A memory is being played!

  Within a chamber crafted out of grey limestone, Zayn floated in the middle of a forge.

  Now, Zayn wasn't sure how common an experience this was, but it took him a fair few moments to adjust. He was a sphere of mana.

  Right, this was the weapon’s memory.

  He surveyed the chamber.

  Fading sunlight filtered through the perforated ceilings, scattering across the pitch-black floor and fracturing into warm prisms. Their iridescent glow bathed the sculptures and carvings in a blurred radiance.

  The sculptures themselves had no consistent scale.

  Some were no larger than a bunny, while others rose as high as small hills, creating a strangely compelling vista. No apparent intent behind their placement. No pattern, no order. Only a quiet, deliberate chaos.

  A chaos that somehow…made sense.

  He recognized the sculptures. Most of them. He’d seen all of these displayed in the hallway, just arranged more neatly. Among the thousands of statues, one of them instantly caught his attention, his neurons firing in recognition.

  The statue of a woman.

  A woman with a pointy ear and a pretty smile. He’d recognize that smile anywhere, even as incomplete as it was.

  Princess Orin.

  This statue was not the final, lifelike one he'd seen in the hallway, but one of the earlier versions. He concluded he was seeing a memory of a time before the fateful day. Too bad there didn’t seem to be anyone within the room other than the sculptures…

  Having to do nothing, he began inspecting the room more carefully and found tools scattered all around. Scalpels, hammers, chisels. Other tools he didn’t recognize.

  This is…like a forge for sculptors—

  A voice asked, “Say, the statue is missing something, right?”

  Zayn froze, but recognized the voice wasn’t talking to him.

  He traced the source of the voice to the man sitting on the ground below the woman. In a room of statues, he might have passed for one. Skin greyed and rugged like the rest, and upon his muscles were curved, intricate runes.

  Every time he moved, incomprehensible aspects floated around him. His movements were unnatural, lightning fast when he moved, and then incredibly still when he stopped. To the point that he was almost invisible to the naked eye unless he was looked at directly.

  At least one of his aspects had to do with hiding, Zayn deduced.

  Without doubt, this was the Stone Sage himself!

  Zayn carefully noted the man’s appearance once more.

  While impressive, he certainly didn’t seem like someone who could slaughter an entire race. He looked like a bald neighbor in his forties—pot belly included, likely fueled by alcohol and love.

  Clatter

  A small but round golem slowly walked and stared at the sculpture for a while. Then it nodded, seemingly showing its affirmation.

  “What is it missing?”

  Another nod.

  “Yes! The corner of her lips has to be uplifted a bit? Yeah, that should help.”

  The golem nodded once more.

  “So you think her ears should curve left, too! That’s correct! How very observant of you!”

  Zayn was completely puzzled. Either Stone Sage was a genius, or he was dumb, or that hunk of stone was just nodding away to everything.

  “I really needed a second opinion on this. You're not useful, you’d just nod to everything I say!” The sage exaggeratedly pointed at himself, “Not your fault, though. Your maker wasn’t competent enough.”

  This was…weird.

  More and more, it felt like Stone Sage wasn’t…as badass as he thought. He even seemed…a bit silly?

  This was not the badass "I eat thirty-three thousand fae for breakfast" sage!

  What had Princess Orin done to him?!

  Without a warning, the Stone Sage turned around, moved towards Zayn in a flash, and lifted him(the ball of energy) in his hand. His skin was firm like stone, and from the faint creases on his skin, a mistlike mana expunged out.

  His giant face creased as he observed him. “Weird. I definitely felt a gaze. Almost thought you were awake.”

  Zayn felt alarms ring in his head. Even now, across thousands of years, he had been sensed because Zayn saw him in a memory. That’s incomprehensible.

  Madness!

  Out of instinct, he wanted to cut off the connection. To end the memory. But then he realized that the sage wasn’t looking at him, but at the sphere of energy.

  “No no no.” He muttered, “You’re doing it wrong—”

  “Who’s doing it wrong?” A woman interrupted. Peeking from behind him with a cheeky smile on her face. “Are you talking to yourself again?”

  She wore a dress of leaves, but that didn’t reduce her beauty even a little bit. It only made her look purer. Her pair of hazel eyes stared at Stone Sage mischievously as he put the ball back into the forge.

  “I don’t talk to myself!” Sage immediately denied, but was defeated by her deadpan stare. “Sometimes I do…but not now. This time, I really felt it. I sensed a response just a bit ago! It was staring at me!”

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  Orin laughed at her husband coyly and wrapped her pale arms around his neck. “And what did it say? That you’ve been neglecting me?”

  The sculptor wrapped his hands around her waist, “I have… been a bit busy.”

  Zayn could see his expression from the other side. And his twisted as it furiously attempted to convey something to the golem. He was telling the golem to hide the statue.

  The golem surprisingly caught the command. It stood in front of the statue.

  But its four-foot body was simply not big enough to hide her larger frame.

  Sage grimaced, softly cursed it, and tried to change the topic, turning her towards the ball again.

  “It's close. Once it learns to fool fate and send the memories back through history, it can then begin to replicate its commands and grow. Then—”

  “You have a soul, a soul that is capable of growing endlessly.”

  “I wouldn’t phrase it that way.”

  “It's impossible to create.” Orin stared at him and shook her head, “You can’t make a soul with Mana. That’s one unbroken rule even the gods couldn’t darebreak. And by chance, if you succeed…our fate—”

  “Trust me. I wouldn’t risk our future for anything.” The sculptor endearingly rubbed her belly, love clear in his eyes as he stared at her. “I have a plan.”

  Staring at her husband, Orin nodded softly.

  Then she abruptly turned around and, to the dismay of Stone Sage, found herself staring right at her sculpture.

  She froze, stunned at seeing herself in the statue.

  Recovering immediately, she nudged him with her elbow, “I didn’t know Sage planned to have two Orins running around! Is one not enough for you?”

  ***

  Zayn was thankful to be left alone after that.

  He watched the sculptor go through a repeated trial-and-error process to fix the sculpture. Which was weird because to Zayn, the sculpture looked exactly like Orin.

  But the sage didn’t ever seem satisfied.

  Oftentimes, when bored, the sage would come and speak to him. Or the floating ball. Much of the talk was nonsense. But there would be important things said at times.

  “You’re still doing it wrong.”

  Wrong? Zayn felt the energy move over and over, but he couldn’t detect any fault with the flow. Until another similar-looking energy sphere erupted above the Sage’s hand. Its spiral movement was smoother in comparison, despite being much faster. And it leaked none of the energy.

  The sage nudged closer, “Back when I was learning to curve, I kept breaking the edges cause my mana wasn’t suitable for embuing. All existing theorems were useless. I was told I wasn’t suitable for sculpting. So I spent years trying to develop a technique that would work for me. But none worked.” He muttered, “Until one day my father broke sense in me. Told me ‘I was tryin’ too hard’.”

  Too hard? Zayn focused on the sphere. Was it trying too hard?

  It sputtered often, sure, its rotation faltering at times, but he couldn’t have guessed the fault was in trying too hard. But now that he’d seen the perfect rotation, the flaws in the technique of the sphere grew evident.

  “See, the problem wasn’t that the theorems didn’t work. And certainly not a lack of understanding. Turns out, the problem lay in the fact that I tried too much, when I was supposed to do the opposite. That day…something cleared up in me.” He smiled, “That magic happens only when you let go.”

  After saying that, he began to rub the mana sphere endearingly.

  “Don’t try to understand or control it, feel its existence.”

  The sphere pulsed back in response. Joy radiated through it, and even across time, Zayn felt it clearly resonate within his soul.

  Unfortunately, the sage’s attention was not on the sphere.

  “Oi! Bodyguard, you didn’t refill the water today!” Orin's voice sounded through the chamber.

  “You…can just make water out of nothing!” Sage sighed, but Zayn could see the smile on his face.

  He clearly enjoyed it.

  Orin peeked again with a belly full of complaints, “You expect your madame to fetch her own water!”

  The sage shrugged and left without hurry, exaggeratedly bowing to her, “Water coming up. Need anything else, madam?”

  She sweetly smiled, “Just water will do.”

  After he left, she turned to look at the middle of the forge.

  The bulge in the middle of her stomach had become clearly visible by now. Staring at the ball of mana, a trace of hesitancy flashed on her face.

  Shaking her head, she left too.

  Whirr

  Nobody was there to observe the fact that the sphere had rotated right for the first time.

  No one except for Zayn.

  ***

  “That’s perfect!” Orin inspected her stature and clapped. It resembled her perfectly, every detail perfected. “But why does she have such a small belly?”

  She pouted at the Sage and poked at his face.

  “Am I too fat for you now? You don’t…love me anymore?"

  He shrugged as if he already knew this was going to come.

  Zayn ignored their bickering and focused on the sphere, which was now rotating perfectly.

  It simmered on and off and faltered less. And then…the first beat occurred.

  Whirr

  “I felt him kick!” Suddenly, Orin shouted in excitement. “He kicked!”

  “Unlikely, gestation periods should’ve taken far longer,” Sage said, more concerned that she misgendered the child. “Also, could be a she. We don’t know yet.”

  “Only because someone put an anti-divination seal on the child!” She stared at the sculptor humourously. "You're too paranoid."

  Whirr

  “Wait! He kicked again!”

  “Improbable.” Sage denied.

  “He kicked!”

  Zayn saw it all.

  The sphere pulsing faintly every time she clamoured about the baby kicking.

  ***

  One day, Orin came when Sage wasn’t around. After sending him for a chore. She wore on her face an expression of conflict. Drawing closer to the forge until she felt it, the pulse of the child inside, and the sphere matching its beats.

  A frown appeared on her face as she held her belly…and as time passed, soon it shifted into horror and realization.

  “What are you doing?” Sage returned and asked her in confusion.

  “You!” She floated towards him angrily and slapped him, “What is it that you are making?!”

  “I already told you.” The stone sage stared at her without much change in his expression. “You’re making a fuss out of nothing.”

  “You hid that you were using the sacred tree's mana structure!” She screamed at his face, the entire chamber quaking at her voice. “What are you trying to do to the Sacred Tree?!”

  “I am…not doing anything to the tree.” The sage sighed and tried to hug her, “Not anymore. It just works on the same base principle.”

  She didn’t take that for an answer. An invisible barrier wrapped around her. Stopping the sage from moving any closer to her.

  “Our child…would be hunted in Eldera, no matter where he goes.” His eyes softened as he explained, “That’s our escape ticket. The collector promised me. He will bring us out of Eledra. Away from the war, where nothing can touch you or our child.”

  This time, the shield didn’t stop him.

  He cupped her face, “All I did was for you. For our…child.”

  ***

  Orin walked in again, the hesitation in her eyes gone. Instead replaced by determination and a hint of hidden pain. But the tear stains in her cheeks were unmistakable.

  “They're already here upon us. But don't worry, alright? I'm here with you."

  She touched the ball and felt the mana within synchronize with her child.

  They were the same.

  “Damned if you do. Damned if you don’t.”

  Her eyes leaked a drop of tears as she tore the ball out of the forge.

  Someone else emerged out of the shadows, armour clinking. A woman in black. On her chest glowed an insignia of Black Raven. Golden, embossed.

  It was Faeria.

  She looked around the chamber and stared at her. Her gaze lingered on her stomach, “Sister, we meet again.”

  Orin didn’t turn around to speak to her; she just rubbed the sphere gently with pain in her eyes.

  “That...I suggest you put it down,” Faeria tried to communicate, but behind the armour, her eyes leaked a hint of trepidation. “The God Monarch has requested you return…with that cursed thing and the child.”

  “So that he can give my child to the fate alchemists? So that it can be forever locked and experimented on?”

  Silence rang in the chamber.

  “Do not force my hand, Orin.” Faeria stated, “You are no match for me now.”

  Suddenly, Orin engulfed the ball before Faeria could respond. Her eyes widened. With a roar, Faeria slashed at her, only for a shield to erupt, stopping her.

  Zayn experienced the most violent dislocation he had ever known. The ball was being stripped down to the very atoms. All the mana raced and plunged into the child, making it wince in pain and cry out.

  “Endure, child.” She struggled to keep the shield up and endure the pain. "Only through endurance can you survive."

  Faeria's strike finally reached her—and tore her in half.

  But it was…already too late.

  For the ultimate weapon was already born.