by W. C. Jasper
Thaymas stood silently, not wanting to refuse the King as Prince Jared realised what he was thinking and said, “Well. That’s fine. His fighting style would not compliment it well anyway. And he is not someone as hard-working as Akini that he would be able to adjust his fighting style and evolve. So it’s better to give him what he is comfortable with.” King Jeraash added with an almost unnoticeable sigh, “I am not surprised.”
Thaymas started to realise what was transpiring as King Jeraash threw a longsword at him with the hilt aimed at his right shoulder. Thaymas caught it with his left hand and inspected it as he marvelled at its beauty and balance. It was made with sevil, just like Akini’s dual swords. It was very much like a traditional longsword that was adjusted in length for Thaymas’ height. Its hilt was made with shining black gold with delicate gold designs like those drawn by a master artist. And a gold cap covered the butt of the hilt where the pommel would be on a traditional longsword. The crossguard had a traditional, yet unique form and the blade shone just as fabulously as any weapon crafted by King Jeraash. Not only was the sword amazing to behold but even just holding it made Thaymas feel powerful. He extended the sword in front of him judging its length when King Jeraash said, “I know… You think it is a tad bit long for you. But it’s not. Jared tells me your fighting style is such that you do not extend your limbs fully, this will counterbalance that.” Thaymas realised the wisdom in it and proceeded to wave it in concentric motions on both his sides while spinning around and practised a few combos. His movements were crisp and his strikes were far cleaner than before. King Jeraash raised his eyebrows and turned to Prince Jared to say, “I see what you were saying. He really has improved from when he came to ask for a weapon.” Thaymas was shocked as he exclaimed to Prince Jared, “How did you know I had improved?” Prince Jared smirked, “I would not be worthy of being your master if I only knew that which you know me to know,” as he continued munching on his chips.
His face lit up in delight as he inspected the sword again. Akini made a remark in visible annoyance “If you grin any harder, your face might crack.” King Jeraash and Prince Jared smiled at each other, welcoming a moment they had already seen coming. King Jeraash produced a convex round shield from behind a table and threw it at Prince Jared, spinning it violently through the air like a coin standing vertically spinning from side to side. Its violent spinning produced a sound in the likeness of a small whirlwind and the wind generated from its spin knocked over a few small items on the table beside it before Prince Jared caught it. The wind from the spin was so powerful that even Thaymas and Akini standing over six feet away had felt it. Prince Jared caught it and stared at King Jeraash with a queer expression as King Jeraash put his right hand on his own head and replied with an apologetic grin, “He he… Even kings make mistakes, Brother…”
Akini and Thaymas stood completely stunned at how magnificent the shield was as Prince Jared inspected it, flipping and playing with it with odd movements.
Prince Jared: “It really is pure sifith. Are you ever going to tell me how you obtained it?”
King Jeraash smiled and replied, “If you ever need to know that, you will know about it.”
“Oh-kay!” replied the Prince nonchalantly and gestured to Thaymas to throw his sword to Akini and threw the shield at him like a frisbee. As Akini caught his sword, Thaymas put his hands in front of his chest just an inch away to catch the shield. As the shield hit his hands, he grasped the shield with both hands only to be thrown back as the shield overpowered him and knocked him on the floor behind him.
Thanks to training with Prince Jared and Akini, Thaymas’ physique had gained much more muscle and become considerably more impressive than when he had arrived at Radaa. But he had never held a weapon made of sifith before. Sifith was one of the rarest, strongest, and heaviest metals on Earth. It was the best metal available on Earth for weaponry. As such, only the greatest and royal weapons were forged with sifith. Thaymas marvelled at how heavy the shield was as he got back up to his feet.
Akini mocked once again with palpable irritation, “This is why one shouldn’t hand a warrior’s weapon to a moronic child.”
King Jeraash and Prince Jared smiled at each other once again. They were enjoying this a lot. Thaymas got to his feet as his jaw dropped and he stood stunned, marvelling at the magnificent weapon he now held in his hands. His eyes were filled with wonder as he soaked in the beauty of the scintillating shield decorated with black and yellow gold with a bit of platinum. As with everything King Jeraash crafted, this weapon too drew the attention of anyone who beheld it to its beauty.
Thaymas spoke as if he were looking at something that was out of the world and he could not believe what he was seeing, “It’s… it’s incredible… is this what all weapons made from sifith are like?”
“All weapons made from sifith by my brother? Yes. All weapons made from sifith? No.” answered Prince Jared.
King Jeraash explained, “The outer coating is made from special alloys of platinum, yellow gold, and black gold. It will take years of battle for it to appear like anything other than freshly out of the forge. The sword is made with the same alloy as Akini’s blades - who is now cranky because you are the only one receiving something while she has to stand by and watch.”
Akini, standing with her arms crossed almost like an angry child, spoke, “Am I wrong to be angry?”
Prince Jared replied with a voice that carried a tiny hint of rebuke, “You already have your twin swords. They are every bit as great as Thaymas’ sword, are they not?”
Akini replied unwillingly, swallowing her displeasure, “Yes. I take back my objections.”
Thaymas on the other hand, was now exploding with excitement and joy.
Akini: “Well, what are we waiting for then? Thaymas has received his weapons, we will take our leave now.”
King Jeraash said with a calming voice, “My dear girl, you have already received your weapon, have you not? And when you get custody of the blades of Naathosu, you will also have your sifith weapon. Would you please not hold onto this unnecessary anger?”
Doing well to veil her annoyance, Akini replied, “Well, I am sorry My King. But I do not remember receiving my weapon made of sifith… I have not yet received the blades of Naathosu while I am leagues better than this pathetic weakling here. And he has already received his sifith shield.”
She threw Thaymas’ new sword back to him and picked up a generic dagger lying nearby and started inspecting it, trying to act like she was not upset. As expected, she was not a great actress. Prince Jared and King Jeraash were enjoying it far too much. Even giggling now in a faintly audible voice.
Having quenched their giggles, King Jeraash said to Thaymas, “The sword is so that you may have a worthy weapon on our mission to Devaar and Ketaar. The shield, is a reward for two things - 1. For successfully living up to your challenge and managing to land a hit on Akini within 14 days as you swore on your honour.” Akini’s nostrils flared like a dragon’s as the King continued, “and 2. For improving yourself greatly since my last rebuke.” Thaymas bowed, accepting his gifts and his praise.
“To be clear, the only reason he landed that hit was pure luck,” said Akini with a clearly upset tone.
Prince Jared looked at her with eyes glowing in anger and spoke with a somewhat restrained rebuking tone, “Stop embarrassing me. Have the honour to accept a fair defeat with dignity. He outsmarted you and bested you in that challenge. That is a fact. Live with it now! Understood?”
“Sorry, My Prince,” said Akini with a glum and contrite voice, hanging her head in shame and resentful apology.
With Thaymas lost in his admiration of his new weapons, and Akini pitifully attempting to act like she was inspecting some dagger, Prince Jared threw a pair of gauntlets at her. Akini dropped the dagger in her hand to catch the gauntlets thrown at her and looked at them and then at the Prince with a puzzling expression. The fingerless gauntlets were extremely thin and unbelievably light. S
o light in fact, that Akini took a while only to make sure they were not toys. But after bashing them into each other a few times she realised that they were very real and miraculously strong.
King Jeraash and Prince Jared sighed at each other with faint chuckles.
Prince Jared: “They are quite real! Please stop trying to break them!”
The gorgeous gauntlets, coated in white and yellow gold with minimalistic decorations in black gold covered almost the entire forearm. She put them on and punched the air a few times and was surprised at how incredibly light they were.
She said with an unsure voice, “There is barely any weight to them… I am not very sure that these will actually serve to be of any use in an actual fight against weapons.”
King Jeraash replied, “My dear girl, Thaymas’ distrust in our wisdom seems to be rubbing off on you. If we have made something, never question the wisdom behind it. If it were not useful in a battle with weapons, we would not have bothered making it. Come here.”
Akini walked over to the King as he signalled for Thaymas’ sword and he threw it to him. Akini had already realised that he was going to demonstrate that the gauntlet would be effective against strong weapons. What she did not realise was the extent of its effectiveness. She put up her left hand in front of her forehead and waited for the strike when King Jeraash spoke, “Hold your arm tighter if you wish to not have them broken.” She tightened her hand at once as King Jeraash rolled the sword once sideways with his fingers. As it came back up, he held the hilt with a back-hand position and swung the blade downwards on her forehand. Akini’s hand violently crashed down on her belly and she was pushed back. She looked up at the King in disbelief, noticing that despite such a powerful hit with such a formidable sword, there was barely a scratch on the gauntlet. She exclaimed in a hysterical voice, “Impossible! It is absolutely impossible that something so light could be so strong! Is that sword really made of sevil?!”
King Jeraash looked over at the Prince as they both laughed and replied, turning back to Akini, “You really need to appreciate your master more. This is Prince Jared’s gift to you. He had found this material while exploring a cave in the Ferianoy forest over four years ago. As far as we know, this is the only instance of this material on the planet. I told him to save it to forge something for himself and so he saved it all these years. But just a few weeks ago, he told me he wants to gift it to you. Never forget this - It is a metal almost as strong as sifith and incomparably light. And it is definitely one of the rarest metals on Earth. So what you are wearing on your hand is probably the most ingenious and unique piece of weaponry known to man. Tell me now, are you grateful to your Prince?”
Akini spoke as she grinned at the Prince embarrassingly, “Thank you!”
King Jeraash took both her hands by the elbows, pointed her fists towards the roof and inspected the gauntlets. The fingers were open, and the palms were made of extremely thin leather in order to avoid any limitations on the ability to hold and manoeuvre weapons. King Jeraash seemed to pull on something in her right hand when she felt a strong jerk and an assassin’s blade popped out like a viper striking at full speed. It was a magnificent blade about 6 inches long. With straight edges on the side that domed to a pointy end, it was as apt for stabbing as it was for slashing. The outer ends were decorated with white gold and the inner part with yellow gold. Akini’s jaw dropped and her eyes glowed in excitement, marvelling at this one-of-a-kind weapon. She noticed now that when the blade popped out, a railing along the bottom of the fingers had also been released.
“What is this?” she asked.
King Jeraash answered, “Think of it as a hilt for the blade. If you wave that blade around in a battle and make contact, after two or three strong strikes, the blade will not be secured in place well enough for it to function properly. You will hold on tightly to this railing connected to the blade that will manoeuvre the blade without compromising the mechanism.”
King Jeraash pulled on something in her left hand as an identical blade popped out from the other gauntlet. She hopped in excitement and started striking and slashing the air, practising the use of the blades.
King Jeraash continued, “As you can see, the coatings are all gold alloys. That is because the base metal is atrociously ugly. The aesthetics was ideated by me, but the requirements for how it ought to look was your master’s. As you know, he has quite the obsession for weapons to look beautiful. The concept and the design of this one-of-a-kind weapon was your master’s. He originally designed it for himself, but when he saw how well you had been helping him in training Thaymas, he decided to gift it to you. I hope you understand what a great thing he has done for you. This is one of the most valuable pieces of weaponry on Earth right now. Are we clear?”
“Yes, My King!” said Akini as she bowed and then ran over to the Prince and embraced him tightly and kissed him on the cheek, “Thank you!”
Prince Jared smiled at her with a smile like that of an old man watching little children play about as his eyes expressed tranquil joy. Akini ran to a corner and practised and had already started developing combos to use in combat. Thaymas walked over to the Prince and looking at Akini, asked him in a low voice, “What do you think is the source of that metal?”
Prince Jared answered with his eyes set on Akini as well, “Brother, Maomi, and I believe it is a rock that arrived from the skies.”
“Those are called… meteorites, correct?” asked Thaymas.
Prince Jared’s face expressed a barely discernible smile as he replied, “I’m glad you are maintaining your newfound focus on your studies. Are you happy with your weapons?”
“I couldn’t be happier,” said Thaymas as he looked at his weapons once again.
Prince Jared: “Well, remember that that shield you hold is one of the best weapons ever crafted. Brother has been unbelievably gracious in handing it to you. So make sure you do justice to it by learning to use it to its full potential. Those gauntlets are perfect for Akini because she has a fighting style that does not mind taking hits. She also has a habit of trying too many risky things in a real battle that put her in danger too often. And without supernatural durability like ours, those gauntlets will be a great ally to her. And she is quite an instinctive fighter who uses each piece of weaponry based on her natural genius in battle, hence, that one-of-a-kind weapon will suit her well. You, too, need to make sure you use that shield to its full potential. If you can understand the shield fully, if you can form a bond with it, you can even throw it to come back to yourself. It is extremely unlikely that anyone other than Brother could have ideated or even executed the building of such a weapon… The use of such a weapon in battle is essentially limitless. You can throw it in such a way that it will bounce off of its first target and then even hit a second one. Innumerable amazing things can be done with it. And again… Its uses are essentially limitless. But you will need to work very hard to make that happen. Make sure you do justice to it.”
Thaymas nodded at him in agreement, after which Akini and Thaymas left the workshop to practice (perhaps play might be a better word) with their new weapons.
The next day, the inner circle assembled for a meeting once again in the Royal Palace during the afternoon. Prince Jared shared the message received from Satya and Lord Yuvan as everyone sat, steeped deep in thought. No words were spoken for a while after both the scrolls were read.
Lord Akula was the first to speak, “Thank you for sharing the information with us. But, I do not think any of us can contribute anything here. Prince Jared remains the best man for this operation. I am guessing you must have realised this and have sent out a reply already. Is that the case?”
King Jeraash answered, “No. That would have been far too impatient. There can always be something of importance someone could add. It would have been quite foolish to have already sent the response since we cannot send across any messenger birds apart from Luka and Lufi. We will wait. And also, when it is just the inner circle, I prefer t
hat we skip the titles. I would like it if at least the elders skipped the titles.”
Another long bout of silence followed, after which Thaymas spoke, “I am guessing we will not be educated about any details?”
Lord Akula: “Prince Jared… I mean, Jared is most suitable and qualified for this operation. And the operation’s nature dictates that it is best if least people know about it. Most information is known only by Prince Jared, Lord Yuvan, and Satya.”
Yaakub spoke with his typical fast-paced tone, “King Jeraash is far too occupied with too many other responsibilities and missions as it is.”
General Thayman: “And Jared is better suited for this particular operation. I will have to retire someday. And as of right now, the only one who possesses… While we have many who possess the intellect and strategic talent required to fill my position in the army, only Jared has the philosophy mettle required to play my part. So, I need him to gain experience with handling such missions without my help.”
King Jeraash looked over at General Thayman with unimpressed eyes and said, “Uncle, I am entirely aware of the fact that he is planning on doing something I disapprove of and I assure you he will not have my blessing to do whatever that is.”
General Thayman replied with a patronising voice, “My dear son, I myself do not know what he is planning. I am merely saying that spying is not suited for men whose sense of honour is unreasonable and whose moral sense is childishly naive. My younger nephew, on the other hand—”
King Jeraash: “Your favourite nephew.”
General Thayman chuckled, “I know you are joking. But don’t do that even in jest. As I was saying, Jared carries a philosophy much better suited for spying. Let us not forget that you are the same man who stopped the Gessold intruders we captured from divulging information. Would we really want someone like that to be directing a spying mission?”