The Book of Nine Swords:

By Slim Summers

Disclaimer:

Neverwinter Nights 2 belongs to Atari, Obsidian Entertainment and Wizards of the Coast.

Prologue (Mother's Legacy) - Part 3

Some time later in the night, Aresnar found himself wide awake all thoughts and depression over his dragon blood or changes to his body forgotten. What consumed his thoughts were the items neatly arranged on his bed. His hands started to tremble as he looked over what had once been his mother's belongings.

A long object in a silk cloth bag, a compound long bow with the grip placed much lower then normal, the kodachi, a small bag, a belt pouch, a silver holy symbol, a signet ring and two tomes.

Aresnar let out a deep breath before he moved over to his bed. He could tell that the silk bag contained a sword of some sort which immediately drew his interest. Aresnar delicately untied the knot on top of the bag and then gently removed the object.

It was a sword as he suspected. Its sheath was some unknown type of wood painted in a light blue colour and with a gold engraving of a beautiful winged woman on both sides of the sheath and below her was an image of a butterfly. The handle appeared to be wrapped in some black material and the silver guard was shaped to resemble a flower of some sort.

'Bet my sword arm that guard is mithril.' Aresnar swallowed, his throat growing dry at the thought that the rest of the blade might be made of that rare metal as well. Reaching out he nervously gripped the handle, mouth widening in surprise.

'This grip, it feels like…feathers?' Aresnar closed his mouth, resolving to ask Daegun such questions later before unsheathing the sword.

Time seemed to slow down for Aresnar. It seemed like his mind had speeded up leaving not just his body but the world behind to move at a pace that seemed close to stationary. In front of him the flickering candle flames were suddenly frozen as was the moth flying near them. Suddenly his mind matched its body once again and time righted itself moving at a normal pace again. 'What was that? What in the Abyss just happened?'

"Ok, that was not just my mind playing tricks on me." Aresnar muttered, trying to ignore the sweat that had suddenly appeared on his forehead. "This blade is definitely mag…."

'What in Kelanen's name?' While this was the first time that Aresnar could recall seeing a blade with a single edge and curved like this one, it was not the shape of the blade that surprised him. The blade seemed to be forged out of a pure raven black material, which seemed to ripple right before his eyes as if he was viewing it under a thin layer of water. Reaching out he gently ran his finger along the back of the blade and was too emotionally numb to realise that it was cool to touch.

An image of his mother with the blade popped into his mind slowly going through one of the sword exercises that she did everyday.

'I know you. I've seen you before; you were always at mother's side wherever she went.' Aresnar was certain of it, was certain of a lot of things all of a sudden as a few of his memories rushed back.

"Your name is Dae'Megil En Inya Tengu." Aresnar laughed aloud. 'The Shadow Sword of the female Tengu, also known as...'

"The Black Lightning." Aresnar grinned as he held the sword in front of his eyes.

"What the heck is a Tengu?" Aresnar shook his head as he re-sheathed the sword. Nothing could spoil his good mood as another bit of his memory returned. Laying it back down on his bed he tried to decide on the next item to examine.

'Right now I wouldn't be surprised if all of these items were magical.' Aresnar smiled as he picked up the bow. 'After all, mom was an adventurer.'

The bow was surprisingly well preserved, to Aresnar's eye. While it did look well crafted, nothing screamed out about the bow being as remarkable as the sword had been apart from the grip being in a truly odd position.

'So much for all the items being magical I guess but I'll ask Tarmas or Amie to check all of these things later. Better remember to ask Daegun how to actually use a bow like this too. I've never seen one with a grip like this.' Aresnar thought placing the bow back with care before deciding on the next item to examine.

Skipping over the dragon fang kodachi that he had already seen, he lifted the small bag and tried to open it. 'What in the nine-hells? It won't open.'

Try as he might, Aresnar couldn't open the bag no matter how he pulled. 'Another thing I'll have to ask Daegun about.'

Placing the bag back down, Aresnar picked up the belt pouch and found it much more amiable to being opened although the contents left him in a daze almost like the sword had.

'This has got to be one of those dreams that humans have.' Aresnar thought in a daze as he looked down. 'Maybe I'm still sleeping from Merring's potion?'

Inside the pouch were a number of small and seeming very expensive gemstones. Moving over to the desk in his room, Aresnar slowly lifted each one out and placed them on the desk. 'I bet I could buy up all of West Harbour with this. '

'Wonder how much these are all worth? I doubt I could ask anyone here. No one in West Harbour knows anything about gems. Maybe Galen when he comes to visit?' At the thought of Galen even looking at these gems, a surge of possessiveness swept over Aresnar. 'No, he'd probably try to rob me blind for these, the Mossfields definitely would. Lewy Jons would probably try to kill me for this.'

Reaching inside the pouch, Aresnar brought up the last gem almost dropping it as he looked at it. The purple gem was shaped like a human skull and seemed to be looking straight at him. Placing it along side the others, Aresnar let out a huff. 'Why did my mother have something like this in her belt pouch?'

Giving one last look over the gems, Aresnar turned his gaze back on his bed. Picking up and examining the signet ring in one hand, Aresnar tried to place the strange design on it, hoping that it would stir another memory.

'It looks like a bird made entirely out of lightning.' Aresnar debated putting it on but decided against it, mentally repeating a common swordsman's rule. 'No ring on your sword hand.'

Reaching out with his other hand, Aresnar picked up the silver holy symbol next. Consisting of a light chain on which pendant hung of nine swords arrayed in a star shape, points outward, it was a fitting shape for the god of swords and balance. Aresnar thought for a moment before running the light chain through the signet ring and then fastening the chain around his neck.

That only left the two tomes. Aresnar picked up one and began leafing through it.

There was no title on the cover but the contents and purpose of the book were clear.

"It's mother's journal" Aresnar said as he sat down. As he leafed through it however he began to frown. While there were numerous filled pages at the start of the journal, the middle and end of the book was almost blank. There were written pages here and there and even an occasional paragraph by itself on an otherwise blank page. The way the text trailed off, implied there should have been something written on the apparently blank pages. "Gods, can't you just make things easy for once?"

Placing the journal back down, he picked up the second one. Unlike the first, there was a title on its cover written in elvish. Aresnar began leafing through it as he had done the first. A small smile appeared on his face which slowly grew the further he turned the pages. Inside were diagrams, exercises and meditation techniques similar to what he practiced daily. Shutting the book, he looked at its cover where it's was written in elvish.

"The Book of Nine Swords. A guide to the Nine-fold way." Aresnar said out loud. "Fitting."

Aresnar carefully placed all of his mother's belongings save for the tomes back in Daegun's chest and then settled down to begin reading.

Author's Notes:

Sorry for the relatively short update but I struggled a bit with this chapter. You see one of the things I hate about D&D in general is that of item switching: "oh a +5 sword of So & So, better toss my +2 Sword of Such and Such to the trash."

The way I did it is that I introduced a lot of wealth at the start but you will find that the Main character will not be able to actually use all of this right now and what he can use will be restricted in some way however many of these items will be present and used through out the character's career and there will be an emotional weight to most of them which partly why I went into describing the items.

Finally a bit of a hint, I actually introduced a character in this chapter.