Seven Deadly Sons

Ameline. (10)

Heading to Jaundice, the multi-species club, with my new outfit on made me feel all kinds of power I didn't have.

My muscles had relaxed by themselves, surprisingly, because they were usually much taunter when I was stressed.

That was dangerous, but so was I. I thought with a cheery smile.

It wasn't a particularly difficult place to find, but you had to have a reputation of some kind to get in, and failing that you needed to answer a riddle.

I always had to answer riddles.

They were usually fairly easy though, it was only to keep out the real trouble seekers who wandered in the queue with swords on their backs and crossbows at their hips. I was so naked I couldn't possibly be hiding any weapons. I of course was, a thin sabre in the hemline of the waist held a cursed weapon that could bend when not in use, but when my hand pulled it out was stiff as a board, sharp and deadly. Its name was Tyrfing, and most who used it died. I hope that wasn't the curse, because I had borrowed it from a redcap (I had killed him, but if he ever asked for it back he could surely have it).

Reaching the front of the queue, long as it was this early in the day - especially with their princes in town -, I requested my riddle.

The small man looked easy to overcome, but as a banished blacksmith he was covered in enchantments that break fingers and liquify swords for the period he was working. He didn't have a scratch on him, though that could also have been an illusion.

He presented himself to me as what I wanted to see, and today he was a hunch-backed ageless man, with laugh lines and bright eyes. It was creepy, but I curtsied politely anyway — it didn't hurt to be nice.

"The human girl returns again for more! I am shocked you keep coming out alive, honestly. And back alive. I could use an iron willed girl like you in my shop." He chuckled. Why was everyone so happy today? Get a grip.

"As ever, thank you for your kindnesses, sir." I began, polite as possible. "May I have my riddle of the day?"

With a nod, he un-hunches his back, becoming curiously ram rod straight in the process.

"An easy one for you.

If my mistress turns me side-way,

I am everything.

Though when she cuts me by straight half,

I am nothing." He finishes with an exaggerated and foul wink, a putrid liquid leaking out his bloodshot eye from too much smoke. A typically stupid riddle for me, which shouldn't annoy me but by God himself it does. He always gives me the more simplistic minded riddles, barely any trickery to them at all.

I ponder over it for moments before remembering the blacksmiths carving symbol: eight.

"You are the number eight, and quite so. On your side you will live for infinity, though cut in half you shall die quickly and are therefore nothing." I smile pleasantly. You could get the answer right and still not get in if he doesn't like you.

He doesn't tell me I'm right, or even look at me in confirmation. He merely steps aside to allow me through the appropriately yellow mist emanating from inside the very narrow tunnel. The space moved to fit the size of the person allowed in. An exit was elsewhere, this door was only for entering.

I hear the start of his next to the selkie male behind me, dripping still presumably from the multitude of baths that tunnel through to the ocean for better access.

"What is next in this sequence of numbers: 1, 11, 21, 1211..."

The selfie made a sound of frustration, they weren't typically known for their mathematical ability — which actually made it odd his was coming here today. Usually selkies would wait for an easier day, like a riddle on rivers or sunlight.