Burning Night: A Tale of the Everburning City

Chapter 4, Part 2: Tabitha

"Flaming hell, it's hot in here," Trisha said, as she pulled at the scarf around her neck.

Tabitha noticed the heat, but only in the way someone else would notice the colour of a wall. It was troubling, however, that her companion could feel that heat with all of the cold-stone she carried.

"Forges, liquid metal, and raging Crafters. Also, no one really designed the Foundry to ventilate," Agrias remarked, from up ahead. "So this is where they last saw the Combat Crafter."

The room was immense. It would take the better part of five minutes to reach the far wall, and Tabitha would be hard pressed to hit the ceiling with a stone. All around the room were work benches, furnaces, and a small lake of liquid metal that provided most of the light.

And much of it lay in ruins.

Anvils that looked like they had been made of putty and then broken apart. Rivulets of cracks ran through the floor, and pools of recently cooled metal spattered the walls. The room was unnaturally warm, even with the heat of the forges, and in the distance, bright fires flung shadows across the roof.

"Is that our quarry?" Mathias asked her, pointing to the distant haze of fire that looked, for all the world, like a sunrise.

Tabitha followed his gaze, and nodded.

Instinctively, she extended her will, and the air around her grew still as her heat haze enveloped an area nearly a dozen feet around her. The sudden surge of power surprised both Mathias and Trisha, who were close enough to feel the change in the air.

"I'll keep my will extended this far. Within it, every fire is mine. It won't be comfortable, but as long as I'm alive, it will be safe. Keep it in mind if you need cover," Tabitha explained, and she was fairly confident she didn't make a comforting sight. Her eyes, and parts of her hair would now glow like the liquid metal in the forges.

It would remind them that if she strained too hard, she might become their worst liability.

To her surprise, Mathias only nodded. "You and I will lead. Agrias, Gaharm, keep your distance until we engage, and look for an opening. Trisha, stay behind until the fire starts, then get close to Tabitha. Keep to cover, and do your damnedest to stay out of sight."

Agrias and Gaharm dashed off, disappearing from sight almost instantly. Trisha held her position as she and Mathias advanced.

"Remember, hold his attention," Mathias warned her.

"I'm going to try to kill him. Ideally in the opening shot," She replied.

"Don't be an idiot. You won't put enough into it, and you'll leave yourself wide open," Mathias said to her, scathingly. "That's a Combat Crafter, and unlike him, you're afraid of dying. Your only advantage is being able to fight smart. So don't lead with stupid."

She turned back to him, surprised by his statement. "That was...."

"Poignant?" Mathias asked.

"Insightful," Tabitha admitted.

"I'm not just pretty," Mathias remarked.

"No. You're also insufferably arrogant," Tabitha rebutted, but she smiled as she spoke. "Why haven't you loaded your crossbow yet?"

Mathias smirked, but he unslung the crossbow from his back and quickly cocked the string back.

They marched on, Mathias falling a half-step behind Tabitha as she began to extend her will. Touching nearby fires, holding the heat from nearby furnaces, she could finally feel the will of the scourged Crafter they hunted.