Page 133 of Daughter of No Worlds

I was glad I didn’t arrive ten minutes earlier.

“So, Max. What can I do for you?” She lit the lights in the back room, one by one. With each new flame, more blades slit the darkness, cleaving through shadows with shocks of reflected gold.

“I need a weapon.”

“I remember a time when you said you wouldn’t need one again.”

Ugh, don’t remind me.

“Turns out I was wrong.”

“I knew something was going on when you asked about the Chraxsylis. That’s heavy shit.”

“You’re coming perilously close to asking questions, and I thought that went against your policy.”

She cocked her head. The dim light enhanced her severe features, cutting shadows across the dramatic panes of her face. She looked downright otherworldly. Via wasn’t a Wielder, but I’d bet my life that she had some kind of magic sensitivity. She needed it to make the kind of weapons she made as well as she did, and beyond that, her perception was nothing short of uncanny.

“It doesn’t need to be anything fancy,” I said. “Just something better than whatever standard-issue garbage they’d try to—”

Via padded across the room and opened a closet. My words were drowned out briefly by a series of clatters as she dug around — and when she turned, I forgot what I was about to say.

Ascended, I hadn’t looked at that in years. Wouldn’t have expected the sight of it alone to punch me in the gut quite like it did.

“You kept it,” I breathed.

“You think I was going to let one of my best pieces get dumped in the trash or gambled away? Left in a brothel alleyway somewhere?” She clicked her tongue, shaking her head.

“You could have resold it.”

“I knew you’d need it back one day. Besides, it loves you. Here.” She extended her arm, holding the weapon out to me. “Don’t be so scared of it.”

Truth be told, Iwasa little scared of it.

I reached out, and my hands slid easily into memorized, well-worn position.

Via had crafted this for me almost ten years ago. It was the length of a spear, but double ended, forged from bronze that was so lightweight that it seemed to stretch the bounds of feasibility, elegant swirls and scrollwork dancing along its length. The blade on one end was pointed, made for stabbing. The other slightly curved, for slashing. But more importantly…

I spoke to it as I had years ago, and it understood me just as easily. It would have been easy to mistake the divots that curled over its length for decoration. But with the addition of my magic, they lit up like trails of molten fire. Flames pooled along the blades’ edges.

Another thought, and —

The staff split in two in my hands, separating in the middle into two separate weapons. I put them back together, melding them into one. Spun it. Separated again. Seamless.

“Need any tweaking?”

“No, it’s…”

Perfect.It was almost terrifying how right it still felt.

“Of course it is.” Via gave me a little, pleased smile. “And I have one for her too.”

I must have looked as startled as I felt, because she let out a laugh. “The world isn’t as unpredictable as you seem to think it is, Max. Besides, I heard she was going to go save the world or something, wasn’t she? I thought she’d need something one day, and I felt… inspired.”

Sammerin, you gossip.

The truth was, I was going to bring something back for Tisaanah. I wasn’t about to let her walk into chaos with some clumsy, standard Guard sword. That would be downright insulting.

“You know,” Via went on, returning to the closet, “women always come in here looking at the pretty silver bows or the little dainty daggers and those kinds of asinine things. But I thought… well. She seemedinteresting.”

---