Lloyd woke with a silky feeling on his skin. He reluctantly threw the sheets off and began to get dressed. Lloyd looked around the room, and his heart shot into his throat. He spun around rapidly as he looked around the room in a panic. Where are my swords? The thought finally steadied his heart, and he settled down as he sat on his unmade bed. I don’t have them anymore. I sold them yesterday. I am no longer that person.
Lloyd thought about all of the time that he spent training with those swords. All of the moments in which he knew he had to get better in order to keep up with his brother and Cassius. His father made the swords, especially for him. He remembered when he received the swords for his birthday and the disappointment he felt. Gavin was a Soulsmith, so if his dad didn’t see any magical powers in him, then he must not have had any. There was that thing about Dad saying he thought he saw a staff initially for me. Did he know about this thing?
Lloyd summoned the obsidian cube to his hand and ran his fingers on the metallic material. The metal felt impersonal next to the feeling he got when he ran his hand against the bark of the tree that he once called home. The cube felt significantly more powerful, though. Lloyd’s mind flooded with questions. How did the cube find its way into his pack? Who put it there? How was it created? Where was it created? Did his birth parents have these abilities? Did they come from west of The Citadel? A sharp knock at the door abruptly ended his musings.
“You up yet?” Regal asked.
“Yeah, just getting dressed now,” Lloyd responded as he returned the cube to his soul.
“Good. We are downstairs grabbing coffee. We are heading to the Snooze and Booze soon.”
“Sweet. I’ll be down in a minute.”
Lloyd heard his brother go down the stairs. He tucked away his thoughts about the cube as he left the room. Both sides of the hallway were lined with yet more stone walls and floors. Hanging upon the walls were paintings of various sizes. Lloyd stopped to admire one of them. A gorgeous city was sitting at the foothills of a looming mountain. Yellow flowers flooded the field surrounding the town, and he swore he could see the flowers shift in the wind. He didn’t recognize the city, but the mountain looked similar to the one that loomed over Mandor. The buildings were varied. Some were made of wood, others looked to be brick and mortar, while others were made of unknown materials. What struck him as odd was the fact that there didn’t seem to be any defenses around the town. There were no high walls, no weapons that would help defend against the onslaught of enemies, nor any semblance of security.
This must have been what cities looked like before the Cataclysm. They must have been able to build for beauty and aesthetics rather than for battles and barricades. As Lloyd walked away from the painting and down the stairs toward the tavern, he began to wonder what Breakwater looked like before the entire world changed.
Lloyd grabbed a mug of coffee as his group left for the Snooze and Booze. They found themselves sitting across a wooden table from Xavier and his group half an hour later. This early in the morning, there was a noticeable void of bewitching beats bombarding the room. Lloyd was eternally grateful for that.
“Morning all,” Xavier said.
A round of “mornings” went around the table as they all greeted each other. Lloyd looked down and saw that there were coffee mugs placed in front of everybody. He already had a mug before at the Spire, but he wasn’t about to turn down more. As he took a sip of his sweet bean juice, he began to think about the comforts of the last few days in town. It was nice to rest, but Lloyd knew they needed to get to The Citadel as quickly as possible. He cleared his throat.
“So, I hear rewards are at hand,” Lloyd said.
“They are indeed. I actually have your robes, Lloyd. I swung by Shamus from the Sacred Silks last night after our talk. I convinced him to have his friend enchant the robes for you. Between his skills, his friend, and the extra durability that I was able to add, these should last you a while,” Caleb said as he handed the robes over to Lloyd.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
A grin grew on Lloyd’s face as he accepted his new gear. “Thank you. You didn’t have to do all of that,” Lloyd said.
“But we did. We have new gear for you as well, Regal and Colette. As you can see, Shannon shares a similar affinity to lacy white dresses. After our conversations, I think this dress should serve you well and will be an upgrade over what you currently have. Regal, we know that your skin stops physical attacks quite well, but you share a similar weakness that we all do to elemental attacks. This gear should help with that,” Caleb said with a smile as he handed both Regal and Colette their new gear. “We didn’t have anything currently made that would serve a Beastmaster. I would be more than happy to increase the durability of your leather gear. If you would like?” Caleb asked Sheena.
“Of course you don’t,” Sheena said under her breath. “Whatever. Works for me.”
“Thank you. Is there a good place to change into our new gear?” Lloyd asked, attempting to eliminate the agitation in the air.
“Over there, to the left of the stage,” Shannon said as she pointed in that direction.
With their gifts of gear in hand, the four of them walked toward the rooms. The men entered one, and the women entered another. Regal and Lloyd quickly changed into their new gear. Regal now sported dark blue linen pants. His shirt was a slightly lighter blue, and white threads closed the seams of his chest piece. It was far fancier than he had previously. Lloyd slipped the robes on and immediately felt the power soak into him. The surge of strength was both sudden and subtle. Lloyd knew that he could move much larger things with his telekinesis now. He looked in the mirror and was shocked at how much he liked what he saw. The forest green was sharp and stood out against the white stone walls, but he knew it would blend when he was back within the trees. Yellow threads wove throughout the robe and Lloyd could see it created a set of symbols on his back. The two men looked at each other, scrunched up their lips in approval, and nodded at each other.
“Not too bad,” Regal said.
“You are looking quite dapper, yourself,” Lloyd said.
“Shut it,” Regal said as he playfully punched Lloyd in the arm. “I just hope it will work as advertised.”
The men exited the room and sat back down at the table, Colette and Sheena joining a few minutes later.
“Now for the final part. We’ve sold a bunch of things in bulk to some of the local dealers. We are going to have to set up shop here and try to sell the remaining items individually. The total so far is something like 30,000 coin. Your half is in this pouch. Again, we can’t thank you enough for what you did,” Xavier said as he dropped the bag in front of Regal.
“That’s not half. You said you still have more to sell, and we won’t see a single coin of that,” Sheena said.
“We know. We aren’t sure how quickly we can sell our remaining stuff, plus…” Xavier began to say.
“I’m not sure you understand what splitting down the middle means. Of course, you say you will do one thing, then actually do another.” Sheena said as she leaned forward on the wooden table. Her eyes bore into Xavier. Milla began to growl softly.
“Whoa now,” Xavier said as he raised both of his hands in the air. “We have a lot yet to do with establishing ourselves here. We also need to fund an expedition to go and try to find the friends that we lost. We simply couldn’t ask that of you, knowing that your journey is headed in the opposite direction and that you’ve already helped us so much. I did not mean to offend you.”
“I mean…” Sheena began to say, but Lloyd, who was sitting right next to her, gripped her left forearm. This resulted in Sheena directing her death stare directly at Lloyd.
Lloyd held firm as he stared back at her. “Trust me when I say that we fully understand the desire and need to give your fallen friends a proper burial. The beginning of our journey was…” Lloyd began to say as the words faltered in his throat. “We started with another friend in the group. It was him, me, and Regal. We lost him far too quickly and in far too brutal of the way. If you think that extra coin will help you recover their bodies and find peace for yourself and them, then that is more than okay with us,” Lloyd said as his eyes and words never left the direction of Sheena. He saw the softness return to Sheena’s eyes as the words settled into her skin. She gave Lloyd a subtle head nod, and he released his grip on her arm. He noticed a few indentations where his fingers had been, and he kept a mental note to apologize for that later.
Lloyd finally shifted his eyes to look toward Xavier. His head was tilted to the side, and confusion was plastered across his entire face. He quickly shook it off and readdressed Lloyd’s group.
“Thank you for your kind words, Lloyd. We have much to do in setting up shop in town,” Xavier said as he stood from the table, the rest of his group following suit. “Be careful out there in the West. I hope one day we will be able to host you here after the Corrupted has been quelled. I’m certain you all will play a large part in that,” Xavier said with a bow.
Lloyd’s group got up from the table, and hugs were shared between everyone except Sheena and Milla. Then, Lloyd’s group watched as Xavier’s group left through the swinging doors.
“I suppose we should be heading out ourselves, huh?” Colette said as she downed the remaining coffee in her cup.
Lloyd looked toward Sheena, then the doors, then back at Sheena. “Maybe we wait a minute. It is always awkward to say goodbye and then end up walking in the same direction,” Lloyd said.