Arenya,

  Cartalis, and Zander waited in silence. Before them lay the new

  sword, wrapped and carefully contained within its box.

  Shamir would always be special to Arenya, but this new one was a

  true work of beauty. It had no name yet, but its presence commanded

  nonetheless. It was a bit larger than Shamir, the edges sharper and

  more refined. Each of the sixteen channels was active this time,

  enabling an incredible amount of mana to be poured through it. Unlike

  with Shamir, the blade was almost completely straight, and the

  channels full.

  Still, the designs on the hilt were not as interesting in Arenya’s

  opinion. Various seven-pointed stars in concentric rings, all meaning

  something obscure that clearly mattered to Benya but not so much to

  them. Overall, while this new blade might be the better sword and the

  better focus, Shamir remained special to Arenya.

  Still, it reminded her how far she’d come, and made her wish to

  go back and reforge Shamir, maybe add some of the channels they’d

  refrained from on the first design. Once everything was said and

  done, once the money was obtained and the farm secure, once they’d

  had a chance to rest, maybe they could go back and work on Shamir

  some more, or remake a new blade in Shamir’s style from scratch?

  Maybe Zander would keep working with them so he could refine his

  design a bit more…

  Arenya was surprised by her own willingness to continue working

  with Zander. Maybe he wasn’t such a tool after all, if you were

  willing to work with him. Or maybe he was merely a mortal like the

  rest of them, prone to mistakes and character flaws, like all

  creations of The One Above.

  But for now, they waited. Benya wasn’t here in the practice room

  yet to look at and test the sword. Or to give it its eventual name,

  whatever that would be. Until then, the three of them waited, too

  nervous to do more than th-

  “Yoooo!” The door to the practice room burst open. “Arenya,

  I’ve been looking all over for you! You gotta check this out!”

  Arenya’s mouth dropped open. “Ya’el?”

  Arenya had never seen Ya’el so excited. Given this was Ya’el,

  that said quite a lot. And yet, her outfit surprised Arenya even

  more.

  “You’re wearing a ?” It was a greenish

  blue that complemented her hair, had a high neckline, and extended to

  well below her knees. It was, completely and utterly, un-Ya’el.

  Zander burst out laughing. “I almost didn’t recognize you,

  Ya’el!”

  Ya’el ignored their remarks as she reached a hand into her dress

  pocket, took out a faint blue crystal with a few bands of metal

  hooked to it with small nails, and placed it next to Arenya on the

  bench. Arenya peered at the specialized focus, noticing the crystal

  faintly pulse as Ya’el tapped it on the side.

  A strange hum emanated from the crystal, followed by a tinge of

  static, clearing up into…

  “Is that Ancient Draconic?” asked Cartalis.

  A single man spoke through the crystal, his voice muffled but

  clear. As far as what he actually said, Arenya hadn’t the faintest.

  “I think it’s Western Seltian? That was spoken by Followers who

  lived in the Centaur lands. But that was centuries ago, and almost

  nobody speaks it anymore.”

  An eruption of sound came from the crystal, as though dozens of

  people stood and shuffled at once. The same crisp voice called out

  again. Dozens of other voices echoed in enthusiastic response. All of

  them were male.

  These words, Arenya recognized. “Now it’s Neo-Draconic.” She

  cocked her head to the side. “I think. But the dialect is bizarre.

  The pronunciation is unlike anything my family uses.” She turned to

  Ya’el. “What is this?”

  Ya’el jumped up and down in excitement. “It’s a one way

  communication device! Whatever is on the other end, we can hear it

  anywhere in the world. The other end is at the Korlat headquarters!”

  Other than the voices from the crystal, the room fell into

  silence. Two faces looked confused, but Arenya’s was nothing short

  of flabbergasted.

  At last, she found her voice. “The Korlats? That infamously

  closed-off group of intercessory Followers? The one that prays in a

  dialect of Ancient and Neo-Draconic their founder created

  specifically for their group, just to make it harder for others to

  join, and is one of the only groups in the world to still speak

  Seltian? The one that refuses to talk to almost anyone outside their

  community, and especially not women?”

  “Yep!” Ya’el beamed as she tapped the focus again to turn it

  off.

  “How did you get this?”

  “Oh, I just asked for it.”

  Cartalis massaged her temples with her fingers. “A bit more

  elaboration than that may be needed, Ya’el. Speak slowly, please.”

  Ya’el took a deep breath. “So you remember those two guys

  dressed funny at the Great Feast? The ones who were total hunks?”

  Arenya decided she did not like where this was going. “No.”

  “Come on, I remember you nudging me in the side and whispering

  something like ‘I wanna see those two sway back and forth’ and

  then told me that that was a sign of se-”

  “Yes, now I remember!” Arenya’s cheeks felt hot as the

  memories returned. She desperately hoped Ya’el wouldn’t finish

  that sentence.

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  “So I went over and talked with them some. Turns out they were

  from Korlat and ended up there. And…” Ya’el began to laugh. “It

  turns out that those guys don’t even, like, see women most of the

  time. So when they saw a gorgeous gal like me at their table, they

  flipped out asking me all these questions about life outside Korlat.

  They were clearly staring at my legs and stuff the whole time but you

  know, whatever. We kept meeting up after that - they told me I had to

  at least pretend to look like one of them to not get too much

  attention - and then when they told me these things exist, I just

  asked for one and they handed it over.”

  “Do you…” Arenya stopped for a moment and organized her

  thoughts. “Does the Korlat leader have any idea about this?”

  Ya’el burst out laughing. “Nope! These two guys said they’d

  practically be kicked out of the group if he had even the slightest

  idea and if he knew what I had to do to get them to

  give me this thing.”

  “Uhh… Ya’el?” Zander ran a hand through his hair. “Didn’t

  you say all you had to do was ask nicely?”

  Ya’el paused and looked away. She actually seemed a bit bashful

  for once. “Well… It actually wasn’t quite that simple. I did

  have to show them a teeeeeny bit of leg.”

  Arenya buried her face in her hands as Cartalis said, “And?”

  “How did you kn- Okay, fine. There’s this thing… You need to

  have an esroig, and -”

  Arenya broke her silence. “You know what, Ya’el? I really,

  really don’t want to know.”

  Ya’el sputtered. “But… but I was about to get to the best

  part!”

  They all burst out laughing at that point, as the ridiculousness

  of the situation fully settled on them. Arenya could barely remain

  seated, all but falling off the bench.

  “Am I interrupting something?”

  All trace of humor vanished from Arenya, Cartalis, and Zander.

  Arenya smoothed out her dress and stood. “I see you made it to our

  meeting,” she said to Benya as he stood in the doorframe. “How

  long have you been standing there?”

  Benya gave the barest hint of a smile. “Not too long. It sounded

  like you were having fun in here, however.” His grin vanished. “So,

  I have two questions. One, where is the sword? And two, who are these

  others?”

  Arenya pointed to the box containing the sword. Her hand shook.

  “The sword is here. As for the others… Zander helped us out with

  its design. We needed one of his inventions in order to treat the

  metal. Ya’el didn’t assist, but she is aware we were working on

  it.”

  Arenya noticed Cartalis flinch at Arenya’s explanation. “Were

  you not aware of my instructions to keep the fact that you worked on

  this to as few people as possible?” Benya’s voice was quiet,

  almost calm. Arenya suspected that to be a mask.

  “We were of course aware.” Arenya breathed a sigh of relief

  that Cartalis answered. “However, we collaborate intensively with

  Ya’el and two other friends, Drav and Zelzad, on various

  activities. It was not possible for them to be unaware that we had

  another project. Mayhaps if we’d been prepared with a suitable

  cover story, we could have pretended we worked on something else, but

  alas. Regardless, Kazurist, Ya’el, Zelzad, and Drav are the only

  ones who know of the sword who did not work on it - excepting

  yourself, of course.”

  Clever Cartalis, finding a way to subtly blame Benya for not

  having given them a convincing lie to tell others.

  “I see, I see.” Benya picked up the box and gingerly removed

  the lid.

  “Oh my…” Arenya couldn’t see Benya’s hand, but she could

  tell he was running his finger along the designs on the side of the

  blade. “This is truly a remarkable device. Your work on the design

  is excellent.”

  An enormous knot of tension Arenya hadn’t realized she was

  holding loosened. “So you’ll take it?”

  “I still need to test it, but I have no doubt this is a

  marvelous design!” Benya’s eyes sparkled. “You can expect to

  hear from the heads of the school today, if I can get a meeting in. I

  hope you don’t mind if I test it out here?”

  They each stood back as Benya practiced with the sword, firing a

  few blasts at the defensively-enchanted wall, testing the blade’s

  weight and heft, seeing how it handled under strain. His smile grew

  as he did so.

  “This is truly an exquisite work,” said Benya after a few

  moments of quiet practice. From his pocket he took a scroll,

  carefully wrapped with a lace ribbon tied in a bow. He turned to

  Arenya, holding out the scroll to her. “Bring this to the dean of

  the school and tell him it is from Professor Nercuz. He’ll know

  what to do with it.”

  Arenya accepted it with shaking hands. “M-may I read it?”

  At Benya’s nod, she untied the bow and unfurled the scroll. “In

  accordance with formal university policy of schools,” she read

  aloud, “as outlined in section three, financial policies,

  subsection seven, student funding, subsubsection…” She skimmed

  for a bit. “…The student Arenya Azural shall be funded by the

  amount necessary for a total of four semesters, from the

  government-approved financial sources described below, including both

  upfront and reported costs…”

  Cartalis peered over Arenya’s shoulder. “The document is

  appears fine to my eyes.” She breathed out slowly.

  Arenya glanced at Cartalis, eyes narrowing for a brief moment. Was

  Cartalis worried that Benya would renege on the deal? If so, why

  hadn’t she said so earlier?

  Arenya wrapped up the scroll again and retied the ribbon, though

  not nearly as nicely as before.

  “I wish you all a wonderful day.” Benya replaced the sword in

  the box, putting it back as carefully as one would handle a small

  child. “I will be staying here today a bit longer to catch up with

  Telus, I think. Enjoy your funded time, Arenya.”

  Benya’s gaze switched to Zander. “I confess I had nothing

  prepared for you, but if you have a request in mind, find me by the

  day’s end.”

  Zander nodded. “I’ve got something in mind, but I’ll tell ya

  later.”

  Arenya and Cartalis both rolled their eyes at that - Zander had

  clearly told them that he was in it just for the research - but,

  admittedly, Arenya couldn’t really blame him.

  “As for you, Ya’el… You are friends with this Drav

  individual? I wish to meet him. May you bring me to him?”

  “Uhh… Sure?” Ya’el looked to the side, by the door. “How

  come?”

  “I simply wish to chat with him.”

  “Follow me, I guess.”

  Arenya, Cartalis, and Zander watched as Ya’el led Benya out of

  the room. A few seconds passed before Cartalis spoke. “I don’t

  like him. He’s up to something.”

  “But, look!” Arenya held up the now-clumsily tied scroll. “He

  got me two free years! And Kazurist said we can trust him, and even

  you said it was real! With this, my parents won’t have to worry

  about selling the farm anymore!” Arenya wiped a tear from the

  corner of her eye. “Isn’t it wonderful?”

  “It is, my friend, but I suspect he has some ulterior motive.”

  “But who cares!”

  Zander covered his mouth, trying not to laugh. “Arenya’s got

  the right idea. You got what you needed, he got what he needed, so

  what’s the rest matter?” He turned to Cartalis. “You’re so

  worried about everything. If you changed your mind, maybe I can help

  you relax a bit over di-”

  “Not a chance.”

  “C’mon, just a joke!”

  Cartalis stuck her tongue out at him. They both chuckled.

  The tentative peace struck between the two archenemies felt even

  more bizarre to Arenya than the letter she held in her hands.

  “Well, I’m going to go bring this to the dean’s office. No

  point in waiting any longer!”

  Cartalis and Zander both waved.

  “Best of luck!”

  “Peace.”

  With that, Arenya turned and left the room, clutching the scroll

  close to her chest as she all but ran to the dean’s office. Tears

  began to run freely down her cheeks as it settled on her that, in

  just a few short minutes, things would be set right.