Pocket dimension

The Williams’ residence

08:30 PM

When the prisoners from the underground lab popped up in the pocket dimension, it was agreed that some of them will stay for their protection. Tesla commissioned houses to be built with every modern amenity possible, Malicia stepped in by contracting a team from the Forgemaster clan who finished the work in a day. Belle and Teagan now lived in the copy of their southern style one-story house, 1567 square feet, three bedrooms, two full baths, and their garden.

Teagan, Belle’s grandmother fell in love with it as soon as she saw how beautiful the garden was with the gnome gardeners taking care of it. She lamented that her knee was really a liability and stopped her from taking care of this beauty, Achilles had offered to contract doctor Jordan and Elissa to take care of all those pesky health problems she had. Belle didn’t try to refuse any of those for the sake of her grandmother.

Tesla invited Belle to join the Justicars as Heracles was impressed with her, she accepted without a problem. Now she had a safe place to stash her gran and she also knew that the team was going to pursue the group responsible for it. Some payback was needed.

The trio was now in the dining room lit by vivid white mana crystals while listening to some Frank Sinatra songs, like love and marriage or the way you look tonight. To Belle, her grandmother wasn’t even being subtle as she was trying to play matchmaker, but she couldn’t say that she wasn’t attracted to the speedster who was clothed in a tight-fitting black t-shirt with pants and his special shoes. Teagan had forced her granddaughter into a single-breasted draping white long sleeve mini-dress and the blue-skinned woman was just good enough to eat in her outfit. The two women were lucky that Tesla was generous enough to get them everything to restart their lives as a signing bonus for joining the Justicar team or they would just be sitting in an empty house.

Achilles was devouring Teagan’s turkey with cornbread stuffing and potato salad on the side. Belle was competing with him on who had the bigger appetite while her grandmother was watching the two of them with relish. The table was full of southern dishes, the speedster needed to think of an excuse to come eat good food here every day.

“Achilles, the food won’t go anywhere.” Teagan teased, as she put another portion of potato salad in his empty plate.

The speedster looked really happy to the women. “But this is truly delicious, Teagan.” Achilles said between bites.

Teagan was pleased, she knew that superhumans were big eaters and that was proven to her by living with a sixteen-year-old Belle when she triggered. The old woman was just paving a way to the man’s heart for her granddaughter. “Belle helped me, her cooking is on par with mine.”

Achilles looked at the beautiful blue-skinned woman who was ignoring him in favor of her food. He appreciated a woman who was honest with her appetite and it didn’t hurt that she was amazingly beautiful. He appreciated it like he would a stunning and gorgeous painting, but there wasn’t that much interest there, he had Brianna after all.

The dinner went well as he danced and drank alcohol with each of the women discussing their lives, even telling Belle of his alien origin; she was dubious at first but he just told her she could confirm it at work.

“Thanks for this, girls, it was the best dinner I've had in ages and the company was exquisite too.” Achilles said and kissed each of the southern belles on the cheek and then disappeared at high speed, leaving the two women on their porch.

Now that the handsome speedster left, Belle was happy to ask, “Gran what did you think you were doing?”

“Setting you up with a nice man, one who won’t leave because he isn’t man enough to handle you.” Teagan speared Belle with her gaze.

Belle’s cheek became a nice shade of purple, her gran was rather honest and didn’t play games with her and she liked this however, the woman was too blunt sometimes. Teagan was there to pick up the pieces when Belle broke up with that Hopkins lad and she had told her he wasn’t the kind of man she approved of. Belle couldn’t help but agree with the good instinct of her grandmother now, now she was trying to set her up with a good guy and he wasn’t hard on the eyes at all; so she shut up and entered their new house to avoid arguing with the old woman who would certainly be right yet again.

As for Achilles, he was already back in his room at the Von Braun residence and was about to initiate a video call with Brianna on Skype. He felt satiated and slightly tipsy, nothing that his fast acting metabolism wouldn't fix. The Skylight OS booted on his laptop and he typed in his password. Waiting for the laptop to load the software, Achilles quickly took off his clothes, only staying in clean black sports pants. The speedster texted his girlfriend and told her that he was online, not a second later Brianna came online too and sent an invitation for a video communication that Achilles accepted.

Brianna DuClair’s beautiful face appeared in the window, her crystal grey eyes lit up when she found him. Several emotions passed on Achilles’ face when he looked upon her, the webcam didn’t give justice to her beauty.

“Hey,” The speedster said dumbly.

Brianna mock scowled. “Just hey?”

Achilles didn’t know what to say, this was the first time that he was in love with a woman. Before it was all about having fun and not ruffling any feathers to be able to stay friends with them. But Love with a big ‘L’, for the first time in his seventy-eight years of life he felt overwhelmed and clueless, so he fell back on what he knew to do.

“Aww come on babe, seeing your beautiful face left me tongue-tied.” Achilles complimented.

He began to sweat when the love of his life stared at him impassively.

“Hmph,” Brianna feigned being angry but quickly gave up teasing him when she saw his puppy dog green eyes. “I miss you, Achilles.” The blonde crossed her arms under her breasts, Achilles noticed that she was wearing one of his t-shirts that she requisitioned.

Giving her a happy smirk he said, “Me too, just give the word and I can come to California to get you.” He bragged, he was serious about that as he wanted to feel her in his arms.

A sad expression settled on Brianna’s face. “I am not in California.”

Achilles frowned, he was about to go meet up with her, but this news froze him in place; the house at Santa Monica would be empty. “Huh, where are you?”

If it was work related there were a lot of places where Brianna could be; Brianna watched the thoughtful expression on Achilles’ face, that made her relieved that the love and concern that she could also see on it was directed at her. Achilles loved her and she was drunk on this fact.

“Canada for a movie and in two months I will be in Paris for another,” Brianna informed her boyfriend.

Achilles who was eager to meet with her deflated.

“I wish I could be there with you.” He said whining.

“Yeah, and if you were, I don’t think they would let you go on sabbatical and put you straight to work.” Brianna huffed as she rolled her eyes.

The blonde looked more seriously at her boyfriend and said, “Achilles did you have to deal with all this in your business? Coordinating all those fights, those idiots don’t respect me because I am not a guy.”

Achilles snickered at this. “Yes, most of the time those scenarists and directors don’t understand how a fight goes and think it’s like choreography. They took me seriously when I did real demonstrations, maybe you should do that.”

Brianna valued the advice and already put plans in motion to just do that. Not wanting to talk shop on this video chat session, Brianna changed the subject. “Let’s not speak about work, what have you been doing?”

Achilles nodded at that, he wanted to tell her things that might be important for her peace of mind.

“Wait a moment, I must activate some gadget to secure the call.” Achilles disappeared and went into Heracles’ office, retrieved a box and came back into his bedroom at the speed of thought.

“Ok,” Brianna said, but the speedster was already back.

Achilles took a USB cable and connected the box to his laptop and a black window appeared with lots of lines of code scrolling down, then it said, “Connection Secure.” This was one of the gadgets that Tesla, his brother’s friend gave them to not be monitored by the intelligence agencies in this country. Brianna listened as Achilles described how he joined his brother’s hero team, she was upset about that but he told her that they were now independent of the League and self-funded by Nikola Tesla who had withdrawn his support of that organization.

Brianna clapped at that and danced a bit in her rented hotel suite for Achilles who appreciated the view. Then when she calmed down the blonde asked him if he did anything else; the speedster didn’t know how to broach the subject with her, she must have felt this and stayed silent until Achilles opened his mouth to say, “You remember when you told me about this Cabal?”

She froze at the mention of this name. “Oh, Achilles.”

The usual grin of the speedster disappeared as he leaned more into the webcam looking straight at his girlfriend. She looked scared.

“Well, the first job I got, we are confronted with them and now we know who they are.” Achilles said as he couldn’t believe how rotten his luck was.

Brianna wanted to know. “Who?” The cold tone which she used to ask her question startled him, he had never seen this side of her before. He was now seeing the difference with her previous cold look, his girlfriend looked downright murderous; so he decided to shut his trap right now.

The blonde saw Achilles close his mouth and shake his head, “I am not telling you, Brie. When you are safely back in my arms, and with me forever where it’s safe I will tell you. What I can tell you is that I am working to bring them down.”

Achilles had been a loose cannon all his life, now that he had things to protect he couldn’t permit himself to make a mistake. Telling Brianna who killed her parents would certainly make her look for revenge, he knew how vindictive she was.

“Is it because of me?” Brianna’s voice cracked a bit, she wasn’t an idiot. After she had told him what happened to her parents a case with the cabal fell into his lap just like that? Now, the man she loved was all in, in a situation that she created.

Achilles would have wanted to say yes, but it wasn’t only to give Brianna closure. “A bit, but it is more for what they did. Brie, they are monsters and they need to be put down, your family wasn’t the only one they destroyed from what I saw.”

It didn’t reassure her one bit. “Will you be alright, Chill? I don’t want you to risk your life.”

Looking straight at the screen, Achilles said sadly, “I can’t promise that, but I won’t take risks.”

Brianna sighed, “Damn. I don’t think I can go to sleep now.”

Achilles wiggled his eyebrows and made a thumb up. “Babe, give me your address and I will be there, warming you up to sleep.”

The speedster silliness broke the heavy atmosphere and giggle escaped Brianna. “Perv.”

Chuckling Achilles looked warmly at the woman he loved. “Yes, I am.”

 

---

 

March 29th, 2018

Pocket dimension

Daphne Snow School of Arcane Art

08:00 AM

 

It was Thursday and Malicia loved them as they were the days when she punished any deserving students and school staff through minor curses. It was becoming excessively rare that someone slipped up at work now and Malicia was bored. But today was a good day because Malicia will be able to negotiate with Dwarves! She loved making deals, certainly, it won’t be something dark like she always liked with the soul or integrity of someone in the balance but it was great.

The Dae had on a black one-shoulder bandage dress made of Arachne Silk, a colony had chosen to migrate and create their own tribe in her realm after swearing fealty to her and her family. Cassandra and Elissa had been there and played with their kids without looking afraid, the Matriarch of the tribe was scared that the human girls would get hurt, but Malicia thought that the spider woman should have been more worried that the troublesome sisters might accidentally hurt her people.

Malicia walked in the corridors leading to the Mana Forge in the lower level of the school, after turning right and left avoiding the Neo-Asgardian teacher and Histreldia walking with a pile of ingots she moved thanks to a cart she was there.

She entered the white Mana Forge room to witness a really weird situation.

“Matriarch Gadhiss, they had told me ye were beautiful but those words don’t do ye justice, yer eyes are like pools of molten gold, and yer hair reminds me of the best cut onyx with gold inlay. Oh, why are ye so gorgeous?!” A muscular and sturdy looking four-foot man with a well-groomed beard said, he wore half a silver armor with a hammer at his hip.

“Hurdrok leave the client alone! Excuse him, my Lady he has been struck by yer fine sculpted visage and body, did the god of crafting had a hand in yer creation?” This time it was a scholarly looking old man with silver and gold glasses on his nose who spoke, he wore a mage robe and had a tool belt around his waist.

Another robbed dwarf exclaimed, “Idiot! Obviously, all dah gods had a hand in the creation of this gorgeous creature! One isn’t enough!”

The three old Dwarves began to fight each other, pulling on their beard or trying to punch and kick their love rival. Malicia looked at Gadhiss who looked amused by this scene and was rooting for each of them. Elissa arrived behind Malicia and became transfixed by the scene of three old dwarves fighting until a giggle escaped her and broke the fight.

Malicia turned to her daughter and looked at how she was dressed, a leather jacket that covered a sky blue top, dark blue ripped jeans and black combat boots. Malicia appreciated how casually she went with her outfit, Elissa had a sword belt with Gram at her hip.

“Hi, mom.” The redhead hugged her mother.

“Good morning,” Malicia said and she kissed Elissa’s cheek.

They stayed in each other embrace, Malicia smelling her daughter’s hair and Elissa being comfortable this way, but eventually, she had to let go. Elissa stared at the Dwarves who looked at her and her mother with open-mouthed wonders.

Tilting her head, the redhead asked, “Say, mom, who are these fine gentle-dwarves?”

Malicia cackled at the dumbfounded expressions of her guests, she didn’t tone down her supernatural beauty today to have control of the negotiation and rob those old men blind.

The sorceress said while smiling, “Ah, my dear those are the fine elders of the Forgemaster clan!” Malicia presented them by opening her arms grandly.

All the dwarves looked at Elissa as if she was an exquisite fresco carved with love and preserved miraculously through the ages. They began crying out things like:

“By the gods, is this pocket realm full of beauties?”

“We should move here, my brothers!”

Elissa wasn’t impressed, she crossed her arms and looked dubiously at the three dwarves, then at her mother; she noticed that Gadhiss was there, smirking as if amused by the situation.

<Greetings, aunty.> Elissa saluted the Dragon Matriarch.

Gadhiss gave her a toothy smile, her armor crinkling as she walked to the two women; the dwarves made way for her and admired as her long mane of hair flowed as she moved. One of the robed dwarves took a notepad and began to draw sketches of Gadhiss.

<God-niece, you shouldn’t underestimate those dwarves they are excellent artisans. The problem is going to be giving them an appropriate price to reforge a relic sword.> The Matriarch said with her fists on her hips.

The word relic elicited a cry from the hammer-wielding Hurdrok. “Relic? Where?!” He looked everywhere around himself.

One of the robbed dwarfs slapped him on the back of the head and pointed to Elissa. “Idiot, look at her hips, the sword is there.”

“I think introductions are needed, first!” A voice sounded from the entrance of the room.

It was a muscular dwarf with brown hair and beard in a grey tunic with leather pants and boots, he had a hammer in hand. Each of the old dwarves looked on in surprise as they recognized the most promising youth of their clan Yastan Forgemaster that they thought was prospecting in Svartalfheim.

“Youngun’ why are you here?” The hammer-wielding dwarf asked as he came to Yastan and patted him to check if he wasn’t a ghost.

The miner in Svartalfheim already counted him dead since not a peep was seen from him the last two months.

“Elders this is meh Forge! Of course, I’d be here!” Yastan beat his chest proudly.

The three elder dwarves looked around them, this was a white room with nothing inside, just white walls and some white support pillars that melded into the background.

“Here? I see no anvil, no tools, no cooling system.” The old blacksmith looking dwarf said while showing the emptiness of the room.

Yastan gave a happy grin to them and nodded. “No need for them, what I need is meh materials, mind, and magic.”

“Just magic?!” One of the robed dwarfs shouted in surprise.

Furrowing his brow the blacksmith asked, “What the hell are ye spoutin’ lad?”

What he was saying was impossible, they had already tried to forge only with magic and the results were disastrous.

“Maybe I can enlighten you, kind sirs?” Malicia intervened.

She was the one who offered a place in her school while on a trip to Svartalfheim, the world of the Dwarves and Dark Elves. Malicia had her own plans for that place and they concerned Elissa, the cosmic energy radiated by their sun was more abundant than Earth’s and the mana field covering the planet was so dense that she had felt as if she was under the ocean. The sorceress had saved Yastan from being captured by Driders to be turned into a food and blood bag.

The three Elders stared at Malicia awaiting her explanation. Malicia began with her tale, “He owes me a life debt, I saved him from being devoured by Driders on Svartalfheim while he was prospecting. As I didn’t want a slave or anything and I respect the spirit of your people I decided to offer him a job in my school for ten years and turned him loose in my Mana Forge.”

Malicia smiled evilly at Yastan who tried his best to not squirm under her gaze. The Young dwarf chooses to look at his three clan founders and said, “You old dwarves wouldn’t believe the new techniques I have been learning here… this, this is where I wish to stay.”

Clap. Everyone turned their head to Gadhiss.

<That is a good feeling to have, however, we are here for the reforging of Gram. Originally I wanted to contact the Merryblade clan as I did business with them long ago, but Malicia insisted on giving the commission to the Forgemaster clan and believes in your capabilities.> And it had frustrated the Dragon Matriarch to no end.

“Merryblade, as in Erindur and Awenelyn from the Merryblade clan? Those old fools?! Oh, by the gods you dodged a quarrel there meh Lady.” The old blacksmith had a good laugh at that.

The other two old dwarves added their own two cents.

“They are so set in their ways that they stopped improving their techniques.”

“Yeh, I saw their handiwork it belongs in a museum ah!”

Raucous laughter sounded in the Mana Forge as the trio mocked the fallen clan.

“Ah, where are meh manners I am Master Smith Hurdrok.” The old dwarf with the long beard put his arm around Yastan’s shoulders while proudly introducing himself.

The glasses wearing robed mage with the tool belt introduced himself. “I am the crystal cutter and goldsmith Rudit.”

Chuckling the second robed mage saluted them. “I make everything look pretty, sculptor and jeweler Yandrar.”

Elissa began to like these people more and more, even if it took time to understand their motivation, she understood that they didn’t see her as a sexual object but more like a work of art to be admired.

“Nice to meet you, I am Elissa Von Braun-Halliwell and this,” Shling, Elissa unsheathed her sword whose blade began to glow blue. “ is Gram.” The sword sang as the redhead let it cut through the air.

“This is such a beautiful song, lass.” It was akin to a soft humming from a nymph.

Elissa gave a smile to the old dwarf. “I agree, this is what made me decide to keep the sword.”

“Can I see it?” Hurdrok asked it was almost a plea.

Elissa looked at the sword and asked it its opinion, it was willing to be held by the metalworker. The redhead handed Gram by the handle, trusting the old smith to look at it. Hurdrok held it with reverence knowing with certainty that if the user didn’t allow it he would be dead because he held a legendary magic sword. The old dwarf put the blade against his ear and flicked it to hear the tone of the vibration of the metal.

With all his experience he detected that there was still a great number of impurities in the metal of the blade, when it was forged eons ago by the dwarf Regin it must have felt perfect to him. But now it seemed that it was just a magical relic just good enough for slaying monsters. Hurdrok thought that if this sword was used again it would break against any of their mithril work.

“Lass, I am relieved that you didn’t take this for a spin yet. It would have broken.” The master smith gave his verdict.

Elissa seized her sword from the Master’s hands and asked, “This… is there a way to preserve Gram’s ego in the reforging? I don’t want to lose it.”

The old dwarf began to pose, showing off his muscles and winked at Elissa. “Aye, lass, don’t worry, I know what I am about.”

Rudit slapped Hurdrok on the back of the head again.“Hold on here! Old goat, we didn’t decide to do the job yet.”

The old Smith tried to tackle him but the crystal cutter sidestepped and he fell on the ground loudly.

“Indeed we must speak payment.” Yandrar nodded, assessing the redhead before him.

“And this is my cue to intervene.” Malicia placed herself between Elissa and the dwarves.

Waving her hand, a pallet of pure Mithril ingots appeared six meters behind the dwarves, it was clearly a king’s ransom. There was enough Mithril here to make a suit of armor and several weapons. The dwarves turned behind them and looked with wide eyes at the bounty.

“This… this barely…” Rudrit tried to say but was left voiceless at the casual display of wealth.

Malicia smiled at them and waved her hand yet again and two Etherium ingots fell before them. That caused Rudrit to faint. Etherium was a legendary metal able to conduct, store or release mana without loss.

“That will more than largely cover the cost,” Yandrar said as the negotiator Rudit had collapsed from shock.

“So, you want to reforge this sword and keep its ego. We will need a gem of grade A or superior.” Hurdrok had seen intelligent sword before and the transfer process was delicate and only possible with grade A or S mana gem.

“I already have everything,” Malicia told the master smith as she took a large blue gem from her spatial ring. “Will this suffice?”

The gem was a dark blue and bled powerful ice mana in waves, Elissa was so fascinated by it that she took it from her mother’s hand and held it.

“This is a mind stone, one aligned with the elemental plane of ice.” Of course those dwarves never heard of such a gem, they are only found in millennial crystal formations found in Phantasia’s north pole, a terrible region to live and inimical even to ancient humans; at its core, the stone contains a highly advanced intelligence framework, akin to an incredibly powerful supercomputer operating similarly to a sentient mind.

The Dwerm kingdom and mage scientist of the Phantasian kingdom are able to artificially create them and harvest them to create their Quantum mana core. The Stone's intelligence is powerful enough to enhance and spontaneously grant sentience to artificial beings.

Yandrar was apt enough to recognize that the crystal structure and Lattice were perfect. “Lady, are you trying to create an artifact? We… are not skilled enough to craft such a thing.”

The robed dwarf realized the monumental task that women, no, this sorceress was asking of them.

“I am aware, that is why I will give you a metalworking technique from my world. It should be more advanced than anything you have, however.” Malicia proceeded to tell them that she wasn’t from any of the realm linked to the Yggdrasil network of worlds. This network linked the nine realms closest to Earth (Gaea/Midgard); people could say that Phantasia was linked to another network entirely and forcefully linked them together, the connection sustained by Divine will alone.

Malicia prayed in thanks to Hekate in her heart for this feat.

“Huh, I think we need more time to discuss this,” Hurdrok said he kicked Rudit who woke up suddenly.

The glasses wearing dwarf snorted and opened his eyes. “Awake am awake!”

“Lazy bum, we need your skills here!” Hurdrok looked at him, disgusted, then he turned to the dwarf youngster, “Yastan meh boy you’ll help! We need your opinion.”

It took one hour for the elder dwarves to decide on what to do, Elissa worked on her blade work while waiting for the artisans to decide. Finally, they came to Malicia and Rudit said, “After deliberation, we are inclined to try to reforge the Sword by using this runic metalworking technique.”

Giving them a seductive smile, Malicia said, “Then Gentle-dwarves, let’s get to it.”

---

 

Mana Forge

01:00 PM

It had taken most of the morning to get everything that was needed, Malicia gave the materials to reforge the sword, one ingot of Orichalcum and two of Etherium that she had saved for a rainy day to Yastan and Master Smith Hurdrok. The mind stone was to be cut and polished by Rudit per the instructions on the manual Malicia had gifted him. The artist Yandrar was designing the sword and he was assisted by Elissa whose measurements he was taking, he focused on the length of her arm and the size of her hands and noticed how young she was and took that into account as she was certainly still growing.

Elissa choose between the designs Yandrar showed her, she was tempted to make a really fancy sword but Malicia advised her to make it practical and beautiful. The sorceress showed her daughter, her twin Ebolyte swords; they looked gorgeous and deadly, to the dwarves they looked mostly deadly and made them step back away from them.

The redhead finally settled on a design that she was happy with; the sword would ally eastern and western concepts and make it versatile enough for Elissa to grow her own battle style. It would be a double-edged straight sword inspired by the Jian Chinese swords and the blade edge as sharp as a Japanese sword. The spear point would allow the wielder to use thrusting moves, the blade would be made virtually indestructible if the runic metalworking panned out as the dwarves expected. As Yandrar drew the crossguard grip, in his sketch he housed the crystal in it, instead of the pommel; the poor dwarf didn’t notice that he received divine inspiration but Malicia noticed and gave more prayers to her patron deity.

When it was 01:00 PM, and after everyone ate some faerie specialty food, everything was ready while Elissa was nervously pacing back and forth. Malicia decided to make her daughter sit so as not to bother them. Her own task was to help Rudit transfer Gram’s ego into the mind stone and for this, they needed a calm environment to not be disturbed or everything would be lost.

Grudgingly Elissa took her phone out and began to chat with her friends from the Academy, she also commanded her demon familiars to take care of Tabitha while she was in the mana forge.

The mind stone was reduced to an optimal size, that is the size of an eye or a goose’s egg; Malicia could feel the invisible facets on its surface under her fingers. The sorceress felt satisfied with the work of the gem cutter Rudit and nodded to him in acknowledgment; the robed dwarf fell on his knees and felt all his strength leave him, cutting this precious and irreplaceable gem was like a dream come true but the pressure of failure made him feel like a journeyman passing his test to become a master.

“Elissa come.” Malicia imperiously called her.

Standing up from her lounging chair, Elissa came to Malicia and nervously unsheathed her sword. The sorceress put the mind stone in her hand free hand and said, “You’ll transfer Gram’s ego in the stone, your body will act as a conduit. Don’t fail or Gram will be lost to you, understood?”

“Y-yes.” Elissa didn’t feel ready, but to save her new friend she would make it so.

The sorceress crossed her arms and looked at the redhead. “Proceed.” Malicia thought that if anything odd happened that she would prioritize her daughter first, fuck the sword; she was going through this charade only to give peace of mind to her daughter and well she needed a weapon sturdy enough for what she planned for this summer. Malicia’s mage sight was fully open as she looked at everything analytically.

*Are you ready, Gram?*

The sword was ready, it gave itself completely to Elissa who channeled magic and the ambient cosmic energy in the room. Malicia snapped her fingers and raised the mana concentration in the room by connecting it to the elemental nodes connected to the pocket dimension. Elissa grabbed onto them spiritually, as if connected to a bigger well of power, the redhead channeled Gram’s ego through her body, this operation was rendered easier to perform thanks to the abundance of power and Elissa’s will cocooning Gram’s spirit.

Slowly, really slowly Elissa channeled the sword’s spirit into the mind stone, not faltering for a moment or Gram would disappear.

*No pressure, right?* She thought in her heart.

Sweat beaded out of her face, as she uploaded the spirit from its sword medium to the mind stone and it was only thirty minutes later that Elissa finished. As for Gram, it found itself in the new medium, the stone was powerful enough to enhance and spontaneously grant sentience to the new spirit who for the first time was more than an ego, it could think and feel. With a sparkle of joy, the stone’s inner light shone upon the room as if to blind everyone. Gram could feel possibilities open before it? Him? Her? She preferred to be considered a ‘her’ as her owner, Elissa, liked females more, it was something to consider.

“Yes, yes I know you are happy,” Elissa told Gram.

<Content.>

The redhead almost let the stone fall to the ground as she heard the mental voice in her mind. She tightened her hold on the mind stone and spoke to it like she would a dragon, <Can you repeat?>

<Content. Happy.> The voice was feminine and soft, comparable to Cassie’s, it felt childish.

“Mom, hum I am sorry to tell you this but I think we created an AI.” Gram projected cold into Elissa’s hand as if to reassure her. Gram knew her mistress weakness and power as she got particularly intimate with her during the transfer process.

The sorceress gave a toothy grin to her daughter.

“As expected, this is a mind stone and a lot of artificial beings are born this way on Phantasia. I am not surprised.” Malicia giggled.

“You could have told me!” Shouted Elissa red with embarrassment.

Malicia tilted her head. “Where’s the fun in that? I wanted to see your startled face.”

Elissa growled at the sorceress who giggled even more. “Urgh. You are so mean.”

The sorceress came to embrace her daughter, taking care to not touch the mind stone infused with terrible ice properties. “I love you darling, and I am proud of you. You channeled a spirit so well for your first time.”

With her face in Malicia’s bosom, Elissa said, “Don’t change the subject!”

Gadhiss entered the room and looked around her feeling the powerful fluctuations of mana. The Dragon Matriarch also noticed that Gram lost its dragon slaying ability as it was no longer powered by the spirit. She smiled at that, the sword wasn’t dangerous to her kind anymore.

Meanwhile, Yastan and Yandrar were busy crafting the hilt of the sword with the Orichalcum given by Malicia. Rudit was going over the design chosen by Elissa for the sword, trying to envision the final result. Hurdrok was finally getting to taking the decision as he assimilated the technique, he was a modest enchanter and this looked really beyond him. The refined metalworking technique was leagues ahead of everything he knew.

Hurdrok was despairing when a flash of inspiration struck him, he had been clinging to the old precepts of smithing and doing what he accused the Merryblade clan of doing. Now he was seeing that maybe with the Mana Forge he could be aware of everything happening to the metal, it was like an omnipotent control. Suddenly the old Smith understood why Yastan liked it here. With normal means it would take years to make this sword, but with this forge? It will take a day, mostly.

“Yastan, Brat! Are you done with what yer doin’?” The elder Smith hollered.

Yastan shouted back, “Yeh, Elder everything is ready on this front!”

Chuckling Hurdrok cracked his knuckles. “Let’s begin, boys.”

The preparations were complete, they had the stone, the metal and handle; Gadhiss and Malicia stayed at the entrance of the mana forge, knowing that the conditions and temperature will change. However, Elissa decided to stay and assist the dwarves because she felt compelled to see the complete form of her new companion.

Yastan and Hurdrok positioned themselves in the center of the room, circulating their mana and activating the almost invisible formation in the white floor beneath their feet. A giant magic circle appeared from under them, spreading in the entire room and stopping at the entrance of the mana forge. Runes, mathematical equations, and geometric glowing lines drew themselves leaving everyone who wasn't used to this phenomenon voiceless.

With the two dwarves at the center of the formation a spherical crucible where the mana fed by the elemental nodes of the school was stabilizing the maelstrom of forces inside it. It was as if a black hole had just opened in the middle of the room, bleeding energy here and there at different intervals. Yastan had the two ingots of Etherium, one of Mithril ingots from the old sword housing Gram and the one of Oricalchum in his hands and slowly plunged them into the crucible. He wasn’t harmed, nor got his arms destroyed as one of the magical enchantments of this forging formation protected the crafter from the powerful forces at play.

Hurdrok followed his lead, without fear he put his hands in the maelstrom, it was neither hot nor cold, it was just here. From Yastan’s instructions, he knew that thanks to the crucible he could use the power of his imagination to process the metal and craft tools and weapons; the enchantment also boosted memories and the speed of his thoughts artificially. Time became an unimportant notion to the old Smith as he saw what he could do.

*Dehydrate. Shatter. Separate. Gather. Forge.* Hurdrok thought of the steps to be taken to mold the metal to his will. In the maelstrom the ingots of Etherium began to melt under his gaze, impurities separating from the hot metal and being put aside in the crucible as if it stored them for later use. Hurdrok hammered at the metal with the force of his mind, like Yastan had told him he didn’t need a hammer to do so.

After a long time, the mass of melted Etherium now formed the malleable shape of a sword, it vaguely resembles the sword from Yandrar’s sketch. However, the dimensions of the sword were larger than the finished sword. After the workpiece was finished being formed, it was time to normalize it.

Hurdrok raised his gaze and looked for Elissa. “Lass, I heard you have ice powers?”

“Huh yes, can I help?” Elissa approached the work area.

Hurdrok smiled warmly at the girl and said with a curt nod, “Sure, lass just help me cool the metal as much as you can when I tell you too. Put your hand in this black sphere thing.”

Elissa hesitated for one second but plunged her hands into the maelstrom. The old dwarf began to carefully and evenly heat the blade. “Now, lass do it slowly.”

The redhead did as she was told, she felt herself being guided as she slowly cooled the metal to a temperature of absolute zero. They processed the blade this way to remove the stresses which may have built up within the body of the blade while it was being forged. The runes were applied at the atomic scale on the blade while the last processes of the forging were being done, quenching and tempering. It was night while Hudrok was still processing the blade, Elissa didn’t mind staying up while watching as she felt that she was still needed.

The blade looked beautiful to Elissa’s eyes, it had become a blue like crystal thanks to how she helped super cool it. Hudrok was busy sharpening the blade with his will, from the looks of it… it was really sharp. Elissa looked at the enchantment the dwarf was layering onto the blade and found that it was almost as if he wasn’t doing it himself, there was a weird layer of mana enveloping the blade and the redhead found it strange.

“Yastan! Rudit! I need the hilt are you done?!” Hudrok shouted.

“Since a long time, old goat! It’s you who is slow.”

The master smith grunted and pulled a hand out of the black maelstrom and took the hilt from Yastan’s hand, then he looked at Elissa and told her, “Lass put the mind stone in it, we need to assemble the sword to make it complete.”

Yandrar had finished fashioning the hilt, sheath that was ready to house the blade. “Ready?”

“As much as I can be.”

The energy in the crucible flared as all the elements of the sword were present and Master Hudrok began to assemble all the elements at the same time. The blade connected with the hilt while the mind stoned linked with the crossguard and grip. Elissa’s world became black however she saw herself and the dwarf connected with the sword that was being completed. The redhead turned as she saw someone else with them.

She was tall and beautiful with dark hair and black eyes without end to them, it was like looking into an abyss. The woman looked dangerous as Elissa noticed, *Damn, she look badass.*

“Hum, hi?” Elissa awkwardly greeted the stranger.

The black haired woman smiled. “Greetings child.”

Elissa still felt that this woman was stronger than her or her mother, the feeling of vastness and power she elicited in her was too much to bear as the woman approached her. “Who are you?”

Floating next to her, the dark-haired woman put her fingers under Elissa’s chin and said, “You already know in your heart, you pray to me every night.”

“Wait… are you?” The realization came to Elissa, and she touched the woman’s arm.

The deity lovingly patted Elissa’s hair and then turned her head toward Gram who was almost complete.“This sword is for you, I have blessed you and it; Majorly enchanted it as much as I could with my considerable power. Use it well, Elissa and don’t disappoint me.”

Why would her patron deity intervene, why now? Did she have the answers to her questions? Elissa tried to quench her curiosity by addressing her goddess, “Heka-”

And she was back in the mana forge with the sword in her hand, it was blazing blue and white drinking in her essence and inner mana. Gram felt powerful, invigorated and indestructible as she realized that a powerful deity had a hand in her reforging. The sword spirit could see what had changed in her and her new powers and abilities centered on supporting her true wielder. There was nothing she couldn’t cut, nothing could destroy her and she would help channel and boost the spells of her mistress.

Speaking of spells, there was this pesky curse hindering her wielder and making it impossible for her to use magic.

<Intolerable.> Gram thought.

One of the powers given to her by the Goddess of magic was to nullify and destroy curses. In her mind, Gram ate the curse that had spread and blocked her mistress from using her comforting and cold magic. Elissa felt weird and suddenly immense pain wracked her body as she felt something being broken in her shoulder, this sensation reminded her of when she tried to use magic when Malicia’s curse acted up.

“Elissa?!” Her mother shouted and was already on her, looking and patting at her body to see where it hurt.

Opening her mage sight, something preposterous had happened. Malicia scowled at her daughter, “How did you undo my curse?”

“What? I-” Elissa’s eyes widened as she felt the difference now, she felt lighter as her meridians weren’t hindered anymore and weaved a cantrip spell expecting the pain to take her, but nothing happened. A ball of light appeared in her hand.

Malicia pushed her daughter delicately away from her, she knew Elissa wasn’t skilled enough to break one of her curses with sheer will. It was possible but quite unlikely. Then a possibility came to her as she looked at the beautiful sword in the hand of her daughter.

The sorceress scowled at it. “No it wasn’t you, it was this sword.”

Malicia tried to take it from Elissa but was hurtled away from her daughter with uncommon strength and crashed in the white wall of the mana forge.

<Don’t.Touch. Me.> Gram growled, then it transported the sheath created by Yandrar to her and sheathed herself.

“Oh shit, what did you do?” Elissa began to be really scared now, how was her sword so temperamental now? It was docile most of the time with her and had even permitted the dwarves to hold her.

In a twinkle Gram disappeared in a ball of light and entered the back of Elissa’s right hand, creating a tattoo that formed the basis of a storage enchantment with the spell runes forming a snowflake. The redhead looked at the tattoo with wonder, then when she heard the furious steps of her mother’s heels Elissa knew she was going to get it.

“Where’s that evil sword?!” Malicia was in full-on light show, her aura, and eyes glowed gold then her horns were out as she let go of her glamour and the air throbbed with her power. All the dwarves quaked in their boots and Gadhiss facepalmed.

Elissa stepped back and gulped.

*This is the pot calling the kettle black…* The young woman thought.

 

---

 

March 29th, 2018

The Princess Tower

05:30 PM

 

Elissa was back in her dorm and laid on the communal sofa, she couldn’t believe that today was already Friday, she just came from the ranting that her mother did about Gram and how she was going to take it from her and lock it up under thousands of Sealing spells in a chest and throw her in the Mariana Trench. The redhead had never seen her mother this furious in her life and it terrified her to have this anger turned against her, even remotely.

Fortunately, Gadhiss calmed down her mother by telling her that it was futile and rather infantile of her to threaten a child this way. Certainly, a child with immense powers however it was unbecoming of her. Elissa heard the steps of someone coming from behind her, smelling the familiar scent of Tabitha, Elissa went still and prepared for the inevitable assault.

Tabitha was feeling caged by her as she was virtually a slave to her, but Elissa never enforced anything beyond the don’t steal anything order that she gave the catgirl.

Pouncing, the catgirl jumped on Elissa and tried to claw her head but was caught midair, manhandled and made to seat at Elissa’s side on the black sofa.

“Here, don’t hunt me ok? We are friends, right?” Elissa tried to take Tabitha’s hand in hers.

The catgirl batted it away and looked hatefully at the redhead. “If you don’t-”

Elissa interrupted Tabitha and sadly said, “Tabs, if I take off the bracelet binding you to me, mom is going to throw you out and you’ll be on the street. Believe me, she always does what she promised, I don’t want that for you, you are my friend and even if I have to do this distasteful task I will. But please don’t hate me, I am doing this for you.”

Tabitha looked at Elissa, the girl who stayed friends with her even though she was a thief and had a really bad personality. She sometimes shared food with her or they spoke about fashion and didn’t snob her at all like those shitty elves or teachers. It hurt her to realize that maybe, just maybe she was in the wrong and didn’t even try to curb the instincts pushed onto her by her situation.

“Hmph.” Was all Tabitha expressed.

However, her tail was more honest and stayed in close proximity of Elissa.

The young woman slowly closed on the proximity with Tabitha and said, “Can I pat your head?”

Tabitha turned her head and was about to refuse.“N-”

But Elissa scratched behind Tabitha’s ear and the catgirl became boneless and purred. They stayed like this until Dawn arrived and she didn’t know how to react to this, seeing Elissa being intimate with her other friends has been hard as jealousy filled her heart.

Elissa recognized the heartbeat of Dawn and turned her head looking at her and smiled but the furious expression on the asian girl’s face made it wilt instantly. Tabitha turned and saw Elissa’s girlfriend, mindless of the expression she was wearing. “Hey, Dawn.”

Elissa felt Dawn’s mana rise but as she shook her head and looked pleadingly at her, the asian girl relented and let it go.

“Tabs,” Dawn said, she almost teleported the catgirl in a volcano.

Dawn put her messenger bag on the ground, and went to take a water bottle from the kitchen; Tabitha became wise of the atmosphere and left the living room for her room, sashaying in her uniform. Elissa shook her head, life was becoming more complicated for her. Her girlfriend was becoming rather possessive as of late.

“Dawn come here, I have something to show you,” Elissa called out.

The asian girl teleported to her right away and asked, “What is it?”

Dawn was suddenly uneasy, the light in her girlfriend’s eyes sparkled with happiness and she thought she was in for another session of weapon geeking. It’s already been two months and she has begun to understand Elissa more and more. She was proud, tough and frank outwardly but when you came to know her and befriend her she would be warm, caring, kind and have your back no matter what. Elissa liked art, plays, martial arts and collecting weapons. Dawn was a geek for magic and manga, Elissa loved swords, axes, spears and Alchemy.

*Oh, animals and forests too.* She thought to herself.

Elissa stood up and said, “Well do you remember my sword?”

Dawn rolled her eyes and crossed her arms under her breasts, the shirt of her uniform wrinkling a bit. “You mean the sword with which you sleep every night?”

The asian girl was bothered by this because the sword was magical and had an ego and didn’t seem to like her very much for a reason obscure to her; Gram was also the yandere type, not willing to share Elissa at all.

Sweating a bit, Elissa thought that Dawn was being sarcastic again. “Well yeah, it’s a magic sword you know, so she doesn’t like to be alone. The poor thing has Autophobia.”

Dawn didn’t like anything taking her time, Elissa hoped she would break this bad habit soon. To make her relax, the redhead hugged her girlfriend and kissed her cheek.

“Elissa if you weren’t so beautiful and awesome…” Dawn said, she admired the redhead and hoped to be one day as powerful and cool as her, however, Elissa’s geeking out was taking over their relationship.

“Hey, it’s not my fault I like weapons so much.” Elissa had the decency to look sheepish.

Sarah entered the living room in her demon form, looked at the two love birds, groaned and went directly into her room; choosing not to bother with those two. This has been how everyone behaved around Dawn and Elissa when they got amorous. Dawn looked at Sarah leaving, shook her head and said, “Right. So what’s that about your sword?”

Elissa looked giddy as she held her hand. “We finally reforged it. C’mon appear Gram.”

The tattoo on Elissa’s right hand glowed and in a flash of light Gram appeared in the redhead’s hand; the blade glowed white and blue, the two color mixing. To Dawn, it looked exactly like the Star Saber of a Star Knight from the Cosmic War saga. An intense wave of excitement rolled through her body and it made her giggle.  “Ok, Elissa since when have you become a Star Knight?”

The redhead smirked, weaved an illusion spell and suddenly she was in black armor and a cape, an inscrutable dark helmet hiding her face. Dawn was surprised, when did Elissa get her magic back? Her mom only let her use it for school.

Elissa lowered her blade toward the ground and held her hand toward Dawn. “Lucia, you do not yet realize your importance. You have only begun to discover your power. Join me, and I will complete your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy.” The redhead quoted in a cold and powerful voice.

Dawn immediately understood what Elissa was doing and played along. “I'll never join you!”

Elissa giggled and continued, “If you only knew the power of The Dark Side! Old man Wan never told you what happened to your girlfriend.” The redhead modified the quote to her needs.

“He told me enough! He told me you killed her!” Dawn did the same and waited for the awesome final as Elissa looked right at her and the black helmet disappeared.

A smile blossomed on the redhead's face. “No. I am your girlfriend!”

Dawn laughed out loud and Elissa made Gram disappear into her tattoo as the asian girl threw herself into her arm. “Ok, I will join you! Come here, kiss me.” She said seductively.

They made out for a good ten minutes, ignoring everything going around them and they stopped as things grew too heated between them. Elissa and Dawn had promised Malicia to not go further before they were eighteen. It frustrated them, they felt that they were ready to take it their relationship further. The two young women cuddled on the sofa, not saying anything when Elissa’s smartphone pinged.

Elissa chose to look at the text she received through the Augmented Reality vision of her CLO and smiled as she recognized the name of her friend Danny Sparks.

DanSparks: Hey Princess, still a prisoner?

Sighing heavily, Elissa typed on the virtual keyboard.

Elissa: Unfortunately.

She didn’t like to be confined in the school this way, chatting with Danny and the gang was the only good thing in her situation. However, she made friends in the Daphne Snow too, Tsarra, Wayne, Volf, and all her roommates.

DanSparks: We miss you, if you cannot come to us, maybe we can come to you?

This idea simply blew Elissa’s mind, why didn’t she think about that? She’s too scared of her mom lately, that’s why.

Elissa: Are you a genius?! I didn’t even think about that.

DanSparks: Praise me more.

Elissa: Lol.

Dawn connected her AR to Elissa’s convo and joined the chat. It was one of the special options of the academy’s network.

KickassSpaceMage: Hey Sparks.

DanSparks: Oh the yandere is here too, great.

Dawn scowled at that and wrote.

KickassSpaceMage: I am not a yandere!

DanSparks: Self-denial is bad you know?

Elissa: Calm down girls, and what is a yandere?

Dawn looked at Elissa in shock, asking herself where she erred in her girlfriend’s anime training. Then she remembered that her girlfriend was really selective in what she was watching.

DanSparks: Dawn, she’s joking right? :$

KickassSpaceMage: No she’s not, so far I only showed her things that might interest her, shounen or magical girls anime, even old school ones like Slayers.

DanSparks: Then you know what you must do, show her school days.

KickassSpaceMage: Are you crazy? She will destroy the Screen, she breaks things when something doesn’t go right in a story, she likes to speak and comment when she watches.

DanSparks: Do it.

Dawn knew an order when she saw one, she sighed and stared at Elissa who furrowed her brow.

Elissa: I don’t know what to feel when you two are talking about me this way.

KickassSpaceMage: Don’t take it personally, but you need to know more about pop culture.

DanSparks: Sometimes you speak like an old lady.

Elissa: -____-

The redhead began to pout, making Dawn pat her on her shoulder soothingly.

KickassSpaceMage: Now she’s pouting, Sparks.

DanSparks: Are you still on to see us, Princess?

Elissa: Fine, I will ask permission to make you and the others enter the premises, and then we will spar and I will kick your ass!

DanSparks: You wish, Princess, I am not like I was two months ago.

Elissa: Same!

The conversation continued late over dinner and well into the night, Elissa wanted Dawn to come to sleep with her but her girlfriend refused as she was too shy to take this step. So the redhead went to sleep alone, that was a shame as she wanted to hinder Fenirael’s and Reinatiel’s escapade into her bed. Her two handmaidens took too many liberties with her as of late.

Elissa took her cold shower and reveled in it, brushed her teeth and went to bed in her short and t-shirt with a sheathed Gram at her side on the bed. A habit she has taken since the two of them met, they will never separate again; the redhead thought about everything that happened since yesterday. She reforged her sword, met her patron deity a real elder goddess and she had said that she blessed her and Gram. What for? Elissa was getting suspicious when that kind of thing happens in fantasy books it meant that trouble will follow.

Shaking her head, Elissa closed her eyes then yawned as the god of dreams was taking her into his realm. She fell asleep uncertain for the future.

 

---

 

I felt the weight of my choice as it crushed my dreams and aspirations, the vision of my love being separated from me and brutally killed. Why did she come back? I had evacuated everyone in the skyship for the central continent. Facing the army of my foe, the one I once called a friend -a friend who had sworn to eradicate the Snow family from the face of Phantasia- I unsheathed my sword.

He ordered a group of four armored soldiers to attack me, I also advanced toward them, straightening my helmet on my head. One of them charged me instantly as I channeled my mana in my sword, my aura extended to the blade and I used it to project a field before me that altered the course of the leaping soldier. Leaping toward him I caught him by the neck, broke it and threw him at the other soldiers. The dead soldier fell on one of his peers and I leaped again to the other group of two and stabbed one with my sword and decapitated the other with my sword aura that I solidified in my hand.

My ‘friend’ began to panic and ordered all the other soldiers to swarm me, his shouts were like the bleating of a sheep. A sheep that had seen that it was no match for a wolf.

*I am sorry Anhylde, but I won’t be able to keep my promise.* I thought.

I focused my mana in my free hand and created a ball of lightning and combined it with my sword and leaped into the air, letting the wind take me. The sword aura, one of the final techniques from the Inshek taught by my long-dead ancestor, Xara Snow. It created an extension of my weapon which was scalable, but I only need one hundred meters or so.

Gripping my sword with my two hands, I cut horizontally. The move was really effective, I cut them all down, only stragglers were left. I wrote a spell in the air and the wind picked up creating homing wind blades targeting them all. The cries of my enemies filled the snowy field, only the sound of the wind lashing out at everything filled the void that had now become my life.

I just had to let go, and embrace what I have become, they had forced me to become a monster, the kind of man that my Anhylde had come to loathe.

There were only Aslik and I, a friend from the Sweltering Wastes that I had helped get a better life I thought at the time.

“This is how you repay me?” I said disillusioned.

Aslik looked at me as if he was seeing a fallen demon, an apt description for what I was about to do.

“I had-” He began to say, but I waved his speech with a hand. “It doesn’t matter, you killed my wife and burned my home. You and your masters I will destroy and take from you.”

Horrified, Aslik looked at the corpses around him and at Anhylde’s corpse at his side, my woman that had received him warmly when I, Damian was busy evacuating my family to avoid the extinction of our lineage as decreed by the goddess. The man let go of his ax and put kneel before me.

“Damian! Please, this isn’t you. Those kinds of things… you don’t do this.” He cried.

I plunged my sword in his heart and separated his head from his body.

“I do now.”