The Wielder and the Source

Chapter 11

Kon, 1,000 years ago...

The Scarlette Estate – to most Konians it was one of the finest pieces of architecture in the city. It sat on prime hilltop on the western end of the city, its main building overlooking the river.

To Kitaya, it was just Ade's home. And while it looked splendid on the outside, it was an absolute eyesore on the inside. Everything, from the furniture, to the rugs, to the decorations was the most glaring shade of red imaginable. She was willing to bet that the vendors in the marketplace made and imported red goods just so they could sell them to Ade's altori.

She hated coming here, but she endured it for Ade. She couldn't expect him to come to the castle whenever they wanted to keep company. He'd said he had something amazing to show her, so she'd made the trip out in the pouring rain.

"Why is everything in here so red?" Kitaya grimaced at all the blood coloured furnishings that decorated the study, a headache already tingling at the back of her skull from the sensory overload.

Ade rolled his eyes, and plucked a book from one of the redwood shelves. "You ask that every time you come over."

"Because it's an eyesore." She picked up a red throw pillow and grimaced at it, barely resisting the urge to rip to shreds. "I like red too, but this is excessive."

"Don't let Tafari hear you say that. Aderro and I have been trying to convince her to tone it down for ages. She thinks it looks..." He waved his hand around as though trying to grasp the right word from thin air. "...regal."

"Well, she always wanted to be royalty." Kitaya remembered when she'd been dating Mellidius. Since everyone in Kon was convinced that Mellidius was the future King, that meant she would be the future Queen. But that little stint hadn't worked out.

And thank the gods for that. Kitaya knew she wouldn't be able to tolerate living in the castle if it was inundated with all this tawdry, red nonsense.

Ade closed the book he'd been thumbing through and tucked it back onto the shelf. "Why don't we go to my workshop and—"

Kitaya was up and out of the door before he could finish that thought. Anything to get out of that sea of red. Ade fell into step with her as she turned into the estate's main corridor. They walked it to the south terrace. A frigid draft greeted them as they opened the exit, along with the roaring of the torrential downpour that soaked the savannah.

They hung a right and headed to the eastern end of the terrace, where the entrance to Ade's workshop stood. Bits of metal and hide littered the floor. The furnace was cold, the workbench was clear and Ade's tools were hanging neatly by nails on the east wall. Shelves holding weapons he'd made were above them. The western side of the room was dominated by raw materials – rolls of hide, hunks of wood, boxes of ore scraps and a bunch of other things that were alien to Kitaya's non-blacksmith eyes.

Kitaya sat down on a bag of coals, while Ade rummaged beneath his workbench. She'd spent many days here, watching him hammer away at white-hot pieces of metal, or solder tiny metal rings together into chainmail.

"This is it," Ade said, holding up plain sword. He laid it on the bench and stared at it as though it were a mountain he needed to climb. It was an unremarkable thing, about half the length of a long sword with a plain cross-guard and a round pommel.

She shrugged. "A sword. Remarkable."

"Yes, but I'm trying to make it more than a sword. Imagine a sword whose blade can change its shape." He picked up the item in question. "This one is double-edged, but imagine pumping a little magic into it and poof." He made a grand gesture. "Single-edged. Or maybe you want a curve near the blade's tip."