Family Heirloom

The three walked down the street, leaving the restaurant behind them.  It was quiet.  Everything had been quiet after Sabreur decked the poor waiter.  This was very disappointing for the pyromancer.  Langley, however, was not bothered by the lack of chaos and ensuing fire because she kept glancing over to Crystal and the bundles she carried.  One was the kitten that was going to go to Ajiin.  The other was a sword.  This bothered Langley.

“So does being rich also remove your spine?” Sabreur asked mildly, “Because I’m pretty sure that if I punched a guy in a tavern along the docks he would have hit back.”

“Sabreur, we’re rich.  Well, our family is, at least,” Langley reminded.

“But we’re Stormriders.  That’s different.”

Langley sighed and pushed the sword off until later.  She’d deal with it after she dealt with her brother’s disappointment.

“Look, there’s something called etiquette.  In fancy restaurants, like the one we were in, you stiff the waiter of a tip if you aren’t satisfied with his performance.  Punching him for insulting your friend is a little bit excessive.”

“But Langley, I specialize in excessive.”

That ended the conversation.  Langley sighed and shook her head.  It wasn’t really that big of a deal anyways.  The twins rarely frequented that side of town and one restaurant they weren’t allowed back into wasn’t going to affect them.  It wasn’t the first time they’d been banned from a respectable establishment, after all.  Still, she had to admit that it was a bit of a letdown, after Sabreur swung his fist.  The waiter had simply hit the ground, at which point the owner of the restaurant showed up, and sweating profusely, informed them that they had to leave and not come back.  Sabreur had waited for a few seconds before he realized that no, a brawl wasn’t going to start, and left very crestfallen.  Langley made a mental note to swing by some of the shadier dives where a captain’s trim on the jacket meant something and the occasional fistfight only brought more excited participants joining in.  For now, they were heading back to the ship for the evening.

The repairs on the Ark had made certain areas off-limits.  Most of those were forwards though and the personal cabins were situated more near the middle of the ship.  Langley took her brother and Crystal to her cabin after depositing the kitten in Ajiin’s room for him to find later.  Then she sat down and waited for Crystal to spring whatever it was that she had with her.  It was certain to be trouble.

“I bought you a gift!” Crystal cried and dropped the sword on the table in front of her.  Langley stared at it suspiciously.  “I went into town and found it and bought it like I said I would.”

Maybe not as bad as Langley thought it would be.  She gingerly touched the hilt with one finger and Sabreur leaned over for a closer look.  There was the Stormrider crest on it and the blade was straight and wider than her rapiers.  A longsword then.  That meant it was an older weapon, probably made for a Stormrider noble and then lost by time, circumstance, or pirates.  

“Huh,” Langley said, “Wow.  This is… really not what I expected, Crystal.  Thank you.”

She stood and gave the necromancer an awkward hug.  Sabreur grinned.  Langley didn’t like displays of affection, especially not to her crew, and so this would be something he could rib her about for a while to come.

“You like it?” Crystal asked.

“I do.  I very much so like it.  But I’d like to know how you got it – I mean; it belonged to Stormriders before so it might have some sort of significance.  Where’d you buy it?”

And the haze of confusion passed over Crystal’s face.

“I forget,” she finally said.  “Are you going to carry it now?”

This would be a tricky thing to do.  Langley licked her lips and considered the best way to explain it.

“Well, the problem is that this is a longsword.  I’ve never trained with a longsword.  I only know how to use rapiers.  And I use my rapiers to defend myself and I won’t be able to do that with a longsword.  But tell you what – I’ll carry it around tomorrow and after that I’ll put it on the wall in my cabin and bring it out for ceremonial functions.”

Crystal seemed satisfied by this.  So satisfied, in fact, that she felt it necessary to give Langley another hug, which was received just as awkwardly as the first one.  Sabreur snickered and when his sister glared at him he turned his attention back to the sword.  Crystal skipped out and down the hallway and the door swung shut behind her.  Langley breathed a heavy sigh and collapsed into the chair.

“Okay,” she said, “That wasn’t so bad.  I was very frightened when she first announced she was getting me a gift.  I really expected her to turn up with an undead parrot.”

“I wouldn’t count that possibility out just yet,” Sabreur replied, also sitting and not taking his eyes off the sword, “Remember, Mihos is her patron of sorts.  And his chosen animals are birds.”

“Please.  I’d rather not contemplate that for too long.  So, what do you think of it?”  She gestured to the sword.

“Ceremonial?  Or maybe it really is an old weapon from before rapiers became standard.  I think we need to do some research on this.”

“We can’t split ourselves up too much.  We’re already hunting for necromancers, remember?”

“With no luck so far.”

“Fine.  Let’s at least find the shop that sold Crystal this sword.  I’m sure the owner wouldn’t forget her too easily and so with enough asking around we should be able to find it.  I’m guessing it was in the shadier side of town as if it were stashed elsewhere the owner would recognize its worth and Crystal would never have been able to afford it.  So we’re looking for shady and stupid.  Right?”

“Sounds good to me.  But what about the necromancers?”

Langley didn’t want to admit it but she was starting to wonder if Crystal’s remark had been simply another meaningless comment.  She did those, said strange things that didn’t really fit with reality.  Langley didn’t like to think it was part of her insanity, as she didn’t like to admit that Crystal might be insane, but it was certainly odd enough to be put into the category of being a bit off.  There might not be other necromancers in Bastion.  Sabreur and her might be wasting their time chasing after one of Crystal’s figments.

Of course, Crystal had also recognized the Stormrider crest, recognized the importance of it being on a sword, and had the presence of mind to buy it and bring it back to the people who would appreciate it.

“We’ll keep looking,” Langley said, “I honestly don’t think we can write off Crystal’s statement just yet.  Do you think you can keep your senses open to ‘mancy while we search for the shop tomorrow?”

“For an hour or so, sure.  I’m not certain if I can pick up necromancy specifically but I can certainly try.”

“Excellent.  How about you go practice that?  Crystal is probably in her room so you can just sit outside the door and take in the sweet sweet sense of necromantic decay.”

He glared at her for a moment while she pretended not to notice.  Finally he stood and with a grunt made for the door, letting it slam shut behind him.  That was followed by a volley of curses, as the tail of his lab coat had gotten caught in the frame and it took some tugging to free.  Langley had to stifle her giggles with the sleeve of her shirt so that he wouldn’t hear and constitute that as deserving revenge.  She didn’t feel like entering into another prank-feud with her brother.

“Well,” she said after he was safely down the hall, “This has been an interesting day.  Sabreur assaulted a waiter, Crystal acted rational for a change, and now I’ve got a fancy sword.  I hope you’ve got a neat story behind you.  You should.  You’re a Stormrider weapon.”

She picked it up and carried it back to where her bed was.  There was an empty spot on the opposite wall and with some nails and a hammer she made a place to hang it.  Then she settled back and stared at it.  It really was a nice piece.  Not too decorative, which really made her think that it was old enough to have been a functional weapon, and the single gem in the guard lent it a touch of elegance.  It was definitely a Stormrider weapon, from when they were sea-faring nobles instead of just a sea-faring family with begrudged nobility tacked on as a reluctant afterthought.  Despite herself, Langley couldn’t help but picture how she’d look while wearing it tomorrow.

Langley slept soundly that night.  Her room was dark and her cat was curled up by her feet.  A few hours after his owner settled down he raised his head, ears perking up as cats do when they sense something strange.  On the opposite wall hung the sword and the cat’s attention fixed on this.  After a moment the gem slowly slid open and revealed an eye, which glanced from one side of the room to the other, blinking wildly.  Then it focused on Langley, the cat hissed and fled under the bed to hide, and the sword just stared.  Then its eye slid shut again and it too slept peacefully.

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