Sword of Destiny

Chapter 6: Learning

15 years ago

It was fair to say that his actions didn't win him the respect of his family. Quite the opposite in fact. He was treated like a rabid dog. The smithy seemed such a small space.

At the age of fifteen, he was still technically the least educated in the household. But despite that, he was definitely the most learned. Conversation with his family was like counting sand; just an impossible waste of time. And when he wasn't reading his book, his thumbs twitched. He hated the place.

"Oi, Joss." That was what they now called him. It was marginally less insulting than Jossie, but it was hardly the rough title he deserved. He would not respond to any name other than his surname. It was that or nothing, so he ignored the call. He would only respond to 'Kantal'.

But he did really need a forename, didn't he? His father had a point.

No! It was a girl's name. He would not wear it.

He stared at the words on the ageing paper, but he was not truly reading. He had absorbed the book over the years, and he could recite every page. It was the same book as it ever was, the work of Queen Delfin, mother of Delfinia. It was her story, by her hand, and it was a rare piece of prose. No, it was more than that. It was the priceless original. Bulge had let him keep it. The fact that the other librarians had not even noticed its absence spoke more than enough. But their loss was his gain. Delfin was his guide, and he worshipped her.

And fortunately, his family didn't recognise its value. They would surely sell it if they did, but it was saved by that age-old adage: 'ignorance is blinding'. There was certainly a truth to that.

So much written about Delfin painted her as a traitorous bitch or a magnanimous monarch, but the reality was so stark. So different. She was confused and she was scared. But she was also curious, and that's what drove her to greatness. She was not content with the answers she was given, even when her father blocked her. She had to find out for herself. She was always scratching; always searching; always probing. It was her strength, and it defined her.

And it was this strength of character that splintered the six-hundred-year-old Empire of Mikaeta. She broke the very lineage of written history just by being curious, and that was impossibly inspiring. He liked to think he had that same quality bubbling inside him too. He could change things, do things, he was sure of it. Now he just needed to prove it.

"Joss!"

No. He would not recognise that name. He would not. He focussed back on the page. He had read The Queen's Descent hundreds of times, and yet he never tired of its inspiration. If anything, the shapes of the words on the page were comfort enough. He smiled.

"Bellowing Brother, Kantal. Will you listen to me?"

He turned and smirked with the act. He loved winding his thick old father up. "Ah, Father. I didn't notice you there."

"I was calling your bloody name."

He was exercising his linguistic skills more and more, though he hated the common twang of his accent. Nonetheless, he sounded fresher than the rest of this household combined.

"Apologies, Father. All I heard was the whispering shadow of my past." Perhaps that was too much?

"You are a girl after all." Yes, that was definitely too much.

"Care to say that to my face?"

His father was huge. He was fifty times the proposition of Beef, who was in reality a sallow and flabby excuse of a juvenile. By contrast, his smith of a father was still in remarkable shape for his age. The man's arms were like fence posts and he had legs to match, as-well as the ability to swing a right-hook with the best of them. But size wasn't everything. After all, he had floored his father more than once now. The man didn't look best pleased.