by Andrew Rowe
For the moment, we’d reached Reika’s section of the cave, so I had higher priorities.
I sat down, removed my pack and swords, and laid Dawnbringer across my lap so that I could still hear her.
Then I went to work on treating my wounds.
The worst of the cuts — the ones across the center of my chest from the cutting wind — had bled through my initial hasty attempts at bandaging and needed to be replaced. And then there were a good dozen smaller cuts that still needed to be wrapped properly. If I hadn’t used Body of Stone, it would have been much, much worse.
I wondered how an ordinary person was intended to handle that. Maybe the winds wouldn’t have kicked up if I hadn’t made my own bridge, but I doubted it.
I suspected the answer was something much more mundane — a shield. A full-sized one, not the tiny kind that I’d made out of hastily reshaping a knife.
I didn’t carry one because the Sae’kes was a bastard sword, and I preferred to be able to use it in two hands when I wanted, or keep an off-hand free to throw something like a dagger or a fire spell.
Most of my training had been in a two-handed weapon style, anyway. I could use a shield — we’d all been drilled on the basics during my pre-Thornguard training — but it was far from what I was best with.
Ordinary armor would have stopped a lot of the damage, too. I didn’t wear that because the encumbrance wasn’t usually worth the level of extra protection it provided me. My own body was tougher than most armor, especially with Body of Stone or Iron active, but traditional plate armor still was cumbersome enough to slow my movements down. It wasn’t a good trade.
I’d dabbled with wearing some lighter types of armor, and I’d gotten some practice moving around in brigandine, but I hadn’t brought any with me to Kaldwyn. My aura would have broken it down rapidly, and I couldn’t afford to replace a brigandine coat every few weeks.
Aside from armor, there might have been ways to make the wind stop, or to bypass the challenge entirely. Teleportation or flight, for example.
“So...you actually did it.” Reika sat down across from me, leaning up against her blanket pile.
I replied while I kept working on the bandaging. “Yep. You didn’t think I’d succeed?”
“I mean, sure, I uh...” She looked away. “Don’t feel bad! It’s just...I’ve been waiting for most of my life for someone to claim her. It’s surreal.”
I paused, looking up for a moment. “I’m not claiming anyone. Dawnbringer can go where she wants. I’m happy to keep her with me if that’s her preference, but it’s her decision.”
“That’s...not really how it works.” Reika folded her arms. “You finished the tests. You’re qualified to be her wielder now. No one else is.”
It would have been much simpler to just omit certain details, but I was planning to travel with Reika, and I wasn’t going to start our travels with dishonesty. “I did finish the trials to reach the sword, but I don’t have the amulets I was supposed to have. I removed her from the stone by force.”
Reika froze. I drew in a breath, waiting for the possibility that she’d freak out like Dawnbringer had, or worse, attack me for some kind of violation of sacred law.
But she just blinked and said, “Why’s that matter? If you got her out, obviously you’re supposed to have her. Goddess wouldn’t have let you otherwise.”
That wasn’t...quite my line of thinking, but I felt a surge of relief at the convenience of it. I didn’t know Reika very well at that point, and I’d been a little concerned that she might have wanted to fight me again if she thought I’d “stolen” the sword or something.
I wouldn’t have minded another brawl with Reika at some point — it was really fun being able to fight someone who could sincerely pose a threat to me — but I didn’t want it to be because she’d been disappointed by me.
If I was going to fight Reika again, I wanted it to be because we both were in the mood for that kind of thing.
I sighed. “Anyway, my point was that I technically haven’t even gone through the entire process — so no, I’m not the only one worthy to wield her. No one has fully proven that they are. But beyond that, I reject the whole notion behind these sort of tests. Dawnbringer should be able to pick her wielder herself.”
<...And, admittedly, it’s hard to do that when I’m stuck in a sacred rock of legend. So, I owe you one for that, even if you do seem awfully eager to get rid of me.>
I patted the sword’s hilt. “I’m not trying to get rid of you, I’m just saying you should have a choice in your own future. Don’t you agree, Reika?” I gave her a pointed look.
“Well, there isn’t any precedent for it, but no one has gotten to her since she became self-aware. So I think she should get a say in the matter.” Reika blinked at me. “I’ve known her for a long time, so it makes sense to me...but why are you giving her a choice?”
The question surprised me. “Hm?”
“I mean, why do you care? You just met her.”
I hadn’t really even considered that. “I suppose I just value having her as a partner. That’s probably part of my culture coming through. Weird foreigner from a land that’s supposed to have been conquered but definitely hasn’t been, remember?”
In truth, they don’t exactly give swords any autonomy where I come from, either. I was deflecting.
Yes, that’s a sword pun.
It wasn’t that I was deliberately lying at that moment, though. Part of the reason I felt the way I did was cultural, but a larger part was personal. I just hadn’t fully realized that yet, and I couldn’t articulate it properly.
“I guess that’s true. And I’m glad that you’re being nice to Dawn.” She gestured to my bandages. “Do you need help with that?”
I shook my head. “Nah. Almost done.”
We were quiet for a time as I finished my bandages. “Okay. I’d like to spend one last night here, if that’s okay with you, to try to recover a little bit. Then we can get on our way.”
“That’s fine. I started packing, but I was having a hard time choosing between some things.” Reika glanced around her cave, looking forlorn. “I’m going to miss this place. I can’t believe we’re really leaving.”
“You grew up here?”
Reika nodded. “For the most part. My dad raised me when I was little. He was Dawnbringer’s guardian back then, and he taught me what my responsibilities would be when I took over. Well, most of them. He never got to...”
She took a breath. “He died when I was around eight. I ran away to a human village for a little while after that. I wasn’t as good at looking human then, and I hadn’t been around people before, so they figured me out pretty fast. They were nice to me. A family let me sleep in their barn, and the kids played with me.”
She smiled, and I smiled, too.
“...It didn’t last for long, though, before they came for me.”
I frowned. “They?”
“...monster hunters. Someone from the village must have gone to a larger town and told someone about me. Any sort of dragon or one of our sister-species is rare. We’re considered valuable...as trophies. Or as, uh, food.”
Humans disgusted me sometimes. “Did you fight them?”
“Goddess, no. I was too little. The family that I was staying with must have found out, and they helped me flee the village. Told me about a shrine where they’d leave food for me. Got me back to the entrance of this cave. After that, the forest protected me. I thought many times about going back, but I was worried about getting those villagers hurt.” She looked down.
“And you’ve been living here all by yourself since then? How long has it been?”
“About fifteen years.” Reika frowned. “But I wasn’t alone. I could always visit Dawn. She wasn’t great at keeping track of years, either,
though.”
I nodded in sympathy. I’d already lost track of the date.
So, she’s around twenty-three or so. Maybe older, depending on how long she spent with those villagers.
“Did you ever see those villagers again?”
Reika nodded. “Yeah, but mostly from a distance. I visited the shrine often, and sometimes I’d find people there. Not just the family that had helped me — other townsfolks, too. They didn’t talk to me much at first. I think they were afraid of me. One time, a child told me that there was something eating the livestock on his parents farm, and he asked if it was me.”
“Was it?”
She folded her arms. “Obviously not. I only eat wild cows, or the ones people left for me.”
I raised an eyebrow at that. “What’d you say, then?”
“That it wasn’t me, but that I’d try to protect them, to thank them for all their offerings.”
I nodded. “And then?”
“I stayed out of my cave for a while, and I found that farm. And I watched and waited. I can be very patient.” She grinned. “It was near midnight one night when I saw the eyes glowing in the bushes. Two at first. Then four. Then a dozen.”
I listened intently. “And?”
“And then I fought an entire pack of dire wolves, and left the bodies in front of the house. I wrote a note saying they’d been the ones going after the cows, not me.”
I wasn’t familiar with “dire” wolves at the time, but even fighting an ordinary pack of wolves was impressive enough. Especially since she’d apparently been a small child. “Wow. That must have been quite a fight.”
Reika beamed, sitting up a little bit straighter. “It was! But even dire wolves aren’t any match for a dragon. After that, the offerings came a little more often.”
I nodded. “Sounds like you earned them.”
“I did. I did a few more things like that for them over the years, and they started leaving me more things I liked. Books and blankets, mainly.”
“That’s sweet. We could go visit that village if you’d like.”
She shook her head. “No, that’s okay. I love that little village, but I’m ready to move on to the next part of my life. Meet new people. Maybe even find a few more swords?”
“That’s the plan, at least eventually. That might be a good place to start, but I have a couple other options.”
“Like what?” Reika tilted her head to the side inquisitively.
My first instinct was to go and search for my friends. The sorcerer who had sent me to this continent had indicated that he’d be sending others soon after I’d arrived.
From the way he’d sounded, I expected that to mean within the next few days, and that they’d arrive wherever I was located at the time. I knew he had the ability to find me from a distance — he’d done it before — so I didn’t see any reason why he couldn’t send my friends straight to my location.
Which meant, of course, that he probably had sent them elsewhere deliberately. Or that he still hadn’t sent them at all.
In either case, simply wandering around to find them wasn’t an efficient use of time. As much as I missed everyone from back home, I couldn’t focus on them. I had work to do.
My job was to acquire resources and information.
That gave me a few other hard options to think about.
While I easily could have steered the conversation — Dawnbringer and Reika were obviously planning to just follow wherever I went — I didn’t feel like leaving them out of the decision-making process entirely was fair. At a minimum, they needed to know the reasoning for my decisions.
“We could head straight to the nearest spire and try to climb it. Learning about how they work could be valuable to me in the long-term, and it’s possible we could obtain some magical items from one.”
“Different items have different purposes, Dawnbringer.”
Powerful?
I’d been thinking of them as being purely symbolic. My interest in going after the amulets was much higher if they actually had useful functions.
“Thank you, Dawn. You can just call me Keras.”
I shook my head. “You forgot sorrowful.”
Reika blinked. “What?”
I waved at Dawnbringer. “Sorry, talking to her again.”
“Oh.” She looked down.
I motioned at Reika. “Come on.”
Reika slid closer, gesturing at the sword. “Can I...?”
“Please. I’d rather you be able to hear both sides of this.”
I hoped that she’d eventually get used to talking to Dawn without requiring my permission, but I understood that she’d been taught to behave in a certain way. Moreover, if her “rules” were from her deceased father, I could see why she’d be reluctant to break them. Making my parents proud had been very important to me, once.
“Thanks.” She set a hand on the sword. “Hi.”
“Next option. We go looking for the other swords.”
I glanced down at Dawn. “Are they sapient, like you are?”
Reika looked troubled for some reason, but she didn’t say anything.
I considered asking her what was on her mind, but I decided to lay out the remaining options first. “We could go to a major city and gather information. Maybe meet some people. I’d like to learn more about Kaldwyn’s cultures.”
Gathering knowledge would be important if I was going to fill in my companions when they eventually arrived.
If they eventually arrived.
“Ooh, I’d like to get to Edria at some point for some book shopping! That could be fun.” Reika tilted her head to the side. “Is that the last option?”
“One more. Dawn, you keep mentioning those amulets. I could try to go and get those now, if they mean a lot to you. I still believe you should be able to choose who carries you, and I don’t want you feeling like you shouldn’t be with me.”
I didn’t actually know that — I’d heard of stranger things happening — but that wasn’t the point. “Yes, I’m willing to do that if it’s important to you. Besides, you mentioned they’re powerful items, right? So they’d still be potentially useful to me, too.”
I laughed. “You’ll have to tell me what they actually do later. Also, I can’t actually promise that I’ll succeed at getting them. I’m not from this continent, and that means that both my abilities and my values are somewhat different from the people here. If there’s a test involving, say, trivia about local history, you have to understand that I’m going to be at a tremendous disadvantage.”
Reika looked excited, too. “I could teach you about history! I’ve read all sorts of things.” She motioned toward her stacks of books.
I didn’t have the heart to remind her that most of those were fictional. “I’d like that, Reika. Thank you. But beyond history, there may be things that are strictly impossible for me. For example, if these amulets are in the spires, I may not be able to get to them. I don’t have an attunement.”
Reika blinked at me. “You don’t? But I’ve seen you use magic.”
“We call that sorcery, and it works totally differently where I com
e from. I can tell you more while we’re traveling. The important part, though, is that you have to understand that I’m not going to be like the wielders you remember, Dawn.”
I paused. “Aren’t all the sacred swords supposed to be hundreds of years old?”
That...was very significantly different from what I’d expected. “Wait, so up until twenty something years ago, you were just a sword?”
That was perplexing. “Do you know what woke you up?”
Reika flinched at the mention of her father. I wanted to ask more about that, but it didn’t seem like the right time. “Okay. Back to the previous point, though. I’m willing to go hunting for those amulets for you, and I want you to know that I’ll try, but I also want you to have reasonable expectations for what’s possible. If the shrines require attunements to walk in, I’ll either have to go and get an attunement first — which may be impossible, since I already have magic that works differently — or break my way in.”
“Noted.” I turned to Reika. “Reika, are you okay with accompanying us to the shrines that contain the amulets?”
Reika nodded vigorously. “Sure! I actually know where those are. I have a map in one of my books!”
That was helpful, and probably something I should have asked about before volunteering. “Okay, I think we have a plan, then. Where’s the closest one?”
“Oh, not too far! The Shrine of Bravery is just a few days flight away.”
“Flight?”
“Oh, right, you have to walk. Uh, just...a few hundred miles?”
I groaned. That was a lot further out of my way than I’d hoped.
