While Silarias stands in the heavy council chamber, frantically trying to process and figure out how on earth he is going to put this into words, something entirely different is happening on the other side of the university. Outside the entrance, right next to the forge where the forgeling Oslo is busy testing and training Faustus, Kaelid, Lila, Zax, and Bonk are walking through the chilly, foggy night. The boys' breath forms small clouds in the freezing air.
Bonk is walking in front with full conviction. He waves his massive arms wildly and points forward into the dark alley with a broad gesture.
"Yeah, it is really simple!" Bonk calls out with a loud voice that echoes through the empty streets. "To the left here and then we are at Oslo's and the market, and then we can finally..."
Kaelid, Lila, and Zax have felt their stomachs rumbling loudly for a while now. Almost simultaneously, they wrap their arms around their bellies and exclaim, "FOOD?!"
Bonk nods firmly and keeps walking, but then knits his brows and looks around at the dark facades. "Uhhh... so... Kaelid, do you guys happen to know why everything here has been made so dark and is filled with those glowing pumpkins?"
Kaelid bursts out laughing immediately. "Yeah, man! You know that, right? Uhh... The Hallows? The time that ghosts and the dead can step into the living world and supposedly enjoy everything in the living world one more time?"
Bonk looks at him with a completely blank face, blinks his eyes, and then slowly turns around to Zax. "Uhh... the whaaat??"
Zax shrugs and looks back just as questioningly. The cold wind blows through his hair. "I would not know what is going on here... no idea what he is talking about."
Lila and Kaelid look at each other. Words fail for a moment, but the smile on their faces says more than enough. Then Lila bursts into loud laughter. "Oh, really? How blissfully ignorant..."
Kaelid suddenly stops walking, steps forward with a broad grin, and takes his stone flute between his thumb and index finger, right in front of his face. "Let us explain it to you... mwahahaha!"
He looks at them with an exaggeratedly ominous expression until he lets an icy, sinister flute tone sound through the air. Almost immediately, with a dull thud, a massive stone wall shoots up out of the ground, completely blocking the path ahead of them.
Zax and Bonk both jump backward a meter in shock. "Ehh?!" stammers Zax.
Almost immediately, the stone wall sinks back down entirely into the ground like a collapsed curtain. There is absolutely no one behind it. The path is empty.
Out of nowhere, Kaelid's voice suddenly sounds right behind their ears, chillingly soft: "Once, at the beginning of time, there was a record... When the Beast Humans broke free, there were countless factions. One of those ancient factions was the Celts... Because they believed that now... starting at exactly twelve o'clock at night... when three stars cross each other and it is a full moon..."
The ground beneath their feet begins to rumble eerily. Stones rattle in the sand.
Lila's voice suddenly sounds from the darkness above them, as if she is whispering from the treetops: "...then the transition between the world of the living and the world of the dead is there. For exactly three hours long..."
Kaelid suddenly points exaggeratedly at the dark bushes and screams in a fake, terrified voice: "LOOK, THERE IS ONE OF THEM!"
At the same moment, Lila uses her magic to make the bushes rustle violently and the tree branches around them twist like ravenous, clutching hands. With a quick hand movement, Kaelid makes a strange, grim figure made of stone rise up out of the ground.
Zax stands there, scratches behind his ear, and silently wonders just how old those two crazies actually take them for. Until he suddenly hears a piercing scream. He looks to the right and sees Bonk launching himself in a wild dive straight at him, his eyes wide with pure panic.
"ZAX?! FINISH HIM OFF!!" roars Bonk as he grabs hold of Zax's arms.
Kaelid and Lila try to hold back their laughter, but they cannot anymore. They burst into loud laughter. "Hahaha! That was just us, man! Do not sweat it, it is just a bunch of superstition! Prince Alec and the Inquisitors try to force people not to call it The Hallows but All Hallows' Eve, but that is quite a mouthful..."
They walk on for a bit, but see that Bonk is still standing stiff and pale, cowering behind Zax as if the world might end at any second.
"Come on," Kaelid says grinning, tapping his flute. "It was just a joke, right? You saw that, little brother?"
Bonk swallows with difficulty and clears his throat. "O... okay... if you say so..."
They continue walking through the night. The shadows of the trees dance across the path. Kaelid strikes up a conversation with Bonk about his Anting to distract him a bit from the tension.
"Say, Bonk," Kaelid begins curiously. "That beast inside you... is it always there, or is that really something you have to consciously summon every time?"
Bonk looks at the ground, his long strides slowing down a bit. He searches for the right words. "I... uh... no, I have to summon it. It is a bit like you are a beast and you have one, that you actually are yourself... but also more like it is sleeping deep inside you. You can wake it up, but sometimes... sometimes it is just incredibly hard to make it sleep again."
Zax lets out a deep, heavy sigh. "Not that you would even WANT to, bro."
Kaelid looks at him sideways, questioningly. "Huh? How come?"
Bonk shakes his head. "Yeah, no... I do not know if that beast is really that bad, you know? So why would I always just keep it asleep? I hope I find a way to live with it someday."
Bonk suddenly comes to a dead stop. His shoes scrape against the cobblestones. They all look up and see to their utter bewilderment that they are standing in front of a gigantic, centuries-old graveyard. Hundreds of stone monuments and graves stretch out before them in the faint moonlight, filled with the resting places of all the fallen soldiers and students of the academy.
"Ehhh, guys..." mutters Bonk, his voice sounding like an anxious squeak. "I think we took a bit of a wrong turn."
Kaelid rolls his eyes dramatically. "Yeah, no, no problem, man. Maybe they know the way."
He points to a large crowd of ghosts who are partying, laughing, and drinking loudly around a bunch of magical fires in the middle of the graveyard. The cheers echo across the dead land: "YEAHH! Another night to never forget!"
Bonk swallows. He thinks to himself how badly this could possibly go. Maybe those people actually know the way out.
They walk sheepishly toward the crowd. Bonk tries a few times very softly to get everyone's attention first. "Eh... um... does any of you happen to know the way out...?"
No one hears him over the massive noise and party music. Kaelid then takes his stone flute, brings it to his lips, and blows a short, cutting note. The stone floor immediately begins to shake violently, and the gravestones rattle threateningly on their pedestals.
Almost instantly, the entire party falls dead silent. Everyone present turns around in a flash and stares with hollow or flaming eyes at the four intruders.
A skinny, laughing man walks out of the crowd toward them. His clothes hang in tattered shreds around his body. "Hey people... long time no see! Mm, want to leave already? Come on, keep partying with us!"
Kaelid looks at Bonk with a crooked gaze. "Ehh, what do you say? We can always turn back."
Bonk gathers all his courage, looks at Zax, and shrugs. "Maybe we can stay for just a little...?"
Zax bursts out laughing, the tension instantly shedding off him. "Gladly, haha! I could use this after a day like today!"
Lila and Kaelid politely introduce themselves to the skinny man and walk along with him. He wears a half-broken armor that rattles with every step. They are led to a secluded corner, just at the back of the graveyard, where a bunch of iron bars stick out of the ground. A small camp has been set up there. Two other men are sitting there drinking, eating, and laughing out loud by a weak, greenish campfire.
Kaelid looks the skinny guide up and down with a smile. "Wait... I do not think we have properly introduced ourselves yet, have we? Hehe."
He extends his hand in a friendly manner.
The skinny man looks smilingly at Kaelid, who stands there fearlessly with Lila behind him and Bonk and Zax at his side. "Well... if you ask it in such a polite way..."
The man bows deeply to them. But the exact moment he drops to his knees, with a dry, blunt pop, he pulls his own head right off his neck as if it had never been attached to his body in the first place. He grabs his own hair, lifts his head up with a grin, and looks them straight in the eyes.
"I am Joland... Joland the Gold-Ringing, at your service!"
Bonk stares with wide-open eyes at the loose head in the ghost's hand. His brain refuses to process the information. His knees buckle. "Wait... that... that is actually a real..."
His eyes roll back, and he tips straight backward, knocking out cold on the ground.
The two drunk men by the campfire rush forward immediately while Joland hastily pushes his head back onto his neck. "I eh... jeez, calm down! We would not hurt a fly! We just never run into living people, you know!"
One of them grabs Joland by the arm to help. "Sorry! Sorry! I am musician Boras, and that is my brother Moza. We have never hurt a soul in our lives, I swear!" They both make deep, exaggerated bows.
Kaelid looks at the unconscious Bonk on the ground and asks Lila, shaking his head: "Think he is going to be okay?"
Zax lets out a loud, booming laugh. "Hahaha! Oh what... yeah, sure! It is Bonk! He is physically stronger than me, but do not ever tell him that..."
Zax steps forward and extends his hand to Joland. "I am Zax and that is my brother..." He glances doubtfully at Bonk on the ground.
Nah, I am not sure I should just shout his real name out like that...
"...eh, he is Bonk. We are Bloodhounds."
Moza jumps up immediately, a cup of steaming drink in his hand. "A Bloodhound?! Wooo! Boras, remember when we played for that crazy king? There was one of those too!"
Boras bursts out laughing. "Nah, you fool! That king... as bloodthirsty as he could be, he was just as incredibly caring for his people! He had three complete armies marching toward him. Because he refused to sacrifice his own troops, he looked at me..."
Boras puts on a heavy, deep voice and imitates the king: "Ey... music man... you still feel like playing one last song? This is a one-way street, so I do not know if we are going to survive this..."
Boras continues with glowing, proud eyes: "While that king had tied five swords to himself and hung twelve jugs full of blood from his belt, he walked outside all by himself. But he could not just leave."
Moza interrupts him enthusiastically: "But do not forget, little Zax, that is how it went! He asked us to play on his signal. But when that signal came..." Moza drinks his cup in one go. He laughs, though his eyes suddenly turn damp and emotional. "...we almost reached him, but that lunatic looked at us, smiled, and said: Stay here! From here on I can still hear your music, but at least I will not lose you! Haha! And run he did! Until he stood right in the center of the valley. And then all hell broke loose... not from one side, but from three sides at once! Three armies came to get him to tear him apart! But give up? NO!"
Joland finishes the story with a deep, piercing look in his hollow eyes. "I will never forget that look in his eyes. That confident, smirky look... as if dying was the absolute finest choice of his life. Then he nodded at us as they got closer, and we started playing. He threw those swords high into the air, broke the first lines with his bare fists until the swords came down again. There was blood everywhere, but everything was guided... it was like watching a savage wolf striking out from a flood of blood against the armies..."
Zax stands there with his mouth open and breath held, listening.
Kaelid gently nudges Zax. "Woahh Zax... that man is almost certainly family of yours..."
Zax lets out a proud, weak chuckle. "Mm, yeah... not even almost certainly. That is the legend surrounding my uncle. Our older brother could do the exact same thing... but do not tell Bonk I talked about our brother, he does not like that much."
They all sit around the fire and start eating the food the ghosts have prepared. Bonk slowly regains consciousness, blinking his eyes against the light. Zax tries to explain it to him calmly while Bonk rubs his head. "So once again... they are ghosts, yeah. But they are not bad. This food you are eating right now, they made it."
Lila looks questioningly at the ghosts around them and then addresses Joland. "Ehh, Mr. Ghost, sir... why are you guys actually here in this place? No offense, but were not you guys long since... eh..."
Joland looks at her smilingly and raises his cup. "It is like hanging above the water and seeing something in the distance that is not really there anymore, but that you are allowed to dive into for a few hours through this night."
They continue eating quietly in the chill of the night. Kaelid lets out a loud, unadulterated burp. "Poh, really good! Thanks for that!"
Moza suddenly looks a lot more serious at Kaelid. "Ehh, Kaelid was it, right? Did not you people see a strange figure pass by on your path just now?"
Kaelid looks questioningly at Lila, then at Zax, and back to Moza. "Ehh, have not seen anyone. Why do you ask?"
Moza bursts out laughing. "There was a man here just now... a fanatical, passionate man. He laughed and sat talking with us for a bit, until he suddenly sprang up, shouted that he needed to get his horse, and rode off. Something about some so-called forgeling forge needing to be somewhere, and that things are going to go horribly wrong there."
Moza shakes his head, laughing. "Hahaha! Forgeling forge... hunemarion upholsterers... all those fairy tales. Forgelings and that kind of folk have not existed for ages!"
Kaelid slowly puts his food down. It suddenly dawns on him.
Ehh, wait a minute... I know a forgeling! And they are very close by!
He looks at Lila and Zax hurriedly. "Ehh, shall we go? I forgot something at home..." He turns to the ghosts and smiles forcedly. "Thanks so much for the food... and for the stories!"
Lila laughs sweetly, but her eyes are sharp. "Yeah, thanks a lot! Mm... we will be back next year. Too bad you guys prefer to drown yourselves in booze here instead of heading out. Just imagine if there is real danger and you guys do not notice any of it. Well soldiers, musicians, and fallen heroes... everyone... we really are coming back next year! And then we are bringing all our friends."
Lila nods at them. Then she looks at Moza with an innocent gaze. "Ehh... only we still do not know the way..."
Moza and the rest of the crowd instantly fall dead silent. Lila's last words cut through the souls of the fallen soldiers on the graveyard. "Hold fast..."
They turn around and run in the direction Moza pointed out, straight ahead, away from the graveyard. While the gravestones in the background disappear into the mist, Kaelid whispers hurriedly to Lila: "Pssst... Lila... was not that just a teensy bit too intense...?"
Lila interrupts him immediately without hesitation. "Mm, no. Is just enough."
Through the dark trees, they suddenly see the side of the forge loom into view. From a distance, someone is heard shouting loudly and desperately: "COME, OPEN UP! I, Jack, will help you! Doom will come!"
When they get closer, they see a ghostly, white and blue horse standing in the moonlight that comes galloping straight toward them as if it had been waiting for them all this time.
Kaelid looks at Bonk and shakes his head. "Hold on tight, Bonk... this is going to be one of those nights."
Bonk lets out a long, deep sigh and prepares himself for what is to come.
The ghostly, white and blue horse trots with a graceful, almost supernatural gallop through the dense mist. Certain parts of its flanks seem to simply dissolve into translucent vapor before the creature recovers itself. The entity leads Kaelid, Lila, Zax, and Bonk straight to the heavy steel doors of the forgeling forge. The ground here is covered with a thick, heavy layer of soot and glowing cinders that spark brightly under their soles. From the large iron ventilation grills of the outpost rises a suffocating, metallic heat that instantly causes the cold night air to ripple and distort.
From a great distance, they already hear loud, desperate pounding echoing against the thick steel.
They slow their pace, sink slightly through their knees, and cautiously creep closer. Their breath turns into quick, white clouds in the freezing night. There, right in front of the closed entrance of the forge, stands a strange figure bent forward. It is a knight clad in a gigantic suit of pitch black armor. The steel is so deep and intense black that it seems to swallow even the faint moonlight. Across the breastplate and the gigantic shoulder pieces run dark, deeply engraved runes that slowly pulse with a dull, violet glow.
The knight beats with a heavy iron gauntlet against the steel frame until the figure notices someone approaching. With a sudden, mechanical jerk, the knight turns around inside its black armor. The movement is accompanied by the screeching sound of grinding metal.
Kaelid, Bonk, Zax, and Lila all four startle violently backward. Zax instinctively reaches for the call of his weapon, while Bonk hastily hides behind Kaelid's broad shoulders.
The black armor is complete from top to toe... but it has no head. The round, black neck opening is completely empty. Only a light, icy smoke rises from the darkness of the collar, churning like black ink in clear water.
The headless knight raises a heavy black gauntlet in a remarkably friendly, almost theatrical manner. A hollow, echoing voice reverberates straight from the empty chest cavity of the black armor, as if the words are being screamed upward from a deep, bottomless pit.
"Oh... do you want to listen... I am Jack... Jack o Lent... A horseman of the Lent family. I know that disaster is going to break out here..."
Kaelid, Bonk, Zax, and Lila feel the chilly fear run down their backs. It cuts deep through their throats, but through everything they have already experienced this night at the dilapidated graveyard of the Lower District, they manage to pull themselves together surprisingly fast. Carefully, with a slightly trembling voice, they introduce themselves one by one to the dark knight. They calmly explain to him that they happen to know the owner of this forgeling forge personally.
Kaelid steps forward with a confident grin. He raises his hand and touches the ice-cold steel door of the forge with his fingertips. At the exact moment of contact, bright blue magical runes light up along the massive hinges. With a heavy, dull click and the cutting scrape of thick bolts, the gigantic door swings wide open by itself.
Jack o Lent raises his black glove toward the empty neck opening and looks inquiringly at the opened passage. "Mm... The door apparently did not find me worthy enough... Strange..."
The five of them walk inside, facing the heavy, oppressive heat of the workshop. The smell of molten ores and burnt wood hits their chests instantly. Kaelid walks in front, casually flings an arm in the air, and looks encouragingly at Jack over his shoulder.
"Do not worry, man! It will all turn out fine, but we know the owner personally, so we have got this completely under control."
Kaelid raises his eyebrows with satisfaction, completely in his element. Without realizing how bizarre this whole situation actually is, he starts shouting randomly through the large hall: "Oslôoo! We have got someone here for you! Uhh..."
They turn the corner of the enormous forge and instantly all come to a complete, dead stop. Chills run down their spines.
In the room, on a raised stone plateau illuminated by churning streams of molten ore, stands Faustus. He wears a breathtaking, brand new armor forged from a gleaming, otherworldly material none of them has ever seen before. The surface ranges from deep gold to bright azure blue and radiates a pure, ancient life force that physically makes the air in the forge vibrate. Faustus hears the footsteps, turns his head, and looks at them. "Oh, Kaelid and..."
But before he can finish his sentence, a hard, roaring sound echoes from the shadows that makes the foundations of the outpost shake.
"FIRE!!"
It is the voice of the giant Oslo. The Nephilim comes running with a wild, obsessed look in his fiery eyes. His massive figure looms from the smoke and roaring flames, his head so high he nearly touches the towering support beams of the workshop. In his bulging muscles, the gigantic Nephilim blacksmith lifts a massive, magical crystal cannon. The oversized barrel glows fiercely red and purple from the accumulated, unstable energy. Without hesitating for even a second, the Nephilim pulls the heavy lever.
BOOM!
A massive, pure crystal bullet is fired with a blinding flash of light and a deafening shockwave straight onto Faustus' chest plate. The intense air pressure released blows Kaelid's and Lila's cloaks backward violently, while sparks and droplets of liquid light splatter across the entire hall.
But at the exact moment the destructive crystal bullet hits the breastplate, something happens that nobody expects. The bullet shatters with a hard, glass like snap into thousands of splattering, sharp fragments and bounces off completely powerlessly. The harsh impact does not even leave a tiny scratch on Iðunn's gleaming material.
Oslo abruptly stops running. The heavy, smoky cannon falls with a thundering crash onto the stone floor, and the massive jaws of the Nephilim giant drop wide open in pure bewilderment. Right after that, the giant bursts into a loud, thunderous laugh that makes the entire forge tremble on its foundations.
"It works! It actually works! So you really can forge armor out of that plasto tree of Iðunn! This is genuinely bizarrely interesting... and you are already..."
Oslo abruptly falls completely silent. The golden-yellow eyes of the Nephilim giant dart sideways and lock firmly onto Kaelid standing there, and onto the gigantic, headless knight in the pitch black armor coming around the corner behind him.
"Uhh... hey..." stutters Kaelid, as he puts a hand behind his neck and swallows nervously. "We brought someone for you here..."
Jack o Lent steps forward with heavy, metallic steps. The black steel of his leg plates sounds hard on the stone floor. He bows his empty neck opening slightly toward the gigantic Nephilim and speaks with his hollow, echoing voice: "I am Jack o Lent and I come to warn you... Within minutes, a catastrophe is going to happen here..."
Oslo stares down from his towering height with wide-open eyes at the headless figure in the black armor, while the silence in the sweltering forge suddenly becomes leaden, cold, and charged.