A Line of Work Ch. 04

"Hah!" With a cry, Nesterius dropped his sword and struck Arvad on his ribcage with two quick jabs with his knuckles extended.

Arvad received the impact and was pushed against the ledge. With a loud clatter, his silver sword fell onto the stone floor. Arvad tripped and was pushed over the ledge. He just barely managed to grab the marble edge and keep himself from falling off the sheer cliff.

Nesterius rushed over to the ledge, he thought Arvad actually fell. As he placed one hand on the marble ledge to peer over out of worry, a knife appeared before him and left a cut on his hand.

Pulling himself over the ledge, Arvad said, " I guess I win the duel!"

"And to think I even thought about worrying. Reimiel would have been gravely sad if you died."

"Your daughter is a good girl, and it's not like I dislike her... But I just don't feel like getting married and being tied down."

"How generic of a response. Malavorn, please fetch Caliburn. And Arvad, may I please have the Eyes of Derhal?" Nesterius said loudly to the Elven guard.

Arvad then muttered to himself, "I hate the mountains..."

-

"So this is the sword you were looking for, Caliburn?" Raisel asked her companion.

"Well, not this one specifically, though this is a magnificent sword anyways. All holy and demonic swords are relic from an obscure war that none of the current races living in this world took part in, not even the Elves or Dragons. What little we know about the swords are their names and that they all drew blood many times." Arvad explained only a small fraction of the history behind the sword and its comrades.

"Is there anything special about them?"

"Each sword, either holy or demonic, was forged with a special magic lost to the current age. Each sword can literally take on the qualities of natural forces like water or fire, it literally becomes water or fire. As for Caliburn, I'll just have to find out what force it was designed after."

"I know so much about this world and yet I know so little." Lamented Raisel.

"How about you, how did the magical analysis go?"

Raisel reddened as she remembered what happened back then. In half a second, she cleared up her foggy mind and responded, "Apparently my mana flow is crystalline."

Arvad widened his eyes. While he suspected that was the case, hearing it was another matter. "I see, well that makes learning magic all the more easier for you."

"How so?"

"Mana, in its original form, is a crystal. The Dwarves mine it frequently and craft objects with it in order to make up for their inadequacy of not being able to cast magic as easily as other races. In the beginning of our young races, Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, and more, mana flows were all crystalline and evolved into other natural forces. Thus crystal flows are now rarer than a Dwarf agreeing with an Elf."

"I see, that IS rare. I've seen a few Elves and Dwarves talk to each other in certain parties and occasions and it generally doesn't end well."

"Well, Dark Elves excluded, all other Elven races don't work too well with Dwarves. Alright, shall we get going to our next destination?"

Raisel had given it a lot of thought. "Since we talked about the Dwarves, I want to go see one of their cities."

Arvad lit up, "I quite like the Dwarven cities... Alrighty then, I'll take you to my favorite one!"

With it being dawn, Horo the Nightshade Owl was the one currently perched on his shoulder. Though it yawned sleepily as morning was soon coming.

The two companions sat on their brand new steeds gifted to them by the Goldenpines. They were regal creatures that could survive hardy conditions and travel long distances while even carrying heavy loads meant for a packhorse.

Before they had mounted the steeds, Antion and Antien had come to say goodbye to Raisel, giving her an armlet enchanted with a directional spell that allows her to always know the correct direction to whatever destination she had previously been to. Kissing them both on the cheek as a goodbye, Raisel bid her farewells to the two. Arvad had raised an eyebrow at that exchanged, but he didn't joke about it like Raisel had thought.

Arvad on the other hand didn't have anyone to say goodbye to. Not that he cared much considering he was just recently trying to escape marriage.

"Don't you want to say goodbye to Reimiel? You two were clearly getting along with each other before and during our stay." Arvad asked wistfully.

"You don't need to worry about that, I already spoke with her before I said my goodbyes to Nesterius, Ashiren, and Faehri."

"About what?" Arvad felt slightly worried about the design of her sentence.

"About this!"

"Arrrrvad!" A familiar singsong voice pierced the scene: It was Reimiel sitting upon a steed with frost white hair. Next to the horse was a cat-like creature, though obviously bigger. According to Raisel's knowledge from her studies, the creature was a White Lion, native to the Desert Elves' lands. Raisel wasn't kidding when she said she had an exotic pet. Reimiel also wore warm clothing well suited for travel. Raisel also noticed that she had a crossbow fastened to the side of her horse and three rods with one owning a spear tip.

"Ah... You spoke with Reimiel and convinced her father to allow her to travel with us out of a desire to fulfill not only your friend's wishes and the desire to annoy me to even greater heights? Clever, I'll give you that."

Raisel was slightly ticked off by his condescending tone, but she could finally see that she won one over the bodyguard. "You're quite correct. I still can't understand why you dislike her."

"Like I told Nesterius, I do not dislike her at all, far from it. I do like her quite a lot. It's just that... She's too clingy!"

"I have to be in order to keep you loyal to me!" Reimiel trotted up beside the two. "Thank you so much for convincing father for allowing me to accompany you, Raisel. Seeing as Arvad is your bodyguard, I was jealous at first, but you obviously have no intention of stealing him away from me. Arvad, I promise to prove myself to you... So please give me a chance." Reimiel said passionately. She held a hand up to her chest and over her heart while gazing into Arvad's eyes.

Arvad tried to avert them, but it seemed like he was being sucked into Reimiel's pace. It took all of his willpower to try to deny her, but he failed in the end. "Oh fine. I'm serving the Tessiol family for this job, so I cannot deny Raisel the company of her friend." He sighed and turned his horse around to face the path. "It seems that our next destination of our world tour is a Dwarven city, I believe Halrun will be a suitable choice."

"Wherever you two go, I'm going as well! Wait, isn't Halrun..."

"Yup, that's why I believe it will be an interesting trip for our noble girl here."

"Your words are ominous like usual. Let us go then."

Raisel and Reimiel both took deep breaths as they followed Arvad towards their next destination.