Crusade

Chapter 5: Old friends

Upon leaving the council chambers Lazarus and Mathew went back to the palace to guide the clean-up, whilst Xersera and Valkyrie took a trip to the forge to see to her armour. After they walked for a while they came to the markets district which was bustling with hundreds of people at this time of day, the stalls sold everything from food to weapons, there were enough people that they could get through without being hassled to buy something. However Valkyrie noticed that one of the stalls had a rather large crowd around it, even Xersera was intrigued. They attempted to get closer and noticed why, the merchant sold the finest jewellery and crafted glass Xersera had ever seen, the detail on the designs was impeccable. Valkyrie stared at them puzzled, she picked one up to take a closer look, it was as if she had seen it before.
“Please do not pick it up unless you’re going to buy it, I can’t afford for these to be broken.” Came a voice, Valkyrie looked up to see the merchant, a young lady. She was placing down what she had just finished making, it was a ring identical to the one Valkyrie had gotten from the soldier. Her father.
“My apologies ma’am, we will put it pack immediately. Wont we Valkyrie.” Xersera said looking at her.
“Annevelyn.” Valkyrie said without putting the piece down.
The young lady froze, she wasn’t sure what to do. She looked to the left and right quickly before whispering over the shelves “Can you come back later so we can talk? I finish the same time as most.”
“Of course, we will see you back here later.”
Valkyrie put the piece down and they left for the forges, leaving Annevelyn to ponder whether or not she should stay and wait for them, or pack up and run away.

After a couple of minutes the air became thick with the smell of coals and hot metal, they were crossing into the smithing district. There were furnaces set up under shelters all the way up the street with various merchants advertising their wares. But they walked right past all of them, straight to what seemed to be a small house right at the edge of the district. Xersera strode to the door and knocked, hard. “Ok, now I severely advise you against staring, he hates that.”
She was going to ask why but then she saw, as a stout muscular man with long red braided beard and hair answered the door, he was just over half Xersera’s height.
“What’d you want? I’m busy.” The man asked, squinting as his eyes adjusted to the daylight.
“So busy you don’t have time for a friend?”
“Xersera?” He covered over his eyes in an attempt to make out the faces of the silhouettes in front of him.
“Do you know anyone else this good looking?” Xersera laughed.
“HAHA! Good to see you again friend! How are we going to the north?”
“Well, we have just captured Teschi castle which 12th company have been clinging on to, the siege lasted weeks.”
“Sounds like fun, wish I could join you up there.”
“That might be arranged.”
“You really think so?”
“ I just need to make sure you can still fight.” Xersera chuckled.
“Oh, don’t worry, spending my days working in a forge hasn’t dulled my wits.” The man said, shaking a fist out in front of him. “And do I see your good looks have finally caught someone’s eye?” He turned to Valkyrie.
Xersera went bright red in the face and quickly blurted out “She’s my adviser.”
“Of course she is.” He said with a wry grin, “My name is Bennet, and you are?”
“Valkyrie. Now I was wondering if we could ask something of you?”
“Straight to the point,” he raised his eyebrows, “Very well. Step inside.”
“Thank you.”
As they walked in Bennet nudged Xersera in the side with his elbow and winked. Xersera pretended nothing had happened. As they walked in Valkyrie noticed that the dimly lit house had barely any windows, and the ones it did have were shut up. The entire house was incredibly warm and as she walked past a room with a soft glow she figured out why.
“Your forge is indoors?”
“Tis indeed. Can’t have people knowing my methods now can we? Otherwise I wouldn’t be the best smith in the Empire.” Bennet grinned through his thick beard.
“Ah, smart idea.”
“Here we are.” He gestured to the furthest room in the corridor and they all filed in to sit around a fairly large round dining table. “So my friend, what can I do for you?”
“We need something fixed.” Xersera said, gesturing for Valkyrie to grab the arm-piece.
She took it out and handed it across the table to Bennet.
“Interesting…” He muttered, examining the piece closely. He seemed to peer at it closer for a moment before placing it down on the table, pulling a hammer from his belt and raising it high above his head.
“What’re you doing?!” Valkyrie exclaimed, half rising.  
With no small amount of force Bennet brought the hammer down square on the arm-piece.
Nothing happened, barely a scratch.
“Interesting…” Bennet muttered putting the hammer down and stroking his beard. Valkyrie relaxed and sat back in her chair. “This is silver correct?”
“I think so. My father never told me.” She lied, surely she couldn’t tell him what it was really made of, and Xersera hadn’t told her if they could trust him completely.
Bennet got up and from a drawer grabbed something wrapped in a cloth, he unravelled it to reveal a small piece of smooth silver half made into a pendant, he produced a magnifier from his belt and examined the silver closely, then did the same to the arm-piece. “You know I can’t fix it if you don’t tell me what it’s really made of.”
“But I did.”
“I’m not stupid. Any silver no matter how well forged would have crumbled under the force of that hammer, and taking a closer look, this is a lot more well refined than silver can be, silver is too soft to refine so well. So what is it?”
Valkyrie looked at Xersera with a look as if to say ‘can we trust him?’ he nodded, “mythril.” She said.
“Ah, that makes sense.” He acted as if it was no surprise.
“I thought humans couldn’t make mythril.”
“Most cannot without the help of a mage, my father was one of the few who could, and he taught me all about it. And this,” He pointed to the gaping hole in the metal “Should not be possible. Unless you were fighting against someone with dragon bone.”
“Dragon bone?” Xersera asked.
“Best material to make weapons and armour out of, never dulls.”
“You certainly know a lot about these things.” Valkyrie said, almost with a hint of admiration.
“I have only heard about such things though, never did I believe I would be able to hold such materials. My father would tell me stories about mythical alloys and creatures before I left the moun-” he stopped himself quickly, “before I left home.”
Xersera seemed not to notice, but Valkyrie caught the slip and made a mental note.
“I will have to study the piece a bit further…” Bennet explained, then something caught his eye on the scrunched up piece of metal on the edge of the hole, he was about to pull at it when they heard the front door slam oped and footsteps storming down the hall.
As though he knew what was going on Bennet calmly gestured for them to stay seated. Pius appeared at the doorway. Valkyrie stifled a laugh as she noticed he was covered in bruises and scratches.
“Get a little beat up there friend?” Xersera mocked.
“Shut it!” Pius roared in a fury, “You told me my sword would be repaired two days ago!”
“It was, it is over there. You were supposed to come and retrieve it.” Bennet replied calmly, still with his back to the threshold.
“I do not have to bow to your whims half man!” he spat.
Xersera practically heard Bennet’s jaw clench at the words. There was a sharp click from under the table.
The man who accompanied Pius came back into the room bearing his repaired sword, Pius unsheathed it and examined the blade.
“Perhaps this will teach you a lesson.” He said quietly, and he raised his sword up.
With split second timing Bennet spun off the chair he sat on, as Pius’ sword imbedded itself in the wood he pulled something from under the table and swung it with force into Pius’ chest, flinging him to the ground, there was a loud crackling sound as Pius’ ribs broke in several places.
“Perhaps that will teach YOU a lesson you arrogant little shit” Bennet growled, without raising his voice.
Pius’ bodyguard scrambled to drag him out of the house so quickly he left without picking up the sword or the armour.
“Something tells me we won’t be seeing those two again anytime soon.” Bennet grinned picking up Pius’ sword, “He didn’t deserve this fine a blade…” He looked forlornly at the blade for a moment before placing it on a bench and sitting back down placing his weapon by his side.
As Valkyrie saw what it was she marvelled at how he could even pick it up. It was a large two handed axe that had a heavy hammerhead on the opposite side to the blade. She glanced over at the sword Pius had left and noticed why Bennet was upset, it was an elegant scimitar with an elaborate gilded design and hand guard, and it looked too fine to be owned by any regular soldier. So why did Pius have it if he was just a sergeant? She shook the thought from her head as Xersera spoke.
“Good hit!”
“Thank you, now let’s get back to business. I’m going to be quite frank with you this will take no small amount of time to mend, in the meantime I will have to give you a lesser replacement.” Bennet left the room and walked into the forge.
“So who exactly was that?” Valkyrie asked.
“That, was sergeant Pius. He was ranked into the line of command by Targaroth. A very poor decision even for him.”
“Why did everyone hate this old general so much?”
“Because he was a warmonger and he had enough power under his belt to overthrow the Emperor. He was a loose cannon.”  Bennet said gruffly, walking into the room with a steel upper arm plate.
“Loyalty or fear?” Valkyrie asked.
“Well that’s just the thing isn’t it, no one got close enough to find out.” Bennet sighed, “anyway, I’ve held you up long enough, you should get going, I have work I need to get done.” He handed her the steel arm plate, “This will have to do for now.”
“Thank you,” she said. And with that the two said their goodbyes and made their way back to the marketplace.

By the time they had reached the stall the sun hung low in the sky, all the other stalls were closed and Annevelyn was all packed up.
“Hello?” Valkyrie said,
Annevelyn got up from where she sat behind a curtain and came to greet them.
“How do you know my name?” she asked, what Xersera and Valkyrie couldn’t see was she had a dagger on the back of her belt, and was ready to draw it at a moment’s notice.
“I knew your father briefly.”
“Is he here?” She said looking around. Her hand came right off the daggers hilt.
“Unfortunately not.” Valkyrie said, producing the ring from her bag.
Annevelyn took it and sat with a slump in her chair, a sudden air of sadness came over her, “What happened?” She asked, looking up at Valkyrie.
She explained everything that happened at the end of the war, how the demons had overrun the capital, how Lucifer himself got involved, the Archangels death, and that of her father…