Rylan stared down in surprise at the sentient blade that had suddenly reappeared in his hand.

  [Phew, that’s better,] Arphin babbled. [Boy, am I glad you regularly wash your hands, Boss!]

  Truth be told, the main reason Rylan had clean hands was that he properly scrubbed up before cooking, to avoid contaminating the food. He didn’t have time to formulate a reply however, as he wasn’t the only one caught off-guard by the event.

  “Where did it—woah!” Soren exclaimed. “Did-Did you all see that?!”

  “Kind of hard to miss,” Tamina replied in a deadpan tone, but her brows were raised high.

  “Well, it seems we’ve figured out its runework,” Isai said chipperly, lowering the hand Arphin had just escaped. “It seems your blade has Recall!”

  “That’s awesome!” Soren gushed. “How does it work though? How did you activate it, Ryles?”

  I didn’t, Rylan thought.

  “I’m... not sure,” he responded out loud.

  “Recall is a highly advanced runework,” Isai leisurely explained, stepping a bit closer and crouching down to resume studying the runes, but thankfully making no move to take the blade from Rylan’s grasp again. “And not one we know how to replicate. You must’ve accepted attunement to your blade from Ethereon, correct?”

  More like it had been forced on him. “Ehm, yes, I did.”

  Isai nodded. “Then Ethereon forged a spiritual connection between you and the runework, through which you activated it from a distance. I’m guessing you didn’t like seeing your blade in my hands, and must’ve subconsciously wanted to have it back. Don’t trust me with your precious new gear, do you boy?”

  The professor sounded amused more than anything, but Rylan still felt blood rushing to his cheeks from embarrassment. Damn it, Arphin!

  “It’s not that,” he weakly replied. “Your hands are a little... dirty.”

  The professor blinked owlishly, glanced down at his hands, then barked out a laugh. “So they are! Well, anyway, Recall is a very useful runework, especially for a piece like this. I was wondering what kind of foghead would make a throwing weapon out of Aetherium, but now it makes sense!”

  Rylan frowned, then his eyes widened as he realised the implications of a throwing weapon made of gravity-rejecting material.

  “Recall is anything but a passive effect,” Isai continued. “So you’ll need to work hard to learn how to trigger it reliably. And make sure to figure out how much mana it needs to be charged with to Recall it from what distance, what the maximum range is; that sort of thing. Otherwise you could very easily end up losing it. After all, without Recall, all it would take is a single glancing blow that sends it tumbling upward, and you’ll never see it again.”

  [Don’t worry, Boss,] Arphin said quickly. [I’m never leaving you! I will never—I mean, you, will never be alone again!]

  While that was a worrying sentiment in other ways, Rylan still felt a little reassured. But he definitely needed to practise with Arphin, figure out what the blade was capable of. I wonder how much mana he can store. Does he produce it as well? He must—he didn’t use any of my mana to Recall!

  “All right, I’m afraid that’s about as much as I can tell you two about your runegear for now,” Isai said, standing up from his crouch and stretching out his back with several audible pops. “Feel free to come to me with any future questions, but for now, please skedaddle; I’ve got an arm to design.”

  Their usual training schedule was naturally chucked overboard that evening. Instead, Rylan and Tamina spent their time testing their new gear on a little field behind the Soggy Shepherd, which had been freed up by the dismantling of the unsalvageable floater.

  Work had begun on removing the tarpaulin of the other one, but it wasn’t quite finished yet.

  Soren was helping with the testing as well, mainly by chucking increasingly heavy things at Tamina’s new shield. It turned out the runework synergised pretty well with her Shield-Fighting Skill.

  In essence, the runework and the Skill tackled the same problem, but in very different ways. Whereas the Skill formed a hard barrier of mana to block moving objects, the runework used a softer method, and started slowing things down even as they approached.

  Both had their advantages and disadvantages. For example, the shield’s runework by itself wouldn’t have been able to properly protect from the armadon Malequint’s fire breath, as its heat would have still reached the surface. On the other hand, it would have made it so that Tamina could have more easily withstood the force of the breath trying to push her back.

  When used in concert, the runework made it so that things approaching her shield slowed down, before the Skill blocked their final approach. This way, both could field part of the mana, the shield’s surface was protected from sharp tips and harmful substances, and Tamina didn’t have to withstand as much pushback from things hitting her shield.

  At some point, in order to test the interaction with his Mana Shell, Soren had her drop the Skill so he could attempt to punch the shield.

  As expected, his fist slowed down over the last two inches or so, before gently bumping into the shield’s dark surface. Interestingly, his Mana Shell didn’t seem to do much to protect him against the runework’s effect, perhaps because the protective shell was only triggered by harmful things, and the runework was ironically helping to safeguard his knuckles.

  The mana-charged blade of his rapier had more of an effect, and Tamina said she could actively feel the mana draining away as her runework tried to slow the blade down, softening the blow up for her Skill.

  The only thing she was having trouble with, was her Shieldbash Augmentation. To execute a proper hit, she needed to momentarily weaken the momentum-draining effect like the professor had suggested, but apparently that was easier said than done. It seemed like most of the things she tried to smack out of the air with her shield ended up dropping down gently, and only a rare few were sent flying as intended.

  She’ll get it with practice.

  As for Rylan, he had his own issues.

  Unfortunately—if perhaps unsurprisingly—Arphin was not capable of reliably activating his Recall runework on demand. The spiritgear had obviously never done it before—since he’d had nowhere to Recall to—and had apparently only managed to perform the feat on pure instinct.

  Despite his enthusiastic optimism, Arphin initially wasn’t able to replicate the action from the nearby wicker chair Rylan had placed him on. Therefore, after a while of fruitless effort, Rylan started to consider a rather dirty tactic. ‘Arphin, I have an idea. You’re probably not going to like it, but hear me out, all right?’

  [Sure thing, Boss!]

  ‘You see that wastebin over there, by the outhouse?’

  [Yeah?]

  ‘I’d like to lower you into that, really slowly.’

  [What?] Arphin replied sounding alarmed. [But-but Boss, that’s where you put all the trash from the cooking!]

  ‘Exactly, and you don’t like dirty stuff, right? That’s what triggered you to activate Recall just now.’

  [Oh! Oh, so you think if I get close to touching it, I’ll manage to Recall again?]

  ‘I think it’s worth a shot,’ Rylan sent back with a minute shrug. He probably looked weird, standing there staring at his runegear, but nobody appeared to be watching him. ‘Would you be willing to try that, for me?’

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  It remained silent for a moment. [If it’s for you, Boss... I’ll do it.]

  ‘Thank you, Arphin,’ Rylan replied, solemnly picking the blade up and moving to suspend him over the trashcan. ‘If worst comes to worst, I promise to give you a good scrub.’

  [No problem, Bo—wait, a scrub?]

  Rylan let Arphin go with a gentle downward push, and stepped back to watch the blade’s snail-paced descent. He couldn’t help but marvel as the spiritgear inched down. Seems like the only part that’s not made from pure skymetal is the leather wrapped around the handle. I guess it's thin enough that the skymetal beneath it renders it weightless, otherwise it would never be this perfectly balanced!

  [I mean, you’re not actually going to let me touch that stuff, right?] Arphin continued with a nervous chuckle. [I mean, look at all those dirty shells and fish heads!]

  ‘Of course you’re not going to touch them.’

  [Oh, thank the forge...]

  ‘After all, you’re going Recall before you reach them.’

  [But-But what if I can’t?!]

  ‘I have faith in you, Arphin.’

  [But Boss, there’s hair in there and-and—oh stars, are those nail-clippings?!]

  ‘Those are from Nazyr,’ Rylan mercilessly replied, as the blade continued to slowly float down, inch by terrible inch. ‘You know, he doesn’t strike me as the type to wash his feet very often... So I guess if you don’t want to end up in between them, well, you know what to do.’

  [No no no, please Boss,] Arphin pleaded as he reached the rim. [I’ll do it, I’ll figure it out another way, I promise!]

  The blade’s pleading tugged heavily on Rylan’s heartstrings, but he held fast. Don’t give in. It’s for his own good, and he’s not in any actual danger.

  ‘You said you’d try this method for me Arphin, now use that feeling, that panic. You can do it!’

  [I can’t, I can’t!]

  However, as the blade neared one of Nazyr’s large, yellow toenail clippings, the metal started to vibrate, the dimly glowing runes lighting up. Rylan’s eyes widened, and he quickly spread his hands in front of him, a safe distance from any of his softer parts. At the same time, he felt a kind of tugging sensation coming from the node that Ethereon had placed in his spirit during the attunement.

  Then, right before Arphin could touch the nail, he disappeared with a pop, reappearing nigh-simultaneously in Rylan’s right hand.

  [EWEWEWEW—huh? Oh! I did it! Boss, did you see me do it? Wow, that’s such a relief! Your method actually worked, Boss, you’re so smart!]

  Rylan smiled, turning Arphin over in his hands as he studied the white glow coming from the etchings in the yellow metal. It echoed what the feeling coming through the node was telling him. ‘You did a great job, buddy. Your mana seems to be getting lower though. Can you tell?’

  [Yeah, makes me feel kinda woozy and tired. It’s not too bad, though.]

  ‘I see. Then I bet you’ve got another one in you, at least. Think you can give me one more?’

  [Sure!]

  And with that, Rylan once more hung Arphin over the trashcan, and gave him a little push.

  [Oh, you meant like that? Well, I guess... You know what, Boss? I’m—I’m actually feeling pretty tired, so I’m not sure I can do that again.]

  ‘I believe in you, Arphin.’

  [That’s, like, super touching, Boss, but I’m really not sure that I can!]

  Once more, Rylan turned a deaf inner ear to Arphin’s pleas, finding it a little easier after the success of the first time. And indeed, on the final approach, the blade started to vibrate and glow, before Recalling back into Rylan’s hand.

  [Wooh! I did it again, Boss! Man, what a rush! I feel dizzy...]

  After the repeated successes, Arphin became a little more confident and enthusiastic about the trashcan method, and despite this, it continued to work. Arphin just didn’t start freaking out until he got closer to actually hitting the trash.

  After some more ‘testing,’ Rylan managed to figure out that Arphin could only Recall thrice on his own reserves before running too low on mana, which translated to the blade getting rather sluggish and sleepy.

  Recharging him back to full took about three points of mana, so it seemed like a single Recall used roughly a full point. Of course, he wasn’t sure yet what factor distance might play there, so he decided to make testing that his next objective.

  Thus, he hung a fully recharged, energetic Arphin back over the trashcan, gave him a little push, and started jogging away through the tall grass.

  [Well, here we go ag—wait, Boss, where are you going?!]

  The tugging sensation in his attunement was the only warning Rylan got before Arphin suddenly popped over, way before the blade should’ve gotten anywhere near the thrash.

  Rylan’s right hand was just swinging by his waist as Arphin attempted to return to it. There was a ripping sound and a flash of light as his Mana Shell asserted itself and pushed away the razor-sharp edge trying to lodge itself into his side. However, the damage was done.

  With a hiss, Rylan stumbled to a halt, reflexively bringing his left hand over to cover his flank. His fingers came away slick with blood. Arphin’s reappearance had not only torn through his tunic, but nicked him as well, despite the Mana Shell!

  [Woah! Did-Did I hurt you, Boss? Oh forge, are you going to die?! DON’T DIE ON ME, BOSS!]

  Rylan gingerly pulled up the stiff kelp weave a little, and studied his wound. Thankfully, it appeared to be nothing more than a shallow cut. Still, the fact that the blade had penetrated his Mana Shell at all was interesting...

  ‘It’s just a scratch,’ Rylan sent back firmly. ‘I’ll be fine. But Arphin, what happened?’

  [Oh thank goodness... I-I’m so sorry, Boss, I just—I didn’t know where you were going and I panicked, I guess...]

  Rylan frowned. It seems there’s something Arphin fears even more than dirty stuff.

  After hesitating for a moment, Rylan decided it would be too cruel to try and exploit the spiritgear’s fear of abandonment, and simply turned around and marched back to the wastebin. ‘Don’t worry, Arphin. I just want to test from how far you can Recall. Sorry for not saying so sooner.’

  [Oh! Right... Yeah, that makes sense, Boss. So... if I can’t reach you, you’ll come back, right?]

  Rylan swallowed around the lump forming in his throat and nodded. ‘Always, Arphin. I’ll always come back for you.’

  Interestingly, it turned out that distance didn’t play much of a factor in mana cost up to about a hundred feet away—though it took a while before Arphin felt secure enough to even let Rylan get that far. Rylan figured it had something to do with the detail of Arphin’s senses dropping off after some distance.

  After the first hundred and twenty feet, however—give or take—the mana cost of Recall started to scale up, and Rylan soon ran out of mana to continue testing. Still, he estimated that—at full mana capacity—Arphin could at most Recall back from around two hundred and fifty feet away or so, at triple the regular cost.

  During the process, the spiritgear had gotten more and more confident in his ability to Recall, and sometimes even managed to do it well before he reached the trash. It shouldn’t take much longer before Arphin could reliably activate his runework without additional motivation, Rylan reckoned.

  For now, however, the blade’s lack of mana appeared to have triggered a state of hibernation. Rylan had grown a little frantic when Arphin stopped responding, almost going so far as to call out loud, but then he’d heard Arphin’s voice mumble something about disgusting toenails.

  Apparently, the chatty blade was a sleep talker.

  It was getting late anyway, so Rylan went over to see how Soren and Tamina were doing.

  When he got there, he found Soren biting his nails as the captain took what looked like a full-power swing at Tamina’s new shield.

  Rylan’s stomach clenched at the sight of Tamina gritting her teeth and standing her ground in front of the glowing, pulsating head of the hammer.

  However, the deafening clang he expected didn’t come. Tamina’s shield did its job, slowing down the head before it hit the white glow of her Skill that covered the dark metal. Though he did notice the runes dimming considerably in the process as their stored mana was drained.

  The captain cackled as her hammer hit the shield with a gentle tap. “Not bad, little girl! That would’ve sent most people flying. I wonder if I could still knock you off your feet if I took a serious swing...”

  Rylan’s eyes widened. That wasn’t a serious swing?!

  “Thanks for your assistance,” Tamina replied stiffly, “but I’m afraid it’s time for me to retire for the evening.”

  “What’s the matter, tired already?”

  Tamina didn’t reply, her face blank.

  “Ah. Out of mana, huh?” the captain asked with a smirk. “Fine. With some luck, I’ll have a new hammer to test out soon. I’ll be relying on you then.”

  “Wouldn’t want it any other way.”

  As soon as the captain had left, Soren let out a sigh, shaking his head at Tamina. “I’m not mad. Just disappointed.”

  “Well, she started it!” Tamina replied defensively.

  “Uh oh,” Rylan said, his eyes flitting between his two friends. “What did I miss?”

  Tamina huffed out a breath, folding her arms over her chest. “The Lady Hammermore, decided to inform us that when she was my age, she’d have ‘given an arm’ for a runegear like mine.”

  “It was a joke!” Soren exclaimed, throwing his hands up. “I mean, admittedly, it was made in poor taste, but your reaction was still uncalled for.”

  Rylan looked at Tamina expectantly.

  Tamina shrugged. “I just asked whether she meant the arm of some poor sod she was robbing, or from one of her crewmates. I mean, she’s a pirate. If that’s enough to offend her, I don’t know what to tell you.”

  “Enough to offend her?” Soren repeated as Rylan bit down on a smile. “It’s like I’m talking to a brick wall sometimes. Rylan, will you give it a try, please? For some reason, she seems to like you better.”

  Rylan tried not to show the fluttering in his stomach that resulted from that statement, especially as Tamina raised a brow at him.

  “Well... you do realise she was probably trying to get a rise out of you, right?” he asked. “She’d probably be more annoyed if you didn’t give her the satisfaction. Plus, then she’d have no excuse to try and hammer you into the ground.”

  Tamina’s shoulders sagged a little at that. “Ugh. You’re not wrong.”

  “See?” Soren exclaimed, pointing at Tamina. “She’s biased! Biased I tell you!”

  “Maybe Rylan just makes more sense than you,” Tamina replied.

  “Well, that’s a given,” Rylan said. “By the way, you know that rather than saying I’m ‘not wrong,’ you can just say I’m ‘right,’ right? It’s not that hard. Here, say it with me: Rylan, you’re—”

  “—sleeping outside if you keep this up,” Tamina threatened.

  “—not wrong. Same thing, really, I guess, so why am I even making a point of it?”

  The three of them continued to banter as they started heading to their tent together, the mood quickly turning light again as they laughed and joked.

  As they approached the simple whalebone and tarp construction, however, Rylan felt a kind of nervous anticipation. In a couple of minutes, he would at last be alone with his friends. He couldn’t wait to tell them what had really happened.

  did set out to use Arphin's fear of abandonment as a motivator, because it seemed clever. However, even just writing it made me feel bad, so I ended up changing it. ^^

  Click here to go The Cloudfarers! ^^

  Want to read ahead? Check out my !

  Want more of my writing? I've published a completed six-book LitRPG series!

  The Whispering Crystals is available on KU, Audible, and in print:

  : Unnatural Laws

  : Unusual Enemies

  : Unimagined Adventures

  : Unchained Potential

  : Untamed Spirit

  : Undivided Worlds

  /

  Click here to boost me on Topwebfiction.com!