Rise of the Living Forge

It struck Arwin that telling Lillia he had a potential answer to the positively enormous threat hanging over their heads right before they had been about to go to sleep probably hadn’t been the best idea. It wasn’t exactly the type of thing that encouraged relaxation or deep restfulness.

It was too late to take it back.

Lillia practically flew off the bed as she leapt upright, scattering straw in every direction and nearly strangling Arwin’s leg with her tail in the process.

“What? How?”

“It’s just the beginnings of an idea,” Arwin said hurriedly. “It won’t actually make him any weaker or make the fight easier, but it’ll give us a way out if we do manage to beat him. Don’t get too excited. It’s still only—”

Lillia swung a leg over Arwin’s chest and straddled it. He let out a surprised grunt, but he made no move to try to throw her off. She was like a warm, soft blanket. One that had claws, which he was quickly reminded of when she took the sides of his head between her hands. Her hair pooled on his chest as she leaned forward until their noses were practically touching.

“Arwin,” Lillia breathed, rubbing his cheek gently with her thumb. “The idea, not the reasoning as to why it won’t work. You don’t get to say you’ve got an answer and then spend an hour saying why it might not work.”

Arwin cleared his throat, vividly aware of how close they were. He could smell the distant scent of honey and freshly baked bread that seemed to permanently linger within her hair. He could feel her body pressed against his. It wasn’t like they hadn’t slept in close proximity before. They’d slept in the same bed for quite some time now, but this felt… different. Closer.

“Right. The idea,” Arwin said, fighting to keep his focus. Of all the times to get distracted, this was probably pretty close to the worst. Lillia would probably strangle him if he delayed answering her question any longer. “It’s Raen’s request. A magic item that changes someone’s form perfectly. What if I made it too good?”

“It’s only meant to make a few minor changes to someone’s appearance,” Arwin said. “But what if I make it completely warp their appearance? Their voice, body shape, everything. I can definitely find a way to get it Cursed in a way that it can’t be removed. If we can get it onto Twelve, then get spotted by someone during a fight, we would have an ironclad alibi. Nobody would be able to accuse us of killing Twelve because we were fighting off some random guy that came after our guild.”

Lillia froze. She processed his words for several long seconds before she spoke again. “That… might actually work. But what if he just reveals information? Even if it’s in a different voice from a different appearance, that could be enough to keep attention on us.”

“It could be,” Arwin allowed. “But what if I managed to make the bracelet do more than make Twelve just look like more than just a random person? What if I made something that would make him look — and sound — like a monster?”

“A mistake,” Lillia breathed. “That’s it!”

“Huh? A mistake? I’m not sure I’m following—”

The rest of Arwin’s sentence was swallowed in a muffled yelp as Lillia pressed her lips to his for several long seconds. His eyes widened in surprise and his brain fizzled out until she pulled back, her hair tickling the sides of his face as she let out a breathless laugh.

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“We take the blame for a mistake,” Lillia said, sitting back on his chest. The end of her tail smacked against his leg as if she were clapping her hands together to punctuate her words. “That’s it! Nobody voluntarily messes up.”

“Now it’s my turn to be confused, I’m afraid,” Arwin said. He touched a hand to his lips, still trying to recover from the whiplash of the last few seconds.

“The Devil’s Den is a monster-themed tavern,” Lillia said. “But nobody would actually expect that we would have real monsters.”

“Right,” Arwin said. “That’s the whole idea.”

Lillia tapped a finger on his chest in approval. “Exactly. But what would happen if I were to come out and say that we were trying to up the experience for people by capturing a real monster and chaining it in the middle of the tavern?”

“It… probably wouldn’t be too unbelievable,” Arwin admitted, his eyes lighting up as he realized what Lillia was getting at. “It would be insanely stupid and incredibly dangerous by the average adventurer’s standards.”

“So when we dispatch a monster in public and I then apologize for letting it escape, all the ridicule goes onto me for being stupid. I promise to never do something that stupid again, then offer discounts as an apology.”

“Nobody would ever expect you to take responsibility for a mistake you didn’t make,” Arwin muttered, shaking his head. “And the truth is so ludicrous that the cover story will almost completely protect us if we can pull it off.”

Lillia leaned forward again, crossing her arms and resting them against Arwin’s collarbone.

“Can you?” Lillia asked. “That seems like a tall order. You’d have to make this a perfect representation of a monster. If there’s even the slightest hole in anything, it all comes crumbling apart.”

Arwin hesitated for a moment. He’d made some powerful items, but this one would have to do a lot. It was complex… but he was almost certain it was doable. The real question would be if he could get it done in the time they had before Twelve arrived. He didn’t want to overcommit to something out of the possibility of reason.

But, the more Arwin thought, the more convinced he became that it could be done. It wouldn’t be easy, and he’d need a fair amount of help to handle the materials, but he had a guild to fall back on.

“Yes,” Arwin said. “I can do it. It might be a bit close on time if I have to upgrade the Devil’s Den with the heart as well, but I’m confident it can be done in the time we’ve got left.”

“Then all we have to do is make sure we’re as prepared to defeat Twelve as possible. If Rodrick manages to upturn some information we can actually use, this could actually be very possible,” Lillia said. “Do you have any energy left to work tonight?”

Arwin reached for his magical reserves. They were still painfully low. Even though they were recovering, he would need every scrap of power he had to properly make a Cursed item at the level they needed — not to mention help from Lillia.

Probably Esmerelda as well. She knows Cursed items better than anyone else here. Hell, if I get the chance, might even ask Wallace for some tips as well. This is an item that’ll require all hands on deck. I don’t think I can pull it off in the cloak of the night while rushing.

“No,” Arwin said. “This is too important, and I’ll need every scrap of power and help I can get. As tempting as it is to try to start right now, rushing is just going to cause me to mess up and have to start over. It’s better to rest and start in the morning.”

“Well said.” Lillia’s lips brushed across his cheek as she spoke. Her tail wound around his leg, and her hand found his in the darkness. “And how long do you need to rest before you’ll be back up to full strength?”

Arwin’s hand tightened around hers. “I think I can make do with what I end up with. I’ve never needed all that much sleep.”

Lillia gently pressed her lips to his, and he could feel the small smile on her face. The need for internal thought vanished, and Arwin’s body moved on its own. He looped an arm around her back and pulled her closer against his chest. Their bodies pressed together. They wrapped themselves around each other, the need for words lost within the pitch darkness.

There wasn’t much time until morning. There was even less time before they would have to sleep and prepare for the following day. But for that short time, the rest of the world couldn’t reach them. There was only the former Demon Queen and the Hero, and they had no need for any more words.

They’d fought more battles against each other than either of them could count. Arwin had thought that they knew every single thing about each other, but as it turned out, he was far from knowing everything. There was still at least one kind of fight that he’d never challenged her in.

In the all too brief amount of time they could steal from what remained of the night, Lillia ensured she rectified that.