The Spark of Genius (Aaron)

[Wyatt]

Wyatt was truly skilled in his trade. They'd been in port only an hour or so, and he'd already found a cleared out area to practice his metal working. Now granted this practicing just wound up being sharpening his axe and keeping it in perfect shape, but every little bit helped his experience as a smith.

He looked at the head of the axe, hmmm. Running his finger along it, he felt the small nick in the metal. He'd need to do some real forge work on it soon, it was getting to that point.

Seemingly lost in his work, he did not notice that he had company in this rather empty plot of land that was now strewn with tools and metal.

[Aaron Winsett]

"Still at work in front of that forge, eh? Keep it up, and I'll be sticking you in front of me if we get attacked by another fire mage." Aaron approached, somewhat Jauntily. Being in another country, breathing different air, treading on different ground, seeing different sights.... It had him in an excited mood. This was different than just traveling the Lycian provinces. This was bigger. He felt ready to start composing a new song for his only intrument: the whistle.

"Eh... That was a joke. I'd like to think that I could outwit any unfriendly mages that we stumbled across, but it might be a better idea to just run for it." Hmm that thought didn't really match his cheerful attitude. Oh well.

[Wyatt]

Wyatt looked up from his work and spied Aaron walking over. "Hah, some old mage in Laus already tried to fry me, he learned to regret that lesson. I guess us 'brutes' can surprise even the masters of magic." He said, getting up and clapping the soot off of his hands, making a small dark cloud.

He laughed when Aaron corrected himself. "Run? From an enemy who fights like you do? Never! I wouldn't run if we found another axeman, it's a matter of pride at that point. Who is further down their path? A man's challenge."

He grinned, flexing a muscle. "So what have you been up to? It's been quite a while since our paths crossed, I honestly thought you guys were dead after that fire. I mean, I say Yaen and Wein, but Denzel, Lilith, Selk...I haven't seen or heard anything about em since then."

Yeah, that was a depressing conversation topic. "Knowing Sir Denzel he went all the way to Ertuia to meet the Prophet himself."

[Aaron Winsett]

"Yes, and I heard he nearly brought that entire school down on all your heads too..." Aaron said, grinning at Wyatt's confidence. He doubted that it was as well placed as the red-head thought it was. That didn't mean that the smith wasn't strong or talented in and of himself though."That must have been quite an adventure, eh?"

The mage shook his head, for some reason, the two of them always seemed to get into trouble. If they would be traveling together for a while, he hoped things would make a change for the better. Or at least that they wouldn't find themselves in a giant collapsing school, which happened to be burning intensely while it collapsed.

I don't have any room to talk though, it seems. After the fire, a good number of us gathered together, but we never had the cohesion to stay together afterwards. Lillith made it out, as did Selk, and Denzel, but we fragmented. Some of us did eventually make it to Ostia. It was a smoldering ruin.

The mage turned sour, thinking of the ruination brought to Lycia. "Not a single stone left standing. There was a fair amount of magic residue left. I'd say that Etruria Fireballed it into the dirt."

Aaron kicked a rock, and watched it go skittering, bouncing along the stepping stones nearby, and landing in a puddle with a splash. "That wasn't all. something truly amazing happened. Uhh... How to say this... We fell into Roland's Tomb."

That had definitely been a highlight in the time since the big fire. Aaron had never even dreamed of seeing something like that. That had also been where he'd seen the old carvings that had started him on his search for.... Whatever he was searching for.

[Wyatt]

Wyatt half listened to Aaron's tale. Good, at least everyone was alive. The tales of Ostia had made it far and wide, still Aaron saw it with his own eyes. That must have been one hell of a sight. The last line Aaron spoke managed to pierce his skull, and snapped him out of his daze.

"Roland's Tomb you say? Roland...Roland...I know I should know that name..." He mumbled. Theology and History were never his strong suits.

After a moment more of thinking he asked sheepishly. "Remind me, who was Roland again?"

Ok, so he wasn't the smartest part of this group, but that was to be expected from a simple man of the trade from a no name town south of Laus.

[Aaron Winsett]

Aaron was momentarily startled into shock, when Wyatt failed to recognize Roland's name. It completely broke whatever line of thought he'd been maintaining up to that point. After a moment of thought though, he shrugged his shoulders.

"Ah well. It's not a name that many people think of on a daily basis. Roland, Champion of Lycia, and Hero of the Scouring." Quite the important man as far as Aaron was concerned, but also far removed from daily business.

"It's really not that odd that you didn't recognize the name, actually. He's been dead for near on a thousand years, after all." A smirk tugged at the bard's lips. He still was amazed that he'd stumbled on the place.

[Wyatt]

When Aaron said then name Wyatt snapped his fingers. "Ah! Yeah, I remember now! The old stories gran used to tell me said he could use a sword several times bigger then he was, and um...what did she call it? Something like a Flame Sword or something like that? Wow, you found his tomb?"

And at once, Wyatt's eyes gleamed with the prospect of something new. "Was...his weapon there?!" If Aaron had found that sword, the sword of legend, just think of what Wyatt could learn about his craft by studying it's craftsmanship. This was a chance of a life time, the sword used against dragons over a thousand years ago, and Arron fell right into it's nest.

He couldn't hide his excitement even a little bit.

[Aaron Winsett]

"What? The sword?" Aaron then remembered who he was talking to. Of course a blacksmith would be intensely interested in it. "No.... I didn't see it there. I didn't even see the body. I mean it's not like I had time to really look around the place. It was right outside of Ostia, and Etrurians were crawling around everywhere in it."

The Green-haired Mage rubbed his chin, glancing down at the ground in thought. "I just hope that Etruria didn't get it.... It brings back memories of some of those wild things people said a few years back, doesn't it? About Roland having risen from the dead and attacked Ostia. And then all these other rumors, about the dead rising in Ostia several months back. Part of me wonders if there's some sort of connection between all this."

[Wyatt]

Erturians...damnit. If they got their hands on it he'd likely never see it. They'd lock it away in some vault or something never to see the light of day again except during some festival or prayer.

"Bah! Ertuians! They'd rather store that stuff away for all time, afraid of it getting blemished." Wyatt pulled his axe from his back and split a nearby log neatly in two with it. "Weapons are meant for being used, it's their nature. If you just hide it away and look at it, it may as well not exist!" He said, clearly frustrated and not really angry. He then ran a whetstone over his axe, standard maintenance for the blade.

When Aaron spoke of connections, Wyatt looked at him and shrugged. "It's like something out of a story, that's for sure. I think it's beyond me, I'll leave that to the sages to figure out." He said, gesturing to Aaron. "You're sharp as ever, but you always seem to let that curiosity of yours get you into trouble." Wyatt laughed, patting the spear wound in his side that had since scarred over. He'd gotten it when they were raiding the bandit fortress and nearly died.

"Though who am I to talk about being reckless, eh?" He grinned.

[Aaron Winsett]

"I... actually agree with you. A weapon should be used, no matter who's weapon it used to be." Aaron was actually, fairly surprised that he wasn't behaving more protectively towards such an ancient artifact. "As long as it's maintained well. To lose such a remnant to ill care would be an inescapable tragedy.... And don't worry. If Etrurians have taken Roland's sword, the Durandal, then I'll go and fetch it back myself." There was a fervor burning in the mage's eyes and voice that he couldn't explain. The best way he could say it was that Durandal belonged to Lycians. Not to the Etrurians, not to anyone else, and the spirits be with anyone who got in his way.

"Well, my curiosity does get the better of me sometimes, but, like weapons, whats the use of it if it never get's used." Aaron didn't really know what to make of Wyatt speaking of recklessness.

"I take it you've had some troubles from being reckless, yourself?"

[Wyatt]

Wyatt resisted the urge to laugh at Aaron's newfound fire. "Hah! Ah well, something like that would probably be a once in a lifetime find, he probably hid it away someplace special, guarded by traps and all sorts of things. Might be easier to just make one myself!" Wyatt said, and this did bring a laugh from him.

When Aaron made the remark on the wound, Wyatt eyed him curiously.

"You don't remember? We met up on that mountain, where we got ambushed by bandits because we were heading towards their fort. Lilith got attacked and I charged in to help without any support." He patted where the wound lay on his flesh. "And got a nice little reminder of how far I had to grow."

"Now that I think about it, there were a lot of those 'Legendary Weapons' weren't there? I think..eight? A Sword, an Axe, a Lance, a Bow, three magic books and a staff, right?" He asked Aaron. All he really knew is that there was one for each basic type of weapon. And although he knew nothing of magic, he knew there were three kinds of it.

Aaron's kind being what he was most familiar with.

[Aaron Winsett]

"Ah, well, I was kind of in the back, for most of that battle, I think. Back with Selk.... Sorry." That last bit was muttered. He really ought to remember his friends getting beaten up better than that. Granted, he'd just met them at that point.

"Hmm... I don't remember any staff, but there were a pair of swords. Actually, the old legends speak of another weapon of even greater power than those eight. Another sword. It's hard for me to even fathom that though. The kind of power those items must have possessed...." The mage could just shake his head at the thought, which seemed to jar a possibility loose in his own mind.

An interested, excited light seemed to take shape in Aaron's eyes. "Wyatt, just how serious were you about creating a legendary weapon?"

[Wyatt]

Wyatt listened to Aaron speaking of it, but then he arched an eyebrow at Aaron's question.

"You can't be serious. I don't think anyone alive could make something like that. I mean, nations employ the best smiths in the world, and they gets some really amazing weapons, but the best they can do is placing spells into weapons. Like, ummm...have you ever heard of a weapon called a 'Wind Sword'? My Master in Laus told me about it, apparently it's a magical blade that even he didn't have the skill to make. Only the most skilled can even do that, and it's still nothing compared to a legendary..."

Wyatt looked down at his makeshift forge and his own craft, now more displeased with it then he was earlier. "No way do I have that kind of ability."

[Aaron Winsett]

"Oh, come on." Aaron's grin said it all. "You can't tell me that you wouldn't want to try. After all, even a failure isn't a true failure. It's just finding one way not to make a magic weapon."

The mage was always for trying new things, and so far, he'd encountered more successes than failures. Of course, his previous experiments had been adjusting properties of flames, and tying spells onto arrows. Actually imbuing or enchanting an object... He had little to know knowledge on the processes involved there. These "Windswords".... He'd heard of them in passing, but had never encountered any concrete materials to study regarding them. Perhaps that would be something to look into in the future.

"Besides, even the greatest spell-crafters and weapon smiths started someplace." Spell crafting. That was another area the mage wanted to study, but Grandpa Barek had insisted that it was far beyond him when he set out. Hopefully, that had changed since his journey had begun.

[Wyatt]

Wyatt grinned at Aaron's attempt to convince him. "Well yeah, everyone starts somewhere..that's true I guess. But I don't even know how you'd make something like that. How do you forge magic]/i]?" He thought for a moment.

"I mean, when I want to make Bronze I smelt the copper and iron together. But how would that work for magic, smelting a book into a sword? I may not understand magic, but even I know that's crazy."

He pondered further and further. "And a better question is why don't more people do it? If it was just a matter of skill, it'd be more commonplace. Somehow, I don't think it just comes down to raw ability."

He knew the answer to his question before he asked it, but he did anyway.

"Any ideas on where to start with something like that?"