The Last Weaver

Part 5: Lore

"The Blades are a dangerous cult, and they are very erratic in their actions. The cult is made entirely of religious extremists who worship a god named Vesh, the dark god of thievery and silent destruction. In fact, the Blades actually worship many gods, each god very different from the gods of others. Many of their gods are focused on destruction, such as the downfall of a government, the ruling over all things, stuff like that. Some Blades don't focus on ruling over all things, though. They will assissinate someone for someone else if they receive good payment, and if they think a person violated their religion, they will kill him or her and most likely the enitre town he or she lived in.

"The Blades' fighting style is very unique. They prefer to strike in the dark, quietly and quickly. Most of the warriors use daggers, two longswords at once, or quarterstaffs. Some use other weapons, but those three are the favored weapons, along with composite longbows. The Blades are very skilled at knocking people off balance and disarming them," Coren informed me, saying so much it made me think it was odd that he knew all that.

"Their casters are different, though, and very powerful," he continued."They will not hesitate to kill you at the slightest provocation, and they can incapacitate you in so many ways that I cannot begin to explain. Some infamous wizards and sorcerers are skilled enough to use the Words of Power. Those words focus on one specific thing each, such as the Death Word. Once you can master magic and the Words of Power, you can train yourself to cast with almost no side effects, but the process takes a long time and it's very difficult."

"Wow," I said, awestruck. "How do you know so much?" I asked, voicing my earlier thought about his knowledge.

"When I was about fifteen years old, the Blades attacked my village. The village of Durn, if you remember. I helped fend them off with my magic, but they proved to be too much to handle. I fled into the wilderness, but stayed within sight of the battle. There I stayed and watched their movements for days, for they took over the village and made a camp. I then came here, and here I stayed," Coren explained. He must be very observative. Maybe he wanted more, then. Maybe he watched their movements, so that when the time came he could have his revenge. But not now, apparently. He doesn't seem like he wants any vengeance, for there is not spite in his voice.

"Wow. That may come in handy if they attack us. Do you suppose they will attack?" I asked, starting to realize the possible threat on the city of Ryngag. "I do, unfortunately. I know a man who I think greatly offended the Blades, and they are angry. His name is William Orfank. He lives a couple blocks away. I do not know what he did, but all of Ryngag knows of disgust towards The Blade. He has also been acting very skittish and reclusive now that The Blade is in the forests." Coren said, sounding very concerned. "What an idiot, to think he can mess with such a powerful cult." Coren added.

I then asked Coren what the city would do about this threat. "Only slight preperations. Most defense the villagers will have to do themselves. The king, allthough he has been a worthy king, he underestimates their strength. I may try to talk to him if I have the time." Coren replied, his face becoming weary. "Well, why don't we try to make a good defense? We could block the main roads on this part of Ryngag! Oh and, how would you talk to the king?" I said, imagining already the rallied citizens. "He and I go way back, Milo." Coren said with a twinkle in his eye.

The rest of the day I trained outside while Coren wrote on a scroll inside. The scroll's bindings were very onate, and looked like solid gold was inlaid on the tongs. The night aproached and the sky grew dark. I stood in a fighting position, but I was not fighting. A quivering ball of water about two feet wide floated about a yard away from me at chest level.

I was deep in consentration. Coren gave me the task of making the water a perfect sphere. I was almost there, with one more wrinkle to smooth out, when I heard a loud bang. I panicked, sending the ball of water forcefully into my chest, knocking me backwards about five feet. I was soaked, and I was struggling for a breath, having knocked the wind out of me.

Coren laughed behind me, and I knew it was him. I got up with one hand behind my back, and I glared at him. "Well played, but payback is brutal." I whipped around, and with all the concentration I could muster, I gathered up the ball of water and flung it as hard as I could at Coren. It caught him off guard and knocked him down on his back. He got up, laughing. "Well done! I am impressed, but I haven't taught you all there is to know!"

He stepped back with one foot and brought his hands together at his waist, and all the air seemed to flow into the space between his hands. Then he cupped his hands together, stepped foward with the foot he took back, and he thrust foward with both his hands. An invisible force hit me hard in the gut, and I flew back and hit the fence. The fence crumpled and nearly broke to bits.

I got up, coughing from the hit. "Woah, easy there!" I said as I gathered my energy. I focused my mind on the air around him, then made it spin and close in on him like a twister. I only sustained the spell just long enough for it to touch him, because of the amount of consentration involved. The twisting air hit his legs, and he spun into the air.

Coren landed flat on his face.

Once Coren stood up, the look on his face was utter suprise. "Milo, do you understand what you just did?" I nodded and said, "I spun you around like a top." Coren paused for a second, as if he was thinking about what to say, then said, "Milo, that takes concentration. We haven't been training for long, and yet you could do that. It was perfect. Especially since you were just recovering from a harsh blow. That should tell you something, Milo."

I nodded. Coren walked back to the house. He paused at the doorway and beckoned me to come in. Coren dissapeared to the kitchen, and I followed. A feast was layed out on the table.

***

The sun fell down out of the sky behind the trees, and I went to bed. The night was warm, but a slight breeze blew. I opened my window to allow the air to flow through, and eventually I fell asleep. My sleep was troubled, dreams of mysterious figures doing mysterious things. Some of them had swords, and some of them wore long flowing robes. All of their faces were covered my a black layered hood that connected with their clothes.

I awoke in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep. I lit a candle, and took out a spell book and started reading all the spells. After a while, I had read all the way to the middle of the book, when a chill ran down my spine. I looked out the window.

Nothing happened for a minute. Everything was silent. Nothing moved.

Then I saw it, and nearly had a heart attack. A black figure raced across the roof of the house next door. Then I spotted a figure on the ground further away; it was slowly sneaking down the road behind the house.

I panicked. They were the figures from my dreams. I ran out of my room, ran down the hall, and burst into Coren's room. Coren awoke with a start. "Coren! I think the Blade is out there. I saw some figures running across roofs and in the street behind this house." Coren stared at me, obviously a little confused at his current state.

There was a pause, then a serious of thumps on the roof. The thumps ran across the roof and dissapeared.

Coren looked at me and said, "Let the war begin."