I uttered a string of curse words, and paced around the ro to figure out what to do . This sword couldn’t be the Edge of Nothing. That’s crazy. It’s too valuable. She’d give it to somebody important, like Captain Wen.

  I looked at it. Its bck c seemed to drink in the light from the window. The rubies refracted light in a way that darn near stunned me. I touched it. It felt cold, like mp-post in January cold.

  Well, I had to kher way. I grabbed its hilt. A thrill of power shivered up my arm. That was bad.

  I fished out my ste and looked at my iory. It said—

  ‘Edge of Nothing +5 Improved spellcasting focus. This sword is fed from hammered—’

  I dropped it on the bed.

  What was I going to do? I couldn’t go into bat with this thing. This was a clear sign of Sofia’s favor, and a clear on of the enemy. As powerful as it was, what would I be saying to Bere, to Rachel, to wield this thing in front of them?

  Would I be jeopardizing my retionship with Caleb?

  No, I couldn't use this. I couldn’t even look at it any longer. The more I learned about it the more I could be seduced into using it. I tossed a pillow over it. The hilt stuck out from — I tossed a sed pillow. Then a b.

  There came a knock at the door.

  I cursed.

  My feet scrambled to put me between whoever it was and this cursed thing.

  I opehe door just a crabsp; Braelyn stood outside, an eyebrow cocked in curiosity.

  “I was just w out,” I said.

  “Right. Of course. I am to escort you to the royal armory,” she said.

  “Right now?” I asked.

  “You think you refuse the king?”

  “No. But I o take care of something real quick.”

  “As long as it’s quibsp; I will take care of aask and be back to retrieve you. you be ready in ten minutes?”

  “Won’t evehat long,” I said.

  She screwed her face up to show her displeasure, then turned on a heel a.

  Great. Now she thought I was more of a weirdo than I already was.

  What do I do with this damn thing? Do I toss it into a moat?

  And what? Give a random peasant an evil sword?

  Should I bury it?

  What if I was given the choice to use that evil sword or someone I cared about got hurt? What if I really ? I’d be an idiot to bury it.

  So what do I do? Leave it here?

  Then I realized that I had the perfect solution.

  My on sympathy ability. I could stuff it in a pocket dimension and pull it out any time I needed. And if I never , nobody would ever know I had it.

  I spent the five minutes reading and re-reading the full ability tool-tip for on sympathy. I had to get this right.

  I thehe en minutes getting the magic ritual down. I had to touch the runes as they glowed at the right moment and in the right order, then touch the sword, then, just, a bunch of other really b stuff. My Mageknight css was an intelligence caster. My 13 intelligence meant I was allowed to take it, but that didn’t mean I was great at it.

  The sword winked away and I was finally rid of it. In the passphrase box on my ste I typed in the phrase “five me for what I must do.”

  Look, I get it’s a little melodramatic, but it’s also not something I’d ever say out loud actally.

  There came a kno the door. Cool. Great.

  I walked over, and ope.

  Braelyn was there again, with Bernie and Rachel. I smiled at them aered the hall.

  The elven woman walked fast, and Rachel and I struggled to keep up without jogging. Bere jogged.

  “Hey,” I said, slowing to walk o Bernie. “How is it going?”

  “Fine,” she said.

  “So, you want to go out sometime?” I asked.

  Beropped iracks. Rachel did too. Braelyn typed ie.

  “Do I want to go out?” she asked, eyebrows raised as high as they could go. “Go out where? When?”

  “Uh. Probably somewhere iy? Tomorrow?”

  I feel like I had messed up somewhere, and wasn’t sure how.

  “The grand opening of the King’s Opera House is in three days, there is absolutely going to be an assassination attempt, and I don’t even know on whom. I barely have time to eat. I ’t just ‘go out with you.’”

  “Oh.”

  “There’s a nice pce probably fifteen minutes from the castle,” Rachel offered.

  “I could procure the king’s carriage to and from it,” Braelyn offered. “Shave that down to five minutes. Frinel’s Tavern?” she directed to Rachel.

  “Yeah!” Rachel answered. “That’s the pbsp; Wonderful seafood.”

  “Oh it’s delightful,” Braelyn agreed.

  Bernie just looked from me to Rachel, then back again.

  “Oh, so I’m crazy f to make sure we aren’t all stabbed in our sleep.”

  “I’m not saying that,” I offered. “And you don’t have to.”

  I started walking again. This was a bad idea. I’d messed everything up.

  “No,” She grabbed my hand. “Just wait. Maybe I make this work.”

  I gave her what I hoped was a winning smile.

  “Ugh. What is that face?” She asked.

  “Anticipation?”

  “You really want to go out with me? Now? Why?”

  “Uh. I mean. Why not?”

  I looked to Rachel. She shook her head in disappoi. Braelyn had her head in the palm of her hand, rubbing the space between her eyes.

  I hadn’t thought this through.

  “I’ll think about it,” she said, and walked off.

  I sped after her.

  “Hey. I know I’m impulsive, and I don’t always do the right thing. And I be an idiot. But I really like you.”

  “Yeah, I said I’d think about it.”

  Rachel gave me the ‘cut it out’ motion by chopping across her throat. I felt like maybe I could salvage this.

  I took her hand.

  “I’m useless at these kinds of things. But I want to dht by you. And I think you could maybe enjoy it.”

  Bere’s brown eyes searched mine. Somehow she looked better than ever. Having good food, and a pce to sleep had done wonders for our health.

  “I think that a date would be nice,” she said. “But I really am trying to keep us all alive.”

  “What if I helped you find the spy?”

  “You help me find the spy, and I’m yours. For a date. I’ll go on a date with you.”

  “Great!” I said. “Let’s go get a new sword.”

  We walked down the hall.

  The first checkpoint was at the stairs up. These guards seemed freshly rotated, and took their job seriously. Braelyn showed them an official written order to visit the armory, and we were on our way.

  More stairs. I hated stairs. Why did they have to put the armory at the top of a tower?

  The sed checkpoint prised a set of guards that sat at a simple wooden table pying cards. Cal was there too, pying cards, but as he wasn’t one of the Prophesied Heroes, he must have just beeo be nosey. They all stood at attention as soon as we arrived.

  Seeing that simple table I was struck at how a lot of the furnishings at the castle seemed fairly new, and simple. Good craftsmanship of course, but free of the kind of fancy gold or silver embellishments I would expect of someoh vast wealth.

  I figured maybe that was just how Caleb was. Had he sold off the previous king’s furniture, and had cheaper ones made? Speaking of, the tapestries on the wall were only of Caleb, his deeds and his family.

  I put this information in my head away for now.

  After Braelyn showed the letter with the official seal of the king, the guards raised a rge steel and wood grate from the door with a massive iron key. Then they opehe sturdy oak door behind it with a small brass key.

  Inside was a rge semi-hemispherical room with thin arrow slits allowing light, and dark shapes all about. Braelyn waved her arm and the delier lit and light flooded the room, shining off ons and armor. Revealed were also may armor racks aals. Several of the ons here were clearly sized fiants. There were also chests along the back wall that had who knew what.

  My pulse quied. I felt somewhat like I felt when walking into a toy store at the mall, back when I was young enough to be excited about such things. My mom was alretty strict about our spending, but when I was with my dad I always left with something.

  Bernie and I both found ourselves in front of a short cavalry saber with blue jewels embedded in the hilt in the shape of a snowfke, that hung on a wooden pque reading ‘icetooth.’ I smiled at her. She couldn’t reach it, so I got it down and ha to her. She pulled out her ste to check the stats and I moved on.

  The on I found was a shortbow called ‘provoker.’ It had the head of a goose engraved oop and bottom of the limbs. I fished out my ste.

  Provoker +2. This shortbow was made for the daughter of the Elven King, and is deceptively strong, hitting for twice its draw weight. Additionally, arrows fired from this boreviously struck targets. Even around ers.

  Yeah, this seemed made for me, and my 10 dexterity. If I read it right, I’d only o hit ond subsequent arrows would keep hitting them. What a nasty on. I think I was in love.

  Wait, ‘daughter of the Elven King,’ was this the queen’s bow? I put it back.

  “Braelyn?”

  “Yes?”

  “How many ons are we allowed to take?”

  “You are allowed two items. They may be ons, armor, or anything else as long as it is two.”

  “Thanks.”

  I needed a sword too, so I wasn’t tempted to use the one I just got. Luckily, Rachel approached me with a sword in her hands.

  “Check this out,” she said, her ste. I took this opportunity to scope out her stats first.

  Oriana the level 9 Starbound Barbarian.

  HP 92, AC 17 (unarmored)

  STR 19 (+4)* DEX 16 (+3) 18 (+4)

  INT 10 (+0) WIS 12 (+1) CHA 9 (-1)

  Items: Belt of Ogre Strength (sets strength at 19)*, Gloves of the Pugilist (double damage from urikes and improvised ons), Neckce of Sed ce (grants Fighter’s sed ce feature)

  Abilities: Rage (twice per day, halves all damage received, increases own damage by 25%, grants a 50% boost to athletics skills), unarmored defense (grants a boost to defense equal to stitution aerity bonus, and increases movement speed by 50%), Against Destiny (rage uses per day may reset when attempting to thwart fate, uses e gained in this way are doubled in potency). Shimmering Movement (instantly appear anywhere within 120ft of you, once per use e).

  Skills: Athletics, Insight, Sleight of Hand, Social Drinking

  Shimmering movement seemed scary. Telep barbarians sounded like a nightmare to have to fight. Good thing she was on our side.

  The tooltip on the sword said:

  Fasator +2: this on was made for a bard that wasn’t quite as charming as he’d like to be. Improves spellcasting. Provides a free casting of the spells and and charm. When not i be shrunk to the size of a broach.

  “It’s det,” I said. “But despite the boost to my spellcasting score, I don’t really he spells. Bernie has charm and I have and. I was hoping to find something that improved my healing.”

  Rachel frowned and took her ste babsp; Braelyn piped up.

  “This may be more to your liking,” she said, direg me to a sword with a hilt shaped like angel wings. This one wasn’t hanging on the wall. It was istretched arm of a statue — a very atue of Caleb.

  I was hoping for a fig leaf, but there was no such sorship to be found.

  At the look on my face, Braelyn said, “yes, that seems to be most people’s reception to this statue. The queen had it made as an anniversary gift. The king thought it best he kept it here.”

  “How did they know what—” I couldn’t stop myself from asking.

  “The queen made extensive life-drawing sketches for the sculptor’s be.”

  “That ahat question,” I said. My mind was struck of things to say for the moment. Rachel piped up.

  “That’s kind of erotic,” she said. “There must be real passion iionship. I figured it olitical thing.”

  Braelyn’s lips quirked into a smile.

  “One doesn’t start a war with one’s own father for ‘politics.’ My sister, for all her faults, loves Caleb like no other.”

  “That’s nice,” I said.

  “Well,” Braelyn replied. “I sometimes wish things had gone differently.”

  “Caleb cool with you talking like that?”

  “He couldn’t stop me,” she said with a smile. “Aen prefers I speak my mind anyway.”

  She twirled a finger, and a spectral hached the winged sword. It floated to me, and I took it.

  Bronze wire ed around the handle, a solid in my hand. A k of marble threaded with gold made up the pommel. The crossguard was of the same material, but shaped to be like wings. A single pink ruby had bee oher side of the crossguard. The bde itself stretched less than three feet, a little short, but it shined with a curious bronze color.

  Were this thing actually made of marble and bro would be far too soft to be an effective on, so it must be packed with all kinds of magibsp; I swiped open my ste.

  Redeemer +3. Fed by a hero of ages past to avenge her fallen lover, this sword has seen dragons, and giants succumb to its razor sharp edge. What it cks in martial might, it makes up for in staggering utility. be used as an improved spellcasting focus. Grants a free use of the spells levitate, and bless. Further, while wielding this on, each use of a healing spell in the course of a single day is doubled in its potency from the use before it.

  ‘Doubled in potency,’ sounded amazing. I wondered if it was cumutive. It had to be, right? And it would boost my spellcasting, make spells like ‘sleep’ nd easier.

  “Where did he get this?” I asked.

  “A gift from Uchechi on acceptance of his io marry Mia.”

  “And I have it?”

  “Only on the dition that it be returo the vault o is not needed.”

  I took Redeemer, of course. It wasn’t as powerful as the one I’d hid, but robably more useful for my skill set all things sidered. I also took Provoker.

  Berook Fasator, and shoes that helped her run faster. Rachel found a bag that was rger on the inside — which was super helpful for the party overall — and magic bracers that increased her armor css.

  With our swanky new magic items in tow, we left the armory.