Skyflare (Rise To Omniscience Book 3)

by Aaron Oster

  On second thought, I guess it kinda does make sense, he thought with some amusement.

  Heading out onto the cobbled street, Morgan immediately headed for the shopping district. It was already dark out, but he was fairly certain that with the influx of people, the shops would be open late. This part of the city was mostly empty, due to the price range of the inns in the area, so Morgan wasn’t at all worried about being overheard if he accidentally spoke out loud.

  Reaching into his shirt, Morgan pressed one of the small buttons on the side of the pendant, and reached out to Katherine with his mind.

  “Katherine, are you there?”

  Letting go of the pendant, Morgan walked on in silence. He knew she’d heard him, now all he had to do was wait for a reply.

  23

  Morgan had been walking for about three minutes, when Katherine’s sultry voice sounded in his mind.

  “Morgan! It’s good to hear from you after all this time. I’ve been worried about you. I tried contacting you several times over the last couple of weeks, but never received a reply.”

  “Sorry. I removed the pendant,” he answered, glad that she’d replied so quickly.

  “I’m guessing that you had a good reason?”

  “Yes, I didn’t want you trying to convince me to come and help you kill your father.”

  Katherine chuckled lightly over their connection, but Morgan didn’t understand what was so funny. It had been a genuine concern of his, and seeing as Katherine was able to track him the moment he put his pendant on, she could have been over in the blink of an eye.

  “So tell me, why are you calling now? I’m guessing that you haven’t yet decided to accept my marriage proposal?”

  She sounded almost hopeful, but Morgan was quick to shoot her down.

  “No. I’m actually reaching out for a different reason.”

  “Of course you are,” Katherine replied with a disappointed sigh. “Out with it then, what do you want this time?”

  “Two things actually. Sarah and I just arrived in the West Kingdom capital, and discovered the place overrun with people from the other Kingdoms. Apparently there’s some sort of tournament going on here that you failed to mention before sending us here.”

  He could picture Katherine wincing over the connection as he said that, though he didn’t so much as put a hint of accusation into his tone.

  “Yeah. I did know about the tournament, but I only found out once you’d left. I wanted to call you immediately, but Gwendolyn asked me not to.”

  “So, I’m guessing that someone wants me to compete for some reason. What exactly is this tournament?”

  Katherine blew out a long sigh, then went through the explanation.

  “It’s called the Skyflare Tournament. It’s held once every twenty-five years, and four of the Kingdoms compete for glory and money. Each Kingdom selects one champion, and they all compete in challenges to gain points. In the end, whichever champion gains the most, wins the tournament.”

  “Why is it only held every twenty-five years?” Morgan asked, intrigued by the idea of being able to compete against the strongest in the Five Kingdom, or rather, four of the five.

  “That’s the part that we like to keep a secret,” Katherine replied. “And likely why Gwendolyn wants you to compete.”

  She went on to explain about the Skyflare, the ultimate artifact that only appeared once every quarter century. An artifact that could take him to new levels of power, and, hopefully, restore his mind and body.

  Morgan was silent for a few long moments, processing all the new information. Now it made a lot more sense as to why Gwendolyn and Dabu had guided him here. The real question, as to who the mystery man was, still remained. If he was indeed the person who’d modified his body and taken his memories, why would he want him to regain them?

  “I don’t know if I’m interested in entering this tournament,” he finally replied. “I honestly don’t want that kind of exposure right now, especially if there are people from the North here as well. All I really want is to find the information I was sent here for. After that, I’m leaving.”

  He’d already made his mind up about leaving some time ago. He’d also made peace with the fact that he would never be entirely normal and the knowledge that there was no other way aside from taking Samuel’s deal.

  “I figured you would say that, though I’m surprised you would give up the opportunity to fight the strongest fighters in the Five Kingdoms.”

  “Even if there was some way for me to compete. I wouldn’t stand a chance of winning. I’m only rank 29. All the competitors are probably near or at the maximum.”

  “Actually,” Katherine replied. “They always have strict rank requirements for these tournaments. This year, the minimum to enter is 33 and the maximum is 38.”

  Morgan came up short when he heard that and had to force himself to push down the sudden spike of excitement that rushed through him. If he could raise his rank to 33 in the next few days, he would technically be able to compete, but, there was still the issue of finding a Kingdom that would take him… He shook himself, dismissing the idea, and reminding himself why he was here.

  He was here to steal some information from the palace. It would answer the questions about his home city, and hopefully, give him some insight into his past.

  “I still don’t think I’m interested,” he replied. “All I want is to get the information I came for and leave.”

  Katherine let out another sigh, but agreed.

  “Was there anything else you wanted to ask? I’m currently in Herald’s camp and they’re preparing for another attack to try and push the North out of the academy.”

  This was news to Morgan. He’d been wondering where Katherine would go now that her father knew of her treachery.

  “Yes, actually. It’s Sarah’s birthday tomorrow and I wanted to ask you what you think I should get for her.”

  “Ooh, look at you being so thoughtful and buying her a gift,” Katherine practically cooed over the connection.

  “I don’t much see the point in giving someone a gift just for being born, but Sarah is very adamant about getting presents. I’d prefer not to wake up one morning and find myself encased in a block of ice.”

  Katherine chuckled at that, and Morgan found himself smiling as well. As unpleasant as that sounded, it was just like Sarah to do something like that to him. She’d never gone quite so far before, but now that he could probably survive the freezing temperature, she just might.

  “How about getting her a ring?” Katherine asked. “I’m sure that you can get something exquisite in Westover.”

  “No thanks. I know what a ring signifies, and I don’t want to give her the wrong impression.”

  “You’re no fun!” Katherine replied, and Morgan could detect a pout in her voice.

  “Are you going to help me or not?” he asked, hearing the sound of a crowd up ahead.

  He was fast approaching the shopping district, and he wanted the conversation to end before he was in the thick of it.

  “I was only teasing,” Katherine’s playful tone came back. “If you want my suggestion, have something made for her, like a necklace or bracelet. There should be plenty of craftsman in the city, and most can have it done within minutes.”

  Morgan thought that suggestion over for a few seconds, before slowly nodding to himself. Katherine had had a core he’d given her set into a necklace, so maybe he could do something similar for Sarah.

  “Alright, thanks for the help. I’ll make sure to keep your pendant on from now on, in case you need to reach me.”

  “Aww, you do care!” Katherine gushed, but Morgan was already cutting off the connection.

  He’d figured out how to do it from his end a while ago, but had never actually done it before. He was glad it had worked, otherwise, he’d be stuck with Katherine in his head, until she decided to disconnect from her end.

  Morgan noted the crowd growing thicker, and soon enough, he was shoving hi
s way through a thronging mass of people as they went about their business. It took him a few minutes of searching, but eventually he found a jeweler. It then took him a further five minutes to shove through the crowd and get in, by which point he was tempted to just fly over the crowd.

  A small bell tinkled overhead as he entered the shop, and Morgan looked around at the neat and tidy space. It wasn’t large, just a one-room store with a glass display case and a woman sitting behind the counter.

  “How can I help you?” she asked as he approached the glass counter.

  Inside, he could see jewelry of all types displayed. Necklaces, rings, bracelets and other pieces that he couldn’t fathom as to where they would go, or what purpose they would serve.

  “Yes,” he replied, stopping before the counter. “I’m looking to have a necklace made for a friend. How long would that take, and how much would it cost?”

  “Well, that would depend entirely on the materials used and what quality you’d like.”

  Morgan fished around in his pocket, pulling out one of the smallest cores he could find.

  “Could you set this into a necklace?”

  The woman lifted the core, and examined it for a few seconds.

  “I can. What type of metal would you like used for the chain? And can you give me your friend’s approximate height and her first initial?”

  Morgan reached into his pocket again, and came out with one of the adamant spikes. It was about twice the length of his palm, and razor sharp on one end. When Katherine had mentioned having something made, his mind had immediately gone to the cores and metal in his pocket. In his mind, there would be no better material.

  The chi-infused adamant was likely one of the strongest metals around, so it wouldn’t be easily broken. The metal was also valuable, meaning that Sarah would be happy wearing it.

  The woman lifted the spike with a dubious look on her face. It was a dark dull gray, and probably didn’t look very pretty. A second later however, her eyes nearly bulged out of her skull.

  “Where did you find this?” she asked almost reverently.

  “I got it off a merchant on the road here,” Morgan lied. “He said he’d gotten it off a soldier in the East who killed some sort of beast.”

  “If you don’t mind me asking, how much did he charge you?” she asked, running her fingers over the smooth metal.

  Morgan was taken slightly off guard by this question, as he wasn’t entirely sure how much the metal was worth. He decided that the best course of action, would be to bluff.

  “I’d rather not say,” he replied. “Just tell me if you can do it, and how long it’ll take.”

  The woman seemed to snap back to her senses then, because she set the spike down and gave him a warm smile.

  “Of course. Would you like the core to remain round or would you like it to be sculpted?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “Sculpted it is then,” the woman replied, pulling a notepad from under the counter and writing down the specifics.

  “The cost for making the necklace is 45 silver, 8 copper and 2 bronze.”

  That’s not so bad, Morgan thought, already reaching for his money pouch. It was a crap-load of money if he were going by normal standards. It would be more than a month’s wages, but his idea of what a lot of money was had drastically changed over the last year.

  “I can have it ready in about two months.”

  Morgan was snapped from his wandering thoughts when he heard that.

  “I was told that jewelers could finish something like this in only a few minutes.”

  He was already beginning to panic. Sarah’s birthday was tomorrow, and he didn’t want to have to buy her present rather than it being made. He wasn’t sure why, but he was now set on this course of action and didn’t want to have to buy her something.

  “That would be a rush job. Yes, I can do it, but the best I can manage is about an hour. Working with metal like this is difficult and will take a lot of power.”

  Morgan could already see where this was going, but he waited for the woman to state the price that such a rush service would cost.

  “For the rush job, it will be 20 gold.”

  Morgan felt like gritting his teeth together at the blatant robbery. If he wasn’t so desperate, he might have taken his materials and gone to a different jeweler.

  “Fine,” he replied, digging into his coin pouch and removing 21 gold.

  The woman counted it out, then handed him his change.

  “You can come back in an hour and I should have it done for you,” she said, now seeming very pleased with herself.

  “Before you go however, would you mind selling me the excess metal from this bar?”

  Morgan thought about that for a moment before nodding. This would be his opportunity to find out how much the metal was actually worth. The woman didn’t know how much he’d “paid” for it, so she would likely give him an honest price. He could probably get even more due to it being such a rare material.

  “How much are you offering?” he asked as she pulled out a set of scales.

  “It looks like this piece is three pounds, four and a half ounces,” she replied after a few seconds. “I’ll probably need three to four ounces to make the chain, and another bit to make the setting. That will leave us just shy of three pounds of metal.”

  She dipped her pen in her inkwell and began scribbling frantically on the paper.

  “As you know, metal of this value is measured by the ounce. I’m guessing that you got a good deal seeing as you bought so much at once… probably three to five gold an ounce, am I correct?”

  She gave him a sharp look, but Morgan gave nothing away. After a moment of staring, she snorted and went back to scribbling. On the inside, Morgan was cheering and celebrating. He’d known that the metal would be valuable, but not this valuable!

  The woman continued scribbling for another minute, tallying up some numbers and muttering all the while. Finally, she set down her pen, and nodded to herself.

  “I’m willing to offer six and a half gold per ounce. I believe I can make a nice profit at that price, and you won’t have to lug that piece of metal around.”

  Morgan carefully watched the woman’s posture as she spoke. He’d become pretty good at reading body language since he’d combined his divine energy and reiki. The woman’s shoulders were slightly tensed, and he could hear her heart beating just a bit faster than was normal. She was lying. Morgan wasn’t entirely sure what metal like this would be worth, but he decided to take his best guess and try to judge for himself.

  “For that price, I may as well be giving it away,” he said with a snort. “I’ll be back in an hour for the necklace.”

  “Wait!” the woman cried out as he turned to leave.

  He turned back, raising an eyebrow. Her heart rate had increased drastically, and he could tell she was worried that she’d lose the opportunity to get her hands on the metal.

  “That was just an opening price, but I can see you’re a shrewd young man. So I’ll give you eight gold an ounce. That is more than fair.”

  Morgan examined her posture, but could tell that she was still undercutting its value, something which he found astonishing. If the metal was really worth as much as he thought it was, then he was going to be rich! He would have to be careful with how much he sold in any one place, as the value of an item would drop if there was a lot available.

  “I want twelve an ounce, and I won’t take a bronze less,” Morgan replied.

  He knew he was probably going way too high with his estimation, but that was the way people did business- or at least, the people he’d seen doing business back in City Four. As expected, the woman acted outraged.

  “That’s preposterous! I’ll give you nine, and that’s it!”

  “Eleven!” Morgan shot back.

  “Ten, and that’s as high as I’ll go!”

  “Deal!” Morgan said, feeling giddy on the inside.

  The woman smiled.
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  “We’ll settle on a final amount when you come back for the necklace.”

  Morgan nodded, then headed out of the shop, feeling a grin spreading across his face. He still had four bars of the metal in his pocket, and there was no shortage of stores who would want to buy from him.

  An hour later and two-and-a-half platinum richer, Morgan headed back into the jeweler's shop. He’d gone to four different stores to sell his remaining metal, getting about the same price as the woman had offered in each. He’d also discovered something interesting in the first store. Apparently, they made gold coins that were worth 100 gold each. When Morgan told the man he’d never seen it before, the man had given him an odd look.

  Apparently, since platinum coins were worth one thousand gold and having no way to carry that much money in coins, the merchants had come together and asked for a denomination between gold and platinum. The Kingdoms hadn’t made a new coin, but they had agreed to value a larger gold coin more, so as to make it easier on them.

  The gold coins were stamped on one side with the number 100, and on the other, with a picture of five crowns separated by thin lines. He’d received the same in the next store, but had exchanged for platinum in the third and fourth. Now, he had two platinum coins, four of the 100 gold coins, and 48 regular gold coins.

  The bell tinkled once again as he entered, and the woman was already there, weighing the piece of metal. He noted that a small section had been shaved off, and that there were smaller bits and pieces on the scale as well.

  “Oh good, you have perfect timing,” she said, writing down the weight as he approached the counter. “The end weight came out to two pounds, fifteen ounces. That comes out to 470 gold.”

  Morgan nodded as she pulled the money from under the counter and handed it over to him.

  “So, where’s the necklace?” he asked, pocketing the money and looking around.

  “It was very tricky to work with that metal, but I’m sure you’ll appreciate the result,” she said.

  Bending down, she retrieved a beautifully carved wooden box, inlaid with some sort of reddish-black metal in a stylized S. Morgan now understood why she’d asked for Sarah’s first initial. He held his breath as the woman opened the box and stared down with a slightly confused expression.