The Heartstone Journey II

Book 5 | Ch. 6 - Forged From Fire

Two days pass by faster than we all would've expected. There was no signs of Gatlin's group or signs of the man himself either, they must've left town for some unknown reason. Fortunately that is not our concern any longer. My injuries finished healing completely, my worst injury being on the side of my head was no longer an issue. We woke up early just to be ahead of the merchants as to not be caught in the morning rush. We helped each other strap and piece our armor, grabbed our things and headed out making sure to check out of the inn we were vacating. We picked up Ace at the entrance catching that his prosthetic foot was different compared to the previous wooden one he had before.

"Yo, what's up with your foot? What happened to the other one?"

Nick let out with his usual prideful tone.

"The other one got damaged pretty badly after I saved Royal. It needs repairs so I mailed it off to my tailor for repairs at the guild. The one I have now is my travel prosthetic foot, this one is more durable but its a bit more difficult to run with it."

"How much do these cost for you too have multiple of them?"

Cloudy whispered looking around in case he was making too much noise.

"It's around twenty gold coins for both, this one is a little bit extra."

"PPFFFT~! WHAT THE F-!"

Nick spat our his saliva hearing the amount before having his mouth covered by Cloudy and me.

"Well.. enough of that. Are we ready to go?"

Ace wondered catching that everyone had their things bagged and ready.

"Oh-! Not yet let me run back and get something."

"What is it?"

Cloudy wondered not wanting him to get lost.

"You'll find out I'll be back in a few minutes."

Without warning he ran off leaving the rest to wait outside as to not be spotted by merchants.

Royal rushed down the streets of the town aiming for the blacksmiths area and opened the doors noticing that it was open despite how early it was.

I walked inside smelling iron, soot, and waves of blazing heat emerging from the far back corner of the shop. Hepta must be working on something, how long has he been awake for?

I called for him expecting an response but there was none, I could hear the clanging of metal and the outburst of fire and smoke coming from the back so I knew he was alive at least. I stumbled toward the back and peeked at the back room finding the smoke passing through the wall where the illusion was.

So gas can pass through illusions? Interesting... noted. Can living matter go past it?

I carefully tread toward the illusionary wall placing my hand on it. It was rough, bumpy, dusty and more, my hand couldn't go past it. I made an attempt to deactivate the illusion to no avail leaving me to wonder if it really was something only their race can manage. I subtly let my energy slip out pressing my palm onto the wall once again trying to find anything I can latch onto. A fine sliver, a strand of aura that I could manipulate, there was nothing. It was indeed an illusion given how gas can pass by it, it's impressive honestly how they can create such complicated techniques.

I felt a tap on my leg causing me to jolt from the sudden sensation and flicked my head downward to find Hepta.

"Wah-! O-oh you scared me."

"Nonsense, uiuoy were the one who scared me."

(Nonsense, you...)

"Sorry~."