Chapter 5: Flame and Fortune
The fire never dies in Valyria — not in the hearts of its people, nor in the molten veins of its mountains. For Aerion Vórenyx, the flames were more than warmth or danger. They were opportunity.
The duel had changed everything.
Word of his victory spread like wildfire through the city-states of the Freehold. A six-year-old boy wielding a self-forged blade had humiliated a scion of House Xeraxys in front of half the Freehold. Some called him a prodigy. Others whispered the word demonblooded.
But House Vórenyx? Their fortunes rose.
Their blacksmith orders tripled. Obsidian shipments began flowing in from the Essarian mines without tariffs. Even High Magister Varmyro of the Arcane Hall sent a curious emissary: a pale man named Qarrax, who watched Aerion with unblinking eyes and asked unsettling questions.
Aerion received them all in silence. Behind the young boy's face burned the mind of a conqueror. And now — with the next quest unlocked — he had a path.
NEW QUEST UNLOCKED: Legacy of Flame
Objective: Build a Valyrian forge complex (0/1)
Reward: Unlock Masterwork Forge System, +5 Intelligence, New Crafting Options
The Runes Beneath Stone
Bloodstone Hold, nestled against the obsidian cliffs of the Blackrift, was old. Older than his House. Older, perhaps, than Valyria itself. One night, Aerion crept into its deepest vaults with his torch, his blade Wyrmshear at his back.
He found something ancient — a sealed chamber whose door was etched with molten runes in the Valyrian glyphs of loss and rebirth.
[Perception Check: SUCCESS]
As he whispered the glyphs, his system flared.
"Magical Subsystem Detected: Runesmithing Tier I"
You may now inscribe basic magical enhancements upon steel, bone, and stone.
Within the chamber was a broken anvil. On the walls, scrawled diagrams of dragonbone cores wrapped in steel like veins of lightning. His forge would not be a simple smithy.
It would be a sanctum of creation.
Coins and Contracts
The Conclave ended with a feast in the Temple of Ten Flames. It was here that Aerion made his boldest move yet.
He walked into the trading gallery where merchant lords from Mantarys, Essaria, and even Lys negotiated.
Dressed not in silks but in smith's leathers, with black ash on his hands, he dropped a blade onto the obsidian table: a dagger carved from dragonbone and wrapped in a steel that shimmered red.
The merchant prince of House Volyntar laughed. "The child brings toys to the tradehall."
Aerion drew his blade. Wyrmshear sang.
He moved faster than a child should, slamming the dagger into a slab of volcanic glass. It didn't chip — it melted.
Silence. Then, murmurs.
[Commerce +1]Trait Gained: Forger of Worth
He walked away with three trade contracts, two marriage proposals, and a dangerous ally: Vaena Qelarys, the sharp-tongued daughter of a spice fleet admiral.
Of Dreams and Death
That night, he dreamed of dragons screaming. Of a volcano split asunder. Of Valyria in ruin, with shadows crawling through its bones.
When he awoke, his system pinged.
"Warning: Catastrophic magical instability detected in planetary core. Doom Clock Initialized."
15 years: 0 months: 21 days remaining...
Aerion stood before the obsidian mirror in his room, the words still burning in his mind. He touched the dragonbone pendant around his neck and whispered:
"Then I will burn brighter than any of you before I go."
End of Chapter 5