As we tread upon a dreary path, the rain silently fluttered about the sky, hazily skipping across a-many stone. Flip-flops did little to stop the rain from catching in little crevices between my tired feet and the abraded leather which had served me for a few years now. It didn't bother me at first, but after a while, it felt like I was heaving a bucket of water in each sandal. Cid kept a steady pace, which was basically the only thing keeping me from lying out on the sullen grass and drifting off to slumberland.
"Hey Cid," I muttered. He didn't turn around, but he gave notice.
"Yeah boy?" His perpetual gait began to create a gap between us.
"How come you never talk about your past? Y'know... like before you arrived in Nuremlow." I barely noticed that he had stopped in his tracks and had nearly collided with him.
"The past should stay the past and never falter the present." He began his steps forward again, but some feeling urged me to reach out to him.
"You're right the past should never falter the present, but keep in mind that it is also the gateway to the future." Again he stopped. I continued to penetrate the barrier which kept Cid's precedents locked away. "I don't know what happened or how you got to where you are today." I sought for a breath of air for a moment. I hadn't realized how deep I was getting myself into. "History repeats itself... it is only denied by the Gods themselves... the power to undo our past." Cid turned around to face me, standing stagnantly in the fervent rain.
"My child... anyone who believes they cannot change history..." he casually raised his head and gave me a hardened glance, "has never written a memoir before." There was a slight pause before he smirked and gave a light chuckle. "Now let's keep moving my boy. No need to dwindle in the hem and haw. We have a long road to Astrub and its best we move quickly." He looked up to the sky and a cardinal flew overhead, carrying in its talons a parchment. He smirked. "News of this call of warfare will reach King Allister quickly. Then we will have a bigger problem on our hands."
The rain softened as we made distance away from Nuremlow, meaning a peaceful night's rest, minus the soggy earth. We gathered firewood to which Cid lit aflame with an incantation of magic. The night perched overhead with stars blanketing the sky, with the capacious clouds of storm befalling towards the Sufokian coastline. I recognized the landscape as Farle Ingalsse's Field, where legend spoke of how he tended to every pasture of soil through heat and storm and yielded the world's earnest of crops. We sat around the smoldering flames, keeping close to it for warmth and comfort. I felt the need to try again.
"Cid... is there anything at all you can share about your past?" He looked up from the enchanting fire which danced and flickered in the mellow moonlight. Faintly he began to ponder, which was probably a cue for me to not speak. Then he snapped back to reality.
"Alright Rayn. Since you're so ambitious to chase after my past, I'll share with you a story." Intrigued by my effortless breakthrough compared to previous trials, I perked myself to his tale. "Let me reach back twenty-five years ago... as a man who had reached the apex of my prime, I was well known for being one of the most polished of swordsman in the land." I nodded instinctively. "But there was one other warrior who bested me in strength, speed, dexterity, and exceeded me in the most important trait in battle... my willpower." He seemed to turn dismayed. "He was a challenger from a far away land. Further than the barrens of Cania. Come to test the precinct of our quarry. The elders chose me to represent them. And I'll tell you now, I entered the Kanojedo with an iron confidence and a boastful pride while my opponent stood there sharpening his weapon. I made the mistake of only paying heed to the villagers chanting me on, rather than analyzing my foe. I drew my sword; not the Neverparanorm, but a treasured memento of a long passed knight in our village whose name was Omero. It was flawless in every detail; the paragon of blacksmithing. He pointed his blade at me, and I returned with a wide grin, and thus the battle began." Cid pulled out his canteen, taking a drink. He stalled for a moment before continuing. "Within the first few moments of the battle I knew he was no normal opponent. His brandished sword parried each and every stab I sent at him with effortless motion. An overhead swing resulted in two fingers suspending the blade in midair and halting my strike with such suddenness that the dust on the ground stirred. The spectators, astonished by how brutally I was being defeated, stared agape. I couldn't beat him. He was a finer swordsman in every way." Cid paused again to take in a breath of air. "When he finally decided to be done with me, he grasped my blade with a bare hand at the edge, pulled it away from me, knocked me to the ground with a simple maneuver, and planted his sword into the ground while still holding mine." At that, Cid pulled out the Neverparanorm. "And he claimed Masamura from me and exchanged it with the Neverparanorm." Cid passed a finger down the edge of the epee, and I watched the golden luster radiate from hilt to tip. "He was there to pass a curse; not for a normal duel." I couldn't help myself but to scrutinize that last bit.
"What do you mean curse? That sword is the finest work of craftsmanship I've ever laid eyes on!" Cid let out a slight chuckle before waving the blade in the air.
"It is the soul collector, commonly referred to as the Blackblade in lore." I had never heard of it before, so I inquired. To this, he spoke to me the legend of the Blackblade, forged in the abysmal lair of Hel Munster for the audacious use for Raval, whom had encrypted the runes jeweled into the hilt of the weapon with a spell of Fate which binds the soul of the wielder upon death... a fate too wicked to go into detail about." Names were spoken which I heard about. Hel Munster, the greatest smithmagi to work, imbuing weapons with such properties to hand down judgment and decay. And there was Raval, one of the most powerful rogues to cross both alignments and turn the tides of war. If the Neverparanorm indeed was the Blackblade... I had so many more questions. But Cid would not listen to them. Instead he sheathed his sword and laid across the brush. "Enough anecdotes and history lessons Rayn. We must gather our strength for the rise of the next sun." I was tempted to challenge that, but I knew that Cid had reached his peak for catering to my obsession, and I definitely did not want to be the one to antagonize him. I learned enough that night as it was so I lay a cluttered head to rest, frolicking in a brine of reminiscence.
That night I dreamed a starry dream, jaunting in a barren wasteland, surrounded by a plethora of fallen warriors. I halt in my pace to find that I held an ancient pendulum in one hand while in the other I held the Neverparanorm...