"You know." Mau mused, turning the shattered length of her long sword over in her hand to peer at the ragged and jagged, chipped edge of the snapped blade. "I'm getting kind of tired of how flimsy these swords feel when I use them. I mean, I know how to pick out a well made sword from a bad one but it's a crapshoot on how long any of them even last anymore."

"Yes, well, you do go through blades like a child goes through a bag of candy." Suvdaa pointed out mildly while stringing her bow.

"Fifteen gold a pop for a decent steel blade is no joke. And they still break when I put them through their paces." The catgirl huffed as the two finished the last of their preparations to leave Dorn.

"Have you tried mythril? Adamantine?" Suvdaa suggested as she tested her bow string with a few tugs and twangs.

"Too expensive. I've bent mythril and shattered adamant. Not worth the cost for me." Mau answered back with a shrug as they gathered their packs and geared up to leave The Cat's Meow.

"So where to next, oh great hero?" Suvdaa asked as she slung her bow across her shoulders.

"Don't call me that." Mau said testily as she threw her travel cloak on and stepped out the inn door. "Anyway I figured we could check in with the guild one last time before we leave. The reward for killing that Lich was pretty nice, but we can see if they've got any news from other places about weird shit."

"Weird shit?" Suvdaa arched a brow. "Like liches?"

"Weird shit like liches, yes." Mau confirmed. "Thanatos was just one servant of the demon lord. He probably has three more and we're going to have to deal with them, too, before we can get to him." She pointed out.

The two made their way through the city streets towards the guild with little fanfare save for the occasional sneeze from Mau. Most of the people were clueless that the shabby looking catgirl demi-human and the bear-pelt wearing raider were the heroes of the hour. A small part of Mau was more than okay with the anonymity for now; it would royally suck if the Demon Lord learned that one of his top men had been killed very dead by some random catgirl instead of the grand but absolutely basic human hero guy he was likely going to expect.

"Man, I bet the look on his face is gonna be priceless." She mused, earning a quirked brow from her companion.

"Whose face?" Another voice piped up curiously before Suvdaa could voice the question herself.

Both girls paused in their tracks, heads turning to the origin of the question to see a familiar grin and mop of blonde hair.

"Oh hey, Andy." Mau said to the young acolyte as her hand rested on the door to the guild building. "And I was just thinking aloud about something funny to me... Did you have business in the guild too?" She asked.

Andy, who immediately forgot his own question when presented with another, bobbed his head in a series of nods, beaming brightly. His tail started wagging up a storm, too.

"Oh yeah! I came to actually sign up with the guild!" He said.

"You? Sign up with the guild? Don't you have... Temple matters?" Suvdaa said, knotting her brow.

"Technically yes, but at the same time, I can take a leave of absence to go on a pilgrimage to find myself. Some priests and clerics use that as an excuse to become adventurers too. I wanna join up with you guys!" He explained brightly before correcting himself. "... I mean you girls."

"Huh." Mau mused as she pushed open the guild door with a shrug. "Suit yourself. I don't mind if Suvdaa doesn't, and you get your papers and gear in order."

The inside of the guild building was abuzz as though there was electricity in the air. Andy immediately marched himself up to the counter and started speaking brightly with the guild clerk on duty for the day while Suvdaa frowned at Mau.

"You don't mind if I don't?" She said in a grouchy tone. "That's another body to equip and a mouth to feed."

Mau peered back at Suvdaa over one shoulder and cocked a brow, "You didn't seem to mind him hanging around when you got to pet his ears and scratch under his chin." She pointed out, lips curling into a catty little grin as her tail flicked. "I think you're just a dog person is all. And that's okay. I'm not jealous."

Suvdaa stammered in furious indignation.

Mau however pursed her lips into a thin line. The hushed murmurs and whispers of all the other adventurers and mercenaries roving through the guild were odd. Something was off. Something was stirring their excitement and she wanted to know what was up.

Then she heard a whisper amidst the hushed murmuring din of sweaty armored men and women.

'Holy sword'.

"Oh." Mau said as realization dawned on her. "Oh shit, is it about that time?"

"What time is it?" Andy asked as he returned from dealing with the guild clerk, a dull set of clay dogtags jangling from his neck showing that he had finished the registration process.

"It's about time we go looking for a sword." Mau replied.

This made the dogboy blink.

"Don't you already have one? ... I mean you broke it, but still." He said.

"No no," Mau replied. "We're going to go looking for a special sword."

As it turned out, after milling around the guild for a while, the rumor mill had churned out something new. Something that would get the attention of every adventurer from the lowest of the low scoundrels, rogues, and mercenaries, to the highest of high knights and paladins. Somewhere, someone, had come across the sight of a sword in their travels and started spreading the word about it. Though the rumors were pretty exaggerated about how it was stuck in a cliff side, or lost in a secret and deep, dark, cave there was one thing known for sure. It existed somewhere. And that was all Mau needed for the rumor to grab her attention.

"What's so special about this sword?" Suvdaa asked as she sat down at an empty table with Mau and Andy following suit.

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"Well." Mau said as she settled in, putting down a mug of beer in front of Suvdaa and another in front of Andy. "It's..." She pondered how to explain the details without cluing Andy in on her unique situation of reincarnation for a beat, before she settled on a story.

"So, long, long, ago, there was this mortal chosen by the gods." She started to say. "When they told their chosen champion that they were destined to kill the Demon Lord, the champion asked for only one thing. A weapon they could use that would help them fight the Demon Lord and their minions. Something that would follow them across the barrier and boundaries of all the different worlds."

Andy wagged his tail, raptly listening intently to story time as he sipped from his mug, canine ears perked up. Mau continued, mostly for Suvdaa's sake, as she had let the raider girl in on her secret already.

"Thuvros, the dwarven god of rock and stone and mountain and metal stood up and said he'd make their champion something fit for them, and as the champion opened their mouth to ask for a magical AK-47 or something, Galatea, the basic bitch of the gods, spoke up and said 'Oh oh oh! Make a sword'!"

Mau didn't realize she was making a face at the moment, she just knew Andy was making one at her for; likely for besmirching his deity of worship. He even stopped wagging his tail before another question hit him.

"What's an AK-47?"

Mau planted her chin in her palm with a huge yawn and continued regardless.

"Anyway, they fought the Demon Lord with that sword and won. And every time they reincarnated the fight the next Demon Lord, the sword followed the champion into the next life and the next world. That's probably the sword that everyone's in a big uproar about right now." Mau said, finishing her tale.

Andy's face shifted from annoyance to bewilderment, then to childish wonder.

"But what are we gonna do when we find the sword?" He asked.

Mau laid her face down on the table and sighed.

"Well I'm gonna take it, and I'm gonna use it to kill the Demon Lord." She said matter of factly.

This made Andy blink.

"But Mau, you're not a champion." He said. This made her look up with a crooked brow.

"I mean you're really good with a sword, but what kind of hero sleeps in past noon?" He asked.

Mau shoot Suvdaa a cross look for spilling about her sleep habits.

Suvdaa sipped her beer without a word.

"Anyway." Mau said, clearing her throat. "I want that sword."

"You and more than half the guild." Suvdaa noted. "How are we going to get to it first?"

This is where Mau flashed a catty little grin.

"We don't have to be the first to find it." Mau explained. "Only the person destined to kill the Demon Lord can actually use the sword."

"Oh." Suvdaa said, falling quiet again as understanding dawned on her.

"But. Haha. That's not you." Andy said nervously.

Mau casually reached across the table and patted him atop the head.

"You'll understand when the time comes, don't worry." She said.

A clueless Andy wagged his tail, delighted regardless.

❧

It had taken some cajoling, wheedling, and subtle dispensation of multiple beers and bribes, but eventually Mau and Suvdaa managed to prise the most reliable sounding rumor from the tight lipped members of the guild. Andy helped too. He was a good boy. Everyone who had heard about the divine blade wanted to get their hands on it first and just getting the information took a bit of work. But in the end, several weeks later, Mau found herself trudging soggy and damp through waist high swamp water.

The best lead Mau had found was to seek out the hag living in the swamps to the east of Dorn. They said she could find anything and if anyone could find the sword, it would be her. There was just the issue of making a deal with a hag and her asking price for the information. But Mau figured she could deal with that when the time came and that it would be a problem for 'Future Mau', as she liked to put it.

"Um." Andy said from directly behind her. "What happens if we run into alligators? Or crocodiles?"

"I'm more worried about leeches." Mau said, tone as miserable as she looked, sweaty and indignant, as she held up the torch in her left hand. It wasn't dark, but the gloom of the swamp and the thick mist made navigation by sight somewhat difficult. Navigation by scent was right out the window and poor Andy was absolutely crying from the stench of stagnant water and heavy humidity.

"Leeches?" Suvdaa asked, frowning deeply. Of the three members of the party, she was the stickiest and hated the swamps the most, but staunchly refused to take off the heavy fur of her bear pelt cloak and hood.

"Yeah, little black sluggy things that latch onto you and suck your blooooooood." Mau explained to the raider, who had never been in such warm and wet climates before.

"That is absolutely disgusting." Suvdaa spat.

Andy whimpered as the trio trudged through the muck and mire, now worried about leeches on top of alligators and crocodiles.

Needless to say, the trek through the swamps was abysmal. The three were sweaty, stank of tepid water, and were covered in brackish grime and algae, and it had been three days of fruitless searching for this supposedly legendary hag before tempers began to fray. Suvdaa was cranky, Andy was demoralized, and Mau just wanted to find someplace warm and dry to take a nap.

"You know. I heard crocodile doesn't taste half bad." Mau considered as she climbed out of the mire onto a loamy patch of earth. Poor Andy though only sank deeper as he misstepped on a sunken root, whining as the tepid water rose to his chin.

"Suvdaa could you... Rescue Andy maybe? I need a second to catch my breath here." Mau huffed as she dripped pathetically on the side of the bracken water.

With a sigh Suvdaa grasped Andy by the back of his robes and helped him out of the water to join Mau on the bank.

"Don't you dare shake--" Mau started to say.

Andy shook. A rapid, vigorous, rattling flail of his body that sent nasty dogboy water everywhere and splashed Mau and Suvdaa.

"ARGH! ANDY!" Suvdaa snapped like someone that just stood too close to a shaking dog.

Mau sighed as she dripped even more.

"S-Sorry!" Andy blurted, now pristine and dry.

"Heeeeeeeeh... Have you had your fun yet?" A new voice cut between them, interrupting the surly remark that Suvdaa was about to chastise Andy with.

In that same instant, Mau and Suvdaa had weapons drawn, Mau's short blade was in her off-hand, a new steel longsword held deftly in her main, while Suvdaa brandished a wickedly sharp knife.

Andy fumbled with his staff to try and make himself look menacing, but there was no hiding that the scrawny dogboy's tail was tucked tightly between his legs under his robes.

Emerging from behind a tree as though she had simply stepped out from around a corner came an old woman. Hunched at the shoulders, she wore tattered and sodden black robes with several large patches stitched on roughly. Her silver hair was damp and lank, hanging stringily on front of vivid and malicious golden eyes set over a wrinkly face and missing teeth, and resting on her shoulder was an absolutely gigantic moth.

Mau didn't lower her weapon. She had faced hags before in prior lives and knew they were just as much deadly as they were conniving tricksters and malicious deal makers. Suvdaa followed Mau's lead and kept her knife brandished while Andy lowered his staff.

"... It's just an old lady." He said, blinking. "... Is that a moth?"

"That sure is a moth." Mau answered back. "But she's not just an old lady."

"Heeeeeeeeeeeh!" The hag laughed, voice hoarse and raspy as she tapped the ground with her staff to emphasize her amusement at the dripping trio before her. "A kitten, a cub, and a pup walk into a swamp." She said, as though giving the opening line to a joke. "Oh but it's no joke, they sought a witch!" She continued as she slowly circled the three and they turned to follow her warily.

"But to what end... To what end...?" She murmured while rubbing her wrinkled chin.

A nasty grin split the witch's lips as she suddenly leered at Mau.

"One of them has the smell of Destiny all over her, too..." The hag said.

"Pretty sure that's just my BO." Mau retorted, earning another cackling laugh from the old woman.

Then the hag looked to Suvdaa.

"Another who smells like the moon on a clear night..." She said.

"Nah, that's swamp brack, I'm sure." Mau said.

Suvdaa smacked the back of Mau's head.

"Ow."

Then the witch looked to Andy.

"And the third smells like he's been touched by the divine..."

Andy blinked rapidly.

"I mean... I read my scripture every night...?"

Mau and Suvdaa sighed in unison while Mau rubbed her head.

"You're all looking for something." The hag said. It wasn't a question.

"I'll help you find it... If you help me first~." She crooned sweetly, head tilting as her smile widened to a menacing degree.

"How about we make a deal for it...?"