Summoning Steel

"So, Lord Valor, can you confirm what your fellow Chosen have said, and what accounts I've heard from Count Rumsley?"

Valor snapped back to himself at the question. Both he and Lady Rainhart had been walking along the massive thoroughfare corridor northward for several minutes, apparently heading for the armory that was situated somewhere closer to the Citadel's north gate. Valor had been gazing at the bare walls, wondering why no tapestries or paintings had been fastened to them to lend some life and color to the place. Then again, they weren't made of stone, but some odd silvery metal. Valor still couldn't believe such a thing was possible. Perhaps such walls did not allow the fastening of brackets or hooks into them.

"What accounts exactly, Lady Rainhart?"

Walking to his side, the armored woman gave him a pointed glance with her good eye. "This Robin girl, Chosen of Fire, can she indeed summon arcane flames? Count Rumsley was quite enamored with such power."

"Flames among other things, Commander. I have seen ice shards and chilling cold as well as a hunk of marble pulled from the ground and hurled at great speed by sorcery alone."

The woman gave a slow nod. "Truly? A great asset such powers will be... And what of the boy, Gantz? Do you believe that he might be capable of sneaking into the midst of the enemy camp and dispatching the leaders of this army?"

Valor remembered his coin purse having been snatched by him by the blasted rodent not long ago, and nodded his head irately. "Yes, his underhandedness knows no bounds, Lady Rainhart. That he is slimy enough to slither his way into anything this side of the Abyss would not surprise me."

Nearly his height, Brunhilda only had to tilt her head back slightly to meet his gaze. "I had sensed a tension between you when you first entered. Rumsley also told me about his first meeting with the four of you. I take it that the other three Light Warriors have not accepted you as their nominal leader?"

Valor ran an armored hand through his short brown hair in frustration. "If that is the role I am meant to play amongst them - then not in the bloody least!"

"I see. And how many times have you fought as a unit?" Brunhilda asked.

"Just once, although it barely counts. We fought Count Sumpter Baigan in the Great Hall of Castle Cornelia after he had turned into a demonic fiend. Still, we weren't all there at first and I never had time to even try to coordinate an effort against the monster. We all just sort of assessed the situation and did our own thing. I can only thank the Crystals it worked."

"Very well. And you Lord Valor, how much official military training do you possess?"

"Official training in the King's Army? I have very little in truth, though I've had exorbitant amounts of private combat training. I've read some military doctrine and have learned basic drills, but beyond that I am practically a raw recruit."

The woman stopped walking abruptly, standing rod straight before a broad archway flanked by two halberd-wielding soldiers. The massive hall all around was virtually empty, and not just because it was so huge. Valor imagined it was probably busier in normal times because of trade traffic coming down from the pass to the north. Now with a siege imminent and the grand gates locked and barred, the great thoroughfare was indeed all the more cavernous for its lack of people.

The guards had gone taut as their leader had approached, but Lady Rainhart turned sharply toward Valor. "You must earn their respect, Valor Loftlan."

The boy shook his head. "I have tried to be reasonable."

The woman titled her head slightly. "Your situation is unique, and I would not dare to step beyond my bounds in giving you advice. However, what my instincts tell me is that you are the most qualified to lead the four despite your lack of experience. You bare the conviction of your calling, do you not?

Valor's blue eyes hardened. "Indeed."

She studied him a moment before giving a curt nod and striding in under the archway. She said nothing and Valor looked to the guards. One just gave him a shrug, while the other gave him a crisp salute before going back to his rigid guard stance, halberd held straight at his side.

With a confounded sigh, Valor went under the archway and entered a broad domed chamber where racks upon racks of weapons lined each wall, cluttered with everything from simple longswords of a dozen makes to bronze-bladed spears that looked ancient.

Brunhilda stood in the center of the room upon a strange circular design that was brighter silver than the floor around it. It did look to be carved into the floor, yet Valor felt no carved relief beneath his boots as he came in. Somehow, the design had been inlaid by methods he was unfamiliar with… most likely magical.

In her black enameled full-plate, Lady Rainhart suddenly raised her chin slightly and straightened her stance. Her half-shaved head and scarred-over sightless eye gave her a severe countenance that became all the more pointed as she focused it on him. "I am not here to lecture a Warrior of Light on how to lead his fellows. I would not be that arrogant. As Lukahn's Prophecy states 'the Crystals of the Elements will choose their own champions, four warriors with the combined power to turn aside any evil.' You have what you need within you already whether you have discovered it or not. No, what I am here to teach you Lord Valor… is how to arm yourself with any weapon you see fit in the blink of an eye. You are the Chosen of Earth, are you not?"

Thoroughly fascinated, Valor nodded. "I bear the Orb of Earth, as was destined."

The woman gave a narrow smile that pulled at her scars. "Good, because I have been told by the keepers of such lore that this particular skill is strongly tied to earth magic." The woman suddenly grasped the plain-hilted longsword that she wore at her side in a worn leather sheath. "This sword was my husbands. He died in the Second Goblin War, and afterward, I took up his title to honor him and have led Truce. I would not ever fight with it," she paused, briefly scanning the room before holding up one armored hand, straight out in a fist before her.

In a flash of light, she suddenly held another longsword; one from the dozen Valor had first seen when he'd entered the room. Remnants of light from the summoning streaked across the weapon's keen blade before the woman swept the weapon about in a skillful flourish that put the sword at her side.

The Chosen of Earth gaped. "Amazing! How is this possible?"

Brunhilda looked about. "For me, it is mainly this place. This skill has always taken me slightly longer to do in any location but this Citadel. I believe that is because this place was shaped with powerful earth magic back in the ancient past - but enough speculation. You are the Chosen of Earth, blessed by the Crystal itself. I do not doubt that once you learn this skill, you could summon an arsenal in the blink of an eye wherever you are. Now I ask, Lord Valor, would you like to learn the summoning of steel?"

Valor's mind reeled. The advantages of such a power were mindboggling. It potentially provided access to any weapon he needed at anytime, the perfect tool for any situation at his fingertips in the blink of an eye.

A slow smile spread across the Chosen of Earth's face. "Yes, Lady Rainhart, I believe I would."

The woman gave a curt nod. "Good, then let us begin. Now, this is more a skill than a spell, which is fortunate, because I know about as much about magic as an ox knows about leading soldiers. Therefore, instead of mystical incantations and other arcane nonsense it needs only focus, familiarity, and some innate tie to earth magic, which seems to run in my blood."

Valor's jaw tightened as he thought of his mother. "Well it most definitely runs in my blood." He looked up. "What do you mean by familiarity?"

She gestured at all the weapons around them. "Familiarity with weapons. I have trained with many weapons in this armory, but only the ones I am most familiar with can be brought to me through summoning steel. I assume you have a personal armory of your own."

Valor folded his arms, nodding quickly. "Yes, filled with weapons I have trained with nearly every day of my life since I was a child."

"Good, then you meet the two most important requirements. Now, clear your mind and focus on one of those weapons. Make an image of it appear crisply in your mind, feel the weight of it in your hand, its balance, the grip of its hilt. Close your eyes if you must this first time, and take all that you need. Mastery can come later."

Valor stood straight and did close his eyes. The image of his own armory came to his mind without any effort at all. He had spent more waking hours in that one room than in any other on his manor by far. The weapons came to him as well, everything from his sturdy compound bow to axes, swords, maces, polearms and more. He knew their look, their feel, which one to use for any number of combat situations, everything…

And suddenly Valor began to glow, a soft light that seemed embedded just beneath the skin, growing brighter until even his armor seemed embossed by this quiet radiance.

Lady Rainhart stepped back suddenly, raising a protective arm over her eyes as Valor's light grew ever greater. "Lord Valor, whatever you are doing, it is far beyond the bounds of this…"

But her words made no impression on Valor as he retraced his memories. He saw it all, years upon years of weapons and drills and techniques.

And suddenly beneath her, Brunhilda saw the circular design embedded in the silvery floor began to glow as well, just a split second before the rumbling began.

IIIIIIIIII

Sana-Lynn looked up quickly from where she stood, somewhat aloof from the others in the council chamber. Gantz was chatting with a slightly irritated Selena of the Glade, while Robin seemed to be having a near-civilized conversation with the dwarves. Count Rumsley hovered about the dwarves, listening with seeming fascination.

Hanging back, Sana had simply been concentrating on the serene hum of the Holy within her. Yet some… presence… fairly close by had suddenly flared to life and had begun to reverberate with the Holy. Looking at her right hand, which gripped her ashen staff, Sana suddenly noticed that her skin seemed to glow with a subtle light. Before she could even begin to marvel at this oddity a flash of blue light brought the Orb of Water to hover before her.

IIIIIIIIII

Gantz laughed. "Oh missy, I've had these magic fingers in more places -" Suddenly his stomach made a strange turn, as if he were back on the Brazen Bell. "Whoa, my freaky sense is tingling."

The elf woman, Selena, looked at him pointedly through the eyeholes in her ram-horned headdress. "What foolishness are you on about now, human?"

"Don't got a clue," Gantz quipped until he noticed the fingers poking out of his fingerless gloves. Curious, he pulled off one of his gloves to notice that his hand seemed to be emitting some sort of strange shadowy smoke. "Well I'll be bloody buggered, what in the hellfire is this?"

No answers were forthcoming before a sudden flash of greenish light brought the Orb of Wind to hover so close to his face that Gantz jerked his head back instinctively. "Rot damnit, give me some warning before you do that, you bloody orb! Ye gods, magical artifacts these days…"

IIIIIIIIII

"Aye, the only magic worth knowing is dwarven rune magic. All other magic is as flighty and unpredictable as a bloody elf and we've got no blasted use fer it." Grimnir grumbled.

Robin barked a laugh. "Just because you're too dim to understand it does not mean it has no use."

The dwarf just grunted. "We know enough not to trust it and that's all there is to it. Waste wind till yer blue in the face if ya like, humling, we ain't listening."

Robin growled. These blasted dwarves were almost as stubborn as the lesser mage when it came to thinking they actually knew what they were talking about.

But then Robin sensed something oddly powerful, and she blinked her glowing eyes before adjusting her wide-brimmed black hat. "Another convergence is imminent. I do hope there is more of a point to this one than there was to the last."

She was not surprised at all to notice that the skin of her exposed hands faintly glowed. Both Grimnir and the fat old engineer gave her curious looks. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry, but I speak of magical matters, so you obviously wouldn't understand."

Cid frowned. "Oh I bloody understand that you need a good smack across the kisser, girl."

The dwarf rumbled a laugh. "Fine, humling, you can go to Brunwyr, our company's rune keeper. She doesn't like being surface-side so is probably down in the Deep Forge. Find yer way to her and she can educate your little mind about real magic. Careful though, she ain't as amicable as the rest o' us dwarven folk."

Robin snorted just as the Orb of Fire flared beside her. "Fine, I'll meet your mystic and prove her a lesser mage like any else."