by Jesse Wilson
Pen was pretty bored, so then he figured he would learn more about his new item. He typed in 'the mimic blade' into the Noogle search engine and had no idea what would come up.
A big list of sites in red links came up on his screen, but in his experience the first link was often the best. He clicked on it and a screen came up.
“Infopedia, you have everything, don't you?” Pen said to himself and began to read,
“Let's see what the legend is,” he started to read it, but it was seven pages long so he skipped to the important parts.
“Eight blades, forged by the eight celestial beings, each blade containing an 'element of darkness' Given to man as a covenant to seal the relationship between them and mortals at the beginning, each year a new guardian is chosen by the ritual in order to keep the seal intact,” Pen said out loud and knew that couldn't be true because nothing magical or manmade would last that long.
He kept reading. “Tradition says that the blades should never be unsheathed, it's the guardian's duty to keep this from happening,” Pen said, but there was nothing saying anywhere about what would happen if the blade would be taken out. Pen wanted to know more about his blade so he scrolled down further and there it was.
“Tinea, the Mimic Blade. This blade was forged by the trickster god Taro. Its power was, as most of the blades are titled, to mimic other things,” he said to himself out loud and was not impressed.
Pen read that and was underwhelmed. That was all it said. The other entries were much more interesting, while his was the least described he thought it was typical that he, a dishwasher, one of the lowest status of people in the castle, would get the blade that seemed to only want to be anything else.
“I'm worn out, I'm going to bed,” Pen said, closed his laptop to make his way there. When he got there that sword was exactly where he left it.
“So, your name is Tinea, nice to meet you, I'm Pen Kenders. I'll be taking care of you this year,” Pen said, picked up the blade and set it in the corner behind his door. Pen was going to shut his light off when suddenly a muffled voice came from his blade. “What the hell,” Pen said and looked at the blade, again, the muffled voice came from the sword.
Remembering what he just read on his computer, maybe there was something to it after all. He picked up the blade and sat on his bed. Upon closer inspection, he realized there was a golden lock on the underside of the blade and on the inside of the sheath a chain was stuffed into it.
Pen grabbed this chain and began to pull on it, despite appearing to be tightly packed inside, the chain came out easily. He kept pulling on it until finally a small golden key came out and was attached to the end of it. Pen stuck the key into the lock, turned it until a small click happened, the latch snapped open.
“Here goes nothing,” Pen said and pulled out the blade. Expecting some kind of blinding light he held his free hand in front of his face just in case something like that were to happen, but nothing did. Instead it was a shiny mirror more than a piece of metal.
Pen pulled the blade out the rest of the way.
“Did you say something?” Pen felt really silly talking to a blade.
“Yeah, thanks for being so nice to me, most people just put me up above a fireplace and use me as a conversation piece. It's very uncomfortable,” the blade responded to him in a female voice and Pen dropped it on the bed in a hurry.
“You can talk,” Pen was amazed. “Yep, and you have a nice bed too. Can I lay here for a while?” she asked him. “Uh, sure I guess, you don't seem so bad. I read that you were part of the source of some darkness,” Pen said to it.
“Well, I wouldn't say bad as so much as we are upset,” she responded to him. “You're not going to kill me in my sleep are you, I'd be unhappy if you did that,” Pen said to her. “No, of course not, you're stuck with me for a whole year. Maybe I'll kill you after that but not right now,” she responded and that didn't make Pen feel any better.
“Relax, Pen, I'm kidding. I'm terrible at killing people,” she said after he didn't respond to that. “Well, I need to sleep so I am going to put you back in your—“ she cut him off.
“Please don't do that I'll be good I promise, just don't put me back in there, it's horrible,” she cried out. Pen was already feeling like he was losing his mind, talking to a sword was bad enough, he quickly came up with a solution.
“Alright, I know what to do. I'll turn the tv on and put you on the couch,” Pen said and reached out to pick the blade up, but now felt weird about doing it. “Sounds good, let's go,” she replied to him in a much happier tone. “Alright,” Pen said and wrapped his hand around the hilt and picked her up, he moved her back to the main room. He laid her on the couch carefully and turned on the television again.
“You're so gentle with me, that is so different than so many others. Thanks for that,” she said to him, sounding genuinely surprised. “No problem. I'll be up later, you um, enjoy,” Pen was at a loss for words and an ordinary night took a left turn into the strange.
“No worries, I totally will. Thanks again,” Tinea replied to him as he turned around and left. “You're welcome,” he said and it was odd but he felt like she'd been here for years. He had trust issues normally, but then again, she was just a blade.
Besides killing him in his sleep there wasn't much else she could actually do he figured. It was easier to be relaxed when he looked at it that way.
Pen thought he'd have trouble falling asleep but instead he passed out. No weird dreams came this time.
Chapter Seven
He woke up with a weird smell filling his nose. He slowly woke up and realized that it was food, someone was cooking bacon. Immediately he sat up in bed, got dressed and rushed sleepily into the kitchen. There he saw a woman he'd never seen before making food on his stove.
“Hello, did I wake you up. I saw this on TV and wanted to try it,” she said to him. “You're, how did you,” Pen was at a loss. “I am called the mimic blade, I saw a form on television I liked so I took it,” Pen never watched any cooking shows in the morning mainly because he was never awake this early.
“Apparently, her name is Lana Volente, chef extraordinaire,” she said and who ever Lana was, Pen had to approve. This was a pretty hot form and all of the sudden he was going to get used to having her around.
“Did you make any for me or just for yourself?” Pen asked her.
“Oh, I am a sword, we don't eat anything. If you're hungry you can have it. I just wanted to try it,” she replied to him and slid the eggs and bacon onto the nearby plate, as she did the toast came up. She put butter on it, butter he didn't even know he had honestly, and spread it on the toast.
“Here you go,” Tinea said to him and smiled. He walked to the plate and approved it all looked and smelled great. He picked the plate up and looked around for a fork. As soon as he did she was holding one in his direction. He took it from her. “Thanks,” he said.
“Oh, and by the way, the castle seems to be on fire,” she said to him and looked out the window.
Pen took a bite before he realized what she said and nearly choked on his food. He rushed to the window and he could see the smoke rising in the distance too. “Son of a…” he trailed off and walked to the television, still on the cooking channel he turned it to EFF news to see what was going on.
“This is an ongoing situation, there has been an explosion at the castle of unknown origin, we don't know anything right now but officials have told us the royal families have been evacuated to a safe location and—“ Pen muted the television, picked up his cell phone and called Shane right away.
It rang twice before Shane picked up.
“Hey, have you seen the news, the castle is on fire. Also you should come over because I have something you're going to want to see,” Pen said all in one breath and almost too fast to be understood.
“Castle is on fire, really. It's eight in the morning, way too early for me to be awake,” Shane replied, still groggy. “I know but something is wron
g out there, can you just wake up and come over,” Pen demanded more than asked.
“Yeah, sure I'll be over in a few minutes but you owe me,” Shane finally agreed and hung up. Pen hung up the phone and watched the muted television. “Tinea, do you know anything about this?” Pen asked her as he sat down in his chair.
“No, I don't know anything about what's going on, but if anything, it is pretty interesting,” she said and smiled as she fell back onto the couch again.
“Interesting is a word for it I suppose,” Pen agreed and turned up the volume again. So far it was only showing the same information over and over again. Pen thought it was strange with so much activity happening so close to him yet he couldn't hear any sirens at all.
A few minutes later Shane walked himself into Pen's house as he'd done many times before. “Alright man what is it you wanted to show me,” he said as he walked through the house. He stopped cold when he saw Lana sitting there watching tv.
“Holy…one night with a legendary blade and you're already seeing hot celebs, way to go Pen, I didn't know you had it in you,” Shane was smiling when he saw the Amazonian beauty sitting there on his couch.
“That's not Lana, that's actually Tinea,” Pen said it straight out, it was the only way he knew how. “What did you do?” Shane demanded to know.
“I took the blade out of the sheath and thought it was okay, it started talking and begged me not to put her back inside, so I didn't. When I woke up she was here, just like this,” Pen explained the best he knew.
“Hello, friend,” Tinea said with a wave and a smile to him. Shane's blood ran from his face immediately.
“The blades are objects of pure evil. I thought you knew their stories. I figured you knew better,” Shane said, visibly frightened of the woman now. “Well, if she's evil she's not very good at it. Even made me breakfast, that was pretty nice,” Pen said and thought that it could be poisoned somehow.
If it was he was sure he would have felt some kind of bad effect by now and he felt fine.
“When one blade is released, so shall all of them be free,” Shane repeated a line from an old childhood story that came to his mind as he looked out the window.
“What are you talking about, can someone explain what going on here?” Pen was confused and wished he would have read that Infopedia page a little better now.
“I can, when you unlocked and set me free, all of the other blades were set free too. They have a will of their own, see and they all want the same thing, freedom. They take over their guardians, their minds and bodies. Turning them into the element they represent. Together, we're supposed to summon the darkness back to this world,” Tinea explained calmly, like it wasn't a big deal.
“Then why didn't you take me over,” Pen was getting nervous about this.
“Two reasons, one, you took the time to actually talk to me and let me out, two. I was made by the trickster. I don't have an element of the darkness inside me actually, but the gods needed eight blades to complete the seal. He made me to get the thing to work. The gods didn't know it, but I was a useless blade, linked to those others for the rest of time to make it all work,” Tinea replied to him, still not concerned about anything.
None of this made Pen or Shane feel any better.
“So, what you're saying is what's going on is only going to get worse,” Pen figured this was the case.
“You got it. It's not going to get any better. My prediction is that on the news here, you're going to start seeing the elements emerge from the castle and spread their armies. At least they'll want to establish their own realms, so I suggest we leave this kingdom as soon as possible so we can have a chance to live,” Tinea said to them, still as calm as ever.
“No, I let you out. I should do something,” Pen said, feeling horrible about all of this.
“Do what, we're dishwashers, not knights or warriors, hell between the two of us we couldn't even cast a mediocre fireball. We should get out of here,” Shane stated the obvious situation.
“I agree with your buddy here, we could be out before noon, it'd be a good day. There isn't anything we can really do but die,” Tinea added but Pen shook his head as he looked at the television screen.
Chapter Eight
The camera was focusing on something coming from the smoke.
“We have a new development coming to you live, something is coming into view and, oh Taro, it's a golem of some kind. I've never seen this before,” the news lady said and the camera began to shake.
“Great, Brule has already started,” Tinea said with a sigh. “Brule is the Mist Blade, one down six more to go,” Tinea finished as she watched the television. Brule appeared to be about seven feet tall, and if the misty look is what it was going for, it failed as it appeared to be a juggernaut of black steel looking like a demonic knight from the bowels of some unknown hell.
In its right hand was the blade that was five feet long, jagged and just as black as the rest of him.
The three watched as the Mage Special Forces started to fling various spells at the brute. The energy slammed against his armor but had no effect. Pen and the others watched as Brule raised his left hand to summon black smoke.
This smoke was alive and it flowed into the attackers through their eyes and mouth. It only took seconds for the mages to turn around, their eyes filled with swirling black mist.
That same smoke was leaking from their pores, mouth and ears. Now the cops started to attack people with blasts of the same smoke, everyone they hit was infested by the stuff and started to do the same, mindlessly.
“Gotta hand it to Brule, he gets right to the point. Anyway, we're not too far away from that so what do you say we get the hell out of here,” Tinea suggested again with a bit more urgency.
“All these swords have powers right, what's yours?” Pen asked her, trying to come up with a plan. “Does it matter, she's right, if we stay here we are going to die,” Shane said as the camera and station went off the air.
“I mimic, genius, that's what I do. You're looking at it. I am a lover not a fighter and the last thing I want to do is take them on and trust me that's the last thing you want to do too. We need to get out of here while we can,” Tinea urged again.
“I know your both right. But they have to have a weakness. I am responsible for this so I will do it alone if I have to. Shane, Tinea, take my car and get out of here. I am going to see what I can do,” Pen said to them and knew that he had to try.
“Sounds good to me buddy, Shane, is it? let's get out of here while we can,” Tinea said and stood up. She was ready to go. Pen didn't quite understand where this need to be responsible came from all of the sudden. Normally he was more than ready to get out of town.
He also realized, however, this was the beginning of the end. There was nowhere to run to.
“We can't just let you go alone, Tinea, surely you can help us do something, right, I mean you are one of the magical blades Pen is your guardian and without him you're at risk. I am sure you can take care of yourself but I'm not going to let my best friend die alone for something he did without knowing or believing in. Can you please help us?” Shane pleaded with the blade and Tinea rolled her eyes.
“What is it with you, is reckless heroism contagious these days or what?” Tinea asked and was getting annoyed.
“If you really want to face an army of darkness, I'll help you, but please don't get me killed,” Tinea said to them reluctantly.
“Okay, great, so we are going to face the legions of the damned but we need a plan first. So are any of us immune to their powers. Do we have a weapon that'd work for us?” Shane asked, glanced out the front window to see a smoke infested person shambling down the street.
“Well good news, we're out of time,” Shane added to his rant. “Yep, looks like we're out of time,” Pen agreed with him.
“So, what are we going to do now, heroes?” Tinea asked and leaned back into the couch, but her eyes never left the shambling smoke infested figure.
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br /> “Let's get out of here and say hello to smoky out there. Maybe we can get through to him,” Pen said, stood up and walked towards the door “Woah there, talk about ending this plan before it starts, are you sure this is a good idea?” Shane said and stopped him by grabbing onto his shoulder.
“No, I'll need my weapon,” Pen said and looked at Tinea. “Do you mind turning back into a blade?” Pen asked her. She rolled her eyes then there was a great flash of blue light that caused them both to cover their eyes.
When it faded, the sword was laying on the couch. Mirrored blade, silver handle, the whole thing even more polished in the daylight. Almost painful to look at when the light reflected directly off of it.
“So, she's beautiful in both forms,” Shane said with a smile. “You're damn right I am,” Tinea responded to him and Shane shook his head. “See, I told you she could talk as a sword,” Pen said as he picked her up and still felt weird about doing it.
Chapter Nine
“Nope, that's not weird at all,” Shane was still trying to wrap his head around the idea. “Here we go,” Pen said to the both of them and made his way to the front door and walked outside.