Curious, he moved his pure madra through the other one. This time, a haze of death madra appeared around the heart. A lethal field that, if it were real, would have eaten away at his lifeline and begun corroding his flesh.
“Is this accurate?” Lindon asked.
[As much as it can be without testing. The intensity of the effect, its response to pure madra, and its activation time are all suppositions on my part.]
“But this is really several techniques?”
[Yes.]
That was intriguing. Potentially revolutionary.
Bindings were crystallized techniques, meaning they were each one technique. Sometimes Soulsmiths could blend one into the other, but it always created a hybrid technique. It never layered the two techniques on top of one another. If you wanted the techniques to be used together, or in sequence, you had to design your construct to allow it. Usually, that was done with scripts.
But this dreadbeast had only one binding for several techniques. As though its bindings had all organically fused into one.
Lindon fueled the third of the four openings, and a Forged set of jaws appeared, its teeth shining green. It snapped down on nothing, and now Lindon finally felt the hunger component of the binding coming to the forefront. This was how the Hydra fed.
Eithan cleared his throat. “I hate to complain, but it’s pretty boring sitting here watching you hold on to nothing.”
Lindon remembered that he must look ridiculous, interacting with thin air. “Dross, can you project to Eithan?”
[I can, but that will cost me valuable madra.]
Lindon hesitated. He was doubly reluctant to exhaust Dross after what had happened the last time the spirit strained himself.
“Very well then, leave me out,” Eithan said. “I will infer from your conversation what you have been doing: are you testing out the Hydra’s binding?”
“It’s amazing. Like four bindings grown into one. I’ve seen dreadbeasts with bindings that had melted into one another, but they never worked well. They always felt like a failure, but this could be the perfected version.”
He activated the fourth binding, but nothing happened. He sensed it had been reaching out to the surrounding aura, but there was no death aura nearby, so the Ruler technique hadn’t activated.
Eithan tapped his fingers together. “Disturbing implications, but that was always one of the strongest theories about the origins of the dreadbeasts. That they were the failures, and the successes were the Dreadgods.”
Lindon examined the binding, turning it in his hands. “So you’re saying the Dreadgods have a binding like this one.”
“You’d have to kill one to prove it. But I would say it’s likely.”
Lindon ran his perception through the room ahead. The constructs were starting to slow down, but he still had time. He could take a closer look at the actual binding. It would help him later, and Dross couldn’t model it accurately unless Lindon studied it.
Eithan slowly slid into his line of sight. He was massaging his temples with both hands. “Let me see if I can divine your thoughts. You are tempted to examine the actual binding, but you are hesitant to do so, and…what’s this? Please, I know you admire my keen insight, but don’t let those thoughts distract you. Focus.”
“This might be my only chance at this. I don’t want to waste it.” A mistake Soulsmithing could damage the binding beyond repair. If Dross learned enough to be able to replicate the binding, then that was fine, but he still didn’t want to lose such a valuable material.
“There should be better facilities somewhere here,” Lindon went on. “I want to see the effect of the location myself. And if the hammer’s as important as you say it is, I want one of those too.”
Eithan cupped a hand around his ear. “I need to hear you say it. I need to hear you say the words.”
Lindon was lost.
“Say, ‘please, Eithan, solve this problem for me.’”
“It’s not a problem, really. I could examine it now, but I think it’s better to wait until later.”
“Okay then, say ‘If only I had a place to practice Soulsmithing right here!’”
“That would be convenient, but I’m not really looking to make a construct.”
“Please say it.”
“If only I had a place—”
“Worry no more, my student! With my incredible foresight, I have solved your problem long ago!”
With a flourish, Eithan produced a tiny object shaped like an anvil. Lindon could immediately sense that it was a void key, or something similar. Eithan practically forced it into his hand, so Lindon ran his madra through it.