Forged Destiny [Book 9: Ch. 2]

Penny stepped forward and brought her hands to her chest. To my eyes, it appeared she was undressing herself, but I had a feeling she wasn't and didn't panic. That knowledge didn't prepare me to see someone who looked very much like a real girl pull open her own skin with her fingers.

There was no gore. If there had been, then I think even with how inured I was to violence, I might have been sick. Cutting someone down was one thing; seeing someone tear their chest open with their bare hands was another. Penny's insides were as Salem's, however. Light. In Salem's case, it had been a mix of white and gold. Penny's was green. Bright green. The… energy – I had no better word to call it – looked wet to the touch and flowing like water, but it couldn't have been because it stayed in place.

[...]

I'd admit to a certain childish curiosity as I poked at the luminescent light. My finger went through it and it felt ice cold to the touch, yet it didn't make me shake or burn me. It was as if it felt cold but wasn't. As if my mind was being tricked. It coiled around my fingers, but I could pull through it with ease.

[...]

There, buried deep inside her, my fingers brushed against something familiar. Something metal.

My entire world exploded.

It was alive. It lived. It breathed. It was metal. It sang. It burned. It hurt. It rejoiced. It liked me. It wanted me. It thought I was like it. It thought I was the same. It called out to me. It grasped me. It couldn't grow. It was hungry. It wanted – It wanted -

My heart was burning. My chest was aching. The scar that Cinder's sword had left as it ran me through began to pulse.

Began to shift.

I tore my hand free and fell with a startled scream. My heart was racing now, beating so hard I could feel it against the palm of my hand. That… That had been intense. It was hard to explain, and I wasn't sure I understood the feeling even now. It was like being the only human alive in the world and then suddenly finding another, not knowing what to make of it but feeling such an instant connection that it hurt.

My body felt woozy and my head was spinning.

"Jaune?" Winter was on one knee beside me, a hand around my back. I wasn't sure when that had happened. "Jaune, are you okay? Penny, go back. Return to Ironwood. This was a bad idea and-"

"No!" I cried out like a baby, hand outstretched. "Don't go!"

Penny froze, unsure which set of instruction to follow. I took the distraction for what it was.

"I… I was startled. I've never felt anything like this, and it was probably Ironwood's magic giving me a headache. I'm a Blacksmith and I tried to understand it too quickly. I'm okay." I wasn't, but I pushed Winter's hands away and staggered to my feet. "Ironwood wants me to do something with it, doesn't he? It's living metal. He wants to know if I can enhance it. Or sculpt it."

"Both," Winter said, confirming my thoughts. "If you could, it would be one more person capable. Can you do it? Can you apply Runes to it? Forge with it?"

"I wouldn't feel safe doing it to Penny without testing," I said. "But… But I think I can. No." I shook my head. "I know I can."

Steeling myself, I stared at the sliver of Ironwood I could see pulsing in Penny's chest. Deep inside my own, a similar piece of metal, though one born from a sword found within a Dungeon, pulsed back. Same, they seemed to say without words. We are the same.

—Forged Destiny [Book 9: Ch. 2]