Kings Game

Chapter 88 - Blood and Steel

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Despite her inclination towards inebriation, Kell was more observant than her comrades gave her credit for. In between drinking whole bottles of strong spirits that she'd pilfered from the crew's hidden stash, Kell spent her time watching Nul and Roran as they went about their business.

She watched as Nul painstakingly deciphered General Ahndor's etchings. She watched as Nul etched Roran with his first godspell, a strange thing that made him impossible to defeat at games of chance. And she watched as Nul molded a perfectly good sword into a strange lump of steel that was vaguely hand-shaped.

While Nul was an incredibly talented etcher, they were less of a sculptor. Still, after taking careful measurements of Kell's hand and wrist, they spent hours reshaping the metal, molding it as the artist molds clay and forming it into a perfect replica of her hand.

Kell watched Roran too, though he was less interesting. His focus was entirely on Sarah once she came back. As comforting as it was to have the specter of death once more among them, Kell was more interested in the steel appendage that Nul was crafting for her.

Kell was standing on the deck, surprisingly sober given that it was past noon, when Nul approached her.

"How are you feeling?" they asked.

"Fine," said Kell, though she was anything but. The crew had moved their stash of good booze and started hiding it around the ship in smaller hiding spots, making it difficult for Kell to get properly drunk.

"Can I borrow you for a minute?"

"You can ask me for a favor anytime, you don't need to pussyfoot around it."

"Right," said Nul, looking away, "Sorry. I uh...I finished the prosthetic."

"You mean my new hand?"

"It's a little more than that. I got carried away with some of the finer details, but I'm finally done. You should be able to use it now."

"Then quit wasting time and slap it on me."

"I can't," said Nul. When Kell glared at them, they hurried to add, "It's activated by a godspell, you need to be the one to attach it."

"Fine, let's go."

Nul took Kell back inside their cabin. The new hand was sitting on the small desk Nul had claimed as their own. It looked boring and simple. It was little more than a hunk of steel molded into a hand. Admittedly, the details were almost perfect. With a little paint, the lump of steel could have passed for a real hand, but Kell was unimpressed. To her, it was just another prosthetic.

"How do I wear it?" asked Kell.

"I've etched it so it will mesh with your existing focus markings. All you have to do is hold it to your stu...to your arm and activate the design."

Kell grunted and grabbed the hand. It was heavy, almost as heavy as a sword. She pressed it against her stump. The ends didn't quite match up. I was round and smooth where her stump was lumpy and had lines of scar tissue crisscrossing it.

Kell splashed a little of her energy into the steel appendage. Nothing happened.

"It ain't working. Now what?"

"Try more," said Nul. "This isn't a normal prosthetic, I've etched it with a godspell. They have a high activation threshold. You'll need to pour a lot of yourself into it to make it work."

Kell rolled her eyes. Of course a simple prosthetic wouldn't do. Nul had to add their own flair into the mix by etching it with special designs and effects. There had been several times when Kell wanted to do away with Nul's extraneous enhancements, and now seemed like a good chance to actually start.