Ch-2 Ashen Requim

  The exam was just two days away and Eryndor had no weapon or money. He looked around the house and found a single gold point. Eryndor was dead broke.

  He took out the stash of herbs and potions he had stored for the exam. He picked up all this and put it in a bag and left to sell it. Eryndor tried his luck at many apothecaries trying to get a good price, but all of them tried to undermine him thinking he was a warrior.

  Eryndor had enough of the treatment, he finally decided to try a merchant group. He hated these merchant groups, it was just overwhelming to do small talk with others.

  Eryndor walked through the crowd to reach a four storey building right next to his home. With a sigh Eryndor stepped through the modern looking gates of the building.

  On entering the building the atmosphere was completely different from that of outside. It was empty. There was no crowd and everything was systematic. He walked towards the front desk, the man there greeted him with a smile. ‘I would like to sell all this.’ Eryndor spoke. The man took the bag and examined the contents before returning it to him. ‘Please wait over there someone will be there to help you soon.’

  Eryndor walked over and sat down on the chair and waited.

  Within minutes a man dressed in black formals approached him. ‘Welcome. So you are looking to sell these herbs and potions.’

  Eryndor stood up and politely greeted the man. ‘Yes!’ He spoke afterwards. ‘Please come over to my office so we can discuss the price.’

  After that Eryndor spent an hour negotiating the price of the goods he was selling in the man’s office. He left the office with 5 Arcaninan gold and 25 Arcanian silver. Eryndor let out a sigh ‘It is way less than what I need.’

  6 gold and 25 silver of no currency could get him a decent sword. As Eryndor was passing through the porting area of the building, he overheard a conversation.

  Two men were talking. One spoke ‘Hey, you know there are rumors there is a famous blacksmith looking for a person to worthy of his last best creation.”

  Eryndor was immediately interested in this.

  Eryndor walked over to them and asked, ‘So do you know where this blacksmith lives?’ They gave him a confused look, then one of them smiled and spoke ‘Yes, We know but you have to buy something from us first.’

  The men were out to rob Eryndor, but he couldn’t give up on knowing about a blacksmith who could make a sword suited for a person.

  ‘What do you sell?’ spoke Eryndor.

  ‘We sell anything you want. But we think you should buy some liquor from us.’ The man spoke.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  ‘Huh! I’d rather to a tavern.’ Spoke Eryndor with a confused expression.

  ‘The smith likes some good old wine.’ Spoke the man with a shrug.

  Eryndor took out 10 silver from his pouch and spoke ‘Four bottles of mana grape wine.’

  The man took out the bottles and nicely packed them up and gave it to Eryndor. ‘You will find his smithy in a back alley of the smith street between XX and YY Smithies.’

  With a small bow of thanks he left the establishment with more five gold and four bottles of wine.

  He was happy. Eryndor hastily made way to the smithy. Finally he reached small alleyway, it was like he was going home. Eryndor walked straight in the dimly light alleyway until he reached at the smith’s doorstep.

  Eryndor knocked the door to smithy, only to find it open. He pushed the door a little more to take a look in, The room was dark not even a single light ray. From the darkness emerged a small well built man with a beard almost as big as him, he was a: Dwarf. He was holding a hammer in one hand and a bottle of alcohol in the other.

  ‘Who are you?’ The dwarf asked. ‘I am Eryndor.’ Eryndor introduced himself.

  ‘If you are here for a sword, I stopped making them.’ He spoke with shrug before continuing to drink again.

  ‘I have some alcohol. If you would like.’ Eryndor spoke trying to get the Dwarf’s attention.

  The Dwarf gulped down the entire bottle in his hand. He looked at Eryndor, his eyes were shining blue. The dwarf was using innate soul magic.

  Eryndor jumped back and pulled out the dagger from his pocket.

  ‘You are incomplete.’ Spoke the dwarf with a sad expression on his face.

  Eryndor was confused and didn’t know what to say. ‘Follow me,’ Spoke the dwarf as the glow in his eyes faded. Eryndor didn’t know what to do. He sheathed the dagger he was holding and followed the dwarf.

  As Eryndor passed through threshold of the smithy the darkness evaporated, bright lights and flames of fireplace were completely visible. The dwarf sat down on the table and pointed to Eryndor to also sit down.

  Eryndor sat down as per the instruction. The sheathed dagger still in his hand.

  The dwarf’s eyes light up once more. ‘Don’t worry Eryndor, my innate skill just lets me know a bit more about a person by peeping into their soul.’

  Creepy, but at least it was better than him trying to crush Eryndor’s soul with magic. Eryndor put the dagger back in his pockets.

  ‘I am the former “Smith of Victory”, Vulcan.’ The dwarf introduced himself. ‘Eryndor, Why did come to this random alleyway to look for a sword?’

  ‘I heard about you while shopping.’ Eryndor spoke trying to not come out as rude.

  Vulcan laughed ‘It’s true, you are quite a guy to believe whatever you hear in this endless bazaar.’

  Eryndor put up the bag of alcohol and spoke ‘So will you sell me a sword?’

  Vulcan with a serious expression spoke, ‘You cannot choose to buy the sword, the sword must choose you. Eryndor Greythrone.’

  Eryndor was confused, he continued his questioning. ‘What did you mean by me being incomplete?’

  Vulcan was surprised, ‘You didn’t know your soul was incomplete?’

  Eryndor not knowing what to say, just nodded. Vulcan was quite surprised.

  ‘Eryndor, I don’t know how you, despite having an incomplete soul are still alive. But I can tell you about more about your soul’s state.’ Vulcan tried to comfort Eryndor with his words.

  ‘Still we have a lot of time on our hands. Shall we see your new possible partner first.’ Spoke Vulcan as he jumped off the chair, that was clearly too big for him.

  Vulcan walked over to the far end of the room and Eryndor followed. They reached near a chest. An old wooden chest, a kind that could be classified as an antique. With his hammer Vulcan broke the lock and popped open the chest to reveal a beautiful sword wrapped in silk velvet, and without a speck of dust on it.

  Eryndor was mesmerized by the beauty attempted to pick it up. Vulcan immediately shooed his hand away and picked up the sword. After being removed from the velvet, the beautiful yet sharp edges of the sword were visible.

  Vulcan mumbled while holding the sword. ‘Here this is my last masterpiece, Ashen Requim. I hope she likes you.’ Spoke Vulcan while handed Eryndor the beautiful long sword, with long black handle and a thorny rose pattern engraved on the blade.

  Eryndor still in the awe of the beautiful sword didn’t give Vulcan any reply. Suddenly he heard a new voice in his head. It sounded like the voice of a girl.

  The voice spoke, ‘Hello, Brother.’