Christopher Kellen - Elegy

Nothing happened.

"It's so… warm," she said, staring into the light.

He stepped up and placed a hand around her shoulders, guiding her forward. She gave some resistance at first, but then she relaxed and allowed herself to be pushed closer to the almost blindingly-bright light. With one hand he grasped her right wrist, and as they approached the font he reached out her arm to touch the crystalline structure. He wrapped her fingers around it, and she gasped.

A piece of the crystal broke off in her hand as though it was little more than dirt. It came free, a long, slender piece drawn from the ground to exactly the proper length, and though it cut her hand and blood flowed and she cried out, the blood that dripped forth burned with tiny flecks of blue flame.

He had created an Arbiter.

This event invalidated many of the things that he'd been told about the creation of an Arbiter from the masters. He'd always been told that the exposure had to begin at a young age so that the human form could become accustomed to the energy, and that it took a period of several years before they could Draw their first manna blade from the earth. Here it was, it had been merely hours since her first heart exposure and she had already Drawn.

It was incredible, it was beyond comprehension, but the truth stood before him in a radiant white shift, glowing with all of the power of the manna. There were things about his profession that had been lost to history, and this was apparently one of the more dangerous – and also potentially useful – that had been found once again.

And for all of that, he thought bitterly, the Elders will almost certainly have us both executed for blasphemy and heresy.

He pulled his manna blade free from its confines with its rasping sound, and gently guided her to face him. Still her blood ran in rivulets down the crystalline shard that she held in her right hand, and it burned and infused the crystal with her essence just as it had done for him all those years ago. He grasped his own blade with his free hand, slicing deep into the flesh, and then placed it over hers so that their blood ran together down her new sword. There was a bond between the student and the master that ordained them that, according to teachings, could not be invalidated by any means.

But now, he was forced to think, Can I really trust any of those teachings?

"You are ordained an Arbiter," D'Arden whispered, his voice still incredulous. He repeated the words of the creed with little intervention of his own mind. "Search out evil and corruption. Strike it down with the power of purity. Keep your mind and your body free of corruption, walk the path of the righteous, and forever strong you shall be in the light of the manna."

She stared at him with her green eyes that now also glowed blue with the light of the manna. The words that had been stated by every ordained Arbiter since the beginning of their order, the words urged by the manna and by the flow of the land tumbled almost unwittingly from her lips. "In the light of the manna I serve."

D'Arden couldn't help it – he smiled. In the face of everything, the corruption that permeated this city and the danger that still lurked within it, he smiled. He had found a light here, a light that would go on and would not be extinguished. A new Arbiter, accidentally discovered and added to their order by the virtue of simply trying to save the life of a talented sword-slinger. Now there was another voice, another sword of light to battle the darkness that was ahead. She was untrained, she was still rough with the sword and she was young, but she would learn, and the power that they shared would stand against any darkness that might impede their path.

The smile faded. He could not share with her the lurking dread he felt about their return to the Arbiter’s Tower; it would have to remain silent and hidden for now. Perhaps his fears would not come to pass.

With concentrated effort, D’Arden shook off the gloom that threatened to overwhelm him, and forced the smile back to his lips.

"Come, Elisa. We have much to do here." He held out his free hand.

She grasped it with hers.

Their return to Calessa was nothing short of triumphant. Where hours before there had been curses muttered in low tones and looks of anger and rage and betrayal, now there was reverence, something that could be almost described as worship. One of their own had died in the line of service and had returned to them, a feat which was beyond the impossible. The light from her manna shard radiated outward onto the faces of those who clamored to see the dead returned to life in radiance, instead of onto expressions of mixed awe and fear.

He had guided her through her first trance, and she'd shown remarkable ability. Once they returned to Calessa, he retrieved an extra blade wrapping from his saddlebags, and they'd clothed her at a tailor's shop in a manner which was appropriate for a fledgling Arbiter – flowing, unrestricting clothes of white and grey. The white symbolized the purity of the newly pledged, and the grey showed the long road ahead. He also gave her his spare sheath, and within an hour upon their return to the city, she looked all the part of an Initiate.

Once they were done, D'Arden looked over his new protege with an eye for detail. "It's not the right cloth, but it will do. At least the look is appropriate. We will have to fetch you proper clothing once we return to the Arbiter's Tower. I'm afraid you won't be going to Hartsknell after all."

"I'd rather stay with you," she said softly.

"And so you will," he replied. "There will be time for formal training in the future. Right now, there is an evil that threatens Calessa and all of its citizens, and though you are no longer one of them, you bear the same responsibility to them as you always did. We must find the evil that is corrupting this city and raising the toll of dead with every passing day."

"Where do we look?" she asked him.

"Right now, we look beneath the old Calessan fort, in the north part of the city. There was an Arbiter who visited this city five years ago, according to your guard captain, and he told me that the Arbiter disappeared beneath that fort into the catacombs beneath. Though we strive for purity in all things, some of our number do fall victim to the corruption. Those who do need to be destroyed at all costs, for one who falls to the corruption wielding such power as we do are a dangerous foe indeed," D'Arden told her.

"Do we stand a chance against an enemy like that?" she asked.

He nodded. "We are two, and he is one. Though you are new to your power, still our combined energy will be stronger than his corruption. We will find him, and we will purify this place so that life may return to normal before we leave here."

She fingered the wrapped handle of her new manna blade gingerly. "The blade is so light – will I know how to use it?"

"You will find it more comfortable than the heavy steel you swung about previously. It is lighter, it is faster, and it is several times more deadly, especially to those who fight from the side of corruption. We must be careful, though, exposing you to such danger so young. If I had a choice, I would leave you to await my return, but I cannot. I will need your strength as surely as I will need my own."

Elisa nodded, though it was somewhat tentative.

“Come, child,” D’Arden said with a slight smile, a warm expression that he had not used in several years – the approving glance of a teacher to a student. She responded to it immediately, by looking shyly away with a broad smile. “We go to the old Calessan fort to discover the source of this evil.”

They approached the broken ruin that had once been a proudly standing fort many years previous. D’Arden remembered from that time that there was talk about sending an Arbiter to Calessa to destroy an evil that had inhabited this old place, but he had been on mission at the time, and was not informed about who had finally been sent.