"Just then, the mighty warrior Castion dove in, wielding his molten magma sword, and with one huge swipe of his blade he sliced through his foes as if they were piles of ash!" the young underdweller said, leaping into the air and kicking out his legs as if he was the hero in the story he was telling. The childrens' eyes grew wide with awe as he raised the sword over his head to deliver the final blow to his imaginary opponent.

"Syber!" a tall, silver female yelled from across the path. "Be careful where you swing that mighty blade or you might as well end up coring one of the children!"

"Yes, Ma." He indignantly replied, his enthusiasm fizzling out.

"And while you're at it, stop filling their little heads with romanticized views of war or they'll climb up to the surface and end up as husks on the battlefield. You and your need to fight. We're a peaceful community you know!" his mother called back, hands on her hips, her blue eyes sparking with annoyance.

Yes, Ma!" he growled, crossing his arms and doing a crude imitation of her as soon as she turned her back. The children giggled and Syber raised his arms as if summoning a mighty army.

"What's a husk?" One of the children asked eagerly.

"Well,..." Syber said, "A husk is basically a body without a core. You know how we're forged from the fire by our parents? Well, that fire has to be contained and so we are given a metal shell. If the shell gets damaged enough, then our fire that gives us life will basically expand, expand, expand, until...BOOM! And explosion of epic proportion!"

"Eew!" a couple of the kids said in chorus.

"Well, I think it's pretty cool!" Syber replied, leaning on his sword.

"But what happens to the core?" another child, this one with a green metal shell asked.

"It fizzles out. It's not very dramatic after the explosion." Syber said with a shrug.

"So it's gone?" the green one asked with horror in her eyes.

"Yep, basically. It's like if you put water on a spark. No more spark." Syber replied.

"Whoah!" the small group of children all gasped.

Syber smiled, standing tall and looking with pride over his little posse of pupils, his shiny red shell glinting in the light of the magma that ran along the underworld walls. "Well, now, it looks like your parents are showing up. As much as I'd love to keep you up late and tell you more, I think I upset them enough as it is." Syber said. "I'd give all of Mortari to see the surface." he whispered to himself.

Syber walked himself home with a bounce in every step, swinging his sword around and around and whacking it at the occasional light crystal that turned on. When he reached the tunnel his family called home, he heard voices in the main entry. Syber ducked behind the wall, listening in on the conversation.

"That boy is a danger to our society, everything we hold dear! Just listen to the nonsense he's filling our children with! How can you let him run amuck like that?" Mulch, their neighbor screamed in his mother's face. Syber swallowed hard, feeling the fire raging in his chest.

"As much as you don't like him, That BOY is my son! And I've tried everything I can to raise him right but he just has his mind set on the surface." Veltari replied angrily. He could almost feel her wrath radiating through the wall.

"Well you haven't tried hard enough! He's a disgrace to our kind, everything we hold in the balance is already drawn thin, and here your boy is talking about war. It was those same ideals that the insurgents had when they split off from the first generation! He is a disease, no, he is POISON!" Mulch shot back, her green eyes blazing.

"Well, what am I to do with him then? Send him to the surface? You know as much as I that he'll get extinguished!"

"Is your child worth more than all of ours?" Mulch hissed between gritted teeth.

"Yes." Veltari whispered. "To me he is worth the entire world."

"Very well. Then you shall die with him!" Mulch shrieked. "I am calling the council together. I am sure I can persuade them of banishment, or if you like we can have him cored and gutted in the town square."

"Mulch, please! He's my only child! What if the same happened to your little Zoel? Can't you have pity on a fellow mother?" Veltari said, silvery fluid pouring from her eyes.

"Mom..." Syber yelped under his breath, hanging his head in shame. He sank down against the wall and drove his sword into the ground beneath his knees. He knew she couldn't hear him through the wall over the insults that Mulch was shouting at her.

"My child was forged without defect! She would never share the fate of that beast you have brought into the world!" Mulch snapped, storming off in a huff.

"He's perfect to me." Veltari sobbed, crumpling to her knees. She pulled herself up, turned a corner, and found herself looking her son in the eyes. "What did you hear?" Veltari asked him.

"Nothing I haven't heard before." Syber replied, pulling himself up, towering at a foot over his mother's height.

"Oh, Syber!" Veltari sobbed, wrapping her arms around his thin waist.

"Don't cry, mom." Syber said, wiping away her mercury tears. "I'll make things better. I promise."

"I've already lost your father in the mines! I can't lose you too!" she gasped.

"Don't worry, Ma. I'll be fine!" he said, clutching her metal frame in his arms. "And the day I die, Ma, I'll be a hero. I promise. And I promise that you won't have to see that."

"Syber, please! What ever are you planning this time?"

"Well..." He replied. "I was thinking of going to the surface."

"Syber! You'll be gutted alive in the war! You're all I have, you can't do this!" she screamed, holding him tighter.

"They'll gut me here if I stay. It's better if I'm gutted as a hero than as a disgrace. I'll make you proud, Ma. I'll make dad proud too."

"Alright..." she sobbed. "At least say goodbye."

"Okay then. Goodbye, Ma. I won't forget you." He said with a pained smile, pulling back from her embrace.

She couldn't bear to let him go, and as he pulled her arms away from him, she stood back to admire his chiseled frame. He was tall and lanky, with wide armor on his arms and legs and a frame built for speed. His helmet had feather-like fins on the side and a sharp 'V' carved into the piece over his forehead with an orange crystal set in its center. His face was smooth, chiseled from white hot metal, and his eyes blazed with the orange fires within his core.

Syber smiled softly and grabbed a light crystal from the wall of the cave. He stabbed it into his forearm and yanked it out, sparks gushing at the sight of the wound.

"Syber, don't!" Veltari started, as he placed the glowing shard within her hands.

"It's so you can maybe forge another...when I'm gone." He said, mercury beading at the corners of his eyes.

"Syber, please tell me you'll come back!" she whispered, horror stricken.

"I don't know if I will." he said, rubbing the wound on his arm. "But at least, at least maybe my lifeblood can help you forge another. I always wanted a little brother, or maybe a sister. You'll maybe name them after me, to remember, won't you?"

Veltari closed her eyes, mercury tears streaming down the metal of her face. "May all Mortari remember your legacy, Syber of Rintari." she whispered, gazing into his face, the face she had forged with his father in the fires of Art'at. He was her masterpiece, her treasure, her little boy. And she didn't know if he would ever return.

Syber dipped his head in reverence for his mother, before turning out of the tunnel and racing for the surface. He turned one last time, smiling at the silhouette of his mother in the distance of the magma caverns, before he raced up towards the exit tunnel. "I promise I'll make you proud!" he yelled, to nobody in particular.