Warning! All spoilers for previous books in the Cradle Series are UNMARKED!
Now out of Sacred Valley, Lindon and Yerin have to contend with the Desolate Wilds, a massive wilderness filled with monsters, Remnants, and bandits, each and every single one stronger than anything that could possibly be found in Sacred Valley.
After Lindon advances to Copper (and Yerin fights off a group of Lowgold bandits), the pair make their way to the Transcendent Ruins, a great dungeon that recently sprouted from the Wilds. The treasures promised there have drawn many experts, who have gathered into the Five Factions Alliance. Together, they defend the ruins from Remnants and horrific Dreadbeasts, which have been drawn by the impossibly concentrated vital aura of the ruins.
Lindon and Yerin informally ally with the Fishers sect, and Lindon begins to learn soulsmithing, the art of making constructs and weapons, from Fisher Gesha. Jai Long, an exile from the Jai Clan, decides to answer a minor insult by having Lindon stalked and eventually captured, if he can manage it before an Underlord from the Blackflame Empire arrives and steals everything. Lindon is nothing more than a distraction for him—he is far more interested in plundering the ruins and finally gaining the power to strike back against the family that cast him out.
Meanwhile, Eithan, a mysterious man with the power to see everything, becomes very curious about Lindon and Yerin. He is looking for recruits, new disciples to train. And while Yerin as the disciple of the Sword Sage is exactly what he was hoping for, Lindon is a fascinating puzzle on his own. Especially with that strange glass bead in his pocket...
Soulsmith is the second novel in the Cradle Series by Will Wight. It is the second of the Foundation collection.
This novel provides examples of:
- Actually, I Am Him: Eithan is actually the Arelius Underlord that everyone is so terrified of. They've been scrambling to get everything done before he arrives, but he's been in camp for weeks.
- Boom Town: the Five Factions alliance have assembled an entire (ramshackle) town within days of the Transcendent Ruin's emergence, including an outer wall.
- Moral Myopia: Yerin defends herself from an insult by the Sandvipers. The Sandvipers and their Jai allies are insulted by this, and decide to kidnap her weak companion and work him to death in the mines.
- Training from Hell: To help Lindon reach Iron, Eithan locks him in a room for a week, leaving him to fight a never-ending stream of monsters by himself. To complete the transformation, Lindon has to be repeatedly bitten by venomous monsters.
- Practical Currency: "Scales" are pure madra coins. Children can use them to advance to Copper quicker, and they can be used to activate constructs. Mostly, they have the advantage that the vast majority of people no longer have pure madra, meaning they're difficult for one person to gain an advantage by making a bunch all on their own.
