Chapter 32: A Blacksmith’s Word Part 2
"The old lady who lives across your street, Sofie, told us about the children," Daniel spearheads as he and Noe spot Eris.
The night passed by with Noe falling asleep for mere hours before awaking in discomfort. Daniel did not dream a wink. No amount of Veren can ease the pain of losing a child. Subsequently, they spent the first moments of their morning tracking down Eris' whereabouts in order to find answers to their questions.
A towel hangs over Eris' shoulders as he sits on a rock and discerns the bags beneath Noe and Daniel's eyes.
"Sofie? Sofie died last month. You guys need to sleep. Hallucinating," he says wringing out the towel's water. Dumping it at the very edge of the lead barrier, some spills onto its colorless surface and covers it in a water pastel brown.
"We know child labor is going on. The authorities won't do anything but that doesn't mean we shouldn't," Noe informs Eris.
"Well, I'm sure Sofie didn't tell you everything if you're not here about the explosions instead."
Remembering the dense population of ghosts roaming Northville, "What explosions?" the two question in unison.
Breathing in the cool morning air, a piece of scrap metal slaps against the barrier in front of Eris' head while the dawn breaks in orange, yellow, and blue.
"I won't tell you. You'll end up causing a stir and I'll lose my job."
Daniel proposes, "If the problem is employment, you can come work for me in Westville. You got citizenship after studying there for so many years."
"Studying," Eris chuckles. "I didn't learn a thing. What's the business that you're running?"
Proudly, Noe announces, "An ice-cream truck."
Eris is speechless.
"I'll give you an hourly wage," Daniel tells him.
"About the explosions," Eris begins. "The city kept it a secret but they conducted excavations outside of the dome. They happened underground.
"Beneath the city, there are limited ore bodies that we can mine from while maintaining the structural integrity of the land. Northville could collapse if we aren't careful. Even if we could mine the untouched bodies, they do not possess any of the minerals we truly need. Where do you think we got all the materials to build up every city to their extravagant extent?
"We dug beyond the lead barrier. The barrier looks semicircular from above but it runs for kilometers deeper into the ground. That's why we could mine safely beneath the city. Now, having expanded our mines thousands of kilometers outside the barrier, our mining tunnels are in full view of nuclear radiation. Join that with the flammable chemicals used for mining and we have an explosion.
"Hundreds of thousands of miners have lost their lives. It's working in favor of population control so the state is happy about it. They're only bittersweet about the metal lost. Northville, sole supplier of minerals in this world, is disguising a bloodbath as the hard work of all its miners."
Noe stumbles back and Daniel catches him. "I- I have to go," Noe utters as he turns around and runs back to Sofie's home.
Opening the door with a dilapidated lock, he looks towards the fireplace where a vortex of cold is sucking up his heat. No ashes sit where the fire had burnt so bright the evening prior, as if the wood had never been set in the first place.
Feng Mian jolts up and observes Noe. "Is there danger?" Feng Mian asks as Rosalind and Jinn burrow further into the warmth of the blanket above them.
Blinking rapidly, Noe does not answer. Returning to the room he had slept, the old door creeks open and reveals Sofie sitting atop her grandson's bed.
Noe vaults himself towards her.
"Sofie, earlier! Earlier last night you were about to say something about the ones who didn't make it into the dome! The ones who didn't make it into the dome were what? Alive? Is it possible to survive outside the dome? Maybe we could use that to find a way for the people in Westville to survive! The ones who didn't make it into the dome were..."
"Lucky. They were lucky to have perished then."
Noe pales, "What do you mean?"
"Noe!" Daniel pants into the room and takes Noe's hand. Stroking the back of Noe's hand with his fingers, Daniel tries to settle him.
"Sofie, what do you mean?" Noe repeats himself but Sofie's eyes are a vacant grey.
Daniel's legs begin to tremble. Clutching his heart, he croaks out, "Noe, please calm down."
In concern that he has burned Daniel, Noe pulls his hand away and turns towards the man. It is then that Daniel sees the terror in Noe's eyes, a creeping tigress set on clawing away Noe's sanity.
"It's not you, it's your emotions." Noe almost faints with worry as Daniel groans, "It's like my heart is being ripped out of my chest."
"How- how do I..." Noe stutters, "I don't know how to..."
"Ah!" Daniel's knees buckle and he falls into Noe's arms.
Noe descends back and collides with Sofie. She disappears.
"Feng Mian!" Noe shouts and Feng Mian comes rushing into the room.
Feng Mian gasps, "Daniel!" Rosalind and Jinn appear in the doorway and watch the mayhem.
Gently dabbing Daniel's crinkled forehead and between Daniel's eyebrows with his thumbs, Noe demands, "Calm my emotions down. I'm hurting him. Calm me down now."
"I'm trying but there seems to be no way for my energy to interact with yours! It feels like your soul energy is indestructible!"
"Ah," Daniel curls into a ball and sends Noe into a fit.
"Ugh, it feels like I'm going insane!" Noe grasps Daniel's head in his hands and connects their foreheads.
"Noe... Noe, it's okay," Daniel pants out. Acutely, Daniel's breath enters paralysis and he stiffens, "Noe."
Turning his head, Noe sees Feng Mian, Rosalind, and Jinn unconscious on the living room floor until Eris' unruly form blocks his view.
"Daniel," Noe whispers back in case Daniel's ears are too sensitive for a regular level of sound.
"So this is why I couldn't find him again," Eris walks into the room. With every step Eris takes, Daniel falls further into his abyss of agony. "You had been concealing his Ephrene essence with your demonic one."
"Run," Daniel tells Noe but Noe remains rooted in his spot. He promised himself he would never leave Daniel's side again.
Eris' eyes begin to glow a deep red, a Chaotic knock-off of Noe's own when they burn with the bliss of charcoal. "Father always told us not to interact with them. Now look at you," Eris' face contorts in disgust, "and with the Prince himself. You're a disgrace."
With the last of his strength, Daniel pushes Noe away, "Run!"
Noe's body goes flying through the brick wall bordering the room precisely as a bolt of slithering lightning crashes down on the spot where he lay. Dust billows as Noe screams, "Daniel!"
A moment later, Daniel's coughing alerts Noe of his intact safety. Desperately pleading, Daniel's stare soon pierces into Noe, "I'll be fine. Go!"
Eris stomps out of the hole Daniel made using Noe's body.
Stalking towards Noe, he mocks, "If you had only let yourself be captured at the hospital then this wouldn't have happened."
Static fills Noe's ears. Instantaneously jumping away, another bolt of lightning lands where he stood only moments prior. Noe feels a string of his soul sear in the heat the bolt brings.
If he fails to escape before he is struck by a bolt of Eris' lighting, he will die and his soul shall dissipate.
Noe turns tail and sprints away but Eris easily makes pace with him. Reaching the built up city center, Noe launches himself into the throng of ghosts and disappears from Eris' view.
THUMP!
A red boot materializes a yard away from Noe.
The words written in 'A Guide to Ziraethean Myths and Legends' return to him:
Minions. Often appearing in a horde shaped like a walking boot of miniature, maroon monsters;
THUMP!
The Borne that controls them cannot be far away.
With a smile befitting Chaos himself, Eris yells in triumph, "I've got you now!"
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone