The soul gem was warm in my hand, but nothing happened as I held it against the hammer. We just watched it for a long moment, half-expecting fireworks or something. When nothing happened, Roq began to strain mentally, at least I thought that was what he did, as he made strenuous noises directly in my mind. It sounded just…awful.

  "Come to papa, you beautiful sparky bastard!" Roq growled. "Join with me! Become one with greatness and let me eat your soul! FUSE already, damn you!"

  I struggled to keep a straight face as he tried different approaches, his voice growing increasingly frustrated.

  "Merge! Combine! Assimilate! Absorb! Ammat! OBEY ME! Here kitty, kitty! Meow, meow, meow!"

  Roq also tried commanding in what he claimed was ‘the ancient tongue of soul gems,’ but sounded suspiciously like gibberish.

  "Perhaps if I seduce it? Hello there, you gorgeous lightning ball. Come here often? I’ve got a nice personality for you to evolve with.”

  "What's happening?" Eryn asked, watching me hold Roq against the gem.

  "Roq's trying to draw the gem in," I said. "He's... getting creative with his approach."

  "BY THE POWER OF BLOOD AND BREAKAGE, I COMMAND THEE!" Roq bellowed mentally. "SUBMIT TO MY MAGNIFICENCE OR I WILL ABUSE YOU IN WAYS UNIMAGINABLE!"

  After several minutes of increasingly desperate attempts, Roq finally gave up.

  "It's not working," he admitted, dejection heavy in his voice. "Stupid, stubborn, lightning-infused piece of crystallized cat piss! I hate it. I hate everything. I'm a failure. I'll never break through. I'll be stuck at level nine forever!”

  "It's okay, Roq," I said, patting his head. “This just means you don’t need a soul gem, and in a way, isn’t that good? We just need to figure out what it is, but as long as it’s not a soul gem, it will be easy enough to help you break through.”

  “How, exactly, do you figure? We have no idea!”

  “If you needed a soul gem every tenth level, what’s the chance we’d find another? You’d be stuck at level nineteen instead of nine. I don’t know of anything more rare than a soul gem. So…”

  “I’m still stuck.”

  “We'll figure it out,” I said.

  “And how about I bake you a new flavor of pie," Ma offered."I might also have spent some money I shouldn't on fabrics which should be here any day now."

  "Is this true?" Roq gasped, forcing me to relay the question.

  "Yes, it's true," Ma confirmed with a smile. "I'm working on a new pillow. Only the best for the good little hammer that helps keep my son safe, right?"

  "Ma speaks the truth and has impeccable judgment," Roq declared. "I have always said this."

  “Say thanks.”

  “You tell her I said thanks.”

  “You have to say it first.”

  “Please tell Ma I said ‘thanks’.”

  “He says thanks,” I said and smiled at Ma.

  "So, what's the plan now?" Nabeeh asked, eyeing the gem.

  "We'll forge a weapon for Knut or Eryn," I said.

  “How we decide?" Knut asked. “Arm wrestling? Drinking contest? I am not pretty, so if we do that, I lose.”

  “Dance-off?” Eryn joked, and Knut shuddered.

  “Listen up,” Pa said, using his teacher voice. “When it comes to forging a soul weapon, there is only one expert here, and that is me. And I barely know anything. What we learned forging Roq is that the gem chooses its weapon, not the other way around, so it isn’t what either of you want, it is what the soul gem wants.”

  “How do you know what it wants?” Nabeeh asked, her curiosity piqued.

  “The gem vibrates near the weapon type it wants,” I said, smiling down at Roq as I remembered the excitement I’d felt as he vibrated above Pa’s steelhusk hammer.

  “True,” Pa said. “Once we know the weapon type, we'll make the best possible weapon of that type, then push the gem against it, and it’ll absorb into the weapon.” Then he shrugged. “At least that's how it was with Roq, but it is as good a lead as any."

  “Once the gem and weapon are combined, the one who will bind with the weapon picks it up," I said. “This part is…not easy. When I picked up Roq we had a mental struggle. Or, I guess I always thought it was with Roq. Maybe the struggle was with the Hive Mind?”

  I shrugged, unsure of what I was even talking about. All these things were so new and foreign that we could only guess.

  “Do you remember the struggle, Roq?” Eryn asked.

  "Not much," Roq admitted. “I do remember waking up, and I knew I was me, but I didn't know who 'me' was. And I’m not sure when this was. You swiped me into your sensory deprivation chamber right after. Which was really scary. I do remember fighting, feeling it was that or be consumed.”

  I relayed his comments, before adding, “So we don't know what the 'real' process is, but we will go through the same steps because at least we know they worked. Fight the weapon for a while, then swipe it into storage and leave it there. Then take it out later and see if it will behave."

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  Eryn and Knut nodded their agreement.

  A while later, Pa had pulled out his best stock and placed all the weapons on the tables along the wall in the smithy, just like we had when forging Roq.

  There were axes, one handed and two handed, mauls, bows, crossbows, slings, daggers, maces, and even Nabeeh’s staff. Just in case it really wanted to bond with a mage.

  “Ready?” I asked.

  Pa shook his head and then took out Platemaw's Fury, gave it a quick kiss, and placed it at the end with a heavy sigh.

  “If it chooses my new hammer, I don’t know what I’ll do,” he muttered, stepping back.

  "Worked out pretty well the first time," I said, giving him a wink. “Imagine me dual-wielding hammers. I’d be unstoppable.”

  Pa gave me a mock-glare and we all chuckled.

  I swiped out the gem and slowly passed it over a battleaxe.

  Knut leaned forward excitedly.

  "Anything?" he asked.

  The gem remained still in my hand, and I shook my head.

  "Many melee left," Knut said to himself. “Maybe something else.”

  And he wasn't wrong.

  Next came mauls, warhammers, and maces that would suit his shieldbearer style. Still, even after going through a few more, we had nothing.

  Knut exhaled through his nose but gave me an encouraging wave to continue.

  For Eryn, I started with the bows, but got nothing. Eryn bit her lip, her fingers twitching as if wanting to reach out, but the soul gem showed no reaction.

  The gem showed an equal lack of interest in the crossbow, dagger, flail, sword, scimitar, two-handed sword, or spear.

  Pa placed his new dissecting blade down, but that too yielded nothing.

  Then I passed it over Nabeeh's staff, and just like before, the soul gem remained inert in my hand, its inner lightning dancing lazily but showing no preference.

  Only Pa's hammer remained.

  "Just do it already," Pa said, waving a hand and looking as if I was about to steal his firstborn.

  I moved my hand slowly across, and then I shouted and jumped, and shook my hand.

  Pa shouted in surprise, and the others jerked too. I turned slowly, biting my lip, and Pa cursed up a storm as he figured it out right away. I was joking, and he knew it.

  "Sorry, Pa," I said, grinning. "I just couldn't help myself. You have to admit that it would have been funny."

  "I didn't find that entertaining at all," Roq said.

  It was his first comment since we started testing for a new soul weapon.

  "You young whippersnapper, I ought to..." Pa said, grabbing Platemaw's Fury off the table, though I could have sworn his mouth twitched into a smile.

  "Maybe not a soul gem?" Knut asked. "Or process different for each one?"

  "Could be," I said, "But..." I looked around the room for other things to try.

  "Guess it wants something else," Nabeeh said. "Try a cane like my uncle?"

  "Not my first choice," I said. "Knut, would you pull out your shield, please."

  His face lit up and he did so. I walked over with the gem to test it, but still nothing happened.

  "What about that?" Eryn asked and nodded.

  "What?" I asked, turning to look.

  "Maybe Arclight's gem wants Arclight's bow?" she said, looking at Stormstrider where it stood propped up in the corner and out of the way. Pa had placed it there earlier via a quick trip through his spatial storage.

  "I already tested a bow," I said. "And it might not be the best idea to bind the gem with a bow we don't even know can be used."

  "Just check," Eryn said. "Please?"

  I looked at Knut who nodded.

  "Alright," I said, and held the gem out at arms reach, not overly keen on getting zapped, and moved closer.

  Once the gem was within a few feet of the bow, it pulsed—once, twice—like a heartbeat.

  “I think—”

  Before I could finish the sentence, jagged forks of lightning lanced out from Stormstrider and yanked the gem from my grip. The gem slammed into the bow’s riser with a sound like a thunderclap.

  Sparks exploded from the bow and electricity arced across the forge in whip-like tendrils. A searing jolt hurled me backward, and for a terrifying second, my muscles locked rigid, every hair on my body standing on end.

  Knut bellowed as a bolt grounded in the shield he was still holding out, driving him to a knee. Nabeeh yelped, her hair standing upright as if she’d been hit by a lightning strike.

  Pa and Ma were seemingly spared, standing behind the main anvil.

  In the corner, Stormstrider floated, electricity crackling from it. The bow’s runes blazed purple-gold, so bright they seared afterimages into my vision. The air itself warped around it, shimmering like a heat haze.

  Then—

  Snap.

  The electrical energy rushed back into the bow with a sound like a thousand shattering mirrors. The force of it sucked the air from my lungs, and for a heartbeat, the smithy was utterly silent.

  Stormstrider clattered to the floor and just lay there like any other weapon.

  “Bad kitty!”

  Light moved along the runes along the bow’s limbs, all the way to the Woodweaver spikes, setting them glowing at their tips, and the Lightning Globule embedded in the riser shone with golden light.

  Eryn, weirdly untouched by it all, stepped toward the bow.

  I reached out to stop her, but she pushed my hand away. "Why?" she asked, eyes never leaving the hovering weapon, but did hold back for a moment. “Look, it has chosen me.”

  "This isn't some monster we've strategized for how to battle,” I said, straightening myself. “I know you can handle anything thrown at us as well as I can, but this... it’s magical, and we have no idea how it works. What are its rules?" I shook my head. "When I bonded with Roq, it nearly killed me, and Roq didn't have lightning shooting out of it."

  “No offense.”

  “Offense taken.”

  Eryn turned to look at me. “You didn’t know what you were doing back then either, Ash. This is my path. I'm sure of it."

  "What about doing your breakthrough first?" I asked, a genuine worry filling me.

  Eryn laughed.

  “And what? We’re just going to let a soul weapon lay there in the corner while I go through what you say is the worst experience of your life? Hoping nobody comes and takes it?" She shook her head. "No. This is mine. You all know it, and I know it deep in my bones. I'm going to claim it.”

  "If she dies, I call dibs on her room," Nabeeh said, though her eyes betrayed her concern. "It gets better morning light."

  "Nabeeh!" I protested.

  "What? I'm being practical. Besides, she's not going to die," Nabeeh said. "Look at her face. That bow belongs to her and you can all see it. Have some faith in her."

  "Eryn has warrior spirit," Knut declared. "Bow knows this. Recognizes her. I support, but be careful. Not like Roq. Is different.”

  "I agree with the big man," Roq said. "That bow wants her. It's practically screaming her name. Can't you hear it?"

  "You can hear it?"

  "Not literally," Roq said. "I can feel it, b ut that might just be my imagination. Either way, some things are just meant to be. Like, if she dies, it was meant to be.”

  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

  “Fine. You are right. I get it. I'd do the same. I’m just…” I looked at Eryn. “If it starts cooking you like you've snorted powdered glowcaps, I'm knocking that damn thing out of your hands."

  She walked over and gave me a quick kiss.

  "I love you too." Then she turned to Knut and said, "Hold Ash back.”

  The northerner put a hand on my shoulder as she strode over to the bow. I tried to shake it off as she reached for Stormstrider, but he held firm. The man had a grip.

  The moment Eryn’s fingers closed around the bow, lightning arced up her arm and the veins beneath her skin glowed with purple blue light. Her back arched violently, every muscle locking. A scream tore from her throat, not just of pain, but of something deeper.

  Eryn’s body shook, but her fingers moved as if adjusting their grip, and her voice cut off, replaced by a voice that was both Eryn's and not. It echoed through the forge.

  "You fear loneliness. I fear nothing. Together, we shall burn the world."

  Then, like a storm passing, the energy receded. It didn’t dissipate, but instead flowed inward, absorbed into Eryn and the bow.

  Wisps of smoke curled from Eryn's clothing and hair as she just stood there, breathing heavily yet steady, despite the ordeal. Stormstrider seemed to rest comfortably in her grip as she turned to grin at me.

  "Told you it wanted me.”