If it has never been done, does that mean it is impossible? Or only that it requires conditions which have yet to be met?

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After Raina finished exploring and describing her new soulmap to Jair, complete with sketches of the patterns of each of the spiderweb-lines making up the holding network, he took a step back and stared at the depictions with no small degree of curiosity.

“This looks very familiar.”

“Does it?”

Jair held up Maelstrom, the deep-green-almost-black central strip of its blade illuminated with the faintest tracery of golden light. Far too intricate to have been what he drew out that so long ago so recent day when it had first ascended. It was no longer an echo of his soulmap, but represented the soulspell itself tangibly.

“Remind you of anything?”

Raina leaned closer to peer into Maelstrom’s heart. The patterns were too detailed to be fully comprehended, each line revealing itself to be a pattern of patterns the closer you looked. Almost as though the blade was no longer a merely physical item but a window into a deeper universe.

“Yeah… the designs are similar,” Raina admitted, “though yours is a lot more complicated.”

“But yours spat out your sword rather than merging with it.”

Raina nodded, frowning down at the soulsword. “I guess we’ll need to ascend it if we want to integrate it into my innermost self, then.”

Jair chuckled. “Is that the goal, then? Imitate Maelstrom as closely as possible?”

Raina smiled mischievously. “Why imitate anything but the best?”

“I can’t argue with that. Maelstrom is a tempting template.” He’d put centuries of work into finally creating Maelstrom, and sacrificed more than was reasonable along the way. “But I will reiterate, I died several times to create it as it is now, and I highly recommend you don’t do the same.”

“But would it even be the same without the lifeblood and soul of its creator?” Raina asked innocently. “Sounds to me like you’re envious of my daring and want to keep your secret powers to yourself.”

Jair laughed. “Indeed, my envy is unmatched. I’ve come all this way to see that you never reach the same heights I have ascended. Muahahaha!”

“My treacherous companion so readily betrays me.” Raina gasped and fell back to lie unmoving on the floor, staring blankly at the ceiling. “And so my legend ends… before it can even begin.”

“Exactly as I planned.” Jair picked up her sword. “And this meager trophy shall adorn my wall in proof that none other shall come close to my level.”

He stacked it atop Maelstrom on the table, then leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers as he regarded the faux-deceased girl before him. “But what to do with you, now?”

Her pretense of blankness broke as a sneaky smile grew across her face. “You may have betrayed my life, but even your wicked heart cannot betray my soul. For too long you have been bound in subservience. Your attempted overthrow comes too late. For as I die, so too… shall you.”

Jair feigned a dramatic gasp, eyes going wide as comprehension dawned, then toppled forward to land sprawled on his stomach beside her. “So both our legends end,” he whispered hoarsely, his hand reaching tremulously for hers. “As they were always destined to.”

Raina shuffled sideways until they were close enough to almost touch, then closed her eyes. “Too… late…”

Maelstrom pulsed with flickering gold.

“Don’t interrupt, this is dramatic!” Jair playfully hissed at it, peeking one eye at his wayward sword.

Maelstrom flickered again, green fire beginning to flare up around it. And something blue pulsed beneath it.

“Did you see your sword flicker just now?”

Raina leaned up on one elbow to check on her sword. It currently lay inert. “No, should I have?”

“I thought I saw something, but it might have been reflected light from Maelstrom. It’s been doing the teasing flickering flame thing recently.”

Maelstrom surged in black fire, which died down immediately.

“See? It’s like it’s taunting me.”

Maelstrom pulsed silver.

“And you think my sword did something similar? Even being standard and non-ascended, not even reforged?”

“I don’t know. I’d like to inspect it again.”

“Again?” Raina twitched. “Jair Welburne, have you become a wholly uncultured barbarian in your time unsupervised?”

“No, I just stopped pretending otherwise.” He pointed at the swords. “May I, my lady?”

“There’s nothing to see, I’m sure.”

“Have you inspected it recently?”

She reached up to grab her sword, frowning. “Why would I need to? It’s back to normal.”

Jair chuckled. “I suggest you check again.”

Raina placed the sword on the floor between them and they both looked down at it.

─ Tempest

─ Type: Soulsword

─ Rank: Uncommon

─ Class Requirement: Mageblade

We hunger.

─ Bound to ???? & **???

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“Aha! You are being a bad influence!” Jair whipped around to glare up at Maelstrom, where it sat innocently on the table still. “Teaching the innocent young sword to be all angsty and sinister? You’re not setting a very good role model.”

“Tempest…” Raina whispered. “Uncommon. Jair, this…!”

“I’m afraid sticking around Maelstrom is going to have strange effects on your poor Tempest there. It’s chosen a very poor mentor.”

Raina laughed unsteadily, still a note of disbelief. “Are you saying your sword just… gave mine a name?”

“It certainly appears that way. I don’t know how else to interpret what’s happened here.”

Raina’s eyes flicked between Tempest and Maelstrom. “Jair, do you have any idea how rare it is to have a named weapon?”

“Yes. There are currently one hundred and eighteen named weapons in existence across all of Neptus. Seven more on Terluna, twenty-three on Zelura, and eighty on Nuprima. Of those on Neptus, two are in Veor.”

For a long moment, both of them just stared. At each other, at the newly-christened Tempest.

“Mistress Raina?” Carn’s voice preceded the man coming around the corner of the bookshelf forming the left ‘wall’ of their current area. “Your…”

Jair and Raina both jumped up immediately. Raina dusted herself off and tried to look innocent. Jair flopped back into his chair and picked up a book.

The Serin house manager gave them a suspicious look. “Are you rolling in the dirt like a hooligan, Miss Raina?”

“Dirt? On your carpet? I didn’t imagine such a thing could exist!” Raina surreptitiously flicked away a clump of dust caught in her hair.

Carn’s eyes followed the movement with a frown. “You know that the library is only cleaned once a month, and it has not been yet in Xulok in preparation for Solaria.”

“Do I? Good thing you’re around to remind me of what I know already.”

“There are perfectly functional sofas if you wish to lie around. Dare I say even your bedroom carpet would be cleaner.”

“You’d rather we lie around on my bedroom carpet?” Raina asked. “But there’s so much less space to sprawl out up there.”

“Setting aside the matter of carpets, Miss Raina, your father is—”

“RAINA!” Ajriol didn’t wait to be announced but came around the corner at a pace that couldn’t really be called dignified, but wasn’t quite a full-on sprint either.

Lord Ajriol Serin looked haggard, as though he’d slept as little as Raina and Jair did, but enjoyed it much less. His eyes were dark and weary, but his whole face transformed with relief as he saw his daughter standing there safe and unharmed.

Raina just had time to look up before he’d grabbed her. “You’re here!”

Jair grinned. “Yes she is. You’re welcome.”

Ajriol was too busy hugging his daughter to pay attention to the visitor, but Carn gave Jair a look as though to say why are you like this.

“You’re alive! You’re safe. I was so sure…” Ajriol backed to arm’s length, checking over every bit of her face, taking in her crumpled but clean outfit. “You’re not hurt?”

“I’m alright, Dad,” Raina said, a bit tearily at her father’s obvious concern. “I’m fine. None the worse for wear.”

“Thank Dovak,” Ajriol said with deeper feeling than Jair had ever heard from the man before, then whispered, “Thank Dovak,” a second time as he pulled her in close once more. “When I heard about the dragon, I thought I’d never see you again.”

“Me neither,” Raina said. “I only knew what Jair had said, that Ryenzo wanted to kill me… every time I heard a wingbeat, I was so sure it would be the end. I still don’t know why she waited so long.”

Ajriol looked up, turning to look at Jair lounging in the chair with his book. “You knew about this?”

“I did. I put protections in place as quickly as I could.”

Raina giggled and pulled her head away from her father long enough to grin at Jair. “Too bad you couldn’t rig those Reskian wards with proximity triggers.”

“You’re sure you’re alright?” Ajriol said, looking over her again, more skeptically. “All I heard was that a dragon grabbed you and carried you off. How did you escape? What happened?”

"I don't think I can even start to explain it. I'm still processing it myself." Raina looked to Jair. "I spent most of it in a kind of survival haze, until Jair came back. I think I was half delirious until last night."

"You seem to have recovered miraculously quickly, if that's the case."

"My sword has a substantial healing power," Jair said. "If you haven't started to hear rumors yet, you will soon. I can cure just about anything."

"Wait, you mean the miraculous new fire healer is you?" Ajriol turned to give Jair another look over.

Jair held up Maelstrom with its flickering aura of green flames. "Indeed, I am the Phoenix Healer. Raina has been returned to perfect health and stable equilibrium, so whatever effects being held in the draconis valley for a week may have had on her, they should be minimal."

"It all feels like a distant nightmare, really," Raina said. "Not something I actually experienced less than a day ago."

"Good. Let it stay that way. Allow it to fade. Hold onto only what you need to remember."

"Less than a day?” Ajriol asked, glancing between the two of them. “How did you cross the desert so quickly?"

"Phoenix Healing comes with a complimentary trip to the locale of your choice."

Ajriol only appeared confused.

"I can teleport people as well as heal them," Jair clarified. "It was the only way I could think of to get Raina away from the dragon fast enough."

"You'll need to tell me everything in full," Ajriol said, looking between Jair and his daughter. "But right now, I have some messages to send. I've never been so happy to have wasted days of my life on a project that ended up being pointless."

He hugged Raina one more time, then reluctantly turned away and departed.

"Breakfast will be served in one hour," Carn said, eying the pair of them. "I suggest you get tidied up before then."

"I almost got thrown into a volcano, and all you can say is 'take a shower before breakfast'?" Raina asked, hand on her hip.

"I am eternally grateful to all the fates that allowed you to return to us safely," Carn said, without the slightest change to his stern and mildly disapproving affect. "If there had been anything I could do to rescue you sooner, I would have. Young Master Jair has my deepest admiration for coming up with and employing so successful an intervention. And he is, of course, welcome to join the household for breakfast." With a short bow, he turned and departed.

"That's just how he is," Jair said, laughing at Raina's indignant expression. "Trust me, he cares for you as much as if you were his own daughter. He just doesn't do the emotional thing like Ajriol."

"You think so?"

"I know."

"Right. Time traveler. Someday that won't be a good enough excuse."

"Then I can give you as many stories as necessary to demonstrate my knowledge."

“And demonstrate your ability to teleport without a transit platform?”

"I will warn you that there may be some unknown soul cost to the procedure, before you start thinking of ways to exploit my power to establish economic dominance or anything."

Raina looked at him, eyes wide, then frowned. "Is that what...? But, no, it wouldn't be."

"You get a pass," Jair told her. "Free passage. Maelstrom will pick up the tab."

“I’m not sure if I should be more worried about the fact that your sword is apparently taking something from people’s souls without their knowledge, or the fact that you’re using your sword to take things from people’s souls with full knowledge.”

“Neither. Worry about where you want us to go come Terlunia. Should we go recruit Prince Orren to reunite Veor’s royal family, or leave them to their own devices for a while? Visit Suthyrel’s spires? Explore Terluna itself a while, hunt some mirror dragons? You could get the dragonslayer title for yourself. And technically I don’t have it either, since I didn’t personally kill Ryenzo, just caused her to die. I’d love to introduce you to my friends in the Oriad.”

“Ahh… well…” Raina stared blankly, trying to process the list of options. “I suppose we could… give it further consideration. Terlunia isn’t for another two weeks yet.”

“True. In the meantime, want to visit my family? I still need to figure out what’s going on with my sister. If I’m not going to have a chance to revert, that might be my next highest priority. Maybe I should just bring her with us? Would you be alright with that?”

“I’ve never met your sister. Lilin, was it?”

“I’m impressed you remember. Yes, Lilin. She’s old enough to take a class, but hasn’t decided on one. Doesn’t want to end up in a dead-end route. Would rather work with our parents for another several years until she saves up enough to do her own thing.”

“That sounds like something we can help her with.”

“You’d think so.” Jair grimaced. “My family is a little on the stubborn side. I’ve tried to offer Lilin my help a thousand times, but she won’t accept it.”

Raina raised her chin defiantly. "Then she'll accept it from me. I may not be able to do more than that, but if there's one thing I know how to do it's push through a purchase."

"You're buying my sister's future, now?"

"Why not? If she won't sell it to you--"

"She won't sell it to anyone."

"Sounds to me like you just haven't found the right pitch."

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