“When a person who’s linked to a sunucle dies, there’s a chance the link will pass onto someone with similar blood,” Daylen said.
Ahrek scoffed. “I’ve never heard that before.”
“That’s because such a thing is extremely rare, but it does happen. For instance, when a sunucle is linked to an identical twin, the link always passes to the other twin when the first dies.”
“I suppose that makes sense.”
“Well, Dayless’s links have passed onto me,” Daylen lied. “I can feel them,” he added truthfully, for of course he could still feel his own links. It was true that there was a tiny chance a link could pass on to one’s firstborn child, but in this case no link had passed at all, for Daylen was the original. “But I’m not surprised,” Daylen said. “This is Imperious we’re talking about.”
Ahrek’s face softened after that statement. “Yes,” he said. “I’ve heard that it’s the only sunucle ever created that that doesn’t shatter at the touch of darkstone or Shade.”
“Yes. Imperious is immune to the normal sunforging laws, so we might have expected the link to pass rather than it shatter.” Daylen pulled the sword from its sheath. “Imperious is unique.”
“Then I’m going to need a bit more proof that the link has truly passed to you,” Ahrek said. “Anyone can say they feel the link, but considering Imperious is truly indestructible, as I think on it, it’s possible then that Imperious might be able to stay intact without a link at all.”
“You really know nothing about sunforging.”
Ahrek’s raised his brow, unconvinced, looking at Daylen as if to say he still needed to prove it.
“And here I thought you were so trusting.”
“My trust only goes so far. Too many people would be willing to lie if it meant getting their hands on such a priceless object.”
“Well, I won’t be able to prove anything with the sword’s current condition,” Daylen said, referring to the obvious fact that the sword had been without light for years. As a result, the blade and hilt were jet black. This wasn’t the natural state of sunucles, but rather what they became when locked away from light for extended periods of time. In its current state, Imperious was as fragile as glass, but this was easily remedied.
There was plenty of light inside, which was already causing the black color to fade. Daylen took the sword and walked outside to the more plentiful light of day.
The blackness quickly dissolved, revealing what sunucles truly looked like: softly glowing, translucent colored glass. Imperious’ blade was a deep, translucent blue that shimmered like a sapphire. The beautiful swept hilt was a shining yellow made to look like a flaring sun and protected the whole hand.
The sword was originally made from ritten wood, a unique timber in that it was extremely light and hard. You could put a razor’s edge on it. Ritten wood was still utterly impractical to be used for weapons—it was still wood. Or at least it was, until it was sunforged. Once an object was sunforged, it became indestructible to everything except for the Shade, darkstone, and other sunforged weapons. The most significant attribute sunucles adopted was a seemingly supernatural enhancement to whatever purpose the object was meant for. Sunforged boots gripped the ground ten times more effectively than normal boots. If a cloak was made to hide someone’s identity, once sunforged it would shift colors to blend in with one’s surroundings. If that same cloak was meant to keep the rain off, once sunforged the rain would streak around a person like they were protected by an invisible bubble. And of course with blades, their cutting ability became so enhanced that they could slice through steel like butter.
Daylen returned inside to where Ahrek had been watching. He put the sword on one of the work benches and walked to the other side of the room. Daylen held out his hand and pulled on the link. The sword flew off the table toward Daylen in a straight line where he caught it in his hand.
“Well, that settles it,” Ahrek said. “The link has passed to you.”
“Like I said,” Daylen replied.
There were some interesting effects that arose from the link between a person and a sunucle. Whoever was linked to it could feel it like it was a part of their body and know when it had been touched by someone else. The linked person developed a sense of the sunucle’s direction when separated, no matter the distance, and when close enough—about ten meters for most people—the linked person could pull the sunucle to them in a direct line, as Daylen had just done. The sunucle would ignore gravity and fly in the same manner as a darkstone with light. Daylen’s ability to pull on Imperious had grown with practice and time to a distance of sixty meters—longer than any link he had ever heard of.
Ahrek was looking at Imperious in awe. “Dayless never shared how he crafted such a wonder,” Ahrek said, “the selfish man.”
Daylen sheathed Imperious. “What good would another weapon be to the world? Dayless invented the annihilator and the shooter, and how many deaths have those things caused?”
Ahrek leaned on one of the workbenches and crossed his arms. “Yes, but sunforging is used for other things than weapons. I’ve seen sunforged boots that never slipped on anything and hammers that drove in nails with the slightest touch. But most people are too afraid to make sunucles thanks to the few fatal weaknesses all sunucles possess—something that Dayless figured out how to overcome. With his secret we could build sunforged tools, houses, bridges, and skyships. They would all be indestructible, and last forever, never wearing down or degrading over time.”
“Not skyships,” Daylen said. “No sunforge in existence could forge a whole skyship.” But Daylen was lying, for he knew of one forge, hidden away where no one would ever find it… An ancient artifact of incredible power that could sunforge anything of any size.
“But they could forge a piece at a time, or the most crucial parts.”
Daylen walked in front of Ahrek and placed his hands on his hips, determined to argue this point. “No. If Imperious’ secret got out, the first thing the governments would do is equip their armies with indestructible sunforged weapons and armor. Think of how overpowered that would be. Seriously, have you seen what a man can do in sunforged plate?”
“Not seen, but I’ve heard. Apart from being nearly indestructible, it’s supposed to double the physical abilities of the wearer.”
Daylen raised his index finger and squinted an eye. “Exactly. Even with the risks of having a full suit of sunforged plate, some people still make it because of how powerful it is, the idiots.”
“It can’t be any more risky than other sunucles…”
“Huh!” Daylen said. “Kid, you really don’t know much about sunforging, do you? It only takes one broken link to potentially kill a man, and linking other people on sunucles you intend to use and might break is a mongrel action so despicable that Dayless himself didn’t even do it. Light, he even outlawed it!”
“I know all this, Daylen. What’s your point?”
“My point is that each additional linked sunucle raises the risks. It only takes one sunucle to be forged imperfectly and potentially kill, but you can’t sunforge a suit of armor as one piece. You need to forge and link each piece individually.”
“Oh, I see,” Ahrek said in full comprehension. “Full plate has at least twenty components.”
Daylen relaxed and walked to pull out a chair from the small dining table. Placing it to face Ahrek, he sat, resting Imperious on his lap. “More like forty, if it’s fully interlocked. To get the full physical enhancement from plate it needs to be a full suit, so making a sunforged breastplate by itself doesn’t cut it. Having forty linked sunucles is suicidal. All it takes is one mistake in the sunforging process. That, and the armor is easy to counter. All you need is a darkstone dagger.”
Ahrek nodded. “I see your point. Still, it makes me wonder why Dayless didn’t make his own indestructible sunforged plate.”
“Who said he didn’t?”
“If he did, wouldn’t he have worn it? There were no
accounts of Dayless wearing plate.”
“Sunforged armor doesn’t need to be as bulky as normal stuff. Though the physical enhancement is less, you can wear it under your clothes.”
“Ah yes, he would keep that a secret, wouldn’t he? Any potential assassin wouldn’t account for Dayless wearing sunforged armor.”
“Now you’re thinking like him.”
“Then where is it? The armor’s link might have passed on to you, and it must be as remarkable an artifact as Imperious.”
“I don’t know,” Daylen lied. “My father kept many secrets, and probably hid away lots of his things.”
“If only he had told you.”
Daylen smirked. “Yeah, if only.” Of course Daylen knew exactly where his armor was—hidden away where no one would find it. Imperious was the only treasure he kept at this hovel. He would get his armor once he forged a birth certificate at the capital, if he could ditch the Bringer for a few falls at least.
“I still think the secret of making indestructible sunucles would be a great benefit to mankind, and abuses could be avoided.”
“Yeah, and the sun might fall. Trust me, Ahrek, Imperious’ secret would only cause more harm than good.”
“I choose to have more hope for mankind.”
“Then you’re a naive fool.”
“Or perhaps you’re a skeptical pessimist?”
“Oh, there’s no perhaps about it,” Daylen said.
“What are you planning to do with the sword?” Ahrek asked.
“I don’t know—dig some holes, maybe. It could serve as a toothpick, I suppose.”
“Sarcasm is the lowest form of humor.”
“No, your humor is.”
“So you’re just going to wear a historical artifact that once belonged to the greatest tyrant the world has ever seen?”
“And use it if I have to. From what I hear, it’s a pretty good sword.”
“You don’t think others are going to recognize it?”
Daylen paused. Imperious would draw a lot of unwanted attention, but it was his sword. He was as attached to it as he was to his arm. Not only did he have a connection with Imperious, as any swordsman would, but it was also a work of his own hands, his masterpiece. He had put years of study, time, and energy into its creation, and like any artist with their greatest work, it was as if Imperious held a piece of his soul. Never touching it whilst he was in hiding had been agony, and now holding it once more was like embracing a long-lost brother. Daylen knew he could never part with it again.
Luckily, being seen with Imperious wouldn’t cause too much trouble. Word that Dayless had fathered a son was probably in Treremain by now, so hiding was pointless. Imperious would just identify who he was, if people even noticed it as much as Ahrek thought they would.
“They probably will,” Daylen said. “So I guess I’ll be quite popular, won’t I?”
“Many will think you have no right to it, the Sunforging Guild especially.”
“The Guilds can go jump off the edge, the corrupt pack of bastards.”
Daylen had a long history with the Guilds, as they provided a significant portion to Hamahra’s wealth—and oh, how he hated them. They had been a constant thorn in his side during his rule, not to mention the endless petitions by the Sunforging Guild to know Imperious’ secret. They had even tried to blackmail him once, but Daylen had executed everyone involved, as well as their families. Not his finest moment, but far from his worst, which spoke volumes.
There was one good thing the Guilds had done. They had been a main driving force behind the revolution that ended his rule, Rayaten himself being the former master of the Artistry Guild.
“The law is very clear regarding sunucles,” Daylen continued. “The person linked to them always has right of ownership.”
“And I support that law completely, but there still might be legal precedent to overturn it.”
“If they try anything like that, they’re in for a world of trouble. Imperious is mine.”
“You’re confident.”
“Of course I am,” Daylen said, rising and taking off his old justacorps coat. Coats like that were impractical to wear with a sword. One still could, of course, but being so long it would get in the way of one’s leg work and might tangle with the sword at your side. A Grand High Master like Daylen moved so precisely when fighting that any obstruction was very annoying. He was skilled enough that his sword work wouldn’t really be affected by such trivial things, but he would rather fight comfortably than not. This was why dueling jackets existed.
Placing Imperious aside, Daylen pulled out another chest. Within it were some better-suited clothes. Daylen had to shake them out a bit as they hadn’t seen the light of day in some time. He put on an old, yet clean shirt, tight pants with a high waist made from an elastic fiber so they were still comfortable, leather boots that rose above his shins, and lastly his crimson stained leather dueling jacket. They still fit him perfectly.
“Now that is an old-style jacket,” Ahrek said. “Your father’s, I assume?”
Daylen looked at the jacket. It was called a dueling jacket because it had a wide belt sewn to the waist where you could easily hang a sword, and the jacket had no further length past the belt unlike the dueling tailcoats popular these days. Made of supple leather, the jacket was done up to the side of the chest by a row of shining steel tags that snapped closed. It had a line of white running along the shoulders and down the sleeves with large black cuffs at the ends to match the belt at the hem. An upturned collar sweeping behind the neck completed the look.
“Yeah,” Daylen said. “I like the style much more than what’s worn these days.”
“You’re planning to fight someone?”
The Bringer clearly recognized that, aside from era, Daylen was wearing classic dueling garb.
“No, but if I’m attacked I’d rather be prepared.”
“You might as well carry a sign saying, Challengers are welcome.”
“No,” Daylen said, fixing his sheathed sword to his belt. “I’d need to wear the ribbon for that.”
Ahrek smiled. “I don’t think the lack of the red ribbon will dissuade everyone,” he said, watching Daylen make himself ready.
The next chest Daylen sought was a much smaller wooden box. As he tried to move it, it wouldn’t budge. “Oh yeah,” Daylen said to himself.
“Something wrong?” Ahrek asked.
“It’s my father’s skimmer and gauntlet,” Daylen said. “The sunstones inside have been exhausted.” Daylen walked to the iron fixtures hanging from the roof that held several shining sunstones.
“The skimmer I understand, but the gauntlet?”
“It has a spring-loaded darkstone blade for countering sunforged weapons and shields.”
“Doesn’t surprise me that Dayless the Conqueror owned such a thing. You know it’s illegal to use darkstone weapons in a duel?”
“Of course I do, but I’m surprised you know. Done some dueling in your life have you?”
“I wasn’t a Lightbringer my whole life.”
Having retrieved the sunstone beads, Daylen opened the smaller chest, where he found his skimmer and gauntlet.
A skimmer was mostly a shipping tool, though they were very useful outside that profession. It was comprised of a steel ball the size of a fist and a square handle protruding from it with a smaller ringed lever for the thumb. Pulling the lever would lock the skimmer’s internal darkstone, making it a handhold that was frozen in the air—very useful if one was ever thrown overboard or fell from a high place. You could move the skimmer by manipulating the lever and skim through the air to wherever you needed to go.
Daylen opened the steel ball where it lay in the box, but once that was done, he could pick it up, as light was shining on the core. Daylen replaced the sunstones and, once done, he closed the ball and hooked the skimmer to his belt.
Daylen’s gauntlet was a sunucle; and, having been locked away for so long, had become black like Imperi
ous had been.
“The gauntlet’s link has passed on to you as well,” Ahrek said in awe.
“If one link can pass, it makes it likely that any others will, too.”
Daylen carefully unclasped the main back bracer, the primary blocking part of the gauntlet, and placed the sunstones in the fixed holds around the darkstone blade before replacing the bracer. With light now shining on the darkstone uniformly, the gauntlet could be picked up and handled normally.
Daylen took the gauntlet outside and its color quickly returned. The gauntlet shone a deep blue, much darker than Imperious, and as it was mildly transparent—its spring-loaded darkstone blade could just be seen under the bracer.
Daylen came back inside and slipped his left hand into the gauntlet. Clenching his fist with a deliberate and specific twist of his wrist triggered the spring-loaded darkstone blade. It shot out above his wrist with a mechanical sound.
“No, you’re not planning to duel anyone at all,” Ahrek said sarcastically.
“I thought you believed sarcasm the lowest form of humor?”
“It is, while also being an effective form of verbal emphasis. Seriously, Daylen, wearing a sword—and especially a gauntlet—like that, specifically made for dueling even though it does have an illegal blade, is all the encouragement any duelist will need. And then there’s the fact that you bear Imperious itself! As soon as people realize this, they’ll look for any reason to challenge you simply for victor’s right in the hopes to claim your father’s sword.”
“I can deny victor’s right.”
“Not if it’s a personal duel, and considering who your father was, I doubt anyone will have to look very hard to find personal cause. The winner still won’t be able to take Imperious from you because of the link, which means according to the law you must pay the winner something of equivalent value to the sword in question. Considering that Imperious is priceless, you’ll become a debt slave for the rest of your life! Once word spreads, every duelist and treasure hunter in the world will be after you.”
Shadow of the Conqueror Page 14
