Eve O'Hara.
Several hours ago she was battling wraiths, the field was empty, with fumes rising and there were bubbling tar pits, her bow refracted into her hand and she raised an eyebrow at the tall monument in the fumes, she swiped the fumes away and ventured there.
"Goddamn what a mess," Grisla overlooked the magma monument, a tower that burned constantly and warned the denizens about intruders. The wraiths were too elusive to be going near the village. She took off the bracelet and strapped it to her shoulder concealing the light it emitted.
[ Make a vessel with five voids ]
The fumes were so deadly that no one except them would survive it, she met a stout denizen by a shop with an archway where passersby would see him work.
The whole place looked like a battlefield with homes refined with magma,
Grisla used to be a sojourner, who travelled the realms and was the only one who dared to tread in a place like Voltagna. She was a cursed warrior and a trained archer. The gem forced her to live here, where anyone would least expect a human.
The Rubinet gem flashed and she turned to the magma beast, his eyes were fiery and his rocky skin gleamed.
"Grisla, protector of the gem, a very bad strategist indeed, what did you think you were trying to do by crossing the barrier?" He said infuriated.
"I happened to be wandering and I met wraiths at ghost geyser and I came to warn you," Her eyes moved to the left and she grimaced.
"Are you certain?" His eye reduced in suspicion.
"Absolutely," She said and the bracelet heated against her arm.
They met Ox-Snout sizzling at the gates, his limbs trembled trying to get up and she touched the spot beside his wounds, his scales were deteriorating and it was spreading like cancer.
"You may have to put him down, that plague will spread much further,"
They entered the chasm and the markings on the walls lit up the Void Hall, only the sound of flames crackling within the walls could be heard. They also heard Ox-Snout's agonizing screeches from outside the walls until it was hushed.
He flicked a cape to her "Wear this,"
She pulled down the straps and whistled at the inner lava chamber. "Talk about Hell,"
"You've been here many times, I wonder why you look so surprised,"
"Whoa," She exclaimed as a tot dived at her calling in front of them.
A nest of dragons was above them. They adopted the lifestyles of bats too, a few were switching spaces and dangling from the ceilings in multitudes, some dived and recovered and flying out of the place.
The guardian, a rare bat-faced dragon female guarded the tots under her wings. Watchful. The other parents had migrated to hunt. She screeched calling back her baby. It went back up.
She watched it ascend and looked down from the bridge into a river of boiling lava, the heated rocks by the river sparked breaking off. The river was especially dangerous for dragons learning to fly.
On the other side of the path, she saw the female monument, engraved on the wall with moving serpents on her hair and hands, she limped across the bridge and gasped at the snake that snapped its fangs at her, she raised the bracelet and the light from it beamed on the monument's eyes. They flashed red and the aggressive serpents shuffled and went back in place on the wall, with red light spreading through them, it used illusion to ward off trespassers or wandering creatures.
"Are you sure you're okay?" He said suspicious, the Viperess was not a strange thing to a protector.
"Yes, I just miss Ox-Snout already,"
"If you're not, I'll be willing to let the rock roll over me,"
"You've had your chance,"
"At least I was not as rusty as you,"
She pushed the door open, searching for the arsenal, the place was piled up with weapons. She sat down and her hands rested on her leg and then she adjusted her knee, wrapping it up with a makeshift brace.
"That'll do it,"
The former protector found an axe with the curved blade on one side raising it.
"Is there some sort of weapon with five slots?"
"Voids are my speciality and I can tell you that there are none," Millstone could be a wiseacre but she could use his knowledge right now. She held a scroll and opened it reading the fighting styles with diagrams. Her eyes roved to Millstone as he looked deeply troubled.
"I might be able to lift the curse,"
"I am more concerned about the vessel," She dropped the scroll.
"Then I know someone who can be of help,"
The Blacksmith took the ring and he eyed it, twisting the scaly rims. "This stone is not enough. I may have to run an errand to get more,"
"How long?" She raised an eyebrow.
"Two days," He huffed and looked hesitant to leave the Iron Workers unsupervised.
"Shite, what if you had a proper mode of transportation?"
"Depends,"
The bat dragon stepped up with him holding the reins. "This is only a tot,"
It snorted shaking its head.
"I will accompany you," She offered.
"Best if you stayed back, you wouldn't want to stress that knee,"
As soon as she remembered that she was boxing the pain, she hobbled backwards and urged the dragon to fly. "I will be seeing you, Black Smith,"
"If I live," His eyes hooded in doubt.
It flapped and boosted up in one try, he held on as tightly as possible, it was just as unpracticed as the others.
"Poor dragon. Well, we have work to do,"
This wasn't a twenty-first-century factory where machine parts could refine the iron and the man did the rest of the moulding. This was a typical middle-aged workshop with anvils and kilns and blades.
In just a few hours the BlackSmith came back with a sack of it and the tot looked agitated when he climbed down.
"Here," He passed it to her.
She remembered that she had to do it herself "Oh. I swear this game is rigged,"
She got to the shop, it was an open archway with the glow from the furnace and dwarf magma minions moving about, the clangs of a hammer on an anvil. They
supplied weapons and tossed them into a giant bath. A minion lowered a chain into the water and drew it up extracting the weapons.
She unravelled the sack and picked out the stones. "Why are there so many?"
He folded his arms. She used a pincer to hold up the red hot metal and tweezers to forge the holes on each side, she withdrew at the piece that dropped on the floor melting through.
For hours she broke pieces, heated the pieces in the furnace, waited and pulled out the molten lava, poured it into a mould and waited again.
"I spent hours making that mould," He shrugged.
The minions watched in glee as she tweaked the holes again and growled when she missed the last one, it wasn't in a perfect ellipse. They scattered when she tossed her unfinished work at them.
Finally, he offered to do it himself with dexterity and flipped it dipping it into the water, the water steamed and boiled.
"Is it supposed to boil like that?"
"It has magical properties, of course, it is,"
Finally, when they cleansed it of the resins, the artist added the coat and had the scales carved in, he took it.
Her smile faded "Knuckle rings?"
"No, they are..." He thought for a second. "We'll go with that one, now,"
She took it and held up the Rubinet, a void absorbed it, leaving the rest of the four, three at the front and the last inbetween her palm.
"How much is it?,"
"For letting you use my equipment, time and resources?. It'll cost you five thousand diamonds,"
"Gelar," She whispered.
[ 3000 diamonds ]
[ Updating... ]
She groaned when it was taking too much time "I'll throw in a weapon and we'll call it a deal,"
"What's it made of?"
She grinned and he sighed shaking his head, she dropped the money in his hands.
Grisla adjusted her fingers in the rings and threw her fist out. The passersby were covered in dust. She took it off and kept it safe.