🧭 The Man with the Wrong Idea

In the spring of 1483, when the city of Vardos was already choking on the smell of war, a thin, ink‑stained man walked into the garrison courtyard carrying a weapon everyone laughed at.

His name was Elias Ferrin.

He was:

A blacksmith’s son with more burns on his fingers from experiments than from honest work
A failed apprentice engineer dismissed from the royal foundry for “excessive imagination”
The sort of man who saw a crossbow and thought, What if it could also set the world on fire?

The garrison commander, Captain Jerold Vaas, had only agreed to see him because the city was surrounded.

Vardos was down to:

Half rations
A third of its arrows
And exactly zero good ideas

So when Elias petitioned—twice—to present a “fire‑arrow engine” that could “break a siege in seconds,” the council laughed but Vaas shrugged and said:

“Let the fool in. If we’re going to die, we may as well die entertained.”

🔧 A Crossbow That Shouldn’t Exist

Elias’s contraption, rolled into the courtyard on a crude cart, looked like something a drunk carpenter would deny building.

It had:

The rough shape of an oversized crossbow, but with a thick central spine like a cannon
A bundle of smaller channels clustered under the main bolt rail
Brass and leather tubing fed into a cylindrical tank lashed to the side
A crank, a pump, and a cluster of stopcocks only their maker fully understood

Beneath, a wicker basket held bolts whose tips were wrapped in oil‑soaked cloth, each with a small clay capsule just behind the head.

The soldiers gathered around, smirking.

“I’ve seen better toys at a fair,” one archer snorted.

“Is it supposed to shoot or fall apart first?” another asked.

Commander Vaas folded his arms.

“Well, Master Ferrin,” he said, voice heavy with skepticism. “Show us your miracle.”

Elias licked dry lips.

“In a moment, Captain,” he said. “It’s not a miracle. It’s mechanics. Fire is only chaos until you aim it.”

That earned him another round of laughter.

He ignored it.

His hands moved over the device with an ease that came only from obsession:

He checked the pressure in the tank by tapping a small gauge he’d made from a glass vial and a marked rod.

 

He opened a valve briefly—there was a whispering hiss, then he closed it.

 

He loaded one of his specially prepared bolts into the central groove.

 

He wound the bowstring back with the crank; the thick arms bent, protesting but holding.

At the head of the yard, an old broken wagon had been dragged into place as a target. The wood was damp from last night’s rain.

“Watch the wagon,” Elias said.

An archer chuckled.

“What, will it die of boredom?”

Elias didn’t answer.

He raised the heavy stock, braced it into the pivoting stand he’d built, and sighted down the bolt.

“Fire in a siege is like plague,” he said quietly. “It spreads faster than anyone is ready for.”

His thumb brushed a lever near the trigger; somewhere inside, a small flint sparked against steel.

He squeezed.

The crossbow thumped.

The bolt flew.

For the first fraction of a second, it looked no different from any other shot: a blur, a whistle, a dull thunk as it buried itself in the wagon’s side.

Then the clay capsule behind the head broke.

The chemical mixture inside—oil thickened with resin, quick‑sparking priming powder—met the ember ignited during the shot, carried in a tiny channel along the bolt’s shaft.

The wagon’s side bloomed into flame.

It wasn’t a small, hesitant fire.

It was a hungry, leaping tongue of orange that spread faster than wet wood had any right to burn. The soaked boards hissed, then roared, as the resinous mixture clung and crawled.

Men stepped back, startled.

“That’s not possible,” one whispered.

“Oil and air,” Elias said, voice tight with the strain of not shaking. “Driven in under pressure here—” he tapped the tank “—forced out around the bolt as you loose it. Think of it as… painting the target with fire as the shaft flies. The wind feeds it instead of killing it.”

The wagon, now fully alight, collapsed inward with a crash. Heat washed over the courtyard.

No one laughed this time.

 

 

🥃 Mockery in the Officers’ Hall

That night, Elias found himself summoned to the officers’ hall.

It was a long room with a low ceiling, war maps on the walls, and a permanent smell of spilt ale and sleepless arguments. Seven officers occupied it this evening—Captain Vaas and six of his lieutenants.

On the table in front of them lay one of Elias’s bolts, disassembled, its inner channels and clay capsule exposed. The men had been studying it like a strange animal.

Vaes nodded to him.

“You impressed the boys today,” he said. “Almost set my eyebrows on fire.”

One of the lieutenants, a narrow‑eyed man named Corren, snorted.

“Parlor tricks,” Corren said. “We’re low on oil as it is. You want to waste it on gimmicks?”

Elias kept his eyes on Vaas.

“We’ve been on this wall for six weeks,” he said. “Your archers are down to half their bundles. Their sappers are within twenty yards of your eastern gate. You have two choices, Captain: wait until they come through your doors… or reach out and burn them where they feel safe.”

Another lieutenant— Jory, thick‑necked and perpetually smirking—leaned back in his chair.

“You really think your toy can break a siege?” he asked. “Seven men, seven bows, and we win the war?”

Elias hesitated.

“I think,” he said carefully, “that soldiers in armor, working near tar kettles, pitch stores, and rope, are more flammable than anyone likes to remember.”

They laughed at that—not kindly, but not entirely without nerves.

“Let’s be honest,” Corren said. “The real reason this… artisan is in front of us is not his talent. It’s your desperation, Captain.”

He turned to Elias.

“You’re clever,” he said. “I’ll give you that. You’ve made a toy that burns wagons. But armies aren’t wagons, and our enemy isn’t going to line up politely in front of your contraption and wait to be set aflame.”

The others chuckled.

“You misjudge me, Lieutenant,” Elias said quietly. “The enemy doesn’t have to line up. You do.”

That earned him a sharper look from Vaas.

“You’re a craftsman,” the captain said. “Not a commander.”

“I’m the only man in this city who understands exactly how far this fire can reach,” Elias replied, temper pricking through his fear. “And I’m telling you: seven engines on the wall, aimed at their officers’ cluster around the siege towers, will do more in twenty seconds than your catapults have done in two weeks.”

The room went silent before the laughter.

Then Jory burst out, “Seven engines? That beast in the yard took three men to wheel and nearly crushed the ramp. You want to fill my battlements with those?”

“We can strip the frames,” Elias said quickly. “Remove the cart, mount them on fixed swivels over the main gate. I’ve already drawn—”

“Enough,” Corren snapped. “We’ll not take orders from a blacksmith’s brat.”

He stood abruptly, walking around the table to where Elias stood.

“You come in here,” Corren said, breath scented with ale, “with your smoke and your little tricks, and you want us to stake the city on it? On you?”

He jabbed a finger at Elias’s chest.

“You’re not a soldier,” he sneered. “You’re a tinker who got lucky with some pitch.”

Elias’s mouth went dry.

“The enemy doesn’t care who I am,” he said. “Only what reaches them.”

Corren grinned, ugly and mean.

“Then here’s what we’ll do,” he said. “Tomorrow at dawn, you’ll bring your… ‘fire arrow’ thing to the western bastion. We’ll give you a proper audience. If you can hit where you say, if you can actually do more than turn wagons into torches, then maybe we’ll listen. If not…”

He let the threat hang.

“We can always use more hands hauling stones,” Jory said. “Or bodies.”

The other officers laughed.

Vaes didn’t.

He just looked at Elias in a way that said: I’m not sure if you’re a fool or a savior. But either way, I’ve run out of everything but chances.

“Dawn,” the captain said. “Don’t be late.”

🧱 The Enemy Below the Walls

The dawn was a smudge of gray over the siege camp.

From the western bastion, Elias could see:

The enemy’s tents in ragged lines
The skeletal frames of siege towers half‑built
The trail of smoke from cooking fires
The glint of armor where officers moved among the men

Closer—far too close—were the siege works:

A thick, angled ramp of packed earth and timber pushing toward the wall
Teams of sappers in leather hoods and breastplates, half‑hidden behind shields
Large pitch casks stacked near their work, ready for the final assault

Seven officers had gathered behind Elias on the wall, just as promised.

Corren, Jory, and five others, fully armored, cloaks tight against the chill. They watched him assemble the device on its new mount: a stripped‑down version of the crossbow, bolted into an iron swivel that allowed for vertical and horizontal movement.

Corren was already bored.

“Make it quick,” he said. “We’ve patrols to send and a war to fight.”

Elias’s hands shook as he checked the pressure tank. He had been up all night in the forge, thinning the frame, reinforcing the bow arms, recalibrating the pump.

His mind buzzed with calculations:

Range versus spread
Wind direction (slight, from the south)
The distance to the pitch casks
The time it would take for the enemy to react

“One demonstration,” he said. “Aim where I say. No interruptions.”

“Just shoot your toy,” Jory muttered.

Elias shut everything else out.

He loaded three bolts into the adjusted channels this time—shorter, lighter, designed to fire in a tight triangular spread. The tank hummed faintly as he worked the pump.

He sighted along the stock, ignoring his heart’s thudding.

Below, near the siege ramp, a knot of enemy officers had formed around a table of their own, gesturing at the wall, at the plans, at the place where, in a few days, they expected to break through.

Behind them, four tar and pitch casks sat in a row.

Elias whispered to himself, more prayer than equation.

“Angle… sixty‑five degrees… wind from south, so adjust two hands to the left…”

“Any day now,” Corren said.

Elias exhaled slowly.

“Fire arrow engine… ready,” he said.

He pulled the trigger.

🔥 The Moment It All Went Wrong (and Right)

The engine kicked against its mount, a deep thrum like a short, angry drumbeat. Three bolts screamed from the rail in a fan.

To the officers watching, the effect was underwhelming.

“That’s it?” Jory scoffed. “Three arrows? I’ve seen—”

He didn’t finish.

At ground level, the real show began.

The bolts, each trailing an invisible sheath of atomized oil and priming powder, cut through the chilly air like glowing brushstrokes no one could see.

The first bolt struck a pitch cask near its base.

The second tore into the wooden support beside it.

The third hit the earth just shy of the officer’s cluster, its head sinking into the mud—but the spray kissed everything in front of it.

For one breath, nothing happened.

Then all three impact points erupted.

There was no gentle catching flame, no dignified rise of smoke.

It was an instant sheet of fire.

The first cask exploded outward, showering the officers and nearby soldiers in sticky, flaming pitch. The second went a heartbeat later, then the third, then the flames leapt greedily to nearby ropes, shields, and hair.

Men became torches.

Seven officers, gathered so confidently around their plans, found themselves at the center of a blooming inferno. Their cloaks, treated with oil against the damp, went up like paper.

They didn’t die like heroes.

They:

Stumbled
Screamed
Slapped at their own burning flesh
Collided with each other in a blind panic

One tried to run for the ramp; he slipped in burning pitch and rolled, leaving a trail of fire where he passed.

Another tore off his breastplate, the metal now an oven around his chest, but his gambeson beneath was alight.

The soldiers around them broke.

Some fled.

Some tried to help and caught fire themselves.

Some simply froze, eyes wide, as their leaders burned alive in seconds, turned into shrieking silhouettes no human could watch without flinching.

The fire spread to the siege ramp’s wooden supports.

Flames raced along the beams and up the tower frames like they’d been waiting for this.

Within moments, the carefully packed earth and timber of the ramp began to crack and slump as its structure charred and collapsed.

On the wall, nobody laughed.

One of the younger officers vomited over the parapet.

Corren’s face had gone a grayish white.

“What… what did you put on those bolts?” he asked hoarsely.

“Air,” Elias said numbly. “Air, oil, and a spark. The air does the rest.”

“That’s not…” Jory swallowed hard. “…that’s not war. That’s witchcraft.”

Below, a man stumbled out of the heart of the blaze, armor molten in places, skin unrecognizable. He made it three steps before collapsing.

The screams carried even to the wall.

Elias’s stomach lurched.

He had spent months dreaming in diagrams and mixtures, thinking of angles and distances.

He had not, somehow, really thought of this.

Seven officers.

An entire command knot, erased in heartbeats.

The enemy camp convulsed, suddenly leaderless in that sector. Men ran in every direction that wasn’t fire.

On the wall, a sentry—a simple soldier, not one of the mocking officers—stared at Elias with a mixture of awe and horror.

“You just took their head,” he whispered.

Elias’s hands shook.

“We just started something no one can put back,” he said.

📜 The Price of a New Weapon

Two hours later, the western siege works were a charred ruin.

The enemy pulled back beyond bowshot, dragging wounded and smoldering wreckage. Their advance on that side of the city was broken—for now.

The council of Vardos was jubilant.

“We have a new weapon!” shouted the Chancellor. “A divine gift!”

In the courtyard, soldiers slapped Elias on the back, called him “Fire‑Maker,” begged to see the engine up close.

Not all of them.

Some, especially the older ones, looked at the blackened plain and then at him with something colder than fear.

Captain Vaas found him sitting alone in the forge yard, staring at his burned hands. Tiny blisters had risen where stray heat had licked his skin.

“You did what you said you would,” Vaas said. “You broke the siege line.”

Elias didn’t look up.

“I watched them burn,” he said flatly. “I heard them.”

Vaes sank onto the bench beside him.

“You’ve made arrows fly farther, cannons hit harder,” the captain said. “You think you invented death today? Those men were going to die one way or another. You gave us a chance to live instead.”

“That’s not what they’ll say,” Elias replied.

Vaes frowned.

“Who?”

“Anyone who wants one of these,” Elias said. “Kings. Warlords. Every petty lord with a wall to defend or take. They’ll want this.” He gestured vaguely toward the wall, toward the still‑drifting smoke. “They’ll want to burn their enemies from a safe distance. No risk. No courage. Just… levers and pressure.”

He looked at Vaas finally.

“And some of them won’t have a siege on their doorstep,” he said. “They’ll have a village. Or a riot. Or a crowd of people they want gone.”

Vaes’s jaw tightened.

“You think too far ahead for your own comfort,” he said.

“It’s the only way I know how to think,” Elias whispered.

The captain studied him.

“You gave us breathing room,” Vaas said. “The enemy’s in chaos. Our scouts say they’ve lost half their officers on the western flank. It might give their king pause. That matters.”

Elias nodded, because it was true.

It also felt like stepping onto ice he’d just cracked himself.

🕳 The Offer in the Cellar

That evening, as celebrations rumbled through the safer parts of the city, Elias was called—not to the officers’ hall—but to a narrow stone cellar beneath it.

Two guards led him down.

Inside, he found:

Captain Vaas
The Chancellor
A stranger in fine traveling clothes, cloak still dusted with road dirt

The stranger’s eyes were sharp, taking in Elias’s burns, his posture, his every twitch.

“This is him?” the man asked.

“Yes,” the Chancellor said proudly. “Elias Ferrin. The Fire‑Maker of Vardos.”

The stranger smiled thinly.

“I am Marshal Deren,” he said. “Envoy of the King.”

He didn’t say which king. He didn’t have to.

“The Crown has heard what happened on your wall this morning,” Deren said. “We are… intrigued.”

Elias swallowed.

“I built it for Vardos,” he said. “To break this siege.”

Deren’s smile widened a notch.

“And you succeeded,” he said. “Admirably. The question now is: does your genius end at one city’s stone… or is it of use to the realm at large?”

Elias didn’t answer.

Deren continued.

“The King is prepared to offer you patronage,” he said. “A workshop of your own in the capital. Assistants. Funding. Protection. In return, you will build fire‑arrow engines for the royal army. Improve them. Standardize them.”

He spoke of it like ordering cloaks.

Behind him, the Chancellor beamed.

“Imagine it, Ferrin,” he said. “Your name in every ledger. Your design in every fortress. No more being ignored, or mocked, or turned away from the foundry doors.”

Elias thought of the officers laughing in the hall.

He thought of them screaming on the ground.

“Your weapon could end wars quickly,” Deren added. “Who would dare lay siege to a city that can burn officers alive before breakfast?”

Elias heard the unspoken flipside:

Who would dare oppose a king who could do the same to his own people?

He wiped his palms on his trousers.

“And if I say no?” he asked.

The room cooled.

Vaes shifted, uncomfortable.

“The King does not force service,” Deren said smoothly. “But he also cannot allow such knowledge to wander unguarded into the world. If you choose obscurity over glory, then… we will make sure obscurity is all you have.”

“You’d lock me away,” Elias said.

“Or keep you here, very safe within these walls,” Deren replied. “With no forge. No tools. No audience. For the rest of your days.”

Elias looked at Vaes.

The captain’s eyes said: I don’t like this either. But this is the shape of the world.

“You’ve given us something that cannot be unseen,” Vaes said quietly. “Now you have to decide who watches you use it.”

⚖️ The Choice by the Furnace

Later that night, Elias stood alone in the forge.

The fire’s glow painted the walls orange. Tools hung in their familiar places. The fire‑arrow engine’s frame sat in the corner, still smelling faintly of smoke and burned oil.

He laid his hand on it.

This thing—these pipes, this bow, this tank—had changed the course of a siege and possibly a kingdom in seconds.

He had wanted respect. A place at the table. Proof that his ideas were worth more than mockery.

Now he had the attention of a king.

He also had the certainty that if he refused, his own creation would be used without him, in cruder, crueler ways.

Weapons don’t un‑invent themselves.

He took a deep breath, felt the air in his lungs like a clock ticking.

In the echo of the burning officers’ screams, another sound threaded through his memory:

The scorn in Corren’s voice.

The laughter of the lieutenants.

They had mocked him, dismissed him, promised him stone‑hauling duty if he failed.

He hadn’t failed.

He had given them the fire they didn’t understand.

And it had eaten them.

A small, dark corner of him whispered:

They deserved it.

A larger, equally dark part answered:

But the next seven might not.

He picked up a hammer.

If he smashed the engine now—shattered the pipes, destroyed the tank, burned the plans—would that change anything? The officers had seen enough to describe it. The king’s men would pry at the wreckage anyway. Given time and fear, someone else would stumble onto the same idea.

He realized something then that made his fingers go cold:

His choice wasn’t whether this weapon existed.

His choice was whether someone with a conscience had a hand on its reins.

He put the hammer down.

🧭 A Different Kind of War

At dawn, Elias returned to the cellar.

Marshal Deren was waiting, as if he had never moved.

“Well?” Deren asked. “Have you decided, Master Ferrin?”

Elias met his gaze.

“I’ll come,” he said. “I’ll build your engines. But with conditions.”

Deren’s eyebrows rose.

“Conditions?” he repeated. “You misunderstand your position.”

“No,” Elias said softly. “I understand it perfectly. You can lock me away and try to hire some other man to reproduce my work. It will take him years, and he may never get it right. Or you can accept that I know its smallest moods and obeys. That gives me value. Value gives me a little room.”

Deren studied him thoughtfully.

“I’m listening,” he said.

Elias exhaled.

“I will design these weapons so they require special fuel mixtures I control,” he said. “Ratios only I know. Without them, they will be less than what you saw yesterday. Perhaps nothing at all.”

Deren’s face remained unreadable.

“And your conditions?” he asked.

“You do not deploy them inside the borders of the kingdom without my presence,” Elias said. “No burning peasant uprisings from a safe distance. No ‘accidental’ fires in rival noble’s estates. I will not turn my work on civilians.”

Deren smiled faintly.

“You overestimate a craftsman’s say in matters of state,” he said.

Elias’s voice didn’t tremble.

“You overestimate your ability to manage a weapon you don’t understand,” he replied. “You want fire that thinks? You need the man who taught it to.”

The silence stretched.

Then Vaes spoke, unexpectedly.

“He has a point, Marshal,” the captain said. “This is not a catapult you can hand any idiot with a rope. You saw the precision. The timing. If he sabotages a batch out of spite, you won’t know until your own men are standing in the wrong place.”

Deren drummed his fingers on his belt.

“You’re asking for an ethical leash around a weapon the King wants unleashed,” he said.

“I’m asking you to think ahead,” Elias replied. “An army that burns its own people loses more than battles. It loses fear. And once fear is gone, even kings fall.”

That, finally, gave Deren pause.

He was not a moral man, but he was a calculating one.

“Very well,” he said at last. “We will draft terms. You will oversee production. And the Crown will… consider your recommendations for deployment.”

It wasn’t a promise.

But it was a crack in the door.

Sometimes that’s all an engineer needs.

🔥 The Legend of the Fire‑Arrow Crossbow

Years later, stories about that morning on Vardos’s western wall would spread far beyond the city.

They changed in retelling:

Some said the crossbow spat dragons’ breath.
Others swore Elias Ferrin had made a pact with a fire demon.
In taverns, the number of officers burned grew from seven to seventy to an entire regiment that vanished in smoke.

What stayed the same was the shape of the tale:

They mocked a man’s impossible weapon.
They laughed at his “fire arrows.”
And then, in the space of a single breath, his contraption turned a ring of armored officers into candles guttering in the dirt.

In some kingdoms, the story was told as a warning:

“Treat engineers kindly, or they might remember how to aim.”

In others, it was an inspiration:

“Somewhere out there, there’s a weapon that can break any wall.”

In the capital, in a guarded workshop under royal seal, Elias Ferrin worked among pipes and plans, trying to build fire that could also be restrained.

He carried, like a burn that never quite healed, the memory of seven men screaming.

He also carried the moment just before:

When the officers had stood, smug and safe, certain the world they understood would go on forever.

His fire‑arrow engine had shattered that certainty.

Not just for them.

For everyone.

Because once you’ve watched a weapon erase an entire command circle in seconds, you never look at a crossbow—or the man who built it—the same way again.