Soulforge Legacy Series

The rest of the night went as well as one could have expected it. Not only was I not allowed to eat with the squad, but none of the other squads would let me sit with them either. Oh, and the whole meeting thing, it happened at the fucking tables.

I didn’t find out that little nugget of information until after everyone had vanished to do god knows what. Some looked like they were heading into town, while others played games or did other things. Things I wish I didn’t have to listen to.

Annoyed with everything, I did what I always have done, I dug my feet in and buried my head in my work. In this case, in experimenting with my magic. It wasn’t that I thought I could figure out the issues with that stupid circle in one day, but that I had a few other ideas for spells.

Actually, that wasn’t the right word. To be spells, the magic would need to be more organized and focused on a single goal. Or at least, that was what I thought a spell was. Everything else was closer to a trick or even a cantrip.

And the days through the following weeks were much the same. Wake up, eat, and train. Albeit, each day’s training was different as the exercises seemed to target different muscle groups. Likely in an effort to round out our capabilities.

To my shock, it kind of worked. While I didn’t gain any visible muscles, my stats grew fairly regularly.

Sadly, though, I was unable to cast the damned sharing spell. It just didn’t work. No matter what I tried, it shattered into pieces. The captain even took some time out of her day to see about the issue, only to throw her hands up and declare the entire thing a pointless endeavor.

Throughout the whole time, I grew bored. It wasn’t like I had people to hang out with. Ginger was off doing something, while I didn’t even know where Xander was. All I knew was that he was doing something for the council. Whatever it was had to be secret or something because he had yet to reply to any of my messages.

Other than those two, I knew no one. And it wasn’t like my team talked to me. Even when they were forced to say something, their words were short and clipped.

Still, I found some fun here and there. Like with that rock I had redirected. It wasn’t the first try to hurt me, but it was the easiest to track back to me. Someone had tried to boil me alive with water. It had nearly worked if not for my mana gobbling up the heat.

I am not talking about the hot water. I mean that it ate the heat contained inside the water. Between one breath and the next, the water went from boiling hot to barely warmer than ambient. Sadly, that didn’t mean it was warm when the wind blew across it.

Of course, all of that heat had to go somewhere. It sat in my center for a few minutes, fighting with my mana to get free, before my mana finally gave in and tossed it to the curb. In this case, the curb was the legs of a nearby bench.

Softened by the influx of heat, the bench sagged a bit under the weight of the squad and my attacker were currently occupying. Then one of them slid backward, likely in an attempt to get more food. Whatever the reason, the shift of weight was enough to throw the entire bench backward. Every single one of the group slammed into the ground. Sadly, the instigator of this incident was on one of the few to land on his ass rather than his back, or better yet, his face.

And from this, nothing happened. No one tried to call me out. No one even questioned me. The bench was simply replaced and life moved on.

“Kyren!” One of the more bitchy women called. “Going to play with yourself again?” Har har. Such a stupid fucking joke. Of course, her friends ate it up. Chuckling even as she tossed something my way.

Every one of us watched it. The people around me were probably fascinated by it, while I just wanted to know what it was supposed to do. It emitted nothing mana-wise. It simply looked like a small bottle of some sort of liquid. I mean, it might be a potion, but those tended to be expensive, so why waste one like this?

Unwilling to chance whatever it was and unable to move fast enough, I tried to push the object away. The air around the bottle shimmered as I pushed and pulled the thing in one direction.

With a sound I had grown used to over the last couple of weeks, the glass bottle shattered as the heat stressed it past what it could handle. Liquid exploded outward. Most of which missed me, but not all of it.

Before I could do anything to get the stuff off, it vanished. Then, without warning, crimson, blue, and gold motes of light erupted from my skin. Microscopic tears opened throughout my body as more and more of the things poured out.

While I could have screamed bloody murder given the pain, I wouldn’t give these girls the satisfaction. I wouldn’t do what they wanted. So, eyes locked upon the queen bitch herself, I pushed through the pain.

But her eyes were not on mine. They were on a spot somewhere to my right. No one talked. No one yelled. We all just stood there, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

As the pain dulled to nothing, I glanced to my right. Other than my reflection, nothing was there.

Wait.

Reflection?

What reflection?

What was there to reflect off of?

My narrowed eyes met those of my reflection. But, unlike a reflection, when I went to say something, it came out of me while an odd jumble of noise poured from my reflection.

“What was in that potion?”

“Noitop taht ni saw tahw?”

“It was one of my duds.” She didn’t sound convinced of this. In fact, she sounded a bit distressed.

“What were you trying to make?”

“Ekam ot gniyrt uoy erew tahw?”

“A potion of tongues.” Her face paled as the Captain walked into view. Called by one of the people next to her, no doubt.

“Recruit Vulpier, Recruit Johansson,” the Captain glared at the two of us, sparing only a glance at my mirror image. “Care to tell me what is going on here?”

Neither of us said a word. It wasn’t like the Captain didn’t know what was going on. All of those around me knew what was going on. What had been going on for weeks now. So there was no chance that I would call them out on the fact that they had done nothing about it. Especially as it had yet to turn deadly. Even then, death wasn’t permanent, so would they care?

“I tripped.” My attacker said. “The bottle of a failed brew went flying and hit Kyren.”

“Is that what happened?” Her eyes focused in on me, narrowing ever so slightly. Both my mirror image and I shrugged. An action that got me thinking. Maybe this potion of hers might be useful. The only question I had was if it was its own entity or if it was mirroring everything I did.

Scratch that, I also needed to know if pain and wounds would be mirrored. If not, this might be one hell of a weapon to use on the battlefield.

The Captain took a minute to walk around the copy. She tapped, poked, and even punched the thing a few times. I felt none of it, and the mirror me simply took the hits. Not saying a word as she recovered from each.

“How much of this batch is left?” The Captain looked like she had an idea.

“Three more vials.” Three vials appeared in her hands. Without a care, the Captain grabbed all three. The sound of a cork popping was quickly followed by screams as one of the vials was splashed on her and her friends.

“I don’t seem to recall Recruit Vulpier screaming.” The Captain sounded calm, cold even, as she watched the three girls fall to the ground. Motes of light tore their way out of each girl. Each wound grew and blood trickled out as the things continued to pour into the air.

Finally, the motes stopped. Curled in the fetal position, sat two of each girl. If I hadn’t watched as one had formed from whatever those motes were, I wouldn’t have been able to tell which one was real and which was a copy.

“Ouy llik lliw I?” One of the copies screamed out as she pulled a knife from somewhere. Unlike other knives I had seen, this one screamed of wrongness. Of something that shouldn’t exist.

My mirror image acted first. She jumped in front of me. A mirror copy of my chisa katana took the hit and deflected it.

The other two copies went low as they charged at me. My magic ripped into the closest one while the Captain moved to deflect the other. As soon as her blade and the copies met, the world shuddered. Cracks appeared around each weapon. The more the two pressed, the more the cracks widened, until finally, the two weapons shattered.

Unlike her weapon, my mana fared better at dealing with my attacker. Heat streamed in from the field as the sun baked the dirt. The distance ate up my mana reserves, but the resulting heat was enough to burn apart the monster from the inside.

My opponent fell to the ground at the same time my mirror cut the head off hers. As for the Captain, mana colored her claws as they tore her opponent in two. Both of us stared at my mirror image, almost expecting it to attack one of us.

Instead, the thing said one thing before the motes that had formed its body exploded outward. “Yerp erom gnirb, emit txen.”

Before I could ask what the fuck had just happened, a familiar voice called out. “Having a party without me?” Pendragon wasn’t alone as he shoved his way through the crowd. “What have I told you about that Mothy?”

“It is Captain Iron Moth to you, you overgrown lizard.” The Captain snarled at him. “And whatever those things were will have to be left to the research group.”

Pendragon grimaced at something she said. “The research group? Really? They are too busy with their experiments to do any research for the likes of us.”

“They will want to study this.” She waved the two vials in the air. “Now, what the fuck are you doing in my base?”

“What, I can’t come to see an old friend?”

The massive man behind Pendragon let out a roaring laugh. Everyone glanced at the man who just shook his head. “I am here to give Kyren here a bit of training.” His voice was deep and rich. Something that would fit in well with reading a cozy story. It would do even better reading a romance, but something like that wasn’t likely to happen.

“You think I will turn down extra training for my recruits?”

Lieutenant Mbeki chose that moment to step in. “What kind of training?”

“Shifting.” The big man’s word had her, and a few others, giving me a once-over. Likely having assumed that I was one of those people without the ability to shift, as I had yet to do so. Even in the few mock fights I had been thrown into had me in my semi-human form without a hint of any shifting.

“And you are just going to do this out of the goodness of your heart?”

Both Pendragon and the man laughed. “Oh, god no. This scaly ass called in a favor.” That had a few people stepping back from me in the off chance that the dragon might do something to anyone who got too close to someone he had been willing to burn a favor for. With how much mana was rolling off the man, it must have been a big favor to pull him away from whatever he was supposed to be doing.

With a hand on my back, Lieutenant Mbeki practically threw me at the man. Before I could so much as protest against getting some stranger to train me, she made sure I knew this wasn’t optional. “If you cannot learn the array spell, then at least learn to make yourself into a better weapon.”

With that, she turned around and made her way toward our squad’s bunkhouse. All around me, people followed her example. Vanishing before someone decided to assign them some work or training.

The last one to leave was the Captain, but not before she said one last thing. “Make sure to bring her back before the end of the week.” Then she was gone. Leaving me alone with two people.

“Ready to learn to shift?” Pendragon’s eyes shone even as I grunted out my reply. “Do I have a choice?”

“Not really.” With that, the two of them turned and started for the gate. My new fitness level and stats allowed me to keep up with their pace without a single issue.