by Andrew Rowe
“I suppose I’ll tell you one of my favorite stories, then. Listen carefully. I’ll only tell this story once.”
Reika looked up from her food, suddenly more interested.
Dawn went silent, which was a rarity.
And I began to tell my tale.
***
When our world was still young, there was another that flourished, forged by four beings of vast power.
The world was called Rendalir, and it was a place of wonders.
The creators had made many children. The people of their world called those children “gods”, and those gods lived among their mortal creations.
Cities prospered as humanity learned and grew. But that prosperity would not last forever.
After many millennia, the world plunged into an all-encompassing war. Friends turned against one another, and chaos reigned as once-great cities burned.
And as these events transpired, the author of the chaos smiled.
He was among those four who had first created the world. Though his name is long lost to time, we know some of the titles he was given. They called him the Star Eater, the Bloodletter, the First Nightmare, and the Shade of Ruin.
His children had infiltrated every part of the world, twisting humanity to his ultimate goal; the death of the world itself. This had been planned from Rendalir’s birth, for the Star Eater believed that each world was only an experiment, and that every experiment had an end.
As with any story where a world is in danger of destruction, this one had heroes who united to stop the destruction.
These heroes traveled the world from nation to nation, seeking out the sources of the chaos and putting a stop to those they could. In some cases, their successes brought peace to the people. In others, their efforts ended in failure, with entire nations destroyed by the Star Eater’s plots.
In the end, there was a great battle. The heroes fought and defeated many of the Star Eaters followers, even those who had once been called gods. The heroes achieved many great victories, until they came up on the Star Eater himself.
But in the end, it was not enough.
Rendalir was destroyed.
It was, however, not without survivors. The heroes had managed to enact a last desperate ritual, taking as many people as they could to another world.
When they arrived on a new world, the people were filled with terror. They knew that the Star Eater would not give them a reprieve for long.
And so, the surviving heroes set out to find the gods of this new world and to appeal to them for aid. They found each of the gods and told their stories, in hope that their survivors might be spared, and that this new world might not face the same fate as another.
The gods of this new world listened well, for they had seen the destruction of Rendalir. Many put aside their own vendettas for a time, and an unprecedented alliance was formed.
They came to the eldest among them — the makers of their own world — and begged for aid. And those makers understood, for they had long foreseen this and prepared. Each of the makers of the world had sacrificed a portion of their power to create a sword unlike any other, with a power that even the Star Eater feared. They called it the Dominion Breaker, for it would one day be the end of the reign of a tyrant.
And so, when the Star Eater came, the surviving heroes were ready. They led an alliance of this new world’s gods and makers into battle.
The Star Eater had grown only stronger in the time since Rendalir’s end, having consumed the power of the heroes and gods he had defeated. But Caerdanel, one of the makers of the new world, used the Dominion Breaker to strike the spot where the Star Eater had already been wounded by the heroes of Rendalir.
Caerdanel underestimated her enemy, and as she drove in the sword, the Star Eater struck her back. She was slain outright, and the sword fell from her grasp. No other was strong enough to wield it and finish the battle.
And so, without the means to destroy the Star Eater forever, many of the heroes of Rendalir chose to sacrifice themselves to save this new world. The gods and makers wove together a ritual as the remaining heroes battled. And as the ritual came to an end, both the Star Eater and the heroes were banished to a place beyond the stars, from which not even the Star Eater could return.
And so, after many long years of battle and numerous sacrifices, the Star Eater was finally defeated. And though Rendalir was destroyed, some small portion of its people survived, thanks to the sacrifices of so many others. We will always remember the sacrifices that the people of Rendalir made, for without them, the Star Eater may have turned his eyes to others.
And with the sacrifice of those heroes, that new world — our world — was saved.
***
“And that,” I concluded, “is the end of my story.”
Reika’s eyes widened, her jaw going slightly agape. “Did that really happen?”
I considered how to answer that. “Some elements of it are probably true, but I don’t know how many of the details are.”
Reika continued to stare. “So there really was a whole other world called Rendalir?”
That, at least, I was pretty confident about. “Almost definitely. I’ve held relics from Rendalir. I suppose it’s possible that what I’ve been told about their origins isn’t true, but I’ve seen some pretty convincing evidence.”
“Like what?”
I tapped the hilt of the Sae’kes on my side. “The Dominion Breaker, for one.”
Reika stared. “That’s the Dominion Breaker? Why’ve you been calling it something else?”
“The Sae’kes is its name in the religion I was raised with. I didn’t know they were the same sword until relatively recently.”
“Dominion Breaker is a much better name. It sounds more like Dawnbringer or one of the Sacred Swords. Sae’kes doesn’t sound like much of anything.”
I shrugged at that. “Sae’kes is a meaningful name, too, but it’s in Liadran, rather than Velthryn. The full name is Sae’kes Taelien. Sae’kes roughly means ‘That which destroys’, and Taelien means ‘Sword that gives.’ Their word order is different, so the full translation would be something like ‘Sword that gives destruction to all things’.”
“...That’s kind of scary.”
I took a breath. “No kidding. That’s why I don’t use it very often. If the stories are true, it’s so destructive that even the makers of the world couldn’t control it properly.”
“That...definitely explains a lot about your reluctance to wield it, yeah. Okay, I can see why you told me the story if it’s related to your sword’s origin...but that doesn’t prove anything about Rendalir itself existing. Have you seen anything from there?”
“Sure.” I smiled. “Once, I met a talking rock that said she was from Rendalir.”
Reika’s eyes grew even wider. “Really? What was she like? What did she tell you?”
“She didn’t say a lot to me, honestly. I only had her with me briefly. But my friend Lydia talked to her regularly, and apparently, she had a lot of stories about her home. Maybe we’ll see her again at some point and we can ask her for more stories.”
“I’d like that!” Reika nodded vigorously. “Where’d you hear about that whole tale about the Star Eater? From the rock?”
I shook my head. “No, that was more of something I put together from multiple sources. Lydia had a book about other worlds by a famous scholar, and I also picked up bits and pieces from other books and stories that had been passed down from generation to generation.”
“Passed down? You mean from people who survived?”
“Yeah. I know one person who claimed to be descended from Rendalir, although he turned out to be a shapeshifting monster, so that might not have been reliable. But there are lots of stories about people from Rendalir who survived somewhere, hidden away from the rest of the world.”
“That sounds really nice.” Reika smiled. “Do you think any of those people from Rendalir are still alive?”
I gave her a sad
shake of my head. “It seems unlikely. That was thousands of years ago, and they were human, if the stories are true. Even the so-called ‘immortal sorcerers’ of my homeland only have lived hundreds of years, not thousands. I suppose it’s possible that some of them could have put themselves in some sort of stasis spell — I know someone who does things like that — but that isn’t common. It’s more likely that they’re all gone now. But I wouldn’t dwell on that. They’ve left a legacy behind.”
“I suppose that’s true. And their spirits are always out there. Maybe I could go find those!”
I blinked. That wasn’t something I’d really considered, but Reika had more formidable control over spirit magic than any human I’d encountered. And traveling to the plane of spirits wasn’t unheard of, if you could find a place to do it. “Might be possible. Sounds like a good adventure.”
“You’re welcome to come with me if you’d like!”
I smiled. “I think I might like that. But don’t get annoyed with me if their versions of the story don’t match mine quite perfectly. I may have taken a few liberties.”
Reika folded her arms. “Like what?”
“That was a very, very summarized version of thousands of years of history. I couldn’t possibly have told the story in one night if I’d tried to cover everything.”
“I guess that makes sense. But it feels a little weird to change someone else’s story like that.”
“I think it’s natural, really. Don’t you ever daydream about the stories in your books going differently? Little things that you’d change, if you were the one telling it?”
Reika raised a hand to her chest, looking affronted. “I couldn’t! I mean, of course I’ve thought about things I want to be different, but actually telling them differently...that would be wrong! It’s not my story.”
“I don’t think stories only belong to one person.” I made a sweeping gesture. “If in a dozen years I told the story of our adventures to someone, or wrote them down, I’d do it differently than you would writing your own book. That doesn’t mean one of us is right and one of us is wrong. And if I did write something, and you wrote something else later, that wouldn’t mean mine was more important. It would just be different.”
“But that’s not the same. We’re both actually here. Changing someone else’s story is different.”
I shrugged a shoulder. “If I knew what was historically accurate, maybe I’d feel more of an obligation to pass it on perfectly...but I don’t. At this point, all I have is a legend. And legends change and evolve. It’s in their nature.” I turned down toward Dawn. “What do you think?”
I didn’t hear any reply.
I frowned, waiting a few moments. I listened carefully.
Nothing.
Then, after concentrating, I heard a soft, rhythmic noise. It was barely audible, just a light hum at the back of my mind.
Is my sword...snoring?
I turned toward Reika, trying to block the sound out of my mind, but now that I’d heard it I couldn’t drown it out. “Does Dawn fall asleep?”
“Oh!” Reika clapped her hands together. “She must have really liked your story. Sometimes she falls asleep if she’s really enjoying something. It relaxes her.” She smiled. “She must really like you.”
I sighed. “I’m not so sure about that.”
“Don’t worry. She likes to tease, but she doesn’t mean anything by it. She just likes to get reactions out of people. It’s one of the only ways she can feel like she has an impact on the world, since she can’t move around or do things on her own like we can.”
Reika’s glanced at Dawn with a sad expression, then she turned back to me. “It might take her some time to open up and be a little more honest about how she feels. Remember, you’re basically the third person she’s ever talked to.”
That sounded a little strange coming from Reika, but it made sense. It was easy for me to forget how isolated they’d both been. In retrospect, it was remarkable how well they were dealing with socializing with me at all, given how strange it must have been for them.
“Thanks. I’ll try to keep that in mind.” I made a mental note to actually try to internalize that.
I spent a little time finishing eating after that, since I hadn’t been able to eat while I was telling my story, then I prepared to get ready to sleep.
I’d already built a little shelter at the base of a tree. It was basically just a stack of sticks and rocks, roughly body-width, and another set of sticks going across the top to serve as a cover. I’d have called it a lean-to, but that would have been an insult to lean-tos everywhere.
(Before you ask, no, I haven’t met any sapient lean-tos. There was this one incident with a gazebo...but never mind, I’m getting off topic.)
I’d considered adding a layer of grass or leaves on the top of the shelter, but it didn’t seem to be worth the extra time. Legendary duck-cockatrices aside, I hadn’t run into anything dangerous enough to feel that concealing it was warranted.
I’d slept in far worse environments. It was springtime, and we were in a part of the Unclaimed Lands that was relatively warm, even at night. I didn’t even need a blanket, but I retrieved my cloak from my bag.
Reika looked around uncertainly.
After a moment, I got it. “You’re not used to sleeping outside your cave?”
She shook her head nervously. “No.”
I pointed at the little shelter that I’d made. “Do you want to sleep in there with me?”
Reika nodded her head vigorously.
“Come on.” I waved to her. “Let’s get some sleep.”
The shelter wasn’t really made to be large enough for two people, but neither one of us complained.
After Reika fell asleep, I thought I saw a hint of light in the distance. I went and searched for the source, but I didn’t find anything. I assumed it was just my imagination and went back to the shelter.
Reika curled up to me as soon as I returned, and I eventually joined her in sleep.
***
I woke up first and prepared a humble breakfast.
Dawnbringer woke up second, and she managed to startle me when I heard her say <...Good morning...> in an exhausted tone.
She yawned after that, which got me to thinking about the logistics of how she was making those kinds of sounds in my mind, and why a sword would suffer from exhaustion at all.
Maybe glowing all the time is taking up some of her essence? Oh, and she probably recharges from the light of the Dawnfire during the day.
That made a degree of sense to me, but I wasn’t sure if it was right. It’d be worth asking about eventually, but if Dawn was going to parcel out her answers to my questions, I wanted to prioritize more important things first.
I ate a little bit.
Reika slept.
I did my morning exercises.
Reika slept.
I chatted with Dawn for a while.
Reika slept.
I concentrated for about a half hour on the crystal around Dawnbringer, and eventually, I was able to reshape the inside just a fraction. It was enough for me to slide Dawnbringer out of the crystal without damaging it or her, which meant I could finally get a good look at her.
Her pommel was solid gold and circular, with a conspicuous hole in the center. I briefly wondered if something might have been removed from that slot while she’d been sealed away.
Her grip was wrapped in copper wire, which was convenient for me, since it meant that I could sense the entire metallic structure of the weapon while I was holding it.
Her guard started with another golden disc like the pommel, then extended outward into two leaf-shaped protrusions going left and right to form something resembling a traditional crossguard shape. Several smaller protrusions came up from the circle at angles, and a white crystal glowed softly in the center of the disc. It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that the “leaves” and protrusions were stylized sunrays.
The blade was
straight and almost pure white, which I identified upon touching it as an alloy of platinum and some other metal with unfamiliar characteristics. It was etched with more than a dozen runes on each side, which was an even more impressive number in my homeland than it is on Kaldwyn. Very few people where I come from can work with runes at all.
I couldn’t get a good look at the runes themselves because the brightness of the blade’s light was overwhelming without the crystal on. I asked Dawn if she could dim the light a little, and she responded,
I sighed and didn’t bother humoring that with a response.
Instead, I moved into my basic combat forms, testing Dawnbringer’s weight and balance.
I kept moving through my exercise routine, feeling a grin creep across my face.
<...But not completely, of course. I’m not that kind of sword.>
I chuckled, continuing to exercise.
Reika slept.
I was a little worried she was going to sleep for days like that time she’d been injured, but fortunately, she woke up just as I was finishing my exercises. I re-sheathed Dawnbringer and sat down across from Reika. “Hey.”
“...Mmm.”
“You sleep okay?”
“...Sleep.”
I nodded knowingly, retrieved a cup I’d prepared earlier, and conjured a little bit of flame under it to reheat it before I passed it to her.
She watched me conjure the fire with fascination, then accepted the cup when I handed it to her, sniffing at it. Then she blinked, startled. “That smells good! What is it?”
“Tea. I brought a fair bit of it with me when I traveled here, both for trade and my own use. Always helps me wake up.”
She sipped at it tentatively at first, then greedily. “...It’s good.”
I smiled. “You want more?”
She nodded fervently.
***
Four cups of tea and a few minutes of time apart to heed nature’s calling later, we finished preparing to move out for the day. It was a little later than I usually preferred to start moving, but any travel with a group required a degree of acclimation and compromise, and I was more than happy to accept a small delay for some companionship.