“Hey Kullburd, miss me?” L said, calling out to the hulking figure in front of the smithery. Kullburd, however, went on smashing his hammer against metal, oblivious to L's presence.
Before L called out once again, a wicked thought passed his mind. He greatly thanked whichever clever one came up with it, and made his way onto the sword rack. If Kullburd is not gonna respond, then would it really be wron-
A hammer flew mere inches away from L’s head. It bounced off the stonewall, taking a good portion of the brick off.
L slowly turned his head with a nervous smile, cursing whoever snuck the foolish thought into his head. “H-Hey Kullburd. I was just checking out one of your fancy work,” he said as his body shook from the sensation.
Kullburd’s disgruntled face melted away into a wide beam. “My boy! You found clothes, good for you!”
“Mehm, and I almost lost my head for it. Say, I know you want to give me a tight hug, but I need a favor,” L said, upon which Kullburd’s face revealed full disgust.
“I do no favors,” he replied.
“Even if it will help me master my magic faster, and allow you to gain that very magic?”
“Ha!” Kullburd exclaimed, “What can you offer me, that others, more powerful others, cannot?”
“Like I said, knowledge into how to access dark mana. Only with the help of my Patreon will you be allowed that,” L answered.
Kullburd shook his head. “No. There are others, stronger others. Why should I waste time on you, doing you favors, instead of on them? I teach you, but I no work for you. You work for me. As I teach you."
L cracked a grin. “Cus, they ain’t nowhere near as clever as me. You’ll need to be converted, and few Patrons are willing to squander their reserves on someone as obscure as you.”
That, might have pushed it too far, L worried, though his face showed no reflection of it.
Kullburd glared, his eyes unblinking. His presence weighed down on L, tightening the air around his lungs.
Still, L showed no reflection of it. He stood as relaxed and mellow as a human could possibly do without turning into pudding.
A tense moment went by. Then another, and then Kullburd shook the smithery with a thunderous laugh.
“Sharp! I found sharp arrow! Curious. What do you desire, boy?” Kullburd said, placing extra emphasis on the last word. He inserted a shovel head into the blistering fire as he said this.
If only you knew, Kullburd, if only you knew, L thought. The irony of a blacksmith is too much.
“I need contacts. Villagers won’t communicate with me. I need you to refer to me work that involves getting to know as many people as possible. Close contact preferred.”
Kullburd raised a brow at that. “Work? Why not become huntsmen! I hear there is a new vacancy,” he said with a vicious grin.
“I said contact with people, Kullburd, not foxes. Don’t act dumb just so you could jab at me with your fruitless accusations,” L replied, the emotion in his tone strong.
“Ho! You rat. I’m black, dark humor is my thing,” Kullburd replied with a childish tone. “What you need it for?”
“Can’t tell you that,” L replied.
“Why so impatient?”
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“Running out of time,” L replied. In more than one way.
“Remind me, who is you Patreon?”
“Can’t tell you that, either” L replied.
Kullburd frowned. The terms of the deal were not attractive, giving that he had no idea what he was dealing with.
“What do you have to lose,” L said.
“Reputation, of course!” Kullburd replied with pride.
“Nonsense. The village folk despise you,” L said with a wave of his hand.
Kullburd was taken aback. He swallowed awkwardly. “How would you know? You hadn’t talked with villagers,” he said, his eyes narrowing.
“It doesn’t take talking to some pheasants to know they do not take kindly to strangers, especially those from a foreign land and different skin. Need I remind you of what happened to the yordles?”
“No, do not. That is black history. Too black, even for me.”
Another moment passed. The two parties stared at each other wordlessly.
Kullburd once again broke contact, turning his back on L. He brought the shovel head out from the with his tong, and then began hammering it into shape.
L huffed loudly, sinking his face into the palm of his darken hand. He shook his head regrettably as he walked towards Kullburd with heavy footsteps. I grow tired of this. Goodness, have I lost my touch since ‘he’ left me. How disappointing, to this that I’ve fallen so low, L grimly thought as he placed a lazy on Kullburd’s shoulders. He then tightened his grasp and pulled.
Kullburd, a hulk of muscle and fat, with an orc's barbaric blood, and that was at least twice L’s weight was lifted into the ear like a ragdoll. His shirt began to rip and tear under his own weight.
He brought his hands up, but stopped short upon witnessing the horror in L’s eyes. His irises were two bright yellow slits, and his eyelashes extended longer than usual. Dark Mana seethed from the tips like water droplets lifting into the air. His hair floated, oblivious to gravity, and was wet with tingling power. Nerves all of his face and body surfaced, their insides stuffed with a dark hue.
Kullburd struggled weakly, grasping at L's fully armored claws to no avail. “How long will you cower? How long will you stay in this dim corner of the world, too scared to take a risk?” L bellowed, his voice raw. Dark Mana snaked and danced around them in great abundance, turning the smithery cold and dark.
“Let me guess,” L said, lowering his voice to nearly an inaudible whisper. Pity overflowed in his tone. “You were greatly talented. Very talented. Too talented. So you were thrown off. Rejected by those with more power because you made a name for yourself, yes? Political intrigue was what you liked, yes? Oh, how did I know? Process of elimination, plus a bit of math. Nothing fancy,” L shrugged, his armored feet digging further into the dirt beneath him.
He leaned in closer, his sharp teeth baring widely. “Now, Kullburd, sometimes, to get ahead in life, you need to get dirty. Truth needs to be told, altered a bit, and then told in the right ears, with few lies in the mix. A few lives ruined, maybe. Some people might die, here and there. Give or take,” He whispered, his voice growing with venom. Sparks of dark mana splashed onto Kullburd’s thick skin, taunting him. “Just like you, just like your family--if you had one. Dishonored, abandoned, rejected. That’s what you are, Kullburd. There is skill, there is talent in you. I’ve wielded the sword you crafted from Thrawl. No mediocre scum can create that. And oh, yes, yes I did slaughter him. His daughter, too. Oh, the way she was dragged away! It excited me. Her brains were split, and Vathiá, you know Vathiás, yes? Vicious creatures. They tried to push her insides back into her skull, for later eating, of course, but oh it was so tragic. Her brain was so mushed that it slipped through their tiny fingers. They stuffed their mouths, you see, and even as they dragged her--and her skirt slipped up to her hips, the monsters ogled nothing but the flesh on her wide thighs. That’s what people are, Kullburd, delicious meat packed in skin.
Don’t you act surprised, you suspected it from the start. You see, we both dream of power, of knowledge and fame. We both have the thing in our heads. That tiny voice that reminds us that we hunger for power. It shows images of us crushing those who disobey us. Look below you, yes there. Right there, under the soles of our feat. It shows us dominating their woman, squishing them against the ground, breaking them both in mind and body, while murdering their men in number, and rising their corpses towards the heavens with them. We build bridges out of the dead, Kullburd. That’s how you raise. You step on other meat bags, just like they stepped on you. Natural course of life, you see, nothing we can do about it.
I see it all too clearly, but do you? Do you see it, Kullburd? Do you see it? Your weapons in the mighty hands? Cutting limb and spraying intestines all over the battlefield, conquering lands and raiding the world with terror? I know of it. I’ve seen it, me with your enchanted steel spilling guts both of monster and of human. Do you hear it? Do you hear the cries your weapons will create? Do you hear your name be whispered in hushed voices in dark corners of the world? I can see it. I can see it all. Oh, it’s so wonderful, Kullburd, just try! Try it! It’s just so marvelous and sweet.
It’s such a shame, though, that you’ll never amount to any of that. From one bastard to another, I understand you. I feel you. I think like you, too. You know that to be the truth. We're scum. You know how far you’re willing to go, what you’re willing to do, once you start. But you haven’t. Cus you dried up, Kullburd, you’re all dried up living in your fantasy. Kullburd, my damsel, my love and true savior, you jerk yourself off to those fantasies, to those comforting fabrications like a cover under the scary night. Wake up, Kullburd, wake up from your wet dreams. Stop fingering yourself to sleep. You can have it. You can have the real thing. Not just a lie, not just a dream you can imagine as you create tools to carry shit from one end to another. You know what you have to do. The only thing you can do. Just listen to my suggestions and walk briskly into the night, and fucking giv-"
“Everything alright in there?” a rough voice called. An old man stuck his head in, scratching his bald head awkwardly. “I felt somethin’ real wicked coming from here, if you’ll excuse ma’ superstition.”
“Everything is peachy!,” L replied, patting Kullburds chest. “Just the heat getting to this big guy’s head. Right Kullburd?” he said, smiling.
Kullburd, his vacant and face as pale as his black skin would allow him, nodded slowly.
“But it’s so damn cold in here! The flame is out. What’s wrong with you kids?” The old man said, spitting to the side. He began to limp away, his face disgruntled. “Freaking youngsters, not knowing…”
L snapped back, placing an arm on Kullburd’s shoulders. “Well, partner, I'mma go scout the area in detail. I’ll be back in an hour or so. Let me know if you can think of someone who needs help, Alright? The more desperate the better! Those guys are the juiciest,” he said, and walked out of the chilly smithery feeling quite refreshed.