Page 115 of Forged in Fading

“What do you mean, something?”

Boden threw up a hand. “I’m not sure! They’re words I don’t recognize.”

Vitharen help her.

The dwarves would likely pick riddles that had to do with things important to them, if she had any guess. Breathing life or burning could be the sun. It helped plants grow but could burn any living thing on a hot valo day. It also provided a sense of time for those who looked. But if she was wrong…

“The only answer I can think of is the sun. And dwarves hate sunlight, so it would make at least some sense.” Alvara scoured the wall for a sun symbol and stepped toward it. “I’ll touch it since this was all my idea.”

Boden slapped his hand over the carving before she could take her next breath.

She gasped. “Boden! Why in Dalviri’s name⁠—”

The symbol of the sun creaked and sank into the stone, leaving a hole where it had once been. And Boden still stood.

“I’ll admit, that turned out better than I expected,” he said, placing his hands on his hips and arching his back.

“Are you telling me you expected to turn into stone?”

He leaned sideways, close enough that their shoulders touched. “You would make a striking statue, but I would miss your impressive conversation skills.”

“Excuse me⁠—”

“I do not live, but I can kill.” He threw her a satisfied grin, and she frowned. “Stronger than a quill, something I cannot cut something as deep, in a battle, I am a friend you something to keep.”

Alvara rubbed her temple. “Why are you able to translate even less as time goes on?”

He ignored her and studied the flowing script. “It mentions battle and killing, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was some type of weapon. And if I recall correctly, that would be your area of expertise.”

“It’s a sword,” Alvara muttered, gesturing toward the symbol she knew he would throw a wall of earth in front of her to keep her from touching. This one disappeared the same as the last, and now every sailor had gathered around them to watch the proceedings. A few coins passed between hands. “Wait a minute, are they taking bets?”

A thin pillar of earth popped underneath one of the sailor’s hands, and his earnings spilled to the ground.

“I believe this is the last one,” Boden said.

The sailor scrambled for his coins, but the earth gobbled them up, and he let out a long sigh.

Boden continued. “I live something long with no heart to call my own, and I was not formed from blood or bone. My beauty is something, and you will rarely see me smiling.”

There were at least thirty symbols they could choose from, and Alvara had no idea where to start. A flower…or it could also be a tree or even another weapon. Boden conversed with the men, and their chatter stole her concentration. “Are you talking or helping?”

“Remind me to never try having fun solving puzzles with you,” Boden said, pointing his eyes toward the night sky.

“This isn’t supposed to be fun! We’re trying not to fade.” Alvara held back a frustrated growl, tugging on her braids instead.

Another sailor whispered something in Boden’s ear, and he nodded. “Thank you, Hagan. I also believe it’s quite fun.”

Alvara pointed to Hagan, who ducked with wide eyes. “He did not say that!”

“Maybe not. What he did say, after I translated the riddle for them, is that he and the others believe the answer is an elf.”

“An elf?” Living long without a heart, well that would be their long lifespans and what many considered a colder nature. Not formed from blood or bone, could be true as well, since elves existed before the other races and weren’t formed from Vitharen’s body parts. It mentioned beauty and rarely smiling… “Well, that’s rather rude,” Alvara said.

And the drawing of an elf was just as flattering—she had thought it a monster at first. Gangly limbs, giant pointed ears, impossibly long hair, and a frown almost as big as its strangely round face.

“I’ll leave the decision up to you.” Boden waved a hand at the wall of symbols. “We can continue to discuss it or trust the humans’ interpretation. And prejudices,” he added. “Do our ears really look that disastrous?”

“Just do it. It makes more sense the more I think about it,” Alvara grumbled.