There were lots of possible outcomes that came to Lulu's mind when he thought about mad scientist experimentation, and he was proud to confirm that his first thought was absolutely correct. He was bound to a metal bed-table thingy with cuffs on it—for his own "safety," of course, and not for any nefarious means whatsoever.

  *"Is it rude to announce that I'm sorry for my lack of judgement and for wasting your time, old man? Let me go, pretty please."* Lulu really tried to show his best puppy eyes.

  *"Don't be nervous, boy! This is theoretically highly safe, and if everything goes to plan, you’ll come out of this decently more powerful."* Druj tried to calm him, but unfortunately, the excitement in his eyes dampened Lulu’s trust that the man had his safety as a priority. Alas, beggars can’t be choosers.

  *"I always knew you were going to cuff me to a metal bed and do heinous things to me from the moment I saw you, old man. Not a priest, my a—"*

  *"How much time till the start of the ritual, Mr. Druj?"* Beelzebub interjected impatiently.

  *"Everything is ready except my talk with Mr. Lulu and the items I requested. It shouldn’t be that hard to provide welded items, no matter the cost—after all, you’re the beast that feeds us, Beely Boy."* Druj replied with a smug look on his face.

  Lulu was certainly rubbing off on the old man.

  Beelzebub wore the expression of a man who had surpassed his body’s capacity for rage. *"The items will be here by the time you finish your talk with the scum."* He retreated from the room, likely to drink strong alcohol and cry in front of a mirror.

  *"So, what do you know about the progression of magic, my boy?"* Druj asked.

  *"Nothing, except that you need money to do it, and money comes at a terrible price to sanity and time in this economy,"* Lulu replied.

  *"Great social commentary, but not helpful to our predicament. There are infinite ways to gather and store magic, but when it comes to power, you want it to be accessible and useful—not some fancy hunk of crystal. True power was always what you had inside and what you could tether to yourself. That’s a tall order for anyone, but there’s a path to everything, and the path to magic is through Atar. When magic enters your body, it becomes formless and brilliant, like fire. It burns and purifies. It gives warmth and power. You know Ruuin, but you’ve never known Atar."*

  Druj paused, letting his words sink in. *"I’ll be informal with you. In this experiment, an unholy amount of magic will be pumped into your body, and you’ll be the catalyst for its change. There is no clear path to power, but there are steps all must take. Inside you are domes that house the potential to be lit with Atar—these are the Atash. The simplest Atash to ignite is Dadgah, the ‘place of law,’ the fire of the body. It grants different powers to different people, but it always brightens an aspect of you. Normally, you’d need to convert all that Ruuin into Atar and then find your body’s Atash, but there are shortcuts. Using you to convert and disperse this massive amount of Ruuin into Atar is highly likely to ignite your Dadgah."*

  Druj finished his lecture with a deep breath.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Lulu noted, *"So it isn’t all bad for me? If everything goes smoothly, I’ll have a minuscule amount of magic to my name—and maybe I can finally shift."*

  *"If that’s your essence, then yes. It’s hard to predict the specifics of your power, but shifting is who you are. You’ll gain abilities tied to your essence,"* Druj confirmed.

  *"What was your power, old man?"* Lulu asked, curious about what the ‘fire of the body’ might grant him.

  *"Mine is about knowledge and memory. My body remembers everything I’ve done, down to the minutest detail. If I succeed at something once—even by luck—my body retains it, and from then on, none of my attempts are worse than before. Always improving, always finding the answer. That’s who I am."*

  There was a calm in Druj’s voice and face that Lulu admired. He wanted to know himself as deeply as the old man did.

  *"So if I light that fire, I’ll know my body to the fullest?"* Excitement buzzed in Lulu’s skull.

  Druj smiled and raised his eyebrows. *"Look at you, my boy, getting excited over infinite power. That brings me to the second topic. Atar is the fire within, and like external fire, its power is revealed in its color. When fire burns at a low temperature, it’s deep red—healthy, a sign of beginning your journey."* He patted Lulu’s back. *"As you grow, with each new understanding or moment of self-reflection, your Atar warms, shifting to orange, yellow, white, and…"*

  *"Blue,"* Lulu blurted. He knew of legends—people with blue fire in their hearts, monarchs and heroes of Yatu.

  *"There are ways to strengthen your Atar—like absorbing the fire of monsters—but beware. Burn away their intent, or your fire corrupts. A conflicted Atar cannot grow. It must be yours alone."* Druj continued, *"Now, about the experiment: You’ll feel an extraordinary surge of power. The welded items will sustain you, but you must find your Dadgah and channel the energy through your Atash. Fail, and your body will roast from the inside."* His expression turned grave.

  *"Sooo… no takesie-backsies?"* Lulu grinned mischievously.

  Beelzebub flung the door open, another person wheeling in a cart of armor-like items. *"The welded items are ready. Put him to sleep and begin. The Boss is watching—he’s not pleased with delays."*

  Lulu had questions about this "Boss," but his attention snagged on the so-called welded items. They resembled armor, fissured with glowing cracks and canals.

  *"Hey, Mr. Stink—"*

  Beelzebub pressed a hand to Lulu’s forehead, and everything went black.

  *"—bug."* Lulu jolted awake, strapped to the bed, now clad in the strange armor. *"Rude cockroach,"* he muttered.

  *"Ah, you’re awake, my boy! Perfect timing."* Druj buzzed with excitement. *"The ritual begins now. Phase one: Stay calm. Reach inside, find your Atash. Good luck, kid."*

  Lulu’s bed stood on a pedestal carved with impossible, serpentine shapes—cracked and canal-lined like the welded items. Before him, a massive Ruuin crystal sat melting into its own pedestal.

  Druj chanted in an unknown tongue, his voice rising with the temperature:

  *"Yatha Ahu Vairyo* *ātar ashānam vakhsh* *āatarsh izhā vouru-gaoyaoiti!"*

  With each word, heat swelled. Lulu realized the folly of joining a cultist ritual for a tyrannical government.

  The Ruuin crystal liquefied, seeping into the pedestal—then agony. Molten power flooded every centimeter of Lulu’s body. Fire geysered from the armor’s cracks. He was certain he’d explode.

  The pedestal’s serpent glowed, cracked, and slithered to life, coiling around him.

  Druj shook him, shouting, *"Go inside, kid! Find what’s within!"*

  Beyond jokes, beyond fear, Lulu arched under another surge of power.

  He searched desperately for an entry into his own mind—and found it: a canal, glowing like those on his armor. It had always been there, unnoticed until now, under Ruuin’s bombardment.

  He let his consciousness melt into the current.

  The fire speaks truth.

  May fire bind the wide worlds.