Chương 14: The Shade With Their Blade

Shade was non-verbal, at least June thought so. During the days that June chased her, the closest thing to a voice she heard from her was the sound of her breathing. He didn't care much, though; he had befriended plenty of nonverbal types in the past. Shade wordlessly shoved her twin daggers with their sheaths towards June and looked at him with a pouty, upset look. She wasn't much taller than him, but he still had to look up when talking to her.

June took the daggers in both hands; they were heavier than he thought they would be, even with his strength. He looked at the aloof shade and said quietly; his voice sounded like a deep-toned harp.

"Uh, thanks." June slowly turned around, maintaining a weird, awkward eye contact until he left the room. He was happy he got the blades; his crew taught him what to do during intermissions of his game of cat and mouse. He thought Shade would leave him to his devices, but he heard the harmonic tune coming from his own shadow.

'She really likes her swords.' June walked over to the bay where his crew mostly lingered; the bay contained several workshops within sight of one another, so tools weren't that hard to find. More importantly, he wanted to gloat a little to his crewmates; their hazing ritual had failed, and though he didn't care for external validation, he wouldn't mind a compliment or at least some positive reinforcement. It would be a little awkward though, since Shade was still sitting in his shadow.

June gingerly placed the daggers on the table. He weaved his way through the taller instruments to avoid the sight of his crewmates. A compliment is nice, but he didn't want to show himself getting giddy in front of Shade. June was good at keeping his face like stone; his resting look made him look sleep-deprived once, but now that his eyes were a striking gold, his tired look was more aloof, if anything, but even if his face was stone cold, he knew well that people had their tells, and so did he.

June unsheathed the blade after putting some scrap leather on the table for the dagger to rest on; if he was going to be watched by the owner herself, he was going to treat this dagger like the queen of England if he had to. He inspected the blade; it grew dull. It was washed recently but not enough since blood was still caked on its tip and hilt. The handle's crude leather wrapping was coming undone. June was a stranger to violence or weapons; he knew of them but always navigated his life peacefully.

Most of his bullies became his friends; he was never a fighter in the end. Still, even though he was more of the media and online type, June loved tinkering and taking things apart when he had the chance to, which wasn't often. Working with weapons was exciting and intriguing, especially weapons handled by Awakened, despite Shades' awesome powers and the skill that was evident just by looking at her blade; she was an Aspirant. In fact, her entire team was, except for the giant whose name he didn't know.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Her weapon carried her will; even now June could faintly see wisps of black steaming from parts of her weapon, an ability she gained while playing with Shade. The will seemed distributed along specific structural parts; the blade itself was mundane, and there were plenty of better materials in the shop. Hell, even the table he was working with was normally more sturdy.

But the will coating the bits of her blade made it stronger by the table by bounds; a faint sense of danger gave June goosebumps when he placed his hand near the blade; it was will-shaped into killing intent. He was amazed; this was one of the fuel sources that Grace was talking about, Will. The fact that the blade was strong enough to break an industrial grinder if it was chucked in, despite being a mundane dagger, was amazing.

She wasn't even holding the weapon; it was in a weakened state, but it could slice a finger off like a knife through butter. He looked at the blade; his intrusive thoughts told him to touch the blade. His body could heal, and the cut would be clean too.

'I think my power is regeneration?' June wasn't completely sure, but he had to shake himself out of it. He began to unwrap the dagger's handle and wrap it in a monster leather he had borrowed from the nightmare he killed; apparently it was fairly powerful, but "fairly" in most regards here meant a team of experienced Aspirants would work together to fight it. It was a new species, so little was known about it.

June did get a couple scraps of its leather in a box; he felt sick, but materials of this quality were hard to come by, according to his crewmates. Regardless, he shared it with his crewmates; he didn't care much for the scraps of his first kill, just imagining its death was enough of a prize for him. June finished wrapping the handle as his memory of its death ended. He accidentally infused a bit of his will from getting excited thinking about his first kill; she wouldn't mind probably.

If she did, she would have popped out of his shadow and done something. This was the first time June saw his own will and knew the theory but hadn't really done anything to provoke any movement of this mystery power. He was a dreamer, so his will and power flowed like wine; it was easy and convenient but also dangerous. An intrusive thought alone could turn a popsicle stick he touched into a deadly weapon.

In this case, his will messily encompassed the handle, pushing out the shadowy wisps with a golden light; it was still just as sturdy, at little more even, but he just accidentally made the handle a more deadly weapon than the blade. Shade didn't seem to mind; the harmonic tune became clearer and clearer as June got used to her presence. He started picking up slight changes of tune too; some sounded happy, upset, or confused. He was probably just assigning meaning to the changes of tune for his own entertainment.

He sharpened the blade, then polished it. He then poured a coating on the blade that turned the crusted blood back into liquid. After a thorough wash and repeat of the previous steps, it was ready. He picked up the blades and sheathed them; his will on the handle was a genuine mistake but still an improvement nonetheless. He coated spots devoid of will with his own; he thought of mountains for weaker parts, and he thought of the creature he killed for the dangerous parts.

His will would dissipate over time, according to his crewmates, especially since he had no real idea of how it worked. It was a practiced skill; June managed to pick it up through watching his crewmates work, and it helped that he was able to see Will. It wasn't an omnipotent sight since he needed to be exposed to Will long enough to perceive it. June's achievement of learning could be considered amazing, but he was far behind what his crew was capable of.

Still, they said that it would take months just for him to just be able to use it, but it turns out strong imagery, or emotions, are a crude yet effective method to imprint will. The blades were sheathed. Now what does he do? Should he call her out?

'I think she doesn't know that I know she's in my shadow.' June, in the end, decided to feign ignorance and just gave it to his crew leader. The crew leader gave him an incredulous look of surprise when he handed them the blades.

'So it really was a hazing ritual.' He could smell their surprise, but the look on their faces was enough to know. Now he had to wait for Shade to leave his shadow.