Death of a promisor, new sight for the damned (Click to Show)
The blacksmith girl sat down on her wooden chair, it creaked under her weight but held itself together nonetheless fine. Though, it was not in fine condition, since she hasn’t replaced it in five years. The bright lights illuminating her one large room, showing her cooled down forge and a general mess of tools on the floor and elsewhere. Perhaps now with the gold she had she could finally replace, maybe even get a sofa, maybe even completely remake her market stand and her home too while she was at it. After her sword was shattered and she was given the massive metal helmet and bag of gold coins, she ran all the way home to her smithy to get work on it, quickly having packed up everything she had on her stand and ran with the energy of a giddy child. The feeling had been so exhilarating but scary at the same time, as if she had just jumped down a cliff into water! Without the being wet part of course. But as she remembered what happened exactly, a chill shot down her spine like a knife cutting her skin. The giant armored creature. He spoke like a dark-voiced man, but he had eyes of blue flame piercing through his large metal helmet. And then, after shattering her sword without bleeding onto the pavement, he took of his helmet and slammed it onto her stand. Her stand was creaky at best and it still standing was a miracle, not that she noticed it at the time since he was keeping her attention.
His face was nothing but a dried husk of a human head, the skin pulling onto his skin and turning a putrid green with his bones poking prominently through his skin, stretching out it further. His teeth showing, uncovered by lips and only gums holding onto the teeth left, the teeth’s disgusting brown color was horrifying to her. She was surprised she didn’t feel like retching or even feeling very disgusted at the time, but the shock of him breaking her sword was still stuck in her mind. She spent days on that sword, refining every sharp bit and hammering in the whole shape with the best precision she could muster in the dark hours of her days. Being a student didn’t exactly give her a lot to practice being a blacksmith.
Thinking back, she still had no idea who the person was in the first place. After asking around, she found out that he seemed to be one of those gladiators, specifically called “Light”. Other than that, nothing was really know about him, besides that he walks around in a massive suit of armor, so it’s hard to miss him
KNOCK KNOCK
The blacksmith girl shot up from her seat as if she had sat down on a sharp pin, her heart nearly skipping a beat in pure surprise. Nobody ever came on Sundays, especially not at six pm! She quickly threw off her dark blue apron onto her desk, much of the dark blue hidden under dust and dirt, as she wiped her forehead with her arm, leaving a large black spot on her right arm. She quickly opened the door with a smile on her face.
“Hello there! Welcome to Jena’s blacksmith shop. Here you will find a variety of smithable objects like swords, shields, armor, and muc-”
She quickly froze in surpise and fear as she saw the person standing outside. It was a huge person adorned in a dark red robe that covered it’s entire body, cloth drifting in the wind slowly. She could see its eyes, which glowed like blue flames, the light piercing through the layer of cloth that covered his face
“Greetings blacksmith, I have come for my sword. I expect you have kept your promise.”
He spoke with a dark voice, indescribably terrifying. His eyes seem to cut through her entire body and stare at her as if all she was a soul and heart. Jena felt truly scared, her right leg shook a bit but she quickly grabbed it with her hand. She quickly put on a forced smile, but she kept twitching in fear while she turned around.
“Yes, I have it right in here.”
Suddenly, before she could take one step to get the sword, she felt something cold and soft touch her shoulder. She froze up. But he spoke in such a warm voice, like a father talking to his child.
“You can calm yourself, Jena the smith. I am not here to scare you, and I apologize for my appearance being as such.”
“Oh don’t worry, mister, it’s fine.”
She laughed nervously as she kept walking forward aimed at the massive storage of metal objects in the corner. Quickly sheathing her hands with the dirty white gloves she had right besides the pile, she began her search in the pile, avoiding the sharp ends of the metal objects that she had simply thrown into here.
“So is this your shop, smith?”
“Yes it is, it’s not much to look at but its got heart!”
She kept going through all of the pile, making very loud noises in the process. The sword had to be somewhere in here! If it wasn’t here, where could it then be? She couldn’t remember where else she could have possible put it. Suddenly, she heard the sound of metal falling down from across the room and quickly turned her head to face it. The tall man was just standing there close by a wall, a helmet in front of him on the ground. He stretched down and lifted it from the ground, as she quickly rose from the pile of swords, shields and armor pieces. Quickly running up to him, she seemed confused to see that he was seemingly mystified by the helmet. He turned his head to her, and faced the helmet towards her while doing so. The helmet was extremely polished and all the edges were sharpened, the whole piece being a pitch black color. It had a long handle down the front for grabbing, the rest turning into the shape of a hill for the head. The whole thing was covered in blunted spikes, while the handle had one hole on either side for a purpose that not even Jena knew about. On the forehead of a helmet was a alien sign that looked like some sort of strange skull with tusks.
“What is this helmet, and what does the sign mean?”
Gently lifting the helmet from the giant’s robed hands, she sighed and brushed some of her hair off her face.
“This helmet is an heirloom in my family, it’s been passed down for generations, and thus has been passed down to me. My father gave it to me on his deathbed, telling me to give this to whatever child I have. Great passing off gift. Supposedly the helmet itself came from an ancient race that once lived in this area, their name lost in the ages but still remembered as massive warriors clad in steel and armed with their mauls and their strong tusks adorned with war scars.”
Lifting up the helmet and placing it back up on the cupboard, she looked at the robed man with a strangely calm demeanor as she slowly remembered her youth.
“I have no idea what the logo is of though, might be of the warriors I just mentioned. Of course, if I’m honest, I’m not even sure they exist. They could just be some legend some people a long time ago made up. I’m not sure. But I can at least say that this is about as old as my great great great great great and so on and so forth grandparent.”
The robed man stared back with a warm curiosity, though she wasn’t thinking that because of the flames of course.
“So blacksmithing has been passed down in your family? Interesting. Smithing is an honorable trade that few here seem to continue anymore.”
“Unfortunately so, since blacksmithing is the only way I can earn enough money to stay in university. I’m barely able to sustain myself.”
“Then why do you continue? You seem unhappy with being so restricted to on thing in your life.”
Jena’s eyes flared up
“Because it’s not about what I think, I have a duty to my family! There are less and less blacksmith families every year as more and more people abandon this art. I refuse to be one of them! My mother and father raised me to be a blacksmith and I owe them everything I have!”
She took a deep breath after having spoken so much so quickly, sweat trickling down her forehead. She looked up to the robed man in silence, awaiting an answer. Then he started to laugh, and spoke in a warm voice.
“I see few people nowadays that have such determination and fire in such small body’s, I thought such things had been left behind in those ages long forgotten as you mentioned. Any who want to continue their trade no matter what, are in my eyes honorable, and you honoring your parents in such a way is beyond noble. I see my faith was well placed in you back in the market, you have impressed me!”
Jena’s mouth perked up into a smile as she released a bit of a chuckle. She felt strangely overjoyed at such words stroking her pride, the feeling of terror washed away. Her face suddenly turned to surprise as she remembered where she had put the sword. Quickly running off into one of the corridors in the far off part of the room, she quickly reached down behind the wall. Slowly she lifted the sword up, gently pulling it from the ground. Not even looking at it, she quickly ran up to the robed giant and held it up to him with both her gloved hands.
Slowly, the giant reached for the sword, extending his hand through his robe and revealing it to her. It was a disgusting green color, bone thin with flesh seemingly rotting. No smell though. He gripped the handle tightly. The handle was just some classic oak wood that Jena managed to find in the local market while she was there, and it worked very well! He lifted the sword up slowly to his eyes, examining it with his fire eyes. The blue light glanced off the shiny sword; to her it made the sword look like it glowed blue light as if it was infused with some sort of magic. Jena spoke with confidence.
“Took me a long time to make that fine blade. That helmet of yours wasn’t easy to use; my forge was barely able to melt it down! Not to mention that that metal is the strongest I have ever used, if not seen. Where did you get it from?”
The giant’s voice seemed friendly and warm.
“Much similar like you, but I got it from my mentor. I got it when I was first accepted as a knight of the order.”
“Knight of the order? Could I have some context please?” Jena chuckled
“My apologies, where do you want me to start explaining?”
“Well. Let’s start with your name! I never asked you’re about it.”
“My name is Light.” Light dropped his down arm from his face, holding the sword across his body.
“Funny, but I’m serious, what is your name?”
“My name is Light.”
“This joke is about as dead as your arm is.”
“I do not play games, Jena the blacksmith. My knightly given name is Light, and that is the name I have used since then.”
“But you must have had a normal name once. I highly doubt any parent would name their child as simply “Light”.” Light’s warm voice suddenly turned cold and grim.
“My old name? That is a name I have forgotten long ago when I was still alive in the past. That is a past I do not want to remember.”
“It can’t be that b-”
“Silence.”
Jena froze as she looked at the giant’s face. His eyes seemed to pierce right into her, consuming any semblance of courage she had to continue her line of questions. She spoke nervously but still tried to keep some amount of joy in her voice.
“I-I see. How about your family then? Like your father, since I told you about mine!”
“My father? He died before I was born, but my mother spoke finely of him. She said she was a fine warrior in the army, fighting with the will of many men and not giving up despite not being the strongest of all men.”
“Sounds just like my father, he always was simply being bigger than he already was. Then how was your mother, she sounds really sweet.”
“My mother was a fair dame, kind and caring, but having a fiery soul and never stepping down from a confrontation. In fact, much like you, she came from a family of smithies. That was until she… she…”
Light grew silent, staring right at Jena, stuck in thought. She looked familiar. Jena coughed loudly and he quickly snapped out of it.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
Jena quickly sprinted over to the door and swung it open.
“Hello there! Welcome to Jena’s blacksmith shop.”
“We don’t want no gladis with anebody.”
BANG
Jena felt herself thrown back by the force of something hitting her right in her chest, crashing down onto the floor violently with a loud flop. Her breath sped up, she was shaking violently, darkness started to encroach her sight. She fought for every breath, forcing it in and out of her pained throat. Images of her life flashed before her.
The first time she saw her parents.
Her first day at school.
Her first kiss.
Her graduation.
Parties with her friends.
Her last family reunion.
Slowly, one by one, they all faded away, until all she saw was the roof, but that too slowly faded from her sight. Suddenly, a figure approached into her sight, a strange figure with darkened robes. She could not tell who it was. The figure was scared, grabbing her body and shaking her, shouting something as it looked back and forth around. It then lifted her head gently. He spoke something, but she could not tell what was said, all she heard was sounds that she could not understand.
Her body felt cold
She saw nothing
She felt nothing
She thought nothing
She was gone
-----
And so Light was left there. Alone.
He had no words, he had no emotions, any senses he had went dull. But soon there was rage, unrivaled rage that he had not felt for all time he can remember. Rage that seemed to consume him, drug him into a sense of blood thirst. He wanted revenge. He slowly turned his head to the door, to see the corpse of the once living perpetrator of Jena’s death. The man lay there, completely frozen and dead, blood dripping from his mouth and the massive wound in the left side of his chest pouring out more and more ichor. From the wound protruded the sword that the blacksmith had made for Light, the beautiful steel stained with a murderer’s blood. He grabbed the wooden end of the sword and ripped it out with all his strength, spreading more blood around the room, decorating it like paint.
Wiping the sword off on his red robe, Light lifted the carcass of the man up with his free hand. The slumped corpse twitched a bit as he did so, more blood dripping out of his mouth like a bottle of water being squeezed violently. He brought the body closer to his eyes. The head flopped back as he did, the sound of blood dripping on the floor filling the room. The man was clothed in office attire, black and white suit with what seemed to be that strange neck cloth that they call “ties”, he could not properly tell because it was drenched in blood.
Then, from the corner of his flame eyes, Light saw something. The logo on the man’s chest, half of it covered in blood. The logo of the Gladiator administration. In barely the blink of an eye, the body flopped down to the ground, blood splattering onto the ground like a packet of ketchup. The rage was mind numbing. Now he had a true goal, revenge will be the blood money for this crime. Light looked back at Jena. She lay there. Peacefully. He bent over her and grabbed her hands. Gently, he placed them on her chest, one hand over the other. Standing up straight again, Light walked over to the cupboard with the helmet, and lifted it up by the handle. Slowly, he put the helmet on as he moved back to the body of the blacksmith. The helmet fit on his head well, the size of the holes not impending his sight. Grabbing the sword with both hands, he stood silently in front of the body, his eyes closed.
The room was silent, not a single sound, not even the sound of air pierced the quiet.
Finally, Light reached into his robes, releasing the grip of the sword with one of his hands and took something out. The scarf he got at the market from her. Keeping his silence, he gently placed the scarf down onto the lifeless body. It floated gently onto her body, spreading out over like a blanket. With a heavy voice, Light spoke.
“May the lord welcome you with open arms, Jena the blacksmith.”
Light’s eyes burned bright, barely contained in his rotten skull.
“All of them shall burn by my hand.”