THEY THREW ME INTO THE ABYSS, SO I DEVOURED EVERYTHING

IRON AND ASHES

Kaelen stood frozen against the anvil, his thick chest heaving as his eyes remained fixed on Felix's scaled arm. The silence in the shop stretched tight, broken only by the steady hiss of rain against the glass overhead.

"I saw the stories in the old texts," Kaelen whispered, his voice trembling as he stepped forward, his eyes wide. "The black core. The devouring shadow. They said the Void Sovereign was just a bedtime story to scare young nobles."

"It is real enough," Felix said flatly, flexing his scaly fingers. The black chitin plates clicked against each other with the sharp sound of polished stone. "And it is hungry."

Kaelen reached out a calloused, soot-stained hand, stopping an inch short of Felix's forearm. The air radiating off the scales was freezing, carrying the sharp stink of old copper and burnt sulfur.

"They stripped my forge ten years ago," Kaelen said, his small eyes darkening with old hatred. "Lord Vane wanted my master's seal for his own smiths. When I refused to sign the transfer, he had his guards break my knee with a forge hammer and burn my shop to the ground. I know what that family does to people."

"Then you know why I am here," Felix said, pulling his sleeve down over the dark scales. "I do not just want to hide this arm. I want it reinforced. I need plates that can take a steel blade without snapping, and a cloak that hides the glow."

Kaelen walked slowly back to his workbench, picking up his shortsword and sliding it back into its leather sheath. He leaned both hands on the dark wood, looking up at Felix through his bushy gray eyebrows.

"I have two bars of void-iron locked beneath the floorboards," Kaelen said softly. "It is illegal to hold. If the city watch finds it, they will hang me from the harbour crane. But it absorbs magical light. It will keep your arm silent and cold."

"How much?" Felix asked, reaching into his pocket for the copper coins he had taken from the dead guards.

Kaelen spat on the stone floor. "I do not want your dirty warden copper, boy. I want the Vanes to bleed."

Felix tilted his head. "Go on."

"The Vanes keep their primary supply vault in the lower docks," Kaelen said, pointing a thick finger toward the south wall of the shop. "It holds three thousand bars of refined iron, rare beast cores, and the original deeds to half the shops in this district. Burn it. Burn the vault to the ground and turn their gold into ash."

"Consider it done," Felix said without hesitation.

Kaelen reached under his workbench, grunting as he pulled up a loose floorboard. He dragged out a heavy, dust-covered leather roll and spread it flat across the table. Inside rested a thick forearm guard made of dark, light-absorbing metal, alongside a rolled parchment map tied with a greasy string.

"Take this," Kaelen said, pushing the metal guard toward Felix. "It is an old piece, but the hinges are good. It will cover you from wrist to elbow."

Felix stepped forward and strapped the void-iron plate over his right forearm. The black metal fit snugly over his scales, clicking into place as if it had been forged for his exact frame. The faint purple glow beneath his skin dimmed instantly, swallowed completely by the dull black surface of the armor.

Kaelen unrolled the parchment, revealing a detailed layout of the lower dock warehouse district. "The vault is guarded by eight heavy swordsmen and a court mage. The main door is locked with a rune seal, but the ventilation shaft on the east roof is wide enough for a thin man."

"I do not need the shaft," Felix said, his eyes narrowing as he memorized the map lines. "I will walk through the front gate."

"Do not be a fool," Kaelen growled, grabbing a small, double-edged spring dagger from a hook on the wall and sliding it into Felix's left belt loop. "A court mage will spot your void energy fifty paces off if you walk straight in."

Before Felix could answer, a high-pitched whistling sound cut through the noise of the rain outside.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

A volley of three silver-tipped crossbow bolts smashed through the thick wooden door, splintering the heavy oak frame and sending sharp wooden shards flying across the room. One bolt whistled inches past Kaelen's ear, embedding itself deep into the iron bellows behind the forge.

Kaelen ducked behind the anvil, cursing loudly as smoke began to pour from the punctured leather bellows. "What in the seven hells..."

Outside, the quiet rain was shattered by the rhythmic, heavy thud of marching boots and the harsh shouting of men forming a perimeter around the building.

"By order of Lady Sarah of the Northern Reaches!" a loud, commanding voice echoed down the alleyway, carrying clearly over the storm. "Clear the street! Flusher squad, burn the shop!"

Felix crouched low behind a rack of iron shovels, his left hand instinctively dropping to the hilt of the spring dagger at his hip. Through the narrow cracks in the splintered door, he saw the alleyway illuminated by the harsh, unnatural glare of silver torches.

A dozen heavily armored guards wearing the white and silver crest of Lady Sarah's personal house guard stood in a wide semicircle, their heavy crossbows raised and leveled at the windows.

Behind them, stepping slowly through the curtain of falling rain, walked a tall man clad in a pristine silver breastplate. He carried a long, thin rapier in his right hand, its steel glowing with a faint, icy blue light.

"Kaelen the blacksmith!" the captain shouted, his voice smooth, arrogant, and completely devoid of warmth. "We know you harbor a defect from the grand hall. Step out with your hands bound, or we will roast you inside your own furnace!"

Kaelen looked at Felix, his old face pale under the soot, his teeth gritted tightly. "It is Captain Vane's personal hunter, Gerald. He has a ice core. He will freeze this whole room in five seconds."

Let me out, the Void Sovereign purred inside Felix's chest, the black mark beneath his shirt turning searing hot against his ribs. The silver ones have rich blood. Let us drink.

Felix unbuckled the strap on his new void-iron armguard, feeling the black scales beneath it ripple and swell with cold, dark power. He looked at Kaelen, a dark, dangerous smile spreading across his face.

"Stay behind the stone, old man," Felix whispered, his eyes flaring with a cold purple light inside the dark room. "I am going to take his sword."

The front door blew inward with a deafening explosion of frost and shattered timber as Captain Gerald stepped into the d

oorway, his icy blade raised high.