And the Third! hooray! *confetti*
The Word Weaver
A Metamor Keep Story
By Fenrs Wolf
October 22, CR 706
"Curse them. Curse them, I say!" I sighed... I had to, but I didn't like it. The people in charge of patrols had found out that I hadn't been doing anything in defence of the keep. Well, they were right- I never did any sort of military service, not for these people. But they were determined to make me start. I was led to a place where they told me what I would be doing. I was to patrol the outer area of the keep, around some forests. Report anything I found, come back alive, kill a couple of dangerous critters if I got the chance, that sort of thing. They gave me a map of the area I was to patrol, marked in red. This was my first time, so I hadn't gotten any equipment assigned yet.
Upon approaching a desk that seemed to be where the registry was, I was suddenly thrust into the outfitting system.
"Name."
"Fenrs..."
It was a mule-morph. He seemed to be in charge of the Armory. There were a few people sitting around, sharpening weapons, taking invantory. There were weapons everywhere...
"Alright, lets see. What kind of armor will you be using, then, Fenrs?"
"Just some leather, nothing heavy. No metal."
"Lightweight, eh? Don't come after me once you've got a dagger in you some metal would'a stopped." A woman in a full suit of armor went into a back room after I had gotten measurements and produced a set of light leather armor, and handed it to me.
The mule jotted down some notes, probably the measurements and what I was wearing, and looked back up after he was done and squinted at me.
"Aight then, what kind of weapon?"
Oh Hells. I forgot they would want to give me a weapon. I didn't want to explain this to them. It wasn't something I wanted anyone to know.
But...it was inevitable. All I could do was try to prolong it.
"Just... nothing. No weapons, thanks for offering, though."
"No weapon, eh?" The look he gave me said enough. He thought either I was stupid or going to die. Maybe both.
"No. None."
"Not even a dagger?"
"No daggers."
Then someone did something unexpected. The woman got up out of her seat next to me and shoved a standard-looking longsword into my hand, saying "Just use this, you bloody fool." before I had a chance to react.
My whole world was suddenly on fire. It was only three seconds, but in that short time it felt like years of agonizing pain, as though I were being shoved into a white-hot furnace, plunged into the fire, and burned alive for decades.
My vision disappeared, I couldn't see, all the senses became blotted out by the pain. Everything was gone... I screamed. I could hear the voices of the people in the room, shouts, panicing, someone yelling for a healer. They seemed so far away in the blackness, and yet I knew they were right there. Suddenly, light, the room, the people. I blinked. The sword was in the wall across the room, forced into the surface by the force of my throw enough to drive it down to the hilt of the sword, with cracks forming around the it.
Everyone in the room looked at me, kneeling down on the ground with my hand smoking where it had touched the sword.
"I said... no.... weapons..."
Everything went dark again. This time, I reached out. Images, floating in the darkness, lighting up the void. I touched the one nearest, and it expanded to take up Everything.
July 25th, 250 CR.
It was a forest of emerald on a mountain. A time when I was most foolish. I waved my sword, a katana, about, practicing my still-in-progress style of fighting. It was from a faraway place from the land I was in now. It was a blade I had in my posession since I was a small child, though I did not learn to use it until I had grown considerably. It had also had the name carved into the handle: Shining Fang. Light reflected from it like no other blade, and the beams of the sun would dance upon the blade. It was of an unknown metal, and no swordsmith in all the lands I visted could identify what it had been made of. The entire sword was made of the same metal, save for the wooden hilt, which was made of what could only be described as clear wood, as though it were made of glass, but to the touch it was most assuredly from a tree. It astounded people everywhere, and many times I defended my life from those who would attempt to take it, and not once had it ever shown any sign of damage. As I practiced with this sword, something abnormal happened. Words appeared in my mind. They had no voice, but I was shaken by their presence.
"Hello, Child of the Wolf. What brings You to My Mountain?" I barely payed attention to th actual sentance. The shock had overridden the words themselves.
"I am a mere traveller, and am practicing my swordmanship on my way through these lands."
The words flowed into my head, with no reasoning behind them, no sight to identify them with, no voice to match them to.
"You have come Here, to this Place, and I have an Offer for You. Would you accept It? There is, as with all deals, a Price."
"What is it your offer, whatever you are? What is your name? Where are you?
"I have no Name. I have no Voice, no Body, and no Movement. These things are not mine, but they will be in Time. I am Here and I am Now, and I Offer to keep you from the Sands of Time."
"...What?"
"I will make it so that Time has no hold over you. You will never age and the Keepers of Time will be unable to claim your Death."
"So what is the price if I agree?"
"That is for you to Decide. If it is reasonable, I will accept your price. But most likely I will have to add more to make it worthwhile."
"Alright, how about my weapon?"
"Not Enough."
"What?" I hadn't thought of that. It was so bizzare! "Not enough"? What kind of person takes an offer like that and says "Not enough"?!? I was the one taken off guard at that. Whoever this mind-talker was, a sword like mine simply had to have been intreguing! Many people had asked me if they could merely see it. Some would try to steal it, kill me for it, even scam it off of me! And yet something I never encountered before. Someone who wasn't interested. I knew I had other weapons, though not as interesting. Just ordinary things in case of emergencies.
"How about all my weapons then?"
"No. If you are intent on the price of weaponry, however, then That is the price. but that is not all. You shall be my eyes and ears."
"What? That doesn't make any sense! And what do you mean by weaponry being the price, do I have to go and get more or something?"
"I have no body. I cannot see, I cannot feel, I cannot hear. Your voice reaches me only by my own power. You Will show me the world in your travels as part of your price. And for the rest of the price..."
"Yes, the weaponry bit?" This was getting ridiculous. It wasn't even funny. However, I was determined to expose this person for who they were.
"No tools of war shall you ever touch again. They will be your bane, and it will bring great pain to touch them. Keep this in mind, for I do not speak lightly of this."
"Fine, I agree. Can I see you now?"
"Child, I said before. I have no body. You cannot see me."
"Hey now, I am no child! I've been walking about this world for over twenty years, and this game is getting tiresome!"
"There are no games here..." Suddenly my sword flew out of my hand, and floated in the air towards a gigantic dull gray-brown boulder that appeared in the middle of the clearing. the sword rammed into the top, point-down, and was buired as far as the hilt in the stone. "The Sword will never be removed from this place. Trials such as this have been passed before, and will be passed in the future, but none will take this Sword. You have been granted My side of the deal, having given your Payment, and I now See through You."
Then I felt a pain behind my eyes, and it.. the thing, the word-weaver, entered into me. I felt it in the corners of my mind.
"What... No! My Sword!" I ran to it and grasped the hilt, but it would not budge. All my attempts were met with no result. the sword would not be moved. I tried for days on end to move it, but eventually I had to leave. The pain subsided, and eventually I could only feel a tingling sensation behind my eyes, and I knew the word-weaver was watching though me the whole time. I tried to get a new sword so that I would have a wepon, and each time I tried to hold one, It burned my hands, even the slightest touch, no matter if I had a barrier of leather, cloth, or wood between me and it. With all manner of weapons I tried, axes, polearms, daggers, the results repeated. Unlike the sword that had once belonged to me, I could touch nothing of its kind. Then I brushed upon the metal plate of a mercenary, and it burned the same. I realised what the words meant. I could never touch another weapon ever again. I was defenceless. The best armor I could have was leather, and weapons of any sort were unusable. Only the sword I had left inside the boulder at the clearing had not burned. I was robbed Many times, and almost always injured in the process. I had been inches from death at the hands of muggers and highwaymen more times than I cared to count. More and more time was spent in beds, and less doing the traveling I loved.
Then words came into my mind again. "It would seem my price has left you unable to defend youself. A pity." "I will teach you, then, maigc to help you survive throughout your journey."
"What do you care? You're inside my head and you make me feel hurt when I touch anything to do with fighting. You have brought me nothing but misery and loss."
"You can be of no use to me dead. I require you so that I may see the world. In time, you will thank me for my gift."
Over the next few months, the Word-Weaver taught me the most bizzare magic. It was unlike any I had seen before. It could move things, take you to an empty world where things could be stored, open up holes in one spot that lead to another somewhere else, though those worlds. It taught me this magic, and it was my only defence. But I worked the magic, improved it. I made it my own.
I woke up. I was back in the armory. Standing, I looked down at my hand. No sign of the pain was there, though it had been mere moments since the blade scorched me. That's how it always was...
"Right then, Fenrs... no weapons..."
I went out the door, readied myself for the patrol, and did as I had been instructed.
Nobody asked me to explain the pain I had so obviously felt at the touch of the sword. Each time I arrived, I was given my leather armor. The ones who asked why I took no weapons with me were merely shown the wall and sword, the cracks from the impact, and told: "That is why he doesn't have any weapons. It pains him to the extent where the desire for it to end gives him strength to break stone."
Each time I went on patrol, I went alone. I made sure that nobody saw that magic the Word Weaver had shown me. The last time a military force found out what I could do, they forced me to be a weapon in a war.
On one such patrol, The words came again.
"Stop- to your right. That Tree, that stands alone, apart from the nearby forest."
Upon examination, the tree seemed ordinary, so I went up for a closer look. It was a simple tree, and it looked just like every other tree in the area. The only odd thing about it that I could see was the total lack of other vegetation other than grass within at least a twenty foot radius.
"This Tree is Special. It is Different, like you, it posesses an abnormally large amount of presence for it's kind. It has been touched by the Universe, similar to how the Universe has touched you. Now, though, you will take it and form it into something Else."
"Alright then..."
Then, useing what I call Yiranri, I set to cutting the tree. Rather than using a sharp edge to cut something, as I had none, it would apply immense amounts of pressure to a very small space of my choosing, creating a cutting effect. The rough translation is just that: Pressure Slicing. Eventually, the tree was cut down and stripped of bark and brances, lying in front of me.
"Alright then... now what?"
"Use what I taught you to form it into something New. Something you can Use."
"Such as...?"
"It is up to you. Let all the universe guide your hands, without interference from your mind. That is the best way."
"Alright, then."
The Word Weaver had taught me much, and a major part of it was reaching out and touching the Universe, letting my mind leave. No tought would enter my head and all would be silent. Using this technique, I reached out, and rather than take control myself, as I had done before, I let Everything take control. I don't know exactly what happened after that. I awoke to find myself sitting up, with a staff on my lap. It felt good, when I held it. No, not just good. it felt right, as though I should have always had it. It was beautifully carved, with impossible deatils. And as I inspected it, the carvings changed before my eyes. moving from one impossible set of carvings to another, it was almost constantly changing. Then the Word Weaver wrote in my mind:
"It is a good Tool. It will never break, rot, or burn, and none will be able to use it properly other than you, for it is you the Universe has made it for."
"Thank you for guiding me here, Word Weaver. I think I shall call it Rahkunganos."
"It was neccessary. You need not thank me for it. But you are welcome."
Grinning, I set off back towards Metamor, hand clasped onto Rahkunganos.