![]() I paused in my efforts to pull the sword to think about the question. “Tell me child, if you were a king, how would you rule? With honour and justice? With strength and power? With majesty and glory?” the woman asked. I couldn’t seem to think straight, barely questioning why I was doing it even as my hand found the handle of the ornate sword. Her voice held an aura of command I found hard to resist. “Hunh?” I let out stupidly before I could stop myself. She was gesturing to a sword that was stuck into a rectangular patch of elevated smooth stone conspicuously sticking out from the uniform grass around us. It was a woman, a breathtakingly beautiful blonde woman in shining steel armour, who held an air of nobility, a presence that made me feel small standing before her even though I was the taller one. ![]() What was I doing? How did I get here, to this meadow in clear daylight when it was supposed to be night outside? I blinked my eyes, looking around confused. So far away-like they belonged to another world altogether. All the bullying and hurt from Emma’s betrayal seemed so insignificant now. I couldn’t remember ever feeling so content in my life, at least not after mom died. ![]() I felt like my worries literally melted away. My tense muscles, palpitating heartbeat, and tight throat-all of it relaxed in an instant. Melodious and uplifting, it sent waves of tranquility and peace throughout my body. The image of fairies dancing around a pure lake and lush forest came to mind. It wasn’t any language I’d ever heard of, but somehow I understood it. I heard a chorus of song whispering in my ears. That my power wouldn’t let me forge an item that wouldn’t work for me. This wasn’t the sword, but didn’t the sheathe count as part of the set? If it didn’t work for me, then I’d have wasted three months for nothing. In the legends, it was said that the sword chose the king. It would make or break my yet to begin hero career. It was more complicated, more exhausting, more demanding than any of the trinkets I’d made before-not that they were really trinkets-just that this artifact was so far beyond them they seemed like trinkets by comparison. This was so much more than anything else I’d tried to make. What if it didn’t work? What if it didn’t accept me as its owner? My hand hovered over it hesitatingly, as if afraid of dirtying this priceless treasure.Īnd I was afraid, in all honesty. But this was no feather-this was the product of three months of painstaking work, a beautiful and noble craft of metallic gold, silver, and blue. The artifact floated downwards gently like a feather. The pale glow covering my latest creation kept the room illuminated in a soft azure haze. The magic circle and summoned forge that lit my room in orange-red began to fade away. You should truly value the sheath, not the sword." As long as you have the sheath on you, you will spill no blood and take no wounds. “The sword slashes the enemy, but the sheath protects you. ![]()
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