No structure shall be built to a height able to view channels at an angle greater than 15°, or within sight of the ocean without obstruction. ALL streams and rivers should be treated as channels unless verified as secure.
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It was another month before Eythron showed himself, and as was typical for him he introduced himself with an attempted assassination.
Jair was in the middle of a confused dream about trying to fly through a thunderstorm to recharge his lightning powers, which wasn’t how it worked at all, when his manabody reacted to his mentor’s presence and he jolted awake.
Instincts deeper than memory kicked in and he was already moving before he was fully conscious of the presence in the room. He rolled off his bed, brushing the back of his hand against his forehead to summon Maelstrom as he did.
He landed in a crouch as something sliced down where he’d been lying a moment before. Light flared, Maelstrom manifesting just in time.
Eythron had recalled his sword to his other hand, already swinging at Jair’s new location. His blade struck Maelstrom with a resounding shwing that echoed around the room and toppled Jair over backwards before he could recover his balance.
Before he got his feet under him Eythron’s weapon slammed down twice more, adding another two resonant tones to the power vibrating through the small room.
Jair pushed himself into the air with Lift, buying him the moment necessary to stand upright.
“What kind of idiot walks around with a glowing sword?” the old man demanded. He locked their swords, trying to push Jair against the wall.
Maelstrom illuminated the scene in sharp contrasts of light and shadow, making the creases of Eythron’s face and his ever-present scowl all the more pronounced. His eyes were dark and intense, unaffected by the years that marked his face.
Jair used Lift to hop on top of the dresser, suddenly grateful Qahrvirna favored excessively tall ceilings. “That’s why I need your help, Master.”
“You needing help isn’t a good reason for me to give it.” Eythron pressed the attack, shattering the dresser with a heavy diagonal slash and forcing Jair toward the corner of the room.
Jair twisted away, retreating in a circle rather than allow himself to be pinned.
Eythron was all lean strength and relentless power, fast and agile in all the ways Jair himself was well on his way to reclaiming.
Unfortunately, his replacement hand still had yet to arrive. Getting anything delivered to the Oriad was a slow process. Without the ability to flash Maelstrom from hand to non-existent hand to match Eythron’s expert movements, Jair couldn’t keep up by swordsmanship alone.
Eythron chased Jair around the room with his own mobility spells gleaming faintly in brief flashes. Enhance across the back of one hand, Velocity around his upper arm, Slide on his other palm.
“Name your price.” Jair deflected another two slashes in quick succession, raising Unseen Shield to catch the second. He winced at the drastic reduction in power as his manabody absorbed the impact.
“You couldn’t pay me enough to work with a weapon like that.” Eythron didn’t slow his assault as he answered, words punctuated with the ringing of blade on blade. “Sloppy craftsmanship, overworked components, and what did you do to its soul? You need more than I can offer to correct that.”
Jair grinned as he jumped over the bed with another subtle application of Lift and threw another Unseen Shield behind himself to block Eythron’s advance. That bought him a brief moment to catch his breath. “Sounds to me like you’re not up to the challenge, old man. Should I go to Hajvoth like Qahrvirna wants?”
“That amateur wouldn’t know a soulsword from a broadsword. Don’t insult me.” Eythron slashed the bedposts out from under the foot of the bed, crashing it to the ground in a splinter of wood to turn the mattress into a ramp. He ran at Jair, slashing with one hand to knock Maelstrom wide, then leaping from the newly-created high ground in a two-handed overhead slash.
Jair ducked aside to protect his head, but wasn’t able to evade completely. The power of the attack crashed straight through Unseen Shield. Only a last-second cast of Protect saved Jair from losing his other arm.
“I don’t see another option, if you’re so set against me.” Even gasping for breath as his endurance ran low, Jair felt only joy at their reunion. This feeling of testing himself against someone who matched and outmatched him so perfectly, he’d missed it more than he’d realized.
“Whatever flaws you’ve introduced are yours to repair. I can’t help with that. Once it’s part of your soul, no one but you can work on it.”
Eythron’s tempo was impossible to keep up with for long, the old man’s stamina vast to a ridiculous extent.
“I know that,” Jair gasped out, retreating behind the remnants of the bed. He kicked one of the shattered planks into the air, grabbed it with Lift to hold it in place so Eythron was forced to duck under it, buying him a split second. “I’m asking for your guidance, not for you to fix it for me.”
Where Jair was winded, Eythron’s breath came heavily but still in the same steady tempo. “That’s still not a good reason for me to help you.”
They fought around the room twice more before Jair could regain enough breath to reply. “Name your price.”
Eythron only snorted and increased the tempo of his assault.
They’d been at it for minutes now, all at high intensity. Jair’s physical strength and endurance had skyrocketed in the past months of constant practice, but Eythron had a lifetime of building himself into the perfect weapon.
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More and more Jair had to rely on Protect as Eythron’s relentless assault battered Maelstrom aside time and again. His lack of a second hand was beginning to show its true detriment.
Still, he refused to give up.
Jair drew on the local mana as his manabody reached its limits, no longer able to sustain his spell usage. He dizzily ignored the sense of wrongness as the overdraw forced searing raw mana through his imprints. Protect would be all but impossible to shift away from after this, but there were worse fates than being stuck with the best kinetic protection in the world.
His lifebody was wearing down almost as fast as his manabody.
Twice Eythron disarmed him entirely, but Jair was quick enough to recall Maelstrom to his hand that the brief openings were almost imperceptible.
“Give up, boy. You know you’re no match for me.”
“If I give up, will you help me?”
Eythron grunted irritably and stepped closer. His open hand flared Slide, then he grasped Maelstrom by the blade and yanked it to the side, creating an opening through sheer brute force. He hissed in pained shock as Maelstrom’s edge cut through the spell as though it weren’t there, blood running along Maelstrom’s length, but didn’t release the weapon. His other hand sliced upward, blade extended.
Jair released Maelstrom and twisted his wrist just slightly before recalling it back to his hand, freeing it from Eythron’s grasp.
The swords rang out as they collided.
“I’m not going to give up,” Jair panted. “Not until you accept me or give me the conditions.”
Eythron backed up a step, hand closing over the deep slice in his palm, and for the first time since his opening strike he made no move to attack again. "You're really serious about this, aren't you boy?"
"I am."
"Huh. Not many would come against me with as little strength and flimsy techniques as you."
"Not many would be able to find you in the first place. Your nomadic lifestyle makes pinning you down for a test duel rather difficult."
"A test duel, is it?" Eythron circled slowly, keeping Jair just out of lunging range. This room wasn't the biggest arena, but it was still significantly larger than the average bedroom. “Who says it’s a test?”
Jair turned with his circling and sidestepped over the broken furniture. "Are you planning to deny testing me?"
"Why would I deny what's obvious? If Qahri hadn't gone on about you at such lengths, I wouldn't even be here. As it is, I expect she was exaggerating to play a joke on me."
"You consider my skills a joke?" Jair asked mildly.
"Everything about you is a joke. What is that stance? Your sword is leaking power like it's about to explode. Why would someone as unprepared as you come all this way? And yet…" He jabbed his sword in the direction of Jair's missing hand. "I heard about your fight with the venix, and that's enough to send most people running for the nearest town with their tail between their legs. You shake it off like you're a vampire."
"I'm not a vampire."
"I can see that. But you're not anything I can understand either."
"Intrigued?"
Eythron scoffed. "The world is full of things I'll never understand. If I went chasing after all of them, I'd never have a moment's peace."
"But you've stopped trying to kill me. Does that mean you're considering my proposal?"
"I wasn't trying to kill you. And I know your limits now. If I want you dead, you can't stop me."
"I can slow you down."
Eythron shook his head. "Not even a moment's hesitation. Does your life mean so little to you that you'll throw it at everyone who comes for it?"
Jair smiled. "Only those worthy of it."
"Now you presume to judge me?" Eythron took a step forward, twirling his sword in his off hand, a brief flicker the only thing to show he was dropping and recalling it with lighting rapidity. "I've half a mind to send you hunting a star hydra. See how you handle that."
"I've encountered a star hydra once before. It didn't end well."
Eythron's eyebrows went up. "And you're still alive? Perhaps you're a little intriguing after all."
"I did escape, but not unscathed. It damaged my soul to the extent that my soulspell couldn't activate, and I spent over four years hiding out from anything that could remotely threaten me." He pointed Maelstrom at Eythron's face. "And you know full well that a star hydra can't be harmed by physical weaponry. You would send me to my death."
"You've admitted it's survivable. Perhaps another four years recovering will teach you the proper respect."
"You already have my respect."
"And you don't have mine," Eythron shot back. "You're a base novice with delusions of grandeur because of your defective weapon spilling power all over the place."
"Incorrect."
Eythron took another step closer.
Jair raised Maelstrom between them.
The old man swatted it aside with his own sword, scoffing. "Please. I already told you, if I wanted you dead there's no way you can stop me."
"And I told you I'd try."
“You’re going to come to me, calling me Master and begging for help, and then claim you know better than me?”
“With all due respect, Master, I am significantly better acquainted with my own brand of delusions than your brief assessment could provide you. Therefore, you were speaking in ignorance while I am an expert in the field.”
Eythron stared at him a solid eight seconds, then burst out laughing.
Jair tensed and recast Unseen Shield.
Just in time.
Midway through his seemingly-spontaneous guffaws, Eythron jumped across the room at Jair and resumed his rapid sequence of slashes. One hand came down, then the other across, then the first up again, sword flickering between them almost too fast to be seen.
It was like dual-wielding if you never had to worry about your blades hitting each other. Fast, fluid, and dizzying to try to fight against. Jair’s perception was up to the task of following Eythron’s attacks, but his body still couldn’t move fast enough. Even if he’d had his other hand, it was months too soon to regain the necessary muscle memory to move at that tempo.
There was something different about the fight this time, though, and it took Jair a moment to figure out what it was.
Eythron was no longer aiming his attacks at Jair’s body at all. He was just hitting Maelstrom over and over at full strength.
“Are you trying to destroy my soulsword?” Jair demanded. “That’s a very poor first impression.”
Eythron’s rhythm didn’t change as the blades clashed against each other again and again. “You don’t seem concerned by the possibility.”
“I stabbed a poison dragon matriarch with it and it came out entirely unscathed. If hitting it with another pointy stick was going to do anything, it would have by now.”
Eythron didn’t take his word for it.
The next minute was a desperate scramble as Jair struggled to deflect or avoid his mentor’s relentless attacks.
Maelstrom may be able to hold up to the assault, but Jair’s hand was quickly growing numb from the repeated heavy strikes. He didn’t have the necessary grip strength to hold out indefinitely.
More and more Jair found himself losing hold of Maelstrom and needing to recall it. He did so near-instantly, but Eythron’s smug glower made it clear he wasn’t fooling anyone.
He settled into the rhythm, subtly tugging his hand in place with his manabody whenever possible. His manabody had begun to recover, given the minutes without casting or maintaining overdraw, but it wasn’t close to full strength.
“You’re one of the most stubborn people I’ve ever met,” Eythron grumbled, as Maelstrom fell from Jair’s grip only to be recalled flawlessly. “And I’ve met a lot of stubborn people.”
“Similar people tend to be drawn together.”
“Quit playing games.”
“Is that your price for helping me?”
Eythron snorted. “If you really want my help? That sword. Give it here.”
Jair tossed Maelstrom to him without pause.
Eythron arrested his attack mid-swing and recalled his sword to free his hand. He caught Maelstrom by the hilt and stared at it intently.
There was a moment of quiet. No new attacks came, allowing Jair's breathing to begin steadying.
Then Eythron spoke. “I don’t care if your sword is legendary, what kind of idiot attacks a blademaster with his weapon at eleven percent integrity?”
“Another blademaster. And we’ve already established, nothing you do will harm it.” Then Jair frowned. “Wait… did you say eleven percent?”
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