Day 4 of Midwinter, Sunset

Castle Arrow, Gorias

Annwn

As I lowered myself into the bath, I realized I had gone four days without a shower. Sure, I had taken a swim three days ago, but it hadn’t fully washed the stink off my body.

I had been pleasantly surprised to find out that the castle had indoor plumbing. Walking through Gorias and Port Cóelrenna, it would have been easy to think that the level of technology would equal that of medieval England. However, it turned out to be more like Disney World, a portrayal of medieval England but with all the conveniences of the modern world. It seemed the Tuatha liked to pick and choose the technologies they brought into their world. Indoor plumbing had made the cut.

We had spent most of the day getting cleaned up, eating, and sleeping. This was actually my second bath of the day. I dunked my head and stayed under the water for as long as I could. Coming to the surface, I became aware that Ruadan was sitting in a chair next to the bathtub.

“What the hell?” I scrambled to cover my bits.

“How many baths are you going to take today, runt?”

“What? And I’m not a runt. I’m actually taller than you!”

He shrugged. “Hyperbole never suited anyone. Except me. Sometimes it suits me.”

“What do you want? In case you didn’t notice, I’m naked.”

“Right.” He seemed to just now notice my lack of clothing. “Get a robe on. And meet me outside your room.”

“What for?” I asked, feeling the conversation getting away from me.

He ignored my question. “We can make a pit stop in my room to get you some suitable clothes. Oh, we should visit the vault, too. Just meet me outside.”

I thought about just locking the door to my room, but I was pretty sure I had locked it before my bath. So, if he had gotten in once, he could get in again. Not to mention that this was an actual god I was talking to.

I quickly finished my bath, dried off, and threw on the robe I found on my bed. When I peeked outside my door, Ruadan was there, impatiently waiting.

He looked me up and down. “You look… fabulous, but I think we can do better. Come.”

We walked the hallways of Castle Arrow at a pace that I could hardly keep up with. After a few different turns, I knew there was no way I would be able to find my way back to my room on my own. Eventually, we entered a doorway that led to a living area even bigger than the meeting hall we had been in early that morning.

“I’ve taken the liberty of laying out some options for you.” Ruadan motioned to a huge pile of clothes on his bed. “But before we do that…” Ruadan clapped loudly, and doors on seemingly every side of the room opened. Attendants streamed in and began to set up tables and chairs. “You desperately need a haircut and shave.”

I ran my hands through my hair. I didn’t think it was terribly long. It was what I’d refer to as “fashionable Steve Nash” length. It seemed that the attendants had a different plan in mind, though, because they set to work on my face and head immediately.

They started at the neck and continued shaving all the way up my face and over the sides and back of my head. It was what fashionable people would have called a faux hawk. What’s the difference between a mohawk and a faux hawk you may ask? To that I say, probably two to three decades.

After I was cleaned up and smelling like one of those all-male barbershops, Ruadan rummaged through the clothes on the bed until he came to a fancy, dark grey shirt (that he called a léine) and pants (trews). He set them aside and dug until he found a dark green cloak to match.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

“There… I think we have some winners.” He eyeballed me for several seconds. “It’s funny…you look so familiar to me.”

“I guess I just have one of those faces.”.

“I won’t hold that against you. Come on, runt. Grab these clothes and bring them with you. We are missing a crucial under-layer.”

We left his room and made our way further through the castle. This time, I noticed we were heading into the lower levels. Multiple staircases led us down and down until we came to a dark hallway in what seemed to be an isolated part of the building. We hadn’t passed another person in the last five minutes. The door was unassuming, like any other door in the castle. It was a dark oak (and I know this purely because I played Minecraft, not because I was some sort of horticultural genius).

Ruadan stopped and looked behind us. I instinctively reached for the doorknob.

“I wouldn’t do that,” Ruadan warned.

I froze, my hand inches from the door. “Biometric locks?”

“What?” Ruadan bopped me on the head. “What the hell are biometric locks?” He adopted what I think he thought was a southern accent. “‘Round these parts, we use magic to fend off varmints.”

He stepped closer to the door and studied the grains in the wood. After a few seconds, he placed three fingers from each hand in six different points. There came a click from inside the walls and the door opened slowly.

“See? Magic!” Ruadan did a little flourish with jazz hands before sashaying inside.

Before us was a room filled with treasure. Gold and silver reached the ceiling. There were gems, pearls and sparkling items throughout. Near the back of the room, I could see sets of armor and stands filled with weapons of every kind.

My mouth must have been hanging open because Ruadan stopped. “What? Have you never been in a treasure vault inside of a castle inside of a magic world before?”

I looked at him with a look that said, “Really?”

He shook his head sadly. “Come on, before you get dressed, you need some protection.”

We walked to the back and he started rummaging through the tiniest sets of chainmail I had ever seen. He seemed unhappy with all of it. He muttered to himself as he tossed different pieces aside. “No…no….not that one… that one was fun…oh, still a blood stain on that one…” He seemed to recognize each piece of armor.

Finally, he came to a lustrous black shirt of what appeared similar to the material used in yoga tights, except it wasn’t stretchy in the slightest. When he touched it, there was no sound of fabric and no clinking of armor. Thanks to my Rings, the shirt had a silver glow to it, notifying me that it was magical.

“What is that?” I asked.

He paused, giving me a puzzled look. “It’s armor.”

I rolled my eyes. “I guessed that. But what kind of armor? You already gave me a shirt.”

“This, my boy, is what they call meshmail.” He held the shirt up for me to touch. “The chain rings are so small and light that they feel like fabric… albeit really farthing cold fabric.”

He handed it to me. It really was light, and it had a barely visible sheen to it. It didn’t reflect the light so much as it seemed to have a secondary color. It was black AND it had a muted pearly rainbow coloration when you studied it closely.

I took off my robe and slid the meshmail over my torso. It fit snug to my body but didn’t cling to my skin. I held out my arms and looked at the half sleeves that came down to just above my elbow. I was still admiring myself when I looked up to see Ruadan holding a dagger.

He lunged and thrust the tip of the dagger into my chest. I flinched as I felt the force of his blow, though the searing pain I expected never came. I’m only a little embarrassed to say that I fell over backwards and into a container full of jewelry that went spilling all over the floor.

“Oh great.” Ruadan pointed at the mess. “Now someone will have to come down here and clean that up.”

“What the hell, Ruadan? You just stabbed me!”

“First of all, you aren’t bleeding… so did I really STAB you?” He casually studied the dagger he had used to knock me over. “And second, you don’t have to always call me by my full name… it’s so formal. Call me Roo. That’s what my… well… that’s what people call me… sometimes.”

I picked myself back up off of the floor and made a token effort to slide some of the jewelry into a pile. Looking down at the meshmail, I couldn’t see a scratch where the dagger had struck.

“It freaked me out,” I admitted. “People don’t just randomly stab other people.”

“Maybe not in your world. But if we are going to have a night on the town, you’re gonna need to be prepared, my lad.”

“Night on the town?” I was dumbfounded.

“I suspect after these last couple of days you could use a wee bit of fun. I know I could.” He paused briefly, and for the first time I thought about what he must be going through. His immortal father had just died. What a blow that must be, not only to lose a father, but to wrap your mind around something that you thought impossible.

Before I could say anything, the moment had passed and he was handing me the dagger. It, too, had a silver glow. “Might want to use your Rings on these before you go covering them up.”

I nodded and activated the Rings of Identification.

Urias’ Meshmail of Adaptation

Made by the sage Urias, this Lustrum alloy meshmail provides the wearer increasing protection on attacks from the same weapon.

The Dagger of Transmogrification

Put this dagger in its sheath, and it can become any melee weapon the wielder can imagine.