Dawn seeped into the sky like a bruise, staining the fog above Greymane Town with sickly violet.
Kaden stood at the forge door, his knuckles white around the handle of his hammer, as Serena's words echoed in his skull: They're looking for you.
Because you're the key.
The figure in the fog—the one with the Ashwood Smithy badge—had dissolved into the mist before he could move, leaving only the rattle of the door hinges and the taste of iron in his mouth.
Serena sat on the edge of his workbench, her legs swinging awkwardly.
Her usual silence had frayed; now her breaths came in short, ragged bursts, as if she were still gasping free of whatever had possessed her.
When he'd pressed a canteen to her lips, her fingers had closed over his wrist with surprising strength—too strong for a girl who'd spent weeks hammering nails.
The mine, she'd whispered, her voice finally her own, though her eyes still glowed a faint, unnatural gold.
"Stay close," Kaden said now, his voice graveled by the night's tension.
He tossed her a thin strip of metal etched with glowing runes—his system's latest creation, a locator.
"If we split up, this'll ping in my palm. Don't take it off."
Serena nodded, tucking the strip into her sleeve.
Her gaze flickered to the forge's hearth, where embers still smoldered like red eyes.
"I'm ready," she said, and her voice was steady, though her fingers brushed the locator as if it were a lifeline.
Kaden activated the shop's alert mode with a mental command—another system trick, a hum of magic that rippled through the walls, setting the iron tools to vibrating.
The door locked behind them with a thud, and then they were moving, boots crunching over frost-caked cobblestones, the town's slumbering houses watching like hollow eyes.
The mine loomed at the edge of the woods, its entrance a black gash in the hillside.
Kaden's pulse quickened as they approached; the air grew colder, and the fog clung to their clothes like wet wool.
Serena paused, her head tilting as if listening to something only she could hear.
"They're here," she murmured, not afraid, just… aware.
Inside, the mine was a labyrinth of rotting timbers and jagged rock.
Water dripped from the ceiling, echoing like a slow countdown.
Kaden's system pinged suddenly—a new notification flickering in his mind's eye: [Soul Trace Scan Activated.
Range: 50 meters.
Detecting residual lifeforce signatures… ] .
He followed the faint, pulsing light only he could see, past collapsed shafts and piles of rusted pickaxes, until they reached a section where the ceiling had caved in.
Under a slab of stone, half-buried in rubble, lay a hand.
Knuckles swollen, fingers curled around something—a metal plate, its surface etched with runes that glowed dimly red.
"Barlow," Kaden said, his throat tight.
He recognized the braided gray beard, the leather apron still clinging to the skeleton.
The Ashwood Smithy's master had vanished three weeks ago, his forge found cold and empty.
Now he lay here, a warning.
Serena dropped to her knees, her breath hitching.
She didn't flinch as she brushed debris from Barlow's hand, her fingers brushing the metal plate.
The runes flared brighter, and her eyes—oh, her eyes—filled with crimson veins, branching like roots.
"He… fought," she said, her voice splitting, part her, part something older.
"Tried to destroy it. But they… wanted him to keep it."
Kaden's system chimed again: [High magical density detected.
Analyzing artifact… ] .
He pulled out his notebook, the one filled with his master's scribbles about his scripts.
Serena began drawing in the dust with a trembling finger—a series of looping symbols, each one searing into the stone as if written by fire.
"That's…" Kaden's voice trailed off.
The symbols matched the ones his master had called "summoning sigils," meant to bind spirits to metal.
"The forging God's language. But why would Barlow have this?"
The mine answered with a low, grinding roar.
The ground shuddered, dislodging pebbles from the ceiling.
Serena's drawing dissolved into dust as she scrambled to her feet, the metal plate clutched to her chest.
"It's waking," she said, her voice rising.
"We need to go. Now."
They ran, but the mine wasn't done with them.
A blackness oozed from the walls—thick, sentient, reeking of burnt hair.
It coalesced into a shape: a mass of writhing tendrils, each one ending in a jagged point that glinted like shattered glass.
Serena screamed, high and sharp, and Kaden swung his hammer without thinking.
The system's passive skill flared—[Flame Resonance Activated.
All strikes generate heat equivalent to forge fire].
His hammer met the darkness with a crack, and fire bloomed, searing the tendrils.
The creature shrieked, a sound like nails on metal, but more came, pouring from the rock.
Serena fumbled with the locator strip, snapping it into a grid that glowed blue.
"Behind me!" she yelled, and the barrier flared, reflecting Kaden's flames back at the creature.
It recoiled, dissolving