included a hardness entment.” He paused. “Right?”

  Grey nodded, stepping up to examihe bits and piey new arm. “Yes, we did. As well, if Nathan is successful in attag the apparatus to his soul, then the prosthetic will be from the ioughhat is granted from a Status. Additionally, through the use of Nathan’s prototype ‘Soul Linking’ entment, he should be able to switch out arms iure with ease. Much like how some Sculpted s body parts with simir ease, even if they were not born with them. Their soul ily reizes the new material as appropriate, and is thus accepted onto the body.” Grey scratched his . “You know, even if I desighe Sculpted entments myself, I was never able to narrow it down to which specific array was causing that iion. However did you mao figure it out, Nathan?”

  I coughed into my fist, eyes flickering over to Sylvia for a moment. She carefully didn’t react, merely tinuing to study the pieces of arm fed by Azarus. “Careful experimentation.”

  Grey didn’t notice the bypy, but Honoka did. She narrowed her su eyes at me suspiciously. I carefully didn’t meet them. “Well!” Grey said, g his hands and maybe saving my life. “Good job, either way. Azarus, if you could bu up, Nathan and I will take it from here. I expect we’ll have fihe entments by the end of the day. Ms. Smelt,” He said, addressing the Sculpted fe master, who I had pletely fotten was still in here with us. She jumped at being addressed. “Thank you for the usage of your fe. I assure you, you’ll be appropriately pensated.”

  The iron Sculpted woman shook her head furiously, waving her hands. “No, no!” She said in a fnging voice. “It’s fine! Just getting to work with you and Mr. Azarus was more than enough! I learned so much from this!”

  Grey smiled politely. “I’ll make sure the payment is delivered promptly,” He said, ign her protestations. Smelt smiled at the Headmaster sheepishly, nodding in acceptance. Azarus had finished essentially sweeping all of his careful work into a sack by then and had e to stao Grey and I. Grey then turo me. “Natha’s go. We have a busy day ahead of us.”

  I him, and then said my goodbyes to Sylvia and Honoka. Grey, Azarus, and I thehe fe frey’s tent, where we had turned our former drafting table into an enting workstation.

  After dropping off his work, Azarus stuck around to inform us about the fun of every piece of the arm, which was helpful. Each piece was going to s own individual part of the entment.

  Looking out over the pile of mystically charged prosthetic pieces, I got ready for a long day. I wasn’t sure I’d ever ented this much at once, even if I was going to have Grey’s help. I took a deep breath, and o myself.

  We got to work.

  Sure enough, Grey was right. It took us the rest of that day in order to get everything done. By the end of it, every st piece of disassembled my new arm was nearly humming with the freshly charged new perma entments set into it.

  I was exhausted. I hadn’t quite pushed myself to a bckout like I had in Caer Drarrow, but it was close. I could barely keep my eyes open. versely, Grey still looked fresh.

  I guess that was just the differen our strengths right now.

  Azarus had left a while ago, leaving us aloo our work.

  Grey looked at me in , and y a hand on my shoulder. “Nathan, perhaps you should rest for now. You still have the operation to do tomorrow. You o serve at least some strength.”

  I took a deep breath and nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m…going to go hit the hay. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

  Grey me. “Yes, before the operation. After that, I’m afraid I won’t see you until it’s pleted. I have some administrative work I must do in preparation for the arrival of the main host. Mainly having to deal with the handing off of the former prisoners.”

  I o show I uood and then exged goodbyes with him. I stumbled out of his tent, and almost drunkenly made my way to my own. Ohere, I barely had enough energy to say hello to Fade, before flopped onto my bunk.

  I was out nearly instantly.

  Tomorrow, I was finally going to have two arms again.