A Sword For Gold

Chapter 9 - The Third

"I will only ask you once. Do the nine of you work for The Rising?"

Velenya's interrogation was as firm as ever. She had tied up all nine of them together with a single rope, and simply waited for any one of them to wake up after having been rendered unconscious by Velenya herself for a rather long time. The nine brown-robed men stood no chance against the fearsome Velenya Martel, who only needed ten seconds to take all nine of them down, knocking them out one by one. Now, all she had to do was be ready for the first one to wake up, and hit him with her interrogatory question right away, just so that he would not have much time to think or stall for some untruthful answers that would misdirect her at the very least.

"Alright, alright," relented the first man surprisingly, "I'll talk."

Velenya smirked with a slight chuckle that she had to stifle back, considering the fact that she had expected to put in more effort in order to break him into submitting the information she desired.

"Then, I'll listen," she replied, prompting him to speak as she lent him his ears willingly, ready to listen to and process every detail that he had to say.

"We're not from The Rising," he spoke, "We work for The Rising."

Velenya immediately raised an eyebrow at that. Of course, it explained the fact that the nine of them had attempted to lift the Star Sword with little to no effort of being inconspicuous; they tried to do it in broad daylight for them to see. However, she did not want to believe that just yet. Velenya needed more answers, so she was definitely going to do her best in getting every vital piece of information out of the man who was willing to speak about his connections to The Rising.

"And your job was to find the Star Sword?" asked Velenya, "Why nine of you?"

"No," corrected the man, still quite dazed as his speech slurred in between words, "I... We... We were tasked... to confirm if this was indeed the Star Sword."

Velenya squinted at him as his story and explanation became less believable. Rather, she was confused with the details he had been giving her.

"This is common knowledge," Velenya told him, "There's no way they would not believe that the Star Sword that has been residing on that rock for years is a fake. Here, let me show you just how impossible that is."

Then, Velenya proceeded to walk towards the stone that the Star Sword had pierced, getting ready to show him that it was definitely the real one.

"If I can't lift this," she said, "It's the real Star Sword."

Then, she began to firmly grasp the hilt of the sword that stuck out of rock that it had pierced many centuries ago, but much to her surprise, she was able to lift the sword out of the rock with little to no effort. Ralys, Maraxus, Cora, and Baros, who were standing by a few meters away immediately dropped their jaws in surprise, and as did Velenya, who could not believe what she had just done, having pulled the sword out of the rock with almost no resistance.

"Wha— Velenya!" yelled Maraxus in disbelief, "You—?!"

"Don't jump to conclusions, Maraxus," said Velenya, as her right hand, the hand that held the 'Star Sword,' began to rage with powerful flames, and within seconds, the sword immediately shattered into shards and pieces, falling all over the grass, while Velenya simply threw the hilt off to the side.

"If I were to attempt to shatter the Star Sword, I would die spending all my energy on such a ridiculous attempt," stated Velenya.

"So, it's a fake," the man inferred, "Even I did not believe my ears when Alyria Desolas told me that the Star Sword here in Starfall Hill was a fake, and that the real one was taken away."