Closing Time

37.

The knife was pretty light. It's grip was falling apart. One nail from the wooden stock was missing, I could see some marks where it had probably once been secured to the end of a rifle. There was dirt at the base of the handle. I absently raised my hand to scrape it off with my nail. I was wrong. That's just more accrued rust.

"If this is such a strong weapon..." I mused to myself as I raised it. "Shouldn't there be some kind of smoke, or fog, or thunder and lightning?" My eyes went to my ceiling. "This is highly underwhelming."

"We feel the same." Mike replied dryly.

I dropped my gaze to glare at him. "You don't need to be mean. I don't know why I was selected."

"She's blessed." Lou replied blankly and shrugged with one shoulder. "Of sorts. The essence in her from the two of us has probably grown enough for the knife to recognize her as a worthy candidate."

"Wait, King Arthur was resurrected too?"

"No." Mike rubbed his face. "'The Lady Of The Lake' at that time was a rogue angel who had stolen the weapon. The only reason the human didn't burn down upon putting his eyes on them was because the angel's glory had been stripped. They transferred a substantial amount of their leftover essence to the human and then went into a deep sleep to recuperate." Mike paused and dropped his hand. "However, the angel was found and punished accordingly. But the weapon couldn't be taken back."

"But... I have both demon and angel essence."

"You might be the first." Lou took a long sip. "Another part of the story is that Arthur's enemy were imbued with demon essence to counter the angel's idiocy."

Mike's essence flared up. "But Arthur was stronger."

"Not against his own knights."

I frowned as I heard the real lore unfold behind the scenes of the myths I'd read. Demons and angels impact on history might be considerably more than I'd ever be able to assume. I tightened my grip on the knife as I raised it again. Once comfortable, I cut through the air to try it out.

I heard the stools clatter and looked away to see my two guests on their feet. Their tensed stances made it clear why they'd jumped up. So did Lou's angry words.

"Watch where you swing that thing, Ryleigh!" He snapped, his eyes roiled to break free. "It's dangerous!"

"T-the demon is right." Mike was a bit more battle-ready, hands raised and body crouched. "It's dangerous."

My eyes moved to the slivers of orange glow that were visible around their aura and I felt my lips turn down. "Right. I'll just..." I placed it on the counter and backed away from it. "... not touch it again."

"That's also not an option." Mike still didn't relax. "It's yours now. No on else can wield it."

"Yeah, well... there's a difference between 'no one else' and 'not want to'."

Lou gave me a dry look and relaxed his form slowly. "That's just stupid." He shook his head. "You need to calm down. That knife is yours, but it doesn't mean you have to wield it."

"Yeah, you'd be pretty happy if I didn't, right?"

"I'd be fucking ecstatic." He admitted as he eyed the bayonet again. But he didn't sitting back down. "Do you still want to head back to the bar?"

I scratched my head. There was nothing else to do. The reveal had been pretty underwhelming, and that was it for my nights excitement. "Yeah..." I sighed and waved at the counter. "Help my pack all these guns and the knife back up first."