Rise of the Living Forge

“Is the location I heard it particularly relevant?” Arwin asked carefully. There was always a small chance that Koyu had a secret vendetta against everyone who had an ability named Soulmancy and would suddenly attack him the moment he found out Arwin had it.

No, I’m not paranoid. Who said that?

“Yes,” Koyu said flatly. “It is very important where you heard it. You would not have asked me about this ability had it not been pertinent. I know how you work, Arwin. I have spent enough time observing you that it is not difficult for me to deduce the things that would cause such a line of questioning. You heard about this ability from someone close to you. Nobody who knows what Soulmancy is would ever freely admit to possessing it, so I suspect someone has found an item that bears the ability. Am I correct?”

Arwin stared at Koyu for a long second.

“No.”

Koyu blinked. “I am not? Do not mince words with me. If this is a technicality, then drop it. Only the truth of the matter is relevant.”

“No. Nobody found an item. You’re just wrong,” Arwin said with a shake of his head. Nobody had found an item because the ability belonged to him. But Koyu was right about one thing. There was no point wasting words and dancing around the actual topic.

Either I trust him or I don’t. There’s no point taking this any farther if I go with the latter. I have to put my money where my mouth is.

“Oh,” Koyu said, deflating slightly. “I was quite confident. Then where did you hear about it? An ancient text? Because, if you merely read of it, I suggest you wipe any thought of the ability from your mind. It is a vile, wretched thing. A power lost to the ages for good reason. Soulmancy was an ability exclusive to the worst—”

“I have it,” Arwin said.

Koyu fell silent.

Arwin didn’t speak.

The two of them stared at each other for a long second.

“—the worst liches in history,” Koyu continued, picking up where he’d left off as if nothing had happened. “It is the power to twist a soul to your will, crushing its desires and forming it into a weapon. Not every Lich chose to stoop to such things. I was far from a saint, but even I did not attempt to tread that path.”

“Koyu!” Arwin snapped. “I have the ability!”

“Yes, I heard you the first time,” Koyu said. Anger burned behind his crystal blue eyes, but it wasn’t alone. A deep, agonized sorrow hung in his voice like tar tripping from every word. “I was just hoping I had not. Are you a fool, Arwin? Why have you become a Lich? Was my fate not sufficient to show you the folly of such a path?”

A pit formed in Arwin’s stomach. This didn’t sound good. Not at all. He’d been expecting the skill to be fairly dangerous or powerful, but anything that elicted a response like this from Koyu was far more than he’d thought… and the ability did not sound like anything he wanted to associate himself with.

Stealing the will of the materials I work with and forcing them to become what I want? That’s not how I work. There are enough materials that I can find one that desires to be what I need it to. Taking that away from them is wrong. Why would I want to rob something of its purpose?

“I wasn’t given a choice,” Arwin replied. “I unlocked the skill when I created the core for my Soul Guardian. Are you sure that—”

Koyu’s eyes went wide. “You unlocked it? Just like that?”

Arwin blinked. “Yes. That’s what I said. Why does that matter? How else does anyone get a skill?”

“Soulmancy is not an ability that can be learned by normal means,” Koyu said. His gaze bore so deeply into Arwin that it felt like the Lich were trying to pull his soul out from eye contact alone. “Are you absolutely certain that was what happened? The ability just… popped up?”

“Yes,” Arwin said with a firm nod. He ran back over his memories once more, but they were unchanged. The ability had come as an advancement when his class had evolved. That was it. “Why? Does that change something?”

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“I… I don’t know,” Koyu said. Confusion seemed to have replaced much of his fear and anger. “The traditional way to earn Soulmancy is to crush another’s soul and consume it entirely. It was thought to be the only way to train a soul to control others. There normally isn’t any other way for a Lich to teach their soul dominion over other souls.”

“You thought I murdered someone and ate their soul?” Arwin asked.

“Yes,” Koyu said. The faintest flicker of hope passed through his features. “I assume this means you did not?”

“I’ve killed people, but I’ve never done anything like that. It sounds vile. I have no desire in forcing others to bend to my will.”

“That is a relief to hear,” Koyu said, blowing out a long breath. “But how have you come about getting this ability? You should not be able to sense souls at all, much less control them.”

Arwin tilted his head to the side. “If that’s the case, how did you think I make my Soul Guardian core?”

“Guiding souls into place is different from being able to command them,” Koyu said with a shake of his head. “You just slotted the souls into the items without controlling them. But you must have done something to gain Soulmancy. You simply cannot get that skill without having a way to control the souls of what you work with.”

“What about communicating with them?” Arwin asked after a moment of thought.

“You suggest speaking directly to the souls you control?”

“No. Just souls in general,” Arwin said. “Like the soul of the materials I work with as well as the soul I’m trying to put into the core. Control is basically a giving orders to something. That’s kind of communicating, right? Just in a very evil way.”

“You are asking if you can somehow speak to the materials you work with? Not possible. Materials do not have a soul. And even if they did, you would have no way to speak with them until you had already gotten Soulmancy. Something else—”

“I could do it,” Arwin said.

Koyu’s sentence sputtered off. He stared at Arwin. “You could speak with your materials? I am not talking about getting a general sense of their purpose. I mean true communication. I mean directly speaking to materials that have strong connections. Strong desires.”

“You mean like speaking with the soul of something that really didn’t like me?” Arwin asked. “Say, a certain assassin whose soul weapon was a magic-eating sword that I consumed? If that’s the case, yes. We had a chat. After he was dead.”

“Impossible. Communion with souls is — wait. Of course.” Koyu started to laugh. “I cannot believe it. The strongest Liches in history have always sought ways to gain Soulmancy, but it has evaded all but the most powerful. Consuming a soul is immensely difficult. But there was another way to accomplish it. You were able to unlock the ability by speaking to the souls directly? Unbelievable. A smith talked to rocks and found a way to do what nearly no Lich has.”

“Not rocks,” Arwin said defensively. “They usually don’t have much will. Only the stronger things. Crystals. Bits of powerful monsters. Everything kind of has general desires and wants, but more powerful items and pieces connected to really strong-willed beings definitely communicate with me. They sometimes try to kill me in a Vision,” Arwin said slowly. “Are you saying—”

“Lich magic,” Koyu said. “That is Lich magic. But perhaps it does not have to be. When you have these talks, these visions, do you force things to obey your will?”

Arwin frowned. “I… don’t know. We fight, usually. I was under the impression it was kind of me showing my worth to the materials. To prove that I deserved to use them. I didn’t think I was forcing them to obey my will.”

“Trust me, you would not mistakenly dominate the soul of another. The fact that there was even a fight confirms that,” Koyu said with a delighted laugh that sounded completely out of character for the normally drab ghost. “Incredible. Tell me more about this.”

“Well, there’s one thing I should probably mention. The ability’s full name isn’t Soulmancy,” Arwin said. “It’s Forbidden Soulmancy.”

This is probably going to mean it’s only for the most evil, cat-kicking and dog-stomping liches who ever lived, right?

Koyu tilted his head to the side. “What?”

“What do you mean, what?”

“What does that mean?” Koyu asked. “I’ve never heard of Forbidden as a tag to a skill. Are you certain it matters?”

Arwin blinked. He’d been confident that Koyu would recognize it. That was odd. The Lich was older than anyone else Arwin knew. If anyone had known what a Forbidden ability was, it would have been him.

Well, I guess I can’t complain about not having every mystery solved at once.

“I see,” Arwin said slowly. “Maybe not. Just tell me about Soulmancy, then. Can you tell me how to use it better? I don’t want to dominate anyone’s soul… but if I can get better at crafting with it, it could be enormously helpful.”

“Enormous is an understatement,” Koyu agreed. “You seek to become something between a Lich and a smith. I never thought such a hybrid could exist, though I cannot think of any path better suited to creating me a new body.”

“So you can help?” Arwin confirmed. “I’m tired of not understanding my abilities. I’m fed up wandering through the dark and just stumbling into my goals. I want to know what I’m doing. Can you tell me more about Soulmancy?”

“Oh, I can do far better than just tell you about it,” Koyu said with a smile. “Even though I can’t use the ability, I have a great many memories and some things are impossible to forget. If you allow me, there will be no need for us to speak any longer. Why would I attempt to describe Soulmancy with inadequate words when I can instead show you it?”

“Show? How? By somehow sharing a memory?” Interest sparked behind Arwin’s eyes. There were few things that were better to learn from than seeing something firsthand.

“Not just any memory,” Koyu replied. “I can bring you back to my youth. I can bring you back to the war that turned me to a Lich — and to the creation of the greatest weapon this world has ever seen.”