After spending a few minutes proudly looking upon my work, I gave a simple nod to no one and placed Tali’s former work off to the side, leaving my now empowered blade front and center on the workbench. I smiled a bit at the small gesture, then exited the room, closing the door firmly behind me for no real reason other then a personal preference and a feeling of security. I liked having doors closed, because it theoretically, at least if I didn’t think about the many possibilities, that no one would be getting through. Though, those possibilities would come to haunt me from time to time, in due course with most everything my mind would conjure up.
This train of thought soon led me to the training room, the door of which was still ajar. I’d thought I’d closed it after doing some actual training yesterday afternoon, but considering the haste of which I’d left the moment the sun had set, it seemed more then plausible I’d left it open. I moved to the door, moving to close it, grabbing the knob…before stopping. I should do a few simple exercises. I’d done them consistently for months now, and it seemed a shame to break my streak over something as silly as being beaten half to death by a mage. I pulled the door open and moved inside the room.
I wasn’t expecting the person hiding behind the door, and so they seized a bit of an upper hand. Reaching out and grabbing my shoulder, and flinging me towards the wall. I connected with the wall, but managed to bounce back, and after ducking into a roll over the overhead punch I jumped for the side of the room, grabbing a dagger off the wall and sizing up my attacker as I continued to back off, careful to keep my eyes on them. Humanoid, clad in black armor, and face covered by a hood. Muscular, at least, and with a strong stature. They moved to take cover behind some of my training equipment, I went through. They didn’t know the room like I did, which played into my hands perfectly. Moving for the center of the collected hanging bags, ropes and other equipment, I had a good view of the rest of the room, just as they reached the opposite corner, I threw the dagger in my hand, with as much strength as I could muster in my wounded state. To my somewhat surprise, they didn’t dodge, instead, they reached out a hand and simply caught the blade, before casually tossing aside. Prick.
I moved out from the center, grabbing another weapon, this one a mace I’d been given awhile back by an unaware, but well meaning friend. This weapon, specifically, and the one I’d just thrown, had at the very least, some magic.
Awhile back, I’d experimented with a few other weapons before moving onto my very valuable sword. Three daggers, a mace, a small axe, and a whip. The whip hadn’t survived the process, but the others had, with some minor sigils. I’d used these weapons for both testing, and more unorthodox stuff. The daggers were explosive, keyed to detonate with a trigger word. But, as I still wasn’t keen on burning my house down, they weren’t really an option. The mace had a modified strength sigil, meant to emphasize impact. It hadn’t worked fully, and was unstable. The axe had speed on it, but I’d tried a bit of an artistic liberty, and weaved in a bit of protection. Capable of making quickly made, but easily broken shields. The problem was, that it was on the other side of the room. With the failed whip, I’d tried something with combining water and speed, and it had failed. The weapon split apart, waterlogged and useless.
For now, though, I had the mace, and theoretically a hail marry in the form of the explosive daggers. But I really didn’t want to burn my house down. My opponent thankfully, seemed to be playing defensive, which gave me options. I opted for the one which would get me results the fastest, which was running straight at my enemy. Predictably, they dodged, so I didn’t bother swinging. I’d probably only get one shot with the mace, or at least only one shot I’d want to take before it could cause serious damage to my reserves, myself, or my property. So I too, played defensively as we once again ended up in a stalemate.
This didn’t last long, as they soon ran at me. I resisted the urge to swing, as they were moving a little too fast, but that became harder when they landed a quick kick to my chest and sent me sprawling. I lost grip of the mace and hit the ground. Of all the times not to be wearing me armor. As I laid there, briefly stunned, I barely saw them grab the dagger I’d thrown, and stalk towards me. I weighed my options.
I could say the trigger word, and detonate the dagger in their hands. It would probably take off their hand, and buy me time. But again, house burning down. Then again, I couldn’t exactly worry about my house burning down if I was dead. My second option was to grab the mace at the last possible moment, wait till they were close, and swing.
Confident I could pull it off, I chose the latter option. They got close, ready to throw the dagger for a lethal blow, when I grabbed the mace, sat upright just enough for it to count, and swung, hard. The mace connected, I poured as many of my active reserves into it as I could, and the sigil flared violently, the weapon shaking in my hands as it made contact with the enemy.
The black armored individual was sent flying with an audible crack, through the air several feet, before connecting with the wall and likely damaging the wall with the force of their body. The mace, meanwhile, vibrated slightly, and the sigil waxed and waned with light. Almost sparking. I put it to the side, gingerly, and withdrew some of my reserves. I saw the crack down it’s side and visibly winced. I hoped that was something I could repair easily. But, I realized I had other worries then that weapon. I kicked the dagger to be close to the feet of the assailant.
“Don’t move. The sigil on there is explosive, and if you try anything, I’ll blow it. Who are you, who sent you, why did you try to kill me”
No response for a few seconds, then a small laugh. My gaze sharpened, and the laughter stopped, before they began to speak a few seconds later.
“I’m going to remove my hood. Is that alright?”
Their voice was more masculine, deeper, but with some edge to it.
“Do it slowly.”
And slowly they did, revealing a human man with a grizzled looking face, scars dotting it, and eye colors which didn’t match.
“Well, at least I know I have the right guy” He commented, wry smile on his face. “When Noctis sent me to track down some Sigilist who managed to fight off Tali, I knew you wouldn’t be a pushover, but still. Nice moves. Wasn’t expecting that mace.”
I glared. Noctis. Of course.
“You’re here to kill me then? Get revenge?” I said, accusingly, tempted to just say the trigger word on the dagger right then, but I decided to have a bit of patience.
“No, no. Still abiding by the truce, for the most part. I’m just a messenger, to let you know a couple things. That’s all. They’re slightly threatening, but I, here, mean you no harm. You have my word on that.”
“And what does your word mean, exactly, traitor.” I nearly spat my words.
“I’m just gonna give you the messages. Firstly, and slightly obviously, we know where you live. It won’t be long before we know plenty more about you too. So standard warning, don’t fuck with us, we’ll end you when we end the Kingdom, yada yada, you get it. Second warning, and more importantly. Those people you met last night, that helped you deal with Tali and the rest of our forces there? You shouldn’t associate with them. Bad news.”
My glare soon turned into a squint. I was a bit curious about them, in honesty, but not enough to want to deal with Noctis…but while I had a knowledgeable agent fully at my mercy and practically a hostage, it would be ignorant and stupid not to take advantage of it. “Why shouldn’t I? They seem to be against you, and you’re the enemy. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, as they put it”
The man sighed, as if formulating an answer, before speaking with a bit more of a serious voice “They aren’t affiliated with the Kingdom as far as we can tell. Loose cannons, currently on your side, but I doubt they’ll stay that way. We haven’t been able to divine much on who exactly they are, only that they’ve killed a lot of people, are incredibly powerful, on par with Tali, Frah and other heavy hitters and Noctis, and this isn’t the first time they’ve intervened in a conflict. We don’t know where else they’ve been, but I can’t imagine there were many left to tell the tale, based on what we’ve seen. They’re merciless, don’t follow the rules of this engagement, and seem rather callous as a whole. Just stay away. For your own good.”
I frowned a bit, at that. He didn’t seem to be lying, with a fairly serious expression. “Why tell me this? If these guys are so dangerous, and I’m your enemy, why not just let me die? Seems counterproductive to your own strategy.” I said, confident in my words in that instance. It didn’t make much sense.
The man seemed to sigh, hanging his head slightly. “Tali wanted you to know. He told me to tell you that he still had hope for you not to waste your chance. And he’s right, you know. Sigilists, hells, magi in general are hard to come by. Don’t get killed. That’s all I have to say. I’ll let you think on the rest. Mind if I leave now?” He asked, calmly, almost insultingly to me at least.
I shook my head. “No. Why should I let you leave? I gain nothing, and a potential chance to take out an enemy or get more information out of you is lost.”
Another sigh. “How about a trade. I’ll give you a magical trinket of mine, and my name for information purposes, and you let me leave?”
“What sort of trinket?” I asked, crossing my arms.
He slowly reached into a pouch at his belt, and pulled out an orb made of glass. Inside the glass was what looked like a mote of light. Looking more closely, I saw that the glass was engraved, with some sort of sigil I didn’t recognize.
“I got it off a wager when I was in the army. Supposedly summons a decently strong creature when you throw it out and break it. Didn’t get a straight answer from the guy on whether it would obey me, so that, and my general skill at not getting into too tricky of situations without an out made me not use it. I promise you it’s not a trap, at least. I trust the guy I got it from.”
I considered…a useful tool…and Sigilists were supposed to be collectors of trinkets and the like…and this mans life likely wasn’t worth that much to Noctis if he was sent here…
“Fine. Hand over the trinket, give me your name, and you can go.”
He smiled at me, rolling the orb towards my feet, where I carefully picked it up without taking my eyes off him. “The names Shale. Shale Ralan. Look me up at the army office, and you’ll see what makes me tick. Or don’t.” He said, shrugging, before slowly going to stand. “Show me to the door, would you?” He said, smirking a bit. I in turn, scowled, and led him by the arm to the door of my home, opening the door for him.
“I hope we meet again, Acuzio.” He said with what seemed an actual friendly smile, then quickly closing the door before I could ask him how he knew my name. I sighed, before moving to sit down nearby. Still exhausted, my mind going a mile a minute.
I had plenty of things to consider.
Kindling And Miscellany 