It was completely dark inside Lucien's hut; no light from the outside could seep in. Lucien walked up to one of the corners of the room and pulled out a soul shard from his sack. He pushed it into the wall, something clicked, and that part of the room suddenly lit up.
Nephis squinted at the source of light. The soul shard had been connected to a metal channel, which flowed into a cylindrical chamber before exiting from the wider end of the channel. She stared at it for a few seconds, trying to comprehend what she was seeing.
Was…was that a lightbulb in the desolate land of the Forgotten Shores?
Soon, similar sources of light lit up the other three corners of the room. Lucien grinned at her surprised expression and spread his arms.
"Welcome to my humble abode."
The inside of the hut was far more advanced than the outside. Stone slabs had been precisely cut to fit together almost seamlessly, with dark white silk bridging the gap between them.
Two beds had been set up at two corners of the room, made almost entirely out of carved stone. The fur of some nightmare creature had been placed atop them for comfort. In the center of the room stood a stone desk, scrap metal of all sizes filled up most of the desk, and among them lay Lucien's latest attempt at what the others called a fan.
"How…?" She whispered, shocked by what she was seeing.
Lucien shrugged, "It's a part of my aspect."
Well, his flaw, to be more specific. He had learned what his flaw did soon after he returned from the nightmare. When he picked up his makeshift bow that day, a sudden bout of dizziness had hit him hard. That would happen every time he touched any of his old creations. It didn't take him long to realize what was happening.
It was his flaw claiming its price. He was losing blood every time that happened. Or more accurately, sacrificing his blood. It took him the better part of the year to make the inner walls of his house, mostly due to that flaw. On the bright side, his blood seemed to replenish extremely quickly, much faster than the other sleepers.
There was one good thing that came out of it. Sacrificing his blood had somehow connected him to the object. He could not control it in any way, but he would know if something happened to it. And most importantly, the object starts adopting his traits. Including the ability to channel essence. That is how the lights work: the metal pipe channels essence from the soul shard and sends it through a mirror chamber, where dozens of tiny mirrors reflect the light out through the open end.
"It makes it so that whatever I make gains the ability to channel essence." He explained, fishing out another soul shard. "I use these as batteries to make the light."
She frowned, "Wouldn't it be better to absorb the essence instead?"
"I can't," He admitted, "I don't have a soul core, you see. Not in the traditional way, at least. The spell calls it a Storm Core, and I require Storm fragments to fill it up. I only get storm fragments if I manage to kill something."
'Just like Sunny.' Her frown deepened. "You're a very honest person."
Lucien chuckled. "Of course, I don't see the need to hide it, especially from potential allies."
"I see."
With that, Lucien walked up to a stone chest and opened it, revealing a pile of roasted meat that would be enough to feed two people for days. Beside it was another, smaller chest full of clean filtered rainwater.
Taking out two pieces of the meat, he started a fire and began roasting them. After a few minutes, he picked up two stone plates and offered one to Nephis, who accepted it with a quiet 'Thank you'.
They ate in silence. Lucien waited until they were both satisfied before speaking.
"I know Effie said there was no way out of this place," He began, instantly catching her attention. "But there is a gateway here."
She furrowed her brows, "Why has no one tried escaping through it yet?"
"Oh, we have," Lucien let out a mirthless laugh. "The second bright lord? He tried to challenge the guardian of the gateway with his cohort. Not one of them returned alive."
His face turned grim, "It's guarded by a Fallen Terror."
He expected Nephis to pale or show a hint of fear. But her face only grew more determined. Why wouldn't it? There was a way to leave this hellhole, and the only thing stopping them was a Fallen Terror. They would simply have to kill it.
Lucien had already done something similar; he'd killed an Awakened Tyrant as a Dormant human. But a Fallen Terror was much, much stronger than a mere awakened, no matter the rank. And this time, he didn't have Storm's divine lightning or a multitude of Stormforged corpses to help him kill it.
Which is why he had not tried to fight it. Maybe if he filled up another core or two… He glanced at Nephis. He'd have to see his new allies' capabilities before considering that. Fortunately, a nightmare creature attacked these parts every few days.
"Don't think too much about it," He stood up and walked over to his desk. "It's beyond us to kill it right now. So, make yourself comfortable."
Staring at the makeshift fan, he pulled out two more soul shards and attached them to the back of it. His theory for this was to take the essence from the two shards and force it to pass through a narrow opening. The concentrated essence would move at a much faster speed than before, and it'd be used to push a metal plate that had been attached to the blades of the fan. The two streams of essence would work in tandem and rotate the plate. In theory, of course.
He watched as the essence was sucked out of the shards and pushed into the plates. For a fearful moment, nothing happened. But then it moved, and so did the blades it was attached to. The fan was working. It was working!
A grin lit up Lucien's face. After weeks of trying, he had finally succeeded. But his smile died as fast as it came. The fan had begun slowing down, and within seconds, it stopped entirely. The two soul shards crumbled to dust.
Lucien sighed; it was using too much energy. Awakened soul shards were too weak to power it. It was simply not efficient enough. He did have a pair of ascended soul shards, but it seemed like a waste to use them on the fan. Sighing, he walked over to his bed and sat down.
Nephis, in the meanwhile, had been looking around. The place was lacking in furniture, apart from the desk and the two cabinets for food and water; the only other piece of furniture was a wardrobe. With no door to conceal it, Nephis could see clothes belonging to both men and women inside.
"Can I ask you something?" She said, turning to face him.
Lucien shrugged, "Sure."
"Does someone else live here?"
Lucien went silent, staring inside the cabinet. His mother's clothes stayed untouched there, perhaps in a futile attempt to believe that she'd be able to come back one day.
Then he sighed and said: "My mother used to live here with me until around a year ago."
Nephis looked taken aback, but she still asked: "Is she…"
"Gods no." He laughed, "Nah, she's in the Bright Castle."
Seeing her questioning stare, he sighed and explained. "She was a great hunter, better than Effie I would say. And for that Gunlaug wanted her to work for him." He scoffed, "He never outright said it, but I think he wanted her in his harem too."
Nephis scoffed at that. Of course, he would want that.
Lucien continued. "He tried to recruit her multiple times, but she would never willingly work under a tyrant. But here, Gunlaug's word is law. And if he couldn't have her, no one would."
A scowl marred his face. "I was certain he would send one of his lieutenants to kill her. So I did the only thing I could."
He turned back to Nephis.
"You see, I'm acquainted with one of his lieutenants, Seishan. The only decent person in that castle. She's been here for a very long while, and I ran into her a couple of times as a child. Inside the castle, she's the leader of the handmaidens. And everyone knows not to mess with a handmaiden."
She frowned, "Why?"
"Seishan keeps them safe, and trust me, they can fight better than most soldiers under Gunlaug's command." He sighed, "I convinced her to join the handmaidens, that way she would be safe. But that means I rarely get to see her, and when I do, it's not for long."
"Is that why you want to kill him?" She asked.
"Yeah," Lucien nodded, "Not for some noble goal to free the oppressed. But to enact vengeance."
Nephis remained silent for a while before saying:
"Gunlaug will die." She stared into his eyes with conviction, "You have my word."
In the corner of the room, one of the lights dimmed and went off. Lucien sighed, "Go to sleep, we don't need to take turns taking watch. If something approaches, I'll know."
She nodded and walked over to the other bed just as the final light was extinguished. Lucien lay silently on his bed. Something about her felt off for some reason. His baser instincts screamed of danger when he was near her, but he had seen no reason to distrust her yet.
Regardless, it would be wise not to reveal any weaknesses to her until he was sure she was trustworthy.
He was woken up early in the morning when someone approached his home. There was a faint buzz at the back of his mind; it was untainted.
'Who the spell is it now? At this hour?' He grumbled internally and approached the door.
Harper yelped as the door opened even before he could knock. A face popped out of the darkness, and striking purple eyes pierced through him.
"Uh, Stev sent me." He said, pushing the sack of soul shards towards him.
Lucien sighed and accepted the bag before closing the door on his face.
Harper should have expected that; he was told that this specific person was very secretive about his hovel. However, in that brief moment, he had managed to get a glimpse of what appeared to be a table fan, as incredulous as that sounded. He had to report back about it immediately.
Nephis was already awake by the time Lucien returned, staring at the roof in silence. Leaving her to her thoughts, Lucien started preparing breakfast. Which, again, was simply reheated monster meat.
After eating, Nephis left to gather information from the other locals. Lucien, on the other hand, left to hunt in the Dark City once more. Even though he didn't need the meat, he could still use the soul shards and storm fragments. At night, Lucien spent a few hours trying to improve the design of his prototype fan, but to no avail.
That's how the first day passed. The second day was much more interesting, for it was the day a nightmare creature attacked the outer settlement. Lucien grinned, summoning his spear and armor. He'd finally see what his new ally was capable of.