Mummified Arm

"What do you want me to craft?" Kilot asked.

Doevm didn't hold back with his requests. He had them in mind from the start: "I'll need an entire set of light armor, two spatial rings, two spears, and for this to be made into a dagger." Doevm handed the Lava Boar horn over.

"That's all?" Kilot scoffed. "That will just take a day. Did you want anything else?"

"No, just let me get the model for the armor. Oh, and cover your arm up. My partner doesn't know about my past, and I don't want him to find out."

"That's fair." Kilot threw on an old long-sleeve shirt and gloves. "Fair to me that is, but it's not fair to him. Do you plan on telling him ever? Do you have someone you trust?"

Doevm shook his head: "I need manpower, but why would I need some to know all my secrets apart from you? I've been alone for centuries before I began my sparring sessions with Arthur. I don't see the need to tell someone."

Kilot sighed and went to get some measuring tapes. Doevm called Frey to the shack. When Frey entered, he gawked at the Dwarf, even making fun of his height a little. Kilot responded by punching him in the gut and measuring his crumpled figure: "I'm not tiny, you're just massive." Kilot flipped Frey over and measured his waist. "Seriously, what are they feeding you?"

"I just eat scraps, nothing special." Frey stood up and smiled. "But you're tiny, what are you eating, sunlight? No, you probably spend all day in the dark. Do you eat dirt?"

"Listen here you little crap." Kilot grabbed Frey's shirt.

"I think you mean big crap." Frey towered over Kilot. He crossed his arm with a smug smile.

"I might be short," Kilot said as he picked Frey up. "But Dwarves are stronger than humans." He threw Frey out of his shop and dusted his hands off. "I can see why you didn't tell him anything." Kilot laughed as Frey struggled to get up. "But he seems like the type that would die for his friends. Keep him close."

"I know. He kind of reminds me of Arthur. Do you get the same feeling?"

"A little." Kilot said as he struggled with lifting the metals to the anvil. "Help me with this will you? This arm doesn't have all the strength of the original." Doevm helped lift the materials up. "Since my arm's like this, you're going to have to help me hold down the materials while I hammer as well." Kilot brought out two sets of tongs and handed one to Doevm. By now, Frey had made his way back to the shack, fuming about being thrown out.

"Frey, you are no longer needed here." Doevm tried to prevent a fight before it happened again. "Take watch of the perimeter. We are going to be here for a long time, and we can't be disturbed by raiders. Take the spear."

"Fine." Frey muttered as he grabbed the spear and sauntered off. Kilot got the fire started and Doevm helped put the metals in the flame.

"About the equipment." Doevm said as they waited for the metal to heat up. "It can't be flashy. I want someone to look at our equipment and see it as just another piece of armor by a regular blacksmith."

"Oye," Kilot snarled. "Are you suggesting I intentionally make bad equipment?"

"Not at all." Doevm backed away from the angry Dwarf. "I just don't want anything flashy. We're going to participate in the year-long war. Say we brought the masterpiece my father gave to me. If anyone sees that, friend or foe, they're target us for it. Since we're both commoners, we have no men to stop anyone from targeting us. If we get even more flashy equipment, we'll be in even more danger. That's why I'm hiding my golden spear before we get to the battlefront."

"I understand." Kilot said as he brought out some molds for the spearheads and dusted them off. "I guess I'll have to use the basic equipment then. Do you still want the storage rings though? Those will be difficult to conceal."

"We can stick them in our backpacks." Doevm said. "Did I mention I need those as well?"

"No." Kilot left for some leather. "God damn Lich and his complicated plans. People need to learn respect for our craft." His voice faded.

Doevm looked at the flame in the furnace, fixated on it. The orange flame faded into blue and a familiar Lich spoke out: 'You told Kilot about your past. Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?'

'Yes.' Doevm replied.

'Then why did you do it? Why did you break your promise again and use magic?'

'I had no other choice.'

'You had no other choice, or did you get impatient? The war is only a week or so away. You could've looked for another blacksmith. You could have just taken the weapons from the raiders and used them as your own. In the war, you would have found more spears easily.'

'That's a risk I am unwilling to take.' Doevm picked up shards of broken glass on the floor. 'Did you make me drink the potion?'

'Yes, because you would have used it on Frey. That would be a waste. He doesn't trust you, he clearly demonstrated that an hour ago.'

'That's enough, you're becoming annoying.' Doevm threw the shards into the fire. They bubbled around and melted. 'You're interfering with my plans and killing us. I thought my thousand years of knowledge being absorbed by our body's soul and brain instantly would cause some side-effect. I had a theory that you were my Lich-self and I was the human part. Now some holes are poked in that theory. You're acting erratically and too selfishly to the point that it is detrimental to us. Tell me, what was the real reason you drank the potion? Who are you?' The flame turned back to its usual orange, as if the Lich didn't want to answer. 'You can hide, but one day I'll find out who you are. It's only a matter of time.'

...

"I'll find out who you are." Frey mumbled to himself as he peered into the shack's window. He saw Doevm staring at a flame that changed colors from orange to blue back to orange again. He just kept staring at the flame without moving, so Frey decided to go spy on the Dwarf.

'I don't know if that was magic or not. I heard that magicians use magic circles or chants, but I saw none of those things. Was Kilot responsible for the fire changing color?' He snuck behind Kilot, who was at the back of the shack. He was struggling to pull out a piece of leather from a giant pile of it. He kept cursing to himself and changing the angle. Just when Frey was about to go watch Doevm instead, Kilot succeeded in pulling the piece of leather out. As he pulled, the glove partially came off, and a mummified hand revealed itself in the darkness. He hurriedly put the glove back on and looked around.

Frey ducked behind the wall and waited until the Dwarf left. He hung onto his spear, breathing hard into his sleeve to reduce the amount of noise he might make. 'He's an Undead? No, that doesn't make sense. The rest of him is flesh. When he lifted me up, his hands were warm. He didn't have the chill of an Undead, so what was that?'

"Frey, come on back!" Doevm yelled. "We need your help to test something." Frey hurried back to the front of the shack and pretended that he didn't see anything. Inside, Kilot held out several spearhead molds.

One double-edged spearhead had just a single point. Another had two prongs. The last of the molds had six prongs with a hollow center. They spread out like legs on an insect. "Which one would you like for your spear's tip?" Kilot stepped forward and Frey stepped back. "What's wrong? Scared of a mold? Pick one." Frey stared at Kilot's gloved mummified hand.

"I pick this one." Frey took the two-pronged spearhead.

"If you pick that one." Kilot crossed his arms. "I'm going to need the mold you just mindlessly grabbed from me."

"Oh," Frey let out a nervous chuckle. "But first, can you tell me about your arm?"

Kilot looked at Doevm, who shrugged: "Show him. It was only a matter of time until he found out anyway." The Dwarf nodded and rolled up his sleeve. The entire arm was mummified just like the raiders. Dark, reddish vines took root in Kilot's shoulder.

"It got infected by plants." Kilot said. "That's all. Every day, I burn them off, but they keep growing. I can't leave the forest, or the infection will grow until the point I'll die. I live here because I have no other choice."

"Is this true?" Frey looked at Doevm.

"Of course." Doevm said. "I have no reason to lie to you."