Chapter Three: Sword of Spirits
How can a sword thus forged from steel,
Ever aspire to emotions feel?
It sees the lies and then the hate,
As for its owner it sits to wait.
"We should have plenty of supplies to make it to a town on the border of Lycia, why do you want to stop?"
As we rode, I sat atop Peaches, who was a docile, pretty bay mare with a small, white star on her forehead. She got her name from her favorite treat, which I would always core and feed to her myself when we arrived at or left a town. It was a custom the horse appreciated, and I'd do anything to get her to keep her gait as smooth and lovely as it was. Lyn rode beside me, on her Windancer, a nervous stallion several hands taller than Peaches. That meant that she was taller than me, in the saddle, and I had to shield my eyes against the sun to look at her. With a mane of spun silver and a coat of gold, the stallion was even prettier than my Peaches, and knew it. Fortunately, Lyn had a firm, gentle hand with the reins, and used no bit, her temperament perfectly matching that of her horse. I rather pitied anyone who tried to attack the pair of them en route to a destination. Lyn's hair was, as was usual, tied back in a firm tail that floated back in the breeze rather dramatically, though the horses moved only at a fast trot. She turned to look down at me and frowned.
"Surely you know of the customs for a plainsman leaving Sacae?" she replied, seeming a little offended.
"No, I'm afraid I don't. Enlighten me?" I've never traveled with a half-Caelin, half-plainsman, so excuse me for not knowing what statue she wants to kiss on her way across a big black line on a map!
She frowned, but there was nothing of temper in her eyes. Instead, she gazed off to the east, the direction we were traveling in, and smiled. "It is a tradition for a Sacaen to kiss the spirit sword Mani Katti, that he may be granted good luck on his journey out into the world."
"Oh, how quaint!" Sain gushed from slightly behind us, and Lyn shot him a scathing glare that quelled the rest of what he might have said.
"I see no reason why we should not take the detour." Kent said, from up in front. I sighed and patted Peaches' shoulder with resignation.
"We'll have to restock our supplies at the place where they keep this sword of yours, then. I packed enough for a journey to Lycia, but I hadn't planned on running all over the countryside kissing swords and killing bandits. If it's that important to you, Lyn, I'm sure we can stretch our bread far enough if the temple doesn't have any to spare. Don't complain when you're eating three-day old cheese and mold for breakfast, though."
The bandits did not surprise me. With a reward on her head from Ilia to the farthest reaches of the Nubata desert, it was only to be expected that every last bandit king would be out to get her. That didn't keep it from being tiresome, though, and I intended to complain heartily every chance I got. Lyn ignored me, of course, but I got a chance to vent, and as far as I was concerned, that was all that mattered.
A bit after midday, the land started to incline, and I noticed that we were entering a rather hilly region. This was unusual for the plains, since Sacae was generally an unending succession of grasslands, grasslands, and more grasslands. That meant that we were probably near the border to Bern, and I wasn't so sure I liked being in close proximity to that particular kingdom.
"Lyn," I pitched my voice so only she would hear it, "do your business and let's be gone from here quickly. I have a bad feeling."
She gave me a look that said, "I'll take however damn long I want, Josef, and you'll not complain about it", and gently nudged her stallion up so she could speak with Kent. I rolled my eyes, and happened to catch sight of a woman running up the side of the hill we were about to start down. She looked winded, and her skirts were hiked up so she could run faster. She wore a plain working dress, with her hair up in a bun, and she looked harried. Kent motioned for us to stop as we reached her, and she put up her hands in a gesture of helplessness to show she was at least neutral.
"Are you travelers going to visit the temple over there by chance?" she asked when she had caught her breath.
"We are." Lyn replied, and the woman's eyes brightened.
"Oh good. Do you think you could save it, then? It's being attacked by some bandits, and I'd rather it stayed intact."
I blinked. "You don't seem too worried. Aren't you afraid the Mani Katti will be stolen?"
She gave me a long, measuring look before replying, "Not really. If that sword leaves the temple, it'll be on its own terms, I should be thinking. If it wants that bandit leader for its owner, I'm sure it'll go peaceably. But if it rejects him, like I think it will, he'll probably tear down the whole temple, and I'd rather that didn't happen. It is pretty, even if it's sort of old-fashioned. Well, I must be going. I'm sure the priest will thank you if you help him."
And then she was off, down the side of the hill we had just scaled. I looked at Lyn, and then the knights, and sighed. "We're going to save the temple, aren't we?"
They didn't even answer. They didn't have to.
I must admit that I let myself get a bit complacent. After all of our battles with the bandits across the plains, I had come to think that they would follow a pattern I could discern, and I followed the same stratagem for every battle. Unfortunately, this group was good enough to be tricky, and they used the terrain against us. Lyn was on foot, with me riding Peaches and holding Windancer's reins (though he looked fit to burst from being told to listen to me). As we rode around the wall that surrounded the small hamlet near the temple, a bandit sprang out of the trees at one of the horses, Thunder. Sain, who was toting a sword after a few rounds of lance versus axe that turned out badly, was enough battle-wired that he caught the axe on his sword and kneed Thunder into helping him fling the weapon into the woods. Unarmed, the man was easy pickings, but we moved on with more care, Kent and Sain at my sides, and Lyn behind. Another bandit came down out of the hills just next to the temple, but Lyn made short work of him with easy, almost careless strokes. They only looked careless though. In truth, she was sliding nicely into the sword fighting style of the plains; a liquid form that flowed as much as it struck.
Kent and Sain eyed the hills that would take us around to the temple's entrance dubiously, but I found a way around the problem. Not a way that the caretaker of the temple would approve of, but tacticians have to look toward efficiency and men's lives, right?
"Kent, look at that." I pointed to the side of the building nearest to me. The wall was ancient and ornate, with epic events carved in relief on its surface as well as a chaotic array of shapes that I could not even begin to understand the symbolic purposes of. More importantly, there was a point in the wall that was cracked, four jagged breaks in the masonry that led to a small hole. "I don't know how that got there, but you can use it, right?"
"I can." He replied, and he pulled his lance from its holster easily. He brought his horse around so that he could examine it more closely, marked out with his eyes where he would hit, then rode around to make a pass. My eyes nearly popped out of my sockets as he charged his horse at the wall at a speed I thought would take him straight through. Being the cool-headed leader he is, however, Kent timed it so that his blow opened the crack wider, wide enough for me to see through. Inside, a pair of bandits gawped at us through the hole, and started over to the wall. Kent made another pass, and this time a section of the wall crumbled into a pile of oddly shaped blocks. Coughing, the bandits tried to attack, but Lyn and Sain dispatched them together nicely. They did not work as well together as Lyn and Kent did, but they did well enough. Sain's fighting style was a bit more wild than Kent's almost textbook approach, but both were capable knights of high potential.
Little did I know how well that potential would be tested in the days to come.
Not bothering to leave the horses, I led Peaches and Windancer right through the hole after Lyn and Sain. Behind me, Kent cursed, and I heard the sound of iron slapping dirt. I looked, and he made an irritated face.
"My lance broke." He spat, in a foul mood. Wrenching his sword from its sheath, he rode in behind me, and we faced off the bandit leader all together.
That man was unlike any other bandit I've ever seen. Most were older men who had lost their families, or who stole to feed their families, and none of them were swordsmen. This one was different. He was holding an elaborate sheath that looked to belong on the nearby altar in one hand, and a brandished sword in the other. Leering, thin but rangy with the tight muscle of a trained sword fighter whose blade saw use, he was not pretty, but he was certainly not as grotesque as most of the men we had come across. When he saw Lyn, he bent back in a defensive stance and held his blade between her and the Mani Katti.
"I am Glass, the greatest swordsman in all of Elibe!" he boasted, and I laughed out loud. Lyn did not laugh.
"You are a defiler of a holy artifact," said the fiery plainswoman, "you no longer have any name."
She dashed at him, feinting craftily to try and draw his attack, but he was not having any of it. He ignored the feint in favor of the gut blow that came soon after, knocking Lyn's sword aside almost contemptuously. He returned with a feint of his own, which she blocked, and was forced to scramble to block the real attack to her shoulder soon after. I watched as he ran her around the room, and it occurred to me that the knights were not doing anything. I glared at Sain.
"Help her." I told him. He looked surprised.
"But this is the Lady Lyndis' battle, surely."
Damn knight's honor.
"It'll be her grave if you don't help her, now." I told him, and my point was only reinforced when Glass scored a hit on her leg. She made a fair return, catching him on his unarmored arm, but she had obviously taken the greater of the blows. Sain looked from her to me, head swiveling from side to side comically, and Kent shook his head before diving into the fray with his sword. Together, Kent and Lyn matched the bandit easily. Whenever the man struck out at Kent's horse, Lyn knocked the blow aside, and finally Kent took the man to the neck with his blade, slicing almost cleanly through. Blood spilled out on the temple floor, and Lyn fell to the ground, exhausted. I jumped down from Peaches and ran to her side.
"Sain, take the horses outside and tether them. Kent, you make a check around the entrance for any lackeys out for vengeance."
Used to taking orders from me by then, the two complied quickly and efficiently, with Sain leading the horses out through the crack made by Kent's lance, and Kent riding over to the main entrance. I cradled Lyn in my lap (she would suffer such ministrations from neither of the knights), and pulled out my vulnerary stores.
"You've gotten yourself torn up pretty good, girl." I told her, and she grinned weakly.
"Not near as bad as you were when I found you on the plains." She retorted, then winced as I poured the scathing potion over the vicious leg wound. As I bandaged it, I tried to comfort her a little. "There are hoof prints on the floor, do you think the local priest will mind?"
She chuckled. "Somehow I don't think he'll care, Josef."
"Indeed I will not, good lady."
I nearly jumped. Nearly. If I had, I might have made the wound worse, so I settled for just letting the hairs on the back of my neck stick straight up. I looked up from what I was doing, and there was the priest, robes and all, apparently conjured out of thin air. He smiled raffishly at me and tapped the wall behind him, which fell away to reveal a hidden exit to the rear of the temple.
"You are not wounded?" Lyn asked, though she leaned more than a little against me still, regardless of my treatment. The old priest shook his head.
"Thanks to you, good lady, I am unharmed. Though I see the same may not be said of this temple." He frowned at the crack in the wall, and I felt my face grow hot.
"Father, that was my doing, I'm afraid." I told him. "We needed to get inside, and there were hills in the way…"
The old man shook his head. "Do not fear for what you could not help, lad. By your garb, you are this group's tactician, I imagine?"
"That's right."
"Well, you saw the most expedient route and took it. If you had not, perhaps I might have been killed, or the holy sword spirited away from the temple forever." He knelt and pried the elaborately scrolled scabbard from the dead bandit's hands roughly, then brought it over to Lyn, heedless of the blood that leaked from the corpse.
"You have saved the temple. If you are here, you must be departing from Sacae. Come, daughter, I will allow you to hold the Mani Katti in your hands." A sly grin was in the man's eyes, but I was not sure why it might be there. Stunned, Lyn took the blade from him and held it in her hands. I released her and let her stand on her own feet, and just as I fell away, the scabbard flared with light, temporarily stealing sight from me. When I could see again, the priest's grin was spread across his wide face and lit his eyes fit to give him the look of a man ten years younger than he really was.
"It is as I had suspected. The blade has chosen you, Lyn, to be its bearer. Mani Katti wants to be your companion on your long journey, wants you to be its companion."
Bewildered, Lyn stared at the sheath, which still glowed faintly. "No…"
"You do not believe? Then test it! Only one who is worthy could break the spell I cast on the sword and hold it. Only the one chosen by the sword may draw it."
Lyn shook her head dubiously, but grasped the hilt and pulled the blade out. She overestimated the strength needed to release it, and it nearly flew from her grasp as it eagerly sprang from the scabbard; and it sang, glowed like the sun at noon. I heard Sain behind me gasp, and I was hard put not to gawk myself.
"There you have it." Said the priest. "The blade wants you. Take it, and put it to good use in your travels."
That old man knew more than he let on, now that I look back at the scene. But I can't say what exactly he knew, that would be telling.
Author's Note: Thank you to all the people who reviewed, I appreciate it very much.
FIREmbemfan: I'm glad you think mine is the best, I think. ^^;; Stick with me, I think you'll like the finished product.
Drilling Planet: Ya thinkin' it's gonna go down'ill from 'ere?
Red Mage Neko: Thank you. I pride myself on sticking the characters' personalities just right, so it's nice to know my work is appreciated.
khmerboi919: I fully intend to, thanks.
hyliansage: Battles can be unrealistic? O.o Just kidding. Thanks, I work really hard on my battle scenes. And yes, Sain is handsome, though Hector is my favorite. (Hector: Get real, buddy.) 8-8
Millenium Slinky: You, my dear, have a strange sense of humor. Glad you like the story, I mean to review yours sometime in the near future.
Zachary Knightblade: Just because I did it doesn't mean you can't do it as well. This story is about how I imagine I would react in a situation like the one presented in Fire Emblem, you could just as easily do the same for yourself. A justified self-insertion, whee!