Swords Are Cool

They were all in the living room once more, curled up on the couches with sunlight streaming through the window. Fate suspected a neighboring Embodiment of Ice was testing out their powers because snow was falling from the sky and covering the ground.

Like everyone else, Fate had a blanket draped around his shoulders and a steaming cup of hot chocolate in his hands as he watched an old Christmas movie from thousands of years ago. "Snow means Christmas," Tom had insisted. "And besides, Vennasina needs to learn about the holiday."

No one argued, content to watch a red-nosed reindeer move jerkily by the unseen hands of the stop-motion animators. Autumn, Nikolas, and Maya were slated to head out within the next few hours, so everyone was getting as much quality time in as they could before they had to say their goodbyes once more.

Fate couldn't focus on the television, though. He stared in its direction, but in reality, was looking past it, into his memories.

Maya, the Emotional of the group, caught his absentminded staring first. She leaned in, whispering, "what's wrong? I can tell something is on your mind." Cait, two seats away, glanced in their direction worriedly, possibly having noticed the same.

"Have you ever heard of Ontragna?" Fate asked distractedly. The group, sans Nikolas, turned to him. Fate had spoken at normal volume. Nikolas continued to watch the movie, loudly slurping his hot cocoa.

"Ontragna?" Tom scratched his chin. "I've heard snippets about it back when I was with the PPK. It's one of the many planets outside of the Embodiment Protection Force's influence but still monitored due to its high concentration of Embodiments. Why?"

"I had a dream last night," Fate said, his eyes losing their cloudiness and landing on Tom. "I was a man in a cell, held captive by someone named Ythmun. The guy I was, Samnul, accused Ythmun of working for the Advanced."

The atmosphere went from carefree to serious instantly, even Nikolas focusing on Fate with a grim expression. Even Vennasina grew solemn, having undoubtedly been told of them by Tom. "Are you sure?" Nikolas said.

"Positive. They threw the name around two or three times. They even mentioned their end goal, the 'perfect being.' There's no mistaking it."

"That's good news," Autumn said. "We've been trying to find traces of the bastards for months. Now we finally have a lead."

"Yes, but I won't be able to help you," Nikolas said. "The contract comes first, as it always has. But if anyone can take down an entire army by themselves, it's one of us. And since you'll have Cait with you, it's basically overkill."

Fate nodded. "I'm just trying to figure out whether I should help this Samnul or not. Ythmun said he wanted the man to talk, he might have some important information for us."

"I say go for it," Maya said earnestly. "We all know what it's like to be beholden to the whims of those monsters. No one deserves that."

"They might brainwash him and turn him against us if we don't do something anyway," Nikolas responded dryly. "Two birds with one stone."

Fate crossed his arms. "Alright, then. Tom, any clue where Ontragna is?"

"Yeah, gimme your Ex-Ear and I'll put in the coordinates."

"Can't you just email it to me?"

"Well, yeah, but this way I can chart a path for you as well. There's a lot of asteroid belts in that solar system."

Fate sighed. "Alright." He took off his Ex-Ear and handed it to Tom, who stuck it on his own ear and started darting his eyes around to interface with the technology. After a few minutes, he took it off and handed it back.

"There," he said. "That path should be safe for the next few months before Ontragna moves too far from its current position. It has a really wide orbit around the solar system's sun."

"Thanks." Fate stuck his Ex-Ear back on, studying the path Tom had given him. "Seems a little… bumpy," he said.

"It takes some skill, but you have that in – well, not in spades, but you're pretty good at flying."

"I was," Fate said bitterly. "Before I spent almost thirty years without touching a ship."

"Thirty years?" Tom asked in confusion. "Did you also go to some place with time dilation? Places like that are supposed to be extremely rare."

"Nah, I was in a special chamber designed to bend time so an hour inside was a second outside."

"And what did you do in there?" Autumn butted in. "Learn how to breathe through your skin? Cultivate, like in those old Chinese novels?"

"I learned how to use a sword."

"… a sword. You spent thirty years learning how to use… a sword."

"Yep."

"WHY?"

"Swords are cool."

"Is that what that thing was earlier when Vennasina stepped in? Your sword?" Autumn glided her gaze over Fate's body, looking for a bulge that would indicate where his sword his. She grimaced. "You didn't keister it, did you?"

"I'm not insane, Autumn." He showed them his Sword Ring, twisting it around with his thumb and causing his Manifest Miao Dao to appear in his grip. He stood, demonstrating a few of the forms he had learned, moving gracefully and fluidly from one position to the next.

"Nice moves," Nikolas said. "But why is that sword better than your railguns?"

"Because unlike those, this will be useful even when I'm a Realized," Fate explained, funneling some Divine Energy into the dark blade. It shimmered, darkening more and more until it seemed like a rift leading to space itself.

He pulled a business card out of his pocket, holding the sword with the edge facing up, and dropped the business card over the blade. It fluttered down, and when it hit the blade, it flashed, for a brief instant appearing like another window to space before it disappeared entirely. "Manifest sword," Fate said proudly.

"How the hell did you earn one of those?" Tom said with noticeable jealousy.

"Killed an army for a king, turned his daughter into a queen, created world peace. The usual."

"Those things are so expensive. I've wanted one ever since I knew they were a thing."

"And why is that?" Fate asked with a grin.

"Because swords are cool," Tom admitted reluctantly.