An Old Legend

Final Rites of the Church of the Serpent

Date of Origin: Founding of the Church of the Serpent

"May this soul find peace in the nothing,

May it find its place in the dreams of our Sleeping God,

May its light shine forever in the eyes of the Great Serpent, and

May its energy be used to stave off the night.

Let this soul experience the eternal truth,

Let this soul be free of the shackles of its body,

Let this soul be unshackled from our impure, mortal realm, and

Let us join it when our time comes."

***

Upon walking into the Forge I was immediately greeted by the attendant and the smell of wood smoke.

"Welcome back. Just here to look again or do you actually plan to buy something this time?" she asked, feigning annoyance. This had become our routine at this point, both of us itching to find ways of making our dreary lives just a touch more enjoyable.

"Maybe I'd buy something if the two of you ever made something worth buying that was worth what you'd have me pay for it. Why drain my pockets buying something new when what I have kills just as well as I need it to."

"You've never heard of supporting local business, have you? Besides, its never a bad idea to try something new out, you may find out you're natural or something with a weapon you've never even thought of using before."

"Maybe give me a free trial and I'd consider it."

"Please. You know my father would never let you or anyone "borrow" a weapon. Not when you all would just run off and break it immediately. You tend to keep your stuff in pretty good condition, but the same can't be said for everyone. And speaking of them, why are you so stingy when you don't even spend half as even the poorest of any of those drunkards?"

"Stingy? I prefer to think of myself as financially intelligent, I'll have you know."

"I don't care what you call it, I know you got some money on you and nothing else to spend it on. Besides, they're just pieces of wood with a horrible exchange rate to real money, and you can always earn more later."

I chuckled and took my weapons out of their holsters and sheaths on my belt, placing them on the counter.

"Maybe when I decide to get out of here, I'll take some excess merchandise off your hands. For now, I'll just have you do the usual."

"You know, even though I call you stingy, I guess you aren't that cheap since you still have me look at your weapons instead of learning to yourself. Most people don't even bother coming in until their stuff's almost broken, and that's just those who don't care about losing a fight," she said the last part quietly, almost as an afterthought, and picked up my weapons, giving them a quick inspection as a depressed silence fell over us. Sometimes, talking about the horrors of reality makes them less terrifying, but sometimes the inevitabilities of life were a little bit too grim of a reminder. The silence remained as she took my weapons to the back to be repaired. The conversation picked up again when she came back.

"You're sure you don't want to get anything new?"

"Maybe it's not such a bad idea," I said after some thought and smiled faintly. She returned the smile and the two of us walked to the storeroom.

There was a menagerie of weapons set out on shelves on the walls, with some heavier ones placed on the floor or propped against a wall. There was no order to any of the placement. Hammers were placed with swords were placed with maces were placed with daggers. It made it annoying if someone was looking for something specific, but for people like me, it was at least something to look at. I gave the room a quick scan, once again not seeing anything that stood out. I walked over to some shelves that had some one-handed weapons on them, but none of them looked that much better than what I was already using.

"They may not be like those made-to-order, damn near magic weapons the Cleaners use, but they're still high quality for what they are. I promise we don't charge that high of a markup."

I glanced back at where she stood, leaned against the doorway to the room, and laughed softly before turning back to keep looking at the shelves. There truly was nothing special to be found. Some of the weapons simply confused me. Knives seemingly too small to be used but without enough weight to be effective when thrown; double-ended swords that looked too impractical to be of real use; two balls held together by a chain; a big stick; a bladed mace that looked like it would break in a single hit. It honestly made me wonder whether the shop was truly trying to scam people or not.

In a corner of the room was a pile of broken weapons that seemed to radiate sadness.

"Those are weapons we were able to recover after hunters… you know. You can look through the pile if you want, but I don't think there's anything worth taking. We mostly just have it there as a reminder."

I sighed and turned away, taking a final look over the room, then walking towards the door. She stepped back and turned, leading me back to the front desk. I left a few coins, one more than actually required to pay for the repairs and bade her farewell.

"We'll have your repairs done in a few hours. See you then."

"See you then."