Leeka and the Blade Trials, Chapter 2

Leeka and the Blade Trials, Chapter 2
File:Leeka and the Blade Trials, Chapter 2 (lorebook).png Hint: Found through Durstin Tallow
Category:	Misc
Area:	Serbule Hills
Visibility:	Ghosted Until Found

Leeka and the Blade Trials, Chapter 2 is a Lorebook found through a quest given by Durstin Tallow in Serbule Hills.

Content

"Okay, so I'm trying not to call you stupid here, but you're making camp in a swamp instead of going indoors. Can you just explain the logic? The door's right there! You aren't going to sleep well in the swamp. You'd be better off getting this over with." Heartseeker lay resting against Leeka's backpack as she struggled to flatten the earth enough to let her sit.

Leeka glared at the sword, snarled, then continued with her work.

"Come on," said the sword. "We need to work together here. I'm on trial just as much as you!"

Leeka opened her pack and unwrapped dinner, a portion of jerky-flavored lembas brick that she'd bought in Ormala City two weeks ago. She sat down and tore off a piece of the brick with her teeth, sweat streaming down her face in the fetid night air. She picked up Heartseeker and considered its heft. A clunky blade, a bit too large for what it was. A bit too heavy.

Her mother had wielded this blade in many battles, and taught young Leeka that one day the blade would be handed down to her. And after some misadventures, it had... but the sword couldn't do the fabulous things her mother could make it do. No fire, no sparks, no slicing through metal like it was butter. It was a sharp, resilient blade with keen fighting instincts. But her favorite blade at home had all that. Of course, Heartseeker could talk and think, but that didn't seem like much of a power. She would really have preferred the sparks.

"I should have brought my regular blade," she muttered for the fiftieth time.

"I keep telling you, you can't do the Blade Trials of Melkar without a Blade of Melkar!"

"I mean that I would bring two swords. I would fight with my sword Fell Light, and then use you in the ceremony at the end. Or whatever it is that we need to do." She bit off another jerky-flavored bite. The taste was disgusting, a mixture of jerky and cake. "Do you still remember nothing of these trials, sword?"

"I told you, nothing!" said the sword. "Something makes me forget the times when I'm around here. Probably these swamp gasses. And I'm not the only one. Your mother never told you about these trials, did she? She forgot, same as me."

Leeka pondered this. It meant that Leeka herself might forget the trials, too. She felt fear creeping into her mind and with practiced ease she drove it away. "Sword, you must have something useful you can tell me about the trials. Not of the trials themselves, but... history. Hearsay. Anything."

"I know that there used to be a lot more Blades of Melkar like me, but now there's only three of us. Somehow we can get... broken, or shattered or something inside there. But we have to complete the trials with each new owner to unlock all our powers."

She pushed down her impatience. "Yes, yes. What else can you tell me? Tell me about Melkar. Did he say anything about the trials?"

"What? Look, I've never met any gods. I don't think I have, anyway."

"Well, Melkar is the god of hunting and self-sufficiency, so why did he make magic swords anyway? Wouldn't he prefer magic bows?"

"Oh, now I see the problem. No, Melkar didn't make us. We used to be Blades of Romast. But Romast died and Melkar took over. This trial was made by Romast, but it's been bastardized to suit Melkar's purposes. You know how Melkar's the patron of mutts like your mom and you? Uh, ... no offense."

Leeka rolled her eyes. Her mother had been a half-human, but her father was an orc. So Leeka was a quarter human. And never a day went by that her tribe hadn't reminded her of her freakishness. The words held no power on her now. "Go on."

"And look at me: I'm a mutt too. I'm too top-heavy for a one-hander and two light for a two-hander. I was made for a race that went extinct thousands of years ago! I don't really belong anywhere. Just like you don't belong."

Leeka tensed in surprise. Its words had managed to hurt! Everyone wants to belong, she told herself. But some people just weren't destined to fit in. Melkar's chosen people: the bastards, the lost, the obsolete. Those who have to go it alone. Or almost alone.

As the sun set, Leeka took her stolen Viewoscope out of her bag and started watching the door, her eyes straining to make out shapes in the gloom. Nothing yet. She settled in to wait and see if her hunch was right."