Chapter 1 - The King's Knight

Bright red flames, a torching warmth pounding my skin, a house on fire.

These are my first memories. I don't remember my family, I don't remember their faces, voices, names, nothing. 17 years ago my family was killed by invading demons, and I was the only survivor. Alone, afraid and lost I stood there looking at my family burn to cinders, not old enough to process what was happening in front of me.

As the masses of people gathered none knew what to say to that little boy, who had just lost his entire life. One man dressed in a long white robe approached me and took my hand, he didn't say a word, he only looked into my eyes and saw himself reflected in them. He took me in, fed me and gave me a place to stay in his home. This man was of great nobility and his name carried great respect, as was common for someone who was appointed the personal knight of the king. His name was Garreth Evergarden and from the day I could walk he would teach me how to wield a sword.

"Up and at it kiddo, sun is shining and birds are singing, perfect weather for some swordplay" Garreth came bursting into my room together with a maid who immediately went to work on opening the curtains, blinding me.

"Arghh come one, can't you give me like five more minutes" I shielded myself from the sun that was now beaming in my face.

"Nope, you know the king expects great things from me, and that by extension means you as well. We are not at liberty to disappoint his highness you know" Garreth said and grabbed my feet pulling me out of the bed in one fell swoop. 

"GARETH! Aghhhhh" I screamed as I tried to cover my naked body hanging upside down from Garreth's grasp.

The maid looked up at me, her cheeks getting flushed and embarrassed.

"PUT ME DOWN RIGHT NOW" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

A few minutes later, when I had finally been put down and gotten dressed I met Gareth in the courtyard.

"You took your sweet time Aiden" Gareth said. 

I gave him an irritated gaze and unsheathed my sword, getting into pose.

Gareth smiled as he saw me getting ready to attack him. 

"Ahh good, use that anger on me. Show me what you've learned this far" Gareth said and signaled me to come at him with all I had.

In a flash I sprinted up next to Gareth, swinging my sword to hit his chest. Before the blade could slash him, he moved an inch away at a moment's notice.

"Tsk" I muttered.

Certain individuals in this world are gifted by the spirits and are given the ability to manipulate mana, an energy source flowing in all things, also known as magic. With this mana the user can develop spells and skills that can aid them, and Garreth was one of these individuals. Although he wasn't as well versed in mana and magic as wizards are, he was extremely proficient in sword skills, and his personal favorite was a skill that he had developed that allowed him to see where someone would hit him and then move accordingly, he called this skill 'Premonition Strike' as not only was it ideal for defense, but it also gave him an upper hand in offensive combat.

The very second he moved away from my blade, he switched his weight around and used his right foot to kick me away with great force.

"Try again" Gareth said, smirking.

Once more I tried to dash at him, once again I failed. This went on for a little while. Over the next few hours as I was trying to defeat Gareth, several onlookers decided to look at what was happening. From their perspective I was nothing more than a streak of light flashing at Garreth as he moved out of the way seconds before I would hit. 

The orchestra of metal clashing and air swooshing kept on for several hours, until the sun had finally reached it's highest peak in the sky.

"That's enough, let's go get something to eat. I've heard a lot of good things from this new shop that opened down the street".

"I could- go- for- something to eat" I answered, while working on getting my breath back. 

"Welcome!" The store owner greeted us as we entered.

"Oh! Sir Gareth Evergarden, we're honored" the store owner bowed when he recognized who Gareth was.

"No need for the formalities, we're just two customers here to have some lunch. Could we see the menu?" Gareth responded, clearly embarrassed. 

"Of course sir, right away" the owner went back, and came back out with a menu for us.

"What would you recommend for us?" asked Gareth.

"A fresh batch of ducks came in this morning, our fried duck is quite exceptional if I do say so myself" he answered.

Gareth nodded and the store owner went away to the back of the store. After a few minutes he came back out with two hot plates for us.

The crispy outer texture, and the sweet but delicate taste and softness inside was pure magical.

"Oh my, this, this is absolutely amazing" I said with my mouth full of food.

"You shouldn't speak with food in your mouth" said Gareth, with his mouth full of food as well. 

After we had eaten we returned to the castle, where we were so full we couldn't train more the rest of the day. 

If you didn't know Gareth you would be intimidated by his stature, and his commanding presence. But once you get to know him he is nothing more than a goof. At times I find myself wondering how he even became such a highly esteemed person, the personal knight of the king as well. But seeing his skills in battle speak for themselves, as well as his multitude of accomplishments over the past decades. Defeating one of the Demon king's commanders is enough to become a noble, defeating five of them is more than enough to become the king's knight. 

"Let's just rest today, and we'll work even harder tomorrow hm?" Gareth said. 

"Sure, just please don't wake me up as you did this morning. I don't think the maid appreciated it, and neither did I".

"Oh please hahahaha, the maid were blushing Aiden, you are too modest" Gareth laughed and tapped my back. "But sure, I'll have some of the maids wake you up instead tomorrow morning, just don't be late. Early bird gets the worm and all that" he said. 

"Well I'm off, might as well use this time well- I'll see you later then" Gareth said and walked away.

Suddenly I had a free day, something that rarely ever happened these days. I'll do as Gareth and spend this afternoon wisely. Being a knight in training had it's perks, one of them being a hefty salary, only problem was that I never had any time to peruse the town, until now. 

"Ah here it is" I found myself visiting a new swordsmith that popped up in town, many of the guards at the castle seemed to prize it for their incredible service and not to mention great swords.

"Welcome to Daern and Dunn's swordsmith shop, what can we do for you?" said a grizzly looking dwarf from behind a counter as I entered the shop. 

"I'm looking to upgrade my current sword to something a little bit more durable" I handed the dwarf my sword. He gave the sword a good hard look, turned it around and viewed it from a few different angles as he mumbled to himself. 

"Interesting, very interesting" he finally said and looked up at me with a curious look. "What have you been using this sword for?" he asked me.

"Hunting monsters and training mostly. Oh but I did use it to spit roast a boar I hunted once" the dwarf looked at me disappointingly. 

"Well, despite your 'perfect' care of this sword, the damage that it's taken does not match what you've told me… as a matter of fact I've never seen damage like this ever in my life and I've worked as a swordsmith for decades" he said looking rather puzzled. "Well, it doesn't matter. I think I've got just the right thing for you" the dwarf turned and opened a little wooden window in the wall and yelled.

"DAERN!".

A few moments later a tall beautiful woman came waltzing into the shop from the backroom, her face covered in soot.

"What's up?" she answered casually.

"Would you care to help this customer here forge a new sword? Use the 'you know what' when you forge it mkay?" he said to the woman. 

She looked surprised, but nodded and gestured me to follow her.

The backroom looked just like you would imagine a sword smith's workshop to look like. There were rows and rows of swords hung up on the walls, and even more different metal ores lined up on another wall. In the middle of the room was a large forge with a fire being stoked, and beside it were an anvil, some hammers and a large bucket of what looked like water. 

The woman went over to the row of ores, and picked one on the bottom row. The ore would've been completely black if it weren't for the glimmers of light that shimmered from it. 

"This here is a magic ore" said the woman. "It will imbue your sword with mana and develop skills from its user" she grabbed some tools and threw the ore into the fire. 

"The process is somewhat convoluted so I won't bore you with it. All I need from you is a drop of your blood, so the ore and mana can envelope around your unique lifesource" she grabbed a knife and held it ready in her hand.

"A- alright?" I said, to be honest I was a little overwhelmed, I just came here looking for a simple upgrade not a personally forged magical sword. But I'm not gonna complain. 

She took the knife and slit a tiny sliver on the edge of my finger, a few drops of blood came out and she took it and threw it into the fire together with the ore.

"Woah!" the woman said as the flames grew large and furious all of a sudden. "What the hell" she muttered as she tried to tame it. The warmth of the fire was familiar somehow, almost trance-like- I suddenly felt my entire body become slow and light, like I was about to fall into a dream. 

Before I knew it I found myself not at the swordsmith anymore, I was somewhere else, all around me was darkness except for shimmers of light. 

"Wait" I thought to myself. My surroundings were awfully familiar to the dark ore the swordsmith showed me.

"What is this?" I asked the darkness.

"Hmm" answered the darkness back.

"Who's there?" I asked again, surprised I got a response at all.

"In the tempest of fire's birth, shall emerge one reborn, wielding the essence of renewal and the mantle of benevolence. Their spirit, forged in the crucible of flames, shall command the primal forces of nature" said the darkness once again.

"What???" I said, confused.

"I accept you as my master" said the darkness before I awoke on the floor of the swordsmith again. 

"Are you alright mister?" the woman asked me, as she helped me get up.

"Yhea… I think so" I looked over at forge where the flames were, they seemed to have gotten calm and controlled once more. 

"As I expected" said the dwarf who had been watching for a little while now. 

"What happened?" I asked.

"The ore she mixed with your blood is an old ore, something we dwarves used to tell fairy tales about. I've tried to use it to forge both swords and armor but nothing ever worked, each time the ore would reject the blood and refuse to meld, until now" he said scratching his beard.

"The ore comes from a being of legend, although many don't believe such things, we dwarves hold this legend in especially high regard. The ore comes from an elder dragon, a being that lived many hundreds of years ago. It was said the elder dragon was a wise and powerful being who could see into the hearts of any soul and speak to it- seems parts of that dragon still live on in that piece of ore over there, and it seems to have taken a liking to you" he brushed off an old pipe and started sucking on it, smoke coming from the other end. 

"I'm sorry I sprung all this on ya, but I had an inkling the moment I saw your sword… Don't worry about the price, it's on the house. It's been gathering dust in the back and no one wanted to buy it, this is win-win for the both of us really" he said.

"Right… uhm… this is a lot to take in, I'm gonna be honest with you".

"Again, I'm sorry about that. But let me put this another way, the potential of your new sword is near limitless… Trust us to meld it and we'll have it ready in about a week alright?" the dwarf said. 

"WHAT?!" Gareth said after I told him about what happened. He was nearly jumping out of his seat.

"Uhohohoh I can't wait to see it" he said giddy as a little girl.

After a week of training with Gareth I went to see the swordsmith again. 

"Welcome to D- ah it's you… come in" the dwarf recognized me, but his face looked disappointed, almost heartbroken. 

"So? Is it done?" I asked the dwarf.

"Yhea…" he answered sulking. "Follow me".

We went into the backroom where he grabbed the sword wrapped in a piece of cloth.

"Listen-" the dwarf said. "We tried our best, but this was all the metal allowed us to do" he unwrapped the sword. The sword was crudely put together, as if a toddler had put it together, though a toddler would probably have done a better job than this.

"W-what is this?" shocked, I asked the dwarf.

"We're not sure… As I said we tried our best but the metal wouldn't bend no matter what we did… but I have a theory as to what's happened" he looked almost as disappointed as me. "You remember I told you where the metal came from, and that we melded it with your blood? Well my working theory is that the sword will evolve as you bond with it" the dwarf said.

"Bond with a sword, how does that even work?"

"You've never heard of heroes and warriors who had named swords? Those are magical swords, swords with personalities and as such, bonds. As you train and fight with your sword your bond will grow stronger as well" he said.

A few hours later I met Gareth again in the courtyard.

"So? Let me see it!" Gareth said practically jumping up and down.

"Eh…" I sighed and unsheathed my sword.

Gareth burst out laughing, crying his eyes out. A few minutes went by without any exchange of words, only the sound of Gareth barely getting air into his lungs. 

"Are you done?" I said, annoyed as all hell.

"Almost hahaha" he continued. "Agh, that's good stuff man" he said and wiped his tears away. "So that's really your magical sword huh?".

"Yhea apparently… Come to think of it, doesn't the king have a magical sword as well?" I remember seeing the king carrying a large, thick sword on his back from time to time.

"Yhea he sure does. It's imbued with his mana, for anyone other than the king that large slab of metal is as heavy as a house- but for the king it's like carrying a normal sword".

"Woah… that's awesome. How come mine looks like this then?" I asked Gareth.

He thought for a moment. 

"Well, you said it comes from an elder dragon from ages ago right? The dwarf might be right then, the sword could evolve as you grow with it… I've heard of some swords that change appearance before but it's very very rare" Gareth said. 

"Evolve huh?" I looked at my ugly deformed sword. 

That night I got barely any sleep, I was kept awake by dreams I couldn't remember the next morning… Only the feeling of those dreams remained, a chilling cold feeling of loneliness. 

From the darkness of my mind spoke a consciousness I was yet to be aware of.

"I am curious to see the heights you shall ascend too".

End of Chapter 1.