Gentle Eyes of Evil

Chapter 15: The Weaponist

As days went by, Harriet now spent her time working on the perfect murder. She looked at weapons that the Wrath ring had to offer for getting the job done. Unfortunately, nothing was being sold for the purpose of killing demon royalty, for obvious reasons. So, the girl turned to looking in the palace library, thinking that perhaps their family owned some ancient weapon that could get the trick done.

Harriet looked through dozens of books, quickly flicking through each one in a frantic fashion. Her madness to find this weapon even led her to read books that weren't remotely related to what she was looking for. At one point she had even picked up a book on Hell's plants, looking for one that could be murderous or poisonous, of which there were many. It took her around three hours of checking through the palace's seemingly endless library. But, she eventually came across something.

Contained within a book on The History Of Magical Beings Of The Afterlife, was a chapter. A chapter about the middle ground between Heaven and Hell, a divider land known as Purgatory. This land was said to be a vast wasteland of open plain with not a building in sight apart from a castle. The plain was said to be ruled over by the single most powerful being across all of the three realms, Queen Ember. Harriet read that Ember only had one person working for her, this person was the answer to Harriet's problem. A blacksmith, a woman by the name Ikuna Narwither.

As stated in the book, Ember had Ikuna working with her as she liked the way Ikuna made weapons with a 'personal twist'. There were a few illustrations of Ikuna's weaponry, the weapons did certainly each have a personal touch to them, as none of them looked fully correct. The swords were bent in odd angles, chipped, or just incomplete. Harriet did debate if this woman was the right choice after seeing these, however what she read next in the book sealed her choice.

'Each weapon that is created by Miss Narwither is then enchanted with the Queen's magic: Realatine. Realatine is said to be the most powerful enchantment across The Three Realms Of The Afterlife, with the energy being created by The Seven Virtues of Heaven and The Seven Sins of Hell. A magic of this power could take down the most powerful beings across the three realms, aside from the pair themselves.'

There it was, her answer. All Harriet needed to do was get a weapon designed by Ikuna, and enchanted with Realatine. However, no demon had ever attempted to go to Purgatory themselves and so Harriet would have to find a way to contact her without going there in person, or find a way to get to Purgatory. She flicked further along in the book and eventually came across a page that got her thinking. The page contained the magical sigils for both Queen Ember and Ikuna, Harriet figured that by using these sigils, she might be able to summon the blacksmith like humans could summon demons.

This suspicion was confirmed by a passage that contained the sayings for summoning each of the two divine women.

So, she got herself a notepad and pencil that was scattered on the table, and sketched the sigil for Ikuna down on the page. Harriet got up from the table and clicked her fingers, giving herself a paintbrush that was covered in dark grey paint as well as a paint bucket of the same colour. She then looked down to the library's smooth wooden floor and placed brush to wood, slowly and carefully drawing the blacksmith's sigil onto it.
After completing the sigil, Harriet took it that this worked like any usual demon summoning, and so she lit candles around the outside of the sigil, placing them at its edges. Ikuna's sigil was an octagon with an I connected to an N at its centre. Harriet placed black candles on each corner of the octagon, making eight candles total, and knelt before the sigil. After taking another look at the book, however, Harriet realised she had missed a bit out.

This section detailed how, due to the nature of the realm of Purgatory, only half the number of candles is needed to summon a being from said realm. Demon summonings required all candles as evil energy was more difficult to pull through, and Angel summonings required just the sigil with no candles. Harriet read this and looked back to the sigil on the floor, she blew out four of the eight candles and placed them back into the box she got them from. Finally, the princess knelt before the sigil again, after putting the candles away, with the book in hand, and uttered the words on the page.

"Lady of metal, Lady of flame,
Come to me, and tell me your name.
I call upon thy burning soul,
For a weapon to help me reach my goal."

The two candles on either side of the sigil began to dance as Harriet recited the words. Their flames lit up from the calming orange to a deep pink, and then gradually their colour faded into a light yet empty shade of grey. The flames continued to burn brightly as the sigil lit up, illuminating a faint white light. The fire from the candles grew higher and higher, the flames grew closed together until, eventually, the grey embers left the candles wick completely. They swirled around and almost chased one another within the sigil, changing from their grey light to a bright yet calming purple. Eventually, the flames joined as one and a woman now stood in the centre of the sigil.

The woman had pure white skin with deep pale blue lips, light grey hair that was long and evenly parted, with bright purple streaks through her front hair that was separate from the grey. The purple rested in front of her ear while the grey was tucked behind. She wore a long sleeved black shirt with a tan coloured apron around her waist, covering her lower half, and finally laced up black platform boots that went up to just above her knee.

She opened her eyes which, similarly to that of Harriet's, had a black sclera but were otherwise a luscious deep blue gradient with yellow pupils. Harriet took a moment to just look at the woman in awe, her eyes had a slight shine to them as she found the woman before her to be utterly beautiful.

This woman was no other than Ikuna Narwither. Purgatory's Blacksmith.

Ikuna looked down to Harriet with gentle eyes, she didn't seem like a threat, she just seemed calm and peaceful.

"Greetings, Your Highness. What is it you require of me?"
Ikuna asked the girl, her voice was rather deep for that of a woman and yet she spoke with formality.

Harriet cleared her throat, looking up to the woman and finding her words.
"I require a weapon to be made with the capability to kill demon royalty."
Ikuna tilted her head to the side, feeling confused.
"Forgive my asking, princess, but are you not a member of demon royalty?"

Harriet nodded.
"Yes, you'd be correct. I need it for...a personal reason. I don't have to share that with you in order to receive the weapon, do I?"
She questioned.

"Providing a weapon of that power to a royal such as yourself would require authentication from my mistress anyway. So no, the reason does not concern me."
The woman shook her head.

Harriet didn't seem pleased. She gritted her teeth and folded her arms, her eyes having not left that of the blacksmiths'.
"And how long will getting confirmation take?"

"As this is a private royal matter, you do have the authority to go and see the queen yourself if you so wish. Otherwise, confirmation should only take a quick conversation."
Ikuna told her, her face remained unchanging and her eyes did not leave the girl.

Harriet put a hand on her chin and looked down.
"Would bringing me to Purgatory slow you down from the conversation?"

Ikuna shook her head
"No. Not unless you yourself prolong said conversation, you may be present for it. I'm sure her majesty would be more than happy to meet with you"
The woman's mouth curled into a sly smile when she spoke of her mistress's excitement.

Harriet nodded to Ikuna and removed her hand from her chin, making eye contact with the woman once again.
"Then I shall meet with Queen Ember."

Ikuna's eyes narrowed into an excited sort of glare as her smile grew.
"Perfect."
She muttered.

"What was that?"
Harriet asked, noticing the woman's expression and growing slightly uncomfortable.

Ikuna's expression relaxed as she remembered Harriet was in the room and cleared her throat.
"Ah...Nothing to worry about, Your Highness."
She reassured the princess, before bowing to her.
"If I may ask, what type of weapon are you looking for? Sword, bow and arrow, battleaxe, scythe?"

Harriet paused for a moment, looking down again. Her hand returned to her chin.
"A bow and arrows."
She answered.

Ikuna smiled softly at this.
"Bit of a different girl, are we? I don't often do bows, however that doesn't mean I'm bad at them!"
She beamed, almost proudly.

Harriet smiled just a little at this, quickly realising that despite this woman's formal outer shell, there was something trapped inside. Ikuna then clapped her hands gently together twice and a portal opened before the pair. The portal itself had a blue outline that faded to purple the further out it went, eventually just fading into the world around it, on the other side of said portal, was Purgatory. Ikuna put her hand out towards the portal, looking to Harriet as if to tell her to step through. Harriet seemed a little hesitant, but did step cautiously through the portal, it sent a shiver down her spine as she stood onto the plains of Purgatory. Ikuna followed shortly behind her and clapped her hands again, however the sound now echoed around the plain, and the portal closed.

"Welcome to Purgatory, Your Highness."
Ikuna informed her with a bow, Harriet finally looked up to see what Purgatory really was.