Chapter 14 - Commander

“Gods, I love it! Take my gold! Take it all!” I practically dump gold bars on top of Quinn’s head. My dressmaking business has been wildly successful, and thanks to extortionate pricing, I now have more wealth than I even know what to do with.

“You haven’t even drawn it from the sheath yet! Take a look at the blade!” Quinn says.

Even unsheathed, my sword is magnificent. It’s long, more than half my height. There is an elaborate cross guard, with twisting patterns reminiscent of the moon rune, and a wire-wrapped handle with enough space for either one hand or two. The sheath is black leather, embossed with silver trim in a lace pattern.

I draw it from the sheath, and it takes my breath away.

“It’s a hybrid design between a rapier and a bastard sword. Since mythril is so strong, I could make a narrow thrusting blade that was thin enough to not compromise the cutting power. That’s also why I could make it so long, without it being heavy.”

The blade is so shiny it’s almost white, with just a tint of blue. For about a third of the blade, there are six wavy copper lines squiggling through the metal, the plates with my runes that have been folded into the mythril.

“Try channeling your magic through it. Let’s make sure the runes are working properly.”

I send some lightning through the blade. It easily flows through, conducted by the wire handle and through the copper, then into the mythril blade. “Whoa.” Then I try moonlight, and the whole sword glows instantly. My jaw drops. It’s so compatible with my moonlight, more so than anything I’ve ever imbued with my magic. The blade soaks it up, just like the threads of fate.

“This is incredible,” I say breathlessly.

“In the end, I didn’t use pure mythril. I found something better. It cost me all the gold you payed me up front, and that was after I got a discount from telling them I was making a sword for you. The mythril contains trace amounts of celestium, a metal even rarer than adamantine. We had only one small lump of this particular material. It was found inside a meteor.”

“I will treasure it for a thousand years,” I promise.

He smiles. “As promised, it’s by far the best sword I’ve ever made. Looking back, I honestly can’t believe I actually made this. It almost feels like I was dreaming. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to make something like this again. Thank you, Ayla.”

I hug him. “No. You have a big destiny Quinn, I can see it. This is just your first masterpiece. You’ll make something even better one day, I know it. Now start thinking about what you’re going to make with all the gold I payed you. You better prove me right.”

He almost breaks down in tears, but he clenches his jaw, and manages not to cry. “I will.”

“Now what to name it?” I say, staring at the blade. I smile. “Wish.”

After fawning over my sword a little more, and saying bye to Quinn, I return to Lara’s place.

“Now that you got your sword, do you want to try it out?” She asks.

“Of course I do.” I frown. “But there are no monsters down here.”

“Oh, there are, in a certain sense of the word. I got you a special present, a thank-you gift for saving me back at Southrift. It’s something truly priceless.”

“What is it?”

“Come and see.”

She takes me into her home, and her brother Pumar is already there, lying on the couch and reading a book. I don’t see him often. He’s super busy commanding the Marmothi military.

Pumar glances up at me, and eyes my new sword. “Oh? Let’s see it.”

I draw the sword and hand it to him. He raises his eyebrows, and gently runs his finger along the blade. “So that crazy metallurgist finally found a buyer for the meteoric mythril.” He laughs. “Truly magnificent. I can’t believe this was made by that kid. Are you sure you didn’t secretly go to old Mugen behind everyone’s back?”

“That kid’s name is Quinn, and he’s a way better blacksmith than some crusty old grandpa.”

Pumar laughs. “You may be right. I might requisition his services after seeing this work.”

“Anyway, what’s this special present you were being all mysterious about?” I ask Lara.

“My spare time,” Pumar says.

Lara grins. “I convinced him to train you in swordsmanship. I don’t mean to brag, but my brother is the strongest Marmothi alive.”

I glance at Pumar. “Then why is he always here, instead of out fighting the Jotnar?”

“Yes, exactly!” Pumar says, wagging his finger towards Lara. “Listen to the wise primogenitor! She is right! My blade should be cleaving down the mountains of Ymirskrod this very moment, not lying in the basement!”

“You are the supreme commander, brother,” Lara says slowly, glancing at me. "If you truly wish to lead a premature and foolhardy assault on the Jotnar, then that is your decision.”

He gestures at his sister, looking at me. “Do you see? Do you see what I have to deal with?”

“At least just wait until that wise little primogenitor surpasses you. We have time,” Lara says.

Pumar sighs. “I concede, that might be sensible. Still, my blood boils. For every new burrow that falls to the unspeakable king, I cannot help but think it could have been averted. I could face the unspeakable king myself! I trust in my strength. I could defeat him.”

“Have you not spoken to Gorentus? The unspeakable king is too powerful. How can you defeat a being who can simply declare your death, and make it so?”

“My blade will rend his words, it will rend death itself!”

“Be realistic, brother. We need someone with magic that can counter his abilities. The hero promised by Lorencia might not be coming, but Ayla is here. She may be young, but if she is anything like the other primogenitors, she will eventually grow powerful enough to face even the Old Gods themselves! If Supreme Ancestor Weyna were still alive, she would have crushed the unspeakable king with a single breath!”

“How many years will that take? A hundred? A thousand? Ten thousand? What will become of the Marmothi if we wait for her to attain such power? Besides, didn’t you say you’ve begun to think of yourself as her adoptive mother? What kind of mother sends her daughter to war?”

Lara averts her eyes. She glances at me. “I’m sorry. I wish you hadn’t heard that.”

“I’ll do it,” I say.

“What?” Lara asks, taken aback.

“I’ll fight the unspeakable king, once I’m stronger. I want to end this war. I don’t want any more Marmothi do die. The Great Burrow is my home now, as much as yours. You’re my family now. I want to protect you, to fight for you! I’m not strong enough yet, I know that, but I will be.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Pumar takes a deep breath, he touches his face, taking a long moment to consider my words. “Very well. We will begin your training, primogenitor. I will consider it to be a top priority, something critical to our people’s survival.”

I bow to him. “Thank you, Commander.”

“Come. There is an abandoned quarry where we can let loose. I want to assess your current level of strength.”

Pumar gets his sword from the basement. It’s an old thick greatsword made of an unassuming matte grey metal, which I’ve learned is in fact a legendary material called adamantine, stronger but more brittle than mythril. Then we travel down a tunnel into a vast open cavern. There is a spiraling floor where the stone has been carved away, and a ceiling made of massive but rusty support beams. It’s dark, and Lara goes around the quarry to light old fire pots.

“Attack me with everything you have,” Pumar says, raising his massive weapon.

I take a deep breath.

Lightning!

I shoot forward along a thread of fate, connected to Pumar’s throat. I imbue my sword with moonlight and zig zag in the lightning, moving around his weapon to attack his neck.

He’s not blocking. Oh no! Am I going to cut him?

And then I am tumbling through the air. I didn’t even see him move, but my sword has been knocked out of my hand. It clatters on the stone a few paces away. I hit the dirt with a thud.

“Wow,” I say. “Also ouch.” I climb back up to my feet.

“You’re quite fast, but your form is absolute garbage, and your grip is weak,” he says.

I run to my blade to pick it back up. I raise it once more, preparing for another assault.

“No. Sorry, but you aren’t quite ready to spar me yet. It will just reinforce bad habits. We should focus on your fundamentals. Let’s begin with your stance.”

He puts away his sword, and walks over to me. He adjusts the positioning of my feet, and the angle of of my hands. “Your greatest strength is your agility. Stay light on your feet, but make sure you have the footing to become rooted and generate force when you need to. When you strike with your blade, it is critical that the edge is perfectly aligned wiht the plane of attack. With curved swords, the blade naturally falls into alignment, but with a straight sword like this, you must make it happen yourself.”

“Got it.”

“Do a practice slash, no magic.”

I jump up and down slightly, ready to move. Then I plant my feet and slash diagonally.

“Better. Keep practicing. I’ll tell you when you’re making mistakes.”

He trains me for hours, and it’s quite difficult. I have to unlearn a bunch of little bad habits that I picked up while fighting monsters. I never realized that tiny details in my technique could make such a huge difference. Pumar is amazing!

Afterwards, I am exhausted, and I go back to Lara to eat Yamba and grubs.

“Ayla! Ayla!” Ruby exclaims later that night, while I’m reading a book about smithing.

She jumps onto the tea table excitedly.

“What is it Ruby?” I ask.

“Ruby Faya!” She exclaims, and then breathes fire at me.

I dodge out of the way just in time, but the couch is set ablaze.

“Lara! Come quick! We need water! Water!”

We manage to put out the flames before the house burns down, but most of the living room has been reduced to a charred wasteland.

“So. Ruby can breathe fire,” Lara says pensively.

“Ruby Faya!” Ruby says again, red light bulging up in her mouth. I cover it with my hand before she can unleash more devastation. She chokes out some smoke through my fingers, looking at me like I’ve just horribly betrayed her.

“Ruby. We don’t breathe fire on our own home. That’s dumb,” I explain to her. “How about we go to the old quarry that Pumar showed me, and you can do Ruby Fire as much as you want over there?”

She nods happily.

We go back to the quarry, this time with Ruby, and she goes on a big fire breathing spree, trying her best to melt the boulders. She actually manages to make some of the smaller ones glow red hot. I can tell already, this is going to be a problem.

The months pass. Varg teaches me reading and writing, Pumar trains me in swordsmanship, Lara helps me run my dress business, and Ruby comes into her own as a living disaster.

“I am so, so, sorry! I won’t let it happen again!” I bow down to a Marmothi mom, as does Lara.

“She burned down our whole mushroom garden! Imagine if my son had been playing in there! She could have killed him! Why was she even here?!”

“She escaped from our house,” Lara says. “The doors were all locked and the windows closed! I don’t even know how she did it!”

“Well you better figure it out, or else!”

“We’re so sorry!” I reiterate.

Ruby is struggling in my arms. “Lemme go! Wanna Ruby Faya!” She cries.

“No Ruby. You’re in big trouble!” I say.

“Ruby Zoom Zoom!” She exclaims.

Then she melts into darkness within my arms. A shadow flits across the street, and she reappears crouching under someone’s windowsill.

“Bu!” She sticks out her tongue at me and runs away.

“You get back here!”

Lightning!

I flash across the road and grab her again.

Squirming desperately in my arms, she attempts to turn into shadows again.

“No you don’t!” I imbue moonlight into her, and it cancels her ability.

“Not fair! Waah! Waah!” She starts crying.

I drag her back home, patiently explain that we don’t burn people’s gardens, and then I draw moonlight runes on all our windows and doors, in the hopes that they will block her escape.

The runes work for about a week, until she somehow figures out how to get passed them.

This starts off an arms race, where Varg teaches me how to use my runes for effective wards, and Ruby keeps figuring out how to bypass the wards. Eventually our whole house ends up covered in complex variations of the moonlight rune, inscribed into literally everything, and we have to constantly change the designs, just to keep the little menace contained.

One day, while I’m lecturing Ruby about why we don’t destroy pottery for fun, Pumar comes to visit Lara with some bad news.

Another burrow has fallen to the Jotnar. It’s Glacier Burrow, the place where Quinn’s dad was.

I go to visit him.

“He’s still alive. He has to be. I signed up for the search and rescue crew. I’m gonna find him,” Quinn tells me.

I take his hand.

“My dad also went to war. He never came back. I know how you feel.” I attach a thread of fate to his palm, and the other end, I send into the distance with a prayer. “I hope you find him.”

After that, Quinn leaves the city to look for his dad. Pumar had commissioned a work from him just before he left, a dagger made of demonite, the tough black metal that is common among Marmothi weapons.

“I wanted to see what he would do if I gave him a basic project. It’s splendid work. I think he must have learned a lot from making your sword. It’s a pity he won’t be staying here.”

While Pumar examines the dagger, I am practicing my sword swings. “He’ll be fine.”

“How can you be so sure? Search and rescue is dangerous work.”

“Just a feeling.”

After a few more months of basic training with Pumar, he says I’m ready to spar with him again.

I still can’t do anything against him. Even looking into the future isn’t good enough, because all paths just lead to defeat. He adjusts his moves based on whatever I do, and crushes me.

“It’s so unfair! How can you be so strong and fast at the same time? Your sword is so heavy!”

I am panting for breath on the ground.

“If your opponent doesn’t feel like fighting you is unfair, then you’re doing something wrong.”

“Then I must be doing something wrong.”

“Yes. To face the unspeakable king, you’ll need something truly unfair indeed. You must find a way of using your magic that will gain you an insurmountable advantage over your foe.”

My mind goes to Ruby. I have been called unfair before.

If I can block her magic, why not someone else’s?

“Hold on. I just had an idea. Send an earth magic attack at me,” I say, climbing up to my feet.

Pumar stabs his sword into the ground. I feel a surge of power coming through the stone. Looking into the future, see a pillar rising from the earth to pummel me in the stomach. I send moonlight into the ground. It collides with the oncoming earth magic, and I treat Pumar’s magic in the same way I treat Ruby’s shadows when I block her ability.

Luminous Authority!

The pillar never comes up. Pumar’s spell has been purified out of existence.

“What did you do?” He asks.

I grin. “Something unfair.”

Pumar waves his hand, and two dozen rocks fly at me. Looking into the future, I see that they will home towards me no matter where I run.

I fire moondrops into each one, purifying away Pumar’s control. Most of the rocks miss me, and I weave by the others like a leaf in the wind. They pass by harmlessly.

“How? You found a counter against my magic?” He asks.

“It works on my sister’s too. I’m hoping I can learn to cancel any spell I want.”

“An all-purpose counterspell?” Pumar laughs. “Now that’s more like it.”

“Along with my ability to see the future, I bet I’d be a serious problem for mages.”

“Or for a certain king.”

My eyes widen. The unspeakable king is dangerous because of the magic in his words. If I can block that, then he’s just a big strong giant, and Pumar will be able to beat him!

“I need to practice this,” I say, heart pounding.

“I agree,” Pumar says, grinning.

Since then, each of our training sessions involve a mage from the Marmothi army. Most of the Marmothi know the earth rune, but a few know other runes as well, like the fire and ice runes. It’s not easy, but I gradually get the hang of countering any magic that they try by purifying it away with my moonlight. I can even look into the future and shoot moondrops into them, canceling their magic before they even begin casting it.

Now, two years have passed. I am thirteen, and Ruby is four. I'm fortunately still aging normally, although I’m growing a bit slow. Lara says that my first period might come somewhat late for me because I endured starvation as a child. Hopefully she’s right about that. I would really prefer not to be a child for ten thousand years.

While I’m playing tag with Ruby one afternoon, Pumar comes to me.

“Ayla, there you are. Come quickly. Our spies have spotted one of the unspeakable king’s generals collecting monsters nearby. We are going to take this opportunity to ambush him. Would you like to come? I believe you’re ready.”

“Of course!” I’ve been itching to fight for so long.

“I’m coming too! I’m gonna burn them all to ashes! Muahahaha!” Ruby says.

“Absolutely not,” I say. “Anyway, who is this general?”

“The surgeon.”