Chapter 5 – The First Companion

“You may call me Liv.”

“I’m Sidan, nice to meet you,” he answered mechanically, thinking of how to word the next part.

“What exactly was so urgent, if you don’t mind me asking?” Liv asked. “Is it related to whatever it is you’re doing in Valronia in the middle of the night?”

“Yes. Yes, it is. This may be hard to believe, but, um…”

He floundered, unsure of where to begin. Did he go straight into the topic of the sword? The Voice had told him to go visit Liv and tell her what was going on before finding the sword itself, so surely, she had a connection to it, one deeper than simply knowing its location. If that had been the case, he wouldn’t need to seek her at all, given he already knew where it was.

“Take your time,” Liv said.

That was exactly what Sidan shouldn’t be doing right now. He shook his head, and decided to start at the beginning and skip over the unimportant details.

“Estrellis has been invaded by strange monsters. They somehow erected a gigantic forcefield around the city, and only a few people were able to escape before they broke all the teleporters. I was one of them, but the queen is still in there.”

Liv, who had previously sported a kind half-smile, now looked at him with suspicion.

“What? Is this a joke? And what kind of monsters, anyway?”

“Afraid not,” he grunted. “I wouldn’t believe it myself if I hadn’t seen it. As for the monsters, they looked like masses of metallic ribbons that could somehow move on their own. Don’t suppose you ever heard of anything like them?”

“No. And even if I did believe you, that doesn’t explain what you were doing in one of the most dangerous places in the kingdom in the middle of the night, alone.”

I’d like to know what you’re doing living in one of the most dangerous places in the kingdom, he wanted to blurt out, but held his tongue.

“Before I escaped via a secret teleporter, the Queen gave me a mission. She… have you, maybe, ever seen a strange sword around these parts?”

“Just get to the point,” Liv told him, lips tight.

“Alright. The Queen believes that the Daughter of Light’s sword is hidden somewhere in this forest. Due to circumstances that would take too long to explain, I was the only one able to escape, and she told me to go looking for it. She believes it’s the only thing with the power to repel this threat. Given what I’ve seen, I believe her.”

Liv went still.

“The leader of the Slicers – that’s what I’ve been calling those monsters – I think it’s after the sword too. It was really powerful. It apparently fought with the Grandmaster of Estrellis and ten of the Royal Guards at once, and won. If it gets to the sword before me, then…”

Sidan supposed that both the Queen and the Voice had referred to the abomination as a “she”, but he could only picture it as an “it” for now. He’d avoid personifying it for as long as he could.

Liv looked pensive as she stared at him, fingers rhythmically tapping the cover of her book.

“Stay here, I’ll be back in a minute,” she eventually told him as she got up and left the room.

Sidan stayed in bed. For now, he felt it was more important to gain this strange woman’s trust than to rush off to find the sword.

For a second, the room was noticeably brighter, light from the outside filtering through the window blinds. Before he could open them to investigate the source, it faded. Liv was back a few seconds later, troubled. She leaned against a bookshelf, and said nothing. After a little while, Sidan decided to break the silence.

“What did you do just now? There was a li-”

“Let’s say, hypothetically,” Liv cut him off, “that I do believe you, and that you did find the sword in this forest. What would you do with it?”

“I guess I would wield it, and use its power to drive back the Slicers, just like the Daughter of Light did with the demons,” he answered. “I know I’m not the ideal person for the job, but… I’m the only one. Other than you I guess.”

“The leader of these ‘Slicers’, how sure are you that it’s after the sword?”

“Pretty sure. I don’t have any concrete evidence, but…” He held his tongue. He’d almost mentioned his conversation with the Voice. “I just have a bad feeling about this whole thing. The enemy came prepared, and seemed to know a lot of magic we don’t. I can’t imagine that they would ignore such an obvious threat to them. Or maybe they don’t think it’s a threat at all, in which case we might as well give up. And I’m not willing to do that just yet.”

Liv didn’t answer.

“Do you know anything about the sword?” Sidan broke the silence again. “You were speaking in hypotheticals earlier, but you didn’t deny anything…”

At that, Liv shook herself into action, and turned towards the door.

“Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Sidan,” she said, looking at him over her shoulder. “You can rest here for a while, if you wish. Once you feel better, flee from this forest, and don’t concern yourself with this matter any further. You did what you could. Let me handle the rest.”

“Wait, are you just going to leave me here?”

But Liv was already gone.

Is this what you wanted, Voice? For me to laze in a bed while someone else finishes my job for me?

Given that the Voice had explicitly wanted him to find the sword himself, he didn’t feel that was the case.

With great willpower, he dragged himself out of that wonderful bed, and almost lost his balance as his head started spinning.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

I need some sugar.

Once his bout of dizziness subsided, he shakily walked out, and found that the living room was as bookshelves-filled as the bedroom.

Damn. That girl really likes books.

He found a pantry and was surprised to discover that it was full of sweets, but did not have much in the way of nutritious ingredients. He didn’t give it too much thought, however, and soon was gulping down generous spoonfuls of honey. On any other day, he would have felt guilty for this, but right now he was just too tired to care.

Once he felt better, he put his armor back on, doing his best to suppress the slight shaking of his hands. He helped himself with a few of the potions that were at the foot of the bed, and set out into the forest again. Liv was long gone, but that was fine. He knew where to find her.

* * *

His second trip through Valronia Forest went much smoother than the first. He paid more attention to his surroundings, and this time did not attract any unwanted company from a careless mistake.

He did encounter a group of rat-sized termites on the way, but the monsters had been more content to keep chomping on a dead tree than to go after him.

An hour after leaving the house, he was almost there. He didn’t know what to expect, or what the future would hold. He hoped that he could trust the Voice, and Liv. He hoped that his earlier bout with the piqueswine hadn’t lost him too much time. Most of all, he hoped that he hadn’t made a mistake. Sidan took a deep breath, and made the final step.

He found himself in another clearing, much bigger than the one surrounding Liv’s home. There was a clear view of the night sky, the moon and stars a welcome sight following the oppressive darkness of Valronia. And in the center…

A white rock, pierced by a single shard of pink crystal in the vague shape of a sword. His breath caught. He’d seen countless artistic depictions of this legendary artifact, but to actually behold it in person...

The sword barely seemed real, almost looking like a chunk of crystalized light rather than a solid object. It refracted and amplified the light of the moon, bathing the whole clearing in a soft pink light that soothed his tired spirit. With every movement he made, the kaleidoscope pattern changed, revealing a completely new facet of it.

He wanted nothing more than to lose himself in this mesmerizing jewel, and stare at it for hours. But he was not alone.

“Well, aren’t you just full of surprises?” Liv said. “How did you find me? Tracking magic? Didn’t think you were the type.”

“No, just regular old tracking,” he lied. “You aren’t very good at hiding your tracks.”

Liv had left some footprints and broken twigs that could potentially be followed, but he would have never noticed them if he hadn’t already known which path to take. Still, he felt it was a plausible enough excuse.

Liv got up from her sitting position close to the rock. Sidan noticed a huge, full backpack close to her that was easily as voluminous as she was. Has she carried it by herself?

“Just leave, Sidan. Leave and forget you ever saw this place. I have this handled.”

“And how exactly are you planning to ‘handle’ it? Were you just going to sit here and wait for the monster that conquered our capital in a few hours to find this place?”

Liv did not answer.

“Nobody just lives in Valronia Forest. You expect me to believe you moved here on a whim, and then just happened to find this place while taking a stroll one day? You aren’t just any regular old hermit.”

“No, I don’t expect you to believe that, Sidan,” she answered, quiet. “I expect you to leave, and let me do my thing. You are in way over your head. This blade is not yours to wield.”

“Who then? You?”

“No. The right person still hasn’t arrived. When they do, I will know.”

“And who are you to decide this?”

Liv chuckled humorlessly.

“I,” she said, adding a dramatic pause, “am the first companion of Luciel Anwar. I am the one who guided her to this sword, and I am the one who will guide the next chosen hero the next time it is needed.”

“No you aren’t,” was Sidan’s automatic reply.

“Oh, and why might that be?” Liv asked, eyebrow raised.

“Even ignoring the fact that that would make you more than six hundred years old, none of the history books mention you. There’s a lot of confusion surrounding the demon war, but historians are pretty sure that Luciel had only five companions. There’s almost as much written about them as for the big woman herself. And you… weren’t one of them.”

Even as he said the words, he did not believe them. So much had happened in the last six hours, things that he would have labelled as impossible this very morning. If this strange woman, who seemed to know so much more than him about what was going on, claimed to be an immortal who had personally known one of the most influential figures in recorded history? He believed her.

“No, I suppose they wouldn’t mention me,” Liv said.

What was that supposed to mean?

“But it doesn’t matter what you believe,” she continued. “I will not let you touch that sword. When Luciel came looking for it, I knew that she was the one. And I’m not just talking about my intuition. I have a quite literal sixth sense for this. You? I’m sure you’re a fine guy, but you are simply not the one I’m looking for.”

“No, I’m not. I’m terrified right now. The most violence I was involved in before all this was getting fireballed in the face by a drunk idiot. But unless you’re willing to take up that sword yourself, then nobody else but me will get here before our enemy. And if that happens… Besides, don’t the scriptures say that the Daughter of Light was a regular person before taking up that sword? Anyone can beco-”

“I don’t give a shit what the scriptures say!” Liv cut him off, with surprising venom. “Luciel was a real person, not a legend made up to give false hopes to gullible idiots! And you have no idea what you are talking about. I’m not letting you get to that sword. End of story.”

“So what, you’ll just wait until your perfect knight in shining armor who may not even exist comes here? The leader of the Slicers could be here any minute now! We can’t let it get its hands on that sword.”

“The sword has activated, so they do exist. And that is a risk I am willing to take. It worked out the last time. If anyone but Luciel had bonded with the sword, victory would not have been possible. Only she could have brought out its full potential.”

Sidan glanced at the sword. How did she know it was “activated”? Did it usually look different from this? Or was this related to that strange light from earlier?

“Can’t you just take the sword yourself and wait in a more secure place for your hero to show up?” he asked.

“I can’t.”

“Why the fuck not?” Sidan shouted, exasperated.

“I physically can’t. The sword can’t bond to me, and it won’t get out of the rock otherwise. I can’t destroy the rock either. It’s a lot harder than it looks.”

She can’t bond with the sword, but people other than the “chosen hero” can? What?

That doesn’t make any sense.

Sidan put his hand on his own sword’s pommel, not unsheathing it yet, but making his intent clear.

“I’m not going, Liv. Every second I’m not doing whatever I can to fight against the Slicers is a second someone I care about might be in mortal danger. I don’t know why you’re so obsessed with this chosen hero business, but I know that it will only make things worse. Step aside. I will use violence if I have to.”

“So will I,” she answered, not bothered in the slightest. “And I do believe that if it comes to that, the outcome will not be the one you want.”

Sidan tensed, and realized that he’d made a terrible mistake assuming Liv was defenseless, despite all evidence to the contrary. One didn’t just live in Valronia Forest without some way to dish out the hurt. Should he rush her? No, that would be suicidal. Better to wait and see what she was capable of.

Casually, Liv bent down and opened her backpack, pulling it down around whatever had been in there. It was… paper?

A massive stack of paper that went all the way up to her chest, each sheet the area of a hefty encyclopedia. Before Sidan could question her strange cargo, Liv raised her arm in a dramatic motion. A dozen sheets levitated in the air, lazily rotating around her.

“This is not about you Sidan,” Liv said. “It never was. There are forces much greater than you and I at play here, forces that have set up a whole system meant to handle these types of dangers. It worked perfectly fine the first time, and as a part of that system myself, I will not let you disrupt it based on nothing but a hunch of yours.”

She closed her fist, and all of the hovering sheets folded themselves into arrow shapes, one of which was pointed straight at the tree directly to Sidan’s right. With another gesture, it flew.

The paper sheet-turned-arrow flew through the tree’s branches, and disappeared into the night sky. Several branches fell to the ground, sliced off.

Not taking his eyes off Liv, Sidan bent down, and felt a branch’s cut with his fingers. The slice was completely clean. He gulped. He had definitely made a terrible mistake.

“Last warning,” Liv said, all the remaining arrows now pointing at Sidan. “Leave.”