NOVPUBThe forge flickered.
The void remained still.
The Heartroot, unmoving.
And Argolaith… worked.
He no longer asked how many years had passed. What had once felt like eternity now moved like breath—slow, quiet, necessary.
He could not wield magic.
Not yet.
Not until his five trees completed his transformation.
But he could shape runes.
And over time, those runes became his language—his hammer and chisel, his fire and clay.
He etched them into stone, into thread, into concepts not meant for symbols.
He combined emotion with form, creating runic sequences that others would never dare.
He made a language of intent—runes that only activated when a user truly needed them.
And even though none of it passed the trial…
It was no longer failure.
It was refinement.
One day—if days could still be counted—he created a scroll of shimmering voidleaf bark. Upon it, he etched a set of runes that had never existed before.
The runes could not be read.
They weren't meant to be.
They responded only to action.
If a person approached the scroll seeking to harm, the scroll dissolved into ash.
If they approached with grief, it sang.
If they approached with love, it unraveled—revealing a phrase, different every time.
The scroll was not an artifact. Not a spell.
It was a mirror.
A reflection of unseen truths.
Argolaith brought it before the Heartroot.
And once again, the voice came:
"It is powerful."
"It is unseen in the realm of form."
"But it is not yet the one."
He nodded. Calm.
Because with each creation, he understood more.
Usefulness was not ease.
Not convenience.
Not even wisdom.
It was impact.
Would it change a soul?
Would it bridge what could not be crossed?
Would it give something no one else could?
He would keep searching.
More years passed.
He crafted a writing instrument that translated thoughts to ink—but only when the writer was being truthful.
He forged a mask that let people wear their emotions—but only the ones they denied the most.
He built a book of voices, where every sentence added would disappear—unless it came from a person who had never been heard before.
They were beautiful. Haunting. Brilliant.
And not enough.
He etched them into his journal. Labeled them. Studied the patterns that emerged.
They weren't failures.
They were footsteps.
He hadn't found the perfect creation yet.
But the ground beneath him had begun to take shape.
A path of fragments.
A road of runes.
And something on the edge of his soul whispered—
You are closer than you think.
Argolaith had long since stopped keeping count.
Of the years.
Of the failures.
Of the fragments of creation that glittered within his storage ring like echoes of his thoughts.
He did not despair anymore.
Nor did he hope with desperation.
He had become quiet. Steady.
A sculptor of ideas, a smith of meaning.
And on one still, unmeasured day—he came close.
Closer than ever before.
It began with a question.
Not spoken.
Not written.
But felt.
"What if people could share pain—not through words, not through stories, but by truly feeling what the other feels?"
Not as an illusion.
Not as mimicry.
But a moment of complete, undiluted empathy.
He went to work.
The idea took form slowly.
A veil, woven from the glistening threads of void-cocoon silk gathered on the 880th world.
He fused it with a tri-fold rune sequence that synchronized breath and heartbeat—learned from flameblind monks on the 62nd planet.
And into the thread's lining, he stitched memories.
Not his own.
But the pattern of how emotion passed from body to soul.
He called it: The Thread of Echoing Heart.
When two people wore it—one at each end—it would allow them to feel each other's grief.
Joy.
Fear.
Love.
All of it.
No lies.
No masks.
Just raw truth.
It wasn't dangerous.
It didn't hurt.
But it changed whoever used it.
Permanently.
He tested it.
Not on another.
But on himself.
One end wrapped around his wrist.
The other he bound to a shard of memory from a ruined planet—one he had tried to save, but couldn't.
And suddenly—
He felt them again.
The cries.
The regret.
The coldness of being forgotten.
He fell to his knees.
Not in pain.
But in understanding.
Because for a moment, he truly was them.
And he saw the depth of what he had made.
It was useful.
Original.
Profound.
It changed him.
And it would change the world.
He brought it to the Heartroot, hands trembling.
The tree was silent for a long time.
Then:
"You have created something new."
"You have created something powerful."
"You have created something that works."
Argolaith's heart raced.
This is it.
But the voice continued.
"And you have created something that can be misused."
Argolaith froze.
The words sank like frost beneath his skin.
"With this, the wrong heart could twist truth into chains. They could force pain, invade memory, destroy with precision. It would take nothing but intent."
Argolaith looked down at the veil.
It shimmered softly in his hands.
Innocent.
Beautiful.
Terrifying.
He saw it.
He saw it.
How easily it could be abused.
How many would use it not to understand—but to control.
He closed his eyes.
And for the first time in centuries—
He destroyed one of his creations willingly.
The veil burned without flame.
Turned to ash without heat.
Gone.
Because it was almost perfect.
But perfection without compassion is still corruption.
The Heartroot pulsed once more.
"You are closer."
"Now, you understand the cost of creation."
Argolaith didn't cry.
But something in him—some heavy shard of old ambition—crumbled.
And what remained… was purer.
Patient.
Ready.
Argolaith didn't return to the forge for a long time.
Not because he was broken.
Not because he was lost.
But because he had learned—at last—that rushing meant nothing.
And stillness… could be just as important as the spark.
He walked the edge of the void, where the light of the Heartroot dimmed and the silence grew thick. His footfalls left no sound. His breath left no fog. But in his heart, a quiet fire still smoldered.
The destroyed veil still lingered in his thoughts—not as regret, but as a lesson.
The power to create wasn't just about what could be made.
It was about what should be made.
He sat beneath a low, floating branch of the Heartroot—where starleaves whispered in no wind, their rustle more memory than movement.
And there, in the long pause between failure and invention…
He began to remember.
Not the grand moments. Not the cities. Not the titles.
But a tiny garden.
On the 118th world.
Tucked between two great broken cliffs.
It had no magic. No defense.
Just stone paths and rows of wildflowers that grew sideways because of the crooked sun.
He had planted it with a boy named Illen.
A mute child who communicated through humming tones and simple sketches. Argolaith had taught him how to mix colors from crushed petals, how to shape soil with bare hands. Illen had taught him how to listen—not with ears, but with patience.
On the last day, Illen had drawn him a picture.
A flower, yes—but made of strange angles. Not real petals. Not symmetry.
Just a blooming, impossible shape.
And beneath it, he'd written something that Argolaith had never forgotten:
"I don't know what this is. But I wanted it to exist."
Argolaith's breath caught.
I wanted it to exist.
Not for power.
Not for praise.
Just because it could give meaning.
His mind shifted.
He remembered something else.
A small community on the 719th world—one plagued by loneliness, even though the people lived side by side. Their minds were too complex for language, and their culture had no words for connection.
So Argolaith had taught them gestures.
Movements.
Patterns of expression.
Ways to say "I'm with you" without sound or spell.
And in that simplicity—they had healed.
It wasn't about the invention.
It was about shared being.
Something deeper than tools or magic.
He stood again.
Returned to his forge.
Not with an idea.
Not yet.
But with a direction.
He took out a blank sheet of skybark parchment. It didn't age. Didn't wrinkle. It responded to intent, not ink.
He wrote three words.
"Not solve. Share."
Then beneath that, another:
"Make something that gives nothing—except connection."
And then the seed of something very close to new began to form.
He didn't yet know what shape it would take.
But this time, it would not be made with power.
Or brilliance.
Or theory.
It would be made with care.
The Heartroot pulsed faintly above.
Watching.
Waiting.
Knowing…
He was almost ready.
