“Frickin’ bus driver…”

Seph kicked a rock on the dusty path towards his families estate. He’d just gotten into a quarrel with an elderly bus driver and was still fuming about it. The old guy hadn’t noticed his weapon when he’d gotten on the bus, and was angry to see such a sword being carried around willy nilly. So what? It wasn’t his damn sword anyways.

Seph huffed and, patting the scabbard around his waist, looked towards the sprawling castle that lay ahead. He hadn’t been back here in quite some time, though he had no fondness of the place. As he approached a large gate it was opened in front of him, and he entered quickly. Inside many people whisked around, all of them trying to keep the LeVay name from falling into tatters like so many of the ancient exorcists had. LeVay was one of the few names left from those times that still held any relevance. A few seconds later came a man that Seph knew very well, the quartermaster of the army here, Clavicus.

“Seph. Good. Doing well?”

“Yeah yeah I’m fine. I’m just here to research a bit on my weapon here.”

The quartermaster raised an eyebrow, gaze shifting down to the sword around Seph’s waist.

“Excalibur?”

“I’m just going to the library, gonna check some stuff out.”

“I can help.”

“Nah it’s personal shit, you’ve got a castle to run after all.”

“Anton still not back.”

“I know that, he ain’t going to come back. I’ll let you know when I’m done.”

The quartermaster held Seph’s gaze for a moment longer, but soon shrugged and motioned for some of his men to follow. Ever since Seph’s father had left the palace that man had become somewhat of a king around here. Although he was just trying to keep the LeVay name from falling, Seph couldn’t wrap his head around why. Clavicus had surely been one of his father’s most loyal men, but his father had to be dead, there was no way that the old quartermaster didn’t know that. Shrugging, he pushed open the vast double doors leading into the castle and started towards the library. It was nothing like the Youkai library, but in Seph’s mind a book was a book dammit. He didn’t especially want to read any of them, but he really had to know where Joyeuse had come from. Yeah Koichi was right, it was still a cool sword and all, but he’d been lied to all his life. Excalibur really was probably in a damn lake somewhere. He started with one of the most obvious books. Swords and where to find them, one of the tomes that had some sort of magic on it, able to track swords of ancient honor. Flipping through, he came to the few swords that were untrackable. Excalibur: Said to be in possession of the LeVay exorcist family.

“A lie then…”

Next was Joyeuse: Lost for over seven hundred years.

“Also a lie, gah…”

It was strange that a lesser sword like Joyeuse would not have the magical tracker on it. The authors of the book had gone to great lengths to track swords around the world, and many others had been found by them. The strange part was that the magic didn’t tell them whether his sword was Joyeuse or Excalibur… Some stupid Youkai could in an instant though…

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Seph shook his head. Joyeuse was his sword, the one that he’d had for his entire life. However… it was nowhere near as powerful as something like Durandal or Legbiter. Some king used Joyeuse, but it was honestly more of a piece of regalia than an actual for-battle sword. He flipped through the book, looking for other swords that hadn’t been claimed.

“Hmmm oh, what’s this… Gram?”

A sword with massive power, though slight drawbacks, Gram had been the sword of an ancient knight. It’s name had been stolen quite a few times, but it seemed the authors of the book were pretty confident that this was the real one. Not only that, it was only a few hundred miles away. Only problem was that it was being guarded by a dragon…

Seph didn’t have to be smart to know that going into a place like that without proper equipment would be suicide, and there was no way he could get anything from the castle.Clavicus would start asking questions and if he told the quartermaster the truth it might get out that he didn’t really have Excalibur… He had to remember that he would only be going for Gram to transfer its power to Joyeuse. He knew that was possible at least, if the owner of the sword had some sort of will of the heart or something. Anyways, he needed to get Gram.

Just then, the doors of the library opened and a familiar face came in.

“Seph, you’re back?”

“Ugh… hello Feffy.”

“Ugh?! Why do you hate me so much Seph?!”

“I don’t hate you so much as I am annoyed by you. I was leavin’ anyways.”

“What? You’re leaving already?”

Seph smiled.

“Yeah, I’m a busy guy. Really important exorcists want to meet with me. I had to turn most of em down, but now I gotta go a bit north and get Gram since my sword is weak.”

When he said the words he instantly wanted to punch himself. His big mouth got in the way of a perfectly easy mission again.

“Your sword is weak?”

“I.. well… see… I just wanna power it up more!”

“Uh huh… Well, I think you’re going to get hurt if you keep thinking like that. I’m going to have to go with you then.”

“What?! No, you ain’t going anywhere. You’re stayin’ right here.”

“You aren’t Anton you know.”

“I’m his son, I can order you aren’t whenever the hell I want.”

“Actually, you can’t. In the event of Anton’s absence, power goes to Clavicus. Not you.”

“Stuff it, you aren’t coming.”

“Just accept that I am already, Gram is guarded by a dragon. I’m not going to let you go on your own.”

“Why, cuz you want the glory?”

“Because you’ll die if I don’t go, I know you will, and contrary to what you think I don’t want to see that happen.”

“Tch, fine, come if you want. I ain’t gonna stop you.”

“Because you can’t stop me.”

“Shaddup, let’s go.”

“I’ll get some things together, meet me by the front gate in twenty minutes. Oh, and if you leave without me I will hunt you down and murder you.”

“I wasn’t thinking about doing that!”

Fefnir gave a quick smile and ran outside. He’d always been a shorter guy, and somehow his hair was naturally dark blue. He looked like a damn helpless deer or something, but he was actually really good with a sword. Of course it helped when that sword was Tizona. Hell, he’d thought that Feffy was a girl till he was seven, he’d practically looked like one his entire life. He didn’t really hate the guy, but he was always such a damn rule follower. Being the only other guy his age in the place they’d been forced friends all their lives, and while Feffy thought that they were truly great friends, Seph had known better. He didn’t really care for the pretty boy, and the pretty boy didn’t really care for him. They were simply honor bound to the LeVay name and it’s protection. Since Seph was a LeVay, Fefnir was bound to protect him. It was that simple.