Stygian Sword Page 2

the same attire were leaving. The hooded one smiled underneath his hood and the girl winked. Loch was confused. "What..." and then the handle twisted off. The handle turned out to be hollow. In it was a note.

  Heroes,

  Here. Go to the wizard. Do not engage him. I'll notify him of you and he Will gladly give you the princess. He likes the king and he is only angering him to reveal who the seven heroes of old are. This wizard is my cousin, and poses little threat to you. I shall encounter you later on your quest.

  DO NOT ENGAGE.

  Godspeed.

  - Other heroes, Lucia and Xavier.

  "Okay. That happened. So. These two heroes Lucia and Xavier want us to talk to this wizard, and he Will just hand over the princess?" Loch's eyes sparkled at the mentioning of Xavier and Lucia. "Ah Lucia, my love." Loch reminessed. "One lady I shall never forget." Ivan just looked shocked. "Umm. Those two are famous assassins. You knew that?" Heather looked stunned after hearing that. "So they could have killed us at any time?" Ivan nodded. A silence hung over our group. Ivan ordered some alcohol, or at least, tried to. Heather yelled at him and punched him in the head. We packed our belongings and with Loch by my side, we left. Ivan walked with a determined air about him. In fact, we all did! Ivan piped "Next town is Reza? Right?" And Heather replied "Yes. Now stop asking stupid questions and move it!" Leaving them to argue I fell behind to talk to Loch. "Something on your mind Loch?" He stared out into space. "Yeah. To think, in the two years I was away to visit my family, Lucia and my favorite brother-in-arms are engaged." I had nothing left to say. Ivan came back and talked to us. "Hey, there's a spooky forest up ahead. Just to let you know." We walked into the forest. A murky fog almost blinded us. We all drew our weapons and pushed forwards. A lady came from the fog. Coming in at 6'4", she was tall! But she was thin. She wore a white, ankle length dress. Her shoulder length brown hair covered one eye. "Please. Help me! Some ruffians want my weapon!" She pleaded. Loch looked at me and stepped back, his face pale and he pointed his sword at her. Heather pushed Loch out of the way. "Of course. Who are you? Where is your weapon?" She replied "my name is Helen. I am fourteen years old. My sword is at my belt, but I have magical shoes, given to me by the mage Mattais. They are capable of creating minor tremors with each stomp." Heather looked satisfied. We waited at the entrance of the forest. An axe-wielding barbarian came out of the woods. Helen jumped up, and landed right in front of him. the earth shook, and the barbarian fell. Ivan ran up, and stabbed his chest. Four more came out of the woods. Loch parried a blow, then swung his sword in a circle, cutting his enemy so cleanly in half that it made a whistling sound. Ivan laughed as he fought. "That was clean as a whistle Loch!" As he ducked under an axe to come up with a knife uppercut. Heather cut through the guy's skull. My attacker decided to swing overhead. I dodged and cut at his feet. Then they started hording around us. Twenty four I counted. We were back-to-back, Helen with her sword out. Then two hooded figures emerged from the forest. One lashing out with what seemed to be diamond knives? The other's seemed to be made of lapis. They quickly cut through the barbarians. They took off their hoods. Standing at 6'2" Xavier had red eyes and short spikey black hair. He had a white outfit on, peaked hood, white cloak and shoulder pads. Pretty much assassin clothes. And to top it off he had a devilish smile on his face, and playing with the blood on his knife. Lucia stood at 6'1" with blue-black long hair, black eyes and in identical clothing to Xavier, except in black. She had hands on her hips and a frown on her face. "Took us long enough to find you!" We all grouped together and set off through the woods. But I noticed a change in Helen. She had curly blond hair now, and was smiling and skipping. Weird. Xavier was cleaning a pair knives as we walked, and I noticed they were black. Odd color for knives, I'd say. Lucia was full out marching unlike Loch, beside her, who looked like he was trudging. We stopped after Sun down and set up camp. While we were chowing down on bear meat Xavier brought out a bag. It was leather and had several pockets. Xavier dumped it on the ground saying: "anyone want a drink? Water? Milk?" Loch said; "Water." Xavier extracted a large glass jar from the bag filled with water. He then extracted several cups. "Magic bag." He smirked. "Holds anything, size not being a limiting factor." Then he pulled out lots of stuff from the front pocket. Forty one knives, twelve swords, four bows, seven axes and two lances. Three sets of knives caught my attention. One being jet-black. "Hey, Xavier" Heather asked. "What are those black swords made of?" Xavier went pale. "Stygian Iron." Ivan laughed. Xavier seemed unnerved. Lucia was terrified. "Created by fusing obsidian and iron. For killing..." his voice trailed off. "And the gold pair?" I questioned. By this time he was white as a sheet. Lucia looked majorly concerned. "Imperial Gold. Mined off the great mountain of pompetii. Again for killing..." he again, went silent. Ivan finished off. "And the bronze ones?" Xavier couldn't even answer. Lucia was able to manage "Celestial Bronze." He threw those three pairs back into the bag. Every one went back to their meals. He opened a side pocket. He took out handfuls of arrows and examined them. He came across seven more black arrows. Stuffing those back into the bag, he turned to the weapons. Picking up a silver bow and an amber arrow he aimed and fired a shot into the woods. Pulling on a line he retrieved his arrow with a rabbit on one end. Helen was stomping in the woods scaring off the local wildlife, Heather and Lucia were sparring, Ivan was lounging in a tree, and Loch was carving a tree with his massive sword and I saw Xavier fiddling with something on his forearm. Hmm. What could that be? It turns out it was a stygian bracelet. He moved away from camp, and I followed. Putting his hand out, palm up, he conjured a glowing green "star". He moved forwards a but more then stopped. He put both arms out in front of him, palms down, and closed his eyes. His face contorted as if in pain, and then his hands glowed white. Then he opened his eyes, which glowed gold. Finally something sprouted from the ground. A rusty bronze helmet. That was soon followed by a full suit of bronze armor. I was so shocked I fell over. He turned towards me, face showing surprise. Using his magical powers he moved me towards him. "Hey Hector." He said. "The others are waiting." We returned to camp. "Hey everyone. I have some stuff here." Xavier exclaimed and everyone crowded around him. "I found some bronze armor over there. Anyone want to try it on?" I stepped forwards and donned the armor. Good fit. Xavier got out his bag and started to pull various armor bits out of it. We all dressed before sundown. I kept my bronze armor, but Heather was dressed in full iron plating, minus the helmet. One arm had a massive shield the full length of her arm, build into the plating, and was the size of two of her legs. Ivan was dressed in a black tunic and black leather pants, with four knife holders, one on each thigh, one on his chest, and one on his ankle. Loch kept his blue vest and orange robe, but got a new golden sheath for his sword. Helen picked out a black button up shirt and brown pants. All dressed up, we entered the capital. Immediately, we saw a crowd of mercenaries on each street. "The solstice is tomorrow" said a brunette Helen. Why does she always change. We entered an inn, only to find it packed with soldiers. We rented the last three rooms, each with two beds. One for Helen and Heather, one for Loch, me, and Ivan, and the last for Xavier and Lucia. We each dumped our stuff in our rooms, on our bed. Loch frowned when he saw Ivan occupying a bed. He pushed his sack off onto the floor. "He deserves the ground. Putting his pack on the bed he chuckled to himself as he left the room. I walked through a crowd of heroes to find my party seated at a table. Great. I was just in time for coffee. I grabbed a seat and we took turns putting sugar into our coffee. Xavier dumped half the bowl into his cup. Ivan, Heather and I stared at him, appalled by this. Anyways, we sat down, and Heather started the conversation. "So. Xavier. You and Lucia are married, and yet you sleep in different beds." She stated. Loch froze. Lucia looked scared "No! Loch! Its not like that!" Xavier looked with total and sincere loathing upon Lucia. "Definitely not. I refuse to marry. I don't like any responsibilities except for the target. Which, Heather has now claimed that spot." Heather tried to look brave but was scared. "What Will you kill me
with? Your devious smile?" Xavier slashed his knife, cutting a single hair off Heather's eyebrow. Picking it up he said "the smile is only a guise. I sharpen my knives once a day Heather. Ivan could cut through that breastplate with a light jab using this knife." And Xavier strolled out of the inn. I followed suit. "Xavier!" I called. He pivoted and faced me. The look of anger subsided. He sighed and began to talk. "I suppose you want to know about the helmet? Don't you?" I nodded. Xavier continued. "That was a form of magic. But it is more than just yelling incantations. This kind requires mental focus. You need... psychic abilities." I was confused. "So you can tell the future?" He became frustrated. "Why does everyone... yes. I can. But this is different. You can use this to summon fire, or freeze your enemies into a block of ice." I began to comprehend. "So. This is magic, that uses your mind instead of words?" Xavier beamed. "Yes. Exactly! But one more thing. Please do not mention this to the others. Lucia already knows, but really, it would