To the Stars End- Original Soul

by Demetri Grim

  “By the gods!” Lavets exclaimed as he took in the spear, his eyes tracing the length of the blade and following the curve of filigree down to the silver entwined shaft and the crimson veins that ran through it. For her part, she carefully let the cloth pool around her hands and pulled the bottom of the cloth free from the braided red ring at the spear’s base. Revealing all but the handle she held, her grip protected from the spear’s effects with sailcloth.

  “This is Heartseeker, an artifact weapon,” she announced proudly, holding the spear aloft before her, presenting it to Lavets. Her brother’s mouth fell open and his eyes widened at her declaration. A soft smile spread across his face, a look of knowing about who came up with the name clear in his eyes as he reached out for the weapon.

  “Do you mind, Sir Lavets?” The regal voice of the elf cut into the exchange, his tone clear that he was not asking as he held out his hand for the weapon.

  “Oh! But of course My Lord. It is your commission after all, my apologies. I was simply overexcited, I momentarily forgot my place.” Lavets bowed very low and gestured his hand to the elf, leading her to offer the weapon to the noble instead. Beka chewed at her lip a moment and gave him a pleading look that he only shrugged at and gestured to the mage once more. She turned to face the magelord, schooling her expression as she did.

  “I have seen etherium forged a thousand times, yet I have never seen it worked in such a way as this,” he said, a hint of true admiration in his voice as he took the spear from her. His body shivering lightly as he took ahold. The glow of his eyes flaring brighter as a visible nimbus of magical power radiated from his thin form in a chilling mist. For a moment she wondered if the elf was having the same reaction she had to the etherium, and was about to ask when the light and magic faded. “You have transferred the etherium’s augmentation properties to the true silver. That is impressive, but there is no rune array, therefore your claim it is an artifact is suspect.” His eyebrow lifted, his free hand alight with cerulian runes that danced over his fingertips too quickly for her to follow before vanishing.

  “I assure you my lord! It has an array, I have used it myself! You have to activate the weapon first.” She bit her lip and shook her head, turning her eyes to the hard packed earth of the Colosseum. “You have to say Awaken, Heartseeker to activate its array.” She felt sick to her stomach, violated somehow that her brother would not be the first outside of herself and her uncle to use the weapon.

  “I see, how quaint.” His tone was dry and sarcastic, as he cleared his throat and spoke the words. “Awaken, Heartseeker.” Each word sent a cold lance into her spine and gave her goosebumps. There was a flash of cold blue light from his palm and the spear flared its bloody aura before growing dim, the liquid ripple of its blade halting in place as nothing happened. The mage’s eyebrow twitched and he turned his displeased gaze upon her. “Is this, a jest at my expense smith? I am not entertained.” He threw the spear back into her arms. She barely managed to catch it and was thankful her long sleeves had prevented her from grabbing the weapon directly, she did not want to explain her reaction to the metal to the elf.

  “No my lord! I swear it should have worked! The array should have appeared! It worked for myself and my uncle just a few hours ago!” She stammered and inspected the weapon. Had something dislodged from it on her trip here? did she knock it into something and not notice? Her mind raced with possibilities as panic started to set in. Beka could find nothing wrong with the blade and did not know enough about runes and magic to know if it was anything else. She glanced to her brother with a desperate pleading look on her face.

  “Oh enough. It worked just fine. Your ignorant fumbling is proof you have no understanding of what I am speaking of. There was no true rune array. Only a single sigil, a sigil is a form of high magic beyond the properties of basic runes so you know." His voice dripping with disdain bordering on boredom as he explained. "In this case the runic combination for the sigil Unworthy. I find it most offensive, but it is no doubt an artifact. Thus it must have runic laws that govern its power the same as any other arcana.” He gestured to the spear, his eyes narrowed to slits of glowing blue light. “If your ignorance in using the weapon prevents my champion from claiming its power, I will be most displeased.”

  “Sister, why don’t I give the weapon a try?” Lavets cocked his head to each side, eyeing the weapon. “This weapon was designed for a spearman, perhaps it requires a warrior’s touch?” He held up his hands for the weapon and looked to the elf. “No offence intended my lord, but you are not a battle mage after all. As well as not familiar with spearwork. My sister here may be an exception as she has weapons knowledge as a smith and of the weapon’s creators.”

  “I helped with not only the filigree, but the enchantment as well, I also named it when it was first awoken. But my uncle used it right after I did so it should not be bound or anything.” Beka looked up to her brother and offered him the spear. Once again before he could take the weapon the elf lord interrupted.

  “So, you worked the enchantment as well. I was told you could not. I find this new information, Fascinating. Why don’t you show us what properties the weapon possesses then?” Beka hesitated, looking to her hands gripping the spear, still covered by her sleeves.

  “I don't really feel comfortable doing so.” She was starting to tremble slightly.

  “Why do you fear to hold the weapon now? Can you still not prove your claim?” The elf raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow over his glowing blue eyes as he looked between her eyes and her grip on the spear.

  “I, well it's not that, it's... hard to explain. Etherium just makes me uneasy when I hold it. The spear even more so because of its magic.” She hoped her half-truth would satisfy the elf. To her surprise his face turned contemplative and he nodded.

  “I understand,” he said with finality. His tone dropping into one of haughty authority and his usual disdain. “Very well let him do it, so we can move on.” He huffed in impatience and crossed his arms into the sleeves of his robes.

  “Of course my lord.” She sighed internally and turned to face her brother, offering him the blade for a third time. She snickered a little. “Third time's a charm, right brother?” She smiled at him as he finally took the spear into his hands.

  “You are absolutely right about that Beka, this weapon is amazing.” He gripped the spear tightly, the red pulse of its glowing blade speeding up in his hand. With a flourish he spun the blade over his head before slicing it to the side as he turned away from them. Leaving a glowing trail of ember red light in the blade’s wake. He held the weapon perfectly still, leveled at arms length, the braided shaft resting in the crook of his arm, the ring of red centered on his back. “Awaken, Heartseeker!” He shouted the command. There was a flash of crimson light from the filigree of the blade that faded as quickly as it began. For a heartbeat, nothing happened. His over-dramatic pose and flourish, along with the shout to awaken, almost made her start laughing, if not for the serious nature of the situation. Beka heard the elf scoff behind her, a cold sweat beginning to form as her brother turned to look back at them over his shoulder. He winked and stood, turning to face them, returning the weapon to a neutral pose .

  “Well? Did it work or not you idiot!“ She dropped her gaze to the blade and back up to his grinning face. He laughed and she could only blink at him. This was so not the time for jokes.

  “Oh it worked!” He laughed again and spun the spear behind himself to put into a passive rest across his shoulders. The crimson light now pulsing a rapid glow that was slowly becoming a steady rhythm. His eyes locked on her and he brought his hand to infront of his chest “Beka! This is amazing! You have no idea what this means do you!” He grinned and touched the air in front of him. “The array is very simple, and undeveloped.” He swiped his hand along the air, a line of flickering green runes trailed from his palm as his hand arced through the air in front of him, forming his own rune array. “The magic of the array feels unbound, I think i
t can be adjusted to fit the wielder’s needs, in this case my needs. Its natural rune array is very basic, but has lots of room for improvement.” He touched a few glowing green runes that hovered in the air before him and dragged them to a point in the center of his vision. They combined to form a new sigil. Around the new faintly green sigil the three command runes for the spear appeared and spiraled out from the sigil. She was surprised she could see the array, given the hammer and spear both made the runes vanish when you looked at them before. Then she realized it was not the weapon’s array but her brother’s as he used his own magic to alter the array of the spear. She groaned at herself as she put it all together.

  “What is the range on these effects? Does it control your movements? What happens when you throw it?” He rattled off a string of questions that made her smile inwardly and roll her eyes. They both must have gotten that bombarding-with-questions thing from their mother.

  “Is that all it does?” The elf asked before she could answer Lavets, his voice almost sounding disappointed. “I was expecting more.” The disdain in his voice was so thick it almost had a stench. Beka felt her face heat up, her brows coming together in irritation as she chewed at her bottom lip, trying to control her voice and anger as she turned to answer.

  “That, may not be all. We only had time to do a few tests with it. I'm not a mage, and my uncle is just a blacksmith. If any one can find out the full potential of Heartseeker it will be my brother.” She nodded and put her hands on her hips. Catching the elf’s eyes, she glared at him. For a moment her anger at his dismissal of her work stripped her of reason, before his eyes started to glow brightly, a smirk coming to his lips, and she had to look away. A shiver trembling down her body so hard she had to take a step back from him.

  “My what a temper,” he said coolly, the corner of his mouth twitching up into the full thin smile that drained the blood from her face. “Do answer your kin’s questions then, and I shall answer yours from when you came in. In a bit that is.” He turned to face Lavets, his voice a mask of authority once more. “Find out what you need to know and head into the arena, I will prepare a suitable demonstration.” His glowing blue eyes met Beka’s once more. “Consider this a test of whether my gold was well spent.” He turned away and headed back down the hallway alcove he had first emerged from.”

  “That's the entryway to the Menagerie, in case you were wondering, it’s where Lord Kindredstar keeps the beasts and monsters for the arena. They have a trap door hidden under some of the dirt out in the center arena. They pop up from there.” He smiled at her and swung the spear around his body in an elaborate martial dance as he moved down towards the area floor. “So what's the range on the heartseeking effect?” He called back up to her.

  “I don't know, it could sense Uncle Montgomery from the forge to the kitchen, so at least ten yards.” She said as she followed behind him making sure to not get too close as she found a spot to lean on the arena’s inner observation wall.

  “Ten yards, is not a lot of range,” He remarked and looked troubled. “Stay there for a second will you?” He asked and pointed the spear. He swiped his hand through the air and the flash of crimson along the blade signaled the use of one of its runes. Pulsing light from the blade immediately matching her heartbeat. She flushed as she saw how fast it was pulsing and the slight smirk on her brother’s face as he no doubt felt the steady vibrations of the shaft as it timed to her heart. “Wow I can feel your heartbeat in my hand. You need to relax sis.” He said as if reading her thoughts. “You said you saw the marking rune for Uncle through the wall? So it works like a detect life spell, and provides orientation, that is incredibly useful.” He started to slowly walk backwards into the center of the Colosseum, making sure to keep the spear trained on her. He finally stopped almost sixty yards away and cheered. “Now that's more like it!” He shouted over to her.”

  “Sixty is good I take it?” She asked. “If you use the Lock command, the spear’s blade will do everything it can to stay pointed at the target. I'm not sure if that counts as controlling your motions. You may have to command it to Release for the blade to move how you want it to. Oh! And it's a hewing spear, good for slashing and thrusting but not as effective for throwing. You’re not supposed to throw it, but...” Beka watched as he did a series of martial maneuvers twirling the spear around his body faster than she could track it, a trail of glowing ember red light spinning around him, trailing the blade. His elaborate steps brought him right back up to her. He clearly had the lock effect in place as he shifted and moved the spear through each of his practiced motions, his eyes alight with green energy. Beka noticed his movements seemed to flow instinctively with how the spear tried to angle itself in her direction, as if the effects of the spear were meant to be used with exactly those techniques. Lavets came up to the edge of the wall beneath her and flicked his hand in the air, snapping his fingers dramatically as the lock was released. She rolled her eyes and smiled. Leaning over the arena wall she whispered conspiratorially. “You’re not supposed to throw it. But, I may have thrown it a little and it looked like it might hit its mark every time, especially with a Lock rune in effect.”

  “I will have to agree with that. Not sure how much the guiding effect will be useful in close quarters fighting but its not much of a pull when you move with it. Even a slight adjustment towards a target can make all the difference between a glancing blow, and a killing thrust.” He smiled up at her as a rumble sounded behind him. A puff of dust was flung into the air as the steel doors of the arena pit elevator slammed open into the Colosseum floor. Thick metal bars of a cage slowly rising from the dusty center. “This will be great, just you watch sister, you’re going to love it. I can't wait to try out this spear with my own magic! If nothing else it’s going to be flashy.” He shook his fist in the air, and gave the spear another rapid series of spins and thrusts blazing the crimson trail in its wake. “I can already feel my power itching to be let free. This etherium is everything the Master Kindredstar said it would be!” With that he strode confidently towards the center of the fighting ring, the spear clenched tightly in his grip. Set in a ready one-handed-position behind him, his free hand waved an arc of runes to life in front of him and touched one as he waited for the cage to reach the top. He hopped on his toes a few times stretching out and looking quicker on his feet after whatever spell he triggered.

  “Master?” She said under her breath, her brows knitted together in concern, “When did Lord Kindredstar become, ‘master?’” She tried to shake off her unease, perhaps it was just a title, he was after all Lavets’ patron, even Uncle Montgomery was sometimes called Master Smith. Still something about how he said it was nagging at her.

  Beka’s worried thoughts vanished in an instant as the bars of the cage dropped open, revealing a swarm of small monsters. Half a dozen three-foot-tall sickly green creatures with bulbous shaved heads and over-sized noses rushed out into the arena floor. Each of them brandished a small pitted shield decorated in what she had to assume was bits of rotten meat, and the heads of chickens. Their weapons were little more that filth-covered, splintered sticks dripping with what looked like fresh feces. Even from her spot above the arena floor the stink of the creatures made her want to gag. “Goblins, gross. Hurry up and kill them!” Beka pinched her nose. The filthy pests plagued the eastern countryside of Cross. They were notorious for sullying their weapons so that even a scratch would fester and poison someone with their filth, resulting in a painful loss of a limb or more often than not, a slow death.

  The filthy monsters were primitives of the worst sort. Tribes of raiders and pillagers, fighting one another as much as any other race they came across. There tactics consisted of little more than charging en masse to the slaughter, intent on taking as many lives with them as they can before retreating back into the night. An individual goblin may be weak, notoriously stupid, and usually a coward, yet goblin raids are still considered one of the most dangerous threats for the farming villages of easte
rn Cross. Now after the defeat of the Primals almost 50 years ago, lesser threats like goblins were a welcome reprieve from the savagery of the primal uprising.

  Beka was not worried about Lavets having any trouble fighting the pests. Not after seeing the glint of her family's enchantments on his armor. The nature of the Silverlight armor enchantments helped to repel the defiling attacks of the goblins before the wounds became toxic, prevented their filth from getting into wounds even if they landed a blow. Because the Silverlight smithy is the only armor with the unique enchantment, knights, mercenaries, and adventurers often came into the shop. Beka had of course grilled every one of them that had come in with questions about battles and adventures in the lands beyond the walls of the city of Cross. She was sure her brother knew how to fight them, but just in case she cupped her hands and called out to him.

  “Goblins are cowards! Unless they are in mass numbers, they will not fight without a raid leader! You have to find which one of the little bastards is the leader!” Lavets turned his head slowly towards her. The goblins chattered at each other at his distraction and shifted towards him. He shook his head and turned back to the approaching monsters.

  Shouting back over his shoulder to her sarcastically. “Thanks sis, now they know who I'm aiming for. You know they understand common right?” He chuckled and readied Heartseeker.

  Beka felt herself flush and chewed at her bottom lip. “Oops! I did NOT know that.” She shouted back.

  Chapter 10: A Bloody Test

  Thrusting Heartseeker forward, Lavets trained the weapon on one of the snarling monsters and began to circle. Slicing his hand through the air an arc of floating runes appeared and the spear began pulsing rapidly as it locked onto the lead most goblin. The monsters quickly began darting back and forth in an attempt to distract and flank him, not knowing that the spear’s magic would not be fooled by a goblin game of cups. With a snarl the goblins sprinted and fanned out into a wide arc, confident their leader was lost in the shuffle while trying to flank him. Lavets remained firm, Heartseeker’s blade trailing one of the circling monsters.