Iron Blood

Arino was in the midst of answering her questions about how his ability worked, but he himself didn't know much so it was mostly fruitless. Impatiently, she snapped her fingers at the previously shattered doll and it's soul shard flew into her hand.

She told him to absorb this and activate his ability. Her eyes lit up with strange circles and he felt a gentle prickling sensation within his soul, like a muscle that was never used before was being stretched to it's limits for the first time.

He didn't hesitate to shatter the awakened soul shard and activate his ability. More root like tendrils grew from his core, pumping essence to every inch of his body.

Elder Iranea tilted her head before leaning closer to his chest where his core is, like she could see the roots.

"Your ability is not resonating fully with you child," the rings in her eyes glowed silver once more, "The name holds more than you give it credit for."

"What should I do Elder?"

Arino hadn't been comfortable there from the start, and the depth with which she claimed to know his ability was worrying. I'll never let my guard down around those eyes, but I haven't had time to get used to my ability. I don't know how she expects me to immediately understand it's depths.

"Go to Iron Blood of the Forge. He will train you better than I could."

How shameless, passing on the job without even speaking to him.

"I will, thank you Elder."

Her eyes stopped glowing and she gestured towards the door for him to go, and so he did.

The walls of scrolls around him were surely filled with all kinds of strange sorceries in his eyes. I must awaken fully somehow before I try to claim any of these as something I could even use. I can't move my essence without activating my ability.

Iron Blood was a Master who earned his True Name through tribulation; He battled a strange Corrupted and drank its molten blood to keep himself alive after the massacre. He was renowned as a master of the forge, capable of enchanting just about anything for the right price.

Arino felt like the rumors had to be true with how much metal covered the "Forge". It looked more like some kind of wretched fortress to him. He heard heavy steps like iron on iron as a strange hunched over man emerged.

He was like a giant weighing tons, his mass somehow still made him seem tall with the hunchback. A ragged black beard was the only hair adorning his head, matching an armor made from some kind of dark metal wreathed around him.

Arino's eyes caught several tools carved from bone on the Master's belt before his voice grated against his ears.

"Why are you here boy? Your father ask for a new whipping belt? Or have you been sent to-"

Arino didn't feel like listening to the seemingly senile middle aged mans drivel interjecting, "The Elders sent me."

His hideous bald eyebrows raised higher than they should have before he broke out into laughter at Arino.

"The Elders have sent me for you to train." Arino smiled at his addition

The old man's eyes lost their glimmer of humor as he said much more politely, "You may call me Master Gird. You will work the bellows until you die."

The man barely lied, as once Master Gird said he could leave, Arino felt half dead. The bellows he worked were as tall as him, with two paddles for air. The movement required to pull both of them, in an alternating fashion was immense, too much for him to handle in the beginning.

By the the time was able to move one bellow efficiently, the old man was screaming at him to grab the other and stop pulling like he was picking flowers. There was no break from the start till end, as according to Master Gird, "The bellows are the easiest part of the forge boy, you should have just been born tall enough to reach them both!"

Of course, all of Arino's struggles could be attributed to Gird's method of teaching but the fact that the Master did not even let him use his ability irked him. He had asked why he wasn't allowed to use it, expecting a similarly trite answer to his last question, but the answer shook his newly formed core.

"Do you think you could take this hammer from me and forge a blade?"

The thunder of the hammer striking Corrupted bones suddenly felt much more ominous.

"That is a no. You haven't even learnt how to hold a hammer and you won't touch that ability of yours until you can forge a blade of my blood."

The old man's retort had stunned him momentarily before he realized his True Name Iron Blood of the Forge must be more than just a name. The thought was terrifying, that an enemy cut in battle could simply spew molten iron from the wound.

Did the old Master awaken his aspect when he drank a Nightmare Creature's molten blood, or was it what allowed him to survive the occasion?

Regardless of the chicken or the egg it hatched out of, Arino didn't have much brainpower left on his walk home. The stars were twinkling in all their glory, and he couldn't help but compare the night sky here to that near the Soul Tree. They were different in some way, but Arino just couldn't place the difference.

He didn't let the misalignment of the stars bother him as he ducked through the doorway of his homely little hut. It was built like a child had stabbed branches into the ground and draped hides over it, which was exactly how it was built. Recently, he had changed out the hides for ones of equal length on all sides of the hut and properly secured the whole mess of a tent.

The flaps making up the door swung a few times behind him when he made his way to his bed. At it's side was a little wooden desk covered in little metal trinkets and a short porcelain vase filled to the brim with water. He took a good sized swig from it, letting the cold spread down his throat to his stomach.

Of the enchanted marvels one could purchase from the markets, this was the most popular due to its infinite feeling water. It was always enough for one person to never be thirsty, but trying to hydrate others would quickly disprove the endless water idea.

The soothing water and a quick meal of bread and honey left Arino ready to succumb to sleep. He wouldn't have many breaks after the beginning of his training with Iron Blood, so he gave in and dreams took over.