Sazandara approached the room’s apparent attendant, a youthful man at a desk full of notebooks and binders. The reaper said something to him in Valgan.
Nodding, the attendant pulled on a pair of gloves and fished a key out of a drawer. He moved to the rear wall, opened one of the larger boxes, and with visible effort, pulled out an impressive slab of metal with a gentle curve to it. Sazandara said something else to him, but this time, the attendant hesitated, looking from her to Hector and back again.
Before Hector even thought to ask, Garovel began translating for him.
‘She’s telling him to give it to you. He’s asking if she’s sure. Says Haqq will be upset.’ Garovel broke for a chuckle. ‘“That’s the point,” she says.’
The attendant soon conceded and moved to hand the object over.
‘Careful not to let it touch your skin just yet,’ said Sazandara.
Hector did as she instructed, abruptly glad that he hadn’t taken his own gloves off.
At first, even while holding it, he still wasn’t sure what the thing was, but as soon as he turned it up vertically in his hands, he realized.
It was a shield. A heater shield, to be precise--a flat top with a rounded, pointed bottom. Smaller than a kite shield but larger than a buckler. Hector recognized it from his research into old world armor.
He was suddenly reminded of his afterschool armor-building project with Lance Alexander. It was only a few months ago, but it seemed like a different life. What was Lance doing now, he wondered? He recalled finding a small measure of relief when he saw the list of victims of the Calman High Massacre and realized that Lance’s name was not on it.
Blinking, Hector pulled himself back to the present as Sazandara started talking again.
‘This is a self-repairing shield,’ she explained. ‘It is extremely durable for a number of different reasons. These four vertical lines you see here--these are bars of tungsten carbide. Haqq synthesized them personally. The rest of the metal is a mixture of steel and titanium alloys. Also, the metal has been permanently soul-strengthened by Abbas Saqqaf, so I think you’ll find that it can take quite a bit of punishment before ever needing to repair itself.’
‘Permanently soul-strengthened?’ said Garovel. ‘Lord Abbas can do that?’
‘Of course. But never mind that. I still haven’t told you the best part.’
‘Oh?’
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every night at midnight PST by ~400 words.
dat cliffhanger
ReplyDeleteWait. The saferoom attendant is a servant? I guess it makes sense, to have the most valuable things guarded by someone capable of guarding them, but it seems a bit of a waste of a potential warrior. Unless he got stuck with a mostly-useless outside of combat ability, or it's a rotation.
ReplyDeleteSo Haqq's an integration user, then? I'm still confused as to what exactly the individual aspect of integration is.
So, the good part has to do with touching it to his skin... Does it graft onto his soul, so he can channel his ability through it, creating and destroying it as he requires? Does it collapse into a stylish fedora that looks good only on him, making it instantly obvious should another see him?
Got have a gut feeling, once Hector comes back to from his adventure with being more powerful,he'll still shakes hands with Lynnette. While Garovel might have talked to Voreese, about the details of what happen. When they'll mention the details of Lord Abba's skill to permanently soul-strengthened crafted necessaries.
ReplyDeleteVoreese sees the opportunity to fully convince Hector to give Lord Abbas with Haqq a tour in Greyhold to also permanently soul strengthen the fortress and free battle renovations for a extra oomph! Therefore giving Warrenhold more overall vice of defense. Also for sure Voreese curb stomping Haqq with her previous servant known as Staysa Orlov for creating the material that can evenly repair itself before evenly Haqq knew his work was dwarfed already.
I hope Hectors power does not become dependent on the shield and instead uses it as a stepping stone to increase his level.
ReplyDeleteHector should invite haqq to warrenhold and show him just how much he is lacking in skill.compared the woman who built the place.
Well when half your allies are invisible to people who aren't servants you kinda need to make any minorly important guards servants just so they can talk to them. I'm sure it's a rotation though, and one can always meditate with your eyes open.
ReplyDeleteI just noticed that the shield seems to be made up entirely of things we suspected Hector's element to be...
ReplyDeleteIs the tungsten carbide a cemented mix, like in most real-life WC tools, or did Haqq actually make it monocrystalline?
ReplyDeleteSelf-repairing weapons have some cool possibilities if you can combine them with reactive elements. Could you make a sword whose spine is eternally coated with rubidium, which explodes every time it cuts yet can be safely sheathed in oil? Or a gun that grows back its ammo?
ReplyDeleteHello Captain Atreya
ReplyDeleteOh, man, if only people gave gifts like this for apologies in real life. I'd certainly have a lot of cool stuff...
ReplyDelete