Dormant Spark [Veigue/Nayru]

[Deleted]

Well, the events that have transpired thus far have certainly been...interesting, as opposed to the usual glum and disappointing. Sure, there was still much of that by default, but Veigue had an odd mesh of feelings enveloping him at the moment as he stood there, standing before both Sigmund & Cecile Magnus', his parents, resting place. He never thought he actually could be standing here again after being exiled and all. The banishment always prevented him from actually visiting his parents' graves, even though the small graveyard was outside the village. He just simply avoided coming this way at all in his years of wandering through countries, otherwise they got the memories stirring. However...given the spiritual showdown and the beginning of mending his wounds that were inflicted to him both physically and mentally in the past, he didn't quite know how to feel at the moment.

He was distracted for a little moment, almost forgetting that he wasn't even wearing his same old clothes anymore. Lena surprised him upon returning to her campsite after she said she wanted to give him something. The snow white swordmaster attire he was wearing had belonged to both his father and grandfather, apparently. Vandalf passed it down to Sigmund, and Sigmund more than likely intended for Veigue, though he was just speculating. However, now understanding a bit of his father's struggle and hearing it from his own mouth, he didn't have to second guess that anymore. It was quite the refined look...something he could get used to. Sure, it differed entirely from the average sacaean clothing, and really...he no longer looked like one with it on. But Veigue for some reason didn't have a problem with that. They liked to brand his family as a clan instead of a tribe anyways, so could he really consider himself a true sacaean at this point? Eh. Who cares, really? Same old crap he wasn't concerned about anyway.

But his new outfit wasn't really important to him at the moment as he continued to stare down at his parents' resting place. He held the sheathed Kenji firmly in his hand as his thoughts about the past came flowing back. He always missed his mother, but standing in front of her grave again reawakened that feeling he had when she passed away with him in her arms. He just stood there...stiff as a board the same as he was nine years ago when the shock had fell upon him, still after all this time unable to express the proper emotion needed to mourn for the loss of a loved one. He was kind of half expecting her to rise from the grave all fine and well with the biggest smile on her face, but he wasn't that foolish enough to look forward to something so haphazard. As he patted his chest, he always seemed to have forgotten that he passed on his mother's pendant to Nayru. That was still a better place for it and he didn't want it back, but old habits really tend to die hard, it seems.

He opted for just taking a seat in the grass now, staring sharply at his father's grave as the events of earlier couldn't seem to get out of his mind. He finally had closure on his long-time dispute with the man, and he could finally look at his resting place without resentment. But instead, his feelings about it now were both a mix of how he felt about his mother's passing and struggling to fully accept what he had learned. He just sat there hopelessly, though at least the hate was lifted from his heart, so that was better than nothing. But he had new trials and tribulations ahead of him as well, those of which additionally weighing on his mind.

"Hm..." He grunted lowly to himself as he searched his brain tirelessly like he always does, feeling a slight pain in his chest as he sat there and clenched that area with his free hand.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

Blissfully unaware of any gloom and doom in her vicinity, Nayru yawned as she ambled aimlessly onwards, a great and terrible gesture that grew from a dainty little yawn at first to a multi-stage yawn that by its completion, could have consumed entire worlds... or at least showcased how far open she could stretch her mouth if anyone was watching. After their little adventure earlier in the day at the shrine, she'd ended up taking a catnap for a bit to try to relax her body after the strain on it from the fight. Now she was up and about again, and none the worse for wear.

...Well, maybe a little. Her body was a little sore, and her pride just a touch bruised at how little physical strength she had been able to safely exert. It was a little depressing to be reminded that even despite having relatively safe access to her power, back in her original body, she was still going to have to work like hell to do much with it - while she wouldn't be caught dead telling Veigue as much, Nayru had sort of been hoping that she'd magically get ALL her powers back and be able to use them flawlessly to boot.

Okay, so her work ethic wasn't... perfect, exactly, but was it really so wrong to hope that something might actually be that easy for once? It was total BS that she had to actually work and train to do the stuff that - hmm. Nayru's train of thought derailed pretty hard when she remembered that she wasn't actually sure what exactly a normal dragon was supposed to be capable of - most in Arcadia didn't see any point whatsoever in trying to 'power up' their human form, much less parade it, and she certainly hadn't had a great deal of examples since leaving. So maybe she was forging new ground here... which was kind of cool, in theory, but also kind of intimidating, because HOLY CRAP they - whoever 'they' were - could not have picked a worse guinea pig. Yeah, let's see what happens when the crazy chick with mother issues gets phenomenal cosmic power, THAT definitely couldn't go wrong or anything-

Wait, what? That had definitely looked like - hey, that WAS Veigue, wasn't it? She wasn't quite sure, the clothes looked wrong, but at this point the hairdo was recognizable and general sense of long-suffering resignation was familiar enough she was pretty sure it was him anyways.

...Yup. What was he doing in the graveyard anyways? Visiting someone, she supposed... Related to what had happened earlier, was her guess. Maybe his father's grave, or both his parents? She was torn for a moment between giving him peace or making sure he was alright, but truth be told she was still a little worried about him after earlier, he hadn't been very forthcoming about what all had happened in there but had seemed pretty rattled when he gave her and Lena a quick overview, and Nayru knew all too well from personal experience that mental battles could be exhausting.

She called out to him as she approached his resting place. "Hey Veigue." Her voice was quiet, respectful of their surroundings, but carried well enough to (hopefully) rouse him from his thoughts. "Everything alright?"

[Deleted]

His eyes turned to the corners as he heard movement just moments before hearing his name called out. Speaking of old habits dying hard, at least he didn't immediately draw his sword out in reaction. Granted, that could have been due to recognizing Nayru's voice beforehand, but he couldn't help but feel like he was at least beginning to diminish that bad habit of swinging first when hearing movement around him. Maybe it was the lack of bandit and Jaquio attacks on him lately? Meh. Now that he's brought that up, it was only a matter of time before that crap started happening again. Man, he just can't get a rest from anything, can he? Well, the more he's able to get closer to solving all of his problems, the better, he supposed. And even though it was wrong, he didn't want his skills to get rusty without some sort of combat to refresh him. But he shook that out of his mind as he finally responded.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Just making a belated visit..." Welp, that was partly a lie and partly not. Veigue just knew that this was considered normal for him at this point, so he wasn't trying to make a big deal over it. However, he didn't know if Nayru just meant all right in general or all right towards the situation. Regardless, he knew it wasn't too much of a good idea to openly shrug off the fact that he really was having a hard time with everything. Whether it'd be his damned pride or reluctance to drag people and friends down with him, that would always get in the way of opening up more. However, the whole "natural poker face" thing never really helped out much with getting people to read his feelings either. How is that even a good thing to some people, he thought. Sure it had it's advantages, but...eh. He turned back towards his parents' graves afterwards, but still acknowledging Nayru's presence.

"The recovery's coming along better, I hope?" He was obviously referring to Nayru's recovery process from her ordeal. Veigue was somewhat certain that everyone was off doing their own thing and he'd be alone here to not bother anyone, so seeing Nayru here was somewhat of a surprise considering he figured she'd still be resting up. Though...not like he expected anything less from her, heh. But how'd she even know he'd be here? Well, maybe she didn't know and just happened to be walking around. Eh, doesn't matter, he supposed. Not like he was against her being here or anything. He was in fact glad, but of course, he'd never openly express that.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

A belated visit... that could mean any number of things. His mother's grave, or his father's; the events earlier suggested the father, but his response was noncommittal enough that she couldn't really tell either way. But - frankly - that was alright. It was Veigue's life, not hers, and he didn't have to let her in any further than he already had... she knew how hard it had been for him so far to do that much. Give it time. Or as Aerious liked to say, it took time and pressure to make diamonds. She could empathize to quite some degree, having had similar troubles opening up to HIM in the first place.

So Nayru simply let it rest, sensing that this might not be one of those times where pushing would accomplish much of anything good. Especially given his own deflection of the subject shortly after. Truthfully though, she wasn't entirely sure how to answer his question, given that she herself didn't really know. It was kind of ironic honestly, she was one of the dragons best suited to answering that question in Elibean history, given that she'd never even heard of a dragon changing their appearances so completely even once, much less twice - but being in that position, not to mention not having access to Arcadian libraries from which to lean the answer from those who had tried it once, meant she really wasn't in much better of a position than a normal dragon.

"It's... coming," the dragon eventually settled for, a somewhat evasive and hesitant answer that wouldn't be that hard to notice... even for her. It felt wrong to respond like that though, especially to Veigue, so she quickly continued after a pause. "Physically I'm in... passable condition, but channeling my power is... difficult. Magical circuits have severely atrophied, I think." Well, she hoped that was all it was, anyways. Her voice changed a little as she continued, growing a little more thoughtful as she moved past the obvious into the realm of possibility. "Theoretically speaking, shouldn't last for too long - it's roughly the same concept as muscle atrophy in a human. Yeah, it sucks when you first realize you have it, but after spending some time flexing those muscles, they get back into working order. Same thing here. I'm not permanently crippled, just need to keep working through the - working with what I have."

Working through the pain Something else he didn't really need to know. It wasn't life threatening, anyways, and she could hardly complain after things had turned out so well. It wasn't even that she was all that ashamed of Veigue knowing, in normal circumstances she might have admitted to it, but she REALLY didn't want to bother him with yet more issues while he was dealing with his own emotional turmoil. Nayru just hoped that having someone to talk to might help keep Veigue's mind occupied somewhat - he tended to get real damn hard on himself if left to his own devices, and she figured that if she was supposed to be any kind of friend, she might as well try to counteract that. That was her excuse, anyways.

[Deleted]

"I see." He was still unable to fully comprehend her process of recovery, though that was due to the simple fact that he didn't have her feelings. If he did, he'd be more helpful with his words. Though one thing that was giving him a bit of nostalgia as he glanced back at his mother's grave was how she always talked with praise for dragons in her stories. While Nayru was coping with her recovery and how much her body differed from humans, they went through the same suffering as everyone does. Whether it's receiving physical and emotional pain or recovering from it. So seeing Nayru working through the hardship was enough alone to not really care that she was different. Not like he ever saw her any differently than he did before, just that his mother's good parenting...despite the short time she had to raise him, was something he couldn't ever forget.

"...I'm not sure how long we'll be here, but hopefully once we depart, you'll start feeling better faster with all the travelling we'll undoubtedly be doing." He still didn't even know where they were going afterward though. But it wasn't like they always had a set destination for their travels anyway. Veigue was always the type to just go with the wind, so it was also relaxing to still be able to do that while in her company. It was all he knew how to carry on anyway. His journey's path has always been unclear, so he preferred to see just where the winds would take them on it. It was only of the few methods he knew that could also keep his sanity in check with all the crazy and unfortunate stuff happening around here, and to what goes on with all of them in general

Well, that got a little more deep than he wanted it to be. He tended to do that a lot. But regardless, at least things seemed to be going steadily for Nayru from the sound of things. "I'm sure after all the work that's required to get back into full shape, you'll have some benefits awaiting you after it's all said and done." He liked to believe in stuff like that, anyway. No pain, no gain, as he heard that way too much at this point.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

"Ah yes, walking. Nature's way of making you wish teleporting everywhere was a viable alternative," she joked, grinning like the complete retard she was starting to suspect she really was. "We do seem to do a lot of that, don't we? Sorta makes you wish we lived in a storybook or something - no need to travel - just turn the page, go to the next chapter, and the next villain of the day is already there and ready to fight. Hell, you can even train off-page and accomplish more in a day than us mere mortals take weeks or months to do. Sure sounds like it'd be convenient."

"Though - I guess that's the difference between fantasy and real life, and what makes our victories mean a bit more. We have to actually work for them instead of just having the writer say, ok, the hero wins and gets the girl and everyone lives happily forever after." Nayru paused, trying to collect her thoughts, as she leaned up against the nearest tree. Seemed less blasphemous than sitting on top of a gravestone, anyways, though it was probably still breaking some arcane Sacaen custom she'd never heard of. "You are right about one thing, though, there are definitely some benefits. Funny thing is, my former shell made it hard enough to use my power that it was almost like training in weighted clothing, and I got pretty decent at it there. Now that I'm back in my real body, channeling power is trivially easy in comparison, and in larger quantities than I ever thought would be possible. I'm gonna be a total badass by the end of this. ...Hopefully. That or I'll accidentally explode myself."

She giggled. her occasionally-macabre sense of humor kicking in full power at the thought. The very idea of achieving phenomenal cosmic power and exploding as a result was beautifully ironic. "It's not just me though, you got pretty good with that old sword of yours, and now you have one that trumps it utterly in quality and craftsmanship. Really, we were both kinda doing the same thing, even if it wasn't intentional. Hone your skills with the inferior weapon, THEN, once you actually master it, move up to the serious stuff. It's a good way avoid learning bad habits that tend to crop up when you start out with top-end equipment. If you've always fought with a perfectly balanced weapon, you don't know how to account for switching to something with worse balance, or how to deal with that weapon maybe changing balance, right? Whereas if you start with imperfect stuff and learn to correct for those flaws, you already have those skills when you move up to stuff that doesn't have them anymore, so you can just focus on pushing that equipment to its absolute limit instead."

[Deleted]

"Hmm..." As amusing as she put the comparison between reality and fantasy, Veigue was sort of lost for words a bit. Could have been just his mind searching for a proper response while it was still heavily occupied with the usual nonsense he was plagued to constantly think about. However, that got him to think about the hard work that they'd put in at this point. He never took the time to reflect on it. They'd been through so much at this point that time just seemed to zip by. In a sense, his life merely was just a turn of pages because he always lost track of time during his journey of life, and time appeared to just speed on by. It was slightly concerning considering he was only human, and if he didn't keep up with the flow of time, he'd be an old man before he wanted to be. Speaking of which...

As Nayru explained more of her original body, it just served as a reminder that one day, whether at the hands of an enemy or of old age, he'll pass on while leaving her behind and she'll keep living on this cursed rock. She was a dragon, while he was just a mere human. Granted, Veigue knew that she outlived and met many other humans and wouldn't need him to keep moving with her life, but the thought itself that they'd eventually part ways when he passes was somewhat of a frightening one to him. But...that day was far from happening (hopefully), so he didn't bother to add yet another thing to brood over. Instead, he turned his attention back to the main focus of the subject, smirking a bit as he looked to her for a moment before staring back down. "...Let's just hope we'll have less explosions by the end of this. I'm sure you'll be outwardly causing them on the enemies instead of it inflicting you." Hopefully he made that sound a little more reassuring...

He didn't expect her to speak out on the topic of mastery either, looking back at Kenji as he completely understood where she was coming from. "...True. The quality of one's skill truly determines how they wield a weapon, whether it is of poor or excellent craftsmanship. You'll undoubtedly become stronger even after having full grasp of your powers. For me, Kenji is just another sword. The weapon I used previously was also my very first sword that my sister gave to me...with an enhancement at some point that I can't remember. I just didn't need a new weapon, so I gave it a lot of care. But since I've had this family sword pressured on me, might as well use it too..." Aaaaand technically Lena gave him Kenji too instead of their father, sooo...double gift? Eh.

Memories of his last bout with his father suddenly raced through his mind as he thought about Kenji...then it finally hit him when he recalled his father's last words. Something about Kenji being more than what it appeared. Not to mention his father hinted at the fact that Nayru could help him with that. Either his old man was granted infinite knowledge after dying or he may have learned something about the sword that no one else in their family's history knew about. Since there wasn't any harm in bring it up, Veigue looked back to his friend as he hesitated a bit, not sure how to even explain.

"Hey...before I parted with my father's spirit earlier, he told me something odd...and probably something you need to hear." Thankfully not the Lyle thing. Last thing she needed to know that Veigue was going to have yet ANOTHER idiot coming after him in the future...or very soon. That only reminded him that he needed to read that journal ASAP...but he diverted his attention from that to continue. "He told me that Kenji has sleeping potential, though I can't awaken it alone. But the most bizarre part is that he said you in particular can help awaken it's powers. I didn't have time ask him more, so I don't know what he was talking about...do you have an idea?"

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

"Oh, thank the Sky," Nayru quipped almost immediately, her lips quirking into a smile as she continued. "I was afraid you were going to say some other lunatic was coming after us!" Haha, that would be just silly, right?

Veigue's comment about Kenji being 'just another sword' seemed off to her - he had treated it with entirely too much care to pretend he didn't care much about it now - but his question piqued her interest to the point that Nayru completely forgot to respond with her concerns of a moment before. Sleeping potential? This whole deal with Veigue's sword had already been bugging her for a bit, but it was starting to crystallize just how much so; normal swords didn't have sentience or a bunch of spirits in them.

Spirits... it reminded her of magic weapons a bit, honestly, but that didn't make sense - magic weapons got their power and personalities alike from the elemental spirit bound to them, singular, and those spirits were just... elemental spirits, not the actual souls of dead people. Also, she hadn't seen enough fire, lightning, or wind from Kenji for it to be a magic weapon - nor had she ever heard of a 'sleeping' magic weapon. Certainly, from what she had heard, they needed some level of mastery and attunement to be able to use, but that was solely a question of wielder and blade, not wielder and blade and... someone else.

Nayru hesitated, caught up in her thoughts to the point that her reaction was plainly obvious, as she tried to figure out the puzzle. And she did enjoy puzzles - though the ones where the rules were clear were nicer. But not every puzzle's rules were clear. Sometimes you had to figure them out yourself from available clues. Sometimes the only rule was that there were no rules.

So what were the rules of this one?

"...Ideas, yes, but little more," she opted to respond cryptically, still uncertain of what the actual possibilities were and not particularly interested in looking like a jackass if she was wrong. Nayru pushed off from the tree, walking a bit closer to Veigue as she resumed speaking, her words slow, methodical, as she divided her attention between privately pondering the puzzle while starting to tell Veigue what she could of the subject. "Your sword... Kenji... has some characteristics in common with magic weapons. The spirit connection is both the strongest connection and the strangest, though; magic weapons are created when elemental spirits are bound to weapons, whereas your blade contains the spirits of your ancestors... or at least one of them, but lacks magic."

Lacks magic...? Something about that phrasing bothered her, though she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Why did it bother her so much? "Assuming that your dad wasn't trying to mislead you, though, that implies there is something more to the blade - powers yet undiscovered, or..." Nayru paused, putting one hand to her chin thoughtfully before abruptly reversing the motion and dropping to sit crosslegged in front of Veigue. "It doesn't have any known magic powers, right?"

Her tone rose a bit in urgency, intensity; Nayru still didn't know what the answer to the puzzle was, but she felt like she was starting to put it together a little bit - but the answer was just out of reach, which made it all the more frustrating. To be able to glimpse the truth and yet not understand it; like a firefly flitting just out of reach it eluded her by the barest of margins. "But no normal sword can host spirits," she murmured, waiting for Veigue's response, her single-minded focus on the subject evident. Single-minded - but many-tracked.

[Deleted]

"Uhhh...heh..." Welp, he was gonna say "Yeeeeah...about that..." on the Lyle thing, but Nayru's interest on the subject of Kenji conveniently diverted his attention away from that little mess. He wouldn't even know how to explain that to her until he figured out who the guy was.

A magic weapon? Well, when he thought about it, that was one of the only possibilities that should have came to mind, but with the common background the sword had, there wasn't much that pointed him to that train of thought. Though the possibility that his father was just messing with him wasn't far from a correct answer either. But considering he really wanted to give his father one more chance based on how surprisingly sincere he was overall, he wanted to trust that his father knew what he was talking about. As such, he silently pondered to himself as he allowed Nayru's feedback to sink in. She looked to be diving deep into the possibilities further than he had so far, and since this was at least getting them somewhere, he was glad that he decided to bring it up.

But when she put it that way, it had been always strange from the beginning that Kenji was capable of having spirits of the dead dwell within. Though from what he could tell, his father's spirit no longer resided within it, as Veigue got the impression that Sigmund peacefully passed on elsewhere to...wherever the dead went when they actually died. That could mean that it wasn't entirely true that ALL wielders' souls didn't reside in the blade forever after they passed. Sure, someone of them may be still there from the warm feeling he still got from the relic, but it was at least a relief to know that he possibly didn't have thousands of souls ready to talk to and annoy him for the rest of his life now that one of them had communicated with him. At that point, Nayru would have probably been convinced that he was crazy or troubled in the head after hearing him talking to invisible people...that of which he wouldn't blame her.

"You may be on to something..." Well, that didn't really back up any of her feedback, but that was because he still wasn't much of an expert on weapons like this. He had a REALLY stupid idea of just shouting some nonsense like "I HAVE THE POWER" while holding the sword upwards and above his head, to see if it'll awaken this supposed sleeping powers, but then he didn't want to risk looking like a complete moron in front of Nayru.

He scratched his head as he was still low on ideas, but when he held the sheathed blade in front of him, that helped him think a little more for some odd reason. But that made him recall something that was told him a long time ago when he was a kid...something that should have also came to mind instantly when he learned about this. "Lena told me something a while back when we were still living here...something about how no one among the Magnus clan even knew about Kenji's origins other than it was crafted by some legendary blacksmith way before the Scouring. But he died before completing it and his apprentice finished it for the Magnus that the sword was supposed to be gifted to. However, I don't know how useful that information would be to you..."

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

"Oh god, there is another one, isn't there?" Nayru could almost feel the cringe overtake her, but shook her head as much to put a brake on that line of conversation as much as to force herself to stop thinking about it. "Well, we'll burn that bridge when we come to it." She waved her right hand dismissively. Honestly, at this point she wasn't even bothered by it really, not anymore. It was a little depressing to put it like that, but Nayru was well enough acquainted with Veigue's... exciting lifestyle that if the constant stream of assassins was a seriously problem for her, she would have left long ago. And yet - here she was, right? Clearly they couldn't bug her THAT much. And besides, it was damn good training. So Nayru just put it out of her mind, determined not to worry about it too much... which was pretty easy, as it happened, since Veigue's answer provided an intriguing possibility that in some ways cemented her suspicions.

Well - she would need proof before she was SURE. But there was definitely one hypothesis rising above the others now. "Going by your tale and your father's words... I suspect that Kenji is an unfinished magical weapon." She crossed her arms thoughtfully. While Nayru was far from an expert on magical weapons, she knew just enough to be dangerous, as the saying went. Wait, wasn't that saying for when an idiot starting talking about stuff they didn't really understand?

"I'm not familiar with the exact mechanics of how to do it, but as I understand it, the process of forging a sword capable of harmonizing with a spirit, elemental or otherwise, is extremely difficult and specialized work... it's not something that just happens - but engineered design from the very start. Put in the perspective of being a masterpiece that was never completed, the hypothesis, matches the situation on a base level." Which was all well and good, it was super cool and special and wonderful that Kenji might be a magic weapon, but that didn't really help them or anything. And she hadn't confirmed it was true, so much as come up with a nice-sounding theory that MIGHT be true, assuming reality felt like it.

One way to find out!

"May I see it?"

[Deleted]

Veigue could only look away in slight shame as there wasn't much of any other way he could lie and say she was wrong. And sacaeans weren't supposed to lie anyway...well, he kinda broke that a few times in his life already, so at least THAT gave other plainsfolk a legitimate reason to call him a disgrace to Sacae.

But focusing on more important things...Veigue was interested in that idea. He wasn't familiar with the times before Scouring (or during it, for that matter), but this legendary blacksmith may have been capable of crafting weapons of that caliber, as Nayru explained. Of course, they didn't have any evidence, and Lena may have just heard that story from her father. Well, considering Sigmund was honest and gentle with his sister from the very start, he had little reason to lie to her. After all, he originally passed the blade on to her, not him. Really...when he thought about it, he was wielding something that was not meant for him. This only got him to wonder how Lena felt to give something up that was rightfully passed on to her from someone very special to her. Knowing his sister though, she probably used the blade better than he ever could...but that was pretty much the exact opposite of what she told him when she gave it to him.

Bah. Enough of that. He was willing to bet their chances on the sword being something like an incomplete weapon, and honestly? It sounded better than any conclusions he's drawn so far. While Nayru spoke of the difficulty in creating a magic weapon, she seemed rather knowledgeable about it than she was apparently giving herself credit for. "I see...if that's the case, and if this is indeed an incomplete magic weapon, then most of the hard work should be done. According to Lena's story, the blade was nearly complete before the man passed away." Hopefully that was the case...

He only nodded as Nayru asked to borrow the sword. He immediately passed the blade to her as he had a surprisingly amazed and interested expression on his face. Perhaps out of anticipation on seeing what she could do with it? Most likely. Veigue has been exposed to the unnatural and supernatural at this point to where he could expect any kind of miracle or phenomenon to happen and be a witness to it. He may have been a reserved fellow, but when it came to interesting and unusual stuff, the cold exterior he made for himself slowly crumbles for that moment.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

"Hard work..." Nayru smiled ruefully as she accepted the family blade, looking down at it rather than Veigue as she re-positioning it. "It's not quite that simple. The creation of a magic weapon is a... synergistic process. Rune-forging is incredibly complex, each weapon with a different pattern, and I am no expert in the field." Which was a fancy way of saying she couldn't tell her ass from her head when it came to runes - it had just never been anything she had felt necessary to learn. She was starting to regret that decision though.

She drew the blade from its sheath in one smooth motion, still juggling the multiple thought processes as she explored each possibility she could imagine. "Though, in theory, the process of bonding the spirit can be done after the rune-forging... but that would require the original smith in order to guarantee success." All of which hinged on it truly being a magic weapon, of course, or she was going to look like a complete jackass pretty fast. Nayru wasn't exactly a specialist in the subject, and she didn't know anything about the specifics of forging beyond their general descriptions, but theoretically it should be possible to test...

Carefully lying the scabbard at her side, she moved the blade parallel to her body, trying to figure out exactly how she was going to do this. An unfinished magic weapon. Assuming her theory was correct, it would have been rune-forged and prepared for the final binding. Capable of accepting an elemental spirit. So - receptive to magic. In theory. Or - essence.

Her lips pursed in concentration, Nayru thoughtfully trailed one finger down the flat of the blade, tiny arcs of crawling electricity following in its wake. She could feel the weapon's... thirst in a way she had not expected to be able to, the tiny tug at her own power as the rune-forged metal attempted to absorb it, but the weapon did not spring to life in a blaze of magical essence. Instead, the bits of electricity seemed to almost roll off of it, able to hear the call but not answer it. How strange. Apparently it would take more effort than simply pumping a bit of juice into it to turn it on, not that she had expected it to be that simple; it only made sense for a weapon capable of permanently storing that much magical power to be very resistant to unwanted power entering it as well.

"Interesting." After a further moment of thought, her finger still paused at a seemingly arbitrary spot on the blade with a constant but very small arc of electricity coursing from her finger to the blade, she finally looked back up to Veigue. "It seems your family blade hid more than one secret. It's definitely a magic weapon, simply awaiting a charge."

[Deleted]

Huh. It's a good thing Veigue decided not to take up blacksmithing. He wasn't sure if he'd be capable of dealing with something as complex as crafting magic weapons, much less a normal weapon for that matter. But from the sound of things, they weren't going to have an easy time figuring this out. If only his father would have clarified a little more or pointed him in the direction of someone who would be able to help them...but no. Nothing in this world will ever be that easy, and the swordsman just decided to leave it at that. However, his father put his faith in him, so he wasn't going to give up on Kenji.

However, that thought train began to change course as he witnessed Nayru doing something to the blade. He wasn't sure if it was her own power or the sword's surging around the blade, but when she spoke up about it afterward, that made things a little more simpler for him to follow now. "Figures we'll have even more surprises...if it's one thing the Magnus clan is good at, it's knowing how to keep their secrets well hidden to where it borders on just being plain silly after a while..." Seriously, what was the point of them not recording that sort of information or passing it down about the sword? They knew the blacksmith personally...but that was the past, and Veigue liked figuring stuff out over it just being told to him anyway. Plus, they probably did keep track, but they must have had so many secrets and stuff that they forgot about Kenji's true power.

Not wanting to dive any deeper into that subject than necessary, it was better to focus on the now. It was confirmed to be a magic weapon, so that was the first major step. "I didn't expect this though. I guess there's no harm in seeing if there's anything we can do to charge it. Though when I think about it, they may have kept this a secret because they probably couldn't find a way to complete the weapon. Where do you think we should go from here?" Hopefully the weapon's magic wasn't ridiculously powerful if they could get it to work. That'd give people even more of a reason to want to steal the sword from him, and he was just about tired of thieves and assassins for one lifetime.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

"This world is filled with secrets." Nayru smiled softly as she looked back down to the weapon, her fondness for exploration and picking through the ruins of a forgotten age evident in her demeanor. "For each one that eventually comes to light, ten more lay forgotten forever."

She wasn't sure if that was actually half as deep as it had sounded in her head, but didn't dwell too much on the thought - when she started thinking, things usually went downhill fast. Best to just avoid that problem entirely! Not like she'd notice a difference, her life was one unending adventure in insanity anyways at this point, might as well just follow the yellow brick road to insanity.

While it was slightly ironic given her 'decision' of a moment ago, Nayru couldn't help but, well, think about the conundrum of Kenji. A magic weapon, almost completed, simply awaiting the final rites - the source of its power - to awaken fully. Veigue had put in so much work to earn the right to actually wield it, even she could see that, and yet he didn't seem to think the weapon itself was all that special compared to what it represented? It felt wrong, blasphemous almost - like he deserved a weapon that was actually worth the effort he had put into it, something tangible rather than merely the sense of accomplishment. Sure, it was a pretty cool sword... but now that she had spilled the beans to him about it being an unfinished magical weapon, he'd be stuck knowing that it COULD be more, but would never be.

Now... to be fair, it was possible there was a rune-smith somewhere out there who could finish it, but Nayru didn't much like plans that relied on the possibility of something good happening, maybe, and in truth she was already starting to feel a bit guilty about having hyped up her friend's weapon just to disappoint him by telling him it'd never be completed. It wasn't her fault, per se, but in some ways she had accidentally made it her responsibility nonetheless, and that meant it was up to her to try to figure out a solution.

The problem, of course, was that she didn't know if she held the answers. Nayru was... relatively well versed in the very basics, but she didn't know any of the nitty-gritty details of runesmithing or enchanting, much less have any idea where to find one. The best she could do to find one would be asking around Arcadia, and that option had long since been closed to her. So it was up to her to figure out a solution - to try to do something nice for her... perhaps only real friend remaining. She owed him that much.

Nayru bit her lip, a little hesitant, almost nervous, and looked back up to Veigue again with what she hoped was a relatively straight face. By the Sky and Earth alike, she hoped this didn't backfire on her, she had never tried anything like this before and there was a very real possibility that she might ruin the weapon if she wasn't careful - or possibly even if she was. "...I may be able to complete it. Would you like me to try?" The dragon still wasn't sure how to defeat the... membrane of resistance blocking the flow of her essence into the blade, and continued searching her memory banks for anything she could dig up of magic weapon smithing techniques and reagents, and everything she had learned from the Arcadian libraries, to solve the puzzle.

[Deleted]

"True..." He had a little flashback to the writings he saw on the walls of the old shrine as Nayru said that, almost a little afraid of what else might be in store for him in the future if they discovered more secrets of his family's past. If anything, he could see why people didn't respect them too much. They didn't seem like average sacaeans who just followed all the rules. They went off and did their own thing; seeking stronger weaponry and focusing on developing their own individual strength. Of course, Veigue didn't see many faults in that. There was nothing wrong with wanting to be different or find ways to make yourself stronger. It was only human nature, and it was only faulty if that power you acquired wasn't used for just purposes. Though from their history, there were quite a few that fell to slavery over their own ambition, and overall stained their family name.

He was almost glad Kenji was never completed until now then. If the so-called "evil" Magnus got their hands on it, there was no telling what kind of havoc they would have caused. It pained him to admit it, but him and Lena being the only survivors was both a sad thing and a blessing at the same time. He wasn't so sure if it'd be a good idea to complete it or not now, as he wondered if he would be responsible enough. But fear was pointless, and when Nayru offered to do the honors, he hesitantly nodded.

"...Sure. As long as this charge doesn't backfire and hurt you in the process, feel free. But if it doesn't work, don't worry about it. The less power one has, the better in some cases." Well, that kinda made it seem like he'd go crazy with the thing and start killing hordes of people with it for no legitimate reason, but Veigue was sure that Nayru understood what he really meant by that. He wasn't sure if he'd be skillful enough to control a weapon like that.