Although it’d probably be helpful in any role.
The biggest problem with the lightning hammer was the need for constant repairing. Dust could really add up, and I’d never be able to save up enough KPs to keep it in prime condition.
Maybe I could use the hammer’s rune effect sparingly? I grinned to myself at the thought.
“I think the hammer is a bad idea,” Elle said as I closed the statistics holo. She must have noticed my excited expression because she grabbed the hammer’s handle and tried to pull it away from me. I didn’t let her.
“I’ve thought about it, and it’s a great idea.” I held the weapon above her head as she jumped to try and reach it.
When the point clerk realized any attempt to take the hammer from me was futile, she crossed her arms over her breasts and scowled. “Opening minor portals is not something to do lightly. I don’t even know why the kingdom put it in my inventory.”
“Then why’d you give it to me to look at?” I was still holding the hammer, and the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to keep it.
Summoning runes were exceedingly rare. I’d never seen one in action except for one or two occasions while watching the Space Knight tournaments on the Cube. Suffice it to say, the memories of alien entities joining the knights in battle stuck with me.
The Longsword of Propulsion had malfunctioned, so I was a little wary of taking another unreliable weapon, but my curiosity to test the Minor Lightning Sprite rune won in the end.
I understood there wasn’t much reward without a risk, and the cold or fire maces would be a safer option. I probably should have learned my lesson from the longsword, but I couldn’t let the hammer go.
“I’ll take it!” I exclaimed with a little too much enthusiasm. I resisted the urge to poke my tongue out at the woman when she stared at me in disbelief.
“Are you the type of guy who’ll do something just because he’s told not to?”
“Of course not.” I paused for a second and thought about how much I hated being told not to do something when there wasn’t a good reason. The penchant had gotten me into trouble more times than I could count. “Okay, maybe I am that type of guy,” I added.
Elle’s lips upturned into a cute smile, and I flicked my wrist to spin the hammer in my hand. Although the point clerk was beautiful, my attention was focused on this weapon. I imagined summoning five lightning sprites to attack a horde of Grendel Elites.
I wanted to try summoning a sprite here and now, but it would probably cause too much commotion, so I’d have to wait until I landed on Tachion. I might not get to zap any enemies planetside, but at least we’d be in the open where I could produce a few sprites to attack some inanimate objects.
While Elle’s warning scared me a little, I figured she was just overly cautious. The kingdom wouldn’t have listed the hammer as Squire class if it was outside the skill range of a typical squire, nor would they have put it in Elle’s inventory if it was too dangerous.
Elle captured my attention when she slammed a drawer shut. Her jawline tightened as she stared at the makeshift office’s entrance. I turned to see what she was looking at so intensely. My heart stopped for a moment as I saw the object of her interest.
Olav Kjeldsen strolled toward us, both thumbs tucked into his prot-belt. He wasn’t wearing any armor, but he still struck an imposing figure. His red mohawk gleamed with hair wax, each point twisted into a sharp peak.
He’d been friendly in the galley last night, but I was still a bit scared of the berserker knight. He walked past the drawers and peered inside them.
“Hello, sir,” I said.
“You two settling into the Stalwart alright?” he asked without looking at either me or Elle.
“I’m not happy with my office being inside the cargo hold,” Elle retorted, “but it’s not unpleasant otherwise,” she added with a gulp.
Olav snorted, and I caught a gleam of something dangerous in his golden eyes. “What about you, Squire Lyons? Finding things to your liking?”
I was a little thrown by the berserker’s presence. From the small amount of interaction so far, I couldn’t figure out his intentions for being here.
“Yes, sir,” I said tentatively.
“Good,” Olav snapped. “Because you’ll both find yourselves thrown out of an airlock if you keep looking into things which aren’t your business.”
My stomach did a somersault, and Elle’s olive-skinned face paled to a ghostly white.
“We’re happy to have you on board,” Olav continued, “on the condition you do what you’re told and nothing else. No snooping around. Especially not in the armory. You understand?”
“Yes, sir,” I said, and Elle managed to squeeze out a similar response.
Olav nodded at us both and left the office.
Elle seemed to let out all the air in her lungs with a huge exhale. “Well, that went better than expected. Seems that oafish knight learned of our investigating.”
“I suppose a threat to be thrown out of an airlock is much better than it actually happening,” I admitted.
As Elle fired up the computer system on her desk, and I wondered how Olav had discovered what we were looking into. I could only think of two people from whom he could have learned of our actions.
“Ahh . . . I think I might have been responsible for Olav’s visit,” Elle said as she peered up from a hologram depicting a series of timestamps. “I forgot to erase my digital footprints. I am not normally so stupid, but I’ve had a lot on my mind lately.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. My first thought had been of Zac and Casey, so I was glad they weren’t responsible for sending Olav to threaten us.
“You know what this means, right?” Elle said to me.
I wasn’t sure what the point clerk was thinking, but now I knew for certain something special lay in the room.
“I can’t stop looking into the door,” I answered the point clerk.
“We can’t stop,” Elle corrected me.
I shook my head. “It’s too dangerous for you.”
“Do you think I won’t be more careful?”
I sighed. “It’s not that, Elle. I don’t want you getting into trouble because of me.”
“I can handle myself,” she said. “Besides, I’m curious. I know there is more than meets the eye on the Stalwart. Now, I want to find out exactly what it is.”
From her determined expression, I could see arguing wouldn’t do any good. She might even make a formidable ally. Although I couldn’t tell her I was on a mission to find insurrectionist activity, I could just claim to be interested in the mysterious crew. After all, wasn’t it Elle’s curiosity compelling her to research the door?
“Alright. As long as we’re more careful from now on,” I said as I attached the Hammer of the Lightning Sprite to my prot-belt.
“You going to take the weapon without paying, aye?” Elle lifted an eyebrow.
“Oh,” I said, feeling my face heat up. “Sorry about that.” I allowed the point clerk to charge my account by scanning my prot-belt, and then I read my new KP balance.
Current Kingdom Balance: 3,395
Total Kingdom Points Earned: 3,000
The hammer and repair kit had totalled 1,800 KPs, so I still had enough money to send to Mom. I sent 2,000 KPs to her account right then, the numbers slowly ticking down to 1,395 KPs. It would suffice for now since I owned the hammer and all my other gear was working.
“Thanks for the weapon,” I said to Elle after the currency finished transferring into Mom’s account.
“Just don’t kill yourself with it. I’ll never forgive myself if an item I sold someone caused them harm.”
“Does that mean you like me?”
“It means I try to be a responsible point clerk,” Elle said with all the mannerisms of a school teacher correcting a student. “I’ll keep looking into those runes along the door, and let you know if I find anything.” She smirked at me, but her eyes were focused on my lips.
<
br /> “Be careful,” I said. “I don’t think Olav was kidding about ejecting us into space.”
Elle’s face pulled into a devilish grin. “I’m not the kind of person to get caught twice.”
I didn’t feel right roping Elle into my search for information, but there was no way she’d do otherwise.
The door might be useful for Polgar, and I hoped I’d find out something to keep him happy.
Until then, I had to get on Olav’s good side so I could tail him while on Tachion.
Chapter 15
Three days passed while Matthias, the cybernetic ship mage, jumped the Stalwart through space and into the Augusti Vetera System. I continued keeping my distance from the machina in case his mind-reading capabilities led him to discover my secret mission.
I reported back to Polgar at 06:00 CUT each day, informing him of the mundane habits of the crew. My lack of new information infuriated him, but I wasn’t ready to speak about the door or the gauntlets until I found more information. The sorcerer wasn’t interested at all in the battle room sessions where I watched where Moses and Olav spar like gladiatorial warriors. Seeing them engage each other without pulling any punches mostly confirmed what I already knew: the crew seemed far too battle-hardened for humanitarian missions
I did my own sparing with the twin squires, but I had to confess that part of the fun of our matches was visiting Dr. Natali Lenkov after our bouts. While she patched up my cuts and tended to my bruises, the ravishing doctor asked me briefly about how I was enjoying my tour so far. I gave her fairly short answers, and instead focused the conversation on her. She seemed to enjoy my attention, and I felt as if I was building our relationship up to a point where I might be able to ask her to dinner. It was probably dangerous to have the interest of three beautiful women on such a small ship, but I was starting to get used to risky situations.
I was sure he knew Elle and I hadn’t stopped looking into the door. The berserker didn’t say anything, but from the way he constantly glared at me whenever we shared a room, it was a safe guess. Tailing the knight on Tachion as Polgar commanded was going to be difficult.
Every night I drank beer in the galley with Nathan and Richard. Sometimes Zac and Casey would join us, and the five of us would play poker. Neville had sat at the table for a few games until Casey and I bled him dry of chips. At first, I wondered whether he’d somehow forgotten about his threat to tell the crew I was spying on them, but the slight smirks he gave me suggested otherwise.
On the morning of the Tachion mission, I decided to see whether Casey had any luck restoring the Longsword of Propulsion. I was planning on taking the lightning hammer to the planet, but having more than one weapon wouldn’t hurt.
When I entered the enchantry, Casey’s grandfather peered up from the cannon in the center of the workshop. The old man greeted me with a grunt and went into the back room.
For some reason, I couldn’t get the man to like me. Joseph Roman had seemed mostly pleasant when I’d first met him on the docks the morning of my graduation. He’d even referred to me as one of the heroes of Tyranus. Now, he treated me like I carried a plague, and I was one kiss away from infecting his granddaughter.
Casey smiled at me as she appeared from the other side of the cannon. She wiped her hands on a denim apron covered in golden Dust particles and black grease, before she walked over to me.
“You earned yourself a grunt from my granddad today.” She punched me on the arm playfully and tilted her head toward the back room.
“He still doesn’t like me.” It wasn’t like I was Casey’s boyfriend and needed to earn her grandfather’s respect, but I still felt weird getting a scowl every time Joseph saw me.
“It’s not that he doesn’t like you,” Casey said. “He just really likes me. And he thinks you’re trouble.”
“Am I?” I smirked at her.
“Well, he thinks so.” She returned my smirk and then winked at me.
“He barely knows me.”
“You have a penis,” she said. “That’s all he needs to know to determine you’re trouble.”
I laughed. “I think being your boyfriend would be worth all his passive-aggressiveness.”
“Uhh . . .” Casey’s freckled cheeks reddened a little.
“Did you have any luck with my longsword?” I changed the subject to throw her off balance and then pointed to her workbench.
“Unfortunately, no. Max is a better rune-drawer than me, and I don’t have his skill or knowledge to correct the problems with the Forcewave rune. I guess the point clerk gave you a replacement?” Casey had been avoiding the question for the last three days, even though I had been wearing the hammer on my belt.
“Yeah,” I said as my hand strayed to the hilt of the weapon. “What’s this you’re working on?” I figured a change of subject might keep the enchantress from getting her feelings hurt.
Up close, I could see a few runes were drawn along the cannon’s sides, but they were the dull drawings of low-level magic. Whenever an enchanter drew runes, they’d often trace the symbol with lower quality Dust to allow for imperfections in the initial drafts. I recognized one of the runes from Max’s longsword. It appeared almost identical to the forcewave’s construction, except for a few minor details.
“A new weapon I’m designing,” she answered. “Joseph and the other enchanters are helping me out, but it’s mostly my project. I got the idea from the gauntlets I’ve been trying to repair and Max’s Forcewave rune. It’ll be a much better defense against quick vessels like the pirate’s arrow-ships.”
“What does it do?”
Casey winked at me. “You’ll have to wait until it’s finished.”
“Ha!” I grinned at her. “How long before you’re done?”
The woman’s shoulders slumped. “A while. Maybe not even before this tour ends. Completing the runes requires Alpha Dust. We’d need to clear some expert level Grendel rifts to get the amount required. And even if we did, Captain Cross would probably want it for something else.”
“Like what?” I couldn’t keep the conspiratorial tone from my voice.
Casey rolled her eyes. “You can’t trick me. I know what you’re trying to do, Nick. I can’t tell you anything.”
“I know.” I sighed. “Just figured it was worth a try.”
“I heard Olav had a word with you a few days back. You been keeping out of trouble?”
“Mostly,” I said with a grin. I didn’t want to lie to my friend, but I also didn’t want her to worry needlessly. Elle and I were more careful now. We thought we were close to finding out what those runes around the door in the armory meant. “I should get going.”
“Good luck on the mission,” Casey said. “You sure the weapon Elle gave you isn’t going to malfunction? I can take a look at it if you like.”
“Sure. Thanks for helping me,” I handed the enchantress the Hammer of the Lightning Sprite, and she turned it over to inspect the rune on its head.
After a long sigh, she gave it back to me. “You can probably wield it for a bit, but from the rune’s composition, the hammer isn’t meant for frequent use. I’ll do my best to fix up Max’s longsword so you have a weapon you can use reliably.”
I smiled at her. “Thanks, Casey. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to repay you.”
“Having you on the ship is more than enough,” she said with a cheeky smile. “Unless you’re gonna be hunting high-level Grendel rifts, because I could use some Alpha Dust.”
“I don’t see that happening any time soon,” I said as I made my way to the door.
“See you around, Squire.” Casey waved goodbye, and I exited the workshop.
I took the elevator to Deck 1 and then crossed the cone-shaped passageway to the cargo hold. Yeomen were using forklifts to move the supply crates into the transport vessels while the mechanics performed final checks before the mission started.
When I arrived at Elle’s makeshift office, she wasn’t there. I was a little surpris
ed since she’d been spending long hours working in the cargo hold. The crew had kept her busy examining the new gear brought to the starship.
I figured she might have finally decided to get some well-deserved rest, so I made my way to Deck 4. I rapped lightly on the door to Elle’s quarters since I didn’t want to use the bell if she was sleeping. I heard her call out and opened the door.
The room was in pristine condition. The duvet on the bed didn’t bear a single crease, and the desk was clear of clutter. A quick glance told me Elle wasn’t in the room, but I was sure I’d heard her call out to me when I’d knocked.
Then my ears caught the soft melody of a soprano. I must have heard her singing and assumed she’d told me to enter the room.
All at once, the door to the bathroom opened and I realized I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I was frozen on the spot. Unable to do anything except stare at a naked Elle. Apart from a towel wrapped around her head, she was stark naked. My eyes dropped to her perky breasts, and then control of my body returned to me.
I whirled around. “Uh . . . sorry. I thought--”
“Do you always enter a woman’s quarters without invitation, Nicholas?”
“I heard you singing and figured--”
“You’d listen at the bathroom door while you waited for me to come out with nothing except a towel on my head?” Elle finished for me.
My heart was drum rolling, and I could feel sweat dripping down my neck. I wanted to walk out from Elle’s room now and pretend none of this had happened. Every time I thought about moving, the image of Elle’s flawless body flooded my mind, keeping me planted in the spot.
“I’m only joking, Nicholas,” she said. “Am I annoyed you saw me naked? Yes, but you’re certainly not the first. I doubt you broke the lock, so I must have left the door open. You can turn around now.”
When I turned, Elle was wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants. I blinked a few times and tried to rid my mind of the image of her naked. I’d probably never forget it; I just needed to ensure it didn’t make things uncomfortable between us.
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