Kieran's attitude changed immediately, “ugh, you are an idiot.” It was this moment when she decided she would just be herself around Ryder.

“You are not wondering why I am excited?” Ryder asked his expression was hurt, but his eyes shown with humor.

“I already know why, the backlash was huge for such a low level spell, meaning the item is powerful.” For a moment Ryder seemed disappointed, then his expression changed, his eyes had a hunger in them. Keirah became uncomfortable with his stare. “What? The wings, I do not know how to explain it, they showed me much.”

Ryder was upset, at first, for she had stolen his chance to dramaticize and embellish. But his attitude quickly changed, he was impressed that she was able to do quickly learn from her belt. For the first time Ryder saw her not as only someone that was fun to be with, but as someone he could relate to, talk to, learn with.

Ryder looked at Keirah with a serious expression, “No Angel, it is Ki-rav, the belt. The wings belonged to Avondale, when he allowed me to remove them, the detached from his soul, no longer being his. When you put the belt on they attached to your soul, making them your wings. As such they are a part of you, they hold no knowledge but your own. The belt is an artifact, an item housing an aetherial being. Ki-rav is its name, it is teaching you. If you removed it, you could still don your wings.”

The serious look Ryder had made Keirah believe there was much more to this than she realized. Still, though it was immature, she did not quite believe him. So she removed her belt, and she again stood naked before the man she loved. She knew this would happen, she had done this to take her shower earlier this morning.

Ryder was prepared for such action however and was already casually in the process of preoccupying himself with returning to the forge to clean it up, manually this time.

Keirah was annoyed with his ability to knowingly avoid her compromising trap, while seemingly doing it on accident. She flexed her mind looking for the part of her that held her wings. It was not hard to find them, and simpler still to bring them out. It did surprise, but only momentarily. She returned the belt around her waist and it became her armor again. Keirah sighed, her armor was attractive, and more comfortable than armor should be, it was not something she could wear anywhere.

Ki-rav again showed her, all it took was a little thought. Keirah made her way to the bathroom she used for her shower, there was a floor to ceiling mirror there. When she found it she entered via a Ryder sized hole in the wall. The hole had broken part of the mirror but left over half of it untouched. It would still suit her needs.

The first thing she did was get rid of the armor entirely. She was much more self conscious about being naked, for some reason, the act of changing gave her a different perspective, it could also be the man size hole in the wall. The first thing she crafted was a white lace bra, pulled tight. She would not call herself large breasted, but white proper support her chest protruded three and a half inches from her body.

She then made a matching pair of panties. She tried a one piece dress that covered her shoulders. The dress was white with a slightly faded golden floral design. The shoulders were small, but covered her shoulders completely, they were loose and ruffled to match the dress below the waist. The torso was tight, and matched every contour of her upper body, Ki-rav turned into a matte gold ribbon that fell to the side just above her left knee.

When she examined her aetherwork she blushed profusely, it looked as if she were to get married. Quickly she shortened the hem, leaving the left side to extend two inches below the knee, while the right shortened two four inches above her right knee.

Shoes were next. Keirah was a tall woman at six feet one inch, she was still four and a half inches shorter than Ryder. They had to be sandals, she hated socks and any fabric over her feet. She preferred to look up at Ryder, so that ruled out any real heals, and she wanted to be able to move in them. She decided on white kurgen leather that crisscrossed her feet and ended with a single loop right above the ankle. Kurgens were an animal that appeared because of the nuclear fallout that ended the first digital age. It was a very common large rodent that had the softest, but still extremely durable leather.

She covertly placed sneaker tread along the bottom of her shoes and raised her heel an inch for support and comfort. She left the bathroom skipping with a smile. Ready to show Ryder. She found him sitting on the forge floor meditating, with the box with his gift in front of him. “No, I have not opened it.” He allayed her.

Keirah stood in front of him and cleared her throat. He opened his eyes, looked her up and down and said, “you look beautiful.” To which she smiled and sat down next to him and waited for him to open his gift.

As soon as Ryder opened it, he jumped back, fear and awe in his eyes. “Lacṹerend…” He muttered.

“What?”

“This weapon has been known by many names, Tyrfing, Joyuese, Claíomh Solais, Caledfwlch, Honjo Masamune, Freyr, Goujian, and others. It is a soul sword.”

“I will start at the beginning.”

“Merlin wrote in his book that, according to his research, with the help of his wife Morgan le Fae, that the sword He created, known as Caledfwlch, Caliburn and Excalibur, was a reincarnated soul sword.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Merlin admits that when he created the sword it had terrible power, so he encased it in stone so only one who was worthy could wield it. Arthur was a bastard child of Urthur Pendragon, an orphan, who was filled with kindness. He had been caught stealing food and was branded a thief. He was to be executed for it was his third offense, but on the way the city was put under siege by a fearsome army, and a dragon. Arthur looked for the only weapon he could find, the sword in the stone. To everyone's amazement he pulled it free and slew the dragon.

Merlin says it was then the sword took control. He says that the form of the sword was wrong, causing it to be unpredictable. Arthur marched to the front of the city, and with one swing, killed every single invader. Unfortunately a small child was caught in the sword’s path. Greatly distraught, he cast the sword into a lake and wept on the bank. It his said his tears caused the lake to flood, and a lady Nyad returned the sword to him its shape changed and its power tamed.

Arthur became king and married a woman named Guinevere, they had two children Mordred and Roarke. Roarke was kept secret and went on to lead the knights of the round table after his father’s death. Excalibur disappeared when arthur died. And the round table became a secret society, tasked with guarding magical artifacts and keeping the daemons at bay. Each member had a soul sword. They probably still exist today.

What the sword really was, was Lacṹerend, an Aetherblade. apparently , back when there was only one dimension, there was a brutal war, one that had no end in sight. The war decimated innocent people, but there was a warrior said to have been gifted with a sword that could rend the very fabric of reality, with it he cut the very fabric of reality, creating dimensions.

Not like I do, not pocket ones, he cut real dimensions. It is said that all of the dimensions hinge on the existence of one, the original dimension. One where there is so much magic you can almost taste it, yet not many can use it. Those who can are so weak, they can barely do the cleaning spell. The people there hunted the magical creatures till they escaped to another dimension. One with far less magic. It is why they stay in my pocket dimension. It still has a large quantity of magic, for it was created in a prime dimension. The one we are from.

Anyway, the weapon has always been described as a sword. The first text that describes it, according to Merlin, was a sword held in two hand that could cut at either side. Everyone has thought it a broadsword, or another two handed variety, but I believe its true form lies in front of me.”

Ryder looked at the song weapon, it was two inches shorter than he was long. The handle was a foot and a half long, made with a dark ebony wood, with gold engravings. There was a sleek, silver blade on either side of the handle. The blades were covered in purple runes, and curved slightly counterclockwise.

“This blade has been reincarnated many times. Sometimes the sword disappears, sometimes it leaves behind its shell with inexplicable qualities. What did you name it?”

“Rokyn. I named it Rokyn.” Keirah was still digesting the story.

Ryder kissed her gently on the mouth, but she did not seem to even notice. He then pulled a knife out of his belt and cut his palm. “Lacṹerend, listen to me for I know your true name. Now starts a new time, separate from the past. You have been named Rokyn, let it be the start of a new legacy.” He turned to Keirah, “Stories of legend have a way of surviving the brutal tests of time, now you shall be known as one who forged the most legendary soul sword.”

Keirah was shocked to her core, she had created, or recreated the most legendary sword of all time, on a whim. And she did it better than master weaponsmiths. She watched as Ryder reached for the Rokyn, she felt an immensely powerful presence fill the space. Purple light cascaded around Ryder, then he disappeared, along with the presence.

She stood there alone, dumbfounded. She was still blushing, what Ryder had done to the sword was an amazing gift, it immortalized her, that is if she was not already immortal, it was impossible to tell.

“Haaaaaah!? What the hell happened!?” A man poked his head through the hole in the wall. A name tag identified him as Frank, the tag was different, it said architecture below his name, his path of wisdom.

“Ryder, magic backlash.”

“Damn! What was he trying to do.”

“Clean”

“And the backlashes caused this? What was he up against?”

Keirah just pointed at the weapon.

“Lacṹerend!? Ahhh!” Frank was thrown into the wall. But he recovered quickly.

“Sorry, its name is Rokyn, but you would have been correct ten minutes ago.”

“Ah I understand now, you made Rokyn as a gift for Ryder, for forgiveness, but Ryder had already forgiven you. He then permanently tied your name to the most legendary weapon artifact ever. As he reached to touch the weapon claim it, he disappeared, now you are super confused because you don't know whether to be worried or not. Sound about right?”

“How did you know? Your path is architecture.” Keirah said she was finally coming out of her stupor.

“Aye that it is, but haven't you heard? Architecture is the mother art. Just because are path is one thing doesn't mean we are fools concerning everything else. And, hehe, my sister’s path is induction.”

“What do I do?”

“Huh, you love him that much already do you? Most would say we, but you said I. I wonder why?”

Keirah just nodded.

“Huh I wish I was that good, it took me years to get to catch the my wife.”

“Your look twenty.”

“Twenty eight! Ahem, hehe… um, I'm older than I look. I should call the others. You can follow me.”

Keir followed him to large double doors, four times taller than her. They opened up into an enormous circular room with judicial benches following the walls.

There was a circular desk in the center, Frank walked over to it and said, “you will sit here, in order for you to partake in this meeting you must be the one to present the problem.”

Keirah sat down to wait, she saw some of the servant, Ryder's family come in, they sat in the benches. Each bench sat a pair, a man and a woman. Each bench contained a husband and wife. Every single bench had a couple except one, this one was a little taller. The man who sat there had the most piercing eyes she had ever seen, they were like her father’s, as if the could see right through you.

His name was Saul and he was the last to come in. As soon as he sat down a hologram appeared, it was Ryder.

“I see you have finally gathered here without me. I suppose it's either because I am dead, or otherwise unreachable.”

Keirah’s heart tightened at the mention of Ryder's death.

“From now on you shall be known as the Sages that make up the Sage Council. I know what you are thinking, that this is the kind of thing for magic users and immortals. You will find the path to immortality is much simpler than finding some magical relic. The Aether gives to those who fill voids. Saul, you have never found what your path of wisdom is, I tell you you have none. Your path is a path to wisdom. Remember when all around you seems to be a lie, retreat to the one thing you can prove is real, decide what is, then press forward.”

“This is the end of this transmission, last updated seven hours ago.”