Herald of Rose 4:

Seven sins

Morgan could tell her eyes were on him. He was standing next to Bertram, who had insisted that morning to give him and his sister a tour of the King’s Foundry, that included stopping at every blacksmith’s work station. When the older man had suggested the tour, Morgan had thought it was a great way to pass some of the time while he waited for the workmen to finish digging the pit. It had been two hours since Bertram had started showing him around and they were only half way through the second stone shelf.

Each of the blacksmiths on the stone shelf stood next whatever they were working on, smiling or frowning in anticipation of Morgan and their master. Unfortunately for them, the truth was all of this was near primitive to Morgan, or just things he could achieve with no more thought than writing his own name. He was bored. And that boredom made the feeling of Cassidy’s eyes on his back impossible to ignore.

“Quite impressive wouldn’t you say?” Bertram asked.

“Yes…it’s something, for sure.” Morgan said as he mentally rejoined the conversation. He had been lost in thought for most of the young blacksmith’s explanation while Tory had been giving each presentation her full attention.

“Alright, on to the next one,” Bertram said and they walked to the next eager blacksmith. She was an older woman with red hair and freckled cheeks that made her almond eyes that much more distinct.

Unlike the others, she seemed to be actually nervous. “This is one of my most promising blacksmiths, Abby Verendale. She’s been working on a curious case for a while.” Bertram said pointing to a chunk of yellow ore on a table next to her.

“Maybe you should skip me. Trudy’s work has been going really well, you should look at hers,” Abby said pointing to another woman directly her, who waved back and smiled.

“Nonsense!” Bertram laughed. “Just show us what you have so far.”

“That’s the problem, I don’t really have much to show. I honestly don’t think this metal is very useful at all. Its melting point is so high that I haven’t been able to smelt it down and whenever I did try to smelt it, the ore stays at highest temperature I used for half a day before it even begins to cool off.”

“Half a day?! I’m sure there’s a practical use for it somewhere. Definitely not for swords or armor, though.” Bertram said thoughtfully.

“I’m sure there is, but it’s also ridiculously soft for metal. If only we could smelt it down maybe it could be mixed with something more durable like iron, but until then, I’ve got nothing.”

“That would be a waste of good infernum,” Morgan interjected.

“Of course the legendary sea smith knows this ore,” Bertram said, clapping Morgan on the shoulder.

Abby shook her head. “It’s no good to me either way. We have more of it storage, I’d be happy to give it to you.”

“The furnace in my Deep Forge could definitely smelt it. However, that kind of ore usually isn’t useful for the kinds of weapons I make with my classes. As a Naturalist I use the harder metals to make my weapons and armor since they’re usually intended for close combat or metals that hold mana especially well, as an Animist. Infernum would be best suited for an Elementalist.”

“If I turn out to be one maybe I could use it,” Tory spoke up.

“A splendid idea,” Bertram said encouragingly.

“..Maybe...” Morgan mumbled.

From there they continued up the shelves at the same sluggish pace, with Tory gradually giving a lot more input than her brother. He was too occupied trying to figure out Cassidy. Unlike the day before, when he caught her looking up at them from the ground floor, she didn’t shy away. Maybe she’d gotten more comfortable with them. After the three of them had eaten the food she had brought, they spent the rest of the night talking. She didn’t bring up their parents or the trip there at all. Just things about what Khantani was like, the food they ate since they didn’t eat meat and whether the people were friendly. Morgan was grateful for a break from the grief that plagued him at night and he was sure Cassidy’s company eased Tory as well. But that was exactly what worried him. She was getting too close, too quickly.

It wasn’t until early that evening that the workers digging the pit for Morgan finished, hours before the tour was. Morgan, and Tory as well at that point, happily abandoned the tour to Bertram’s dismay and the three of them took a pulley down to the floor.

Once again at the centre of the room Morgan thanked the men for their work as Cassidy approached them.

“Finally getting to work, huh?” she said.

“Yep,” Morgan nodded. He opened his bag and fished out his hammer and chisel and dropped into the pit. It was a grey cube twice as large as the pit Morgan had made the Murk Blade in, exactly as he had asked.

Morgan dropped the hammer down beside him and watched the pointed end of the chisel glow red hot as he held it, making him smile. But before he’ had even finished the first rune over a dozen of the Foundry’s blacksmiths had gathered at the mouth of the pit.

He stopped carving and stared up at them, until they eventually got the message and all of them left, except for Tory. Whether they were capable of using runes or not it still bothered him. But just before he could carve the first rune Tory leaned over the side.

“Could you show me how to set up mine?” Tory called down. “I want to make my own Deep Forge and I know most of the runes already.”

“Tory, I’m sorry, but no.”

“But I can help you!”

“You’re already in enough danger as it is. If you could actually make weapons too, then it’ll only get worse. It’s for your own good.” Morgan shook his head as she walked away pouting. She was too young and naïve. She didn’t understand how people could be deceiving and they would exploit her because of it. He refocused and pushed away the thought but once again, just before, he could carve a rune, someone else appeared at the mouth of the pit. This time it was Cassidy. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but the King wants to see you.”

“We missed you yesterday!” King Luvia said as soon as Morgan, Tory and Cassidy entered the banquet hall. Morgan only ever seemed to see the King here, surrounded by royalty stuffing their faces and gossiping.

“Sorry, we had a long day. So we just went to bed.” Morgan said.

“You two are our most honored guests! You should feast every night!” King Luvia laughed, raising his goblet and his guests did the same.

“Did you tell Uncle Lu that you don’t have dreams?” Cassidy asked as they all sat down.

“No, I didn’t think it was important.”

“You’ve never had a single dream?” the King inquired with a raised brow.

“Not a single one. Honestly seeing images in your head while you sleep makes me think that you are the one that’s crazy.”

“They aren’t just images,” Cassidy corrected, “It’s sort of like real life but less realistic or vivid, like when you just wake up and your brain is sort of foggy. I actually had one last night. My old horse Toffey was in it and he was talking to me about how different kinds of apples taste.”

“Tory, do you see talking horses in your sleep?” Morgan asked.

“No,” she laughed and the caught herself as she remembered she was still mad at him.

King Luvia and Cassidy laughed.

“How do you know what a horse is but not a dream?” Cassidy asked.

“What do you mean? A horse is just a regular animal.”

“Exactly, it’s a regular animal and you’ve lived in the Knife Isles all your life. How do you know what a horse is when you’ve never seen one?”

“It’s a lot easier to use animals as a baseline for the magical creatures that they changed into. So we just learned the animals that existed before the Perennial war and over time we’ve studied how many of them changed when mana entered the isles. Like how lizards became wyrms and drakes or horses, as your said, got wings or extra legs.”

“So everything in the Knife Isles started off as we have it? How do you even know that for sure?”

“It’s all in the creation story,” Morgan said.

King Luvia sat forward in his high-backed chair, intrigued. “Are you telling me that the creation story is true? I’ve never heard the actual story but the premise is unbelievable.”

“They are sort of true; it depends on which one you’ve heard.”

“A man at the harbor told me the creation story once,” Cassidy said. “He was smuggling in herbs from the Plains and he said the Plain walkers told him that the Perennial war ravaged the earth and men salted each other’s fields till the world was only oceans and desserts. Then their god came and returned forests to our world.”

“Well for one thing, please stop speaking to smugglers,” King Luvia chastised her. “Secondly, don’t believe their tall tales. Especially the ones they offer for free.” Cassidy shrugged and chuckled.

“He may not have gotten them completely wrong,” Morgan said. “Each of the tribes has a different version of the creation story. As a result some may give more favor to their own gods than they should or refocus the story entirely from the historical aspect to a religious one,” Morgan said and then he frowned. “I’m surprised you don’t have a version of your own documented somewhere.”

“The Perennial war was a messy time, Morgan. The vast majority of history before and during that time was erased and it took us all a while to begin accurately recording it again. The Knife Isles recovered much faster than the rest of the world.”

“My mother told it to me as a children’s story, so I’m not sure what aspects have been changed to make it appropriate. However, in the creation story I know, that was around the time when the gods came to stop the Perennial war.”

“Some of my historians gave me that theory,” King Luvia scoffed dismissively. “Are you trying to tell me that not one but four gods randomly appeared in our world at the same time to stop the war? The Perennial war raged for a minimum of centuries, why not at the start of it or the middle?”

“I heard the story more than seven years ago, so I don’t remember all the details but-,” Morgan began and Tory cut him off: “Mother told it to me all the time, I remember it.”

“Would you like to tell it to us?” Cassidy asked.

“I don’t think that’s the best-,” Morgan began.

“I’ll tell it!” Tory said quickly.

“Gather around, our youngest guest has a story to tell,” King Luvia said. Royals looked up from their meals and away from their conversations as Tory stood up and raised her voice for her new audience to hear. “My mother took out a lot of the stuff out from the beginning of the story, because she said it might scare me, so I’ll be starting where she started with me. She said that our story began with an apology for the violence and harm we inflicted during the war and Avitide answered the call for our forgiveness. He descended from the divine realm with seven other gods, whose arrival was so intense that it shook the earth and shattered our islands, creating the sired isles that surrounded them today. Then because of our apology he calmed our seas and gave us the knowledge to build things that we could use to keep our enemies away. After that Avitide offered us his power in return for a promise to swear off violence and killing of every kind and we agreed and became his chosen people, just like the other seven gods had chosen theirs.”

The crowd around their table erupted in applause again as Tory finished the story and she smiled at them.

“Seven other gods?” King Luvia asked. “There are eight gods?”

“There were eight gods, one for each island that had a tribe. Two of the tribes refused to take the help of the gods that came to them and died out because of it and one of them died even with their gods help,” Tory said.

“Ah, and that leaves the five we know. The sea smiths, the Harcovians, the Onyx tribe, the Plain walkers and the gods on the Blot. Your people swearing off violence is why you’re called oath-sworn?”

“Yep, but, peace-sworn is more accurate.” Tory said.

“Well, thank you for the story, Tory,” the King said. “You’ve really given all of us a lot to think about today.” The crowd gradually returned to their seats and the chatter and all of them resumed eating.

“Uhm,” Morgan said trying to get the King’s attention, “why did you call us here?”

“Oh, I completely forgot!” he chuckled. “My advisors and I have finished working out the details, the deal is ready. This is a celebratory feast for working out such an inspired plan as we did,”

“So, we’ll be discussing it after the feast?”

“We will talk it over in the morning. If you agree we will unveil your arrival here to the general public on the very same day. When the other Mantles from the common Kingdoms arrive it would be for the best that the public already knows of you, and hopefully accepts your presence here.”

“When they arrive? They’re already on their way?” Morgan inquired.

“They’ll be here in a little over two weeks,”

“How? We didn’t agree to the deal yet.”

“That is true, but I only have a month to convince you to stay remember? If I waited up to tomorrow to send word for them to come, they wouldn’t arrive on time.”

“I guess that makes sense.”

Two weeks. In the next two weeks Morgan would have to make two or more weapons for King Luvia to impress the Mantles, all while hatching his own plot to escape. The King nor Gwen would be likely to spring any traps on him since he would have to do some of the convincing when the Mantles from the other kingdoms came, so the two weeks were his best bet.

Still, the guard at the door to the King’s Foundry searched him every time he came and left and he was constantly being watched inside of the room too. His best option would be something they couldn’t see, like something from the Animist’s spirit script. If he made a medium maybe he could find an Earth or Necrotic spirit somewhere around the castle or a graveyard and bind it to himself. However, he didn’t know his way around the castle which reminded him that he didn’t know Korenth at all, or even what the outside of the castle looked like. But Cassidy could be the solution to that problem.

“Since you’re announcing that Tory and I are here tomorrow, if I do agree, could we possibly see your kingdom in the days following it? Cassidy was telling me about your food and some of the things that she thought I would enjoy seeing. So, I was thinking why not see them myself?”

The King scratched at his blonde stubble. “Perhaps, it would help ease the idea onto the public, seeing you walking around as you please. Once you have an armed escort then I think it’s a grand idea!”

Morgan gave the King a little smile and got back to picking at the meal in front of him and plotting his escape.