Grand Saint Alloy

Eve was having a really bad day, well it was a bad evening and morning, but a bad twenty-four hours would not be an inaccurate description. She watched an ancient entity destroy her last remaining family member, She sat through a twelve-hour leadership planning session where the only ones to plan anything were two teenage miners who weren’t even present. The commander had threatened his elder, and now the two miners had conspired to kill Siren. It looked like they had succeeded too.

“Glow Stone get your spear over here,” Luke barked.

Bruce hesitated, “I don’t care if you’re strong, you can’t just order people around.”

“Willingly,” Luke said, beckoning Bruce over, “Now get over here before before I start making threats.”

Bruce gritted his teeth and stepped forward, but Eve stopped him. She was not going to let Bruce anywhere near Luke if he was going to levy threats. The only reason she was willing to go with him was that Tristan and Siren were supposed to be there as well. While that was technically true, Siren was unconscious and twitching with a pale disposition. Tristan had run off to who knows where and taken a bath in the silver fire.

“What are you planning,” Eve asked.

“I am planning to keep Siren alive,” Luke said, impatience creeping into his voice.

The stone shell on Siren's chest crumbled as Luke did something. It appeared as if he froze the stone, cracking it before clenching his fists to turn it to gravel. He placed a finger on the metal plates protecting his chest. Luke ran his finger along the edge, leaving behind a glowing line of heated metal, which he tore open exposing padding that had caught fire and yellow robes. Putting out the fire, he tore off the robe to expose Siren’s well muscled torso.

“I need you to put the spear I get here,” Luke’s finger rested right over Siren’s heart, “The tip will miss every vital organ and artery, but be adjacent to the heart. When I say to, start pushing essence into the spear.”

Bruce looked questioningly at Eve. This was a less risky version of what they had done with Tristan. Eve had seen Luke force feed Siren some of his healing elixir, then push large quantities of air essence into him. Whatever was happening was dangerous if Luke believed that the spear was also necessary. Eve gave Bruce a slight nod.

He was halfway there when the screaming started. Both of them looked out into the flames. A ripple expanded from the center, and then the flames started crawling towards the center. What was Tristan doing to hurt himself so badly?

Luke simply nodded, “Pain is just weakness leaving the body.”

Eve would strongly disagree with that. Pain was a warning to keep oneself safe from harm. It was how children learned not to touch hot stoves, a lesson Tristan had not learned.

“You’re not going to do anything to help?” Bruce asked. He and Tristan were not anywhere near the brotherly bonds some soldiers had, but he would consider him a friend.

Luke gave him a flat expression, “I told him to do it, I thought this would happen. Now this is the last time I ask, get over here.”

Bruce complied this time. He positioned the spear over Siren’s chest, “ Where do I stab?”

“You are a light essence battery,” Luke said, “Unless you developed an air kern and can sense the oxygen variations in Siren’s bloodstream, I will be doing the stabbing.”

Bruce frowned at the insult, but not having to be responsible for someone’s life took a good portion of the burden away. Luke gripped the spear just above the head. He did not shake or hesitate as he slid the artifact’s needle-like tip between Siren’s ribs. Then he sat patiently.

Eve was not sure what she expected, but she had believed there to be some kind of visible or auditory cue that things were going well or poorly. Instead, they sat there for several hours with the only change being the screaming quieting down on the second hour. Bruce stood like a statue, not daring to move. His arms started trembling from the strain of holding the awkward stance.

Luke ignored it, keeping the spear stable, “Alright, just a trickle of light essence should be enough.”

Bruce complied, the shaft glowing with a dull light. Then everything went back to monotony. The sun started rising, blotting out the glow on the horizon with its light. The sun was near its zenith when footsteps could be heard. Eve looked over and had to take a step back in horror. A creature was limping towards them, caked in blood.

Growths covered its whole body and pieces of silver made it look like some kind of half golem. Golden eyes were the only identifying factor as all the clothing had been scoured away as had much of the skin.

“Tristan is that you?” She asked tentatively.

The thing she presumed to be Tristan tried to say something. It coughed, before finally settling on nodding its head. She watched him sit down and place a hand on one of the fleshy lumps. Most of those were covering his arm and upper torso. The color was leached out of the growth before it started deforming and becoming slimy. The smell made Eve gag, and then Tristan tore it off with a grunt.

“That fire screwed you up pretty good, huh?” Luke asked, getting another nod from Tristan.

After a round of self-mutilation, he crossed his legs, folded his hands, and started mouthing something. Eve was not sure what he was saying, but it looked like he was praying. She knew Tristan claimed that he had seen the gods die, so praying to them would be largely meaningless for him.

Things quickly settled back down for another two hours which was when Siren finally opened his eyes with a gasp. Luke jerked the spear out and deftly avoided the grab that Siren made for him.

“What did you do to me?” Siren growled.

“what do you mean,” Luke asked, he seemed genuinely unsure of what Siren was talking about.

“While I was unconscious, something hard covered me,” Siren said, he looked down at his hands, “You put it inside me.”

Luke thought for a moment, “Let's see if I can put what I suspect you are feeling into words. Something singleminded, and foreign, enough power to destroy the world while at the same time being the only reason it is standing. It is fast yet still, spread out, yet concentrated. Everything moves through, and everything is consumed. It was like looking at the corpse of a god, inert and still omnipotent.”

Siren nodded, “Yes to the first half and that last part. What I saw wanted to make everything still and unbending. It was like looking at death.”

“Bro, your force is going to be awesome!” Luke exclaimed, “We need to get you a skull mask, a black cloak, and a scythe.”

“What are you on about?” Siren frowned, and then Luke’s words caught up to his brain, “That was a force? And there’s more than one of those?”

Eve was surprised. Siren sounded mildly panicked. She was not sure what could cause this level of concern in Siren. The Lord of the Underworld did not cause this reaction. She stepped forward to interject herself into the conversation. The head families of each Caldera were aware of forces, they had been trying to get them for a long time. Forces did appear randomly among the peasant class, though no one was sure why. If nurtured they would become unparalleled warriors, with supernatural abilities.

“What is a force, not the definition, what is it in terms of the danger it poses?” Eve asked.

Siren shook his head, “Resistance is futile, it is an overwhelming power beyond anything I have ever felt. If the gods have even a fraction of its power they could tear this world apart.”

A raspy voice answered, “A force is nothing more than a fundamental law that works with other similar laws to create the essence on which the physical realm works.”

Eve looked over at Tristan, “So these forces that you and Luke, and now Siren have, are just Laws? Who makes the laws?”

She had been in politics for her whole life. If there was one thing she was aware of it was the falsity of the statement, ‘You can’t legislate morality.’ All laws were an expression of someone’s beliefs, would she need to be concerned about a being that could legislate reality? Were they below its notice, and what would happen if it did something on a whim that changed the world? Her grandfather had been fond of bending laws to suit himself after all.

Luke laughed at her concern, “Don’t worry about it. They are called forces or laws simply because no one can truly disobey them, only bend them. There is not some force police that will arrest you if you figure out how to break it. In fact, I believe that if there is some ruler over the forces, he would likely appreciate someone creatively utilizing his work, otherwise he would not have made forces something we could use.”

That put Eve’s mind at ease. However, it was not like stressing about something she had no authority over would help. There was just one other thing she wanted to know.

“Siren what force did you get?” She asked.

He shrugged, “Don’t know. Though my essence feels weird, both the dark and earth essence mix better.”

Holding out a stone plated hand he created a pitch-black construct. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tristan wince at the needle of dark material. He twitched his hand back and forth, and the black material flexed slightly as if it were made of wood.

“If I had to take a guess, I would say something like stability or solidness,” Siren said.

That was enough information for Tristan, “Cohesion. You have the force of cohesion.”