Diamantine (Weapons and Wielders Book 2)

by Andrew Rowe

  She jumped back and successfully avoided it, but that had put her on the defensive, and I didn’t give her a moment to rest. I swung Dawnbringer at her, turning the blade at the last second to strike her arm with the flat of the blade.

  She grunted on the impact, pushing the blade aside, and came in with a clawed swipe at my chest. It tore a gouge in my tunic and left a bleeding trail across my chest.

  Body of Stone.

  I grabbed her arm as she moved to retreat, holding her in place, and tried to smash her with Dawnbringer’s pommel.

  She turned into her spirit form again, both escaping my grip and causing my swing to miss. Then, she solidified again almost immediately, hitting me with her second claw.

  Her claw left another gouge, proving sharp enough to injure me even with Body of Stone active. I grunted, swiping my off-hand across her face.

  Burn.

  A blast of flame exploded in front of her eyes, momentarily blinding her. I made certain to control the flames enough that they wouldn’t actually burn her directly.

  That helped less than I’d hoped. She started swinging wildly, clipping me twice before I fell back on the defensive.

  I tried to dodge to her side while she was blind, but I ended up stumbling over her tail. I hadn’t even seen her form one; she was getting faster with her transformations every day.

  “Ow! Quit stepping on me!” She swiped at me blindly again, and I grabbed her arm again. This time, I yanked forward, bringing a knee up into her chest.

  That knocked the wind out of her, and she spent the next several seconds coughing. I caught her before she fell over.

  “Round is over,” I said.

  “Bah.” She rubbed at her eyes. “Stop blinding me. It’s irritating.”

  “It’s the only way I’m managing to hold my own against you. Sorry.” I winced and inspected the cuts on my chest. None of them were deep, pieces of my shadeweave tunic were already moving to seal the injuries.

  The tunic was the only reason I’d accepted training with this degree of intensity. Without it, the wounds Reika was giving me might have been dangerous. Fortunately, the enchanted tunic provided me with both basic protection against her claws and the means to recover much more quickly from any injuries she caused.

  Reika and I sat down under the cover of a nearby tree while her vision recovered. I sheathed Dawnbringer and disabled my Body of Stone spell.

  “Water,” she groaned.

  I passed her my waterskin. She took a drink, poured some over her face, then passed it back to me. I took a drink.

  “Okay,” I said. “What do we want to work on improving?”

  “Mostly spirit magic stuff for me. I’m getting a lot better at it, both from the temple and because of my new spirit bond. Beyond that, I’m going to keep practicing partial transformations. I want to get to the point where I can put part of my body in the spirit form without the rest.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Would that work? Wouldn’t your blood start flowing out of you or something?”

  “Don’t know until I try it. But don’t worry, I’ll just try to make a hand incorporeal first or something. Nothing vital.”

  “Maybe start with one finger? Or, like, a small part of a finger?”

  She rubbed at her eyes again. “Fine, fine. You’re such a worrier.”

  “A degree of caution is necessary when you fight powerful enemies regularly. Anyway, I think your idea has a lot of potential, if you can actually get it to work. You could let a sword go through part of you, then punch someone with a still-solid arm.”

  “That’s the idea.” Reika grinned. “What about you?”

  “Speed.” I grunted. “It’s never been my area of focus, but now it has to be my top training priority. I have a reach advantage on you, but you can close the distance so quickly that it barely matters. And you’re not the only one I need to worry about.”

  I was thinking back to my fights against Velas, both the real version and the fake that I’d fought against in the Shrine of Bravery.

  Velas had always been able to beat me at speed, and I’d relied on strength and sorcery to work around it. Fighting a copy version of her that wasn’t holding back had made it evident that my existing abilities wouldn’t be sufficient if she ever tried to fight me with the intent to kill.

  And Velas wasn’t the only case where I’d run into problems with faster attacks and opponents. Zenkichi had been able to grab my sword easily. If he’d known what the Sae’kes could do, he likely could have dodged it without difficulty.

  I couldn’t count on future opponents making the same mistake that Zenkichi had.

  Reika put on a contemplative face. “How are you going to train for speed? Isn’t that something you’d just get better at through regular exercise?”

  “Sure, but that’s a gradual process. I need to find a way to improve my speed drastically in a short period of time. I have two methods in mind.”

  “Two?”

  I nodded. “The first and most important is that I need to strengthen my bond with Dawn.”

 

  No, but the fact that our bond seems to be enhancing some of my abilities is an added benefit.

 

  Oh, you want me to use you as a butter knife?

 

  So, you just want to be slathered in butter. That’s a little strange, but I’ll try not to judge you for it.

 

  Let’s see... I think your spell reflection ability is very impressive?

 

  Reika couldn’t hear the conversation, but she often paused while I mentally conversed with Dawn. Apparently my expression changed in a way that made it obvious what I was doing...which was probably a bad thing in the long run, if it turned into a tell that my enemies could use against me.

  After we’d stopped, Reika pointed at the new mark on my hand that had appeared when Dawnbringer and I had agreed to our contract.

  “You think that makes you faster?” She asked.

  I nodded. “I definitely feel a little faster already, and I find it easier to focus. If what Dawn tells me is accurate—”

 

  “—her aura should also be giving me some degree of general magical resistance now.”

  Reika nodded. “That last part I knew about, but I never heard anything about speed or mental clarity advantages. But I never learned everything she could do — Dad died before he could teach me all of it. And given that she’s sentient now, it’s possible she’s even learning new things.”

 

  She means new combat abilities, Dawn.

 

  I rolled my eyes. “Anyway, I’ve always gotten a bit better at things just by training with magical items. Most people seem to get some benefit out of that, but it’s always been unusually helpful to me.”

  “Or harmful,” Reika pointed out. “Like with that destructive essence bleeding into you from your other sword.”

  I winced. “Yeah. That.”

  “Sorry, didn’t mean to be negative. It’s just interesting to me how strong of connections you seem to form with weapons. Maybe that’s a unique type of magic?”

  I shrugged. “I’m not certain. It might be a consequence of being bonded to the Sae’kes at a very young age. Maybe that helps me bond to other items more easily, sort of like how learning languages at a young age can help you learn others later.”

  I had some other ideas on why I could pick up item abilities so easily, but I didn’t tell Reika. Not yet.

  Reika gave me an odd look. “I suppose...but wouldn’t that apply to
other people with similar items? I’ve never heard about the Edrian royal family getting magic from other items, and they form bonds with Diamantine during childhood.”

  I blinked. “Wait, really? Does that mean multiple people can have a bond with Diamantine at the same time?”

  Reika nodded. “Yep. They all get the mark on their body, like that one on your hand.”

  I pondered that, absently rubbing at my hand. “How much do you know about bonds like this?”

  “I’m not an expert, but I know a bit. The Six Sacred Swords are all what are called spirit-bonded items. They’re exactly what they sound like; they can bond with your spirit, causing both you and the weapon to grow stronger over time. The mark for Dawnbringer is symbolic, with the circles representing Strength, Insight, and Bravery.”

  “Hm. How common of knowledge is that?”

  Reika shrugged. “No idea. The things my father taught me were important for a guardian of a sacred sword, but I don’t know if they’re the sort of thing taught to kids in classrooms. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s probably not common knowledge, except maybe to climbers or other people with a specific interest in ancient magic. I don’t think normal Enchanters can make spirit-bonded items.”

  “You said the bond can potentially get stronger over time — what does that entail?”

  “I’m less certain about that.” Reika frowned. “Dad didn’t tell me a lot about it, and my books were pretty vague. It’s possible you’ll get access to more abilities, like reaching a higher level with an attunement, but I don’t really know.”

  I considered that. “Does that mean the mark might change in appearance, or give me a different colored aura of some kind?”

  “No idea. It might be a good way to fake having an attunement if it does work like that, though. Right now anyone who looks at us with a standard Detect Aura spell is going to be able to tell we don’t have attunements, and that’s going to be suspicious if and when we decide to throw magic around.”

  That...sounded bad. “Is there any way around that?”

  “Maybe. High level attuned can suppress their shroud, so we could pretend to be really strong. It might not fool everyone, though. Your mask is a good excuse, since it blocks detection magic. You might not want to wear that in the arena, though.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Why not?”

  “Couple reasons. First off, it could throw off the ability for people to observe you properly during the match and upset the judges. Second, it’s practically screaming that you have a secret, and that will make the people with resources want to look into it more. I think you’ll be better off going without the mask in the city, unless you really need it.”

  I gave her a nod. I’d have to consider that, but she had some good points. “The mask might not even be allowed in the arena, if they use divination magic at all.”

  “Yeah, that’s true. We’ll have to check the rules when we get there.”

  I nodded. “We should still look into getting you one as well, in case we need to do anything like leave the city quickly.”

  “Doubt we can afford one.” She sounded sad. “We’re not exactly wealthy.”

  “True. We’ll have to figure out some ways to raise some money while we’re in town.” I jumped back a subject. “If I wanted to make my bond with Dawn stronger, how would I go about doing that?”

 

  I snorted.

  Not that kind of bond, Dawn. I mean the spirit bond.

 

  Reika waited for a moment, either thinking or realizing that I was chatting with Dawn. She was getting pretty good at figuring out when I was distracted. “I can’t say for certain. Most spirit-bonding items aren’t sapient like she is. In most cases, the answer is just ‘use it a lot’, and the bond will get stronger, much like an attunement would. I don’t know if that’ll work with Dawn or not, though.”

  I nodded. “Worth trying. I’ll try to get some exercise with her every day.”

 

  How do you even get tired? You don’t have muscles and stuff.

 

  That’s...a little weird, but okay.

 

  True.

  “Oh, back to an earlier topic.” Reika waved at my hand again. “Every sword has a specific sigil like that. We can probably identify other wielders if we notice them.”

  “How do we tell them apart from attunement marks?” I asked.

  “I’ll find the symbols in one of my books later, and we’ll have to memorize what they all look like.”

 

  I am not your territory, Dawn.

 

  I ignored Dawn for the moment. “Okay. We’ll learn the other marks and keep an eye out for them. And if any of them look different from the original symbols, that might be an indication that they improve over time like attunements do. The Edrian royalty might be a good place to start, if they form life-long connections with Diamantine.”

  “That’s true.” Reika gave the mark an appraising look. “Also, since this bond works similar to an attunement, it might mean you’re capable of getting normal attunements, too.”

  I could follow her logic, but I didn’t necessarily agree. “I’m not sure about that. I’ve seen other magical marks before, and they don’t all work exactly the same way. For example, some dominion marks work on humans, but some don’t. And when they don’t work, they can cause some really awful side effects.”

  Reika shrugged. “Sure, but it’s one more piece of information, at least.”

  “Yeah. That’s true. And if it does end up behaving like an attunement and visually changing as it gets stronger, that might be more evidence that they’re related somehow.”

  “We could ask Anabelle Farren about it when we visit her, since apparently she has something to do with attunement research,” Reika suggested.

  “Good idea.” I nodded. “And even if the mark itself doesn’t get stronger, I expect to get more benefit out of practicing with Dawnbringer than most people would. We’ll be trading mana constantly either way.”

 

  Sounds like it’s just your style, then.

 

  I went back to ignoring Dawn. “Anyway, speaking of getting power from training with items, my other idea is similar.” I pointed at Reika’s backpack. “Open that up for me for a sec.”

  Reika slipped the pack off her shoulder and opened it. “You need something?”

  “Hand me the broken spear pieces.”

  <...Are you planning to cheat on me with a spear? After we just had such a great time training together? Another sword I could at least understand, but...>

  There’s no need to be jealous. The spear just offers me something you don’t have, that’s all. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.

 

  Obviously.

 

  Reika handed me the pieces of the spear, and I looked them over. Much like with the actual Heartlance, there weren’t any noticeable runes on the surface.

  I’d hesitated to reassemble the spear because it would both be harder to carry and more conspicuous. Wearing a sword or two might have been a little strange, but as long as they were sheathed, it probably wasn’t too threatening. Carrying a spear openly was more likely to be interpreted as hostile.

  But I was curious if this was going to work, and I also wanted to
get training as soon as possible if it did.

  I found where each of the pieces had been connected, then closed my eyes and commanded the metal.

  Merge.

  “Ooh.” Reika leaned over. “I love watching you do that.”

  I grinned, turning over the reassembled Heartlance replica in my hands, then pushed myself to my feet.

  “Let’s see if it works, shall we?”

  I’d never actually wielded the real Heartlance, but I had seen it in use enough times to have a pretty good idea of how it was supposed to work. I tapped the bottom of the spear against the ground.

  Nothing happened.

  I frowned. “Hm.”

  Reika tilted her head to the side. “Was something supposed to happen?”

  “Yeah. It’s supposed to start glowing.”

 

  I saw this thing glow during the test.

 

  More likely I damaged something in the enchantment structure when I took it apart. Or I just don’t know the actual activation method.

  I frowned.

 

  I’d never seen Edon or Velas use any words to activate the spear, but it was worth an attempt.

  “Uh, activate. Haste. Speed up. Heartlance.” I shook my head. “Don’t think so.”

 

  I tried several more words, but nothing seemed to activate it.

  “Can I try?” Reika asked.

  “Sure. All you have to do is—”

  Reika tapped the bottom of the spear against the ground. Immediately, a glow spread across the surface, then up her arms and across her body. “Woah!” She swung the spear forward, the movement a blur. “This thing is amazing!”

  I stared at her.

 

  I deserved that.

  And, more importantly, Dawn was right — in a more literal sense than she’d realized.