An Old Legend

The Magical Blacksmiths of the Church and their Impossible Weapons and Armor

Pt. 2

"The other three armored figures, having only been spotted once each, are still shrouded in some mystery, and what reports we have are likely to be somewhat inaccurate. The first of the three, as well as the one with the least interesting story, has armor of a brilliant silver color that seems to simply flow around their body like a liquid metal as opposed to the plate armor it likely is. They wield a single-bladed, two-handed sword, with a slight curve along its length, nearly the same as they are tall, yet they wield it with the ease of a dagger. The sword flows through the air like a winding river, each swing followed by a blinding trail of dazzling pale gold fire and a whistling sound audible across the battlefield. In the only account we have, this figure's battle ended following a series of attacks which created a scene of fire so bright it obscured the sight of even the Hero watching, and by the time it faded, not a few seconds later, the silver-armored figure was gone, leaving only a scorched battlefield behind.

"The next figure, and also the most recently seen, having appeared right after the declaration of the ninth generation, wears a deep purple armor and wields no weapon. The armor is of laminar design, although unlike typical armor using this design, the layers extend down the whole body and along each limb. The helmet, though largely of similar design to the others, has a ring of spikes around the edges, mimicking the stereotypical look of a crown. When this figure was spotted, unlike the other figures, they came to the defense of a fort, helping to defend against a wave that, by the accounts all present, would have surely wiped them out without the presence of this figure. The strange thing about the circumstance, however, is that the figure hardly fought at all, and instead hovered high above the fort, subsumed in a golden aura that lit the battlefield in a glow only seen in the City of Eternal Twilight that inexplicably healed any injury accrued by those fighting against the wave. The only attack made by the figure was against the lead beast of the wave, and all the attack was was a beam of pale gold fire that swept through the wave, incinerating all in its path and leaving a cleared path through the entire wave. The figure appeared above the fort just as the people stationed there began to fall to despair and left shortly following their cries of triumph when they realized they had survived.

"The final of the three figures, and the earliest of them spotted, wears a black plate armor. Unlike the others, this figure was not seen fighting. Instead, they were seen by a Hero rushing towards the sight of a reported wave. Their weapon, if they have one, is unknown, and likewise is the design of their armor. The thing that makes them stand out, though, is the fact that they were spotted flying high above the ground beyond the horizon, and the pair of metallic wings that extended from their back, an order of magnitude wider in wingspan than the armor figure was tall. When the Hero that spotted them arrived, there was nothing left of the wave, with the only evidence of the fight being shin-deep gouges that crisscrossed the battlefield, as well as the black fog that still hung in the air from the recently decayed beasts."

***

The return walk through the city was largely uneventful. I did notice, however, some strange behavior from some of the people walking around the city. Their eyes would linger on me, glancing between my person and my sword. Each pair of eyes seemed to carry a different collection of emotions, with varying levels of worry, as well as something more negative. I was far from the only person to walk around with weapons out, but I also was the only person I could see on my walk back once I started looking. My assumption was that, due to the omnipresence of the guards, few people would walk with weapons out, or at least not visible.

There weren't any guards along my return trip, likely hidden from view until needed. Ever since that one glance though, I felt like I was being watched. I understood that it was more than likely just the knowledge that being watched at all times was entirely possible, even if it wasn't necessarily happening at the moment. I did try to look for guards, but, as I expected, I didn't spot any.

The more I walked, the more my mind wandered, and the odder the situation of the guards seemed to me. There were gate guards, but they seemed more like civilians given a little training, weapons, and armor, and told to stand somewhere. In Aarkile, there were guards, but their armor was dark grey, just a bit darker than typical steel, and they were easy to spot. They were out of the way, but they were a relatively constant presence. The lack of guards in this city, meanwhile, gave it a strange feeling. It wasn't so different from my town, but everything else about the two was significantly different. The twisting, dingy streets would've made any guard's job nearly impossible, while the types of people that willingly chose to live in the fringe towns weren't typically awfully concerned with law enforcement. The vigilance the city and the town inspired were of vastly different weights.

As I was musing over whether being constantly watched or needing to constantly be on guard was worse, I arrived back at the stairs to the church. Walking through the main hall, I briefly looked over the panels again, noticing that the central group in the first section looked vaguely similar to the gold-armored figure, although the lack of specific detail in the carving made it hard to say for sure. There were only so many different types of full plate armor as well, so it wasn't hard to chalk it up to coincidence. Setting the oddity aside, I made my way back up to my floor.

It was as silent as usual. The door to the central room was open slightly, but I couldn't hear any noise coming through it. I walked over and poked my head in, but there wasn't anyone in there. We didn't have much time before we were supposed to meet, at least in my estimation, but it seemed everyone was making the most of their free time. Cutting through the room, I made my way to the residential hallway and back to my room.

I intended to get my things together, but looking at my barren room I was reminded that, apart from what was already on my person, the only things I had were a couple sets of clothes. On top of the dresser were the clothes I had changed out of when I first arrived, now clean and folded. Someone being in my room without my knowing made me a bit uneasy, at least until I remembered there was quite literally nothing in the room that actually belonged to me, but once that concern faded, the strangeness of this only happening now struck me. I had been here for a week, and these clothes had been in a pile near the foot of the bed the whole time. This was the first time I had left the church, yes, but I had been out of the room most of the time I had been there. I suppose whoever was in charge of this didn't want to risk being walked in on, hence them waiting until I was fully gone, but they also could have just knocked and asked. I mentally shrugged, putting it in the mental pile of all the strange things that had happened in my time here, and took out the rest of my clothes.

Looking at the stack of clothes, it took me an unfortunate amount of time wondering what was missing to realize I didn't have a suitcase or travel bag to put them in. I double checked the rest of the dresser drawers, finding nothing in them. The shelves in the room were still empty, and there wasn't a closet or wardrobe things could have been stored in. My eyes eventually landed on the bed, specifically the fact that it wasn't flush with the ground and the covers draped just far enough over the edges to cover the gap. I walked over, bent over, and lifted the cover, hoping to see the answer to my worries, but there was nothing. There wasn't even a cobweb. I sighed at the result, realizing I was going to have to run back into the city. I sighed again and left my room, walking back to the rope elevator.

Trying to recall as many of the storefronts I saw in my brief excursion through the city, I made my way back the way I came. As I approached the rope elevator though, the doors either side of me caught my eye, particularly the one left open, revealing a room filled with the cluttered excess of the Church. These storerooms had been introduced to me in the introductory tour, however I had swiftly forgotten about them after having no need to go exploring their contents. Now though, in need of a travel bag, the possibility of finding one conveniently discarded here intrigued me enough to stop.

Starting with the opened room, I walked into the room a few steps before stopping to observe what it contained. The room was short, only about two heads taller than I was, with shelves made of the same stone as the walls wrapping around the walls, with the only break in them being the doorframe. Most of the shelves were covered with big pieces of fabric, the exception being an area across from the door where the fabric which, presumably, had been covering it had been discarded to the nearby corner of the room on the floor.

The majority of the floor space of the room was covered by things I couldn't immediately identify. They appeared to be, for the most part, made of metal by an expert hand; there were some made of larger pieces of metal, and clearly rougher in design even from my standing, while others were more intricate, having many smaller pieces held together through something hidden to me; there were some with pieces of their exteriors missing, revealing what was to me a mess of wiring and cabling. Near the back, things had been crudely piled on top of each other, and judging by the differing thickness in dust throughout the pile, it was clear things had been deposited at different times.

It was a similar story with the uncovered portion of shelving in the room, although it seemed that only smaller things were put there. As hard as it was to differentiate everything in the pile on the floor, it was harder with these shelves; whereas with the things on the floor I felt I could reach down and pick a single thing up and examine it, it felt with this that I'd get all manner of small items and miscellaneous parts. I did notice however, that a couple things on the shelf that looked spider-like. Similarly, there were some things near the front of the floor pile that reminded me of the beast-like robots in the training room, and while I wasn't sure, some things near the very back of the pile seemed to resemble humanoid parts, but the fine details of them were obscured by a rather thick layer of dust.

I lifted the fabric covering the walls next to the door, but all that was there was pieces of rather unspectacular armor. There was a great variety of it, both different materials and different parts, but nothing that seemed actually all that special, although my standard was a sword that had a mind of its own, so my standard may have been a bit off. On one of the shelves, far enough down that I'd have to wade through the metal mess on the floor, was a pile of what looked like small-loop chain, which I assumed to be chainmail. Plate armor was heavy and, for the most part, didn't do much to protect against a heavy blunt impact, which made it not very useful in fighting beasts. Chainmail, on the other hand, was light enough to not be cumbersome, and did a fairly good job protecting from the odd sharp bits on beasts. There was nothing else in this room worth grabbing, but I figured this would be better to have than not.

The chainmail piece was far enough down the shelf that it was out of reach but was near the gap in two pieces of fabric. Holding onto an uncovered corner of one of the shelves for support, I took a large step into the metal pond, rustling my foot around until I found either the floor or something stable. When my foot found purchase, I let go of the shelf I was clutching and gingerly moved my other foot to join the first. As I did though, whatever I was standing on shifted a bit. Out of instinct, my hand shot out to grab one of the shelves nearby for support, and while I did find one of the shelves to grab, I managed to free the fabric from however it had been fastened. Thankfully, the thing I was standing on hadn't actually shifted enough to cause me to lose footing, and I was able to get both feet on it.

I looked around at my precarious spot in the middle of everything and the fabric now covering my forearm and couldn't help but sigh at the situation. I let the fabric fall to the floor and grabbed the piece of chainmail I had eyed, now easily within arm's reach. It was a chainmail shirt, with sleeves that only went to about the end of the upper arm. I rolled it up and placed it under my arm before unsteadily stepping back onto the floor near the door, trailed by another shifting of the pile.

As I went to leave, I took another look at the room, my eyes landing on the fabric I had knocked loose. After thinking for a second, I placed the chainmail on the ground and repeated the same routine to get one foot back onto whatever solid piece of metal I had found. From there, I did what I could to put it back up over the shelves, but, not knowing how it was suspended in the first place, all I could manage was to get it caught on the heavier items on the top shelf, luckily not knocking anything off. Having done what I could to leave the room as I found it, I left with my new armor.

There were three rooms left now, and I could only hope they weren't as cluttered as the first. I went to the one just across the hall, which was thankfully barren. It was clear at first glance however, that this room also didn't have what I was looking for, as all the room had was multiple rows of weapon racks along the floor and walls. Unlike the other room, nothing here was covered, allowing me to see everything from the doorway. As with the armor, there was a large variety of weapons. The sight reminded me a bit of the discarded weapon room in the smith's shop in my old town. I stepped out and closed the door behind me.

I moved to the next door down along the same wall, which was locked.

The fourth and final room, which wasn't locked, held seemingly miscellaneous items. Upon a second glance though, most of it was spare things for the rooms on this floor, including chairs, bedding, pieces of wood and other repair and construction materials, stacks of clothing, and, thankfully, a number of containers clearly meant for holding items during travel. They ranged in size and material, but I settled on a wood-framed box covered in a thicker fabric, roughly the same dimensions as my torso, that had two leather straps to put arms through and carry it on one's back, a leather carry handle on top, and two latches which held the hinged back panel in place. Inside were a few pieces of wood the width of the box, usable for compartmentalizing the inside box. It made for a good suitcase for my limited number of items.

I took it and my new chainmail back to my room. After some thought, I decided to wear the chainmail and put it on under my clothes. I took what clothes I had been given out of the dresser and put them in the suitcase, moving one of the pieces of wood to give the clothes their own section. With the clothes packed, the suitcase was about a third filled, although in just the clothes section there was still room for at least double what I had packed. Looking around my room, the only thing that caught my eye was the mission folder, which I placed in the suitcase as well. There was still plenty of room, but I had all I needed, so, while wonder whether I had just wasted my time, I closed the suitcase, placed it on my back, and left my room.

When I arrived in the gathering room this time, Lemon and Clare were there already, once again sat at the same table. Both had a bag near them, which I let out a small, relieved, internal sigh at the sight of. Clare's bag seemed big compared to Lemon's and especially mine, but I figured there was a reason and didn't think about it much. There was also a spear leaning against the table next to Lemon. Noah was there already as well, sitting in the back of the room as before, a bag smaller than even my suitcase on the table in front of him. I nodded a greeting to Lemon and Clare, who turned to look at me when I walked in and took a seat at the same spot I had before. Before long, Simon and Syzygy entered as well. Unlike the rest of us who seemed to pack relatively light, Syzygy walked in carrying a box that could likely fit his brother on his back, as well as a more traditional, and reasonably sized, bag in one hand. Simon simply held a quarterstaff.

I did a quick check to make sure I had everything I was supposed to have, and confirming it was there, settled in to wait for our handler to arrive.