As we walked he remained silent, no more questions are snarky comments. I was honestly a little surprised he figured out what I was doing so quickly.
‘A monster without a face. No eyes, no nose, so how does it see? It’s ears… So in other words, if I create a prison of sound, it wouldn’t be able to leave, if it can even stand the pain of its head almost exploding.’
One time while I was cleaning I accidentally dropped one of the swords on the quake stone hammer and I felt like I couldn’t hear right for a week. That was just one. I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to stand in the middle of a circle of eight.
The swords were made out of a heavy metal that resonated so strongly that people would actually use them to make music by fighting with special choreography, or so I was told at least.
When they came into contact with Quakstone though, it was like someone set off an EMP for everyone's ears. With how crazy powerful the sound was I could see it killing people for sure… Suddenly I realized how dangerous the trap I was building was.
I looked over at him as we walked through the house. “Hey, finlo… This can’t actually make someone's brain leak out… can it?”
He looked back. “Yeah, seen it happen too. Guy was mining with quake stone picks, he hit a vein of chrysolite, and before we knew it pink stuff was coming out his ears. Of course, we all heard what happened.
“You’re… joking, right?” ‘Please be joking.’
He shook his head trying to hide his smile for as long as he could before letting it slip out and rubbing my head. “Siya, it would take at least this much just to rupture someone's eardrums, one hit couldn’t melt a person's brain.”
Without even realizing it I had stopped breathing. I didn’t want to accidentally kill myself with my own trap, but it was my only plan. I almost started panicking, thinking I would have to come up with something else. “Not funny Finlo…”
He laughed. “It was kinda funny.”
All I could do was sigh. ‘Not this time…’
When we got to my room I opened the door and rested the hammer against the window. After looking at carrying the swords, I changed my mind and rested the hammer under my bed just to be safe.
“OK, you can just set those on the bed. If you want you can help me set up too. You caught on to the plan pretty quick, seems like you might have done something like this before.”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
He smirked. “While I would love to tell you about my Oh so amazing experience getting my ears blown out, I’m afraid I can’t.”
He stayed standing perfectly still, not even shaking from the weight of the swords. “You can’t what… You don’t have to talk about you’re past, it’s ok if you don’t want to.”
“No, I can’t come in. I’m under strict orders to never enter your room, much less get close to your bed.”
I wasn’t sure if I was embarrassed by all the implications he just dropped, or dumbfounded by how ridiculous it was. ‘I mean… If you intentionally say it the wrong way… I did invite him to my room…’
Feeling myself turn slightly red I cleared my throat. “Who gave you that order?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Would you like that list chronologically, or alphabetically?”
I closed my eyes and let out a groan. ‘Why is my family so weird…’ “Whatever just… Set them down there I guess.”
He carefully set them down before giving a solute. “Is there anything else you require of me, my lady.”
I snorted, rolling my eyes. “Get out of here Finlo.”
He turned a perfect 90 degrees before marching away military style.
“And FInlo!”
At the sound of his name, his face quickly poked out from the side of the door frame. “Yes?”
“Thanks…”
He smiled. “Anytime princess.”
Before I got to work I just sat there for a moment. ‘He’s weird too, but it’s not a bad kind of weird.’ I closed my eyes, looking up to stretch my neck as I rubbed my fingers down my face with a deep breath. ‘Ok. Time to get to work.’
My room was on the second floor, which meant if I wanted to stick something in the ground I didn’t have to force it through a stone foundation.
Without thinking about it too much I measured the distance between each sword in feet, that is to say, my feet as I walked in a circle, placing a massive sword directly into the floorboards every four steps.
Before I knew it everything was set. It wasn’t my best plan, but the circle was large enough for it to work, covering over half my room. ‘One strike with this hammer and it rings so loud I might go deaf. I won't be the one in the center though.’
I opened the window for light and set all the candles I could ablaze, starting to get nervous as the sun finished setting.
A part of me wanted to go to my parent's room, so I wouldn’t have to be alone. ‘Even if it is a demon, I bet Mara could take care of it. Even if she couldn't my father probably could.’
‘At this point, it could just catch me the moment I step out the door though. I already tried asking them for help, but in the end, I even had to get the swords myself.’
The room smelled nice, and there were new sheets on the bed. It was cold, but the lights were burning bright enough to almost make me forget it was night. Most importantly, in my hands was a quakestone hammer.
I was still afraid, but a smirk crossed my face all the same. ‘I hope this works.’ It felt ironic, using a hammer of all things after wishing to be able to use a smaller, lighter weapon. In this case, though it would be fine. I only had to swing it once.
‘After I shake its brain a bit I’ll use one of my brother's arrows to pierce its heart. That will end it since it only has one.’
‘I’m still fighting alone… How much longer…’
Holding the hammer firmly in my hands and resting the spear next to me, I sat down below the window and waited.
After what felt like hours I began to doze off. It still took hours more before I could fall asleep, but eventually, I did, giving in to the exhaustion I was still feeling from the previous day.
I was so sure that it was going to come for me, but it didn’t matter, my body and mind had reached their limit. Just as a small part of me was afraid that it wouldn’t show up, a small part of me was hoping that it would, just to prove that I wasn’t crazy.