After seeing the distant display of light, Hedix leaned back on his chair. The wood creaked under the pressure he was applying.
Raindrops became increasingly heavier, as shown by the sound of them hitting the windows in his room.
Hedix sighed as he rested his head on his hand, waiting for one of his several assistants to stumble into the room. He reread some blueprints for the hundredth time that morning.
Until someone disturbed him. Several sudden knocks caught his attention. Hedix lifted his head and sat up straight, waiting for his visitor to walk inside.
"Come in!" He yelled over the rain.
Seconds later, a young female Thawed opened the door. It was Pearl there to visit her intelligent ally, who needed help according to those that took care of him.
"Good morning, Hedix. Is your stump feeling numb?" Pearl jokingly said.
"Glad you're here, Pearl. I need your help with my new leg," Hedix greeted. "All you need to do is be my support while I get used to this."
Pearl opened both arms. "Sorry, but the only one that will fall between my arms is that Zesher leader of ours. He's a real sweetheart."
Hedix rolled his eyes. "Perhaps it was a better idea to convince an assistant to aid me instead."
"Well, I'm already here. Would be useless to burst into your room and expect you to share that bountiful information of yours without something in return," Pearl hinted.
"It appears I wasn't a fool all along. I'll see the original blueprints in your hands by next sunray. But for now, I require someone to help me back up in case my experiment fails."
Pearl leaned against the wall beside the door, arms crossed. "Go for it, I'll watch."
Hedix sighed in annoyance before taking out a large crate from under his desk. The wood scraped the floor as it came out from hiding, stopping once the lights of the overhead chandelier touched it.
He opened it, leaning the top section of the crate against the side. Allowing Hedix to reach for his new leg.
A bronze replica of his leg found its way out of the box, rested on the knee of his missing leg.
"What's your plan on putting those on?" Pearl blurted out.
"The sharp tip will pierce the flesh of my stump, that's where I'll slide the rest of my stump inside and fasten the edges around it. Thus granting me a comfortable fix around and my mobility back," Hedix explained.
Pearl blankly stared at him. Her blue eyes became featureless as she expressed extreme boredome in other ways.
"In short you stab yourself and can magically walk," she concluded.
Hedix ignored her comment. He grabbed a small Eteni wool ball that comfortably sat on his desk waiting for this moment to arrive. Then placed it into his mouth.
Before continuing, Hedix took in a deep breath. After mentally preparing himself for the ensuing pain, he lowered the foot down to the floor.
The bottom of the fake limb bumped the wood below. Hedix then unwrapped his knee, the several white strands of cloth gently fell to the ground where they remained.
Pearl watched Hedix precisely dig the sharp bronze tip into his flesh before painstakingly getting up using his hands and the other leg. After being right above the leg, he slowly lowered himself onto it.
Realizing progression was being made, Hedix forced his hands to grab the leg and begin twisting it around. Drilling a hole into his bone to allow his leg full support.
Each twist, every moment, everything felt agonizing to him. It was like self-inflicted torture that was necessary to continue the fight out in the war.
Pearl couldn't help but force her eyes closed. She secretly was very squeamish, and this was starting to edge her closer to fainting.
Several agonizing minutes later, Hedix began banging on the desk. But it wasn't any normal banging, it was very aggressive and desperate banging.
All of this caught the attention of several assistants, which caused three to quickly head up stairs and see what was happening.
Each one watched in horror as Hedix struggled to keep his emotions under control. Now, he began doubting himself. He began feeling stupid for even attempting to repair the damages of conflict.
The pain became so difficult to handle that he eventually passed out. Head slamming against the desk as he fell to the floor.
-Later that day-
Hedix woke up feeling numb. The pain, emotions, everything was gone. He felt nothing at all, not even happiness.
"H - hey, bud, are you okay?" Pearl calmly asked the now-dazed Hedix.
"I am incapable of sensing emotions..."
"What?" Pearl asked, confused.
Hedix pointed at his leg. "I am incapable of sensing emotions. Was the torture really that horrid?"
"You endured nasty head trauma. Although I can imagine the Nine have been entertained by it," Pearl ominously replied. "You see, a random mark appeared on your chest. Suggesting a Third Rule."
Hedix closed his eyes, then imagined all his emotions back. Seconds passed without any result. Until he felt a sharp pain and sudden euphoria all at once.
It was enough to send him barreling back into his pillows once more, but this time screaming in agony. It was too much for someone like him to handle, especially when death wasn't anywhere near.
So Hedix shut off his emotions once again. Returning his mental state to a confused yet relieved state.
"This might be a bad time to ask this, but didn't you say you needed help with something?" Pearl tried to bring the conversation away from Hedix's sudden burst.
He followed on. "Forget about it, I will allow my body to grow accustomed to this new limb. As for you, take the blueprints you desire. However, do not let the rain wash away the plans."
Pearl nodded in agreement. She turned around to face the giant wooden desk in the middle of the room. Her eyes scanned every print spread out on the desk until she found the ones she wanted.
They were blueprints related to an enhanced shield for Decka, a modification for Tellendor, a specially modified Stram saddle, and a crossbow meant to fire a very unique kind of arrows.
-Back at Krugi's Armory-
The doors to a small restaurant built for Infinus' blacksmiths swung open, letting the cold air rainy air inside. Pearl walked in carrying a bag made from waterproof leather.
All four blacksmiths stopped their conversation and turned their attention to the one that hired them for the job.
"Good afternoon, everyone. As you may know, I have what you four have been waiting for," Pearl grinned. "Right in this bag is the instructions to pull our Legion into the next stage."
She took out the first plan out of the bag and threw it on the table between the four blacksmiths. One of the smiths, one named Thena, reached for it.
Her hands unfolded the rolled up blueprint, allowing the overhead lights to showcase the details of their first project.
"Adaptive Blade Modification," Thena narrated. "The modification prioritizes blade frames to swiftly adapt to any target that the user deems a threat. It achieves its goal by utilizing..."
She stopped reading, her eyes looked down in confusion at a strange foreign word. "La-le-don-at-is? What is that?"
"Laledonatis a strange type of metal that cannot be found anywhere on Koroth, unless Thawed pray for it. That's why it's a Philious word, meaning 'shape shifter metal' in a Thawed's tongue."
Thena turned to look at Pearl for confirmation. Her facial expressions were telling of her unfamiliarity with the metal.
"Sahvonis is correct. I can start the ritual for that but I am afraid I will need someone's finest weapon in order to start the ritual, and maybe even find a mountain to do it on," Pearl responded.
Another blacksmith looked over Thena's shoulder down at the blueprint. "I see what that Hedix guy wants to go for. It wants to attach that Laledonatis to Ether's weapon and turn it into a slaughter machine."
Pearl winked. "Exactly the plan. He has been hard at work trying to toughen up during combat. So many injuries on his weak little body, it won't be long until he gets one too serious to recover from."
That same blacksmith pointed the sketch out to everyone in the room. "It appears we would only need to attach the new blade onto the old one. Look at it's captions and arrows."
On the blueprint, there was an arrow pointing at a sword's edge with a caption reading 'attach.' Right next to those captions, there were three small sketches that represented the various stages of the newer blade.
One sketch depicted a blunt side that was made for crushing hard objects. Another had a sketch displaying a round edge that appeared to be for tricking the enemies to slide off it for more wounds. And one last sketch made for sharp mini-teeth.
They ran from the hilt to the tip of the sword, suggesting they were there to trap victims and keep them hooked while they bleed out.
"Well," Thena looked at the sketches. "Look's like we got work to do. Pearl, come to my forges, I will offer you a fine weapon for you to use."
The meeting concluded as the two left the restaurant, heading towards the future steps of the Legion.