Fang and Isgram picked the life-drained rabbits, and put them in a small hole they dug.
The rabbits were dead tired after being hauled by Smoke's tendrils, and their life force was severely drained.
"You should give them a fast death, Fang."
Fang nodded, the weight of Isgram's words sinking in.
Their eyes were hollow, their bodies limp.
"You're right," Fang said quietly. He knelt down beside the hole, his tendrils of death magic flickering around his fingers, and then cut at the rabbits' throats
The rabbits' bodies went still, the faintest sigh of release passing through them.
Isgram watched silently. "Quick, clean. Good."
Fang stood up, brushing the dirt from his hands. His expression remained distant.
Looking at the hole once more, Fang said, "At least they serve their purpose. Nothing goes to waste."
Isgram nodded, his gaze shifting back to the distance. "Everything's a tool in this world. Even death." The distant chirping of mid day birds was heard, and the clouds of rain were nearing the forest.
"We should butcher them quickly, the rain will come soon."
Fang knelt down beside the rabbits' lifeless bodies, his fingers tracing the outlines of their drained forms. His gaze shifted to Isgram, his voice low. "Check for mana stones. They are the reason I can raise them."
Isgram raised an eyebrow, glancing at the rabbits with a thoughtful expression. "Mana stones?" he asked, his voice tinged with curiosity. "That's not something I've encountered much in my travels."
Fang nodded. "They're found from time to time. I have not found a reason why it occurs in only some of the animals, but I haven't encountered more other than the one that was found in Smoke's original body."
"The stones form as a byproduct of the magic, sometimes absorbing energy from their surroundings. It's a useful thing to harvest if they have any." Isgram had learnt some alchemy in his short stay in the dwarven kingdom before they found out he was a chosen one.
Isgram crouched down beside him, his fingers gently probing the rabbits' soft bodies. "I've heard of them from some masters in one of the villages I used to travel to. Mana stones are common in the alchemy field. Dwarven alchemists use them to power various enchantments, and I learned a bit about them during my time in the Dwarven Kingdom."
Fang raised an eyebrow, surprised. "You learned about them in the Dwarven Kingdom? Thought the Dwarves were builders like in the books on earth, why would they care for magic?"
Isgram gave a small chuckle.
"They don't. But they do care about power. Mana stones, along with other magical resources, are valuable commodities.
The dwarves are more keen on earth magic, and they are evidently much more focused on using power gained by those mined materials."
Fang's look brightened as he carefully extracted a small, glowing stone from one of the rabbits. "It's faint, but there's something left. We'll take what we can."
Isgram grunted in agreement, moving to the next rabbit. "Even weak stones can be useful, especially for us. Better to have them on hand."
"We should butcher them quickly," Isgram said, his voice laced with urgency. "The rain will come soon."
Fang didn't hesitate. His tendrils of death magic moved with precision, slicing through the rabbits' fur and flesh in practiced motions.
After a few moments of careful searching, Fang and Isgram found only two small mana stones. They were faint, their glow barely visible. Fang pocketed them silently.
"Only two," he muttered. "Not much, but better than nothing."
Isgram grunted, already moving to gather the butchered rabbit meat. He wrapped it up with leaves quickly. As they lifted the meat and began to head back toward the cave, the first heavy drops of rain began to fall. The sky turned gray, and the temperature dropped quickly.
"Winter is coming." Said Fang as he covered his head with his hood.
"Looks like we're just in time," Isgram said with a grin, shaking the water from his cloak as they hurried toward the cave entrance.
Fang and Isgram made their way deeper into the cave, grateful for the shelter. Isgram moved toward the firepit, quickly pulling out a bundle of dry wood. Using a few quick sparks from his magic to light the flames, the warmth of the fire grew almost immediately.
Fang placed the wrapped meat on a flat stone near the fire, the heat slowly pushing out the chill from his fingers. He sat down with a tired grunt, eyes fixed on the crackling flames.
The two mana stones were already in a small wooden bowl beside him. Their faint glow pulsed weakly, like dying embers.
"Two stones. One experiment," Fang muttered. "Not a great ratio."
Isgram shrugged, tossing another piece of dry wood into the fire. "We're not exactly harvesting from prime beasts here. They're forest critters, not mana-fed monsters."
The fire crackled quietly. Fang placed one of the dimly glowing stones on the stone slab beside him, the faint light pulsing against the cave walls. He reached out with his death magic, letting his tendrils curl around it like smoke grasping at flame.
Isgram leaned forward. "What exactly are you doing with those?"
Fang didn't look up. "Trying to bring it back."
Isgram frowned. "What, the magic inside?"
"No." Fang's voice was low, steady. "The rabbit. Its soul is in here."
The silence that followed was heavy.
Isgram straightened. "Wait—what?"
Fang tapped the stone gently. "They're not just magic batteries. These are souls. That's why I can raise them. I can raise creatures from the dead using this; that is how smoke came to be."
Isgram stood slowly, stepping around the fire, his expression shifting from curiosity to unease. "You're telling me those stones I've been stuffing in my pack... were those the actual souls of the animals we've killed?"
Fang nodded. "Yes."
A beat passed.
The silence was surprising for Fang as he thought of it as a regular use of his magic, but seeing Isgram so quiet, he turned around and faced him.
"You're playing with souls, Fang." Isgram's voice was tight.
Fang looked up at him, calm but distant. "Everything dies, Isgram. I'm just giving it a new use. I'm not defiling them. I'm repurposing what the gods left behind."
"Repurposing?" Isgram scoffed, pacing.
"You know how many wars started over that kind of thinking?
The Dwarves banned soulcraft centuries ago.
So did the humans. The elves practically execute anyone who touches this kind of magic."
"I'm not them," Fang said.
Isgram pointed at the stone. "And that rabbit? You're saying if the stone's strong enough, it'll come back? Fully? Not just some mindless husk?"
Fang looked at Smoke, and Isgram followed his gaze.
"How do you think our purple friend here was created? I used a stone and gave it more mana.
Though now, Smoke is powerful enough to recharge himself using the mana he finds in living beings.
I have no idea what the scale of his mana battery is, but when he is drained of mana, he returns to being a stone."
"Shit," Isgram muttered, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "So what, you're going to build an army of resurrected beasts? The bunny squad?"
Fang chuckled and stood, staring into the pulsing stone. "Maybe. If it keeps us alive. If it gives us power. If it keeps the gods listening."
The mana stone in his hand flickered, and just for a moment, a shape began to form in the firelight.