Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18: Connection

Kresha felt that after a week, she had recovered enough to walk about the Keep herself.

The transformation wasn't magical in nature, it was physical and took a massive toll to turn back. Her muscles and tendons needed to revert back to their correct proportions and the ripped skin from the elongation needed to still reattach.

None of that even factored the damage from slamming into walls or fighting a bull.

Arkyn did the best he could with salves and stitches, but that just helped repair the external injuries. Internally she was still twisted and bloated, and needed some time to settle.

Her eyes were still bloodshot after the blood vessels burst from the change. Anytime she sneezed, blood trickled out of her nose and from the corners of her eyes.

They eventually went back to their regular work, Kresha took a few weeks on her own to collect a lot of needed ingredients from outside the Ash Keep.

She built a pool of water next to the bloater storage room once she returned. That way she had a few primed bloaters at least growing and spawning more so they would be less likely to have another incident.

"It'll be difficult to manage until the golems for upkeep are made and programmed." She told Arkyn.

"I still think it'll be too difficult for any other golem to mutate the bloaters themselves, but at least this way they will always be ready to make more Fangbell."

Arkyn agreed, knowing that even after several days of keeping Kresha sedated, he just barely managed to mutate the bloater as the notes described.

The first time he saw one manufactured correctly, Kresha had managed to make it five times its original size. He only grew it a few inches wider and produced barely an eighth the amount of fangbell.

A few more years passed, and Arkyn noticed that after the incident, Kresha was more talkative to him.

She didn't change as more personable or happier, she just seemed to stop avoiding him when he was close by.

There were times she still seemed to get angry and walk off smoking her pipe, but her anger and disappointment never seemed to last. Of course he was still afraid to ask about her changes in behaviour, as she had still threatened to turn him into a primitive tool that could only understand pain.

On a rather rare occasion, Kresha had sought out Arkyn and found him in the maintenance room. After he learned how to change his shape, Akryn was able to manipulate the structure of his hand to imitate the tools that were specialized for certain golems.

He could alter the form mid repairs to fix multiple issues in one fluid act, making his practice of internal magic control even more precise. Sometimes he would apply heating or cooling to make parts flex the way he wanted during assembly, disassembly, and reassembly.

"Arkyn, follow me. I am gonna see the Afflicted, and it's time they meet you as well." She left no space to ask questions, as she left a second after telling him.

He was surprised that she decided such a thing out of the blue, but had no reason to deny her command. He swapped to another grey tunic, one not covered in oil, metal shavings, and had sleeves before following.

After multiple tears and snags from machines, he made sleeveless ones to work specifically in the maintenance rooms, tired of pulling cloth out every gear that grabbed the edges of his shirt.

They walked into the central room that still still twinkled like a night sky and smooth polished floors. Arkyn assumed they were going to walk to the locked section of the Keep, thinking they were going to leave, but instead Kresha stopped and turned to one of the walls.

She pressed her wand against a carved square in the wall, making it emit a teal glow before more ruins emerged to form a keyboard and some holographic buttons.

A large square made of the same teal glow appeared between the gaps in the floor after She pressed several buttons. A timer appeared in the open space above their heads, revealing that the light crystals hanging from the ceiling were moving.

Machines hidden in the ceiling were moving them to project lights that focused until making the image. Arkyn was mesmerized, wondering how something like this was

"Silvesh is going to connect the Keeps." Kresha said while still typing away. "Those 'Constellation crystals' are acting as mirrors that project everyone else in the other parts of the world who join the call. That timer is when we will all be in sync, the window isn't exactly long, but it all depends on the Sky keep anyway."

"Why the Sky Keep specifically? Can the Ash Keep not lead this call and the mirrors?"

"No, the Sky Keep can pick up on the focused light holograms, and reflect them back at one another. All the different light crystals here break them back down and defracts them onto the floor. As the name implies, the Sky Keep orbits the planet as a satellite."

Arkyn's eyes grew wider at the information she casually gave. An entire dungeon of machines and rooms floating miles above his head seemed like a hysterical dream, yet the Afflicted somehow made one.

Only a few seconds remained on the timer before Kresha stepped back. Everything was set up for the meeting, so she stood inside the teal square on the floor.

"The boundaries of this spot are the only sections that can be projected with any form of accuracy." Kresha said while packing her ash pipe.

"Do me a favor and wait just outside the border. I'll need to brace them first, it's been a while since I talked to any of them. It would be best if we didn't startle them, as I said in the past, the Afflicted are a collection of eccentrics and weirdos."

Arkyn did as he was told, watching the timer reach zero. The lights flickered for a moment before all of them activated at once in a brief flash.

A spotlight seemed to encase Kresha as she stood inside the square. Another one formed a few yards away, one-by-one the lights built the vague image of a man standing with a wavy cane and wearing something on his head.

Slowly the out of focus details began to construct themselves with more detail. The cane stretched and twisted until revealing to actually be a tail protruding from the man's back. The odd shape protruding from his head was not a hat or helm, but actually two horns emerging from the edges of his forehead.

They were much darker than his skin, appearing more like a dark bone that turned and pointed straight up with sharp edges.

"Hello Diven." Kresha said with a smile.