Page 1533

((The 14 pages of Valentine's Day + Double Wednesday -- Page 2 of 16))
‘It’s a famous weapon,’ said Garovel. ‘Once wielded by the great hero, Logante.’

Hector was unfamiliar with the name. ‘What made him a hero?’

‘He prevented a civil war and brought peace to Calthos some 1300 years ago.’

‘Okay, well, that’s pretty cool. What happened to him?’

‘Last I heard, this spear was in the belly of a particularly nasty worm, so...’

‘Logante got eaten?’

‘Probably, yeah.’

‘Wow... what a happy ending...’

‘It’s probably not the most fucked up piece of history lying around down here.’

‘Great...’

‘Oh hey. Speaking of...’ Garovel motioned to a small piece of black cloth poking out of a closed trunk. ‘I wonder if that’s... hmm.’

Hector didn’t bother asking for clarification and decided to just open the trunk straight away. It stuck on something, but with a bit more effort, he yanked the lid free.

Something long and metal came flipping out and smacked against his chest hard enough to embed itself in his breastplate.

Surprised but unharmed, Hector grabbed the apparent handle and pulled the object out to examine it.

It was a flanged mace, he realized. He recognized the design, more or less, from his research. It was fairly small and certainly shinier than the pictures he’d seen on the internet, but it felt pretty hefty in his hand, and the bulbous head looked like it would hurt to get hit with. The head had four vertical rivets, each one perpendicular to the next, and the thick spike at the tip had no doubt been what caused it to get stuck in his armor the way it had.

Hector wanted to ask Garovel about it, but the reaper was quite obviously more interested in the black cloth from before.

‘Oh my goodness,’ said Garovel slowly. ‘I was right. It’s the Scarf of Amordiin.’

‘“Amoor-deen?”’

‘Haven’t heard of him before?’

Hector shook his head.

‘Hooboy, well. Where to begin...?’ Garovel fell quiet, perhaps gathering his thoughts.

Hector removed the Scarf and closed the trunk again in order to sit on the lid. He was abruptly feeling as though he should get comfortable for what he suspected was going to be yet another history lesson. His hands were already quite full of items to examine, anyway, between the spear, scarf, and mace.

‘Okay, well, it’s not exactly a happy tale,’ said Garovel.

‘I figured as much.’

‘You want the full version or just the highlights?’

‘Highlights, please.’

‘Full version, it is, then.’

‘Fuck you,’ said Hector, though he did laugh.

‘So Amordiin was this young guy who really wanted to make a name for himself, okay? And he got it into his head that he could accomplish this by rescuing a princess. Problem was, he couldn’t actually find any princesses who were in need of rescuing.’

‘That WOULD make the plan more difficult...’

‘Yeah, so, can you guess what he did?’

‘Uh... come up with a new plan?’

‘Aha. No. He kidnapped the crown princess of Vantalay.’

‘Oh. That’s, um... hmm.’

‘Yeah.’