Crucible Lanterns Novels & Stories

We got to a door and he opened it. "Let go in." I nodded and followed him inside. "Wow," I gawked as I came to view countless lit lanterns hanging down the ceiling. Their lights illuminated the room so brightly. "What is this?" I asked as I looked around. There was a particular one whose light shinned brighter than the rest. "Each of these lanterns represents the soul of each pack member." "Soul?" I asked in fascination and he nodded. "This one is for Luna Mother. This is for Xena. This is Me and this ridiculously bright one is Akira's."

The door swung open, and the suffocating heat of the corridor spiked instantly, carrying the heavy, toxic scent of burning charcoal and liquid silver. Four elite vanguard warriors strode in, their unsheathed swords held flat against their chests. Behind them came the two medical mages, their faces obscured beneath heavy, ash-gray hoods. Between them, they carried a rolling iron crucible, the white-hot coals inside glowing with an intense, blinding fury that illuminated the damp stone walls in shades of violent orange. Resting inside the coals were the extraction irons—long, heavy silver rods tipped with claw-like rings designed to force a wolf's core into a premature, violent eviction.