I hurried out on the cobblestone street, dashing past coaches and catching a few dirty looks at the weapon on my back. Down a bright street of bustling shoppers lays a shop, above it’s door on a wooden sign is burned with the shape of a salamander, the Lithil family insignia.
Inside was the ever brilliant Steven Lithil, the city’s own genius and heir to his fathers renowned smithy. Loud bangs fill the shop coupled by the chatter of customers looking to procure some of the most innovative magic devices in the world.
Steven was engrossed in whatever project he was working on, he wore a headpiece with many lenses, while shoving a corkscrew shaped tool into a small round device.
I snuck up behind him, spreading my arms out wide before wrapping him in a bear hug and lifting him off the ground.
“Wha-!” Steven quickly turned around and saw my face. “You really have to stop greeting me like that, Ray.” He sighed.
“Not if you keep reacting like that I won’t!” I laugh.
I set Steven down and fell onto the bench next to him, leaning back on his workspace.
“So what brings you here?” Steven asked me.
“Am I not allowed to visit my best friend?” I ask.
Steven set down his tools, and took off the headpiece before turning to me. “You expect me to believe you just came down here to visit me?” He questions.
I shake my head, “No, I said I came to visit my best friend.”
Steven shoots back without hesitation, “You don’t have any friends, Ray.”
I put my hand on my heart, mouth hanging stupidly agape at him, “What put you in such a bad mood today?”
“This big oaf came into my workshop, picked me up and spun me around, interrupting my work.” He explains flatly. “Seriously though, what do you need?”
“My mom said I could become a Diver.” I say while rubbing my hands together.
Steven’s eyes widened, “Really?!”
“Well, as long as I beat Uncle Chris in a mock battle.” I add.
Steven slumps in his seat and sighs, “So you’re never becoming a Diver?”
“Where does this lack of faith come from, you’ve seen me work this sword.” I swung my sword in the air a few times to demonstrate, almost hitting a shopper.
I sat back down sheepishly. “Oh I’ve seen it alright.” Steven mocks. “Do you really think your swordplay is enough to beat one of the fastest and most skilled Divers alive?”
“Ex-Diver.” I corrected him.
Steven raises his hands in the air, “Ex-Diver or not, it's Christopher freaking Olbeck, even with age slowing him down the only person faster than him is him in his prime.”
“He has speed, I have magic.” I shrugged.
I had inherited my mothers massive supplies of magic, so much so that I’ve never been able to drain all my magic, even when I tried to. Of course I had little to no control over the magic, but having a lot of it still had plenty of advantages.
“All the magic on the continent won’t help you against something like this.” Steven said.
“Look at this.” I say, standing up and taking my greatsword off my back.
“Please don’t almost kill one of our customers again.” He pleads.
I scowl at him, and turn back to my sword. I hold the hilt with both hands, take a deep breath, and let the Slissite metal from which my sword is forged suck the magic out of me and fill the blade. The blade begins to shimmer brightly with the magical blue hue.
I look at Steven, a proud smile painting my face. “So you made a glorified lamp, that’s what you wanted to show me? You know the cities outside already have magic lights, Ray.”
I sat down with a huff next to Steven. “That’s not what I meant. I’ll show you, and beat that Old Man.” I declared.
“Oh, please. I look forward to it.” He smiled. “And when you do, I may have a surprise for you.” He tapped his spiraled tool on his desk.
“What is it?” I asked.
He rolled his eyes at me. “A surprise.”
I spent the rest of the day talking to Steven about everything yet somehow also nothing at all. I would’ve spent my whole life alone if not for Steven, my dreams to become a Diver caused me to be ostracized from the close-minded youth of the city, and it didn’t help that I’d been rude and dismissive with anyone I didn’t immediately get along with.
There was a time where I was like that with Steven too. I’d avoid him, bully him, make fun of him, and for some reason Steven would show up at my door with bright shimmering eyes at least once every week, holding a new gadget he’d invented eager to show it to me. That gadget would more often than not explode in both of our faces, but on the rare occasion it didn’t, the triumph and excitement Steven exuded would spill out of him with such force and radiance that I couldn’t help but feel a little excited too.
Like that, little by little, day by day, and explosion after explosion, we grew close. I’d find every little excuse to drop by the smithy and see him, and would sprint to the door anytime someone knocked in hopes it was Steven.
When the sun was low in the evening sky and the smithy was finally closing up, Steven was cleaning up his mess on his workspace while I inspected my sword thoroughly. When I decided I was satisfied, I stood up and headed towards the door.
“I’ll see you, Steven.” I waved to him.
“Hold on,” He stops me, grabbing something from his bench. He holds up a circular and shiny gadget, the same one he’d been working on before. Placing it in my hand, he looks up to me, “I know I made fun of you earlier, but I really hope you beat that Old Man.” He shakes his head, “I know you’ll beat him, and when you do, this should help out on your journeys.”
I take the gadget, and push it in my pocket. “Thanks, Steven. What is it?” I ask.
“A compass that will point you to where any nearby corruption is, should be pretty useful out there.” He said proudly.
“Should I expect to see these in every Diver's hands pretty soon?” I laugh, Steven had a habit of casually making life changing discoveries with magic technology. His ideas had led in great part to the creation of the magic lights I’m told are in the bigger cities outside.
“Maybe.” He boasts, “Maybe.”
I nod at him appreciatively, “I’ll whoop Uncle Chris in your name.” I told him.
“Good luck, Ray.” He slaps me on the back, as he walks me to the smithy’s door.
I made my way home, and when I arrived, my mother and father were talking, so I just waved at them briefly and went to my room to rest. The earlier I woke up the earlier my training could start.
“He’ll never beat Chris, even I have to be wary of him in a fight.” My mother’s voice leaks through the thin walls.
“I wouldn’t sell him short, he’s our boy after all.” My father laughed, “The Remorys have been known to prevail when chance would say otherwise.”
“What you mean to say is we’ve had too many lucky breaks.” My mother sighs.
“There’s no such thing as luck, there’s just what you do with the hand life deals you.” My dad chided.
“There you go again with your nonsense.”
“It’s not nonsense, but the culmination of all my experiences, and if there’s anything that those experiences tell me, it’s that Ray is going to do great things.”
“At the very least, I can agree with you on that point.” My mother laughed.
I smile, laying in my bed as sleep slowly infiltrates my mind, tugging at my eyelids tenderly in preparation for the start of a many year journey.
The next day came quickly. My sleep had felt like I’d closed my eyes and opened them up to a new day, and I promptly threw on some light armor and swung my greatsword onto my back.
The morning was early enough that my mother hadn’t begun her magic training, but not so early that Uncle Chris wouldn’t be waiting for me at our training grounds. I slipped out the door quietly, no need to tell my parents, there’d be no mistake where I’d gone.
The streets were quiet and empty without my mother’s explosions to rile the city to life. I ran with overflowing anticipation to Uncle Chris’ home, and there, in an open spot of dirt in front of his house, stood the aging Old Man, his grey-ing hair reflecting the morning light ever so slightly.
He leaned forward on a thin blade, with a red mask over his mouth covering his short beard, the mask had prominent sets of tusks facing up and down, giving him the look of some sort of bipedal boar.
“I haven’t worn this since my Diver days,” Uncle Chris’ words yearned for a bygone day, “I figured I may as well get in the spirit of things!” He jumped and did several flips in the air, spinning too fast for me to count how many, and landed in a crouch, kicking the blade of his sword, sending it flying into the air, before he stood and caught it expertly by the hilt, holding it towards me. “Ready, Laddie?” I can almost see the smile through his mask.
I take my sword off my back, and hold it up towards him, “Ready.” I nod.
Uncle Chris stands with his feet together, perfectly straight. One hand is behind his back and the other holds his sword at me. He sits waiting for me to take the initiative.
I hold my greatsword close to my side, and run low at him. Uncle Chris observes, unmoving as I rapidly close the distance between us. Unease grows in my chest with every step I take, Uncle Chris waits as I approach like a statue. Finally I reach him, I bring my sword around in a wide arc, and just as it seems my blade is about to split my opponent in two, he disappears as if he was simply a mirage before.
I spin around quickly, stumbling slightly as the weight of my sword throws me off balance. Something thumps me on the back of the neck, and I fall over, the ground approaching me as fast as I feel my consciousness slip away from me.
“You’re going to kill my boy before he even gets a chance to step outside of Halsry!”
“I didn’t mean to hit him that hard! It’s been so long since I’ve last fought.”
Groaning, I rolled slightly. My neck aches and my vision is blurry. I try to turn over and sit up, but fall off the bed I’d been laying on. I sat up quickly and looked around, my senses slowly returning.
Steven kneeled next to me, “You okay?” he asked.
I rubbed my neck, “I guess so, what happened?” Looking around the room, I saw Steven, Uncle Chris, and my mother all standing by the bed I’d fallen off of.
“May have hit you a little too hard, sorry, Laddie.” Uncle Chris apologized.
“You’d think he’d know how to restrain himself at the very least.” My mother sighed.
“I can’t help it! I was excited to finally fight someone again.” He complains. “It’s going to be a long road if you go down that easy though, Laddie.”
“I told you it wouldn’t be easy.” Steven shakes his head.
“No kidding, he just disappeared out of thin air.” I frown.
Uncle Chris laughed, “If we train like that for a while you might be able to see me moving, ‘till then there’s no hope of defeating me.”
“How am I ever supposed to hit you if you move like that? How does anyone do it?” I ask in disbelief.
“Oh there are ways, Laddie. I may have been strong, but far from the strongest, and even further from invincible.” He wags his finger at me, “And if you can’t figure it out, you never deserved to be a Diver in the first place.”
My mother bends down next to me, holding her hands over my neck, “You’ll figure it out eventually, Ray.” She assures me. Her hands begin to glow a dim blue and I can feel the pain in my neck ease.
My mother wasn’t doing much more than just throwing magic at me, magic had natural healing properties, giving the mages the ability to speed up the healing process slightly. The more magic you had the faster you’d heal naturally too, one of the many benefits of my huge magic pools. Still though, her help didn’t go unappreciated.
“The way you are now, you’re far from becoming a Diver, Laddie.” Uncle Chris said, “It’s no simple task defeating me, it may even take you several years. Do you still think you can do it?”
I look down at my hands, Uncle Chris was strong, and unimaginably fast, and I’ve been tasked with beating him. The task seemed futile, but he was an Old Man, growing weaker by the day, and I was a young boy, who became ever stronger after each battle. It would only be a matter of time until I’d claim victory, I thought.
I push myself to my feet, and stare Uncle Chris in the eye. “I can do it.”
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