Post by arcadiadragon on Apr 24, 2007 16:00:53 GMT -5
((Several notes: This took place a very long time ago. The idea for it and many of the story points were made by me, but it was fleshed out and edited by ShadowCatJen. Want to thank Hawkrune and Sneakingyoda for permission to write in thier characters and helping with final edits.))
Chrys watched a moment as Ailren poked his head into another crate in search for anything "good". He had a better eye for valuable items. Mynian gathered her breath and checked over the longbow she'd been using lately. A quick glance at the bodies of their foes told her that Mynian's aim was true and getting better.
A skittering of noise in another room to her right alerted her to the presence of yet more creatures. Another quick glance to the other's showed they hadn’t heard anything. So far they'd been able to handle what had come their way, getting harmed little in the process.
She hefted the sword "Hope" in her hand, steadied her shield, and confidently headed into the room. A half-second's worth of hesitation occurred as two brownish four-legged creatures surged forward. Chrys had never seen the like before, however, their hostile charges put her quickly on the attack.
I can recall telling both Mynian and Ailren that I was going to be fine. I think I even remember telling Myn in a reassuring manner that I knew it wasn't the blade, but the hand that wields it what matters.
Everything was suddenly moving in slow motion. She saw one creature skitter up to the top of a wooden crate. The other launched itself up, pincher jaws wide open intending to bite. She met its jaws with the edge of her blade, but instead of slicing it clean through the blade stuck in its jaws. One of its two long antennae lightly brushed against the blade. Teeth gritted, Chrys's eyes widened with horror as the blade began to turn a reddish brown. She watched as the entire sword aged, rusted, and finally disintegrated into fine brown dust. All this in the time it took her to take a second breath.
She stumbled back in shock only to stumble sideways as the second creature leapt from the crate top onto her head. She felt its sharp teeth crunch into the metal coif she wore and saw a flit of one of its antennae. Simple instinct caused her to fling the thing off of her violently. With it her coif came off, but it hardly mattered as it too crumbled into a pile of rust.
Somewhere behind her she heard Mynian shout out her name and an arrow whizzed passed her to imbed itself at a softer joint between the creature's plated body. It gave out a screech of anguish as it died, the arrow apparently hitting a vital spot.
Battle instincts took over for Chrys as she stomped a foot into the second creature's back. She brought her gauntlet-clad fist down hard atop its head. The resounding crack of its shell giving way filled the room. Chrys belted out a yell as she brought her fist down a second time in rage and its shell gave way. The creature gave one last shudder, and then lay still.
I can remember looking at my open and very empty hand. It felt very wrong. Like a battle scared veteran looking at where his leg used to be. Ailren replaced the blade with the one he was using. A gesture that was not lost on me, but the blade was given as compensation. A temporary replacement as it was necessary for our survival. And just like a peg leg it severely lacked any feeling to it.
It's amazing how people need to add thoughts and emotions to an otherwise inanimate object. The blade was named "Hope" and thus I felt I had hope. For myself, for those about me, for even the one that gave me the blade.
I tried to fool myself into thinking it was all fine. That the blade was destroyed and that I simply had to move passed it. As I found out it was not that easy.
"Chrys.... Chrys!"
Chrysthania snapped awake while at the table, brining her eyes back into focus. She looked over at the half-elf woman next to her.
"Hmm?"
Mynian didn't quite give an exasperated sigh as Chrys looked blankly at her.
"I said, Mista Amorine would like yeh ta try out some new potions 'e's put tagetha."
"Oh, hmm," Chrys nodded blithely.
It took a few score of seconds for Chrys to realize that Mynian was staring at her. When she looked at her friend the gaze she was giving her made her uncomfortable. She was used to being worried for Mynian and not the other way around. The gaze was hard, staring right at Chrys, and mixed with much worry.
Chrys quickly picked up the nearly empty cup of water on the table and finished it in one gulp, “Going to go for a walk.”
She strode quickly to the door before Mynian could get a word in edgewise, but as the door closed she could have sworn she heard a soft sigh.
As far as I was concerned I had failed. Failed myself, failed the others, failed Tempus. By loosing the blade I had lost the hope that Shivata and the rest had in me. In a way I had also lost part of my honor.
Symbolically the sword was also the hope I had placed in Shivata. Somehow, it was if the Rust Monsters were Shivata and her actions managed to take away any hope there was.
I hadn’t thought much about it since that day in Waymoot. Actually, it was more the case I was stubbornly refusing to think about it. I tried to burry myself in trying to better myself. To prove I could move passed and beyond her. All it took was to have a bit of my overconfidence get the better of me to have my resolve crumble.
Kelric and Mynian stood of to the side uttering quietly to one another. Mynian was being animated with her hands as she spoke. A sure sign that what ever she spoke of had her emotionally involved. That didn’t matter to Chrys, but what did was that both of them kept glancing to her direction. Chrys felt her gut twinge as one of the looks Kelric gave was that of pity.
After a moment Mynian patted Kelric’s shoulder and said aloud with a wink, “I’ll let yeh know when it be done. Hopefully yer lass will like it.”
Kelric gave a smile in return and nodded, “I am sure you will not disappoint. I will see you later. Chrys, we should travel again soon.”
Chrysthania uncrossed her arms and pushed off the tree she was leaning on, “Aye, I’d like that.”
Kelric gave another smile and nod before heading off to do what Purple Dragon Knights do. Mynian came up to Chrys smiling in a chipper manner. Chrys was not in such a humorous mood.
“I’m surprised ye didn’t take him up to a room for a ‘private’ chat,” Chrys tried to keep her voice even, but some of her tone came off as catty. Chrys cursed at herself mentally after.
Mynian motioned with a hand for them to start walking, Chrys’s catty tone apparently not phasing Mynian.
“Whot? ‘n disappoint tha other single lads out there with speculative rumors about meself ‘n a Purple Dragon Knight? Perish tha thought! I’d be sure ta lose some o’ me male customers,” she gave an infectious grin and winked. “Besides me wouldn’t do tha’ ta Yulena…. Though tha man’s got a body under tha’ armor whot me wouldn’ta mind givin’ a go.”
“Mynian! Please!” Chrys gave an explosive sigh and shook her head at her friend.
Mynian’s grin only grew wider, then she turned to walk backwards and face her as she spoke, “Oy, why donna we go fer a walk out somewhere?”
Chrys looked at her friend oddly. Mynian was usually not one to suggest “heading out”. Least not in the way Chrys typically traveled.
Mynian continued, “See, me ‘eard about this island whots got some crazy gnome mansion on it. There be a boat we c’n use right ‘ere in town ta get ta it. Wanna go see?”
Chrys stopped in her tracks and really looked at her oddly then. Mynian stopped as well and tugged at Chrys’s arm like some eager child wanting to go to the confectionary shop.
“C’mon, let’s go. Pleeeeeeease,” Mynian hopefully pleaded and batter her eyelashes.
Chrys gave a resigned sigh, then twisted her lip a bit at her, “Ye must have been a holy terror for yeh Uncle to handle as a child, ye know that?”
“’e blames every lost ‘n gray hair he’s had ta be me fault, ‘e does,” Mynian nodded with an impish grin.
Chrys really couldn’t help but chuckle. She knew what Mynian was trying to do and she equally appreciated and hated it.
“Alright, we’ll go.”
At the time I really wasn’t sure what I wanted, but I knew I didn’t want anyone’s pity. I was feeling sorry for myself enough as it was. I felt hurt by those around me. Especially Mynian as she was telling our friends about my plight without speaking directly at me about it.
I felt terribly ousted as it was and her actions made me feel worse. However, my judgment was misplaced and I was being – as Myn might have put it – a stubborn emotional git. I had underestimated my friends and what lengths some of them would go to just to see that I got “better”.
Chrys and Myn stepped off the caravan in Suzail. As Chrys stretched out her six foot plus frame to get the kinks out from the ride, Mynian perked and waved at someone down the street. After a few seconds Kelric and Yulena appeared from around the corner. Without even a hello Mynian quickly went up to Kelric to whisper into his ear. He nodded in response and Mynian hopped on her heels happily.
She suddenly suspected something as Yulena looked excited and expectantly at her. Chrys thought it was odd that Mynian was insistent that she accompanied her to Suzail just to do some shopping. Now she wondered what sort of scheme Mynian brought her into. Before she could start to even glower at her friends, Kelric stepped forward to her.
“Hello, Chrys, do you have a moment to speak?” Kelric asked.
“Of course, Kelric,” she responded. “Myn and I weren’t in any rush.”
Kelric cleared his throat as she removed a long cloth wrapped object he had slung behind his back, “Chrysthania, it had come to our attention that you had recently lost your blade.”
Chrys nodded almost numbly and shot a glance at Mynian.
“Well, though it may not have as much meaning to you as ‘Hope’ might of,” he held the object out to her. “Please accept this as a sign of friendship from all three of us. May she serve you well in the days to come.”
She gingerly took it from him, but then hesitated a moment to look at them all. Yulena gave an encouraging smile and nod. Undoing the straps she let the cloth fall to the ground as it slipped off the sheathed blade that was underneath it. She could tell already from the make of the hilt and the grip wrappings that the blade was special. Chrys pulled the sword out slowly revealing the blade and heard her own breath catch.
There was no mistaking it. The keenness of the edge of the blade and the quality of its temper gave tell that this one was made by a master. Hefting the weight of it in her hands she was pleased that it wasn’t so light as to feel flimsy but not so heavy as to encumber the arm and lose speed with each stroke.
She almost didn’t hear the others speak as she tested the wield of the blade with a few slow swings.
“Mynian had told Kelric what had happened,” Yulena explained. “And said that she wanted to find you another blade but didn’t have the same eye that Kelric might and that she did not know of any decent sword smiths.”
Kelric nodded, “We searched long for a blade worth of your hand and finally found one. Yulena helped with acquiring it from the smith.”
“Kelric provided most of the funds,” Yulena smiled up at him.
“I…,” Chrys finally tried to speak her eyes settling on the blade and then upon her friends. “I don’t know how to say thank ye….I am…..”
Yulena spoke again, “You can do so by being yourself again, your old self, you’ve been so withdrawn and sullen lately….I do not like seeing you like that. I really don’t its not you.”
Kelric nodded, “I wondered why you refused to go with me for that ‘walk’ to Suzail. Your usually more than willing to and until Mynian had said something I had thought I had given you some slight or offense….somehow.” He smiled at her.
Chrysthania stood there mouth agape, shaking her head, then looking up, “I am sorry, I guess all this had bothered me more then I realized it would. I did not mean to worry any of ye.”
“It’s alright, Chrys,” Kelric said. “Anyone would have been saddened by loosing something that had meaning to them. Your reactions were understandable.”
“I just wish you would have said something earlier,” Yulena said and walked forward, giving Chrys a hug about the shoulders. “I do not like seeing you so hurt.”
Chrys gave a genuine smile at Yulena and spoke through a mild chuckle, “For that I will apologize, then.”
She regarded the sword again then looked at them all, “The blade needs a name.”
What had surprised me the most was who the blade’s name ended up coming from.
Mynian cleared her throat. She had been rather quiet up till then, “Me thinks me got a name.”
They all looked at her and she blushed, giving a rare look of embarrassment, “I… actually sort o’ ‘ad a name in mind for a while now.”
“Well,” Kelric motioned at Mynian. “Let us have it then.”
“Aye,” Chrys said, genuinely intrigued. “Go on.”
Mynian’s eyes shifted to all of them and she flushed even deeper. She hesitated before she spoke, “Faithbringer.”
Chrys was certain her own look matched the slightly surprised ones of Kelric and Yulena. The ever doubtful and cynical Mynian Copperhand just used the word ‘faith’ to name something. What was more, the name seemed to fit perfectly.
Mynian had explained that she felt the blade represented not only the faith I should have for myself, but the faith my friends had in me. That while hope left room for doubt, faith did not.
I have used Faithbringer to regain my confidence in my swordsmanship abilities. Though I now have blades that surpass Faithbringer’s quality, I will cherish it for as long as I live. Even if I should, Gods forbid, lose the blade somehow, Faithbringer’s meaning will always be with me.
I was only partially correct in the beginning. True, it is not the blade, but the hand that wields it. However, it is also the heart behind that hand that gives it all true meaning. Faith and hope were always there, as long as I believed in it. I thank my friends for teaching me that.
- From the writings of Chrysthania Violetta Rosetta Tharkusdottir
Chrys watched a moment as Ailren poked his head into another crate in search for anything "good". He had a better eye for valuable items. Mynian gathered her breath and checked over the longbow she'd been using lately. A quick glance at the bodies of their foes told her that Mynian's aim was true and getting better.
A skittering of noise in another room to her right alerted her to the presence of yet more creatures. Another quick glance to the other's showed they hadn’t heard anything. So far they'd been able to handle what had come their way, getting harmed little in the process.
She hefted the sword "Hope" in her hand, steadied her shield, and confidently headed into the room. A half-second's worth of hesitation occurred as two brownish four-legged creatures surged forward. Chrys had never seen the like before, however, their hostile charges put her quickly on the attack.
I can recall telling both Mynian and Ailren that I was going to be fine. I think I even remember telling Myn in a reassuring manner that I knew it wasn't the blade, but the hand that wields it what matters.
Everything was suddenly moving in slow motion. She saw one creature skitter up to the top of a wooden crate. The other launched itself up, pincher jaws wide open intending to bite. She met its jaws with the edge of her blade, but instead of slicing it clean through the blade stuck in its jaws. One of its two long antennae lightly brushed against the blade. Teeth gritted, Chrys's eyes widened with horror as the blade began to turn a reddish brown. She watched as the entire sword aged, rusted, and finally disintegrated into fine brown dust. All this in the time it took her to take a second breath.
She stumbled back in shock only to stumble sideways as the second creature leapt from the crate top onto her head. She felt its sharp teeth crunch into the metal coif she wore and saw a flit of one of its antennae. Simple instinct caused her to fling the thing off of her violently. With it her coif came off, but it hardly mattered as it too crumbled into a pile of rust.
Somewhere behind her she heard Mynian shout out her name and an arrow whizzed passed her to imbed itself at a softer joint between the creature's plated body. It gave out a screech of anguish as it died, the arrow apparently hitting a vital spot.
Battle instincts took over for Chrys as she stomped a foot into the second creature's back. She brought her gauntlet-clad fist down hard atop its head. The resounding crack of its shell giving way filled the room. Chrys belted out a yell as she brought her fist down a second time in rage and its shell gave way. The creature gave one last shudder, and then lay still.
I can remember looking at my open and very empty hand. It felt very wrong. Like a battle scared veteran looking at where his leg used to be. Ailren replaced the blade with the one he was using. A gesture that was not lost on me, but the blade was given as compensation. A temporary replacement as it was necessary for our survival. And just like a peg leg it severely lacked any feeling to it.
It's amazing how people need to add thoughts and emotions to an otherwise inanimate object. The blade was named "Hope" and thus I felt I had hope. For myself, for those about me, for even the one that gave me the blade.
I tried to fool myself into thinking it was all fine. That the blade was destroyed and that I simply had to move passed it. As I found out it was not that easy.
"Chrys.... Chrys!"
Chrysthania snapped awake while at the table, brining her eyes back into focus. She looked over at the half-elf woman next to her.
"Hmm?"
Mynian didn't quite give an exasperated sigh as Chrys looked blankly at her.
"I said, Mista Amorine would like yeh ta try out some new potions 'e's put tagetha."
"Oh, hmm," Chrys nodded blithely.
It took a few score of seconds for Chrys to realize that Mynian was staring at her. When she looked at her friend the gaze she was giving her made her uncomfortable. She was used to being worried for Mynian and not the other way around. The gaze was hard, staring right at Chrys, and mixed with much worry.
Chrys quickly picked up the nearly empty cup of water on the table and finished it in one gulp, “Going to go for a walk.”
She strode quickly to the door before Mynian could get a word in edgewise, but as the door closed she could have sworn she heard a soft sigh.
As far as I was concerned I had failed. Failed myself, failed the others, failed Tempus. By loosing the blade I had lost the hope that Shivata and the rest had in me. In a way I had also lost part of my honor.
Symbolically the sword was also the hope I had placed in Shivata. Somehow, it was if the Rust Monsters were Shivata and her actions managed to take away any hope there was.
I hadn’t thought much about it since that day in Waymoot. Actually, it was more the case I was stubbornly refusing to think about it. I tried to burry myself in trying to better myself. To prove I could move passed and beyond her. All it took was to have a bit of my overconfidence get the better of me to have my resolve crumble.
Kelric and Mynian stood of to the side uttering quietly to one another. Mynian was being animated with her hands as she spoke. A sure sign that what ever she spoke of had her emotionally involved. That didn’t matter to Chrys, but what did was that both of them kept glancing to her direction. Chrys felt her gut twinge as one of the looks Kelric gave was that of pity.
After a moment Mynian patted Kelric’s shoulder and said aloud with a wink, “I’ll let yeh know when it be done. Hopefully yer lass will like it.”
Kelric gave a smile in return and nodded, “I am sure you will not disappoint. I will see you later. Chrys, we should travel again soon.”
Chrysthania uncrossed her arms and pushed off the tree she was leaning on, “Aye, I’d like that.”
Kelric gave another smile and nod before heading off to do what Purple Dragon Knights do. Mynian came up to Chrys smiling in a chipper manner. Chrys was not in such a humorous mood.
“I’m surprised ye didn’t take him up to a room for a ‘private’ chat,” Chrys tried to keep her voice even, but some of her tone came off as catty. Chrys cursed at herself mentally after.
Mynian motioned with a hand for them to start walking, Chrys’s catty tone apparently not phasing Mynian.
“Whot? ‘n disappoint tha other single lads out there with speculative rumors about meself ‘n a Purple Dragon Knight? Perish tha thought! I’d be sure ta lose some o’ me male customers,” she gave an infectious grin and winked. “Besides me wouldn’t do tha’ ta Yulena…. Though tha man’s got a body under tha’ armor whot me wouldn’ta mind givin’ a go.”
“Mynian! Please!” Chrys gave an explosive sigh and shook her head at her friend.
Mynian’s grin only grew wider, then she turned to walk backwards and face her as she spoke, “Oy, why donna we go fer a walk out somewhere?”
Chrys looked at her friend oddly. Mynian was usually not one to suggest “heading out”. Least not in the way Chrys typically traveled.
Mynian continued, “See, me ‘eard about this island whots got some crazy gnome mansion on it. There be a boat we c’n use right ‘ere in town ta get ta it. Wanna go see?”
Chrys stopped in her tracks and really looked at her oddly then. Mynian stopped as well and tugged at Chrys’s arm like some eager child wanting to go to the confectionary shop.
“C’mon, let’s go. Pleeeeeeease,” Mynian hopefully pleaded and batter her eyelashes.
Chrys gave a resigned sigh, then twisted her lip a bit at her, “Ye must have been a holy terror for yeh Uncle to handle as a child, ye know that?”
“’e blames every lost ‘n gray hair he’s had ta be me fault, ‘e does,” Mynian nodded with an impish grin.
Chrys really couldn’t help but chuckle. She knew what Mynian was trying to do and she equally appreciated and hated it.
“Alright, we’ll go.”
At the time I really wasn’t sure what I wanted, but I knew I didn’t want anyone’s pity. I was feeling sorry for myself enough as it was. I felt hurt by those around me. Especially Mynian as she was telling our friends about my plight without speaking directly at me about it.
I felt terribly ousted as it was and her actions made me feel worse. However, my judgment was misplaced and I was being – as Myn might have put it – a stubborn emotional git. I had underestimated my friends and what lengths some of them would go to just to see that I got “better”.
Chrys and Myn stepped off the caravan in Suzail. As Chrys stretched out her six foot plus frame to get the kinks out from the ride, Mynian perked and waved at someone down the street. After a few seconds Kelric and Yulena appeared from around the corner. Without even a hello Mynian quickly went up to Kelric to whisper into his ear. He nodded in response and Mynian hopped on her heels happily.
She suddenly suspected something as Yulena looked excited and expectantly at her. Chrys thought it was odd that Mynian was insistent that she accompanied her to Suzail just to do some shopping. Now she wondered what sort of scheme Mynian brought her into. Before she could start to even glower at her friends, Kelric stepped forward to her.
“Hello, Chrys, do you have a moment to speak?” Kelric asked.
“Of course, Kelric,” she responded. “Myn and I weren’t in any rush.”
Kelric cleared his throat as she removed a long cloth wrapped object he had slung behind his back, “Chrysthania, it had come to our attention that you had recently lost your blade.”
Chrys nodded almost numbly and shot a glance at Mynian.
“Well, though it may not have as much meaning to you as ‘Hope’ might of,” he held the object out to her. “Please accept this as a sign of friendship from all three of us. May she serve you well in the days to come.”
She gingerly took it from him, but then hesitated a moment to look at them all. Yulena gave an encouraging smile and nod. Undoing the straps she let the cloth fall to the ground as it slipped off the sheathed blade that was underneath it. She could tell already from the make of the hilt and the grip wrappings that the blade was special. Chrys pulled the sword out slowly revealing the blade and heard her own breath catch.
There was no mistaking it. The keenness of the edge of the blade and the quality of its temper gave tell that this one was made by a master. Hefting the weight of it in her hands she was pleased that it wasn’t so light as to feel flimsy but not so heavy as to encumber the arm and lose speed with each stroke.
She almost didn’t hear the others speak as she tested the wield of the blade with a few slow swings.
“Mynian had told Kelric what had happened,” Yulena explained. “And said that she wanted to find you another blade but didn’t have the same eye that Kelric might and that she did not know of any decent sword smiths.”
Kelric nodded, “We searched long for a blade worth of your hand and finally found one. Yulena helped with acquiring it from the smith.”
“Kelric provided most of the funds,” Yulena smiled up at him.
“I…,” Chrys finally tried to speak her eyes settling on the blade and then upon her friends. “I don’t know how to say thank ye….I am…..”
Yulena spoke again, “You can do so by being yourself again, your old self, you’ve been so withdrawn and sullen lately….I do not like seeing you like that. I really don’t its not you.”
Kelric nodded, “I wondered why you refused to go with me for that ‘walk’ to Suzail. Your usually more than willing to and until Mynian had said something I had thought I had given you some slight or offense….somehow.” He smiled at her.
Chrysthania stood there mouth agape, shaking her head, then looking up, “I am sorry, I guess all this had bothered me more then I realized it would. I did not mean to worry any of ye.”
“It’s alright, Chrys,” Kelric said. “Anyone would have been saddened by loosing something that had meaning to them. Your reactions were understandable.”
“I just wish you would have said something earlier,” Yulena said and walked forward, giving Chrys a hug about the shoulders. “I do not like seeing you so hurt.”
Chrys gave a genuine smile at Yulena and spoke through a mild chuckle, “For that I will apologize, then.”
She regarded the sword again then looked at them all, “The blade needs a name.”
What had surprised me the most was who the blade’s name ended up coming from.
Mynian cleared her throat. She had been rather quiet up till then, “Me thinks me got a name.”
They all looked at her and she blushed, giving a rare look of embarrassment, “I… actually sort o’ ‘ad a name in mind for a while now.”
“Well,” Kelric motioned at Mynian. “Let us have it then.”
“Aye,” Chrys said, genuinely intrigued. “Go on.”
Mynian’s eyes shifted to all of them and she flushed even deeper. She hesitated before she spoke, “Faithbringer.”
Chrys was certain her own look matched the slightly surprised ones of Kelric and Yulena. The ever doubtful and cynical Mynian Copperhand just used the word ‘faith’ to name something. What was more, the name seemed to fit perfectly.
Mynian had explained that she felt the blade represented not only the faith I should have for myself, but the faith my friends had in me. That while hope left room for doubt, faith did not.
I have used Faithbringer to regain my confidence in my swordsmanship abilities. Though I now have blades that surpass Faithbringer’s quality, I will cherish it for as long as I live. Even if I should, Gods forbid, lose the blade somehow, Faithbringer’s meaning will always be with me.
I was only partially correct in the beginning. True, it is not the blade, but the hand that wields it. However, it is also the heart behind that hand that gives it all true meaning. Faith and hope were always there, as long as I believed in it. I thank my friends for teaching me that.
- From the writings of Chrysthania Violetta Rosetta Tharkusdottir
